Saturday, May 10, 2014

Bead Soup Blog Hop 8

It's here!  The big reveal.  First a huge thank you to Lori Anderson, who despite ongoing pain and illness has managed to pull the whole thing together beautifully as always :).

Now on with the show.  My partner this year was polymer clay artist Allison of BeadsByEarthTones.  Polymer proved a bit of a challenge to me as I had not worked with it before and perhaps did not do as much homework as I should have.  Not doing my homework resulted in a broken focal, I'm soooo sorry Allison.  Note to self, polymer clay does not like you to try and make the hole bigger.  Here is the lovely soup Allison sent me.  Funny that we both talked about liking earth tones and both ended up sending spring mixes :).
 I love lots of small packages!  Opening all the tiny packages in my stocking was always my favorite part of Christmas morning.
 

 Nice cool spring soup from Allison.  Isn't it yummy?
 
The first piece uses the luscious green fabric pictured above to sting a focal that I made.  It also uses the awesome copper clasp Allison made.  I have not cut the ends yet as it is a git for my oldest daughter's first Mother's Day tomorrow and I want to make it the length of her choosing. 

 
Here is a close up of the fantastic clasp...
 
 
 
The second piece has given me fits.  This is the second attempt at it and I'm still not pleased.  It is coming apart again today and being remade into something a bit simpler.  I like a challenge and will continue to work at it.  This one does not do the soup that Allison sent me justice at all.  I haven't even added her polymer pieces to it because it just wasn't working.  (And blogger dislikes the image so much that it won't even let me attach the one that is right side up, lol.)
 
 
 Here is the soup I sent to Allison, she did awesome things with it, be sure to go see her at the link above.  Oh and if you love her polymer pieces be sure to stop by her Etsy shop too!  I must apologize to Allison again for breaking the focal she sent, I was to be the centerpiece of a copper bracelet in 18g and I apparently got a little to rough with it while trying to make the hole larger :(.
 

Acccck, blogger will also not let me put up the participant list.  Here is the link to Lori's awesome blog Pretty Things, you can find the list there, HOP ON !
 
Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out here hopping about.