Cup of Bead Soup with Genea Beads

Today I'm going to show you several things I made with Genea Beads, this month's Cup of Bead Soup contributor.  And there's something I must admit about this exhibit -- I just got totally, utterly stumped on one piece, and I'm going to give it away to the first person who wants it to see if they can make something better out of it!

But first, the things that turned out quite well, in my not-so-humble-opinion.

Genea sent me a batch of her lampwork head pins, and along with some rubber O-rings, seed beads, and a few of my own tiny lampwork spacers, I made charms.  The charms are all about .75 - 1" tall, and I attached them to their copper chains in two different ways.

First, we have "Summer Rain".  I connected the three charms to a large bronze ring, a smaller purple rubber O-ring, and another bronze ring to the copper chain.  This makes the pendant measure about 2" total.

Next, the second charm necklace, called "Summer Raindrops" (see a theme here?).  This time I added a lot of tiny bronze jump rings to a large purple O-ring, along with the charms, and another smaller, lighter purple O-ring.  This pendant measures a little over 2" before being connected to the copper chain.

Finally a bracelet made with Genea's iconic Wing Ding beads, so I named the bracelet, well, "Wing Dings".  Nothing else would do!

I wrapped three of the Wing Ding beads with sterling silver, capturing them in a sort of cage, but left them in bright silver rather than oxidizing them.  I fiddled around with the order of the colors -- each bead is slightly different in hue from the other, but my OCD mind had to have them ordered just so for balance.  (Is anyone else out there like that?).  One Thai silver bead helped lengthen the bracelet, and I'm never afraid to mix metals, so I used a pewter toggle from my last BeadFest trip to finish it off (along with some cute bead charms).

And now for the one that got away.

On one of the many nights when I couldn't get to sleep, I got the brilliant idea of poking holes in the tubing Genea sent me, sticking her lampwork headpins through it, and creating an incredibly awesome, totally unique SOMETHING.  Now, I was starting to fade out into the Land of Nod, so that "something" was rather  nebulous, but I woke up and at least remembered:

a) stick holes in the tube, and 

b) stick decorative headpins through the holes.

And that's where things went creatively stupid.

I used a needle to make a hole in the tubing.  I added a bead to the headpin and stuck it through.  I made a wrapped loop.  Now what to do with the danged wrapped loop?  

Then I realized the tubing needed shape, so I stuck copper wire through the tubing (and luckily around the headpin wire).  Now the tubing could be twisted and bent.  But now what?

After DAYS, this is all I could come up with, and it's awful.

Dude.

Not my best moment.

So the first person who comments THAT THEY WANT IT

(and remember, I have to approve all comments, 

so they WILL have the time stamp on them from when

YOU wrote it, not when *I* approved it)

will get this.

I just want to see what you make with it, and I'll post your creation right here!

I have two more beads to use, and have only a week to work with them, so stay tuned!  In the meantime, please visit Genea:

Store:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Genea

Blog:  http://www.geneabeads.blogspot.com

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She's also a contributor to Art Bead Scene.  She is also the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.