For those of you who know me “in person”, you know that I love a bargain.  When a bargain is the catalyst to use another bargain and that culminates in a shiny new piece of jewelry, well, that makes me happier than I can even say.  That is exactly what happened with this piece.

A few days ago I went on a little shopping trip.  I stopped at a favorite store and headed right to their rack of sale cardigans (I have a bit of an obsession with the humble cardigan – I own at least 30).  I found a pretty bright green number (I love to wear green – another bonus!) marked down to $9.74.  I had to take it home.  When I got home I decided I needed a new necklace to accentuate the deep-v neckline of the new sweater.  I immediately thought of some orphan lampwork beads that I purchased a few months ago (another bargain) and pulled them out for a look.  The larger beads were perfect – lumpy, bumpy encased lampwork with swirls of blue and green.  I dug some more and found a group of lampwork spacers that I purchased in the same lot.  I knew I could do something with all of them.

To pull the necklace together I added some round, hammered links from an old necklace, some brushed silver-tone lentils, a length of vintage chain from my favorite thirft store and a few faceted czech glass rondelles.  I threw the whole thing together and this is the outcome.  I LOVE it.

I wish I could adequately describe how yummy the encased lampwork are.  Here is a close up of them – they are delish!

I couldn’t help trying to take a photo of me wearing this piece (in yet another green cardigan).  My son rushed over to help.  He decided he needed to be “artistic” so here is his shot.  Gotta love him for being so enthusiastic.

The "artistic" shot as taken by my 9 year old

Until next time,

Julie Anne

I think I need a new name for my blog.  I am considering calling it “The Exhausted Bead” because that is what I am lately…totally exhausted.

I have been so busy since the bead soup reveal that I haven’t had a chance to sit down to create anything.  I have been working a fair bit, been busy with school and I started teaching a few weeks ago.  Add to that a bad head cold, some serious allergies and trying to help my husband dig out our spare room (read: junk room) and you can probably understand why I haven’t created anything lately.

As you may recall, my BSBP partner Kelley Fogle gifted me with an amazing array of beads.  I had wanted to send her a little thank you but couldn’t figure out what to do in time for the reveal date.  Kelley and I have become FB friends and by her posts I can tell that she is in need of a little pick me up (aren’t we all, really?).  That was enough to get me back to my craft table to make a little something to brighten her day.  Here is what I came up with:

Kelley gifted me with the jasper and shell rounds.  I added the focal (from Blue Seraphim), some Czech glass, a few MOP buttons and of course the chain.  The entire piece is created in brass and is finished with a handmade brass clasp.

I hope that this small gift brings a little sunshine to Kelley this week.  Creating it got me back to my bead table and that definitely lifted my spirits.

Until next time,

Julie Anne

My girly, romantic bead soup - love it!

I had so much to choose from in my bead soup package from my awesome partner Kelley Fogle that it was hard to know where to begin.  To refresh your memory, here is what Kel sent me:

Where to begin?

I was immediately taken by all of the sea and sand inspired colors.  I jumped right into my soup and started making a multi-link hodge podge sort of necklace.  I actually had to stop myself when I realized that I HAD to use the focal AND the clasp.  That was the challenge.  If I did a multi-link necklace (which will probably get finished BTW) I wouldn’t be able to use either.  I had to force myself to stop what I was doing and re-focus.  It was really hard to do that (I go a little ADHD around so many pretty beads) but I turned my attention to the brass ox focal and decided to run with that.

The first thing that I did with the brass focal (which is from B’Sues Boutiques) was to deal with the connectors.  I knew I wanted to bring some strands in from the side, so I borrowed a punch from my good friend Cindy Wimmer (seriously, how would I bead without you?) and punched some holes in the back.  Then I bent down the top and bottom connectors (glad I didn’t lop them off!) and set about putting the necklace together.

I decided to work with the 6mm faceted aquamarine that was in my soup. I like the greeny blue and the brown tones in the brass together. I added some 8mm stones from my stash, used some brass connectors that I have been dying to put to use and wrapped the whole thing up using 18g vintage bronze wire from Fusion Beads.

Could I get it a little closer? I don't think so.

Next I moved onto the pearl and chain strand.  I started out by using some bronze chain (from Beads 4 All) and the pearls that Kelley had sent me.  The creamy pearls seemed to get lost with the brown and blue color palette so I added some brown pearls from my stash.  Those worked perfectly and that strand came together rather quickly.

Now, what to do for a third strand?  I originally thought I would string some seed beads (I had the perfect color mix in my stash) but once I got one strand done the scale seemed wrong.  I eventually decided on a rosary strand (note that if you are Catholic, you need to remove the Pater beads to use these) from Yummy Treasures and the strands were complete.

Wonderful oxidized brass bow focal.

I then started assembling the necklace again using the bronze chain and the wonderful brass clasp.  Once the necklace was assembled I put it on and thought “hmmmmm……it’s missing something.”  Seriously, there is so much going on with the piece but it really seemed to be lacking something.  I decided to pry back down the bottom connector and add a few dangles.  That seemed to do the trick.  What do you think?

So now that you have seen what I made with my delicious bead soup, are you curious about my partner’s creation?  Well, here is what I sent to her to play with (our soups couldn’t be more different, could they?):

Whatcha making Kelley?

Before I sign off, I want to thank Lori Anderson who has worked tirelessly on organizing this exchange and to my partner Kelley for her generosity and over-all awesomeness.  Kelley has inspired me and been very supportive of my creating beautiful pieces with her soup.  I have more to share on that later, but now, I must blog hop!

Be sure to check out all 200 (yes, 200!) blogs to see what other wonderful bead soup creations have been cooked up all over the world.  You can find the other blogs at:

Hostess, Lori Anderson


Special Book Sneak Peeks, Cindy Wimmer