A Sky Full Of Stars

(Looking for my BSBP reveal ? go here ! <3)

'Cause in a sky, 'cause in a sky full of stars
I think I see you
I think I see you

This piece is a bit personal for a few reasons, the first of which being because it features a bead by my very talented lampwork artist friend, Donna Millard. I remember her making this bead a few days after she saw an aurora. I fell in love with that bead, but I did not have the money. And so that bead was gone, slipping in between my fingers.

Some time later, Donna made another. Again, I did not have the money. But that one bead, for some reason, sat there.It sat there and it waited, for months, until Donna had a sale. Then, I was able to bring my little dream of a bead home.

And I could not have been happier. There are no photos that can give that bead any justice. It is breathtaking. A sky full of stars, indeed. I had a really fun time trying to replicate the glow and iridescence with the shattered fire opal from the iced enamels line. It's far from the same, but it is still such a lovely effect ! I did the bowl of the two spoons as well as the round part of the handles, then poured resin on top. They all just glow ! I fear I am even more addicted to the medium than I once was... Please send help more of it, yes. I will have most of the new colors soon, minus one - they're still a bit hard to get !

The beads are blue goldstone, which is actually a man-made material rather than an actual stone. I always thought it looked like a starry sky to me, so adding a few was a given.Then I made a tassel with my star chain. The tassel addiction continues, ever and ever <<;

So I had the focal part done. I had no idea what to do the neckline with. I thought about just using more star chain, but it didn't seem to fit for some reason. This is the proof that an idea can happen everywhere and nothing is laughable... I was at the bakery, getting a tart for dessert. It was being boxed, and that box was then being wrapped in lengths of black ribbon. That was my AHA moment. As you can see this is not cheap plastic ribbon. This is a very nice fabric ribbon that worked perfectly for this purpose and provided the final touch.

Bead Soup Blog Party 8 :: REVEAL !

“I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.” 

― Terry Tempest Williams

2012 | 2013

Hi, and welcome to my reveal of the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party ! Enjoy your stay !

As a reminder, the soup the lovely Sandra sent me is here. Sandra set me a challenge - to use yellow, a color which, along with orange, just isn't a color I... dig. Or use. Or think about most of the time. She provided me with a few yellow beads for this purpose, and early on I ran into a setback. Not so much because of the color, but because most of the yellow beads she sent me, along with the pearls and the lovely coral I was so looking forward to using, had holes too small to be strung on 20 gauge wire. 22 would have compromised the strength of the pieces, so I pulled out what little yellow that I do own from my own stash and set out to work, finding creative ways to use the small yellow beads and the pearls in a different way.

This bracelet contains one of the focals Sandra sent me. I wanted to keep the top hole to hang from, as well as keep the bird straight, so rather than hook from the provided bails, I mounted (of sorts) the lovely bird focal on a round mother of pearl doughnut that another good friend of mine (also, aptly, named Sandra, but she will be represented as her online handle of Efte for purposes of clarity). The MOP links came with copper links that covers the inside of the inner hole, so it was easy to punch an hole though the decorative element, afix a wire to the back of the bird, then wire everything up neatly. To make sure nothing came undone, I poured resin on the backside. This bird isn't flying away ! The heart with kanji came from Efte as well, though I used ice enamels to color it. Sandra sent me the flower bead caps separately upon realizing she forgot to send me some, and they worked perfectly in this lovely little bracelet !

The clasp is handmade by the lovely Lisa of Metal Me This, painted with lumiere paints and adorned with a tiny wire nest. Sandra sent me a trio of lovely egg beads, but they were a little big for this purpose, so I painted this smaller trio to match them. The bird spacers are from Sandra as well, but are guarding tiny nests of pearls and hearts rather than spacing anything ! Most of the gemstones on this bracelet were part of my soup, with exceptions of the smaller agate round, the wooden beads, and the round yellow stones, that came from my stash. The three strands were made separately and then I wired them together with jump rings to keep things tidy. this is a substantial piece, as per my usual, and a nice weight on one's wrist. I made this within a week of getting my soup, and have been wearing it nearly constantly since !

But, Audrey, you mentioned three big egg beads, where are they ? Well...

There they are ! I first made this to be an element in the bracelet, but it was much too big to work well. Rather than cut the whole thing apart, I thought to make a ring with a spare bit of bookchain much like I've seen Harry of Oscarcrow do. This is very similar to how I mounted the bird on the bracelet - I used apoxie sculpt to fill the hole, then pressed the focal. I found that it wasn't strong enough in the nest's case, thanks to all the irregularities of the wire wrapping, but it left me an impression that made it easy to simply glue it back in place once the clay had cured. Bookchain is expensive, and having a good way to use up small bits and bobs is very handy !

