No Postal Workers Were Harmed In The Delivery of This Soup

Y'all, I have discovered my bead twin from another mother, and it's my Bead Soup swap partner Nancy Dale.  Check out her blog, and go enjoy the eye candy at her website.

An envelope from Nancy arrived, and (proving miracles do happen) I managed to restrain myself long enough to take a picture of the lovely packaging:

Ooh, lucky me - two packages!

And then I opened them up to find these!

I wish my photography skills were good enough to show the luster on
the lampwork - it's luscious!

Look at the different gemstones! Look at the fantastic details on the lampwork rounds!
 Look at the delicious Bali silver!  Wipe your chin, because I know you're drooling!

Not one soup, but two delicious mixtures of gorgeousness, both built around lampwork beads by Julia Cannon.  Bless her heart, she sent two soups, because she was worried I wouldn't have enough to work with from just one package.  Either of these would have been perfectly grand.  The two together?  That's enough beads to roll around in like Scrooge McDuck.

After I picked my jaw back up off the floor, I had to laugh.  Why?  Because I came THIS CLOSE to sending Nancy a focal by Julia Cannon!  Yep, I knew Nancy and I were the perfect partners.

I did tell Nancy that if we ever had the chance to bead shop together, it would be a toss-up as to whether we'd enable each other into spending way too much money, or whether we'd be arm wrestling over the same strands of beads.

So, if I didn't build the soup I sent Nancy around a JulsBead, what did I send?

This!

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait to see what she makes with these!

I Promised I Wouldn't Do This...

...but apparently I lied.  Or was easily tempted to change my mind.  Or had a bead that was too perfect to ignore.

Let's go with #3.

I swore I wouldn't do another challenge until after the holidays, but the other night I heard a little voice saying "Psst, hey, I'd be perfect for this month's Art Bead Scene Challenge."

What, you don't hear your beads talking to you?  Okay, maybe it's partially the fever I've been fighting for a couple of days, but I'll let you be the judge.  Here's the inspiration artwork this month, Revolving by Kirt Schwitters.

Revolving by Kirt Schwitters 1919
Assemblage-Wood, metal, cord, cardboard, wool, wire, leather, and oil on canvas
48 3/8" x 35" (122.7 x 88.7 cm)
Museum of Modern Art, New York

And on the work table, just begging to answer this challenge, was a lovely lampwork swirl focal by Nikki Thornburg-Lanigan.  So here's what it became:

Okay, I admit it.  I'm weak and give into the beady temptation too easily.  Can you blame me?

A Beautiful Bowl of Soup

My bead soup arrived!  My bead soup arrived!  My bead soup arrived!  And to make it official, Alice of  Alice Dreaming is a rock star of a swap partner!

Alice truly, seriously, completely awed me with the soup ingredients she sent.  I had been out of town for ten days, and I knew that her package would be waiting at the post office among the mail that had been held while I was gone.  Y'all, I was a model of self-control as I waited for the post office to be unlocked this morning.  Yes, I was there before they were open, and I was first in line.  And yes, I ripped open the package as soon as I was back in my car.  Patience only goes so far, folks.

It's as though Alice picked up the drawer where she stores her collection of lampwork and art beads, and emptied it into a box that she then sent off to me.  She assured me that she bought multiples of some of these (often my buying technique, too -- I knew I liked her!), so she still has some duplicates of these beauties in her collection.

Good grief, Blogger, WHY do you flip my photos like this sometimes?!?

There are beads by Diane Hawkey, Twinstar, Libby Leu, MissFickleMedia,  Off Center Productions, and Two Sisters Designs, along with a Melinda Orr clasp.  These are artists whose work I've admired for long time, but that I haven't had a chance to work with yet.  I can't wait to get going with them!

Here's what I sent Alice -- in my typically indecisive manner, I couldn't choose between the two focals.  So I  put together a soup that (I hope) will work with both.

See why I couldn't choose between these?

Our reveal is August 25.  Hope to see you back here then!

Wherein I Do What I Should Have Done Weeks Ago

Do you ever have days when you wake up and go "Whoa, where the heck did that month go?!?"  These moments are typically accompanied with (a) panic, (b) massive doses of caffeine, and (c) a list of things you need to catch up on.

This counts as one of those things I needed to get done several weeks ago.

The lovely Raida of Havana Beads had a giveaway of some of her fabulous lampwork beads, and I won!

I was thrilled, because Raida's beads always look so gorgeous on the computer screen.  Let me tell you, the pictures don't really do them justice.

Y'all, it took all the strength and patience I could muster to take a picture of the cute package before ripping into it like a wild madwoman.

And look what deliciousness was inside!

Seriously, click on the picture to get a closer look.
The surface decoration is yummy!

Thank you, Raida!  These are going to live on my bead table for a while -- I want to hoard them, stare at them, and fondle them a bit before using them.

One Crayon Challenge - The Reveal!

Sally Russick, the fabulous lady from the Studio Sublime is hosting the One Crayon Challenge - the idea is that each participant chooses a color from the original Crayola box and creates a piece with ONLY the shades and hues of that color.

I chose red, mainly because I'd just gotten this fabulous red lampwork disc and wanted to do something to feature it.

