Serving Up 2014 Bead Soup

 How I Got From This.....

                                                                        ........... To This

I have to start by saying that I struggled mightily with this years soup! I love the beads that my partner Johana Nunez sent to me. She does amazing enameled beads. I've always wanted to work with them so I was really excited when I opened her package and found a treasure of them! As I began to play with the beads, I had a definite vision for what I wanted to end up with, I'm just not sure that I accomplished exactly what I wanted.

I wanted to use ribbon, I wanted to have multiple strands, I wanted to have dark chain.... no ~ I've never managed to do any of these things before... but I'm supposed to be thinking outside the box, right?

Sigh.... I know, it was just too much change for my tiny brain!

This is the first piece I completed. I know, I don't see any beautiful enameled beads either... and... yes, this piece looks suspiciously like my standard style. 

I like it, I love the beads, I also love the colors but there aren't any of the things I promised myself I would learn how to use.

So, I kept pondering and sketching and thinking and trying to combine all these amazing beads in to an incredible piece that would be the envy of the world!

Then came the little bird bracelet.

Better.....

               I love working with colored wire and I really love the little bird clasp. This piece felt like a combination of Yvonne Irwin and Kerry Bogert - I'm a huge fan of both of them so that part was good.

But....

             It wasn't quite what I was hoping to come up with.

So.........





Back to the drawing board.

Hmm....

I'm starting to feel a little bit better about where I'm getting to... I like the short piece of circle chain - and its dark (bonus!). Cording - like that too, not ribbon but I think it works with this piece. I like that I managed to use a lot of Johana's beads! I'm also feeling pretty good about the fact that its asymmetrical!

Everything you see here came from Johana.

Ooohh!! I love all the pieces that came together in this one. I like the whimsical feeling of the little butterfly hoovering near the flowers. 

Simple - colorful - fun!

So, I never did get the ribbon worked out - but there's always next time. I'll keep trying new things but I have the feeling that I'm going to stick to my creative roots too!

Soup - Stage 2

Yea! I love Bead Soup!

I'm always so nervous about getting my soup - you wish for a partner that will send you something inspirational, something different, something awesome! I hit the jackpot with my partner this year!

I hope that everyone is getting connected with partners like mine! I've been smiling all evening! I got home from work today and there was a lovely package from my partner Johana Nunez!

I was so excited! Bead Soup is like Christmas - you never know what you're going to get, the suspense of opening the package is enormous!

 

Johana's package kept getting better! I opened the box to find all these delightfully wrapped little tissue parcels and decorated boxes. It makes you want to sing Pharrell Williams song - 'Happy', doesn't it?? They were almost too pretty to open.... almost!

Sha-zam!!!

The packages were loaded with beautiful enameled beads and some lampworks and fillers - My eyes were so FULL!! I love the colors - purple is very, very close to the top of the list of my all time favorite colors! I love the feisty little red butterfly and the bead caps that look like flowers. The focal is simply amazing, painted with tiny trees. Her work is just so lovely!

But truly, I was so completely excited when I saw the little bird....

Is that adorable!???! I loves me some birds! And this one is just so cute with his chubby yellow tummy and daring purple wing!  I'm already jealous of whoever gets Johana at the next Bead Soup!

I've never worked with the enameled beads before, but now that I have them I think they might be my new favorite beads! Even though they are pretty substantial, they're so lightweight and they have this whimsical sort of feeling to them. I'm going to simply hoard them for awhile, while I percolate about what to do with this amazing soup I received.

While you're waiting to see what Johana's beads inspire me to do, please take the time to check out her Etsy site - but don't be selfish and buy them all -- I'm definitely gonna need more of these!

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!

Gathering Ingredients for a Soup

For once in my life I'm not behind schedule!! High five ME!!

I have once again joined the ranks of the creative crazies for Lori Anderson's Bead Soup event. This is my third soup and every year it gets to be more interesting.

For those of you living in a cave out-of-touch - the Bead Soup Blog Party is an event that Lori sponsors every year. Hundreds of crazy jewelry artists are paired up, exchange sets of beads and make whatever they are inspired to make.  You can see my soup from last year here: Bead Soup 7

Usually I'm one of the people who doesn't manage to get the bead soup in the mail until very close to the deadline. It's hard for me to decide which beads to send. This year, I looked in the stash and the beads practically put themselves in the shipping box!

So, to keep myself from changing my mind before Lori emails the names, I packed the whole pile up and they are snug in a box and ready to roll!

