BSBP#8

And here we are again, for another round of fabulous partnerships and beady goodness, hosted by the incredible Lori Anderson and her hubby Rick :)

Despite having an incredibly rough year, Lori has once again dived in and set up another great, world wide party, with close to five hundred participants! :)

This year, I was partnered with Audrey Belanger, a fellow Canadian. Audrey sent me a fabulous soup that I managed to stretch my wings with ;)

As a refresher .. here's the fabulous soup she sent me to play with...

And here is what I created while playing :D

To start, yes I know I said I'd push myself with the spiked to NOT do earrings... tough. I did however, take the two largest to make these, and I LOVE them. I've worn them several times now and they are officially among my favorites :) 

 Next I'll show you some of my foray into very minor chainmaille... and *gasp* 'mixed metals' >.< Which I ended up loving , I might add. Here is the little bird brass stamping form Audrey that added a touch of colour too. A bit of nail polish in an antique copper-ish tone. I also added the same colour to the clasp :) (btw, the open link there... I fixed it but didn't retake the pic, sorry >.< lol)

Sticking with the 'wings' theme, but detouring from birds to butterflies... some bright, summery earrings. Truth be told, these were NOT supposed to be earrings at all...I had these findings and stones all set aside to be a bracelet, and had created a little butterfly focal for it... then hated the focal and tada, the earrings were born lol

Back to the birds... a simple adjustable bracelet featuring some faux sea glass teardrops I bought ages ago and never even took off the strand until now, and some of the cute little copper birds I sent along with my soup to Audrey :) From the soup she sent me, I've used some of the Spectra rounds.. again, I had a different piece in mind that used all of these beads but in the end only the pretty teal ones jumped forward to be used.

The sari ribbon found it's way into two pieces; this bracelet is one of them. That beaded chain uses the amethyst rounds from the soup, along with the beadcaps. The chain was actually the first thing I made, intending for it to go with the focal... That clasp I made to go with the focal as well... then decided both the chain, and the focal ( which uses some of the little crystals from the soup ) , made the piece look to heavy. And so.. tada... bracelet. :)

Here is another piece that used up some long 'forgotten' parts of my stash. The clasp is of course, from my soup, as is the shard. The chain is made of some rather large copper coloured aluminum rings that have been sitting here mocking me forever.

The pendant is wood, and the bird image on it was originally silver in colour. I pulled out the nail polish to recolour it carefully, then glued on the little blue-green stone. There two cathedral beads hanging beneath with the shard and the wing ( also nail polished ;) ) are the same colour.

And of course, the focal.

After much hemming and hawing over what to do, I went with a simple brass chain paired with the sari ribbon. I think it works best with the attention being fully on the focal.

I found the weight of the focal kept making it hang crooked, so I used a bit of apoxy putty and a piece of brass wire to make a second bail at the back behind the tail. The two bails let the piece hang evenly and placates my ocd over things like that ;)

And so there we have another successful round of the BSBP... this one more so than previous rounds since I not only pushed myself outside my box a bit more, but I also finished my pieces EARLY! No last minute rush to get things done followed by midnight photos with crappy lighting and photoshop to try to make them passable >.< lol This year, they were done on time and the pictures were taken in daylight... albeit through a window since it was still a tad nippy outside ;)

Thanks again to our amazing hostess Lori and her equally amazing hubby, Rick, as well as all of the people who chipped in to help make this round happen.

As well, a special thank you to my partner Audrey for such a wonderful soup to play with :) I've decided that despite the fact that many of the pieces are 'not my style' for wearing, I'm keeping them and going to wear them :) See...? Still pushing myself outside my box ;)

 You can find the full hop list of participants here -> BSBP#8 HopList

Okay... you know what? I lied. I'm not keeping ALL of what I made. I think I'll share one piece with one of you :)

* Update ! The first giveaway for the butterfly earrings show above is over and the winner has been emailed!
 HOWEVER... for those still hopping, There's is a second giveaway now running, for a shorter version of the crystal spike earrings above. The spikes are about half the size as the ones shown, and I used a finer gauge copper for the wrap so the crystal wouldn't be hidden beneath it ;)

So if you'd like to win the spike earrings, just fill out the rafflecopter form and you're in :) There are two entries available, although only one is mandatory, so if you do both, that's two chances to win :) Blog subscribers, you have to click through to the actual post itself in order to see the rafflecopter widget. :) EVERYONE who entered the last giveaway on this post, are already entered! ( except the previous winner ;) )
 This will run the full week to give more hoppers a chance to get their entries in :)



a Rafflecopter giveaway

BSBP8- Great Minds Think Alike...

