Andra's Joyful Journey: March 2012

The revel day is finally here and I am so excited. First of all, apologizes are in order I haven't written all month and I will explain why in another post. My wonderful partner, Christie and I were made for each other. Thank you Lori for your wise and great pairing! Christie and have several things in common not only our love of beading and Christ, but the joy we have in our daughters. It is wonderful to see the love and happiness that shines in Christie's photos.
Now on to the soup--- I received a fantastic soup from Christie.

Wow, the selection I had to chose from. I attacked the blue beads and chain first. I have had an idea floating around in my head for awhile about using chain, beads, and a donut. I have a large rose quartz donut for four years now crying for a home and Christie gave me the perfect home for it.

I do not work with chain so this project stretched my imagination. I was challenged to figure out how to work the donut, beads and chain together. I used the chain, blue beads, and clasp that Christie sent and added the pink beads and donut from my stash. Next came matching earrings. These got reworked four times because I could not figure out how to get the donuts to hang straight.

I have already worn the set to work and everyone loved them!

Next, I pulled out the seed beads and all the Brown and cream beads Christie sent. This was the project I took on my cruise. While everyone else was reading a book sunning on the deck, I was cheerfully beading away. My project started out as peyote stitch bracelet which morphed into a freeform netted bracelet embelished with the creams and brown beads. I only added the briolettes. I was going to bead the clasp, then decide to use a magnetic clasp and finally made the bracelet into a bangle. I love the results! (Mom's response was "This is really great but I can't wear it. It is too big for my wrist." Ha Ha There was logic to me madness!

Finally, I realize this morning that I had not used the focal pieces Christie sent. So back to the chain, the focal pieces, headpins, the rattail cording, and the bead caps she sent along with a few lampworked beads I had.

This was a quick project because I had hand surgery yesterday afternoon and knew I would not be in shape to bead this evening. I like how it turned out and was very pleased how confident I was working with the chain.

Lori, thank you so very much for the chance to meet Christie and to be a part of this Bead Soup Blog Hop!

For my followers, HOP around and see what everyone else created!

1. Adlinah Kamsir (Singapore) and Hajer Waheed (Kingdom of Bahrain)

2. Adrienn Lukacs (Hungary) and Agata Grygiel (Poland)

3. Agi Kiss (Hungary) and Carolien Muller-Genger (the Netherlands)

4. Agnes Asztalos (Hungary) and B.R. Kuhlman

5. Alesha Conklin and Becki Mendivil

6. Alice Peterson and Carol Dillman

7. Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu

8. Amanda Dittloff and Brandy Thomason McNair

9. Amanda Tibbetts and Andrea Trank

10. Amy Freeland and Kay Mallery