Bead Soup Reveal Day!!!!

Welcome to the Bead Soup Blog Party!  Thank YOU to Lori Anderson, creator and hostess of the BSBP and congrats on her upcoming Bead Soup book!

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

Katherine Gale, Terra Beadworks
Kathleen Lange Klik, Modern Nature Studio

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

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!