Little Maketto

10 May 2014

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..!

14 April 2014

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!

17 March 2014

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.