But, Audrey, those who know me might say. Two whole pieces, and nary a necklace in sight ? Are you well ?

Worry not, my dears.

There's a necklace, as one could expect from me :P The base is assemblage of three different brass pieces - the backplate with the holes, the winged cartouche, and the heart. The heart was painted with vintaj inks in a mix of garnet and black, then had iced enamels applied on. I painted the little bird with lumière paint for the golden, and the leftover red from the heart. I used crystal clay to fix the heart of the winged cartouche, and then went around it with the pearls Sandra sent me to hide how raised up it was. They worked perfectly for this purpose !

The base itself had some red painted onto, then I used tissue decoupage on top of it. Once the two parts were together, I put resin on everything, making sure to not cover the pearls. Then I put the backplate on.

I made the neckline while keeping in mind that the piece was going to be relatively bottom heavy - the sari ribbon on the back keeps the necklace from being harsh on the neck, where the beaded segments offer decoration on the sides. The clasp is the clasp Sandra sent me, though it gained a little birdy friend who made a nest upon it.

The lower part is definitively kitchen sinky. The sari ribbon adds a lot of volume to the bottom part while not adding too much weight. A lot of the gemstone beads that Sandra sent me ended up here, along with a little bottle full of coral. I made yet another little nest for the center tassel part, with a cloisonne bead Efte sent me. The rest came from my own stash. Here's a better look of the whole bottom part pulled out :

And, as a finale, something a little more unusual (well, for me...)

These earrings all use the bead caps and the yellow beads Sandra sent me, as well as some scrap bits of sari and chain. These were actually really fun to do, and I plan to do more of them ! I love to use the little brass spoon Brenda sells as elements like this. They work very well for earrings, or elements in assemblage. Im sure to make a bunch more !

Well, that's about it for me for this year ! Please make sure to visit my partner, Sandra, as well as everyone else involved in the party ! Have fun !

Galaxia Insomnia ~ Astral Domination

It started with one woman, and one bead.

Lampwork bead by Jennifer Cameron.

Part of her Nightmare Insomnia line <3

There was a party, the the bead changed hands. It changed countries, in fact ! The second woman saw the universe, a nebula, trapped in glass.Infinity in something that could be held in the palm on one's hand.

Add some more inspiration...

Nightmare Imsomnia became Galaxia Insomnia.

The galaxy sways, trapped in it's bottle, to the backdrop of more distant space. The purple stone is an agate, but it was the patterning of it that made me decide to use it. It sadly has less purple in it than the seller's photos showed, but it still works well all the same. The lone pink star is cat's eye. The open beads are metal beads that I rescued from a broken piece I found in a thrift store, and painted with vintaj patinas.Those beads are framed by tiny glass ovals. The clasp is likewise painted in the same manner. Yes, that is a sideway clasp ! My first, in facr.

The stone is much more loosely wrapped than I usually do, because I did not want to steal focus from the lampwork too much. I painted copper bead caps black with the vintaj patinas to help complete the bottle shape. As you can see, Jen's lovely bead had  copper undertones itself. <3

I dyed the chain with swellegant dyes. The dyes in the swellegant line are very liquidy and less opaque than the vintaj line (which are more like enamels, really) so some of the silver base peek through. It's an extremely interesting effect that I plan to revisit later on.

Come On Ladies... Time To Spill.

((Don't forget that I have a giveaway going until June 24th, midnight EST ! If you havn't entered yet, please don't forget to do so ! <3))


I woke up to to the fact that a gnome sneaked balloons to my work chair. (The gnome looked oddly dad-shaped.... Hmm.)

And to my assistant trying to bat the whole thing down, but anyone who is owned by a cat knows how that goes.

(Don't mind the mess. Im good at chaos theory)

Im old.

Yikes.

I kid, mostly, but there are certainly days where I feel like a 50-something in a 20-something's body. GOD DAMN KIDS GET OFF MAH LAWN. Ahem.

But that's not the point of this post. There are a few things I would like to talk about, as well as a question to ask :

First, I attended a very swell party on friday. A virtual party. Wait, what ?

The lovely Jenny of Glass Addictions held out a 3 hours long blog party where she gave away very nifty door prizes as well as put many lovely beads for sale. We exchanged drink recipes and I made out like a bandit.

What's my loot, you ask ? Glad you asked~

This one is from her aptly-named Alien Skies collection. It was love at first sight. There's really no other way to explain me and this bead. It went up and I couldn't reach for my paypal account quickly enough ! I am not exactly sure what I will do with it yet... But nonetheless. MINE.