And as if working within one color wasn't challenge enough, I decided only to use things in my stash.  That's right, friends, no shopping after choosing the color.  (Insert horrified scream of disbelief here)

I wanted to echo the swirl of the focal disc in the rest of the piece.  So here, in honor of both the challenge, and because the Kentucky Derby is happening about three miles from my house today, here is The Run For The Roses:

Thanks for looking!  Go check out the others who've been playing with crayons:

Hosted by:

Sally Russick  http://thestudiosublime.com

Red

Therese Frank  http://theresestreasures59.blogspot.com

Rochelle Brisson  http://acreativechelle.blogspot.com

Lisa Lodge   http://pineridgetreasures.blogspot.com

Malin de Koning  http://beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Bobbie Rafferty   http://beadsong.blogspot.com

Orange

Linda Landig  http://LindasBeadBlog.com

Cherrie Fick  http://designsinthelight.com

Beth McLarnan http://threetrees-art.blogspot.com

Cece Cormier  http://thebeadingyogini.com

Renetha Stanziano   http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com

Tanya Goodwin  http://pixiloo.blogspot.com

Jean Welles  http://jeanawells.blogspot.com

Amy Severino   http://amybeads.blogspot.com

Rebekah Payne   http://treewingsstudio.com

Lola Surwillo  http://.beadlolabead.blogspot.com

Judy Turner   http://silver-rains.blogspot.com

 Yellow

Jennifer Justman  http://soulsfiredesigns.blogspot.com

Rose Brisson    http://ahteesblog.blogspot.com

Kim Bender  http://www.kimmykats.com/

Heather Powers   http://humblebeads.blogspot.com

Shelly Joyce  http://www.aujourlejour-shelly.blogspot.com

Blue

Cherie Reed  http://creativedesignsbycheri.blogspot.com

Rebecca Anderson  http://songbeads.blogspot.com

Hope Smitherman  http://craftyhope.blogspot.com

Patti Vanderbloemen  http://myaddictionshandcrafted.blogspot.com

Michelle Buettner  http://MiShelDesigns.blogspot.com

Alicia Marinache  http://allprettythings.ca

Charissa Sloper   http://blog.obsidiansoda.com

Sonya Stille  http://dreaminofbeads.blogspot.com

Maria Grimes  http://mariagrimes.blogspot.com

Nancy Saccoccio  http://risingdesigns.blogspot.com

Sandi Volpe   http://sandivolpe.com

Joanne Tinley  http://daisychaindesignsjewellery.blogspot.com

Catherine Pruitt  http://boobeads.blogspot.com

 Green

Mary Harding  http://maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com

Karin Gilman http://www.qaygee.blogspot.com/

Jayne Capps   http://mamasgottodoodle.blogspot.com

Lorelei Eurto  http://lorelei1141.blogspot.com

Melissa Meman http://melissameman.blogspot.com

Alice Peterson  http://alice-dreaming.blogspot.com

Jenny Davies Reazor   http://www.jdaviesreazor.com

Cynthia Machata    http://antiquitytravelers.blogspot.com

Melissa Essenburg  http://chinookdesigns.blogspot.com

Regina Santerre  http://reginaswritings.blogspot.com

Lauren Streets  http://ornthoughts.wordpress.com

Elizabeth Auld  http://beadsforbusygals.com

Purple

Tracy Mok   http://bumblebeadsdesigns.blogspot.com

Jennifer Judd Velasquez http://jenjuddrocks.blogspot.com

Marti Conrad  http://marticsclay.blogspot.com

Lori Anderson  http://prettythingsblog.com

Donna Bradley  http://strandedbeads.blogspot.com

Courtney Breul  http://beadsbybreul.blogspot.com

Linda Younkman   http://lindysdesigns.blogspot.com

Susan Kennedy  http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com

Lisa Liddy   http://Lisaliddy.wordpress.com

Tracy Stillman  http://www.tracystillmandesigns.com

Dawn Doucette  http://designsbydawnmarie.blogspot.com

Brown

Diana Ptaszynski   http://suburbangirlstudio.com

Shannon Chomanczuk  http://formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

Janice Everett   http://JLynnJewels.blogspot.com

Karen Williams  http://Baublicious.blogspot.com

Black

Kashmira Patel  http://sadafulee.blogspot.com

Heidi Post  http://expostfactojewelry.blogspot.com/

Birgitta Lejonklou  http://lejonklou.blogspot.com/

Holly Westfall  http://silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com/

Karin Slaton  http://backstorybeads.blogspot.com

If You Love Glass Art...

If lampwork beads make your heart go pitty pat...if you admire the way artisans can create galaxies of beauty from a simple rod of glass and a flame...if, like me, you're astonished that people can create things from glass without incinerating themselves and everything around them, then have I got a place to tell you about.

My family spent a couple of days in Chicago over the holidays, and I spent an afternoon at the Art Institute.  Heaven.  I could have spent a week.

But time was limited, so I had to choose carefully what to see.  After spending a couple of hours visiting with Degas, Van Gogh, Cezanne, and their buddies, I headed down to a very special little jewel box of a gallery - the Arthur Rublof Paperweight Collection.  See the cases in the photo above?  All of the little shapes inside are gorgeous, fabulous paperweights.

Okay, y'all.  People tell me they don't know how I can work with seed beads.  They say they're so fiddly and teeny.  But seriously, LOOK at the detail and intricacy of these pieces. (While you can click on these photos and see them a little larger, if you want to see one of them in a size that'll give you a better view of the details, let me know -- I'll email you the original photo).

And while most of the paperweights in the collection are the size you'd expect (what, 3" or so in diameter, maybe?) there was a giant honking paperweight, called a super magnum, there as well.

look at the size of this baby next to its normal-sized neighbors - wowzer!

Tomorrow I'll get back to some jewelry, I promise.  But this eye candy was so delicious, I just had to share it with you today!