The Soup That Stayed Home

In putting together bead soup mixes this year, I came up with five possibilities.  Yes, five. I was having a grand time, sitting in my bead room, cackling like a bit of a mad beady scientist.

I eventually settled on the one (okay, ones) to send to my partner Rita. But the third runner up, or the Miss Congeniality of the bunch, kept calling to me.

So I made something with it myself.

Ceramic, agate, jade, freshwater pearls, Czech glass, ZNet Shows
 crystals, copper, hand fabricated clasp

The pendant is two ceramic beads, an agate donut, and some
copper discs, all on waxed cotton

I wore this soup out to lunch yesterday, which in a strange way seemed an appropriate place for it to make its debut. The soft greens felt especially spring-like to me, which was a welcome reminder that the weather will, eventually, warm up.

I'm Only A Few Weeks Behind

For no apparent reason, I have recently lost all concept of time.

Two weeks ago, the newest issue of Creative Spark, featuring designs using beads from ZNet Shows, went live.  Several of my designs, along with the work of many talented designers, are included, and I should have shared the publication immediately!

So without further ado, here's the link -- please go check out the lovely things everyone made!

A Super Serving of Soup!

Y'all, my soup arrived, and I have just now picked myself up off the floor and recovered enough to share it with you.  Holy cow, but I feel like I've hit the beady lotto!

My spectacular partner, Rita of Toltec Jewels, is married to a professional gourmet chef.  Why is this relevant? Because Ms. Rita is quite the chef herself, having cooked up two truly delectable soups to send along to me.  And if that weren't enough, she and I must be related in some way, because the soups we exchanged were in virtually the same colorways.

First, like any good chef, Rita spent a lot of time and care on the presentation of her soup.  I opened the package, which was stuffed to within an inch of bursting,  and found a lovely red silk purse.  Inside the purse was a bounty of smaller red silk pouches. Each of the pouches was packed with beautiful goodies -- I spent almost as much time happy dancing as I did unwrapping the packages!

Well, hello Kitty!

Doesn't this just scream, "We are full of gorgeous treasure"?

Soup number one, or the Blue Soup:

I mean, seriously. Cool ceramics by Beadfreaky and Blu Mudd! Lampwork from Maryse at GlassBeadArt! Gorgeous pieces from Thea Elements! Funky painted leather feathers from Tree Wing Studios! Freshwater pearls! Czech glass! Swarovski elements! And on and on and on!

Oooh, the creative juices are flowing....

And then there's the pink soup, which had a bit more drama in its creation.  Rita told me that, as she was packing the soup up, the lampwork focal she'd chosen did a Loony Tunes slo-mo flip and smash from her hands, breaking on the floor.  So she contacted the artist, Maryse at GlassBeadArt to request a replacement, and as a backup, worked with another wonderful glass artist, Lara Lutrick, to create something in the same color blend.  Lara's beautiful bead is pictured in the group shot:

Again, a smorgasbord of beautiful choices. Lara's bead is the cylindrical bead that looks like a muted sunset. And there are lampwork headpins from Southern Gal Designs, a clasp that Rita made with a lampwork bead from Sue Beads, a wonderful little brass bird from Leslie Watt, polymer from Sweet Birch Designs, enamels from Sue Beads, Czech glass, Slovakian glass, gemstones, freshwater pearls, gold plated seed beads (!!!!), and on and on and on......

Then a couple of days later, a package arrived from Luxembourg with the replacement focal from Maryse.

I am well and truly spoiled, folks. Thank you, Rita, for your incredible generosity! I cannot wait to dig in and get started making things.  The wheels in my brain are spinning......

BSBP Partner Introduction and Sneak Peek!

For the fourth time, I'm participating in the epic, worldwide phenomenon that is the Bead Soup blog hop.  I have been so incredibly fortunate to have awesome partners each time, and this time is no different.

Folks, allow me to introduce you to Rita of Toltec Jewels!  A real Renaissance woman, Rita is an author, jewelry maker, creator of tutorials, and organizer of swaps that allow bead aficionados to discover and share handmade artisan beads.  She works in multiple techniques, with everything from chain maille to beadweaving to patina work in her repertoire.  We've had fun getting to know each other better, and I know we'd have a blast if we ever found ourselves in the same city!

Look at a few examples of her work:

Look how she integrates beads into the chain maille!

I love how Rita has used chain maille as a bezel for the focal gemstone

So what does one send to a woman who can work wonders in a multitude of media? If you know me at all, you know that some times I have a hard time choosing among options (pecan or apple pie? Snickers or Mounds? High heel pump or cute little flats? Obviously, the answers to all three are "both, please!") So after putting together five different soups, I found that I could not choose just one, so two batches are winging their way to Florida for Rita's magic touch:

Mwahahaha!!!!!!!! I told Rita I felt a bit like a mad scientist, concocting lots of different potions to come up with the combinations.  These were such fun to put together -- I can't wait to see what Rita cooks up with her soup!