And this one is from her Nightmare Insomnia line. Isn't that GORGEOUS ??? It looks like a tiny little nebula encased in some alien bottle ! Ow, right in the muse. The clue fairy was quick to chime in as well. I had to buy it, for the good of mankind.

So I did. And if I am lucky, the third bead I was eyeing will make it to etsy and I can yoink it on my next paycheck... <<

Which brings me to my question. Even as there are some components we can do ourselves (I fear I am getting addicted to resin and bezels... Uh oh.) there are still things we cannot make ourselves. Either we don't know how (lampwork, for me), or we tried and found we have no talent in it howsoever (Oh, polymer clay... Something should be done about our love/hate relationship).

We all have our little insider secrets. Our favorite haunts. The shops we go back to, again and again and again. It might be seen as giving out trade secrets... But I don't care. XD  Here are my haunts, for your enjoyment.

Beadaholique - This is where I get most of my tools, and the silk ribbon that I dye with markers. The shipping to Canada is actually very very low, which is amazing for bigger tools and parts I might not be able to get locally. They have a wide selection of well, EVERYTHING, and the instructional videos are very through and easy to follow along. The free designs section is also an amazing muse kickstarter, and they have weekly sales that tend to fall right when I need to stock up on something. XD Subscribing to their newsletter will give you 5$ off your first order.

B'Sue Boutique and The Backroom - Some people are meant to be forces of natures. I believe B'Sue is one of those people. She reminds me to my aunt, who sadly passed away last november. The same kind of attitude, the same kind of sass... I bawled through my first video and then it actually started feeling good. That aside, B'Sue is such an incredibly helpful and talented person. Her tutorials are very helpful AND hilarious. I love her humor, her sass, and how she will actually show us things go wrong when it happens. I get all my brass stampings (she made me love metal focals. True story.), my Swellegant and my sari ribbon from her. Also, free candy. You can't go wrong with free candy.

Mixed Mayhem BEADs - Bee's bead/kit/supplies shop. Which she has yet to fill. See how polymer clay and I do not get along ? She's my crack dealer. Or would be if she actually filled her shop with shines. So I could probably buy it out. HINT HINT. <3

Shakti Beads - Sharon has a little bit of everything, which definitively comes in handy ! Her orders always make it to me at light speed, and her beads are so lovely and very well priced for the quality. I definitively recommend buying from her ! I love her focal/bead kits, in particular.

Gemalicious Beads - This is my go-to for pricier gemstone, or if I need utter flawless quality. The gem gals never fail to bring out the bling and the shines. Once you buy once you get a 10%off coupon for your next order, and there's always a freebie in your package !

Lytha Studios - My go-to for findings and tierracast components. Can't beat her prices for those, and her service is excellent. Also a freebie in every order.

Tea House Treasures - Treasure is right. AMAZING beads, for very, very cheap. She has a wide selection of natural materials and things I havn't seen anywhere else. Go pay her a visit ! You won't be dissapointed.

Cabcabana and Balibagus - This is where I get all of my bone components, and some of my gemstone focals. Be sure to check both shops !

Unkamen Supplies - Jump rings. Lots and lots and lots of jump rings. This is where I get my seed bead mixes, my tiny little drops, and where I got my amazing travelling pouch. Also, mystery boxes are my kryptonite. SIGH.

Metal Me This - THOSE CLASPS. Oh we will make magic together darling <3 And while I am pretty well-stocked in patinas, I can't wait for the launch of Color Me This - there are a few of Lisa's colors that I ADORE and I certainly wouldn't mind getting my hands on them... Ahem~

Donna Millard - I pimped out her lampwork once. Allow me to pimp it again. One day I will win the lottery and I will buy everything. Oh yes, I will.

Fall In Love Gems - Local is awesome. Getting your goods two days after you brought them is awesome. Just saying. A wide variety of everything <3

Now you know what they say... Sharing is caring ! It's your turn now. Show us your secrets !

And I knew that somehow, I could find my way back...

Have you ever seen Donna Millard's amazing lampwork ?

No ? Well, go for it. I'll wait.

Try not to spend all your money now !

...

...

Oh, you're back ! Well, let's continue this, shall we ? This story starts with Donna posting some of her amazing bead sets in the BSC (or was it the CBC ? Hmm. One of those two.) and I was hit right in the head by the clue fairy. With a 2x4.

BUY THESE BEADS !!!! BUYTHEMBUYTHEMBUYTHEM !!!!! She yelled at me, all happiness and excitement. THIS IS WHAT WE WILL DO WITH THEM !!!!!

