Inspirations: On the streets (Leipzig)

Just saw this on my way back from work and had to smile :)

"Curious Beader Spring '14 Challenge" - or - A little bit of everything!

Okay, that took a while.... taking the images as well as going through them just to see if any of them could be shown. *sighs* I know, I know... I should finally decide which camera I should buy. 

To make it worse: These earrings are just so hard to capture on a photo! Honestly, I don't like any of the images because I didn't manage on a single one to give you really an idea how beautiful they move and how magical they are! (and my camera simply gives up at the contrast from the blue silk to the lighter colours... grrrrr!)

A little bit of bohemian or tribal for me... as I like to dance, I would even say urban tribal, even if this is rather a dance style than a jewelery style but for me they fit in the same aesthetics. 

They were made for the "Curious Beader Spring '14 Challenge" Rebecca started on her facebook group "Curious beaders" (fitting to her Bead shop "The Curious Bead Shop"). A lot of the beads I used I bought from her shop! As well as beads I bought from a destash on fb, from my stash as well as some recycled from old jewelery! We had to chose a design pallete from www.design-seeds.com. This was mine:

And yes, even if it is just a tiny wee bit, you can find every colour! I actually started finding all the beads and material in the fitting colours and then just combined them. By the way, do you see the hammered metal pin ends? Ha! Going on my way to nerve wreck my neighbours with hammering metal ^^

I made this image to give you at least a feel of their movement and how all the beads play together in the light. (I am aware how strange this sounds but I really, really tried to catch an impression!)

BSBP - What I send (including some new beads I made)

These are the three art beads made by me included in the bead soup. The shell you may have already seen on my blog. It was sitting on my table when I put my bead soup together and somehow it resonated perfectly with the colour and just... you know... had to be part of the soup! The other two beads are the ones I planned and made just for the bead soup as soon as I signed in (so way before knowing my partner. Lori suggested starting the soup together before). One toggle clasp and a pendant. The pendant had a new shape for me but the pattern suggested this one so strongly!

And here all the parts of the bead soup I send together in one picture...

...and the details!

I always want to see the backside of beads too so I try not to forget to also always show the back of my beads :)

The pendant has three beading holes, two at the side on top and one in the middle. 

This would leave the option to dangle something at the pendant... but you don't have to because at the front the hole blends into the pattern. No, that was not on purpose even if I would love to say that it was. Just luck!

Some of my old czech glas beads I got from Rumpels mum.

Handwoven silk from thailand, waxed cotton and some chain...

More from my old beads (the tiny blue ones!) and just a collection of different shades of blue and size beads...

Metall elements to play and a lightbulb clasp from Rebecca from The Curious Bead Shop....

All the blue, all the green, all the violet... Yes, Natalie and I seem really to have the same favorite colours! We could have perfectly have combined both our soups into one. So much for starting my soup before I knew who my partner would be. Lori has a good sense for pairing people, thanks so much :)

And more czech glass beads, all of these beauties I got also from Rebecca!

BSBP - What came overseas!

I am participating in the 8th "Bead Soup Blog Party" (BSBP) created and hosted by Lori! Have a look at the blog and/or join the facebook group "Bead Soup Cafe". I already watched the past BSBPs and last year missed it due to my stay in Korea. But this year, finally, I managed to sign up in time (just one day sign up but with weeks of warning ;))!

In short: sign up day february 9th / partners announced february 28th (or a little bit later ^^) / sending beads by march 14th / Blog party may 3rd!

You will send your partner a focal bead, a clasp and corresponding beads. High quality and artisan beads that you would love to receive by yourself! 

My partner is Natalie from NewZealand (how great, that is really the opposite from where I live on the world :)) and what you see at the first picture is the bead soup she send to me! Inspired by the ocean and NewZealand. One of the ideas of the BSBP is that the soup is already put together before you know your partner so that you are not choosing the favorite material/beads/colours of your partner. Instead maybe giving your partner a great challenge by having to work with these suprise beads. In this case that won't be a challenge at all for me... because... Natalie send me beads in colours (and a theme!) I just love and already integrated in my work over and over. How beautiful are all the shades of blue and green and purple?! Thank you Natalie! :)

Natalies blog is "NorthShore Days". She lives together with her two kids and her husband at the coast. Uhm... of course I stalked her after getting her address using google maps! ^^ To live so close at the ocean is really a dream! More than understandable how much this influences her work and her bead soup. 

I asked her if it would be okay if I show some of her work and images in my blog so I could show it to you (as you may already guessed by seeing her images here, she said yes). I linked all the images so you will go directly to the blog post!

Birds, you never ever go wrong with whimsical birds!

Upcycled cork, I love the colours and the look!

And the cute layered necklaces she makes. She also shows a lot of tutorials on her blog including one for these necklaces :)

Back to my bead soup... :)

The beads came together with more (non-bead) goodies for me! Like the beads a touch of New Zealand. A fabric bag with a beautiful print, chocolate and a sweet necklace made by Natalie. Have a closer look at the flower in the cabochon! Recognize the flower? :)

You know me. Sometimes I can't get enough picture... or rather am nearly completely missing any editing skills ^^

Different shapes of glass beads all in green and blue!

Purple shining in the mother of pearls...

...and facetted with veins of red and blue (can you see it?).

I already know how I will combine these little ones! ^^

Once inside an egg....

...inside a "Kinderüberraschung" (a Kinder surprise egg). No, of course I didn't made pictures before. Just imagine colourful plastic pieces put together. Are you able to do this? To be honest, I am not and I actually saw the original plastic animal ;)

I glued the plastic animals on the lid with E6000 (where was this glue in my life until now?). After this I put two basic coats on the plastic and the metal: First the surface preparation of Christi Friesens swellegant paints and after this black acrylic paint from Reeves. 

Then I painted three layers of swellegant copper on top, waiting in between to let every layer dry. For the final and fourth layer I used the verdigris green patina with the still wet copper paint. Love the shades of green! Again... waiting for it to dry...

My last step was to add matt sealant and then putting some highlights with a dry brush and swellegant brass on top. Yes, I sealed first and added then the metall highlights (and sealed again). It happened to me that if I put the highlights without the sealant on top of the patina it can actually also turn green very fast (minutes sometime even).

Both of the glasses were the "packaging" for birthday presents for friends. You can see the presents (earrings of course) here and here :)

As it happens far to often in the last time... weeks... months... (months? ehm... yes, sadly true...) I took the pictures just in the last minute before heading to the birthday party. I even finished just at the same day. 

The idea of glueing plastic animals on some lids and painting them already is running wild for some years in the internet. I wanted to try this for a long time now. But I really think that by using swellegant I created something new out of an old idea.

And yes, you need them too! Your own little metal statues! ^^