Welcome to Lori Anderson's Annual Bead Soup Blog Party

Welcome to the Bead Soup Blog Hop. 

My main piece (using the Melanie Brooks focal) from Shannon turned out great.  I made the breast plate with "Home Tweet Home" to pull it all together in a flourish of silver to go with the clasp Shannon made and added my own lampwork beads to compliment the colors and theme.  It was a great challenge and, as always, fun.

This montage might be easier, than having to go back in posts, to see my original soup and what I did for earrings.  I'll leave the browsing for some time when you have a leisure moment.  And considering the largesse of this hop that might be a while.  These are my components from Shannon LeVart German (Miss Fickle Media).  She was my partner for this hop.  In all there ended up being only a small amount of my soup I didn't use.  Even as I took the theme I created for myself - Home Sweet Home - because of the house shaped ceramic focal, I found a dozen ways to accomplish this challenge within that theme. 

 

You can see from the drawings I was working on several ways to use some of the components for earrings.  Shannon gave me the greatest ear wires I've ever worked with and although I make ear wires I have to say I wouldn't hesitate to buy more.  I used them for the alternative earrings because I knew they wouldn't go easily on these hunky sized ceramics (that's what's cool about ceramics - they can be large and weigh nearly nothing!). 

 

Since the theme (for me) was re-invented to "Home Tweet Home" (see a previous blog post on Creativity) I decided these earrings might benefit from staying with the same theme.  For the longest I couldn't figure out how to do that and then in a late night lack of sleeping escapade it came to me as I was drawing. There is a saying in Latin - Alis Volat Propriis  which translated is: She Flies With Her Own Wings.  It was perfect.  I stamped the sayings on silver. One saying for each ear. 

 

This ceramic is thick so I made ear wires especially for the earrings by soldering an earring sized wire to a large silver ring.  I threaded the ring through the hole in the ceramic, closed it, and bent the ear wire.  I like the length - they're definitely statement earrings but needed the pearls to break up their length just a bit.  It never hurts to add something smaller to a large piece, or vice versa.  It breaks up the space and gives the eyes a bit of a pause.

 

 

That left some extra pieces - like those great ear wires, two nice chunks of squared and hammered PMC and more pearls.  I love working with tin and had some roman glass from last years foray to Bead and Button that I knew was close in color but funky enough to go with the tin.  These earrings are another good example of size without weight.  Two pieces of tin topped with the PMC square (to use as a reflector for the glass), the roman glass, a piece of Bali, Shannon's head pin to thread it together.  I decided to go fancy on the top and rolled the tin several times over a matching piece of silver I bent and hammered into submission and hung them from those ear wires Shannon sent.  Didn't I say they were great?

 

 

Both of these earrings are listed on Etsy at Right Turn ArtWerks - proceeds will go into the bank fund for Daisy's Hip replacement.  I kept the price reasonable despite the fact they are full of silver.  So if you are interested my Etsy is listed to the column to the right.  (Sorry, they are sold!)

 

I know this list of participants is substantial - take your time and try to visit us as you can.  I'd be delighted to have more friends so if you have time - please join my list of followers.  I love blogging and passing on as much artsy info and tips as I can.   Enjoy the hopping...Sharon

 

Here is the permalink to the list of participants for the blog hop -

 

Lori Anderson's 8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Hop

 

 

The End  :-)

Happy 8th Bead Soup Blog Hop

Well, not quite the end...
I'm going to take Shannon's lead on this and add a sweet giveaway to my post.  These pieces are the orphans I didn't use in the creation of these pieces.  If you leave a comment you will be automatically entered.  Don't forget about Daisy either...and a personal thank you to Lori Anderson for both pushing through her illness to get this years hop going for us and for her generous support of Daisy's cause.  Yes, in all her pain and agony she was thinking of others and I was one of them.  Bless you Ms. Anderson and may your trials soon be behind you. 

And I could be persuaded to add a bird to this mix if you asked :-).
Drawing will be on May 15th.

Best Wishes - Sharon