MaryHardingJewelry Bead Blog: Bead Soup Blog Hop Diary The Process of Making

Bead Soup Blog Party Diary

This is my 3rd time participating in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Hop and I have decided to capture it in a diary that I will keep on my blog on a separate page. I just love to read about the creative process and whose could be more fascinating than my own! LOL!! I hope you find it that way too. Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Hop is quite famous by now. It has gotten so large that this year she did it by lottery. I was one of the lucky ones that got choses. I can understand why she did this but I don't feel as much like blogging ahead of time about it because I know there are almost 200 folks who did not get chosen and I hate to rub it in. I didn't get to participate in the August/Sept 2011 party and won't again this summer since my family visits at that time. Really picking out the beads, and in my case, making some of them special for the event, takes a long time. And then the creative part--very fun but can also be quite stressy. that is why I don't even consider participating in the Summer event.

I thought it would interesting to chart my journey as it happens since it is kind of risky and that adds to the excitement of the adventure. This way it will be on my blog but I won't spoil the surprise on the REVEAL day Saturday March 4th, 2012. I will publish these pages early on Saturday March 4, 2012.

Wednesday January 25, 2012

I received my Bead Soup from Shannon today. I am so excited about what she sent me. You can see from the pictures below how wonderful it is.

These are all the wonderful parts of the Bead Soup sent to me by my partner Shannon LeVart aka Miss
Ficklemedia.
Here is the text of my thank you email to Shannon:
OMG Shannon!!

Pure poetry!! I love each piece you sent. They set my heart singing. What fun awaits me. Yours to be in the mail soon. Hope I can Wow you too.
Thanks so much.
Mary
January 29, 2012
Today I sent out my Bead Soup to Shannon.

I made some beads just for Shannon. The disk shaped beads are hand made from earthenware ceramic clay and have hand painted images on both sides. Image is of Queen Ann's Lace. They are a new design for me. I like it that they can twist and twirl all they want and there won't be a wrong side showing. They are in the picture above. The flower pendant is of Milk Weed and that is a new one for me as well. I also made a toggle clasp to go with the disk beads, also with the Queen Ann's Lace image. I added some other beads that I forgot to photograph and this connector bead with the copper wire in the center.

The round beads are handmade from porcelain clay and glazed in a honey brown color and some are brown with a tinge of blue green. I had a hard time deciding what to send Shannon. It was the hardest part so far of this Bead Soup Blog Hop.

I didn't send any jump rings etc. since Shannon is the master of all that.

February 1, 2012
I blogged about the Bead Soup Shannon sent me today. You can see what I wrote here

February 2- Februrary 22, 2012 I spent most of my during this period making toggle clasps for Heather Powers' Bead Cruise and filling orders.
I began working on my pieces for the Reveal in earnest on February 23, 2012

Feb 23, 201
Today I started working on my pieces for the Bead Soup blog hop. I have been thinking about what to make for days but have not been able to find a length of quiet time to get started. I also needed to clean off my bead table to have a clear space where I can see the colors and parts of the lovely bead soup that Shannon LeVart sent me. I have been think all morning about the color of the Sari Silk she sent and want to make a wrist wrap with it.

I was quite nervous about the all this when I sat down. Once I started looking at what Sahnnon had sent me I calmed down. All the pieces are so pretty, the colors so wonderful together, that I just relaxed and began to enjoy myself.

I began by picking up that deep red Sari Silk. I wanted to see how many times it goes around my wrist-- it is a bit more than twice. Perfect for a wrist wrap I am thinking. Then I made a larks head knot around the toggle clasp Shanon sent . At first I ran into a place where the silk has been stitched together and it is too lumpy to work. But once that I notice that I had more than enough silk, I moved the larks head down and it knotted nicely. But the looping end of the clasp was in the way so I tried the larks head knot around one of the soldered rings Shannon sent. That seemed to work out better.

Then I began to experiment with putting jump rings around the cloth to give it some cohesion.

Feb 23, 2012 later in the day.

