Bead Soup Blog Party- Genea Crivello-Knable and Gail Vanderster-Zwang

Hello friends!

Wow, can you believe it?! It's finally the reveal day!! So I will apologize now if my blog gets lengthy. Please feel free to just skim for the photos ;)

Let's start out with what each of us got in our soup.

 

Gail sent me a fantastic collection of fun Mixed-Media elements from Industrial Chic , some of her GORGEOUS beaded beads, an enameled toggle and flowers, some pressed czech glass rectangles, Swarovski crystals, a super stash of seed beads and raku fired clay beads.

 

Here is the soup I sent to Gail(You can find beads like Gail's by visiting my shop here). I wanted to know a little bit about her so I could pick something that she would like, but would also challenge her. I snooped through her Etsy favs and asked her some questions to get me going. I created this SUPER set based on some of her and my favorites. Her set included: recycled sari silk, my FIRST ever lampwork heart focal headpins, some of my "Desert Serpent" lentils, some raku spacers, an "Ancient Tablet" style focal, a glass toggle and some droplet style headpins using silver leaf.

Did you know they got LOST in the mail?! Yep, for 3 weeks. We were both extremely heart broken. You can't file a claim with the post office until 21 days. So in the mean time Gail purchased some of the components like the ones in her soup, I sent her the second soup below and Lori sent her some goodies so that she could get started on her designs.

Here is the second soup I sent Gail. This one has my FIRST ever "Ancient Tablet" style heart focal! Didn't it turn out AMAZING?! Gail had bought 2 sets of headpins like what was in her soup and the glass toggle. So I thought I would send some different style clasps. I knew Gail liked winged-hearts so I decided to try my hand at some buttons! I couldn't decide on which to send, so I sent both ;) I also sent another set of spacers and the few other extra beads I had left over from the creation of her first soup.

Before we go on, I would just like to let you know that the first soup ARRIVED! It turns out the package never got "scanned in" in Portland and was a phantom package until it hit Kearney, NJ. It sat there for a few days and then was found by her amazing postal woman, Janet, and Janet's supervisor Darrell!! We were both totally STOKED!! So just had to share our loss and triumph of a happy ending!

So while I created Gail's soup I got so many ideas! I just kept creating, and creating, and CREATING. I thought you might like to see the ideas I had along the way...

 

So in honor of the metamorphosis of my designs I posted this super sweet art by M.C. Escher called "Metamorphosis"(He is and was one of my very favorite artists when I was in highschool). I thought this photo was a perfect start to my designs.

 

Well I had an idea for my first bit of Gail's soup, but I needed a pin with some glass on the end. From left to right: a bubble button swirl, a bubble button with a trapped air bubble, a head pin with a bubble button, a headpin with a pod. I did the first two on the end of a mandrel to do a quick experiment and did the last two on wire for my piece. These weren't the colors I used, but I needed to try them out to see if they would work.

 

Those designs spring boarded me to these: a fire pod, and a flame pod. Then while I was showing a friend how I created beads I did this eye bead for a demo. I did the top eyelashes with a thick line and the bottom, I did with a thinner one. I had been trying to work out a design like this for a long time and just tucked the eyedea ;P away in my mind until this moment. 

Some of these ideas I will go back to now that the Bead Soup is completed and I have more time to try some new things out ;)

 

When I was creating some components for Gail's set I started with the far left bead. This was going to be my toggle bar for this toggle.  I then had an idea for another bar(like the one to the left of the ring part of the toggle) where I tweaked the design a little to have pretty bubble buttons on the middle and ends of the bar. HOLY CRAP, are they PRETTY! Not only did I trap an air bubble on the inside(which was one my favorite things I learned when first lampworking), but I also trapped gorgeous rainbows of colors! After creating the toggle bar I thought how cool it would be just as a bead. I decided to call this style "Rainbow Sticks". :D:D:D

 

I ended up making some of my "Desert Serpent" style lentils for Gail's set as well. I took this design a step further and created the "Desert Serpent Jewel" style by adding a bubble button to the middle! So awesome!

 

After making those I thought OMG, those would be sweet on a GLASS HEADPIN! So I made one in a tear drop shape and then one in a paddle style! HOLY FREAKIN' YUM! They are SOOOOO pretty! I then got the idea to make these rainbowy heart headpins! I plan on going back to re-create some of these as well. I just kind of physically glass doodled my ideas to go back to when I had an opportunity. This is kind of like sketching in a sketch book, but with created samples :D

MY DESIGNS FROM GAIL'S SOUP....

So what did I created with Gail's soup? Well this first idea I created the same day! I was really excited :D

 

First I took one of Gail's beautiful beaded beads and did a quick proto-type to see if my idea would work. It did, so I needed to create one of those glass pins I did the experiment for above(the lime green and aqua photo).

 

I call this "Jeweled Wreath". Didn't it turn out AMAZING?! I made a glass bubble button and strung it through Gail's bead and created a band! :D

 

Here is that metamorphosis thing again.... I had a pod pin and decided to put it with one of my "Vortex Flower" beads and make a ring in that same style! Pretty f*ing amazing, huh?! I just love it when my ideas turn into just as amazing designs!! :D

So what else did I make? Well I was pretty stumped for a long while. I wanted to make some glass beads to go with my soup, but nothing worked out. I then decided that maybe this design just didn't need any of my lampwork beads(crazy, I know, but what are you gonna do? ;)

So off to the antique stores and thrift stores to look for some goodies.

 

After combing store after store I returned home with these items: an old dictionary, a keyhole, a key, a printer's key with a "?" on it, and this brass necklace with oval links and tear drop shaped jump rings.

 

So come with me and take a peek through the key hole of my design.....

 

Remember that old dictionary? I took a scrabble tile, distressed it and adorned it with some pages from the dictionary! I was so pleased with how this turned out! I even used this same idea for my roommates birthday present!

 

Here is where my design started....

 

I was really enamored with this little Witch Hazel tin so I chose that for my focal. I really loved the big flower focal, but it just wasn't talking to me so I based my entire design around this sweet little tin!

I decopaged the inside of the tin with the dictionary meaning for "Tincture," I thought it was fitting since that is what you would do with Witch Hazel to create. 

If I would have had some resin, I think this would have been a perfect opportunity to do the same page idea, but fill it with resin. I really like how you could add little treasures to your tin while you wear this piece :D

 

Here is a more close-up shot of the key hold portion of the necklace. I just adore it! It took me awhile to find a keyhole that was small enough to make into jewelry. I really love the ornate design on it as well. See how I used those sweet tear drop shaped jump rings from the necklace to attach them to Gail's beaded beads?! They worked out just perfectly! 

 

Here is a shot of the little wire-wrapped dangles and enamel flower dangles I made. See Mary Harding's flower beads as well? I actually got those from her from my last Bead Soup! I was excited to add her things to this years bead soup as well since she wasn't able to participate. I bet she would be excited ;)

 

Here is a shot of the entire necklace. Didn't it turn out AMAZING?! I am really pleased with the results! It really has such a wonderful vintage look to it. I called it "Discovered Treasures". I wanted the necklace to have the feel of an old inventor/artists discoveries.

 

Here is what it looks like worn. :D

I hope you enjoyed reading about my creative process and designs! Please hop on over to Gail's Blog to see what she did with her soup from me :)

Want to see what everyone else created with their soups? Hop on over to Lori's Blog to get the complete list of participants for the September 2011 Bead Soup Blog Party!

Have fun hoppin'!

xo Genea