8th Bead Soup Bead Party - Here We Go!

A week's delay gave me the time to take pictures of my bead soup creations. And trust me, this year's bead soup had me working right up till the end. This is my third time participating in this annual event hosted by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things and it seems like I'm the sole participant from Malaysia!

My partner is Ginger Bishop of lilmummy likes.... And she's this wonderful lady from USA who is currently based in Okinawa, Japan.

Ginger sent me this pretty dish of bead soup. While I loved everything, I found it a challenge to make them work all together. I procrastinated a couple of weeks before I started working on the beads, and when I did, I decided to make separate pieces for the focal clasp and pendant.

Bead Soup from Ginger

The focal clasp was a copper beauty but I do not work with copper at all! So you must understand that it was a very lucky thing that I had some copper wire scraps stashed at the bottom of my wire box. How it got there I can't even remember! I was pretty determined to pair the copper focal with the greenish stone bead chips and this is bracelet that came off the initial idea. This is my favourite creation piece.

Copper focal clasp

Swarovski 4-clover peridot bead ties the whole bracelet together

The copper-green bracelet laid out flat

I really didn't know what to do with a donut pendant so I turned to google for inspiration. It was a couple of days before I chose to make a lariat necklace of it. It would be something new for me. Coming up with the design of this necklace was quite easy with its gorgeous bright colours amidst a darker background. I searched my stash for some nature-inspired beads and came up with a result that I think did justice to the autumn-y pendant.

Lariat necklace without clasp

Tried to find dangle beads that matched the colours of the pendant

A colourful autumn piece, don't you think?

I had initially wanted to make earrings with the turquoise flower beads, so I'm also not entirely sure how it ended up becoming a necklace. But here it is, a simple necklace that allowed me to also use up the ruby red and ceramic blue beads.

A last-minute creation to use up the other beads

Me thinks it would help add a little happiness to a drab outift

I don't think my creations were particularly ambitious, given I hadn't been beading for almost half a year now, but it definitely gave me a chance to explore new designs that I probably wouldn't have thought of myself. So thank you Ginger for the wonderful challenge and thank you Lori for the great opportunity to make new creative friends and for everything else you do to make BSBP possible!

Please visit Ginger's blog to see what she created with the bead soup I sent her. 

The list of the other blogs involved in the BSBP#8 can be found here.

I'll be hopping around and I hope to see you along the way..!

Bead Soup Unveiled

Bead Soup Unveiled!

I received my bead soup from Ginger of lilmummylikes at the end of March. The package was wrapped so prettily! 

The see-through box storing the bead soup for me was decorated with a lovely, flowery washi tape. You could tell that Ginger really put thought into the packaging and I’m embarrass to say I didn’t do much at all with packaging my bead soup.



My bead soup didn’t just travel alone as my partner sent some really darling gifts in the package. A couple of yellow candies, a handwritten card, a gorgeous-looking mini bath ball and very elegant petite dish were all packed together with an eclectic mix of ‘distressed’ (as Ginger describes!) beads.

 

The clasp is a real copper beauty and the focal pendant is a colourful wood art tile by J-Lynn Jewels. I absolutely adore the shimmer and autumn colours of the cultured pearls yet dread working with their tiny bead holes. The brightest colour in the mix are the turquoise flower beads and the smooth ruby round beads while the ceramic blue tinged with browny-rust beads, remind me of underwater relics. I think though I may have the most fun working with the greenish stone (or wood??) bead chips. I love all the beads separately, now I just need to make them all come together in creation.



I must admit the beads, Ginger sent are very different from my usual style but she wanted me to have a new kind of challenge! Interestingly the best part about BSBP is always the challenge to step out of your comfort zone and create pieces you wouldn’t normally make. My procrastination habit is something I need to kick and start working on these beads soon. 

Meanwhile here’s the unfiltered picture of the bead soup I sent Ginger. I hope she’ll have as much fun creating as I’m going to with her beads.

Happy Beading Everyone!!! See you on reveal day!

8th Bead Soup Blog Party - Soup Tease

Bead Soup Blog Party #8

I almost didn't participate this year by choice. I was feeling uninspired, hadn't touch my own beads in months and felt I didn't have enough time to take on a bead soup party. Although I had mostly decided not to take part this year, I actually entered the sign-up date on my phone's calendar.

Phone's calendar beeped on sign-up date. I still hadn't decided to participate and instead I spent some time reading through Lori's blog. Her spirit and passion convinced me not to waste my time and take for granted my good health. So quite spontaneously, I filled up the sign-up form.

Am I glad I didn't pass up the opportunity!!! Participants from a total of 30 countries from the continents of North America, Asia, Europe and Australia are taking part in this BSBP. I know Lori and Rick (Lori's loving hubby) went through a harrowing time getting everyone partnered up.