Echoes of Gee's Bend -- February's She Made/She Made Reveal

Back in October, when I was doing a show in Northport, Alabama, I had the great fortune of reconnecting with the wonderful Therese Frank, who was at the show to visit, shop, and generally spread good cheer. After some shopping, she came back to my booth, handed me a little wrapped bundle, and said, "I just found a bunch of these, and I'm going to open the February She Made/She Made challenge to some extra people.  Wanna play?"  Well, heck yes, I wanna play!

What I found in the little bundle was this lovely, soulful little face, with the most wonderful expression imaginable. Doesn't she just look like she's been around long enough to have the world's wisdom in her heart, and the joy of life bubbling through her smile?

I lived in Alabama for fourteen years, and I got to know and to work with a number of fantastic folk artists from the region.  This little face felt like an embodiment and distillation of some of the African American artists whose work I came to know, particularly the women of Gee's Bend.
Gee's Bend, Alabama is an incredibly remote, tiny little town on a spit of land virtually surrounded by the Alabama River. The town is on land that used to be a cotton plantation, and the 750 or so people who still live there are descendants of the slaves that used to work there. The women of Gee's Bend have, for generations, made quilts from scraps of fabric that they had access to -- old flour sacks, worn out jeans, textiles ends from a nearby factory that upholstered furniture for Sears -- anything they could lay their hands on.

my inspiration quilt

These folk quilts were discovered by collectors and museum curators, and in the past decade or so, collections of the quilts have been shown at major museums around the country.  I saw an exhibition of them here in Louisville several years ago.  The lines are not necessarily straight, and the fabric mix is unorthodox, but the stitching is precise, the patterns are full of energy, and you can almost feel the love and pride each quilter put into a piece radiating from it. Their work is in museums and private collections, and the quilters are still active as the Gee's Bend Collective.

So, in tribute to the incredible ladies of Gee's Bend, I wanted to make my own quilt around the clay face, inspired particularly by the quilt above.

Using Tilas, seed beads, bugles, and a whole lot of improvisation, I created this bracelet, Echoes of Gee's Bend. I tried to mimic the blocks of bordering fabric that surround the squares of colors in the inspiration quilt.  I threw in a little bit of cream just like the quilter did.

I highly recommend that you check out the story and the work of the Pettways, the Youngs, the Bendolfs, and all of the other ladies of Gee's Bend here and here and here.  And you should also check out what the other participants in this She Made/She Made challenge have done with their clay faces.

Therese

Christine

Bobbie (you're here)

Hope

Shirley

Tanya

Cynthia

Alicia

A Welcome Taste of Spring - At Least In The Bead Room

The weather here has finally warmed up for a couple of days -- enough to melt the snow off the yard and turn the sheets of ice on the sidewalks to lovely, lurching puddles of slush. Not warm enough to wear shorts (despite what the guy in the grocery store parking lot thought when he got dressed this morning), but enough to see a glimmer of promise that spring will, indeed, come soon.

And another harbinger landed in the mailbox today, when the latest assortment of beautiful beads from ZNet Shows showed up. I'm thrilled to be a member of their design team, and today's delivery was a surprise selection of crystals and sea glass for the next issue of Creative Spark.

I mean, really, how luscious are these? Soft glows and bright sparkles. Fantastic shapes, a wonderful mix of sizes, an inspiring collection of possibilities!

So despite what the weather is like this weekend, I'll be channeling visions of warm breezes, soft spring pastels, and perhaps a Derby hat or two.  Creative Spark will be published in early March, so I've got to get working...

On The Wings Of Love - Revealing the Color Red

In the depths of winter, we often search for anything that brings feelings of warmth.  If you work with color, the warmest thing you can do is work with red.  Of course, red is also the color for Valentine's Day, a day wrapped in red (and chocolate, but beading chocolate just gets messy).

With this in mind, Karen Williams challenged the members of the Facebook Freeform Peyote page to create something with red, and some of us are part of a mini-blog hop to share our creations.

I started with a gorgeous focal from JulsBeads, with a gorgeous deep ruby red background a decorations of other reds, greenish turquoise, and a hint of orange.

As I worked, the freeform took on the shape of wings. So I call this piece "On The Wings of Love".

It's a little lacier and more open than my typical freeform work.  I also took the opportunity to use some tilas and twin beads -- new for me in freeform.

Thanks, Karen, for the idea and inspiration that I needed to push back into freeform.  Lots of folks will be revealing their creations on the Facebook group page.  If you want to see the other participants in the mini blog hop, see here:

Baublicious 

Beadsong Jewelry (you're here - thanks!)

Saturday Sequins

Antiquity Travelers

All in Beads

A litte of this, a little of that