My partner this time around is Shirley Moore, (Beads and Bread this link will take you to her blog and the soup mix I sent her). Shirley does beautiful seed beading so when I mixed her soup, I thinned my seed bead stash a tiny bit by sending her packages of seed beads in a variety of sizes to match the focal bead Chris made for her.
This is what she sent to me (I told her I was a fearless beader, and she did give me a challenge!).
Loads of beautiful pearls, mother of pearl bead frames (two styles), Chinese crystal, copper toggle.
Beaded pieces handmade by Shirley. I give Shirley HUGE kudos for making a Cellini Spiral using the long Magatamas. I love those beads but I absolutely CAN NOT work with them. They are the one seed bead that is not my friend. I can't seem to wrap my mind around how they are supposed to lay in order to have them be all the same. No matter how many times I try, I can not make it work. Defeat, thy name is Magatama.
So when I received my soup, I was stumped. The beads were all very lovely, but how do I make them work with the beautiful focals Shirley made for me. What they really reminded me of were plants. So the first thing I did was stitch the two pieces into one piece and added embellishments.
Cool huh?! I added some coordinating seed beads at the base to match the ones where I joined the sections and then embellished the top with 2.5 mm olivine Swarovski crystals and size 15 seed beads. But then the "NOW WHATS" set in. I tried to figure out how to make this into jewelry. I. really. did. Fail. Chris suggested I needed a pot for my plant. So originally I thought a tiny terracotta pot would be the answer. We found tiny wooden ones at Hobby Lobby in a plain pine type wood. So I colored it with a brown Sharpie marker and went to town beading it using Delica beads in peyote stitch.
After starting over several times (and a few bad words), I battled through with the help of the internet on doing increase and decrease in peyote so I could accommodate the gradual slope up the sides and the lip of the pot. It turned out pretty well, not perfect, but pretty well. Thankfully I was able to photograph the good side! It turned out pretty form fitting, so that once I started up the rim, I could not remove the pot without a fight. I even beaded the bottom of the pot which helped pull the bottom stitches to curl around the base a bit better. We added modeling clay to the pot and a wooden dowel to support the plant. Originally we wanted to model it after Audrey 2 from "Little Shop of Horrors" (Chris played Seymore in our college production of the play).
The final presentation:
Not jewelry, bead SCULPTURE! Inspired by "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (by J.K. Rowling), Neville gets a Mimbulus Mimbletonia plant which spews Stinksap all over when it is prodded. I did a search and found this photo of a Mimbulus Mimbletonia on the Harry Potter Wiki site:
Now having not looked at this picture until I was writing this post, I would say I did a pretty good job! I have been listening to the Harry Potter audiobook this week and when I heard Neville talk about his plant, I thought that would be a good name for my sculpture. I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan and am rather sad that it has ended.
Here are some close up details of my MiMi (for short):
MiMi stands 3" tall and is about 2" wide. Chris made the lampwork eyeball pods and we epoxied them to steel wire. I made some creeper tendril/tentacles with colored Parawire, crystals and some of my stash of MyElements funky accent beads. The eyeball pods were made on the end of a fine wire mandrel similar to making a beaded headpin.
Now the rules of the BSBP state that you have to use the focal and the clasp of the soup mix. Since MiMi didn't need a clasp, I put together a bracelet with the gorgeous blister pearls, tiger's eye, and Chinese crystal so that I could use my clasp. Since it was a double strand clasp, I added a length of chain also.
Absolutely fabulous! Those pearls are so pretty, I wish I had several strands more!
So now that you have seen my BSBP project, here are the rest of the blogs to hop around to:
Hostess, Lori Anderson, PrettyThingsBlog.com
Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles
Alicia Marinache, All The Pretty Things
Amanda Tibbetts, Amanda Made
Amber Dawn Goldish, Inventive Soul
Annita Wilson, AW Jewelry
Beti Horvath, Stringing Fool
Birgitta Lejonklou, Create With Spirit
Candida Castleberry, Spinning Spun Sugar
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Cassie Donlen, Glass Beadle
Cheri Reed, Creative Designs by Cheri
Cheryl McCloud, One Thing Leads to Another
Cheryl Roe, BeadRoe
Christina Hickman, Vintage Treasures Jewelry
Christine Hendrickson, Clamworks
Cilla Watkins, Tell Your Girlfriends
Cindy Wilson, Mommy's Dream
Cindy Wimmer, Sweet Bead Studio
Cory Celaya, Art With Moxie
Cory Tompkins, Tealwater Designs
Cris Peacock, Cris' Page
Cynthia Deis, Shiny Little Things
Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers
Cynthia Wainscott, Exotic Peru
Dana Hickey, Magpie Approved
Dana James, Dana's Jewelry Designs
Dana Lang, Tumblestone Handmakery
Debbie Price, Green Shoot Jewellery Designs
Denielle Hagerman, Some Beads and Other Things
Diane Valasek, Dragonfly Close
Doris Stumpf, Glaszwerg
Dyanne Everett-Cantrell, Dee-Liteful Jewelry Creations
Elaine Robitaille, Too Aquarius
Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life
Enikö Fabian, Perl-eni
Erin Prais-Hintz, Treasures Found
Heather Davis, Blissful Garden Beads
Heidi Post, Ex Post Facto Jewelry
Hilary Frye, FryeStyle
Ilenia Ruzza, Ilenia's Unique Beaded and Painted Jewelry
Inge von Roos, Inge's Blog
Jami Shipp, Celebrating Life
Jayne Capps, Mama's Got to Doodle
Jean A. Well, Jean A. Wells Handcrafted Artisan Jewelry
Jean Yates, Snap Out of It Jean! There's Beading to Do!