This year there is only one reveal date and my partner this year is Ginger Bishop of lilmummy likes... who is originally from the States but is currently based in Okinawa, Japan. As you can already tell from Little Maketto itself, I'm enamoured by all things Japanese, so to say the least I was thrilled that my partner was living in Japan.

Ginger was super efficient in contacting me. She decided to get in touch via email and facebook. And at that time, I didn't even know that Lori had finished pairing the international partners. We exchanged some messages to find out what we would or wouldn't like to receive and unfortunately for Ginger, although she informed me that she did not usually work with gold, she's going to be facing a personal challenge of working with gold since the prettiest focal clasp from my stash is a beautiful golden tone!

It would probably take a week or more for Ginger to receive the bead soup I prepared, so here's a little teaser till she receives the goodies.

Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Red

Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Red

JCARD12 - Red Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card

Red square-shaped 30-pieces jigsaw card, Pink envelope
Size: 14 cm x 13 cm
4 pieces available
~ RM5.00 ~

Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Black

Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Black

JCARD11 - Black Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card

Black square-shaped 30-pieces jigsaw card, Bright yellow envelope
Size: 14 cm x 13 cm
4 pieces available
~ RM5.00 ~

Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Brown

Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Natural Brown

JCARD10 - Brown Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card

Natural brown square-shaped 30-pieces jigsaw card, Brown kraft envelope
Size: 14 cm x 13 cm
6 pieces available
~ RM5.00 ~

Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card - White

Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card - White

JCARD09 - White Square Jigsaw Puzzle Card

White square-shaped 30-pieces jigsaw card, Brown kraft envelope
Size: 14 cm x 13 cm
6 pieces available
~ RM5.00 ~

DIY Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Baking Buddies

  Fancy Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card (Baking Buddies)

JCARD08 - Fancy Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card (Baking Buddies) 

Baking friends design heart shaped 27-pieces jigsaw card, Fancy design envelope
Size: 14.7cm x 12.5 cm
2 pieces available
~ RM5.50 ~

DIY Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Friendship

  Fancy Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card (Friendship)

JCARD07 - Fancy Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card (Friendship) 

Friendship love design heart shaped 27-pieces jigsaw card, Fancy design envelope
Size: 14.7cm x 12.5 cm
2 pieces available
~ RM5.50 ~

DIY Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Bunnies Chic

  Fancy Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card (Bunnies Chic)

JCARD06 - Fancy Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card (Bunnies Chic) 

Bunnies chic design heart shaped 27-pieces jigsaw card, Fancy design envelope
Size: 14.7cm x 12.5 cm
2 pieces available
~ RM5.50 ~

 

DIY Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Pink

  Pink Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card

JCARD05 - Pink Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card
Pink heart shaped 27-pieces jigsaw card, Red envelope
Size: 14.7cm x 12.5 cm
7 pieces available
~ RM5.50 ~

DIY Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Black

Black Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card

JCARD04 - Black Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card
Black heart shaped 27-pieces jigsaw card, Bright yellow envelope
Size: 14.7cm x 12.5 cm

8 pieces available
~ RM5.50 ~

 

DIY Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Red

Red Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card

JCARD03 - Red Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card
Red heart shaped 27-pieces jigsaw card, Pale pink envelope
Size: 14.7cm x 12.5 cm

8 pieces available
~ RM5.50 ~

 

DIY Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card - Blue

Blue Jigsaw Puzzle Card

JCARD02 - Blue Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card
Blue heart shaped 27-pieces jigsaw card, Light cream envelope
Size: 14.7cm x 12.5 cm
8 pieces available
~ RM5.50 ~

 

DIY Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card - White

White Jigsaw Puzzle Card

JCARD01 - White Heart Jigsaw Puzzle Card

White heart shaped 27-pieces jigsaw card, Brown kraft envelope
Size: 14.7cm x 12.5 cm
8 pieces available
~ RM5.50 ~

:: NOTICE ::
I will be away from Sunday 15th till Sunday 22nd September 2013.
I will not have internet access so I will only be able to reply enquiries once I return from my scuba diving trip.
So sorry for any inconveniences caused, any orders received during this time will be attended to when I return.

Meanwhile have a HAPPY MALAYSIA DAY!

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.

Bead Soup Blog Party #7 Reveal postponed

Bead Soup Blog Party #7 Reveal postponed

Many were looking forward to the reveal on the 13th of April. I failed to informed that unfortunately, the Bead Soup Blog Party Third Reveal has been postponed to 27th April which is coming soon. Due to the delay I have been procrastinating on my end as well and while all my pieces are ready for revealed I have yet to take pictures of them! I will be doing the photographs soon so come back again on the 27th for the big reveal!!