artisan collaborations, bead soup blog party

bead soup – reveal, sort of

This year’s Bead Soup Blog Party challenge is all about love & heart!

Lori Anderson – the mastermind behind Bead Soup – designated the theme of this swap to send something treasured to another, to spread the kindness and love, “… to feel like a true giving of the heart. Paying love forward to a person you may not even know.” What a sweet sentiment.

Our partner packages were to be shipped out on Valentine’s day (Was this a coincidence? I think not!)

So, what did I send my partner? A treasured polymer clay Heart focal piece by Anastasia of Dreams & Elements. I knew as soon as Lori announced her theme, that this was the piece – that it fit the theme perfectly – and that it was meant to be passed on …

(and included with the polymer clay heart, were a few other little pieces to help get the creative flow going … some turquoise chips, beautiful wooly wire, twilight cultured potato pearls, tiny pyrite hearts (I sense a trend here!), black & cream lampwork spacer beads by Burnt Glass Studio, vintage tribal tube beads and some vintage khaki glass beads)

Normally I would have written a whole separate post earlier, to introduce my partner Claire Fabian of Saraccino – to tell you that she loves nature, organic textures and found objects – whose style is tribal and has an ancient vibe – that creating helps her de-stress from her day job doing research in Leipzig, Germany – that she creates the most wonderful, earthy, organic pieces (just one look at her instagram feed and you’ll see what I mean!) … and to share what I had received … but unfortunately, her package to me may have opted to take the scenic route for now … to travel around and have an adventure of it’s own … to see what is to be seen in this beautiful world of ours! My hope is that once it has finished it’s walk-about, it will decide to find it’s way here, to it’s new home, and that I can share it with you then.

In the meantime, still wanting to be a part of the party and to play along, I’ve chosen to create some pieces using other items that I have been hoarding for some time … vintage and upcycled coins. They are mostly from around Europe (including some from trips to Germany – where Claire is from), and include some amazing coin beads made by my previous bead soup partner and friend Niky Sayers. Since our pairing in 2014 – I have commissioned Niky a few times, to make clasps for a series of Canadian (and American) penny wrap bracelets, and she has so graciously gifted me special treats (wonderful buttons and beads) along the way – all of which I have collected and admired for years – squirreling them away – waiting for a special moment to use them, and guess what?! This is it! What a perfect opportunity to do them justice. 🙂

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I used three of Niky’s coin beads – a Canadian penny, a sweet wren British farthing, and an Irish peacock penny (!) in these colourful tassel necklaces.

Loving the bohemian/gypsy/hippie vibe … I also made a few more necklaces …

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… using my old, hoarded coins – German pfennigs, French centimes, a Dutch guilder and a Cuban centavos – doming and hole punching each to create the start of the focal piece.

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I handmade each of the tassels using various colours of embroidery floss, and then embellished them all with a mixture of either rhinestones, amethyst beads, moss agate, aventurine, turquoise, copper or seed beads and brass chain to create a little bit of an accent and add to the folksy feel.

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I just love all of the bright colours (and apparently, so does my cat, Loco – I actually caught him carrying one off after I had set them all up to be photographed and left to get my camera!)

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I have not heard from Claire since she received her goodies, but I hope that she’s had a chance to create – and am really looking forward to what she does with her bead soup mix! Let’s go have a look at her site to find out … 🙂

And to see the rest of the Bead Soup participants (and there are A LOT!), have a look at the end of this (our amazing hostess – Lori‘s) post for the full list … or see below ↓↓↓ (you might just want to grab a cup of coffee first, and then sit back, relax and admire all of the awesome creativeness!)

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