8th Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal

Welcome everybody to the 8th  Bead SoupBlog Party Reveal!!!

An amazing event created by Lori Anderson with about 500 partecipants every year!

Let me start by saying how life is a never ending learning experience, and the Bead Soup Blog Party is one of the most exciting occasions to learn: not only you meet a new fellow beader, but you get to know new materials, new countries, costumes and tastes - yeah tastes, because there’s often a lot of chocolate involved!

Last year I was blessed with an incredible partner, Dorota, who spoiled me rotten with a huge amount of goodies.
To honor her generosity I decided that this should also become a way of learning new techniques, so I tried myself at bead embroidery, a bit of chain maille, knotting and new shapes in general. I was very proud of the result, which you can see here. It was a celebration of spring and happiness and colors while I was actually spending a lot of time at home, looking for a job.

This year my situation is completely different, as I moved to Austria 3 months ago and I am going to school (again) to learn the language, I am proving myself at living in a foreign country with a really different mentality – and did I mention German is not exactly the easiest language…but I am loving every second of it.

And again I was lucky to be paired up with a really interesting woman, Rosantia, who chose the most beautiful variety of beads and materials for me.

If you would like to know her better, jump to my post about her and visit her blog, because I am sure she will have prepared something amazing for the reveal!

I MUST APOLOGIZE AS I AM STILL BEADING FOR THE SOUP, SO I WILL PUBLISH FURTHER WORKS DURING THE WEEK. What can I say, my Muse likes the last minute inspiration!

With no further ado, here is my main piece, which is so close to my heart

I used the focal and the toggle clasp from the soup, with the matching ceramic beads, and added some beadweaved elements – I just love this shade of light aqua turquoise with orange and blue.
I felt so alike to the little birdie, I guessed he was looking for a place to call home just like me.

The second piece, quite simple, was made using the crazy washi paper beads that Rosantia made herself for me. They are so luscious and beautiful, but I decided to use them in pairs instead of all together

Something about this pendant I won last year looked like the perfect match. Wood, gold and aqua green.

I had a lot of fun playing with the 12 mm beads Rosantia sent me. They are the perfect size for a variety of designs that can really make a difference out of a simple stringed necklace. So again, I played with both beadweaved elements and simple beads.

I love this green chrysocolla, a gorgeous, rich color. Patterns here are from Kerrie Slade (flower pendant) and Eveline (3er Kringel).

For these yellow quartz beads I used Carol Ohl’s tutorial Earthly Hues and just continued with other beads in my stash. 

Did I ever mention how much I love grellow??? :D I guess I did.

Finally a sneek peak of another piece I am working on...

More washi paper beads, a czech button from my previous partner Dorota, some beaded beads and gorgeous ceramic beads. Still have to figure it out!

Take a look at what my partner Rosantia created, here you'll find her blog which is so full of inspirational handmade creations!

I hope you enjoyed this hop, which continues here:

http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2014/05/welcome-to-8th-bead-soup-blog-party.html

or, for a fast look, on our BSBP Pinterest board here:

http://www.pinterest.com/limamike/8th-bead-soup-blog-party/ 

So many eye candy goodies are waiting for you on all these blogs, please take the time to jump over and scroll over and you won't be disappointed!

The 8th Bead Soup knocked on my door

A little bit later than it should have been, my amazing Bead Soup partner Rosantia and I finally sent each other our soups.
Mine arrived this morning in only a couple of days!

I think images will speak louder than words here. Better to just look at the beads, or I will write an endless list of adjectives that wouldn't convey how I feel anyway.

My super sweet partner Rosantia is at her first Party, yet she can put up a terrific soup like this:

What we have here is an arrangement of cool ceramic beads, that I love so much, so SO much. The shade of green is perfect and also look at those complementing lampwork beads.

Two words: POLKA DOTS. Love them.

Then yellow quartz  and green chrysocolla12 mm beads.

Something funny: I love to find healing properties of crystals online. It said chrysocolla crystal has "an energy that helps to calm the nervous person who has difficulty in keeping silent"...seriously??! That's perfect for me!

Some beautiful copper chains and bead caps, as well as coordinated cords that I so much needed, having left my stash in Milan.

Then look at those crazy beads. Covered in washi paper, handmade by her, just gorgeous. Can you feel my Japan-radar activating?!

