Saturday, April 13, 2013

Bead Soup!

Yay!  It's finally here--the second Bead Soup reveal!  *dances*

Now, this was my very first time ever participating in Bead Soup... What a wonderful experience! I was worried when I signed up that I wouldn't be able to deliver--but, wow! All told, I made eight pieces. 

Eight! 

...And that means a lot of pictures. I apologize now for the length of this post, and will do my best to keep my narration to a minimum.

A quick refresher: my partner is the incredibly talented Marianne Baxter, who sent me this soup full of goodies. (Follow the second link if you want to be reminded of what the soup looked like.)

The first piece that I made was a necklace, which used one of the pendants that was sent to me, as well as most of the rest of the soup (beads, chain, and bead caps):



  



I still had a few beads leftover from the soup, so I made these matching earrings:



...As well as this matching hairstick:





Here is everything together:



Now...  You'll notice that, in that necklace, I didn't use the beautiful clasp that my partner sent me. 

Why is that?  Well, the clasp is a more sedated silver than the bright silver above... So, I decided to make another necklace. After all, my wonderful partner had sent me two pendants--I might as well use them both!

So the second necklace incorporates both the other pendant, and the clasp.







I had used up almost the entire soup with the previous set, so almost all of these beads were mine. Still, I think they match the pendant quite nicely!

...And, since I was so inspired, I made earrings and a pair of hairsticks to match said second necklace.





Here is everything together:



Now, while I like the hairstick and earrings, they seemed a little too, well, bright to match the necklace. Again, the silver in the necklace was more understated--an accent color, more than a focal.

So, when our reveal was pushed back a week, I used that time to make another pair of earrings and another pair of hairsticks.

The new pair of earrings is much, much simpler and understated. While not as showy, they actually work better for me; the previous pair, while beautiful, is a bit too long for my neck.



The hairsticks are very very special, because they were made with sticks that I 3D modeled myself. I had them 3D printed by an outside source (since I don't have a 3D printer of my own yet), using a purple laser sintered nylon plastic.

Granted, these blanks are still only prototypes (and I'm sure I will blog about them soon)--but how exciting! Hurray for using technology to make something beautiful! :D





And, again, here is the entire set seen together.



So, those are the eight pieces that I made with my Bead Soup. The first set was definitely further outside of my regular style (it's so beautifully bright!), but I really had fun making everything.

Yay!

And with that, I will leave you to your blog hopping. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this... I certainly hope you enjoy seeing my creations as much as I enjoyed making them!  :D

Be sure to check out Marianne's blog to see what she made with the beads that I sent her!

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If you are interested in seeing the works of the other Bead Soup participants in the second reveal, check out the list here.  It will certainly be worth your while!!

30 comments:

  1. For something outside of your usual style, I'm even more impressed. You made magic! Beautiful pieces, every single one.

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  2. What great colors your BSBP pieces have! I never thought about matching hair sticks with jewelry. Oh and I especially love those first earrings.

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  3. Love the hair sticks! Beautiful soup :-)

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  4. Such a lovely colorway! The hairsticks look so cool!

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  5. I love your hairsticks so much! Such an original idea! (can't wait for my hair to grow enough to use some)

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  6. Wow Jenny, you rocked it.! I love love LOVE what you did with the vocals, the earrings and the hair sticks. Where did you get those beads, they so rock. You have to enter the contest. Thanks for being my partner it was so much fun...hope we can get paired again.

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  7. Oh wow, you rocked that soup hard ! Love the second necklace and the hairsticks !

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  8. Great jewelry! The hair pins are fun!

    I’m in the third reveal. Can’t wait.
    http://vintagememoriesjewelry.blogspot.com
    kathy

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  9. what fun pieces you made.. Love the hair sticks. awesome job.

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  10. Oh, I love the colors! You made beautiful pieces!

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  11. very elegant projects!congrats!

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  12. Very simple sophisticated elegance. Congrats! Kristin Oppold

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  13. I love all your pieces, great idea to make hair sticks, so original.
    I'm on the 3rd reveal, what fun BSBP!
    ciao dall'Italia

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  14. Love all your designs! Very pretty and the hair sticks are a great idea. Beautiful bead soup!

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  15. I too did a happy dance that it was reveal day for the second group. I love your first set. I really like the look of crackle glass even though you don't see it very often. That second set, though, that is gorgeous. My favorite. And, the narrative was great - that is what this is all about. Sharing the journey and the process, not just the event. Great job!

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  16. Beautiful work! The second set is stunning!

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  17. Beautiful work! The second set is stunning!

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  18. I'm blown away!! :). Awesome work!
    Your peers think so too! :)

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  19. Wonderful designs. You set off the foals beautifully in both designs.

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  20. I love that you made items outside the typical necklaces, earrings, and bracelets!

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  21. All your designs are really pretty. I just love the hair sticks..great job!

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  22. Thank you all so, so much for commenting! I cannot tell you how much your encouragement means to me... I appreciate it all so much.

    Thank you!

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  23. They are beautiful necklaces and earrings but in particular I love the hair sticks. I made a hair stick too and wondered if I wer ethe only one who still enjoyed them, thank you for making me fell less odd :) lol

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  24. Gorgeous work, love the brightness and the colors.

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  25. I love both necklaces you've designed. Excellent work. Have a beautiful weekend.

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  26. I think both of your sets are awesome!! As I'm usually drawn to bright colors, that first set really catches my eye. However, I adore the fact that you had the hair sticks for the second set 3D printed. My hubs actually built a 3D printer not too long ago and I just haven't explored a whole lot of options with it yet. Thanks for making me think even further out of the box!! :)

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  27. Wow, what a lot of beauty you created with your soup! And how cool that you made the hairsticks!

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  28. I am so addicted to your hair sticks! Now I have a reason for growing my hair besides my husband wanting it long. All the designs are gorgeous but I definitely have stick envy

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment! :)