GlassAddictions

Hello! Thanks for joining the party! I know you have a lot of partying to do this weekend, so I’m going to keep it short. Lots of photos, not as many words.

I introduced my partner, Shari Replogle, a couple weeks ago. Here is the bead soup she sent me:

I made a few things and still have lots of leftovers.

The way I work with the various bead soups I have received over the years is to tackle the most challenging component first. In this case, it was the bird focal made out of ceramic transferware dating in the 1870′s that Shari soldered into a pendant. I love the color, but it’s a larger scale than what I’m used to working with.

I made a couple pathetic sketches, which unfortunately do not translate well on the scanner due to the squares and my light pencil scratches. Drawing it out helped me see a couple potential landmines…mainly, the beak sliding down and pecking the wearer’s breast. Not cool.

Here’s what I came up with

I was going to make a figure 8 or something similar out of wire to separate the chain and keep it from laying over or under the bird beak. But then I saw the guts from a watch and it worked perfectly. What you cannot see in the photo is a lobster claw clasp attaches at the top of the watch guts.

Close up of watch guts:

I wanted a method to balance the bird so the beak didn’t face down. I attached a tassel made from the etched bullet casing Shari sent me in the center of the bird’s belly, then attached a bunch of random beads to the chain…most of which came from previous bead soups I’ve received.

Another view of the bullet casing and beads:

I am super happy with how this turned out!

Next I needed to use the clasp. This design turned out pretty close to my original vision. I made the “sea glass” sticks. They are just lampwork beads that I tumbled in silicon carbide grit.

For this one, I used the purple stone focal, the stone donut toggle, and a couple tiny stone spacers from the soup.

I really love these two shell beads that I’ve had forever and never used (I have an entire strand of these shell beads!)

And last, but not least, I made a pair of earrings from a couple of the etched and domed discs Shari made and sent me.

I still have some soup leftover and have plans for a viking knit bracelet with some of the other parts, but ran out of time.

Make sure you visit Shari to see what she made with the soup I sent her then see what everyone else made. You can get the links to the other party-ers here: