Bead-inside-a-bead-hollow's in the shop today!

Hello friends!

Well I finally got the BIBH's in the shop! I know I was supposed to get the one like Heather's soup up in the shop the other day, but you know how that goes ;)

So people always ask me how I get the bead inside. I usually reply with "It's like the ship in the bottle." It's not really, but kinda. I then explain how the bead is created. You start by making the center bead first, the create a disc on either side. Wind them all together and you have a bead-inside-a-bead-hollow. No, it's not really THAT easy, but that's how it's done ;)

So first I will show you Heather's soup incase you missed it. 

See the hollow in the background? :)

 

"Island Punch" Bright and magical. Let the photos do the convincing ;)

 

"Parrot Fish" A nice soft palette with some glittery lime green :D

 

"Spring Whisper"- Originally I made this clasp for Heather's soup, but it ended up being more pastel so I thought I would share the love :)

The fish that matches my bead. This is called a "parrot fish". Quite pretty if you ask me :)

 

"Islander" - These large streaky glittery leaves and winding vines make me think island flowers. 

Well I hope you enjoyed this weeks updates!

Have a fantastic weekend!

xo Genea

Marsha Neal Studio- New sets!

Hello friends! 

Have you seen Marsha's new work?! OMG is she making some GORGEOUS stuff! Not only does she have these amazing silks, but don't forget to check out the challenge silks as well! Our very own Bead Babes have selected special color palettes for your shopping pleasures!

My goodness, where do you start?! Marsha has made so much new amazing stuff, I just want one of EVERYTHING! I'm sure you will too when you check out some of my favorites!

 

Look at these wonderful color sand textures. 

 

New Item Handmade Ceramic Bead Set Round Beads

 

Bead Set

 

Spiral set

 

Round Bead set

Well what are you waiting for! Go Shopping!!

xo Genea

5th Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal!- Genea Beads and Humble Beads

Hello friends! 

Wow can you believe today is the reveal date?! Me either! Well I will attempt to keep this short as I know there are a bagillion blogs to see(ok so not really a bagillion ;)

Heather sent me not only one amazing helping of soup, but 2! One was my challenge set with more muted colors and the other was some gorgeous bright colors!

 

Here was the first set of soup I received from Heather. I worked on my challenge set first thinking it was only fair ;)

These earrings came together quickly and easily. I even used the ribbon she had tied up my soup packages with. Why leave anything to waste? ;)

Well I must say my soup sure did give me a challenge. I muddled with a design for quite a few days.

 

I got stuck here. I really wanted to use this gorgeous heart focal with a bird on  a nest, but it was just so small and delicate against the clasp and the other beads in the necklace. 

I had planned on using the larger winter bird and egg to create some sort of simple necklace with just those 2 beads and some branch or nest as the focal. Hmm... I pulled out my wire and began to wrap, and wrap, and WRAP....

 

I fashioned this lovely wire nest and wove in some feathers. I strung on my dove and created a wire bail! My focal piece for my design!!

 

Here is is on white. It was really hard to get a great shot since each piece is light and dark so no background was really fitting. This photo doesn't even really do it justice at all for how AMAZING it is!

 

I just love the way everything turned out. These soft muted colors remind me of how things look outside now. It's these soft muted colors of the remnants of winter and the promise of spring :) 

 

Here you can see the finished necklace with the earrings from above!

Soup helping number 2!

 

Ahhh nice and comfortable! BRIGHT COLORS. Now the tealish turquoise is definitely one of my favs, but this ruby pink, although not one of my go to colors, is totally gorgeous! I just love these 2 colors together! I was excited about this set because for one, it was easier and I had a lot more bead sin my bead box to match ;)

 

Here you can see my necklace in the works. I wanted to create another incredible piece with these beauties so I decided to say on that nature theme by creating a wire woven wreath as a connector for the center of the necklace! I also wanted to incorporate some feathers into this design. I took my nice large egg and placed into into this gorgeous flower cup, a few feathers and DONE!

Here is a close-up of the Heather's willow pendant bead and my wreath. I wove in feathers, and wrapped on some leaves and flowers :D I'm so excited for just how well everything worked out and how GORGEOUS it turned out!

BUT... these colors inspired to make some designs to match. I added some of my "Cream Rainbow Ribbon" spacers to start and decided to create some other beads to add to the design.

 

Here are the beads I created to match. See how well this color glass matches Heather's bead on the right? I just love this Creation is Messy color called, Mermaid. It's a wonderful blue teal! I even did some etching and shiny stuff with these beads to better match the color of Heather's branch beads! So much fun! You can read more about how these designs came about in this post.

 

I also dabbled in this wonderful ruby pink glass to match those other fantastic willow beads Heather sent. I got on a roll so I made some extras for my shop as well.

 

So after the creation of my matching beads, away I went adding them into my design. I even used the ribbon Heather used to tie up this soup as well! Why let such pretty ribbon go to waste?!

 

Here you can see a lovely close-up of the flower cup with the egg and feathers inside :D I just love how the gorgeous Czech glass beads heather sent go so well with my lampwork beads and her gorgeous work as well!

 

The finished necklace! *GASP* OMG, isn't it BEAUTIFUL?! Do you ever look at a piece after you have created it and can't believe that YOU made it? Yep, that's what both of my soup pieces felt like!

 

What is a gorgeous necklace without some matching EARRINGS?!

Well I hope you enjoyed reading about the creation of my Bead Soup jewelry!

I want to thank Heather for her very generous soups, for all of the love and care that went into her packaging and presentation of her works, and for very sweet messaged through out this last party!

A huge thank you to, Lori as well for putting on these wonderful hops, and connecting us with such wonderful partners and wonderful participants!

Here is the soup I sent Heather! Now that you have seen what I created, please stop on by her blog to see what incredible creation she has made!

 

Love Heather's soup beads? I will be adding beads like her soup beads in my shop as we speak!(11:15pm)

Want to see what everyone else created? Please stop by and see the other BSBP artists by visiting Lori's page here!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Hopping!

xo Genea

Beachy Textured Beads Listed!

Hello friends!

Did you enjoy my teaser of these incredible beads yesterday? Well they are in the shop today! Most of them anyways ;) If I didn't list one you were lusting over in the photo, just let me know and I will get it in the shop for ya( the spacers are already gone and the headpin designs aren't finished for a set yet).

 

Here's the  collection of beads if you happened to miss it yesterday ;) 

Tide Pool "Atlantis" - Now Barbara won't be the only person with one of these incredible focals! ;) I don't think I could click enough photos to capture all of the magic in this amazing beachy focal!

 

Here is a size photo for the "Beach Eggs" so you can tell what large and small looks like ;)

 

Beach Egg "Crystal Pool Wave"- All I can say is WOW! Canyou believe this killer combo? I just love the contrast and the glitter, and.... well everything!

 

Beach Egg "Rainforest Wave"- Again with that wonderful caramel brown and gorgeous green teal!

 

Beach Egg "Atlantis Wave"- A tiny treasure with all the magic of the sand and surf!

 

Beach Egg "White Coral Tide"- This lovely one got some fantastic texture! It reminds me of that wonderful white coral you see :)

 

Tide Pool Pebble "Atlantis"- Who doesn't love lentils, right?! I just love everything about this particular design! The shape, the texture, the spiral and starfish! *swoon*

I hope you enjoyed my little beach adventure as much as I did!

See you soon!

xo Genea

Trip to the BEACH- Baking Soda beads

Hello friends!

Ok well it's sort of a trip to the beach... from my studio table, that is! If you can't get to the beach, why not bring it to you? If you remember awhile back I made that super sweet "Tide Pool" focal for Barbara Bechtel for our swap. 

 

Here is Barbara's focal if you don't remember. 

So why the heck didn't you see any in the shop? Well just as inspiration comes it generally comes to me when I don't have all of the supplies to do it(FIGURES!). I got my glass order and got back on a roll making these "Tide Pool" focals. I gave one to Barbara, and one to Mom only leaving me with one.  So I just got back in the beachy groove again after seeing a treasure in which I was featured.  If you remember my last  blog post talking about inspiration you can see where the idea started.

So after making a few of these I had this idea for a bead on my walk back to the house. LUCKY ME, it actually worked out just as amazing as it looked in my head! So what happens when ideas work out? More ideas keep coming and you have to keep creating until no ideas remain or you make so many that you have fizzled out.

 

If you were on my facebook you might have seen some mobile uploads of my beads as they came out of the kiln. I was out snapping some photos for my listings tomorrow in the sun so I thought I would take some detailed shots. 

Here you can see the entire collection of beads I created. I will have a few up in the shop tomorrow for the listings, but I won't get all of them in the shop in one day.  

 

Here is a close-up of the focals. I just love that coral like texture the beads have. They are like little treasures found while combing the beach :)

 

Here are some glass headpins I made. I was super pleased with the results, but unfortunately it seems like there are many variables to getting the desired texture results I like best. See all of the more brown sandy bottomed pins? It took me that many just to try to get 2 the same texture :/ 

I think many things change how the baking soda works like: over heating, moisture in the air(ie humidity), fresh baking soda for every try, heating and cooling inbetween applications etc. 

 

Here are the spacers I tried. I really love the results of them. They are like beach glass and sand all mixed into one. I really would love to go back and make more of these, but would you believe I am OUT OF GLASS again?! Well of some of the colors I just used like Teal and Dark Ivory. I guess next time I order, I will just have to order pounds!

Well I just wanted to do a quick post about my latest fixation. I need to get some photos edited and work on my BSBP blog ;)

See you soon!

xo Genea

Marsha Neal Studio Silk Color Palette Challenge

Hello friends!

If you don't already know Marsha Neal, she is a pretty fantastic clay artist and such a wonderfully sweet woman. Maybe you will better recognize her by her fabulous clay work.

 

Ceramic Pendant Bead Set Gnarly Spiral Texture In Etched Opal Blue Creme Glaze

 

Handmade Beads Twirl Design Pendants in Chocolate Clay with Brown and Tan Glaze

 

Urban Grid Ceramic Pendant OOAK Large Round Size Etched Dark Green Golden Brown Glaze

 I got to know Marsha better through our Bead Babes group on Facebook.  Marsha decided to start a new challenge featuring some of her silk cording. We were asked to choose a color palette and name it for Marsha's shop. How fun to get to play in someone else's supplies and even name them!  

Here is one of my entries for the challenge called "Bright Delights". You can purchase this bundle of silks on Marsha's site by visiting HERE(This is the link to all of the silks. You can click on the individual bundle using your mouse). These will be available for sale MARCH 1ST 2012.

 

Details about the "Silk Knot Bundles":

(10) 2mm silk ribbon cords are in each silk knot bundle.

These silks are over a yard in length (40-42" long each).

They are color fast and hand washable in a mild detergent.

The 2mm silks are hand stitched and can be cut at any length without them unraveling.

 

So what else will you receive besides this wonderful bundle of silk when you purchase? Well You will also be put in a drawing to win a $50 gift certificate to Marsha's shop!

Want to join in the challenge and get more details? Visit Marsha's Blog Silk Colore Palette Challenge for more details.

Marsha will also be doing some design challenges with these silks. You can sign up for her newsletter to receive more details on those events!

Thanks for stopping by! 

xo Genea