Treasures by Louise

For the original Bead Soup Blog Party post go here This has been both fun and challenging to be a participant. I do hope that this Blog Party will continue in some form. I now realize how much monumental effort our hostess Lori Anderson has put into this and all the past blog hops. I only came to understand how much time she and her team put into this after trying to hop to the nearly 500 posts myself. Thank you for stopping by. I'm still hopping, so if I haven't visited your blog yet, I hope to soon. I want to visit, read and comment. I appreciate all your comments, so if you stop by please leave a quick note. Now, a few more pictures that missed the deadline: Stone Butterfly with copper headpins on waxed linen cord For this necklace, I tried a number of new to me techniques: The copper headpin bead dangles of different lengths, the asymmetrical arrangement of the beads on each side of the focal, and knotting on the orange waxed linen. I'm not sure that I...

I found another giveaway to share with you: This one ends tonight at 10 pm so check it out soon! Donna Millard Art Glass is giving away a set of lampworked beads from her Winter Holiday Line. Here is a link to her blog post explaining the contest: im-thankful-giveaway Donna Millard: I'm thankful giveaway I'm just imagining what I could make with these beautiful beads: Would I use them all in one set? Necklace, bracelet and earrings? or would I divide them up and make several sets, by adding beads to coordinate? So many possibilities. While you are checking out Donna's beautiful glass lampwork, also  check out on her Etsy site, what she does with vintage metal - handcrafted bead caps!  Vintage bead caps  - Fun ! Such a cool idea. Here's a link to her Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DonnaMillard . Just a note that if you enter, you must have an active blog address, or share on Facebook. Have fun!

I have a request from a special person for a Birthday Necklace and these glass beads are part of the inspiration. We had the black and green faceted beads first, to me they resemble reptile skin with their coloration. The green faceted beads brighten things up a little and they go nicely with the dress. Hematite works but it all is a bit too dark. I made a (center) wire wrapped section of three links, but am at a stand still for the moment. Glass and Hematite beads The dress is a white background with black, grey and green large 3-5" floral motif . I have some creamy white shell beads and some pale green quartzite and some green quartzite chips. I'm also considering some silver beads to brighten things up. If you have ideas on what you'd add to these beads, please leave a comment.  I don't have a focal bead in mind but one of the pewter animal beads in this Giveaway might be just the thing. Don't you think I should win!?? I'm sharing a link to Lor...

One of the fun things about swaps, is you get to see and work with beads that are unusual. The black glass disc beads with the silver carving here have a design that looks like a spider, but not enough that you could only use them seasonally for Halloween. I have been busy designing, with the spider beads that my partner Crystal sent me in our swap! Here is the first necklace. The amethyst seed beads and amethyst bicone crystals are from my stash. Necklace: Silver and Amethyst tones I had fun making this piece using a lark's head knot with seed beads strung on beading wire. I like the black, silver and purple colors. It's a bit different than colors I usually choose. I am very pleasantly surprised with the combination. Silver and Amethyst Surprise

Here are the beads I recieved for my first bead swap: I love the silver and black glass donut and all the supporting beads. The carved glass beads with the silver spider-like design are both beautiful and challenging! The black glass carved rectangles  with gold will be set aside for another project.  Also included were silver spacers, black glass beads, and extra large silver seed beads!  I decided to add a pale amethyst crystal and pale amethyst seed beads as an accent color. These will be fun to create with, and also cause me to work outside my comfort zone. There are lots of possible alternate colors I could have added - Leave me a comment and let me know what you would use with this set of swap beads!?

I am finally managing to get the most recent necklaces posted to Etsy. This one is perfect for a Summer Day at the Beach. Just looking at it you can imagine Sun and Sand and splashing in the Surf. Sand and Sea Shell Necklace with copper toggle #103 on Etsy