Hey, Hey, The Party's HERE!!

Okay, so I got an amazing collection of fantastic beads from my Bead Soup partners, Beth and Evie McCord, of EB Bead and Metal Works. At first, I didn’t know what the heck to do with the big enameled frog, but after a little while of sitting with the beads and playing with them, and looking at the gorgeous enameling job on that frog (not to mention the seriously good sawing!) the design came to me.

Ta-DAAAA!

The first of my three projects is this one….called ‘Reach’.

Rather than hang the frog from a necklace, I wired it to a piece of heavy-gauge copper wire that I bent into a branch-like shape. Then I made a length of braided and beaded cord and combined it with copper chain. I added the green beads as accents on one side and to, along with the green beaded cord, suggest leaves or rainforest trees. That’s what I had in mind, anyway.

They had sent me a silver toggle clasp, but I didn’t like it for this design, so I made my own. It’s a toggle of 18g copper wire with a copper washer I stamped. I added the copper tag to the bottom of the necklace, attached to the loop on the ‘tree branch’, and stamped it with the word ‘reach’. I thought it kinda looked like the frog was reaching for the next branch, and it seems a good sentiment to have on your person as you go about your day.

The whole necklace fits over your head, so you don’t really need the clasp, but I liked it as a design feature anyway.

The next piece is a pair of earrings to go with ‘Reach’. Nothing terribly fancy here; I wanted them to be simple, so you could wear the necklace and a pair of coordinating earrings without feeling like you were totally draping yourself in jewelry. Two lampwork beads, each hung from a short section of the same chain in the necklace, and finished with copper earwires I made myself.

For the last piece, I used the remaining set of beads and the silver toggle clasp that I couldn’t put into the first piece. This necklace is called ‘Wise In The Ways'.

I strung the beads on a length of silver 18g half-hard wire (hey, it was all I had on hand! Remind me to never buy half-hard wire again…). I made simple loops on each end, then hammered them slightly to flatten. I cut a long piece of hand-dyed silk ribbon in half (I bought it from JamnGlass), and looped it through the silver bar with the beads, then sewed it to the toggle clasp. Finally, I wired up one of my white owl beads and made him the centerpiece of the work. These earthy beads just reminded me so much of woodland areas, and the layered dot patterns on them reminded me of an owl’s feathers, so I think this is a fitting piece to use these beads in, overall.

This has been so much fun! I feel like I stretched beyond my usual style a little bit, and really got into trying to make a piece that was not only wearable, but different, and captured the essence of the beads and other goodies I was given. I know my partners TOTALLY rocked their design with my beads!

I think I might try to do another swap or soup party again.

This party goes on all week, so there’s still lots more to see! Here is today’s list of blogs to visit. I’ll post the day’s list every day of the Blog Hop!

27. Lisa, Alterity
28. Dale, Dales' Flights of Fancy
29. Melanie, Kookie Designs
30. Christine, A Hot Piece of Glass (MEEEE!)
31. Nancy, Beading From the Heart
32. Laurel, Rue's Daftique
33. Sandi, Do Be Do Bead Do
34. Nicki, Nicki's Reef
35. Virginie, ViviBijoux
36. Janeen, Wild Vanilla