Once again, I’m thrilled to be part of Lori Anderson’s 6th BeadSoup Blog Party where 400 beadmakers and jewellery designers from around the world exchange blind packages to spur their creativity. This time around my partner is Joanna Matuszczyk, a jewellery designer from Poland. This is the bead soup she sent me:
Quite the lovely variety, huh? I love the well-coordinated mix of all the different textures and shapes plus it’s in my favourite colour too – PURPLE!! I’ve never worked with materials like bamboo, ribbon, copper or fabric beads (except the glass beads/gemstones), so it really took me out of my comfort zone. Now, I tried to use everything but honestly I just could not figure out how to work those felted butterflies in… i think they will have to be separate piece… maybe a fun dangly necklace on a silver chain? We’ll see…
First thing i decided was that i was going to use ALL of those lovely ribbons – it was such a perfect mix of colours, plus i couldn’t resist the lush effect. Then i turned the ceramic button into the clasp and knotted the loop created from doubling the ribbon strands into the catch with a few copper jump rings (which i made!) to keep the strands in place. Then, i lightened the edge of the bamboo tube to match the ribbons and wrapped it first with the brown crocheted ribbon (incredibly cool and retro) then with masses of copper wire to create a hook for the dangly mix of glass and gemstones. Final touch was stuffing the knitted balls into the bamboo tube to create a fun and unusual focal.
I’m pretty happy with this necklace, especially since when i first received the package, i had absolutely NO idea what to do with all that ribbon nor the fabric beads. But then… that’s the point of the BSBP – to get us all to experiment with materials we normally never or rarely use and discover some new ways to invigorate our own designs… and of course to have FUN!!
OK… I’m off to check out the other Bead Soups, grab a cup of tea and join me! There were three reveals this time around (i’m in the 3rd) – you can find them all here (or by clicking the picture below): http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.ca/2012/06/participants-of-6th-bead-soup-blog-party.html
Evelyn Duberry - Glass Artist 
purple is one of my fav colours.. great work
Lovely colours and what wonderful inspiration!
I have a second giveaway of a pair of earrings from my blog soup do come on over and take a look and enter to win if you get a minute!
Truly striking work!
I just adore this. It’s one of the most different pieces I’ve seen so far. Great stuff. 😉
I just adore that focal, how creative! The necklace is fabulous!
Wow!!! That is an amazing piece!! Fantastic and unexpected, I think. Love it!
That is absolutely AWESOME! I am so impressed with your creativity — I love it, love it, love it!
Beautiful! I love the colors and fabulous textures in this wonderful piece!
Very cool designs, the colors and ribbons look great!
very interesting necklace. i love the colors. well done!
greets
jacqueline
Very creative. Thank you for posting the picture of the original soup again. I spent quite a bit of time reconstructing your focal in my head before I continued reading and found out I was following the process pretty well in my head even without the explanation:)
What a beautiful necklace! So unique and creative!
That is so cool! I love what you did with the fabric beads!
Love all the textures in this piece. Great job.
I am so, so glad to hear you had fun with your soup. Even if you hadn’t said it, I could tell you did just with the great necklace you designed. I love that you altered the bamboo tube to add the green color to match the ribbon. As well, the way you hung the beads from the tube is simply awesome. Overall, it’s a wonderful design!
What a wonderful necklace. A great way to use the bamboo. So creative.
That is a beautiful necklace! I agree using all the ribbons together gives a very lush look and your focal bead with all the gorgeous dangles is the perfect finishing touch. Great work!
It is absolutely amazing what you did with those ingredients. I’m afraid I would have had to pretend I was having heart surgery or something to get out of it. Wow, just beautiful – what a gorgeous one of a kind. Great job!
I love this so much I pinned it to a personal board. Great mix of textures and I just love purple and green together.
thank you everyone for the comments and compliments! Aren’t BeadSoups fun??!!
Very creative use of your soup -it’s lovely!
What a clever idea for focal! Im impressed! Congratulations!
WOW! it’s definetly one of my favourte pieces on the blog party!!! It’s amazing, interesting and unique!! Congratulations!!
i love how crazy different your soup is and what you came up with is pretty spectacular! gorgeous!
great design, so original
ciao dall’Italia
Dear Evelyn,
I would never came up with such a creative idea using those components. You made very unique, one of a kind necklace. I love it! It was a real pleasure to be your partner!
I wish you head full of creative ideas all the time!
Love!
Joanna
That’s so sweet of you to say Joanna! Honestly though it was easy because you sent me a wonderful soup – everything was perfectly coordinated both with the bead sizes, colours and the mix of textures – i was inspired right from the start. Happy beading!
Ooh they look amazing!
Wonderful colours and style.Love and hugs Tanya
SO innovative! I love how you completely gave new life to all those beads. The piece shows how much fun you were having with this!
So very unique and pretty. Well done 🙂
Very creative & unique.
All of the different elements came together beautifully!!
How creative!! Love those beautiful colors…quite stunning! Your creation is beautiful! Nice job!
Those are my favorite colors! I’ve been working on that color scheme in my glass beads lately. The hardest part is to find glass that color! Great work!
Stunningly beautiful works!Congrats!
I really like this color palette..and your design is just divine!