Bead Soup Blog Party 8- Reveal!

Hello friends!

Well today is the big day! How did you do? Did your designs just jump onto your bead table and transform into amazing creations? 

I will just give a quick re-cap of things before my reveal. My very talented partner is Jael Thorp of Jael's Jewels. She sent me these amazing beads with which to work! She really spoiled me!

So believe it or not, I broke the rules! Shame on me! It's been a crazy time. I just recently moved and ran into a run of interesting problems to say the least with my studio still sitting disassembled in my garage :( You can read about the "demon sink" episode here. Nothing kills creativity like stress! Ick. 

So I did something I don't normally do. I took on more things than I could "handle". If any of you know me you know I am NOT what I call a "pressure cooker"(the people that work best under pressure) or a procrastinator. Lately in life I have had to let things go, give up my plans, go with the flow, and "fly by the seat of my pants". This is really challenging for me, but provides me with some good balance. 

So how did I break the rules? I didn't use our "required" pieces to design my soup.  I looked at it like this. I figured I would just start with the things that inspired me and hopefully putting those things together would keep that good energy going. 

During one of my morning meditations. Jael's heart beads came into my mind with this design around them. I recalled a pair of earrings my friend Melissa had made that looked very henna patterned with lots of negative space. This is the design that popped into my head. When I got done with my meditation I sat down to create these earrings! I call them "Sunshine Lotus" earrings.

"Loving Lotus Rays" -Jael's hearts with the faces and petals make me think of flowers and suns. This design works both as flower petals or sun rays. The earrings are surprisingly light for their size and I just love the negative space and repetition of the petal/ray shape in the design. 

Polymer clay heart beads- Jael's Jewels 

Patinated hoops- Starry Road Studio

Raku Wooly Wire- Wooly wire Etc.

Here is what they look like worn. Amazing, huh?! I really love the look of them! Now I am inspired to make another pair of these with my lotus beads inside! 

My next design I totally fell in love with! I was on a super beachy theme of beads so I blame that for my desire to create this piece.

Here are some of the beads from my beach collection.

This was the bead that was really talking to me. I just love this sweet little ocean and shore bead. Don't you just love the little waves lapping up onto the sand? The shimmer of the glitter? The color faded waves, sandy texture and shell? Yep, I love it all!

Here is my design in progress.

Here is a close-up of the "cord" part of the design. I just love all of the details! I was especially pleased with how I rocked those tumbled recycled glass hoops from Trinket Foundry! There are no holes in the hoops for stringing materials. I make swirl centered wooly wire connectors to make the hoops into a chain, and then used hemp to suspend the recycled glass rounds across the center :D

I love the contrast of the bone beads and fish vertebrae along with my stone textured lampwork and the shimmer of the raku beads by Xaz. I chose a hill tribe copper simple hook clasp to stay on that oceany primitive theme. I didn't want anything to fussy or fancy for the clasp.

For the pendant I wanted to create a long dramatic focal point. I used one of Karen's gorgeous flower hoops at the top with one of my ocean beach stone jewel wing dings, and Jael's beautiful beach bead at the bottom.

I call this one "99 problems, but a beach ain't one". This necklace is a bit hard to photograph in some sort of normal sized photo since the pendant is so long. I think this shot really got all of the details in one photo.

Beach shore bead- Jael's Jewels

Ocean Beach Stone Jewel Wing Ding, spiral beach stones "white sands" coins, and beach stone spacers "sandy fossil"- Genea Beads

Flower hoop focal- Starry Road Studio

Raku rounds- Xaz

Recycled Glass hoops- Trinket Foundry

Here is what the necklace looks like worn.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Want to see what everyone else created? Check out our other participants here.

Happy Hopping!

xo Genea

"Sea Horse" Hearts! My newest and most incredible feat in glass to date!

Hello friends!

Ok well I guess it's time to tell you what I've been up to. I hate to spoil the surprise after just making one bead or post in text what I will be working on. It tends to bite me in the butt, so I have been keeping things a secret. I had wondered if I should tell you now or wait to show you a whole collection of beads. I have had a few people asking and I can't keep exciting secrets to save my life! 

So here's the story. As you may have read a few days ago I freaked out. I had been doing a run of weeny dings and had all these plans to stock up my shop full of wing dings and weeny dings. I had  a few other projects on my list too. I kept trying to push on trying to re-stock, but I just couldn't. Beads weren't turning out. I was bumming because I kept seeing people post new work. I wanted to make ideas I had had in my head forever. Finally I panicked and stopped EVERYTHING. If I didn't stop what I was doing an "artist's funk" was surely in store for me. If you have never experienced one be glad. Sometimes this crappy uninspired feeling will last for MONTHS. Ugh... totally don't need that after my kiln being down for 2 weeks and then me being sick.  

