7th Bead Soup Blog Party® contest

I am truly honored (and pretty confused since it's 2 am here) to announce that my Red Lady necklace is one of the winners of the 7th Bead Soup Blog Party contest!!!

The fact that I was chosen by Nina Design together with another amazing artist as Malin de Koning, who I absolutely adore, is already a big prize for me.

Please take a moment to look at ALL the winners here, there are 46 of them and all are astonishing creations!

I would like to thank someone before I pass out asleep:

-first of all Lori McDaniel Anderson, the mind and body behind the Bead Soup Blog Party - because it takes a whole lot of energy and physical strength to do all that's required for such a big event with more than 500 partecipants, and she made all of this despite a lot of problems. She's a warrior and we all appreciated her big efforts to make this party such an amazing experience for all of us.

-Nina Design, one of the jurors who chose my piece, a huge honor I wasn't expecting at all!

-my partner Dorota, who sent me that amazing cabochon which led me to bead embroidery in the first place, and a lot of other goodies that stimulated my creativity. Knowing you was a big pleasure dear Dorota, you are such a nice, creative and generous person!

-last but not least, my wonderful boyfriend.
He often makes fun of me saying "I'm going to throw away all your beads!" but actually always pushes me to explore my creativity and bears the presence of all these tiny little things everywhere. I've become much more tidier with time and we don't find beads in our meals or bed anymore, but still he hears me swearing whenever I accidentally pour beads on the floor, and he still loves me.

Thanks for visiting everybody and for taking the time to write kind, thoughtful comments!

BSBP 1st item: Red Lady Necklace

If you are still hopping on the BSBP second reveal, here is the link . I'm showing my BSBP pieces one by one all over the week, here is the first one.

When I first opened the box from Dorota, my Bead Soup partner, the first item I saw (and the biggest) was this amazing embroidered focal.

I fell in love with it instantly and I decided I needed something big to celebrate this gift and my partner's ability.
So i decided to give a serious chance to bead embroidery.
I had bought some bead backing almost 2 years ago from Nicole Campanella, and was eager to use it.
I had some old orange cabochons, looking like rivolis, I started bezelling them using the beads Dorota provided me with (gorgeous, and a lot of them). She also sent those little red pearls she had used on the focal.

I started with some round, floral motif using the orange freshwater pearls on the first rounds and some old golden pearls I had bought 5 years ago on the second.
And then, I got blocked.
I didn't know how to go on. After 10 days working on other pieces, I decided to connect what I had made with the focal using the little yellow seed beads.
Then I thought about going on with the same motif without the rivoli. How to do so? I tried some beaded donut and made 2 with the same beads from the 2nd floral motif. Then I made 2 more donuts, only very small to have a fading effect. I decided for a simple magnetic toggle because I have a sensitive neck and just used 2 red agate beads to embellish it.

How do I look?

Bead Soup Party 2nd reveal: here I am!

I'm so thrilled this day has come!
This is my first Bead Soup Blog Party and I was lucky to have a European partner, so soups arrived within a week! I had a lot of time to think about each of these creations, but you know: best ideas come at the very last moment!
My partner is Dorota Żerańska from Poland and she was hugely generous with her soup:

My whole production is dedicated to Spring!
I tried to use as much as I could adding just indispensable things. And I committed to working with techniques I had never used before. Like bead embroidery.
So here is the first one, which I call Red Lady necklace:

I had never made a piece like this.When you have such an amazing, bold focal, you can either keep it the most simple you can, or you need to go even bolder. So I created embroidered matching pieces (Dorota had sent some of the beads she had used to bezel the focal cabochon) adding only some golden beads and orange rivolis. I started with bigger, richer pieces and made a dwindling effect with some RAW rings up to the small toggle.

Second piece, the Leaf necklace, also featuring something I never used before: sari silk ribbons and knotting with waxed thread.

I used this gorgeous leaf focal here and also one of the two toggles. Look at the amazing variety of green stones in here...I made some beaded beads with the crystals in the soup and the seed beads I had used in the Red lady necklace, which are orange with a lime green lining, to break all this green nuances. I also made a matching bracelet adding a beaded bead:

and using the same knotting technique, mixing some lilac for a change.
Made another one with these other gorgeous lentil beads

Third necklace, I made some more beaded donuts like the smallest of the first necklace.
I only used beads from the soup and just added some chain maille beads...yes! I tried chain maille for the first time! I know it's nothing special, but jump rings are my sworn enemies, so it's a big deal for me.
What I made is a Cherry Blossom Necklace:

...and looks like in the end a couple of blossoms actually produced some fruit!

Forth necklace, the MultisPring necklace made with some of the remaining beads from the first one:

I used another focal here, put it on one side and on the other there's a ceramic connector from ScorchedEarth, which was the perfect color. The news here is the leather cord I've had in my stash forever and never used before.

Last but not least, the main clasp!
Too beautiful to put it on the back of a necklace, too simple on a multistring bracelet, I changed my mind a thousand times on how to use it; finally I decided for something to complete it, some embroidered leaves

But then I found this old ceramic green flower which looked similar and decided, in the end, to put the toggle in the back. The beautiful freshwater pearls and green crystal from the soup complete the piece and match both the flowers.

This is all for now! I still have plenty of soup left, so I'll produce more until it's finished!
I'll blog about every piece in a more detailed way, one each day, so stay tuned if you'd like to know more about the creative process.
Thank you so much Dorota for being so generous and open to communication, and...for sending chocolate! LOL that is why I love swapping. You get to know some really amazing people!
And BIG thanks to Lori Anderson, our amazing hostess!
Now go see what my partner made and take a nice blog hopping on all the other partecipants, you'll find the list here!!!