Remember I mentioned that I had THREE soups with different colour schemes and materials set out, and just had to see which one suited my partner best for a challenge...? And that the one was out of the running right away, since it was in colours that she uses alot and so it would be too easy for her...? Then she posted her teaser of the soup she sent ME, and it was in the same colour scheme! Whheeew.. close call there.. almost had matching soups, right ! *snort*  Yeah well... lol

If I HAD sent that purple-ish soup, the colours would've been the only match... instead, while we sent each other different colours... we went with the same metals, beads material, and theme... copper, gemstones, and BIRDS! :D

So now we're both dying of giggles over this :) That, plus despite mailing a day apart, we both received our soups today, and opened them within minutes of each other! lol

This is the soup I sent her...

  

Plus some little copper bird spacer beads that escaped the photo session. the bird focal is from TreeWings Studio, and the copper toggle( and the little egg shaped stones) I received from Lori Anderson during a bead swap. The flower beads were leftover from my very first BSBP soup ( from my partner, Shaiha) and just demanded to be included here. Oh and see that yellow? The African trade beads ( also from a swap, this one a Pantone colour swap with Solange ). The yellowish tone of the bird, plus the yellow trade beads, the little yelow glass beads, and the two faceted yellowish gemstones ( whose name has currently fled my brain) was all PERFECT for Audrey :) Not because she likes yellow... which as far as I know, she doesn't... but because she tends to totally blank on using it :) This is her soup challenge :D I don't see her having too much trouble... the bird isn't really 'yellow' yellow, and it and the trade beads have red mixed in to help her through it.. so do the little glass beads actually. I made one soup, but it's split into two sides... she can go with the 'softer' half to the left of the focal around the bottom... or she can go with the 'brighter/bolder' half to the right and along the top. either way, she gets some yellow to push through and work with ;) hehehehe

And this is the soup she sent me

A beautiful copper toggle from BooBeads and some copper beadcaps ( I forgot to send her bead caps >.< bah!), and then a brass bird stamping and some brass filigree beads. She mixed metals... *sigh* Now I wished I gone with my original plan for the toggle...I had a cute silver one with a cat that was kinda 'anti-bird', but made me giggle to consider including, but.. it was silver... so I didn't lol.
 She made the focal herself, and it'll be my main challenge.. it's big..I really have a comfort issue working with 'big' things... the biggest I've managed was a stone 'doughnut' from my first bsbp soup... ( it was square, actually, but.. you get the idea lol). This is a bit bigger, but it's also considerably 'more'... I LOVE it, and I WILL figure out how to work with it, but wow...

And then as if the challenge of the big focal wasn't enough... she sent me pretty druzzy spears... Have you noticed me use 'long' dangly type stones and beads much? Nope... I've  made exactly ONE piece, outside of earrings, with top pierced stones... I find them awkward and just... O.o... I love them and WANT to use them, however my brain refuses to see them 'fitting' in anything outside of earrings or as a focal... and for the BSBP, since it's about stepping outside your comfort zone, I will endeavor to NOT fall into those safe zones with these guys :)

 And then, as an added challenge... but one I was actually expecting from her since this IS Audrey and Audrey LOVES to resin and glue ... lol... she sent me some sparkly... I think the term is 'chatons' ? Things that I have to resin or glue, anyhow lol I was actually expecting the soup to contain more stuff along that line and am not-so-silently relieved over most of my soup containing 'holes' :D hehehe

I LOVE the colours, that silk is to die for.. and it'll be really hard to make myself use it...and she sent me crackled agate beads! hehehe..I bought some bigger ones and love them...but keep wishing they were smaller.. and now I have some smaller! lol

Okay, so now you see what I get to play with for the next month or so... I need to close the lid on the little box it's in so I'll stop playing with it. I split the tip of my thumb earlier this week so it's in no shape to start playing... and my hands are all dry and coarse from the weather and too many bouts of dish washing, so the silk keep catching on them >.< lol I need to moisturize before I get into this box of soup again :D

I hope all of you BSBP'ers get wonderful helpings of beadsoup to enjoy, and look forward to seeing everyone's creations!