A Collection Of Favorites

So, my soup is simmering nicely... Im at four pieces now ! And some of them are surprising, for me :) But I can't show those pretties, so consider this an intermission of sorts.

Keen readers of this blog might have seen me mention the B'Sue Boutique Creative Group a few times. B'Sue Boutique is the place were I buy a large amount of my supplies, ran by the lovely Brenda Sue and her son Jordan, along with her small team. The service is top notch, and I have never gotten even the slightest problem with any order I have placed.

Brenda does a lot more than sell bits and bobs, she runs a monthly challenge using her brass and components every month, she offer advice to anyone who asks in her facebook group, and she also makes a collection of free videos, usually one every friday. These videos are light hearted, uncensored, funny, and chockfull of amazing information, techniques, and ideas. I personally adore them, and the fact that she keeps her mistake in them. It kind of shatters the whole 'perfect' image most tutorials videos will show us, and it gives me the feeling that im right there beside her, watching over her shoulder.

Im going to present to you a few of my favorites, in order to make you, my lovely readers, discover them and fall in love in turn.

Get rid of your resin fear ! It's easy ! (And addictive.) This video also touches on iced enamels. They're easy ! (And addictive)

This one was a real eye opener for me. Cameos are a thing I did like as a base, but I hated just how much detail was usually lost in the whiteness of the carving. It never occured to me to do this ! Durr. This is also a good way to do cameo jewelry and yet make it unique, in a way.

I gotta say I've really been into tassels lately - I love the flow it adds to a piece ! There are a bunch amazing ideas in this video.

These little charm bracelets are so fun and easy to make ! You can see my takes on them here and here.

This one of a general showcasing of three of my five main tools in my colorization arsenal - Vintaj patinas (though they are more like metal paints than actual patinas), Swellegant (which is actual patina. I don't dig the dye oxides too much, personally, but the rest of the line is BOSS as hell), and gilder's paste.

Bead Soup Blog Party 8 :: Chirp chirp... Chirp Chirp ?

You know what they say about great minds, right ? Well, this is more than a little funny... Sandra and I both received our respective soups today, and... well...

We sent along the same themes. XD Just different colors and executions of said themes ! My other soup was much different, and Sandra had three soups to pick from... What were the odds of this ? XD

Before anything else, I would like to say that I have been completely and utterly shamed in the packaging department. Just look at this ! And there I just tucked everything safely into a box.... Sadly packaging is not my strong point.

But man, look at this haullllll. Two focals, lucky me ! One if a beach glass find that Sandra wire-wrapped herself - isn't it lovely ? I've done some wire-wrapping of stones - in fact, that's where I started because this is what my lovely mentor Bee excels at. And yet, a year later, our styles have diverged so much that Lori paired us up !

The second focal is that lovely bird by Rebekah of Tree Wings Studio whose shop I should not have looked up because LOOK AT THOSE CUTE BEADS ASDF ASDF I think im gonna raid it someone please send halp. The two bigger red and black disks are also by Rebekah.

Also pictured is coral - which is something I've always wanted to work with !, small pearls, an assortment of lovely gemstones, a clock claps barely peeking out from under the bird's wing, and my nemesis... The yellow. Those are very interesting yellow beads, however, and this set will work very well with the few yellow beads I do already own, mostly from swaps and soup purchases.  I already have ideas swirling in my mind, so this will be very interesting indeed.

As for the soup I have sent...

...Buuuuuuuurds. <<; The fact that this was completely unintentional really makes this even better. My soup features a clasp from Cat of BooBeads, some of the favorite clasps I have ever owned. :) You might have seen another similar a few posts down, in my remake of the star necklace.

Sandra's challenge will come from the focal - which is bigger than what she usually uses. I always tend to work with volume and big focal points. The ribbon will also be a bit of a challenge for her. Basically, I provided her with materials that are things I commonly use, but are completely foreign to her. I can't wait to see how she uses them ! Likely she will use them in very different ways than I usually do.

BONUS ROUND :

Warning, birds may attract cats...

This is my piece for the monthly challenge over at B'sue Boutique Creative Group. for your viewing enjoyment. :)

The challenge this month consists of taking this little tie here, or a bowtie, and make something funky with it.

I've gotten one of these in a muse box a long time ago, but had never really done anything to it. Well, late is better than ever, right ? I owned a bezel that I thought looked like a funky little flower, and a cab that fit right into it... One thing followed the other, and well...

This might have gone a bit out of hand << I do a lot of assenblage type work, but this was more involved than my usual, and honestly kind of fun ! The leaves and the tie itself were coated in ice enamels, the bezel was painted in lumiere paints. I thought the focal was involved enough that some plain ribbon would do the trick to finish :)

Bead Soup Blog Party 8 :: Meet My Partner

Indeed, it is bead soup time again, and thanks to Lori's hard work, I now have my partner, who happens to be the very lovely Sandra McGriff of Creative Chaos. I've known Sandra for a few years now so getting to do this with her is an honor :) We have some different tastes and styles, so this is going to be a whole lot of fun ! Here is some of the jewelry she made for last year's bead soup.

And... gasp.... For the first year in the three years I've been doing this... I actually remembered to take a picture of my soup. GASP, I know. So, here we go...

;) More soon, darlings !

Counting Stars

Lately I been, I been losing sleep
Dreaming about the things that we could be
But baby, I been, I been prayin' hard
Said no more counting dollars
We'll be counting stars
Yeah, we'll be counting stars

I often take things apart. Most of the times, I put them back together in the exact same way that I've first made them, just with better wire / jump rings (I've used some junky things when I started, as we all do, first mistakes and all that.) I don't usually post these since they are simply... well, structure work, so to speak.

Sometimes you make a piece that you love, a piece that you are rather proud of. But you realize, in time, that the piece is, well, a little flawed.

 

I do adore this piece, I really do, but there were many things wrong with it for many reasons. There was just too much... stuff. The focal was very heavy, the wrap around part kept coming up to choke me from the weight of the focal... So while i did adore this piece, I rarely did wear it.

So I decided to see how I could tweak and improve it. For one, my wire wrapping skillls have evolved a lot ever since I have made this piece, and a lot of things needed to do. By the time I had unwired everything that was on it, plus the bracelet I had made at the same time that I never wore for similar reasons, this was what I had.

o.o;;; I like my things big and loaded, but... yes. Overkill. This is what I wanted to accomplish -

1. Resolve the weight issue, most of all. Neck pains while wearing necklaces is bad juju.
2. Resolve the focal pulling up, while still allowing it to be seen

So, I got to work.... And this is what I came up with :

 

There's a lot less things wired up on there, for one. I used Iced Enamels on the star tag, I used less of the titanium quartz spikes but bigger ones, and I wire wrapped them up a little more elaborately. Instead of wiring everything up. I used spare bits of chain to create volume and movement. The bookchain was a chance stroke of genius, and I am rather pleased with it.