Blue Bird Winner!

First I really want to thank EVERYONE for their fantastic comments. You all made me feel so great about my work this weekend.

This morning I am on the run. The camera has been reserved by my son for a school project so while I have the birds in my hands, I am the only one that can see them, well Roxy took a look too but as shes a Yorkie, and it was not a dog treat, she was not impressed.

I am POSITIVE our winner will love them though, and I promise a picture before they leave here on the way to her, even if i have to take it on my iphone.
I downloaded a random number generator for my iphone and came up with Nancy at Rising Designs as my winner this round.
Congrats to Nancy, I will email you shortly.

Hi!  Welcome! 
Come on in, and Enjoy Some Bead Soup.

I am glad you could make it today to the bead soup blog hop hosted by  Lori Anderson
 
The projects I am showing today are all made with beads from a lovely Pastel cup of bead soup kit from Nan at SpiritedEarth
Nan will have a limited number of kits available for sale, grab them up they are beautiful in person. I hope you have as much fun with them as I did.
You can see Nan's blog here: Spirit Rattles
Here is a reminder picture of the great kit I received.

I love the blue bird on the pendant in this kit, but I have a rough time wearing necklaces with pendants that hang from a single center hole. They often hang too low, and get caught under the edge of my shirt, or the neckband needs to be a bit tight to have them be high enough on my neck. To combat this, I made my necklace with a silk sari ribbon base and a sliding clasp out of one of the round beads and the single hole flower. Not only is the ribbon at the back of the neck super soft and comfortable, the necklace is completely adjustable.

I added two of my own Lampwork beads, a bird house and a nest with blue eggs. Since these two beads are quite different in size and weight, I staggered them quite a bit on the neckband, this kept the bird house from turning to the back too, a win win.
A few silver butterflies, freshwater pearls and czech glass beads are mixed in with the seed beads to add a little shine to the ribbon on the bottom half of the necklace.

For the earrings, I made two flying blue birds and used a bit of ribbon to bring the green into them.
I loved these little birds so much that I have another set in the kiln!
See below for a drawing to win a pair of birds of your very own!

For the bracelet,I made a one sided bird, so his back side wing wouldn't rub against my wrist. I attached the flower disks with jump rings. Leaf chain and a PMC silver flower toggle I made finish it out. The leaf chain gives the bracelet a little movement but it is super light, something I prefer in a bracelet.

For the last project, I used brass wire. I love the way brass ages naturally, so I did not patina it. With the special pendant Nan sent ( It says Cup of Soup on the back side) I decided to use a set of lovely Boro beads from my stash, and some milky blue glass beads.
The boro  beads were made by Deborah Pierce of Pierces Designs

Ok, I am ready to call this Soup finished.
I can not wait to wear my loot!


Please  be sure to stop by the blog of my favorite designer, and our hostess, Lori Anderson


AND the blogs of the two other lucky designers Lorelei Eurto and Patty Gasparino

Finally, if you would please leave a comment, I will enter your name in a drawing for the pair of blue birds I have cooling in the Kiln. I will make them into earrings for you too if you like.
No picture yet as they are still HOT HOT! I will post a picture of the shy birdies when they are finished with their hot nap. Drawing will be Monday morning 5/21.
 Please be sure you have an email attached to your user name or leave me a way to contact you!

Thanks For stopping by!

Well, Blogger is vexing me.
I cant figure out how to put a link to my website over there to the right so
its going right here till I can figure it out.

Carrie T.   <-- my website that has past work and a link to etsy etc.

I received my beads for the May Bead Soup Mini blog hop.

The beads are from Nan at Spirited Earth. 
I love them and I have been out in the bead room pulling out all kinds of coordinating beads.

Bead Soup

Hi !
Thanks for stopping by.
I  am still in the process of moving my Blog to Blogger, and I sure hope I can figure out pictures here in this post.
I just found out that  I am one of the lucky winners of the Cup of Bead Soup Lottery for April/May!

I am so excited! For so many reasons really,
 but two really stick out.

First, I really love the Bead Soup projects Lori Anderson has posted in the past.
she is incredibly creative and makes jewelry I would wear every day if I could. When she recently changed her project to include other designers, I was very excited. I love to see what different designers do with the same beads. I didn't think I would get a chance to participate!
Here is a picture and a link to the last reveal with a really great blue polymer clay  bead set from Barbara Bechtel.

Cup Of Bead Soup Reveal

Secondly! And wow I just cant wait here.
I haven't been this excited to start a project in a long time
I JUST LOVE the CUTE BIRD FOCAL and lovely spring color palate of the beads for this soup.
The beads are made by Nan Emmet of Spirited Earth Ceramics on Etsy.  You can find her shop here:
Spirited Earth Ceramics

There is a little picture of the beads above but I am hoping to figure out how to move that button so here is a bigger picture:

Here are some more photos of Nan's Beads so you can see how fantastic her work is!
She uses lovely pastels to color her beads and pendants, I cant wait to have the beads in my hands. My next move is to go out to the bead room and try to figure out what I can use with them to do these beads justice!

 Wish me luck!

Bead Soup 2011 Reveal!

Ok just in case you have found my page and don't know what Bead Soup is..Its an exchange that is hosted by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things Blog. This year is the biggest blog hop yet. Please check out some of the amazing work of the 362 participants. For a complete list of participants and their partners please check out

Loris blog: http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/

Ok now for my necklace.
When I opened the box Cris sent I nearly panicked, there were so many beads and I was struggling on how to incorporate all of them. I really love the pendant and I wanted her to shine so I decided to make two projects. The first one I will show today, is a wire woven necklace. This is the first time I have designed something this large in wire and I seriously underestimated the amount of time it would take me. Because of my chronic pain and carpal tunnel I work slow, very slow. Often working on it for 10 to 20 minutes at a time. All told since I received my beads I have put in about 15 hours of wire wrapping on just the necklace. The second project will appear in the next couple of days once I redo a bit of wire wrapping on the charms that I am not happy with...

Here is My necklace I have named it "The Golden Hour" which is that special time of day when the quality of light just glows and is golden and beautiful for taking pictures.
Thank you to Cris of http://crispart.blogspot.com/ for sending me such an inspirational set of beads and to Lori http://www.prettythingsblog.com/ for hosting a really fun party. This has pushed me way outside of my designing box, which was the main concept of the bead soup party.

Some Past Projects

Im adding some of my favorite projects for everyone to see until I can get more photos done.