Bead Soup Blog Party 7 : Reveal #2 - REVEAL !

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the my reveal of the bead soup blog party ! And this was a good soup. A challenging soup. Twilight Sparkle had some very set ideas on how I should go about with this and she simply never let me stop until she was pleased ! Certainly a lot of personality in such a tiny unicorn...

As a reminder, this is what Bee sent me. She drowned me in... pink ! Pink being very much not my color. I used to LOVE pink.... when I was five years old. XD Still, it was good to learn how to work with a color I would not have picked myself if I had been given the choice, and good that I did not stay STUCK on the fact that I had to deal with pink. Seriously... I spent more time waiting on supplies than actually designing and making these.

Thank you, Canada Post. XP

At any rate, this is what I made under the careful eye of Twilight Sparkle the unicorn and Manic the cat...

AHA ! Not quite what you expected, uh ? :D This was stupidly fun to do. It gave me an excuse to order and use those stick pearls I'd been eyeing for awhile. The chain is handmade with wire, and I used the pink pearls and the pink crystals Bee sent me. The rest came from my stash. The ovals were given a light brush with vintaj patina for that little subtle pop of color.

But this is what I am really proud of. See, I didn't want to use the Swarovski butterfly in the way most would - put a jump ring though it and call it good. I had gotten a bezel in an order whose bail was broken - it didn't seem worth it to complain about a 2$ item and the actual frame was fine, so I decided to keep it. It was when I put the two together that it really clicked in my mind. It was an accident. I was rummaging though my drawers of stuff and the focal fell in the broken bezel. EUREKA !

The base is pink crystal clay, with white, pink and purple preciosa chatons inlaid in it, and two little butterfly charms for flow. Those things are IN THERE.... Crystal Clay is like a black hole. What enters it doesn't come out once it's cured.

I used the ribbon to frame the bezel. It gives it a little something extra, doesn't it ? :) I like the little additional pop of colors and the flow the continuous ribbon gives.

This piece gave me a few fits. It originally was on a lighter gauge wire with darker ribbon... Nuh uh. Bad idea. Loops were breaking apart. So, two days before the reveal, faced with a piece that was falling apart, I did the only thing I could really do. I broke it up and did it again.

And again.

And again.

I didn't have any left of the first ribbon so I had to do with what I had - I hand-colored white silk in soft pinks and purples. Now that it's done, with the frustration out of my system, I think the lighter, softer ribbon fits this best.

Next up...

Is a charm bracelet ala B'Sue ! These are so stupidly fun to make. This is a raw brass cuff that I painted silver with the vintaj patina, then relieved back a little to have some hints of that golden tone peeking though. The beads are a mix of things that I had been accumulating in the past year, as well as parts of Bee's soup of course - most notably those cute little mother of pearl flowers ! Also, spectra beads. I love them.

The focal was actually the very first thing I made - while I was waiting for my chatons to come in the mail. It is a commercial focal - it comes with the secret garden engraving already done, but I didn't like the white danglies that it came it. I did keep some of them, but mostyl topped it with more. I used the vintaj patinas to accent the letters, then went over it with pink and bronze. Then I topped it off with one of the butterflies from the charm set I brought, and with a freebie heart I got from the lovely Lesley <3

Then, to top off the set...

Well I bet you weren't expecting that, now did you ? >:) This is not the first pair of earrings that I made - that honor goes to the amazing Lori herself - and that I have no pictures of because I AM DUMB... And didn't take any. But anyway. Not my first, not my last, but the first you guys get to see !

I wanted to make a 'set' in which each piece would be able to stand alone on their own if needed... And I think I succeeded in that.

And then...

Some might remember this focal. It's a brooch that I found last year in one of my many thrift store hunts. Bee sent me some pink howlite stars, and it was perfect for this. This is a three-strands bracelet with the strands crossing in the middle. The best part of it, to me, is that the brooch is unharmed, and can still be taken off and used as an actual brooch if one wishes. :) I just didn't have the heart to break it. B'Sue told me this was probably someone's craft project. I wouldn't want someone breaking my stuff, so I had to treat this brooch with the same respect. It simply is pinned though the long seed beads part of the bracelet, and can be unpinned without harming either pieces.

That was all I had... Until the second reveal was pushed back. I was a little bummed, but I understood completely - Lori's health above all things, after all. So then I thought... There has to be something I can do beside sit and pout ?

Oh yes. There is. Well, it allowed me to retake most of the pictures for one. I brought a camera at the pharmacy - a Canon Powershot A800 that sat there, discounted, only waiting for my loving hands. The camera on it's own is a definite improvement over my cell phone camera which refuses to even zoom since the last android update. Then I made a lightbox during the weekend. It works perfectly for stand alone shots, but I think I need a bigger one for when I use a stand. Hmm.

And then, I did this !

This little geisha started her life as a brass stamping is rusty black. Rusty black is a lovely finish - when you relieve it, copper highlights rise up. Kind of like arte metal, if you are familiar with Vintaj finishes. (Or is arte metal silver accents ? Herp derp I forget.) I relieved and sanded her a bit, then covered her in brass swellegant metal paint, and THEN put on the darkening patina, let it bloom, then buffed it back. You can still see some of the copper highlights - the focal is seriously something to behold in person. Then I used some crystal clay to bejewel her sash - it doesn't really show in the pictures too well, but the crystal clay has some perfect pearls worked into it for a metallic soft shimmer below the chatons.

One side of the necklace is book chain - a new love of mine. Book chain and ribbon are a match made in HEAVEN. The book chain started as matte gold, a sample I got from Brenda. It was too light for my tastes, so I used the same swellegant brass paint > darkening process as I did on the focal. Now it looks ancient and yummy, yes.

The other side is handmade chain much like the Secret Garden necklace is, but a little simpler. The first set of links consists of two spectra beads (Did I mention I love spectra glass beads ? Relevant.), bead caps and the pearls Bee sent me. The second pair of links is the rose quartz Bee sent me, bead caps, and a paler pink spectra bead sandwiched in between. The bead caps are the same - and yet the shape of the bead within makes it look all the more different, then ? The whole thing is wrapped in silk ribbon that I dyed myself with alchool ink.

Like what you see ? Every piece in this post is available for purchase at Toki No Hourousha. It will not be easy to let go of these fabulous pieces, but I do not wear pink. Like, ever. At all. So I would rather they go to homes where they will be worn, rather than simply being show pieces <3

Well, I do hope you've enjoyed this ride ! Please visit my partner (and jewelry mentor) Bee, as well as the many other lovely pairs involved in the second reveal ! Thank you for stopping by !