April/May Cup of Bead Soup with Nan Emmett of Spirited Earth

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!

If you've been a follower of my blog, you're familiar with my Cup of Bead Soup project.  For the past year, I've purchased beads, sight unseen, from various bead makers and tasked myself with creating things with components I didn't choose myself.  It's been a fantastic way to push my design skills and break out of making the same old/same old.  In essence, it's a one-woman-production of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Now it's your turn to join me!

Three lucky people will be chosen at random,
and these three designers will receive the same kit I do.

Aren't these wonderful?
Perfect for spring heading into summer jewelry designs.

The cost of this kit will be
$20 (not including shipping)
(which is actually below her cost)

After the mini-hop on May 12th,
Nan will be offering 15 limited edition sets
in her shop, Spirited Earth.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!

Good luck!

March Cup of Bead Soup!

This has been in the planning for MONTHS 

and I'm excited to finally start!

If you've been a follower of my blog, you're familiar with my Cup of Bead Soup project.  For the past year, I've purchased beads, sight unseen, from various bead makers and tasked myself with creating things with components I didn't choose myself.  It's been a fantastic way to push my design skills and break out of making the same old/same old.  In essence, it's a one-woman-production of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Now it's your turn to join me!

Three lucky people will be chosen at random,
and these three designers will receive the same kit I do.

The four of us will then create a piece of jewelry and have a mini-blog hop to show what four people can do with the exact same beads.  After the blog hop, the bead artist will have a limited number of kits for sale.

So let's start!!!

The photos you're looking at are for the March Cup of Bead Soup.  Barbara Bechtel of Second Surf and Floridity is well known for her amazing handmade polymer clay beads, charms, and pendants.  I really love her work (the heart pendant in my blog header is made by her as well!).

This kit will contain:

* one teal rustic key focal bead

* one double-sided pair of leaf charms

* four carved nugget beads

* one limited edition 5x7 Bead Soup print!

Cost is $20.

(Sixteen limited edition kits will be available after the hop for $35).

To throw your name in the hat, leave a comment 

and a way to contact you if you don't have your email in your profile.

Comments will close on Monday, March 5th.
 Comments must be made on my main blog (click here)

Mini-hop will be April 7th.

More Cups of Bead Soup will occur monthly!

(Cut and paste this button into your blog if you like!)

Comments must be made on my main blog (click here)

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

BIG CHANGES in the Cup of Bead Soup project!

This has been in the planning for MONTHS 

and I'm excited to finally fill you in!

If you've been a follower of this page or my main blog, Pretty Things, you're familiar with my Cup of Bead Soup project.  For the past year, I've purchased beads, sight unseen, from various bead makers and tasked myself with creating things with components I didn't choose myself.  It's been a fantastic way to push my design skills and break out of making the same old/same old.  In essence, it's a one-woman-production of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Starting next year, a bead maker will create 

FOUR identical Cup of Bead Soup kits.  

One for me...

three of YOU!

When it's Cup of Bead Soup time,

I'll write a post for interested participants to comment on.

Three lucky people will be chosen at random,

and these three designers will receive the same kit I do.

Each Cup of Bead Soup will have 

a different price range, with all proceeds

going directly to the bead artist.

(Support handmade!)

The four of us will then create a piece of jewelry

and have a mini-blog hop 

to show what four people can do with the exact same beads.

Sound like fun?

Then stay tuned -- a blog button will appear soon

with the date of the first "pick me!" post.

The first bead contributor will be....

Barbara Bechtel of Second Surf and Floridity!

I hope you like this new format

and I can't wait to create with you!

Lori Anderson makes jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off. She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Cup of Bead Soup with Sue Beads -- earrings

Sue has been so gracious in dealing with my looming deadlines and incapacitations and I kept her through November as the Cup of Bead Soup artisan.  For now, I'm going to show you just one pair of earrings I made with her enameled filigree disks she sent me, and save the rest for a later feature.  I'm so sorry -- it's not normally me to be late but if you saw my to-do list, you'd understand.

Sue is also going to be in the Virtual Craft Show, so you don't want to miss commenting during that time because her giveaway is awesome!

These earrings were a case of serendipity.  I was working on a piece for my book and there happened to be some wood rings sent to me by a contributor.  As so often happens, my desk overflows and those rings settled next to the filigree, and these Bohemian-style earrings were born...

Ear wires by Vintaj

Antiqued brass jump rings by Tierracast

Enameled filigree by 

Please visit her at

SueBeads Etsy Shop

SueBeads Blog

SueBeads Web Site for Made-to-Order Beads

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.

Last Cup of Bead Soup with Lutka and Co.

Today is the last day of the month, and that means the last Cup of Bead Soup with Lutka & Co.  Lutka & Co. makes lampwork beads, and if you remember, sent me these four sets:

You can see what I made with the big purple dotted beads by clicking here and what I did with half of the pink strand by clicking here.

OK.  Up first is the other half of the pink strand.  My first instinct was to go to my tried-and-trued, the dangly charm bracelet.  I love anything with dangles, as we all know.  However, that would be sort of like cheating.  So I did the unexpected -- I decided to do dangles, but stole the green leaves from the purple flowers for the dangles.  I added an errant silver dragonfly, and you get "Garden Party".

The dragonfly is purposefully off-center because that's how I roll these days.  It sits quite firmly on that leaf and don't ask me how I did it because frankly, I couldn't tell you but it required wire and a bit of swearing (no children or pets were harmed in the making of this necklace).  

And there you have it.  I split two sets into two.  And just realized I shot the photo with the leaves flipped the wrong way.  Dang.  But trust me, it's gorgeous when worn correctly.

