2nd Cup of Bead Soup with Lutka and Co.

You can read more about the Cup of Bead Soup project by clicking here.

Today I'm going to show you the second piece of jewelry I made with handmade lampwork beads by Lutka and Co.


I took apart this set:

And chose the ones with yellow in them.  Yellow is a tough color for me to work with because I look horrendous in yellow, and have you found yourself not making jewelry in colors you don't rock in?

So here I have these beautiful floral beads in pink and yellow, and I'm trying to decide on the contrasting color.  Well what DO I look good in?  Purple!

I had this small bag of purple keshi pearls (oh how I love that shape!) and a silver bead I'd been hoarding that reminded me of folded paper lanterns.  I know, I know -- I mixed bright silver with Thai and oxidized -- but I didn't think it was too distracting and on the wrist, it worked.  It doesn't always work -- but I think it did this time.

Some of the beads had raised details, while some were melted in.  I liked that.  This is definitely a "touch me" textural bracelet, so having everything down to the glass have a touch factor really made this a treat.

Yes, this is one of my more traditional styles.  However, I did try to shake it up a bit with the addition of the textured pearls rather than crystal or smooth gemstones, and I went a little asymmetric.  Asymmetry, while one of the styles of jewelry I admire the most, is not the easiest for me to do, and in jewelry of this style, TOO much asymmetry would hurt the eyes, I think.

You can visit Lutka & Co. by clicking here for the store and and here for the blog.

Stay tuned through the month of September for more, and visit the Cup of Bead Soup Page for past creations!

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 Lutka and Co.

Having a Cup of Bead Soup going on at the same time as a Bead Soup Blog Party is what they call insane.  So Lutka and Co. is on through the end of September and I'm pushing hard!

You can read more about the Cup of Bead Soup project by clicking here.

I received these bead sets:

I immediately gravitated to the large purple, white, and pink hollow beads in the upper right.  As in, yanked open drawers to find this ONE piece of Vintaj Arte Metal I knew I had.  

I had a strange idea that I thought would be creative, out of the box, and really super-neat if it worked out.

I wanted to make a chandelier fan pull.


Can you see it?


Really, it's a super-easy project.   I took a thick piece of twisted silver, double-stacks of large silver daisy spacers, and 8mm Amethyst, 3mm Rose AB2X, and 4mm Violet Opal Swarovski crystals, and adorned the Arte Metal.  Stack it all together, and here you go.  Pretty, pretty.

Very simple, and not jewelry, but oh I love it.  I hung it from the fan in my library and it was a cruddy weather day and I kept falling off the ottoman since I have NO balance so I have a lovely collection of blurry photos and pictures of the floor and my feet, but this will give you an idea:

It looks like I missed some crystals, but I did use a pattern in putting them around.  Equal sides have two crystal sets clustered closer than the other equidistant sets, but putting them all the same distance around took away from the look of the bead.   (You gotta trust me on that one.)

The hardest thing to do was connect the ball chain to the loop on the chandelier.  The TOP of the fan pull hooked in just fine, but I had to do something with the bottom.  I threaded the ball chain through the "pendant" loop, cut a long length of 24ga wire, and started wrapping and wrapping and wrapping up and around and down.  It's nice and firm now, and I didn't bother to oxidize it because the air will oxidize it soon enough.

I hope you enjoyed the first installment of Cup of Bead Soup, and look for more soon!

 

 

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.