(or maybe I need to lay off the pepsi. Both options are extremely valid)

And so, since I am known as a woman of extreme willpower and good with saving my money (HAHAHAHA).... I brought them.

Before I get to the end result, however, I want to share a little something with you. Most people probably already know this, but I figure I might as well share it with everyone else.

Thanks to the lovely B'Sue, we know that one can use alchool ink pens on metal... But does it work on anything else ?

Hmmmm, I did wonder.

I have a bunch of very lovely white silk ribbon that I've brought some time ago, with the intention of dyeing it. Well, turns out I have no idea where my dye went, and I live in a tiny little hole where I have to drive an hour away to The Big City to have a chance to get some. (No joke)

Eff that noise, I thought. Being the artsy kind, I own copic markers... And I went to town.

So you can, in fact, color ribbon with alchool ink pens. Blending colors is pretty easy, too, and once dry the color won't wash off !

I just happened to have the copics on hand, but if you are buying pens just for colorizing metal/ribbon ? Go with the spectrum noirs. You will get a lot more for your money that way.

And what did I use this for, you ask ? Well, glad you've asked !

This is where I figured out an easy peasy way to string lampwork on chain. You just do a bunch of little links with beading wire, then attach the individual chain segments to make your finished chain. I did not want to use wire for this to keep the piece as light and flexible as possible... And the jump rings also gave me the perfect opening to thread in my ribbon. Looks kind of sunset-y doesn't it ? At least that was what Donna's lovely beads reminded me of <3 The star is actually brass chain with tiny little star link. I resisted getting this chain for a long time, but when I did finally start to use chain more and more in my work, I finally did cave in.

Pink and purple paradise

Remember these ?

Well, you should. They are indeed very lovely, and Judy and I have become such amazing friends over that swap, and now we are constantly taking over each other's beading stash ! (Not that I am complaining... lmao XD)

It took me the longest time to think up that to do with them, but eventually I did...

And this is what came out !

I have no idea how Judy figured out that I loved keys, but I am certainly not complaining. XD They key I painted with my vintaj patinas, as well as the little dangling bell that is attached to it. I used the leather cord I brought from TeaHouseTreasures in order to keep all of the focus on Judy's lovely beads. Chain could have also worked well, but I did not come up with my handy dandy way of stringing lampwork beads on chain until the next piece I did (which was a few days later)

Maybe on the beads you are sending me now, Judy ? Ahaha ! <3

And the matching piece...

If you are thinking charm bracelet you are thinking right ! :D As I get more and more charms and pretties they will be painted and put on. <3

I took the stars from my eyes and then, I made a map...

A few weeks ago, Nicole of NValentineStudio had a 50% sale off everything in her store.

Yup. 50% off. Amazing lampwork. I was on this faster than someone could even blink at their computer screen. In particular, there was one focal that tickled my fancy... And so I got it, as well as a lovely set of beads that matched it rather well.

And the end result... was this.

After the dragons and all the troubles they gave me I really, really needed something simpler to work with. Sp I turned to a medium I had only barely used - chain - and finally, at long last... fell in love. There is something elegant about the simplicity of this necklace, really... I do not think this would have worked well at all in my usual style. The dots on the focal bead actually are in the shape of the cancer constellation... And since I am a cancer I just had to get it. Along with the lampwork I added yet more of those crystal rondelles (they go with everything, I swear !) and some of the cat's eye star beads I have in a what is more or less a gradient, pulling the colors from the focal. The little metal tag says dream.

This has since become one of my favorite pieces, and i wear it nearly all the time. Thank you for your sale, Nicole !

Pantone Bead Swap - or Why I Am A Lucky Ass Girl.

I've taken part into my very first bead swap in the Bead Soup Cafe on Facebook - and well, I gotta say I got one hell of a welcome. I was matched with an amazing lady - Judy Daly Reganti !

Judy is a lampworker, and oh boy was I ever in for a treat when her envelope showed up in my mailbox today...

I mean look at this ! O_O If I hadn't already been in love with lampwork, this would have done me in.

Let's take a closer look, shall we ? I mean, isn't that texture gorgeous ? The purples and pinks and blues - oh my !

Another closer look for you guys, the top beads on the strand this time.

I am also very much in love with that key. I mean, seriously. I have a non-so-secret love of keys !

Now the hard part - which of the many ideas in my mind will end up being The One ? Well, until then, I still have a tiny bit of a backlog to post through (tho I need to take better photos of some of them - I was lucky today. I took these pictures and it started raining a few minutes after !)

...And I am also lazy. Yes. Alas.

If you are in the BSC, I believe Judy is still looking for some people to swap with - completely worth it !