bead soup -

today is the big reveal of the 5th bead soup blog party hosted by lori anderson - 200 participants from around the world will be sharing their work made with components sent to them from a partner... i was paired with stacey curry of star- hitched wagon and i would like to thank her for what she sent to me... 

a lisa peters focal and some really fun felted wool... an assortment of vintaj components and some autumn jasper pebbles... autumn colors - my favorite!


lisa's focal made me think of weaving... so i cut off the links and used it as a cabochon instead, setting it on a brass back plate that had been stamped and given a heavy patina... 

'lives are woven together'

i ran my wire pattern parallel to that on the ceramic piece... and used (naturally) some of lisa mozart's silk to weave with...  

looks like a woman, doesn't it? which is interesting (and not done intentionally) because i have been working with a pregnant form since december...  and here she is fully realized in a tribal kind of way with a head and breasts!

i loved working with the felt beads by smika (they are something i would love to learn how to make)... used some of the jasper pebbles, recycled african glass beads, paper beads, polymer by genevieve williamson of jibby and juna and ceramic by nan emmett of spirited earth... continuing the use of the trapeze structure in brass and sterling... 

thanks for stopping by... 

to see the whole list of participants you can visit pretty things here... and thank you lori for always organizing such a large event so well... 

soup's on!

'one cannot make soup out of beauty.'

~ estonian proverb

obviously, they had never heard of bead soup!  lori anderson at pretty things came up with the idea of a bead soup party - where participants exchanged components and then worked their personal magic on them... today is the big reveal... if you go to the link above, you will find the links to all of the participants... wander around and see what everyone created!

these are the incredible beads that i got from laurie at mermaid glass... she does such beautiful lampworking... just look at that focal bead... and she was really generous with me...  they have such a beach-y feel to them, i just love that... 

for me the beach is the best of everything, light glittering off of the water, sand rubbing on my feet, skies that go on forever, treasures of all kinds at your fingertips... and also very natural - wash up from storms, driftwood, remnants of crabs and fish - organic matter... 

and so i tried to recreate that effect... 

thank you laurie for the beautiful glass, and sterling to work with... and thank you lori for putting this together... it was a big job!