Seasons Blog Hop

Lisa Lodge, of A Grateful Artist, is hosting another wonderful blog hop.

I've taken part in several of Lisa's blog hops and have loved each one.  Lisa grabs beads from her bead table, mixes them into wonderful bead soups and sends them to the participants.  I enjoy receiving a surprise soup and Lisa's mixes are always beautiful.

 This time around, the theme is "seasons."  Lisa said we can interpret this to mean seasons of the year or as seasons of our lives.

Here is my soup:

The clay beads are from Tree Wings Studio.  Rebekah makes beautiful beads and if you would like some for yourself, check out her etsy shop.

The first thing I noticed, though, were the shell beads.  I loved the shapes and the colors and immediately thought of walking along the beach in the summer.

I tried several different things, but settled on a spiral rope with a bit of a twist .. or fringe.

I love the way the shells look in the fringe.  I'm not sure if they look like they are buried on the beach, but they look comfortable nestled in the fringe.

I used a bead from Lisa's soup to create a clasp.

I am sad that I didn't incorporate Rebekah's beads, but I will hopefully use them in a future project.

Lisa, thanks again for a wonderful bead soup and blog hop.

Please take some time and visit the rest of the participants.  I know you won't be disappointed.

Lisa Lodge, Grateful Artist (our host)

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Cassi Paslick, Beads: Rolling Downhill

Stephanie Sanner Haussler, PixyBug Designs

Leah Mifflin Tees, My Beady Little Eyes

Karin Slaton, BackStory Beads

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

Lori Jean Poppe, Lorillijean Creative Corner

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Toltec Jewels, Toltec Jewels for Jewel School Friends

Lennis Carrier, Windbent

Erin Kenny, Beadifultherapy

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress - you are here

Cilla Watkins, Tell Your Girlfriends

Renetha Williams Stanziano, Lamplight Crafts

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Sierra Barrett, Giraffe Can Has

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Shirley Jones Moore, Beads and Bread

Dawn Horner, Northern Adornments

Charlene Bausinger Jacka, Clay Space

Tara Plote, The Newbie Beader's Blog

Candida Elkins Castleberry, Spun Sugar Beadworks

Miranda Ackerley, Daze and Days

My Bead Table Blog Hop 2

Once again, Lisa Lodge of A Grateful Artist is hosting a wonderful challenge.

This time around, her choice of beads was inspired by the sea and the sand.  The beads I received were gorgeous shades of blues and greens with a bit of purple mixed in.

Lisa also added a few larger beads

and a few glass shards.

I used the sea glass first and channeled my inner Staci Louise.  Staci is amazingly talented and works in metal, clay and anything else you might imagine.  Definitely check out her jewelry shop and her component shop.

I love how Staci sometimes rivets a clay component to a flat copper sheet.  I didn't have rivets, so I tried wire wrapping.

The next thing I grabbed were some gorgeous triangle beads I dug out of the soup.  As I was pondering what to do with them, a tutorial for a pair of cubic right angle weave earrings by Marcia DeCoster came to mind.

I paired the triangle beads with luminous green Swarovski crystals and some scraps of chain I had laying around.

The idea for incorporating the chain came from Jill Wiseman's "Bohemian Earrings" in her book, Beautiful Beaded Ropes.

These earrings are long, dangly and fun to wear.

After completing the earrings, I saw a bag of moss green peanut beads on my desk.  They looked great with the soup beads.  I wasn't quite sure what to do, though, and started leafing through Bohemian Inspired Jewelry, by Lorelei Eurto and Erin Siegel.

I saw Lorelei's "How Does Your Garden Grow" necklace and found the perfect solution.  Lorelei had used double strands of drop beads between larger beads.  I substituted my peanut beads and found the perfect clasp by Melinda Orr.

I really love this bracelet.

After I finished the bracelet, I decided to tackle the large purple round.  I just started bezeling the round with seed beads.  I didn't really have a plan, but I am pleased with the result.

I found a scrap of leather cord and loved how it looked with the focal.  I tried several things with the leather, but ended up leaving it plain and added a string of seed beads and chain.

The necklace itself is very simple, but I love how it compliments the focal.

Finally, I  returned to the soup.  I wanted to use the remaining beads to create a necklace using one of the sea glass pendants.  I created a beaded rope and loved how it looked.

The different beads look great together.

Unfortunately, the rope didn't work as a necklace.  Instead, I strung one of the larger green rounds in the center and made a second bracelet.

I am especially pleased with this bracelet.  I have enough beads left (I think) to make a second bracelet.  This might be my next project because the kiddo liked this one so much that she promptly claimed it for her own.

Lisa, thank you for another great challenge.  I love how your soups push me a bit out of my comfort zone.

Please take some time to hop around and see what the other participants made with their soups.

Lisa Lodge (our host), A Grateful Artist

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress - you are here

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson, Sharyl's Jewelry

Marla Gibson, Spice Box Designs

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Dot Lewallen, Speedie Beadie

Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs

Kim Booth, The Pink Martini Boutique

Jami Shipp, Celebrating Life

Leah Tees, My Beady Littleeyes

Christie Murrow, www.charisdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com

Monique Urquhart, A Half Baked Notion

Gloria Allen, Gloria Allen Designs

Cindy Anderson Wilson, It's My Sea of Dreams

Suzi Campbell, Suzi Campbell Creations

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha's Ramblings

Annette Rivers, MamaOwl's Mess

Floral Holiday Blog Hop

For my entry in the 3rd Annual Challenge of Color, click here.