I worked with the Sari silk attaching a toggle clasp. Struggled a bit to get it to work. Now I have the bracelet band and want to decorate it with beads. Kind of like a charm bracelet. Looks pretty dismal right now and will need some good inspiration to pick up and look exciting.

Feb 24, 2012
I got up very early today to work on my Bead Soup project. I can concentrate better in the early morning before anyone else is up. Just me and the sleeping cat. I began by struggling with the toggle clasp. It just wasn't going to work and I didn't want to waste the beautiful soldered rings on the bracelet when I could use something else. The toggle clasp Shannon sent wouldn't work either. Finally I decided to use one of my new specially designed for fiber bracelets toggle clasps.

It was a bit of a struggle to get the Sari Silk through the stringing hole and part of the cloth near the seam tore a bit but I was able to make a good larks head knot so I altered my plans a bit and added the piece of silk I had cut off from the original ribbon and used some of the very fine beautifully patinaed wireShannon sent to attach this reinforcement and then got the idea that I could make wire wrapped the silk and make loops with this wire too. They would work better than the jump rings since the wire wraps will stay in place. So I made a wire loop and then added the jump rings I had planned to use around it and put a tiny jump ring into the wire loop and added one of the turquoise verdigris clam shell charms to the loop. So then I proceeded in this fashoin around the bracelet. When one of the wire loops broke, I decided to use a double strand for the rest of the loops and that worked out well. Now I have all those done and just need to figure out what else to add besides the pieces Shannon sent to have a little more variety and to save some of them for the peyote stitch necklace I am also planning on making.

I also wire wrapped many of the pearls and a couple of the verdigris rustic copper beads with the bead caps she sent and have put them aside in the bag so that I can use them on the necklace part.

Saturday Feb 25, 2012

We are having our most real snow storm of the season right now. I can hear the wind howling. It is still dark so I can't see much but it looks very hazy-- like snow is blowing all around.

I am up early again to work on my Bead Soup jewelry. The Reveal is not that far away now. I am excited and nervous about all of this. But a snowy day is is good for beading so that is encouraging. I began looking at all of the componenets from Shannon on my bead tray. Finally I gave in and let the beads lead the way. I hung the gorgeous dark teal blue focal bead from the middle of the chain with a large jump ring. Then a pearl. After that I began working my way up the chain hanging pearls and charms. I love all the colors. I have never seen the irridescent peach color on the seashell. It gave the verdigris a great color boost. I did this up both sides of the chain. Very nice.

but not really what I am looking for. I have had in mind since I first received Shannons pieces to try to also make a peyote stitch necklace with them or at least integrate peyote stitch into whatever I make. So at this point I began looking for a good color of seed beads. By now it was daylight and sunny (storm finally over) so the light was good for finding the beads. I found a hank of Dark Topaz AB in size 8 in my stash. It is a sort of rose and blue translucent root beer color bead. They look good with the beads in my soup and some added faux sea glass beads.

Once this color combo satisfied me, I took a break and did some serious package wrapping for pieces that needed to go out in the mail before noon, since it is Saturday;

Later in the day, about 2:00PM, I returned to my Bead Soup. I decided to just jump in and start the peyote stitch part of the piece—wherever that would lead me. I added a few other beads to the ones I picked and started. I went along and used some of the rustic copper beads as I beaded. I had my ipad out and was watching a video on Netflix, a not very good one, Grease 2. I had thought it was the origianl Grease. I finally got tired of it and was enjoying the beading in silence. After about 2 ½ hours I had a fairly wide strand. I got the idea that I would video my hands doing a row something I have wanted to do for quite a while. I did two takes and the second one seems to have come out pretty welll. I was so excited about doing this that I kept on beading until it got dark out. And that was it for the day.

