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Saturday, September 17, 2011

Party Time!!! Bead Soup Blog Party!

The day is finally here for the bead soup blog party! Here is the link to the official blog telling all about it:http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/

Back in August I was partnered up with a very talented lady, Keri Lee Sereika. Here is a link to Keri's blog:

http://pinklemonade.typepad.com/my_weblog/

She sent me a lovely mix of beads, spacers, findings, a pretty flower clasp and a sweet focal bead. See the picture to the left.

But please excuse my poor photography skills.  I am learning.  I was excited to be a part of this fun project.  And one of the purposes is to stretch ourselves by using beads we don't usually choose.  The vintage colors of the findings, spacers and clasp were not a theme I had been doing.  I was more into the silver theme.  But is is funny, since I made my bead soup piece I have been using those colors in most of the jewelry I have been designing.  So that purpose has been accomplished in me!  

Anyways, I added in some art beads in swirly colors made by Leslie and picked up at a local bead store.  I paired them with fire agate beads I had fallen in love with at Nawbin, one of my favorite stores here in Traverse City, Michigan.  See the little art beads with the cool jasper beads she sent in the earrings I made to go with the necklace:


Those are Russian jade beads on the bottom of the earrings.





So here is the necklace. I also added some shells I had and was not sure what to do with.  I thought they set off the rest of the necklace perfectly.  I was so excited about the final effect!  It is a different look for me.














In this picture you can see the art beads better and the sweet clasp Keri sent me. You can also see how well the jasper beads and lovely spacers go with the rest of my "stash" that I added. 







Most of the beads from my stash were items I loved but were not sure what to do with.











Here is a close-up of the focal.  I bought some vintage color wire (which I have used a lot since then!).  Then I wrapped the focal with some Russian jade and glass beads that I had.  I put a few slightly larger Russian Jade beads above the focal and between the art beads and the clasp. 

Thanks again to Lori Anderson for sponsoring the Bead Soup Blog Party and thanks for including me.  Also thank you to my partner Keri Lee.  She is an inspiration to me.  Have a fun party, everyone!  See you on the Blogs!
Kathy Engstrom


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43 comments:

  1. Oh wow Kathy! This has been so much fun and just seeing you work your magic with the items I sent has been great! Love the pieces you made! I am glad you are now going and trying different color metals..it opens up a whole new world doesn't it?!

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  2. It does. Thanks again for everything!

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  3. Great job Kathy. Love the fact that participating pushed you out of your box. I think I might have challenged my partner a bit too much.

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  4. That turned out really nice. I like the shells you added in. Nice job.

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  5. I like the beads you added to the wire on the focal!!

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  6. Love the earrings, very sweet. The necklace is beautiful. I especially like how you wire wrapped the pendant.

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  7. Thanks everyone. Your words mean so much. Guess what I wore today. Had a lot of great comments and was able to tell about the BSBP.

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  8. Oh, great work! That is definitely a necklace you wear with your hair up, so that every bit can be appreciated. :D

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  9. Great color combo on the necklace. I like the wire wrapped pendant.

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  10. You did a great job with wrapping that pendant! Well done!

    I hope you'll join us again next year!

    Love, Lori

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  11. OK, this is just YUMMMMY...your soup is DELICIOUS my Friend!!! I adore your design, it's truly stunning! Well done, another AMAZING cup of BEAD SOUP from a very talented designer!!! ;)

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  12. I like the design of your necklace, a lot of bold pieces but not overpowering. The photos are very good but I agree it takes a lot of practice to get it the way you want it. My advice: really get to know what your camera is capable of.

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  13. Nice work - it's good to see how you embraced things that aren't normally in your comfort zone.

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  14. I love those earrings. Also, the way you wire wrapped the focal was cool.

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  15. You did a good job making the focal more of a focal with the wire wrapping. Very nice

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  16. Really beautiful necklace, perfect for the upcoming fall season, great job!

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  17. Lovely jewellery! I really like the colour combo in the necklace. Great job!

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  18. What lovely jewelry! Perfect for fall. A lot of fall colors seem to be present in bead soup projects this time around.

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  19. I love what you've done, esp. wrapping the pendant! Very cool designs!

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  20. What a yummy soup, I love what you did with it.

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  21. I love how you've built your design up to the clasp... they are gorgeous beads on either side of it. The wire wrapping and beading on the focal really draws attention to it. Great piece!

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  22. Oh wow, wonderful designs! I love the colors on the necklace!

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  23. Very pretty! I love how you wire wrapped the pendant. Lovely!

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  24. Lovely designs, and nice wire-wrapping on the focal..

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  25. Both of your designs are really a lot of fun. Wrapping that focal with wire and beads to give it your own touch was really inspired! Wonderfully done.

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  26. Gorgeous! Those beads are sooo beautiful and you showed them off to perfection.

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  27. I agree with everyone else, wire wrapping the focal was a great idea, and really brings attention to it. I love the colors in the earrings, I would definitely be wearing those a lot! Great job!

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  28. Great design! I love the details and cool beads up near the clasp - makes the necklace as pretty from the back as the front!
    Julie and Andrea

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  29. Beautiful pieces. Love the semi precious gem stones and the detail of the wire wrapping on the pendant. Soup-er Job!!

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  30. Lovely necklace and I love the wirewrapped and beaded pendant.

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  31. this is beautiful, great wire wrapping

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  32. Very pretty! Love how you wire wrapped the focal!!

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  33. Isn´t that great to be pushed outside the box? I think you did a good job, lovely pieces here.

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  34. I Love the wire wrapping on the main pendant and your stringing is lovely.. Look forward to following your blog.

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  35. Beautiful work. It was a perfect touch to wire wrap the focal!! And now I see that you are doing more of that :)

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  36. I love what you made and how you made the focal your own by wrapping it. Great work :)

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  37. I love all your pieces. The wrapping you made is simply fabolous! Well done!
    Ambra

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  38. Well done, you stretched and found some hidden creativity. Just what we were supposed to do:)

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