Bead soup blog party numero deux!!!

It's time for the second bead soup blog party! I had a lovely time swapping beads with my lovely partener, Karyn, of Releases by Rufydoof.


Karyn sent me a completely lovely set of glass beads she made herself, including a lovely pendant. This one was a stretch for me, as there were no holes in the bead! Time to figure out what to do with a hole-less bead... why not glue it like a cabochon to a nice piece of copper?

Here are the results of what I came up with.

Ingredients from Karyn: Beautiful raku black and swirled pendant, Black angular beads, Brown and tan bead, Silver closure

Ingredients from myself: Hand cut, filed, forged, and polished copper rectangle, Copper chain, Copper wire (one piece with bead drawn on both ends), green fabric, amber colored beads.

To do this, I first prepared the copper pendant from a sheet of copper. I then crazy-glued the raku and small amber-color beads. The attachment of the pendant to the mail necklace is a hammered copper circle, wrapped around a wire-formed and fabric wrapped ending. The wire shaping is an idea of Lorelei's I gave a try for myself I created my own 'beads' by using Deryn Mentock's wrapped fabric link technique (thanks again Deryn!)

So, again, i'd like to thank my inspirationLorelei's and Deryn Mentock, my swap partener Karyn, and Lori for hosting this. Why not click on the link to Lori's blog and check out some other bead soup chefs?

star ring

Last post, i put up the copper cuff i made. Here is a mostly picture post of the ring i made to match it. I call it my star ring :)

Ingredients: Glued together stack of scrapbooking paper, ring blank, washer, small star, WIRE RIVET!!! (i was pleased with how this rivet turned out. I'm getting better!)


Tomorrow is my day for the reveal of the bead soup party necklace i made... tune in tomorrow!

Copper Cuff

This is a piece i had a lot of fun making. It was a lot of work but I will be making more of these type of copper cuffs.

I was reading Suzan Lenart Kazmer's book, looking through the chapter about hinges. I decided it was time to make a small bezel, with a hinged lid on top. Why not make this into a cuff? So very fun!
After cutting, filing, and soldering the bezel, it was time for the lid. I decided to use metal with a special kind of patina. After searching through my stash, i found a scrap that had once been part of an old broken doorknob.

The doorknob was cheap for about a dollar at a local scrap place! After MUCH fighting with it, i managed to tear it apart and flatten piece by piece of the pretty pretty metal it was from. It was quite 'damaged' (ie beautiful texture!) by the time i was done... not sure i'd reccomend this to another as it was a lot of work for little gain. Still, this was one of the pieces i'd gained here, and i do enjoy the texture and patina it lends to the piece.

After hinging the lid to the bezel, it was time to form the cuff. First i textured the copper by banging on it with the round end of a hammer, leaving it with almost a rough polka dot pattern i enjoyed. After forming it around my wrist (wow a wrist manderel would be nice... that was a hard job) I curled the two ends under.

Soldering time again! I soldered the bezel to the cuff... but the solder went everywhere! I think i heated it too long so the solder spread past the flux. Unfortunate, but i do still love it.

The closure on the back is a piece of brass, hinged again with a hinge from Kazmer's book Cold Connections. Very very fun, instructive book!

Finally, time to fill the bezel. A pretty little star and some resin, and it's finished! The resin did sadly spill out from the bezel as it clumsily got bumped and
knocked over while curing. I got most of it off, but there are some oddly shiny spots left still. Still... part of the charm?

Hope you enjoy my runthrough of what i did to create this favorite piece of mine... trials and errors included :)

Puffy Clouds

I have been seriously thinking of setting up my own etsy shop. I love the idea of my pieces going all around the world, and it would give a reason for the existance of all these earrings I make, since I myself lack pierced ears. (I know I know. I am a jewelry lover who does not have pierced ears. I guess i just never got around to it.) Also, the money would come in handy for buying new supplies online, as I usually hold off since shipping to south korea can be so expensive.

This is a piece I would have liked to sell online, but the fabric is not holding up to snuff. It has now even further deteriorated and strung apart than in the picture. I will have to repeat these, perhaps using crinolin instead.

Puffy Clouds