So I just said F* IT and did what I wanted to. I had tried a few little tests to see if my idea was even possible. So here it goes...

So as you may know, I am totally in love with MAKU's hearts and Staci's.

MAKU hearts.

Staci's hearts, which were inspired by MAKU's hearts :D

Ok so the first step was to see if my glass idea would work. Here were some simple tests to find out. 

Here were some quick doodles for ideas. Originally I had wanted to make some glass enameled pins, but upon thinking about this idea it would be much easier to just put a blob of glass on the wire. So how could I take the inspiration I had, translate it into glass and make it my style?

So I laid out my arsenal of elements to give this idea a whirl.

I created the FIRST two "Sea Horse" hearts! OMG Look! It worked! Not only did it work, but look how AMAZING they are! 

Here is a shot of the dots on the wire. They have a trapped air bubble of course since I just LOVE to add that element. It was one of my favorite things I learned when I was first making beads :D

So after this SUCCESS surely I needed to make more!  So off to work I went....

Now what colors to use??? Hmmmm well Dark Ivory is always  a MUST, but which other colors? I asked Ricky and my sweet, sweet husband replies, "What about Red Roof Tile"? I love it when my hubby speaks glass to me. I guess that happens after 9 years of bead making and 5 years of being married ;) What a great idea! 

Oooooo AMAZING!

My palms were sweating and my heart was RACING.. 

Ooooo so awesome!

Gotta keep going...

Now for another of my very FAVORITE COLORS(and seems to be everyone elses too), Stone Ground! OH.... MY.... GOD... Look at how GORGEOUS this is!

WHOA... Just look at that COLOR. 

BUT..... with all great things comes CRISIS. The most DREADED sound ever to hear while you are lampworking. All lampworkers ears are fine tuned to this one little particular sound. When you hear a little *tink* while you are working that is BAD. That is the sound of glass cracking. So I did hear it a few times as I worked, but thought surely it must be the little dots of glass on the metal pins, right?  WRONG.... Dead WRONG. So where were those cracks?

At the bottom cone part of the heart! *dies* :'( I can only make about 3 hearts in one sitting. They are pretty intense as soon as I create the fin and add on the little "antenae". So surely those would be the delicate things, right? Nope, it's the cone. So why is it that this is happening? 

So lets take a look. If you notice. You will see that the glass is the thinnest at the cone's base. The rest of the heart is super thick with a lot of mass. So as I was neglecting the bottom of the heart so worried about my "sticky outies," it was therein that laid the problem. 

I was HEART BROKEN... literally and metaphorically. The one in the picture above was my FAVORITE.. I might even say it was my "Preciousssssssssssss". 

I mean, LOOK at it... Oh *sigh* such a bummer :(

So dismayed and disbeliefed at 

 this horror I HAD to try again. I am a very determined person, so this was NOT going to stop me. I would just try harder and remember to really make sure to give the bottom of the heart some good heat inbetween keeping everything else warm.

Here is the entire run of "Sea Horse" hearts I created :D Aren't they amazing?! As you can see I had better success my second time around! Thank God! 

 Here you can get an idea of the size of the hearts. So you can expect to see these GORGEOUS beads in the shop later this week!

I am really digging this theme so I have created even more amazing beads today! I hope to make a lot more this week.

You can expect to see these AMAZING hearts in the shop this week! 

See you soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

xo Genea

Box of treasures- Beads, Components & Jewelry- Staci Louise

Hello friends!

I am SOOOOO excited about the most recent box I received from Staci! Wow, does this girl SPOIL me! Our most recent exchange came about from one of our conversations. Staci was talking with me about us creating some designs with our special LIMITED ADDITION collaboration sets. I was telling her I really needed to get some new chain and findings since it had been AGES since I really spent a good amount of money on beading supplies(my main sink hole is glass ;P ). She was such a sweet heart and offered to send me a fun little package of some chain and other goodies to help get me inspired. She said she was really excited to get a box together for me since she loved picking out goodies to send. YAY! Well I couldn't leave my girl empty handed so I got together a box for her as well! You can see what she received from me here.

Oooo just look at this mix! Some of Staci's wonderful Sea Urchin charms, a patinated star with a face and one of her lovely wired swirly connectors she has used in her jewelry.

Here is one of her necklaces she made with a similar one :)

Oh look at all of this AWESOME chain!! I love these antiqued copper and brass chains! 

Look! She even sent me some of the SUPER CHUNKY chain she has! I just LOVE it!

She actually sent me 2 of her BEAUTIFUL  Batik Style "Hippy Girl" focals, but I already used on in a necklace! He he!

Awwww! She even MADE me jump rings! Now that is love! I can't imagine winding all of those up and cutting them all! Blegch! What a sweet girl!

Ooooo just look at this beautiful leaf focal and some wonderful metal shells!