Lisa Lodge, from A Grateful Artist, is known for creating wonderful bead soup mixes and hosting fun (and challenging) blog hops using those great mixes.

This time around, Lisa sent bead mixes with lucite flowers and leaves.  The mix I received contained beads and lucite in soft shades of blue and pink.

I started with the seed beads, the copper leaves and the white drops.  I paired those with clear/pink seed beads and a bit of chain from my stash.

I used the bright pink beads in one strand and ended all three strands with the white drops from Lisa's kit.

This rhinestone link from Michaels is perfect for the holidays.

The end piece is this lariat.

Next, I tackled the lucite pieces.  I mentioned above that the lucite flowers and leaves were light blue and pink, yet the picture showed metallic leaves and flowers.  What happened?

Well, as I looked at the beads in the mix, I kept stumbling with the "holiday" part of the challenge.  For me, "holiday" evokes images of silver and gold.  How to make the pinks and blues play well with metallics?

Then it hit me.  A few weeks prior, I had read this post by Sherri of Knot Just Macrame.  Sherri posted a tutorial for painting lucite flowers.  I thought I'd try her technique.  I didn't have any patinas, but I did have the kiddo's acrylic paints.

This is what I ended up with.

I thought the lucite flowers looked wonderful doubled up.  For the center of the flowers, I made two mini cuboctahedra from the Infinity Ubercube pattern by Gwen Fisher and Florence Turnour.  (You can find this pattern and many others on their website, Bead Infinitum.)

I bezeled the pink rounds from the kit  and made more flowers using Jean Power's "Crystal Flower" pattern from her book, Geometric Beadwork.  (If you are a seed beader, put this one on your Christmas list -- it's wonderful!)

I thought all the flowers looked wonderful together.

I attached the lucite and beaded flowers to a strand of silk cord and a beaded herring bone rope.

I made a quick S hook with copper wire and applied a bit of gilders paste.

Here is the finished necklace.

I was happy to see it turned out like I had imagined.

I was sad that the lucite leaves didn't make it into the necklace, so I decided to make a bracelet just for them.

I've always liked chain maille, but rarely take the time to weave anything.  I made a quick Byzantine weave bracelet using copper, silver and black rings.

I attached the lucite leaves here and there, along with the remaining pink beads from the kit and a few of the flowers I didn't paint.

I love my floral holiday charm bracelet!

So does the kiddo.  She loved modeling it for you.

Lisa, thank you for such a wonderful hop!

Please  take a few minutes and see what wonderful things the other participants did with their soups.

Our host: Lisa Lodge, Grateful Artist (Pine Ridge Treasures)

Courtney Breul, Beads by Breul

Jeannie Dukic, Jeannie's Blog

Kimberly Flood, Goddesses and Beads

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress - you are here

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Cheri Reed, Creative Designs by Cheri

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Rana Wilson, Definitive Designs by R. Wilson

My Bead Table Blog Hop

Lisa Lodge, from A Grateful Artist, hosted a fabulous challenge/blog hop.  She sent 25 lucky people a selection of stray or orphan beads from her stash.  She asked us to combine those beads with some orphans from our own stash to create something awesome.

I was excited to take part and even more excited to receive my bead soup.

I took Lisa's soup and added odd beads from my stash, then mixed in some seed beads.  I ended up with quite a large cup of soup.

Yes, I stirred my soup with a spoon.  :)

I haven't done much in the way of bead soups, so I turned to Beaded Colorways by Beverly Ash Gilbert.  In her book, Beverly does an amazing job of explaining how to create a bead soup and how to transition between different colors of soups.  The projects are amazing and one in particular caught my eye.

Beverly's "Wander with Flair" necklace incorporates sari ribbons into a freestyle beading technique.

I had so much fun making this necklace.  There wasn't any "wrong" way to go and the bead soup blended perfectly into the fiber.

I was stunned to see the final product.

Never in a million years would I think I could make something like that!

It turns out that my approximation of beads was *way* off because I had over half my original soup left.

That soup became a bracelet.

I chose to do a freeform netting, similar to that in the necklace.  It was so much fun to just let go and string beads.  Lisa's bead soup was perfect.

I used a snap for the closure.  I love that it's hidden.

Please take some time and check out the other wonderful designers who participated in this hop.  I promise, you will see some awesome beady goodness.

Lisa Lodge, A Greatful Artist (our host)

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

Ginger Bishop, lilmummy likes...

Tanya Boden, Fusion Muse

Lisa Boucher, Lisa’s Clay Happenings

Michelle Buettner, Mishel Designs

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, TheCharmed Life

Mikala Coates, MaybeJust Perhaps

Marlene Cupo, Amazing Designs

Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's

Mary Anne Klinglesmith Flesch, Hand Crafted Serenity

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress - you are here

Mary Hicks, Falling Into the Sky

Tina Holden, PolymerClay Bytes!

Shelly Joyce, Au jour le jour

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn'sCreations

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Susan Lloyd, Designs by Susan

Cynthia Machata, AntiquityTravelers

Kashmira Patel, Sadafule .. always in bloom!

Inge von Roos, Inge'sBlog

Kristen Stevens, My Bead Journey

Sonya Stille, Dreamin' of Beads

Christine Stonefield, SweetGirl Design

Toltec Jewels, JewelSchool Friends

Norma Turvey, MoonlitFantaseas

Sandra Wollberg, Cityof Brass Stories