Aaah, soup! There's nothing quite as comforting or delicious. Or, if it's
Bead Soup, more fun to make jewelry with...And when you have a partner who's incredibly generous, you can have a full smorgasbord of soup -- eleven courses, with leftovers!
** Giveaway alert (okay, blatant ploy for comments and followers) -- read all the way to the
bottom of this post, and you can find out how to get one of these courses for your very own!**
My lovely partner,
Rita of Toltec Jewels, spoiled me rotten with gorgeous artisan beads and gemstones. Yes, I hit the jackpot, and I realize how lucky I am. Just to remind you, here is the soup I got.
Yes, I fell over in a full-on swoon.
Some pieces came together immediately, as I was opening the packages. Others revealed themselves more slowly. But since I know you have another 499 blogs to look at as part of BSBP8, let's get to the goodies, shall we?
This, one, I must say, is my favorite of the bunch. Rita was great to include a cabochon, since she knows I do a lot of beadweaving. This beautiful cab from BeadFreaky was the perfect centerpiece, and I surrounded her with blue freshwater pearls, and an embellished herringbone rope of the twins, rollos, and brick beads Rita had sent.

The other piece that has some beadweaving in it also uses a focal with a dramatic backstory -- as Rita was wrapping this lovely lampwork cylinder from Maryse, the bead took a spectacular swan dive to Rita's floor and broke in half. Maryse made another in the same colorway and sent it directly from her shop in Europe (extra kisses to her!). There are all kinds of lovely shades of pink in the focal, and I tried to highlight them with the garnets in the tassel, the rose quartz and garnet in the spiral rope on the shorter strand, the beautiful freshwater pearls in the longer strand, and the truly lovely sterling/garnet two-strand clasp.

Back to the blue soup -- this time with a necklace that practically built itself as it came out of the package. The lovely ceramic nest focal from Blu Mudd was a natural match with the fantastic organic feeling ceramic blue/brown beads and leaf from Thea Elements. Added to that are blue flower buttons, blue Czech whirligigs (they remind me of the seed pods that are dropping like helicopters from the maple trees all over my neighborhood), a patinaed toggle clasp, and a cute little frog that hopped out of my stash, all on a macrame woven waxed linen cord.



Another pink necklace, this time with a focal that Rita ordered and sent as a backup for the broken Maryse focal. This one reminded me of a rosy sunset, and I was happy to pick up those colors with the extra fun purple Czech glass mushrooms that nestle together so beautifully, other pink Czech glass, a very special brass bird from Leslie Watt, and a clasp that Rita made herself with a lampwork bead from SueBeads. The asymmetry allowed me to show off all of the gorgeousness at once.
This piece of spring features another lampwork cylinder from Maryse, suspended on a lampwork leaf headpin. The necklace picks up the gorgeous spring shades of blue in the blue topaz, variegated quartz, and blue freshwater pearls, with pops from pewter discs and freshwater stick pearls.

And now for some glitz! Look at these spectacular, sparkletacular Slovakian glass faceted six-sided beauties! I paired them with garnet leaves, crystal, Czech glass, Swarovski elements bead caps, and a luxurious vermeil clasp with crystals. It truly is so sparkly, you may need to wear shades. Here's a closeup of the clasp and the bead caps -- they are too pretty not to see clearly.
These beautiful freshwater pearls look like the deep blue I imagine the Aegean Sea to be. What better beads to pair them with than the rich, lustrous 24k gold dipped Naas ceramics? The recycled sari silk was from my stash, where it had been waiting for a beautiful oceanic setting to come along.
More sari silk here, this time with a Czech glass, pewter discs, and a focal with crystal in pewter. Using fiber in my work is something I don't necessarily feel comfortable with, but I think this turned out pretty well. I did give it a test wearing one day, so I can attest that it's very comfortable!
Another beautiful pendant with crystals, this time in a lovely blue that matched faceted bicones that Rita had included in her copious soup mix. Ooh, elegant sparkle!
And finally, some earrings. First, enameled rings with carved amethysts underneath. Then, enameled flowers from Sue Beads, lampwork headpins from Southern Girl Designs, and Bali sterling beads. I was a little worried about the patina on the headpin metal, but I kind of like the mix of rustic and shiny.
Phew! You made it! If you look back at the photos of the soup, you'll see that there's still plenty leftover for me to continue to work with. I can't wait to get back into it...after I visit the other participants in the BSBP8 for abundant inspiration. Thank you,
Lori, for hosting this fabulous party, especially this year. And thank you, thank you, thank you, Rita, for being such a fantastic partner and fun new friend!
Here's the payoff for reading this far -- if you leave a comment, you'll get a chance to win your choice of the two pairs of earrings from this challenge. If you become a new follower of my blog AND leave me a comment, you'll get an additional chance to win.
Thanks for stopping by! Here are the rest of the fabulous participants in the hop -- see you there!