Jennifer Cameron, Glass Addictions
Jennifer Pottner, Rock Candy Beads
Jennifer VanBenschoten, Jewelry, Art and Life
Jenny Davies-Reazor, Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jenny Vidberg, Shyme Design
Jessica Dickens, My Jewelry, My Life, Me
Jessica Klaaren, Beadful-Things by Jessica
JJ Jacobs, Coming Abstractions
Joan Williams, Lilruby Jewelry
Judith Johnston, Judith Johnston
Judy Riggs, Rigglettes
Judy Turner, Silver Rains
Julie Anne Leggett, The Peaceful Bead
K Hutchinson, Jumbled Hutch
Karen Meador, Dreamcatcher Ranch
Karyn Bonfiglio, Plus Size Bangles
Katja Benevol Gabrijelcic, Slovonske Technobe
Kelli Jacobson, Creative Moon
Kelly Ramstack, Adventures with Kelly
Keri Lee Sereika, Pink Lemonade
Kim Ballor, Vitamin C... A Daily Dose of Creativity
Kim Bender-Hora, KimmyKat
Kirsi Luostarinen, Kirsi Luo Korut
Kitty Bozzini, Kitty Lampwork
Laura Demoya, The Bead Therapist
Laurie Hanna, Laurie's Jewelbox
Leah Curtis, Beady Eyed Bunny
Lesley Watt, The Gossiping Goddess
Linda Inhelder, Must-Haves Jewelry
Linda Landig, Linda's Bead Blog & Meanderings
Lisa Liddy, Metal Me This
Lori Dorrington, Lori's Adventures in Etsy Land
Lori Poppe, Adventures in Creativity with Lorillijean
Mallory Hoffman, For the Love of Beads
Marge Beebe, Rock Creek Creations
Marianna Boylan, Pretty Shiny Things
Marion Simmons, Shade Tree Studio
Marla Gibson, Spice Box Design
Marta Weaver, Marta Weaver Jewelry
Marti Conrad, Marti C's Clay Blog
Maryse Fritzsch-Thillens, GlassBeadArt, Lampwork Beads
Melanie Brooks, Earthenwood Studio
Michelle Hardy, Firefly Visions
Mikala Coates, Maybe Just Perhaps
Mowse Doyle, HoCArt
Nan Emmett, Spirit Rattles - Spirited Earth
Nancy Boylan, Snazzy Doodle Designs
Nancy Peterson, Beading From the Heart
Nicole Rennell, Nicole Rennell Designs
Niki Meiners, 365 Days of Craft
Niky Sayers, Silver Nik Nats
Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas
Paige Maxim, Paige Maxim Designs
Pamela Gangler, She Always Loved Pink
Paige Maxim, Paige Maxim Designs
Pamela Gangler, She Always Loved Pink
Patricia Johnson, Patricia L. Johnson Glass Art
Patti Vanderbloemen, My Addictions ... Handcrafted Jewelry by Patti
Perri Jackson, Shaktipaj Designs
Raida Disbrow, Havana Beads
Renetha Stanziano, Lamplight Crafts
Shannon Hicks, Falling Into the Sky
Shannon LeVart, Miss Fickle Media
Sharon Driscoll, Right Turn Art Werks
Shelby Foxwell, Sundown Bead Designs Rhetoric
Shelley Graham Turner, Fabric of My Life
Sherri Stokey, Knot Just Macrame
My Partner~Shirley Moore, Beads and Bread
Skylar Bre'z, Brising Beads
Stacie Florer, Soul to Substance
Stacie Stamper, Park Avenue
Stacy Alderson, Iridal's Attic
You are here! Stephanie Haussler, Pixybug Designs
Stephanie Stamper, Rainy Day Designs
Sue Hamel, The Bottle Cork and Crystal
Suzette Bentley, Ellie's Bijoux
Szarka, Magpie Gemstones
Tammy Jones, Jewelry Making Daily
Tania Tebbit, Glass, Craft, & Artful Goodness
Tanty Sri Hartanti, TJewellicious by Tanti
Terry Matuszyk, Pink Chapeau
Tina Bosh, Every Good and Perfect Gift
Tracy Bell, Copper, Glass and Recycled Trash
Vonna Maslanka, Just Vonna
Thanks for visiting, I hope you will stop by again!