"Sunshine Lotus" Earrings Tutorial in Wirework Magazine Spring 2015

It's here, it's HERE! Did you receive your copy?! I'm so excited that our "Sunshine Lotus" earrings tutorial is in the latest Wirework Magazine for Spring of 2015! I will be listing the pair that was featured in the magazine in my Genea C-K jewelry shop soon. Keep an eye out for that ;) So where can you get all of these wonderful supplies to make these amazing earrings?

Genea Beads- Spiral Earh Stones "Sunshine Peach" , Starry Road Studio- Hammered Copper Hoops 

Wooly Wire Etc.- "Sunrise" Wooly Wire, Miss Fickle Media- Copper Ball Headpins.

Now let's take a step backwards and see where this design originated...

Do you remember these earrings that I created for the 8th  Bead Soup Blog Party? I used these gorgeous polymer clay hearts by Jael's Jewels, Copper hammered Rings from Starry Road Studio, and Wooly Wire from Wooly Wire etc. I called this design "Loving Lotus Rays". 

Here is what the earrings look like worn. They are super LONG and look very large due to all of their negative space. They are actually very light weight for their size :) 

The next pair that I created I made for my friend, Melissa. She was going through chemo at the time and starting to lose her hair. I thought I would make her  a FABULOUS pair of earrings to take her mind off of her hair. Her favorite colors are ivory and orange so I used my Spiral Beach Stones "White Sands" beads and the "Sunrise" Wooly Wire. 

I was really quite taken by this wooly wire so I decided to pair it with my Spiral Earth Stones "Sunhine Peach" beads and the "Sunshine Lotus Ray's" earrings were born! My good friend and fellow bead maker, Cassie Donlen had told me that Wirework Magazine was taking submissions. So I hopped on over and submitted my beauties. They were accepted and published as the "Sunshine Lotus" earrings you see below :D

I would LOVE to see your creations with this tutorial! So please feel free to e-mail me or stop on by my page on facebook to share!

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

xoxo Genea

P.S. If you are wondering what Leeloo's doctor results were you can check my comment at the bottom of my last blog. xoxo

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

Bead Soup Blog Party 8- My partner Jael Thorp from Jael's Art Jewels!

Hello friends!

Bead Soup Blog Party 8 is upon us! Meet my partner, Jael Thorp of Jael's Art Jewels!

Meet Jael!

She makes the most amazing polymer clay creations!

Check out her GORGEOUS "Mandala Style Doodle" hearts! These are some SEXY beads huh? HUBBA, HUBBA! ;)

Check out these beautiful face tiles! They look like little boards of wood embellished with a flower sun looking face!

I just LOVE these bezel set pieces as well! LOVE the hearts and love the wonderful flow of the circular and rectangular pieces in the middle row. They are all gorgeous!

I am really lucky to have such a talented partner!

You can check our her Artfire shop here.

I can't wait to see the serving of soup she sends my way!

Stay tuned!

xo Genea

Lori Anderson- Amazing People that Enrich Your Life

Hello friends!

Today I want to tell you a story about how Lori Anderson has enriched my life. If you don't already know her she is the master mind behind the Pretty Things Blog and the Bead Soup Blog Party. I first met Lori through the BSBP. I have the privilege of being paired up with these amazing artists through this super creative and fun hop: Mary Harding, Gail Vanderster-Zwang, Heather Powers. 

Lori is an amazing person. She brings creative people together. I can't even imagine how hard it must be to, time after time, do these GIANT blog hops for all of us to come together an enjoy. She is a creative soul and fantastic designer. I had the pleasure of seeing some of Lori's amazing designs when I participated in her Cup of Bead Soup.

One of Lori's designs using beads from my cup of bead soup. 

Lori's bracelet created from my cup of bead soup.

So when I talk about her "bringing people together" I have her to thank for bringing one of my beady besties and me together. Staci and I met through the first BSBP in which  I participated. We loved each others beads immediately and messaged to tell one another. That message turned into a trade, which was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

These were the very first beads Staci and I traded. 

This first little sprout flourished into a more branches and leaves that bloomed into a collaboration.

That collaboration grew into doing a HUGE bead show together. Staci and me at Bead Fest Philly 2013.

I just love this girl to bits! I am so lucky to call her my friend and it's all because of YOU, Lori!

It was so nice to finally meet you at Bead Fest! To be able to thank the person that has enriched my life and connected me to this amazing group of artists I call friends. Thank you for everything you do Lori! We love you girl!!

To see how Lori has enriched others around her check our our post in Bead Soup Cafe. Stop by and tell Lori how she has changed your life!

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

Bead Soup inspired beads in the shop!

Hello friends!

Well I am super excited about my new designs for the 5th Bead Soup Blog Party! I got to creating some wonderful beads for my designs and thought I would make some extras to share!  I even got into some ACID! Well maybe not the type that first comes to mind ;) I think you will just LOVE my new gooides, I know I do!

Here are the soup beads from Heather that inspired me for this new run of beads. 

Ok so you are confused as to why I'm sharing my bead inspiration here instead of on reveal day? Well you all know I am a details person and on the hop day my posts tend to get really long with details. I figured I would break it up this way and share about the beads now and the finished designs for the post date in an attempt to keep my blog short(ha ha).

 

Here is used our lovely transparent hot pink glass, Rubino Oro(Ruby Gold). I did the stripey design first, but it was too design oriented and Heather's beads are much more organic in style. I did my "Dersert Serpent" design since I thought it would be a lovely compliment to Heather's soup beads. 

Now here is where the excitement comes in. I loved the Hot pink above for my design, but in my opinion it's not so pretty etched. So I picked out of my very FAVORITE Messy glass colors, Mermaid. If you zoom in on the pic you can see the difference in shiny and etched. Oh and did you notice that the bubble button dot is SHINY?! >:D  Heather's teal bead is this cross of turquoise and teal so I knew that Mermaid was my color choice since it's also a teal, but more on the blue end.  I thought I would etch the glass to get it closer to matching Heather's beads. 

I love the mix of shiny and matte so I put a layer of nail polish over the bubble button dot to protect it from the etching acid. You let the polish dry, etch the bead and then remove the nail polish. VIOLA! Shiny and etchy bead = SUPER SWEET!

So that leads us to the new goodies in the shop!

 

Desert Serpent Jewel- Ok so this one was actually inspired by my bead swap with Staci of Artisan Accents.  Back for our bead swap she asked if I made the "Desert Serpent" beads in a focal size. Oh, well no, but that's a great idea! So here it is, only with a Jewel dot center :D

 

Desert Serpent Jewel "Tourmaline"- Can't decide? Love "little bits". Well here ya go! A little of everything in matte and shiny!

Speaking of Tourmaline, did you see the bracelet Malin made with my wing ding in tourmaline colors?

 

Pretty huh? :)

Desert Jewel "Mermaid" Mmmm yummy matte and shiny! So pretty!

 

Desert Serpent Jewel "Mermaid"- Focal size! Woo hoo!

 

Desert Serpent Jewel "Mermaid" set. "normal" size lentils in a set of 3. Yummo! 

Well I suppose I should get going. Mom has been patiently waiting to go on a walk with me today. It's so beautiful and sunny outside and in my basement room it's FREEZING! Time to go thaw in the sun! See you soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

xo Genea