They're HERE...

My bead soup from April, the Brooklyn Bead Goddess,  arrived yesterday. Be sure to stop by April's blog and check out her work.

When I opened it, I felt like this:

Wanna see?  Her packaging was pretty, and the beads inside were gorgeous!  Ideas began bouncing around my head immediately.  But that will have to wait, I had to get some pictures to share with all of you.

Loved the color combo of her packaging.  I have always enjoyed opening lots of little packages, just like my Christmas stocking when I was a kid.  The little pillow boxes all have love written in different fonts all over them.  Remember my post about fab packaging?  It really does make a difference, it added so much to the excitement of opening my soup mix.

Here is what I found inside those lil packages of beady yumminess...

Isn't the intensity of the yellow, black and turquoise beads amazing?  I seldom work with yellow but these beads are really speaking to me.  April's dot work is well, spot on.  I have always been a fan of hematite but for some reason haven't used it in my jewelry designs, so glad April sent those along.  The hematite cones are really cool, I will be hunting for more of those for sure.

Sorry the purple dot beads are blurry, must be my hands were shaking with the excitement.  The copper filigree bead is on the larger side and beautiful.  Isn't April's lampwork awesome?  I am very inspired.  Can't wait to get started making pieces with her little works of art.  Hope I can do them justice.

April's soup arrived too, she had such nice things to say about my work.  I was honored by her words.  One of the great things about the Bead Soup Blog Hop is getting to know another beader a little better.  Nice to be able to connect with people who like to do the things you like to do. 

Here is a quick shot of the soup I sent April.  We aren't supposed to ask our partners what colors they do or do not like etc, the idea is that they will be challenged.  I might have bent the rules a bit,  I did a little cyber sleuthing and deduced that April likes purple and flowers.    I can't wait to see what she creates with it.  (I did have a moment where I questioned sending the dragonfly because some people are really freaked out by bugs, luckily April is not one of those people.)

Some of the components were made by me; flower, clasp, dragonfly, headpins, earwires and enamel copper tube beads.  I sent some hollow lampwork beads too, not sure how I left those out of this pic. If your interested there will be some similar components listed in my Etsy shop soon.