It's Here! It's Time! The First Reveal of the 7th Bead Soup Blog Party!

First I want to say thank you to Lori and everyone who made this possible!
Second I want to say thank you to my partner Stephanie Weiss. It was wonderful to have her as a partner. I really like her work. It was great exchanging emails and learning more about each other. We have alot of the same likes and are both learning to work with metal. We are also hoping to meet up at the Bead and Button show this year...sweet!
I am so excited to see what she made and to see what she thinks of my pieces. This is her first party. I'm sure she will have a blast.
You can learn more about Stephanie and see her pieces here...  http://uniquelymebwd.blogspot.com/


Here is the soup she sent.

Gorgeous stone and copper, some lampwork glass and handmade copper clasps.. a really gorgeous color pallette. For an extra surprise she sent everything in this cool little tin.
There was enough to make multiple pieces.

The first piece was made using one of the focals. faceted red glass beads, and a large copper bead sent by my partner. I mixed in a couple of my lampworked beads. a very large, very gorgeous amber bead,goldstone,new jade, and some recycled copper components I made.

The second and third pieces. A necklace made with hand wrought heavy gauge recycled copper wire and some gorgeous stone briollets and handmade clasp sent by Stephanie.
A bracelet made with recycled roofing copper that I cut and textured as a base for the cabochon and riveted it on with strips of copper. On one side I made a chains with the small jasper beads and alternated it with chain. The other side I used heavy gauge copper wire to make a sort of chain maille.

 The fourth piece I made a center piece of hammered thin gauge copper wire. I wrapped in some square pillow beads of smokey quarts and hung the gorgeous jasper focal. I made a chain using square copper beads and jasper beads sent by stephanie.

Here is a little reminder of what I sent stephanie. Can't wait to see her pieces!

Here is the list of first reveal members links.... http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/ I hope you enjoy the hop! Thanks for taking a peak!

Team Upcyclers Monthly Creativity Challenge for March.

This month’s item to upcycle was neck tie's There has been so many great ideas by other members of the team. The group always amazes me with their creativity. Please be sure to check them all out and ton's of other recycling ideas on the groups blog. http://love2upcycle.blogspot.com/

The project I had in mind was a valance for my bathroom window. Bot once again I have proven to myself that I am a disaster at sewing. I had one tie I did not cut wrong or mangle in the machine.
The mangled pieces reminded me of the sari silk I have  been using in my jewelry and have become so fond of. So I decided jewelry it is. I cut the tie into one inch strips and went trough my bead stash. I had a fused cabochon I had made with fine silver foil and goldstone on a blue background and a lampwork bead I made with the same blue glass. They were a perfect match. For the copper I used recycled roofing copper, refrigerator tubing and copper wire from a coaxiale cable.

Love 2 Upcycle: Upcycled Creativity Challenge: CORK

And the winners are....Love 2 Upcycle: Upcycled Creativity Challenge: CORK: For the first two months of the year we hosted our monthly Upcycled Creativity Challenge. I organized this challenge last spring because we ...