A beautiful Greek casting antiqued copper toggle clasp, with a cool patina treatment, the right compromise between the copper elements and the aqua-green beads, right?!
Then let's have some drum roll before I introduce the gorgeous focal I received.
Here it is

A ceramic birdie from Shaterra. Need I say more?!
I am so overwhelmed right now that I can only keep looking at this soup and hope to make some order in my mind to decide what to use first.

A huge thank you to Rosantia and hope your soup comes fast!

In the meanwhile head to the BSBP board to see what everybody else has received from their partners!

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!

7th BSBP 3rd reveal!

The Bead Soup Blog Party has come to its 3rd reveal.
You can find the complete list for blog hopping here!

It's a pity I'm posting this so late, but I was out of town these days without computer, internet or anything.
I attended 3 exhibitions, one of them being Manet in Venice (I finally saw the Olympia live!). The other 2 were De Nittis in Padua and  the Maison Goupil in Rovigo.
So I had my dose of beauty and art anyway.

Even in the hotel.

I'm happy this is blurry. It was scary. Reminded me of The Shining scene...the rest of the hotel was awesome though.
Back hopping now!!!

BSBP 4th item: The Indian Flower 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 4th one.

This necklace has been an ever changing project until the very last minute. This beautiful clasp is not so simple to use, and those freshwater pearls were great to match it, but other than this I didn't know what to do with them.

I was making a multistring bracelet, when I found 2 beautiful ceramic green flowers in my stash. They have the same size and shape of the clasp, so I decided to make some sort of big leaves with these flowers in the centre.

I wanted to put the toggle between them, so it would have been on the frontal part.
But the leaves were too big and I didn't like the first one, the second I liked more but wasn't sure about the shape...
I was confused, until I decided to make 2 small leaves and use the clasp as focal. Something simple.

But then I cut the big leaf making it a big flower shape, and decided to use THAT as focal.

I like this color combo with green and fuchsia/purple, which is by the way the color combo I offered my partner.
Finally I needed something to put in between the pearls, which have a semi-spherical shape. I added some green crystal to mix together the 2 main colors and voilà:

I'm still looking at those leaves, can't realize I actually made them. I won my fear of bead embroidery pretty fast!

BSBP 3rd item: The Cherry Blossom 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 3rd.

Since I saw these little leaves in my BSBP box I knew I was going to use them, I just didn't know HOW.
I also loved those 6mm pink beads and wanted something to celebrate spring...somehow I found myself making donuts with them and realized they looked like flowers!

The next step was thinking how to assemble them together. I wanted another knotted necklace, simple, something that could resemble an actual twig of cherry tree.
While on Flickr I saw these chain maille "beads" and I thought they would look great made with dark bronze rings...and then, playing with beaded beads, I realized I could complete the necklace with some beaded cherries.

A simple necklace but it has almost become my favorite!

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!!!

Siete pronti? Siete già caldi?

In far 1987 Madonna came to Italy for a massive concert, aired live on tv. I was only 4 years old but I swear I remember everything about that night...until I fell asleep.
She started the show asking "Siete pronti? Siete già caldi?" which literally means "Are you ready? Are you already hot (warmed up)?"...
So before the second BSBP reveal starts, before a crazy blog hopping I won't be able to stop, before the excitement starts...are you ready?

(how exciting is this map?!!! Thanks Lori!)

 Have you warmed up your fingers to click links and leave (nice) comments all over the web? To pin amazing pictures and drool over the abilities of hundreds of artists?
The countdown has begun...

BSBP 2nd reveal postponed

The 2nd and third reveal of the Bead Soup Blog Party have been postponed of one week.
I'm sorry for the main reason, but glad we can all have some more time to enjoy last week reveal and have 7 more days to make stuff!
In the meanwhile I took this pic

Not good yet, but better. My model failed me, so I used my old seamstress dummy.
Get ready to vote for the EBW challenge in 1 week!

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!!!

My soup arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning I received my soup from Poland!!!
I almost hugged the postman. He had some sort of big baby in his arms!

I was beyond excited and was jumping up and down in my kitchen!
When I opened it, a lot of chocolate jumped out of the huge envelope....

There was a beautiful floreal box too, with a lot of goodies inside...basically, I received 3 soups!
Colors are gorgeous, the first is orange (my favorite)

Then brown and yellow

and finally green:

How can a person be so generous?!!! I'm in shock!
And look at the amazing cabochon Dorota made, embroidered with amazing skill. I'm speachless.
Thank you so much my friend!
Take a look at Dorota's blog to see what I sent her and her beautiful works.