Sunday February 26, 2012

I am up even a bit earlier today as I went to bed quite early last night. I will begin working on the peyote stitch part as soon as I make a coffee. I am still at the point that I am not clear where the beading will lead me but I have to have faith in the process, so I will just begin and see what happendsl This is one of the pitfalls of free form peyote stitch. You have to travel blindfolded, so to speak, for a part of the journey, and then turn what you have done into a cohesive wearable piece. It ususally works, but not always. When it doesn't you have invested a huge chunk of time in something that goes in the “unfinished” box. And if you have a deadline, like I do right now, it is nerve wracking, but also exciting. This is where I am right now.

a free form peyote stitch framework

I found some idea of where I wanted to go this morning and did more stitching and took some photos of possible scenarios. I continue to struggle with how to integrate the vedigris chain into the necklace. I am taking Shannon's lead and working small , delicate, and elegant. Since I began this project I have felt her presence almost as if she is guiding me in how to use her components.

I want the chain in the necklace but haven't yet figured out a good way of attaching it.
The good news of this early morning session is that I retried putting my beading video on YouTube and this time it worked. I titled the video Peyote Stitch Silence it is 14 minutes long. I love watching it. Hopefully others will too.

I took a break and went back to bed since it was still early. I read for awhile in my current book, An Atlas of Impossible Longing (very good) and then tried to sleep. Instead I had visualizations of how to integrate the chain into the necklace. I finally came up with an idea I liked and got up and tried it. I am so pleased with how it turned out. Now I have found my way and the rest of the necklace will probably fall into place pretty well.

I simply attached links of the chain to a strand of beadwork. It looks so natural and part of the whole. I am psyched that I figured this out.

I continued to work on the idea-- interuppted for awhile by a much overdue need to talk ot my kids on the
phone.--after a couple of hours. Now I am off to my studio to make some ceramic pendants.

Monday February 27, 2012

I stayed up very late, for me, last night to see the Oscars. I think it was the best every. Love that Kodak Theatre and the old fashioned movie theme.

So I am not up quite as early today. I have a few packages to ship and then I am going to work on my Bead Soup piece. Hopefully today will be the day when I finish it up except for some minor details. Here's hoping. In fact I spent a lot of time today working on my blog posts for the Reveal. Since I am turning this diary into a separate PAGE section on my blog, I spent quite a bit of time setting that up this morning after I did the packages.

As it turned out I did not get back to the necklace before late at night—after a long nap in front of the TV-- and now it is

Februrary 28,2012

I worked for a couple of hours getting the necklace altogtether as one piece. I wire wrapped one of my ceramic beads to a beaded link I made on the necklace and then wire wrapped 2 of the copper beads together and then wire wrapped them to the toggle clasp Shannon sent. I think they look great together.

Now there are just some decorative details to attend to , add some more charms to the bracelet and put the earrings together. Beads for the earrings have been picked out etc. It is now 4:37 AM so I am going to bed. I guess I can rest assured that the piece will be finished on time.

February 29, 2012

Today I put together a pair of earring with Shannon's great ear wires. They cane out so nice.

And then I was so surprised to happen upon Shannon's blog in which she posted pictures of the beads I sent her. And so many nice words about my work. You can see the post here

http://missficklemediacom.blogspot.com/2012/02/mary-harding-bead-soup-blog-party.html

thanks for the great photos and comments Shannon.

March 1, 2012

Today I began by photographing my pieces for the Bead Soup Blog Party: the earrings and the bracelet. The necklace is almost ready for the photo shoot.

I will be spendning much of today writing blog posts and finishing up the blog hop diary. i.e. adding the photos that I have been taking along the way. We are having a snow storm so it is a good day for all of this computer work.

Hostess, Lori Anderson

Special Book Sneak Peeks, Cindy Wimmer

1. Adlinah Kamsir (Singapore) and Hajer Waheed (Kingdom of Bahrain)

2. Adrienn Lukacs (Hungary) and Agata Grygiel (Poland)

3. Agi Kiss (Hungary) and Carolien Muller-Genger (the Netherlands)

4. Agnes Asztalos (Hungary) and B.R. Kuhlman

5. Alesha Conklin and Becki Mendivil

6. Alice Peterson and Carol Dillman

7. Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu

8. Amanda Dittloff and Brandy Thomason McNair

9. Amanda Tibbetts and Andrea Trank

10. Amy Freeland and Kay Mallery

11. Andra Weber and Christine Murrow