Bead Soup is Here!

My bead soup from my partner Donna has made its way here from the Philippines. And I am sooo thrilled! Donna is a fabulous polymer clay artist and she handmade the focal and matching beads. 

The beads have got a woodland fairy-sprite feel to them. A little Midsummer Night's Dream to my mind. I'm not quite sure what I'll create with these because I've never played with such beads before. I just hope I do them justice.

Oh, and of course Donna also sent coordinating beads, components and a clasp. 

Some round glass beads, pearls and itty-bitty green beads.

A beautiful brass toggle clasp and flower connectors. These are so pretty!

And finally, another focal. I think. 

A huge crocheted flower. I have absolutely no clue what I'll do with this but I sure hope I think of something.

Look what I got!

Yay! My partner June and I have both received our soups! It took just about a week for our beads to travel the distance between New Zealand and Singapore. Wasn't that quick?

June has already blogged about the soup I sent her. You can read her post here. She also took a great pic of the beads. I did take a photo of the soup before I mailed it off, but I forgot to include some ingredients that I added at the last minute. Doh! For what it's worth, below is a pic of most of what I sent June:

The main focal is a glass disc by mandrel2 on Etsy. The back-up focal is a ceramic pendant by White Clover Kiln. The beads are an assortment of Swarovski crystals and pearls, Czech pressed glass beads and spacers, lampwork beads from Tokyo (the white ones with swirls), glass rounds, fire-polished rondelles, and acrylic rounds again from Tokyo. The clasp is a vintage faux pearl box clasp. I also added 2 metal leaf connectors and some rubber tubing. Just for fun.

And now, for June's fantabulous soup brewed just for me:

That fantastic focal is New Zealand Paua (Haliotis Iris - a member of the abalone family and found only in NZ). June tells me she tumbled and polished it herself. I was so touched to know this. I love that she sent something native to New Zealand. How thoughtful! June also sent some accompanying Paua beads, as well as a good amount of Swarovski crystals and pearls (what a coincidence we both sent Swarovskis!), Preciosa crystals and dyed stone rounds. She also sent a beautiful silver toggle clasp and a wee frog charm. 

I love the colours of the soup June sent me and I'm cracking my brains as to what to make with that beautiful focal. I so want to do it justice. June and I are in the 3rd Reveal so please come back on April 13th to see what we end up creating.

Bead Soup's here....Part 2

As promised, here are pics of my bead soup from Carmen. Earlier than expected. Yay!

The beads in their neatly packaged little bags. And a pretty little note card with a glitzy car charm attached (you'll see it up close later). Clearly, Carmen has a very good relationship with all things neat and tidy. She's nice and thoughtful too - see pretty notecard + sachet of sweeties (pic in yesterday's post). 

The beads after I broke them out of their plastic homes and got my dirty little paws on them. Carmen sent me a ton of ingredients. 

The focal:

Which is grey/silver with blobs of blue, pink and maroon-brown. All colours I never work with. And which also has no bead hole (ie. it's a donut). Help!

The clasps; Carmen sent me two - a toggle as well as a box clasp:

Kind, generous person that she is, she also sent bead caps, some butterfly spacer beads, 3 charms, 2 leaf connector components, a length of cable chain and two beautiful heart beads that I am sorely tempted to hoard for myself and not use in my reveal pieces. 

The coordinating beads:

Carmen really mixed things up when it came to materials. Here you have dyed shell teardrop beads, cherry quartz squares and freshwater pearls. And if that weren't enough, she also sent some faux pearls, Korean and Chinese crystals, wonder beads and Czech pressed glass. 

Finally, here's a closeup of that cute car charm she added to her note.

Phew! What a load of pics! Massive thanks to Carmen for sending me such a generous and challenging bead soup. I foresee a fun (but possibly painful) old time ahead of me as I try to figure out what to create from her varied ingredients. Those of you playing in the BSBP, I hope you get your bead soups soon - if you haven't already. Happy creating!