OMG she even sent me some of her amazing Loopty Loop focals and her wonderful spiral s clasps! I just LOVE these!!

Awww fresh water pearls in my colors :) and some mop sticks, a large oval coral? barrel and a mop hoop.

Some more sea urchin spines! Some red(thank God, I have like NO red beads at all!) some wonderful kind of  fossily looking gray stones, some copper beads, and some other wonderful stones in oranges, and browns!

Look! She even sent me one of those gorgeous wire worked sea glass rings she had made for her shows!! I just LOVE it when she sends me jewelry too! I even have some pretty nails to show it off ;) 

Here are those rings I was telling you about...

Aren't they amazing?! I just love mine!!

I love black labradorite, turquoise  and amazonite! She even sent some dark green stones and some mixed ones!

Awww! she sent me some leather and suede as well! 

Staci makes these amazing cuff bracelets! You can see one below.

Sweet huh?!

OMG! Love these! Little texture stamped and patinated spirals and some little bronze organic dangles! They are SOOO sweet!

Oh here is my other batik style "Hippy Girl" focal that worked up perfectly into a design I had sitting on my table along with some of Karen's amazing "Clay Ding" beads! 

Staci, words can't fully express my gratitude for your kindness, inspiration and friendship! 

Thanks so much!!

xo Genea

A Gift from the Heart- Starry Road Studio

Hello friends!

I was so excited today to receive a large box from one of my dear friends, Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio.

I was sitting on the back porch enjoying some sunshine when Ricky came to the back door to tell me I had received a box. The box stated "fragile glass" on the outside. Ricky had said "You got a box from Karen." I said "You mean Kathy?(assuming the fragile glass box was from her since I receive many a box from her with glass rods for testing). Ricky replied, "No, it's from Karen." Oh YES! I had remembered that Karen did tell me she was sending me some goodies. I was surprised by the size of the box as those of you that know Karen know how tiny her work is. I like to refer to small things I make as "Karen Size" ;)

So Ricky and I sat on our bead together as I carefully opened my box. As I uncovered the air filled plastic from the box a tissue wrapped bowl was FILLED with amazing little treasures!  One by one I pulled each little carefully wrapped bag from inside of the tissue wrapped bowl.

 

Oh WOW!! Mmmm Raven Clay(the black clay), one of my favorites!! Oh just look at the toggle! Oh and the bronze charm! and the patinaed rings!! The toggle.. the heart! Do you see how there is red glaze on a portion of the bead while the rest is left matte black from the bare clay?! So amazing!

I was so excited to finally see first hand Karen's "Clay Dings," inspired by my very own wing dings :D Isn't her interpretation AMAZING?! I just love that her inspiration took her to this amazing new design done "Karen Style"!

 

Here is a photo of our beads together. Karen's "Clay Dings" on the left and my regular size "Wing Ding" on the top and the "Weeny Dings" on the bottom. I owe the idea of "Weeny Dings" to Karen. During one of our many late night Facebook conversations she had asked me if I ever thought about making the "Wing Dings" smaller. OH.. no, I hadn't, but I surely could try!  I just love how we just keep "vollying" inspirations back and forth. 

In this photo is one of my favorite glazes Karen uses called, "Yucatan Green". Karen uses some of her special techniques to give the clay that earthy stone look. They are just so GORGEOUS!

 

As I pulled out each bag I carefully inspected them and passed them to Ricky. Wow, look at all of these gorgeous patinas!!

 

Ooooo look at this color combo! Wow, copper clay charms and some of them patinaed!

 

*dreamy sigh* Ooooo... Wow! Just look at the clay dings, and spirals and she even sent me some chain! Awww Karen knows how much I love the look of patinaed chain and in my favorite colors too! <3

I was just so touched by all of the wonderful little treasures that filled my bowl.

Now for the last part. I carefully pulled out the tissue wrapped bowl and unwrapped it. *GASP* I held the bowl in both of my hands on either side as if I were holding the clay as Karen did when she made it. I looked inside of the bowl at the glaze and how the colors faded from a beautiful minty sea green to the soft creamy tan. I flipped the bowl upside down and admired the bottom of the bowl. I flipped it right side up and gently touched the tiny 3 petaled stamp on the front. My eyes welled and I smiled. 

 

What a wonderful, wonderful surprise :) It really made my day!

 

I was so inspired by Karen's beautiful work that just as I had gotten everything unwrapped and onto my bead table my mind started flooding with ideas. I re-set my kiln program and hopped on my torch to experiment with some new ideas of beads to match all of the wonderful things Karen sent!

Karen, thank you so very much for sending me so many beautiful, beautiful things! I am so thankful to have you as my dear friend. I am so thankful for all of the wonderful conversations we have and all of the inspiration you give me!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xo Genea