Saturday, March 25, 2017

Bead Hoarders Reveal,
Fly Me to the Moon!

dee-lish soup from my partner, sam wescott

Well, today's the day.
The BIG reveal!

As you can see from the photo above, I received an absolutely beautiful Soup from my partner, Sam Wescott of Wescott Jewelry. 


As part of this newest round of BSBP: Bead Hoarders Edition, we were asked to look to our stash, we all have them, to unearth a beading treasure, something we've coveted for years, to share with a fellow hoarder. Sam and I have very different styles, but our fearless leader and originator of the Blog Soup madness, Lori Andersensolved the problem of what to send by directing us to make up a package and have it ready to go before we were even matched up with a partner. A challenge of challenges.



Sam sent me an amazing focal bead. It's a ceramic lentil with the image of a swallow in earth tones, made by Caroline Dewison of Blueberri Bead in the UK. Sam purchased the bead after reading about Caroline's process of making beads on Art Elements. Feeling she didn't have a good enough design to use the bead she held on to it. She later discovered that Caroline had discontinued her screen printed beads and realized she'd never be able to replace it. It's funny how emotionally attached we can become to a beautiful handmade bead. When a new BSBP was announced, Sam mustered up the courage to part with this magnificent bead!

The hole for this lentil bead was very large so I chose to turn one side of a piece of copper tubing down using a lathe method to create a smaller centered hole, inserted the tube and then flared the other end to capture it inside the bead. The links and jump rings are made from steel wire that's been hammered flat and then formed.



Sam also included coordinating beads and a wonderful vintage three strand glass moonstone clasp that was given to her by her mom. Aren't mom's great? As soon as I saw the clasp and the focal together, I knew how I was going to use these  beautiful beads.

I loved the clasp, but found I couldn't make the original three strands work. I snipped off two of the lower jump rings and then secured the locking tab in place using a piece of thin wire snugged into the fold once it was inserted into the body of the clasp. As you can see, I cut a tiny copper heart and secured it in the little opening that was cut into the back of the clasp using UV resin.

back side of the clasp turned connector

Below you'll find a list of all of our participants. Make a cuppa tea or joe, pull up a comfy chair and check out what everyone's made. If something really speaks to you, please leave a comment, it's always nice to receive encouragement!


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Julia Lund-Trott



Jean Wells
Joelyn Bissing


Thursday, March 9, 2017

Bead Soup Blog Hop
Bead Hoarder Edition!

beautiful bag containing my bead soup supplies

It's Baaaack!
Bead Soup Blog Hop: Bead Hoarder Edition

It's been a little more than a year since I last posted. 
It's been a difficult year, but I'm ready to get back into the game!

The little bag above contains the delicious ingredients for my Bead Soup challenge, sent to me by my partner Sam Wescott of Wescott Jewelry.

Sam sent me a beautiful focal, an unusual clasp and complimentary beads. I'm super excited to work with what she sent and hope to do them justice.

Pop back on March 25th for the Big Reveal!


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