27 April 2013

7th Bead Soup Bead Party - Reveal

Woohoo!!! It's finally time for the 3rd reveal of the 7th BSBP! This is my second time participating in this annual event hosted by the awesome Lori Anderson and I must say I'm definitely a more experienced participant.


My partner is Natalie Davidson from Northshore Days who is based in hobbit-land New Zealand! She sent me an almost monochromatic set of beads and I decided that this year it would be my personal challenge to use up all the beads!




My favourite beads are the candy-licious flat rounds lampwork beads with speckled orange and yellow. I don't normally work with orange or yellow (these two colours are not very friendly with the Asian skin tones) so this was a little challenge as I had to rummage through all my beads to find something to match these glass beads. Finally I remembered stashed at the back of my cupboard, is a little container of plastic orange beads which were originally part of a broken necklace and I never did get around to fixing it. So out came the oval plastic orange beads and the rest fell into place. This is actually a one-layered long necklace to pair with some simple, long tops.



To make a matching bracelet, I wanted to incorporate the orange with the black and white beads. Here's a chunky bracelet with some wire-wrapped techniques inspired from my partner's ever-so educational blog tutorial


Next up, I decided to use the white shell bead. I knew I wanted to make this piece simple and elegant, so I ended pairing it up with some tiny, black korean crystals and I used pale gold spacer beads (leftovers from BSBP6) to highlight the bracelet.


Several weeks on since I made the three pieces, I was still stuck on the main point of BSBP. I could not figure out a nice technique on how to attach pendant to a necklace chain. Wire-wrapping didn't work because it obscured the beauty of the pendant, a big jump ring was just really odd etc. Believe me, I went through several trials and errors before I came up with this solution! 

In the end I used a thin bronze chain of appropriate length to attach the pendant to the toggle clasp which I thought was pretty enough to be shown-off in the front. With the chain, the pendant still rolled and moved around too much so I used a pink organza ribbon bow to secure the chain and prevent too much movement. To dress up the whole necklace, I created a fruity selection of beads to hang through part of the necklace chain.

This was a real challenge for me but I'm very pleased with the results and can't wait to hear what you think of this design!




So remember my ambitious challenge to use up all the beads? Well, I still hadn't figured out what to do with the red glass beads. I was about to just give up when lo and behold, Lori announces that the 3rd reveal would be delayed! Hmm... this must be a sign. So about two or three weeks ago, while scooting through some blogs, I hit again on my previous BSBP partner Adlinah from DreamStruck Designs blog. I had previously already seen her posts and all but this time the picture of the soup she sent to her partner struck a chord with me. The colour scheme is absolutely beautiful and I loved her idea of pairing red with the baby blue beads. I also noticed that Lori's banner of the Bead Reveal Dates also feature a bead soup in similar colours!

I then decided to do a colour-block bracelet using the gorgeous red beads Natalie sent me, pairing them up with some turquoise round beads from my own stash. The result - my favourite design from my own BSBP7 creations!

The bead soup Adlinah sent her partner and the picture that inspired my colour-block bracelet.



I had matching nails the same week I created this bracelet!


I do still have a couple of beads left over but overall I think I achieved my goal of using up most of the bead soup ingredients. I also realized that while I created so many pieces, none were particularly creative so maybe that's the trade-off. Hopefully next year I will be able to make more creative pieces to showcase.

As usual, a big round of applause goes to Lori Anderson for hosting and organizing the 7th BSBP , my partner Natalie for providing such an enjoyable bead soup and Adlinah for providing inspiration even when she didn't know it!

Now that I'm finally done, it's time to blog hop!
Please head on over to NorthShore Days to have a look at what Natalie created with the bead soup I sent her. I'm intrigued because I know I sent her quite a challenging soup...
I'll be hopping around throughout the weeks ahead and I hope to see you along the way..!

The list of the other blogs involved in the 3rd Reveal can be found here.

53 comments:

  1. Carmen yay - look at the gorgeous pieces you made!!!! I am laughing to myself because we both made cuff bracelets and our focal piece is also along the same lines! Great minds think alike. Thank you for the soup and the challenge - I had great fun. My post is up http://northshoredays.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/7th-bead-soup-bead-party-reveal.html

    xxx Nat

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    1. nat!!! gosh u won't believe it I just realised that I forgot to post up the earrings I made with the lampwork beads...! i'll do it sometime this week... thanks so much for the bead soup.. and great minds do think alike.. i love the cuff bracelet you created too!

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  2. Great delivery. Solid arguments. Keep up the good work.


    Feel free to surf to my page - "numis numismatic coins"

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  3. Nice! I like the orange necklace for its sunny summery feeling but as I never wear orange myself, I would go for the last bracelet. Lovely!

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  4. Carmen - you're very welcome for the inspiration :-). Had no idea the soup I sent June struck such a chord with you. Needless to say, I love the bracelet you made. It's odd that we don't pair reds and blues more often - they're so very pretty together. I love that you made really wearable pieces from your soup and who says your pieces aren't creative? I, for one, wouldn't have thought to add that pop of orange in the black and white bracelet.

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  5. Nice work! Love the orange necklace. What a great look. Also love the color block bracelet with the turquoise and red. One of my favorite color combos.

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  6. Wonderful pieces. Love the orange necklace too.
    kathy

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  7. So pretty. Even though the orange was a challenge for you, you did great with it. I especially love the necklace with the ribbon.

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  8. Please don't think you were not creative in this soup. The pieces were stunning. I loved the orange necklace and that's a color I don't work with much either so I loved how you worked it out. The pop of orange with the black was great. I loved the dangly necklace but my favorite was the turquoise and red bracelet. I love those colors and it was just stunning. You were very creative with your soup.

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  9. very elegant and projects,great work with wire!congrats!

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  10. everything is great! Love what you did with the bead soup

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  11. Beautiful pieces! The last bracelet is my favorite as well!

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  12. So many beautiful pieces!! Love the bracelet & the matching nails...yummy for sure!

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  13. I love the solution to war the clasp in the front of the long necklace. The bracelet is so nice and colorful. Great work!

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  14. Very cool pieces of jewellery, I can not decide which one I like most. Great job!

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  15. Beautiful work and great use of the materials!

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  16. Great designs! I love the way you used your materials especially the last necklace and the bracelet with red! :)

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  17. I more like the second necklace, clasp/focal! Well done with all pieces!

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  18. I beg to differ...I think you were very creative, especially with the necklace (beautiful toggle in front), and your turquoise and red bracelet is to die for!

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  19. Beautiful work on the turquoise bracelet. It has a very southwestern look which I love. The toggle looks fabulous in the front on the necklace! The toggle and pendant compliment each other so well side by side. Lovely work!

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  20. Gorgeous colors, I think my favorite is the necklace with the pink bow!

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  21. Oh my heavens, I think ALL of your pieces are beautifully creative! Love the turq and red colour combo, and what you've done with that donut pendant...and the first necklace! Very nice!

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  22. Love the toggle in front on the last necklace, and the super long first necklace. Those orange beads are the perfect compliment to the lampwork beads. Nice use of the red beads in the bracelet. Cool designs!

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  23. Lovely pieces, the extra time helped all of us out otherwise you would not have made my favourite bracelet!

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  24. Good job using your soup. The necklace with the toggle in front above the pendant is my favorite of your designs.

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  25. I love all your pieces, I love the last bracelet and that one with big with focal.
    ciao dall'Italia

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  26. Challenge or not, your pieces are lovely and the last necklace is just wonderful.

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  27. So many beautiful pieces - I couldn't possibly pick a favorite!!

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  28. OH those are all fabulous! You flew through this challenge! That last bracelet though.. wow.. that is a show stealer ;)

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  29. so many lovely pieces! i love the color combo in each but especially the first necklace that screams spring. incredible work.

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  30. Lovely Carmen - especially the necklaces.

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  31. Beautiful pieces, great colors, great designs.

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  32. Very, very nice creations! I love the necklace with the clasp and focal in front. Very good mix of colours. Congrats....you did good!

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  33. Beautiful work. My favorite is the cuff bracelet.

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  34. Glad that you found a way to use the beads!! that stash was there for a purpose... love the focal...a really nice way to incorporate it....and love the cuff...

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  35. I love what you did with your bead soup...So many pieces and very nice ...Stunning, brilliant...ty for sharing with us all...I was in first reveal but have enjoyed viewing all three reveals...
    http://jaacquelinesjewels.blogspot.com/2013/03/bead-soup-blog-party-reveal-is-here.html
    bye for now and Happy Beading

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  36. Beautiful creations, Carmen! And you really used every bead from your soup - great! My personal favourite is the orange necklace, although you're not used to work with orange - what should I say: you rock the colour, my dear. Love the extra circle with those tiny beads on it!

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  37. I can see why the bracelet is your favorite. It is absolutely stunning!

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  38. I think that you were very creative! Great job. I love the front toggle piece!

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  39. Beautiful pieces, I love your necklace with the bronze focal and of course you made an awesome bracelet!Every piece is so interesting

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  40. All your pieces are really gorgeous! I just love the colors. I can't decide which one is my favorite...great job!

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  41. Such a creative use of all of your soup,i adore your bracelet made in the extra time beautiful. Using the toggle and focal together was inspired and looks fantastic.

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  42. Everything is beautiful. My favorite is that last two-strand bracelet. So pretty - I would so wear that. Great job!

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  43. Everything is beautiful. My favorite is that last two-strand bracelet. So pretty - I would so wear that. Great job!

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  44. Oh wow I love the 1st necklace and that last color block bracelet is gorgeous! Great job and hooray for the delay!

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  45. You certainly did justice to that wonderful soup. Absolutely love how you used the focal, even down to the gorgeous little pink ribbon. Lovely touch!

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  46. Wow, awesome blog layout! How long have you been blogging for?
    you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is
    wonderful, let alone the content!

    my web page :: Home Page

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  47. Fabulous soup designs! I really like the elegance of the bracelet with the white shell and the combination of colors you came up with for that final bracelet. It's all beautiful though!

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  48. I'm still bloghopping :-) The colours and the design of the bracelet are stunning, very elegant. I love♥ your nail polish too!!!

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