Tabs

Thank you lots!

A big HUGE thank you to every one of you for all the fabulous, uplifting, and just plain-old-super-nice comments! You guys are totally awesome!! I had so much fun with my first bead soup party... I'm definitely marking my calendar for the next one!

And yes, I'm one of the ones still hopping. If I haven't gotten to your blog yet, I will. I want to see everything!

I have a special giveaway coming up later next week. Three lucky winners will get some handmade beads made by me, so stay tuned. :-)


Posted by Rebekah on Friday, March 09, 2012 1 comments
Labels: ,

Bead Soup Reveal!

It's time for the reveal!! Pam Hurst sent me a fantastic assortment of beads... all very, very different from what I normally use and at first I had a lot of ideas of what I wanted to make, but one, by one I decided against them and to say I was stumped would be an understatement. Silver is not an easy metal for me! And all the beads together had such a nice classic look that I'm not used to. Pam really couldn't have done a better job choosing what to send me!!

Finally, after many retries, I settled on an idea I had thrown out at the very beginning and tried for a western style using the pendant and clasp.
When I think of silver, my first thought is of horses, and my second is of turquoise. Pam included some lovely faceted smokey topaz, so I went with orange instead of turquoise. I do love orange. :-)

I added some braided micro suede around the pendant—I wanted to frame it and really show it off. It's oh-so dainty and pretty and I didn't want the large pony beads to overpower the design. From there I strung silver beads, wooden beads, the smokey topaz, black onyx, and two faceted carnelians.

The little ponies are my newest style of pony beads. I sculpted them in ivory polymer clay and decorated them with an orange inlay.

And finally I ended the necklace with the sterling toggle and some red aventurine chips.


After successfully finishing the pony necklace, I still had quite a few beads left and the creative juices were really flowing, so I happily dove into another necklace design...
This time I went in a totally different direction, a little closer to my comfort zone using antique brass, but to keep with the idea of trying new things, I chose to go asymmetrical... I think this is only the second time I've tried it.


I used the labradorite and jasper from Pam and added in some frosted glass and agates.

The abalone butterflies came from my Great Grandma's bead stash years ago and have been sitting in my bead box waiting for something special so they could come out of hiding. They are just perfect with the labradorites! I embellished them each with brass bead caps and a Swarovski crystal bicone from Pam.

And for the closure, I used seed beads and a frosted agate capped with brass.



And so, I used a little of everything (except the coral, but I have plans for that coming up very soon) and really did step out of my comfort zone and I discovered that stepping out once in a while really can be so enjoyable!

Thank you all for stopping by! Thank you Pam for the most fabulous soup! And thank you most of all to awesome Lori for pulling this all together!! It has been so much fun!

And just to say thanks once more, I'm running a special in my shop starting today and continuing through March 17th 20th.



And now, I'm off to start hopping!




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



7.  Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu







15.  Bonnie Coursolle (Canada) and Fay Wolfenden (Canada)

16.  Carmel McGinley (Australia) and Tracy Stillman (Australia)







21.  Cheryl Brown (Canada) and Diana Ptaszynski

22.  Christina Stofmeel (the Netherlands) and Eva Kovacs (Hungary)


24.  Cilla Watkins (Canada) and Elaine Robitaille (Canada)

25.  Sabrina Straub (Switzerland) and Kathy Combs









32.  Dee Elgie (UK) and Joanne Lockwood (UK)

33.  Dian Hierschel (Germany) and Eniko Fabian (Austria)




37.  Doris Stumpf (Germany) and Eszter Czibulyas (Hungary)


39.  Elke Leonhardt-Rath (Germany) and Marjolein Trewavas (UK)




41.  Erika Nooteboom (the Netherlands) and Giorgia Rossini (Italy)


43.  Evelyn Duberry (Canada) and Gaea Cannaday


45.  Ginger Bishop (military, Okinawa) and Martina Nagele (Germany)



48.  Helene Goldberg (Australia) and Karen Vincent





54.  Joanna Matuszczyk (Poland) and Julianna Kis (Hungary)

55.  Joanne Tinley (UK) and Michaela Pabeschitz (Austria)









65.  Kristina Johansson (Sweden) and Penny Neville (Canada)

66.  Krisztina Erlaki-Toth (Hungary) and Nicole Keller (Germany)












76.  Lori Finney (Canada) and Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp (Canada)


78.  Marta Kaczerowska (Poland) and Milla Starchik (Canada)




83.  Michelle Jensen and Sandra Young (Canada)








92.  Rosa Maria Cuevas (Mexico) and Tejae Floyde

93.  Sabine Dittrich (Germany) and Sally Russick


95.  Shanti Johnson and Tracy Mok (Canada)


97.  Sonya Stille and Traci Zeller (Canada)

98.  Stefanie Teufel (Germany) and Tania Hagen (New Zealand)



Posted by Rebekah on Saturday, March 03, 2012 72 comments
Labels: , ,

Flowers in Red ~ 52 Earrings: week 9

We're just a short while from the Bead Soup Party reveal (yay!!), so this week's earrings are another quick pair. They're made up of new red flower links, spotted blue and black ceramic, antique brass spacers and caps, and red rondelles.

Check out the Flickr pool here to see what everyone else mixed up for week nine.

See you next week with another pair!

Posted by Rebekah on Friday, March 02, 2012 0 comments
Labels: