WHO'S A STINKY DOG??????

I was bee-bopin' through the interwebs a few weeks ago and I visited Lorelei Eurto's blog. I was lucky enough to visit when she was announcing a bead challenge. I do love a good challenge. The beads for this challenge were offered through Stinky Dog Beads, here's a picture of what we had to work with:

 

I love each of these beads, which is why I decided to join this challenge.  However, I haven't risen to the challenge as much as I should have.  I did create one piece from the challenge ingredients, and I have a couple of ideals for other pieces, but that is for another day.

Here is the necklace that I made with the English cut beads:

I've had the ceramic fish pendant for two years now, but I haven't been able to find something to use it with.  When I saw the English cut beads, I knew I had the perfect bead in the perfect color.  I bought the pendant from Firefly Design Studio.  I love Michelle's ceramics so much.  I also used irregular fresh water pearls, assorted small faceted Czech beads and silver toned roundels.  The odd shaped clear "bubble" was an extra that someone gave me when I ordered some other hand made glass beads.

So, there you have it, my entry for the Stinky Dog Bead Challenge.  Thank you Lorelei and Stinky Dog Beads for the opportunity to play along.  Please visit Lorelei's blog for a full list of the other participants, and thanks for visiting here.  I can't wait to visit the blogs of the other participants to see what they have created.

In other news, I did another bead charm bracelet and earring set for a coworkers daughter.  I was told it was to be a birthday gift, so I can't show pictures until after the big day, but, think shades of pink.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy creating....

LISA

Welcome to my table...please enjoy my Soup

Welcome, welcome, welcome.  Thank you for stopping by for the Bead Soup Blog Party, hosted by Lori Anderson and enjoyed by many from around the world.  I won't go into all the details, I'm assuming if you are visiting this blog today, you already know what's going on.  This is my third bead soup and I have enjoyed each and every one that I have participated in.

This time around my partner is Linda Anderson.  She is a great jewelry designer and I have had so much fun getting to know her.  For the first time I have actually gotten to know my partner and I hope we can remain friends after this blog party.

Here is a reminder of what she sent me to work with:

Linda also sent some other beads after I had taken this photo, and I had already used those beads before I took a picture of them, so I only have pictures of them in my jewelry designs.  This is what I created with the extra beads that she sent: 

She sent the blue and green round beads and the small blue/green Czech flowers.  I choose to use the clasp that she sent in the bracelet, it acts as a really great focal element with a small group of flowers as an accent.  I also used some of my own Czech glass in the bracelet and earrings.

I made a necklace with the focal and some of the other beads that she sent.  I added some more Czech beads from my own hoard.  This necklace is pretty long, but I like that because it has a great casual feel that would work with breezy summer outfits.

I just realized that I didn't take a picture of the whole necklace, but there are small dangles of coordinating faceted Czech glass beads, spaced along the chain.  I didn't add a lot of dangles like on a charm bracelet, it is a very airy sort of necklace.

When I saw the pink, green and blue poke-a-dot beads I knew that I was going to make earrings with them.  When I designed the first pair I loved the look so much that I went ahead and made them all the same way.  Normally, I wouldn't copy a design over and over, but I really liked the look of the earrings. 

I also created some earrings to go with the long focal necklace.

Linda sent the faceted orange rondels and I added small yellow faceted rondels that I had.  They mimic the dangles that are on the necklace, only a little bigger.

You might be wondering about the large orange crackle and clear round beads.  I have used them, but I haven't finished the piece.  I got to playing around with my polymer clay and made a really neat focal piece, that worked really well with the orange crackle beads, but it is still a work in progress.  Really, it's more like housework got in the way of finishing the piece, but real life has a bad habit of intruding on what I really want to be doing.  Showing off that piece will have to be another post for another day.  I haven't used the silver rounds, yet, but they will get used one of these days.

Here is a reminder of what I sent to Linda; stop on over and see what she created with her soup ingredients.

And here is a short cut to a list of all the participants in the Bead Soup Blog Party.  Please go and enjoy as many of the blogs as you can.

Thank you for stopping by and a HUGE thank you and a hug to my partner, Linda.

Happy hopping to you all,

Lisa