Soup - Stage 1

And so it begins!

I got my Bead Soup partner - I couldn't be more excited! I'm paired up with Johana Nunez. She's from Aibonito, Puerto Rico. It's exciting to be paired with someone who's from a place so far from where I live, it's one of my favorite things about Bead Soup, the world shrinks! It's great to make new friends and learn about other artists passions.

Johana works with enamels - she's a student of Barbra Lewis so you know her work is amazing!

This is one of the pieces from her Etsy site. There are some great little birds that I just loved. She also does lots of enameled beads in really bright colors.

I took a workshop in enameling with Jean van Brederode so I have an understanding of the process, but I definitely don't have the skills for making my own pieces.

Its another great thing about Bead Soup - getting the chance to work with something you've never tried but would love to know more about.

The next step is to send Johana some soup to work with. I use a lot of lampwork, very bright intense colors and unusual bits-n-pieces. One of my favorite resources for supplies is MyElements - Yvonne always has the most smile-inducing stuff!

I've been scrounging through my piles of stuff trying to decide what to send. It's a bit of a process - I want to send something inspiring, colorful, different and out-of-the-ordinary. I also want to send things from my favorite artists and craftspeople. Finally got it together and packaged up so that as soon as I was partnered I was able to drop it in the mail.

It looks like this....

Ha! You didn't actually think I was going to let you see it before Johana did you??? It went in the mail this morning and as soon as she's had the first look, I'll put the picture in focus for the rest of you!

I hope everyone else is having half as much fun as I am with this whole process -- Thanks to the intrepid Lori Anderson for making this all happen!!

Cheers!