Friday, November 2, 2012

Kalmbach Bead Soup~ Reveal!



Finally finished my Kalmbach Bead Soup Challenge!

In celebration of Lori Anderson's new book Bead Soup

Bead shops from far and wide put together little packets of
"Bead Soup Mix" and mailed them off to beaders and
jewelry artists to see what they would make.

I received this beautiful bead soup mix from
Simply Beadiful located in Springfield, Ma...



The focal bead, a tagua nut, had a bit of a blow out in the back where the hole was drilled. I decided to cut a back plate from roller printed brass sheet, solder on a few chunky prongs and tube set a carnelian cabochon in the spot of the original hole. The carnelian picks up the red highlights in the root beer glass cubes I wire wrapped and added to the chain. Before I soldered on the prongs I hammered the outer edge of the front plate to add a little texture.


Close-up of the focal bead with tube set carnelian.

I capped each end of the wood beads with a brass pocket watch gear. They have a tiny tube on one side that fit perfectly inside the bead holes. To balance off the clasp I added a stone flower from my stash whose color echoed that of the tagua nut. Final length is 24".



Thanks again to Kalmbach Books and Simply Beadiful!



Images & Text © re-maker
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4 comments:

Alice said...

A gorgeous piece! I love the pendant and the little tube set stone.

Junksmith said...

Beautiful work! What a great use of the materials you were given.
Nancy

Caroline said...

I agree with Nancy, great use of materials! It all works together beautifully :)

Freestyle Elements said...

Wow, I really like what you did with the focal piece. The little set stone is very innovative. Great piece!