Now, I just have to hope that whoever I'm partnered with will send something that inspires me just as quickly to complete my project!

I'll be posting pictures of what I sent and what I receive as we move along so keep an eye out for more bead soup news!

A Little Creativity Change-UP

     Sometimes even though I feel the need to create something.... I sit down at the bench and
 N-O-T-H-I-N-G occurs to me. I don't see a bead, or a color, or a shape or a toggle that starts the bubble of creativeness rising up. Just the gray fluffiness of nothing... *sigh*

     Very frustrating.

     This usually happens to me in the winter. This year has been especially bad - we've had mountains of snow. It seems endless and since I'm one of those people that is driven by color it's hard to get inspired when everything is freaking white.

    


Time for a change - when this happens to me I head to the fabric store. I love to sew and I love fabric - the patterns, the colors, the textures - so many choices! Even if I didn't sew, I would still go to fabric stores - it's a world of eye candy,  there are color combinations you will have never thought of and so much ....

     Sometimes just the colors are enough, fabric designers must be the most creative people on the planet. 

What a fun job it must be to just sit down and play with color and shapes and textures all day.


 I love the creative freedom of fabric.

I love the way fabric makes me see things differently.

That can be just the little push your creativity needs to go in a new direction.

Crazy FUN!!




















Other times I'll see something made by someone else....

.... and that will inspire me to do something completely different - something I haven't tried...

Lately, I've been making these crazy fun tote bags - I love the color combinations, the surprise of different lining fabric, but such a practical item! Who doesn't need a tote bag filled with pockets?

So, as soon as the roads are clear.... Get in your car.....


Inspiration awaits.....

What inspires you?

A Weekend With Ann Scherm-Baldwin

So ~ this is what I got for Christmas this year from my DIL

I know - you're jealous - and you should be, it was amazing!

We had a great view to wake up to every morning:

Then we headed to Ann's house to start our lampworking adventure! The garage has been converted into Ann's Laboratory - it's crammed full of glass making STUFF!

Ann is lots of fun - she's a bit of a hoarder, and besides glass she quilts, beads and is a Minecraft junkie. I could have spent days looking at all her collected beads and not have seen all of them.  In addition to the garage she also has a craft room that is seriously jam packed with awesome sparkly goodness - my eyes were so full!

     It's great to have a teacher all to yourself. Ann's been doing classes for years and has mountains of patience, which in my case is extremely important because I have ADH-Oh Sparkly!! and have a hard time staying focused. I took a lampworking class at the bead show in Philly about a year ago. Even though we had a really great teacher, it's hard to come away with a lot of hardcore knowledge. There was a large group of us, all the equipment was already set up and you're always aware of the time constraints.
     The first part of the class is all about the back story to making beads - safety, equipment, glass, setting up a studio - It was fabulous because lampworking can be a bit scary. You work with extremely hot stuff, kilns, flames, molten glass ~ stuff you can seriously hurt yourself using! I felt like I asked a million questions and interrupted Ann's lecture thousands of times, but she never lost patience or scolded - such a sweet lady!
     Then we moved on to the fun (but still scary) part - actual bead making! The first thing I learned is that you can't do this right the first time or the tenth time or for a long time. You have to get over the scary part, you have to develop the muscle memory to make beads which only comes with practice, practice, practice!

The top picture is Jamie laying the glass on the mandrel to begin building a bead. You can see the bead taking shape in the bottom image.

No, they aren't perfect! 

  
     The ones in the top of the picture are the result of Ann trying to teach a decorating or shaping technique. The beads on the bottom are the ones made the second day when I was mostly just trying to get the hang of making them round, balanced and consistently the same size.

      I had such a fun time this whole trip - being at the beach was a nice break from the miserable winter. We had dinner in some great restaurants and relaxed for a couple days while learning about this awesome craft. Now I'll be able to survive the rest of the winter while plotting how to fit a studio in my house!

Making a Princess Feel the Part!

My niece is getting married next summer to a wonderful guy. They've had a tough couple of months and have complicated lives so the wedding plans keep getting put on hold. But - finally - there is a date set for all the bridal party to get together to go dress and flower shopping. I thought it would be nice to start the day off with a little treat so I made bracelets for the bride-to-be and the merry maids in her wedding colors of pink & navy -
I just wanted something simple, so I went with the classic round ceramic beads. I love the brides sparkly crown toggle and the merry maids smaller crown toggles. The charms are a nod to the location which is on the beach in Maryland.