Next is the perfume bottle.  This was a challenge.  I cut off the wire that came wrapped around the bottle because I had another idea, which quickly failed a miserable death, so it was back to wire.  I quickly learned just how DIFFICULT it is to wrap these bottles -- or, at least, for me.  Took a couple times.  I then decided to give the bottle cap a more Victorian flair and redid the top with a long headpin I had.

The rest, I left mostly chain, but with bits of silver, rhodonite,  and amethyst and a tiny bit of pink ribbon.  I saw SO much fiber and ribbon in the Bead Soup Blog Party and I've always wanted to try it but have just failed miserably, so I thought I'd start small.  So here is "Amphora".

Now, this last piece is hands down my favorite.  I don't know if it's the style or what, but I'm pretty sure it's the color combination.  It's (to me) unexpected.  I really wanted to rock those purple flower beads and this entire concoction came about so randomly.  I started with one idea and ended up SO far in left field for lack of the proper elements -- but I really, really, love it.  It needs a name -- anyone have one?

It may not look like much, but worn, it's so cool.  That sea green GLOWS.  The flowers hang just so.  And the chain is JUST the right openness.

And to tie it all together, earrings.

Overall, I'm really tickled with these recipes of soup!

You can visit Lutka and Co. by clicking here for their shop and clicking here for their blog.

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.

New Cup of Bead Soup with Lutka and Co.

Well!  Now that partners have been partnered for the biannual Bead Soup Blog Party, I can get a belated start to August's Cup of Bead Soup project with Lutka and Co.  You can read more about the Cup of Bead Soup project by clicking here.

I received a lovely assortment of handmade lampwork glass, and you probably already know how much I love handmade glass!  Take a look....

photo by Lutka and Co.

I already have an idea for the top left beads -- they're nice and large, and if the idea in my brain comes through, I'll be making something really cool, and functional rather than wearable jewelry.  If my idea doesn't work, I'm going to be so disappointed with myself!

Don't you love the vessel in the bottom left?  Like a sweet little perfume bottle.  And those purple flowers!  I feel like planting them.  And finally, the upper left -- those beg to become a charm bracelet.  But who knows?

You can visit Lutka and Co. by clicking here for their shop and clicking here for their blog.

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.

Last Cup of Bead Soup with Lisa Boucher of Clayworks

Today is my third and last showing of work made with ceramic beads by Lisa Boucher of Clayworks.  You can read more about the Cup of Bead Soup project by clicking here.

All of the pendants Lisa sent me had an ocean them, so when I picked up the pendant with the double Atlantic auger shells on it, I knew I had to really play up that beachy theme.

I've had these wild vertagles shell wheels I bought from Beads and Pieces for a long time, and I finally figured out what to do with them -- make a fringe for the auger shell pendant.  I chose some copper chain from Ornamentea and set to work.  After a lot of wire wrapping, I added four of the ceramic accent beads Lisa sent, and finished everything off with some silk ribbon.  

"She Sells Sea Shells"

I learned a lot with this Cup of Bead Soup.  I tried some new things, and I still have a ways to go with the fiber techniques.  I don't come naturally to fiber, but I'll keep at it when the right beads come along, and I believe that Lisa's pendants and beads are a natural fit.  

Thank you so much to Lisa of Clayworks!  Please visit her at the following sites:

Shop: Clayworks by Lisa Boucher

Blog: Lisa's Clay Happenings

Happy Creating!

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.

1st Cup of Bead Soup with Lisa Boucher of Clayworks

Today is my first showing of work made with ceramic beads by Lisa Boucher of Clayworks.  You can read more about the Cup of Bead Soup project by clicking here.

I knew I was really going to be challenged by this month's beads.  I don't typically work with this style and the bail of the pendant I chose to work with today is a tough one at times to design with.  If you string with it, you have to be sure to but larger holes at the ends of the "tunnel" so the beads don't slide back and forth and you lose your center.  Then you need to make sure the beads aren't too big because you don't want the wire to show when the necklace is held up.  Making wire loops is an option, but then you get an entirely different drape.  All good things to keep in mind!

I wanted to challenge myself with some fiber this time and chose a length of raw linen I got from Stephanie Lee at a class I took with her.  The idea was to create a "caught in the sea by a net" image.  I have no idea if I created that or just created Amateur Hour.

As with most new mediums, I'm apprehensive and fly by the seat of my pants.  I have no idea what I'm doing.  I don't draw out plans.  I just wing it.  And sometimes that makes a really cool piece -- and sometimes it creates a piece that needs some work.  So I welcome your comments on how to make this better.

I started by knotting the linen at the sides of the pendant so it wouldn't slide.  Then I took some smaller pieces of thread and knotted on a few copper spacers, like flotsam caught in the net.

Next I added a ring from Vintaj that I filed to weather it a bit, knotted on the matching ceramic beads, more copper (both strung and knotted on), and finally the clasp at the top.  When I originally received this box of beads, I had plans for the clasp on the side of the necklace, but it just didn't look right this time.

I honestly have no idea what I've created.  Is it interesting?  Is it a flop?  Does it need something?  Should I start all over?  I know what I had in mind but I'm not sure I got there.  Any constructive comments are welcomed -- please don't say "oh lovely you rocked it you are the queen" when you have ideas!  That's how I learn.

One thing that shines, though -- Lisa's beads.  Not a THING wrong with those.  So please visit her at the following sites:

Shop: Clayworks by Lisa Boucher

Blog: Lisa's Clay Happenings

Happy Creating!

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.