2nd Cup of Bead Soup with Sue Beads

To learn more about the Cup of Bead Soup Project, click here.  You can view past Cup of Bead Soup participants and the designs I created by clicking the button right below my blog banner.  Also, I'll be creating a new Cup of Bead Soup program next year, where three of YOU will join me in creating a piece using a designers set of beads!  So stay tuned for the full explanation in December.

I really, really couldn't wait to work with Sue's set of etched black and clear lampwork beads.

When I went to the Bead and Button show, I bought a lot of lucite flowers in all shapes, sizes, and colors.  When I saw frosted white and black ones, I immediately got an idea, and put them together in a bag and stored them for when the right set of lampwork came my way.

Well, these were the right set of lampwork.

I added lucite flowers with Swarovski crystals nestled inside, and white frosted lucite beads.  All are vintage, which I thought was apt as, to me, this looks like a Victorian piece.

Even though as of today silver has dropped from $50/oz to about $35/oz, that's still a far cry from the $15/oz I'm used to working with, and the $4/oz I started with!  So to help make things a bit more palatable for the customer, every other bead has gorgeous (but more expensive) bead caps, and the others have equally pretty but less expensive (relatively) large spacers.  The small bead charms are Tierracast pewter (I sometimes mix sterling with pewter) and the toggle is a spectacular sterling silver (whose price has gone up hugely, and I cry).   These bracelets take a long time to make, too.

There's a fun story about this bracelet.  I took it with me to my craft show this weekend.  I am fortunate to have some amazing repeat customers, ladies who even take a day of vacation to come be the first in the door on Friday.  One lovely lady got to my booth within five minutes of show opening and snagged this bracelet immediately.  Then my second group of ladies came to the booth and wanted to know if I'd made something with "those pretty beads we saw on your blog".  

I pointed to my other customer and said, "She beat you by fifteen minutes!".  There was some friendly banter and customer #2 decided it wasn't her style but made me promise that for the last set of beads....

... she'd get first dibs.  So Sue, your bead were a hit!

I hope you'll visit Sue's store and blog, which you can visit by clicking below:

SueBeads Etsy Shop

SueBeads Blog

SueBeads Web Site for Made-to-Order Beads

Book Review:  "Atypical: Life with Asperger's in 20 1/3 Chapters"

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 and is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

First Cup of Bead Soup with SueBeads

It's October, and time for a new Cup of Bead Soup project.  To learn more about the Cup of Bead Soup Project, click here.  You can view past Cup of Bead Soup participants and the designs I created by clicking the button right below my blog banner.


This month's sponsor is Sue Kennedy of Suebeads.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Sue, and she's a talented lampworker as well as a fabulous enamel artist.  This month, she sent me some of both.

First up is a set of beads that at first, I thought was really going to challenge me  -- and they still might.  The colors keep changing on me, but that might be because my eyesight is going. 

My challenge will be to pull out the unexpected colors without overpowering all the many colors that are IN the beads.  Sometimes when beads have a lot of colors in them, it's easy to end up with a cacophony of voices, as it were.  But I think I have an idea.  

This next set I knew IMMEDIATELY what I wanted to do.  In fact, I've had a set of beads sitting in a bag WAITING for the perfect lampwork to go with them.  The challenge will be to do these stunners justice and translate my mental vision into actuality.

These etched beads look like they're flocked with black velvet.  I really, really hope I can pull off what I envision.

These next two sets of beads beg for earrings.  I really haven't used adorned headpins that much before, so I'm really going to have to think hard about what to put on top of these cool orange glass headpins.  I can't just stick any old bead on these, you know!  And the other two beads remind me of the sea, so some ideas brewing there.  I wish I still did craft shows in Virginia Beach like I used to -- they'd eat these up.

And finally, a couple of sets of Sue's enameled beads, including her gorgeous fall leaves (need more of those!) and filigree wheels.  She also included a pair of Christmas-y beads, which I've already used, as you'll see in a minute.

SO!  I usually make about 200 pairs of Christmas and holiday earrings in August.  August was a rough month with the Bead Soup Blog Party sign ups and what-all so I got behind.  The past weeks, I've been playing catch-up and I think I have enough for my shows coming up (three more left, thank goodness).  I immediately gravitated toward the green and red lampwork beads as this year I didn't buy a lot of extra lampwork (been in destash mode).  I thought about poinsettias (quick tip -- if you have animals in the house, be careful, as they're poisonous to them if they eat them) and found some red lucite bell flowers and green Swarovski crystals.  

Simple, but quite pretty, I think, and a little different than Christmas trees and snowmen.

I hope you'll visit Sue's store and blog, which you can visit by clicking below:

SueBeads Etsy Shop

SueBeads Blog

SueBeads Web Site for Made-to-Order Beads

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 and is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.