Easter hopping

Happy Easter everybody! This morning I finished my first blog hopping and I was delighted - and a bit overwhelmed by a hundred illegible captchas

Source: Pinterest

I'm starting to think I'm not human after all! I will look at all the pieces again slower on the Soup Pinterest Board to ponder on all the wonderful, amazing things I've seen. I want to thank every person involved in this first reveal who has taken the time to come on this blog and say thanks for my comments. How thoughtful is that?!! How did you find the time?! I'm so touched. My soup reveal is next saturday and I haven't completed everything yet, but I already have 4 pieces ready to show. I didn't want to sacrifice the EBW monthly competition or any idea that was popping into my head while working at the soup, so I didn't use 100% of my time for it. But I already feel proud of all the new things I have learned. Please come to our Bead Soup Blog Party, here is the link where you can find the complete list of blogs!

7th Bead Soup Blog Party - First reveal!

I'm so excited to announce the day has come for a whole bunch of wonderful creations to be revealed! Let's get the Soup party started!

Source: Pinterest

Get ready for some blog hopping: here is the list. Today 161 people are revealing their creative use of their swapped stash and I'm starting right away 'cause curiosity is killing me! Have fun!!!

Spring bracelets

I'm making tones of these to fight the "rain-blues"

Simple, bright and can be stacked all together

Just something quick to make while watching a bedtime movie, hoping for the morning not to bring rain again...

Scheherazade wardrobe

The Etsy Beadweavers April 2013 challenge theme is...(((drumroll)))... “Shades of Scheherazade”: Find your inspiration in mysterious, undulating arms, swaying hips, and the beautiful, smooth curves of bodies in Middle Eastern Dance. Modern Oriental dance is a mixture of many styles, from places like Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey. Veiled faces can add to the mystique, and lavishly decorated costumes fascinate the viewer. Your beadwork should capture for the wearer the feeling of Eastern beauty. You might be designing for the heroine of the fairy tale "One Thousand and One Nights." My main thought when reading this was Rachel Brice.

Source: Pinterest

Rachel is an amazing tribal bellydancer and I love her style, which combines a bit of steampunk with some 20's details and tribal jewelry. Her dancing style is also amazing and she's my favorite among the Indigo bellydance group, to which she belongs. My desire was to create something she might wear to dance, not the classic beaded bellydance item, but also something that anyone could wear on a shirt or tank top anytime.

This top was really fun to make, I thought about making it with can tabs only when I was already started, so maybe I'll make another one.

I need to take better pics but it's raining hard these days and the sky is so grey, plus I need a mannequin to make it look decent. I'll upload better pics in a couple of days!

Can't show you.

What are doing today? Oh well...finishing one of the many pieces for the Bead Soup Blog Party. But I can't show you until April 6th. And also, making an amazing piece for next Etsy Beadweavers challenge, the theme is so exciting: “Shades of Scheherazade”. You can't see it until I finish it though...and it's going to take a while. Oh, and I'm participating in the annual spring swap too, but the reveal will be after April 30th, so I can't show this piece either. A bit frustrating! The thing is, I'm going to finish them all within tuesday because I don't want to pack my ever-growing collection of beads in my suitcase. I would like to be able to bring something from the south this time, to make the coming back to Milan less sour.

Source: Pinterest

And this is never possible with half my bag full of bead supplies. So everything must be finished, photographed, packed and eventually sent within tuesday.AND (I should add) the house must be cleaned, laundry must be made and suitcases must be packed and... I'm going back to beading.

Alanis earrings

These earrings are quick and easy, an instant gratification for those days when you don't feel like spending a lot of time on the beading table

It's the first time I buy rivolis and am looking at them the whole time, so sparkly and love the color!

They're already on my ears!
Tutorial by Xa Na.

Turquoise waves

I just completed something I shouldn't have started in the first place, having so many things to finish before Easter vacations...but I saw a Naoko Sugita necklace and thought it was the perfect technique to use these amazing African turquoise beads I had just bought.

I try to avoid simple stringing, I love to find new ways to use round, big beads involving small seed beads, without embezelling them completely.
Now off to my Bead soup pieces!!!

Spikes fever

Some days ago I received another gift from Preciosa Ornela: some amazing amber color Twin beads.
I decided to buy some spikes in the same color and make something beautiful...

The pattern is from Perl'agogo and the original, without spikes, is called Victoria.

I'm making more, different spike bracelets in more vivid colors and hope to finish them before I leave for Easter vacation.

March Challenge: Faberge eggs

Faberge was a Russian jeweller and we mostly know him for his jeweled eggs, amazing pieces of art.
The Etsy Beadweavers Team has chosen these eggs as inspiration for the March 2013 challenge!

You have time until the 16th to vote for your favorite creation!

Pink, glitter and grey

Pics don't catch the glitter sparkle in these earrings, but the mixture of 3 different colors on the can tab (glitter pink, silver and a dark green for some shadows) had an amazing result

Light pink seed beads are the same color of the pink glitter polish, the bigger ones are a darker pink with a hint of grey inside

It's a really dull and grey day here, so no good light for photos. I'll bead more...

Embroidery frenzy

Since I can't show my soup progress, here's something else I did last night just to make practice with bead embroidery

Not perfect but still it is a big step for me - and the back is clean too! Just not in the right color...should buy more ultrasuede in the future.
I have already glued several stones on the bead backing and hope to actually finish everything on time. Too many projects, so little time...

Ceramic and wire

I won my fear of wire and used it to finally make my necklace with the beads I had bought from Gaea.

I was so afraid to ruin them, but this was the only way I really, really love them to become a necklace.
This wire is so soft and easy to work with, but also easy to get broken. Didn't really know how to handle it.
I'm such a newbie for these kind of things!
I can't wait to wear it on Easter, I'll match it with a white, fluffy bolero by Ysolda Teague

Source: Pinterest

which is waiting for me to give it some sleeves...

Beaded bento box

A fellow beader from the EBW team suggested I should style my beaded sushi into a bento box. So here it is!
I put out my favorite Shinzi Katoh bento for the occasion:

I added some more beads for styling purpose - just some wasabi and soba...
And here is the bracelet alone

Now go tell my stomach I can't have sushi for lunch...

P.S. If you would like to know more about bentos, scroll down and look at my favorite websites on the right!