Dulcinea... Bead Soup Sweetness

This post is going to appear a little out of order.  You see, I decided a few months ago to participate in the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party, hosted by Lori Anderson.  I probably should have known better, but I always think I can do more, in less time, than I actually can (sometimes my Superwoman cape gets twisted around).  But there I was, signed up to participate, and then I started to panic a little that I wouldn't be able to complete anything with my "soup."

I did finish something, though -- not something elaborate, by any means, but it does meet the requirements of using the focal and the clasp I received in my soup from Penney Klaproth (more about the soup later).  Because I wound up waiting until the last possible minute to work on my piece, there's only one...  this sweet little necklace that I named Dulcinea.

I mentioned before that I was required to use the focal and the clasp (and you'll see later that there were LOTS of other beads, including a huge bag of seed beads and bugle beads that weren't even part of the soup!), but as soon as I saw the clasp I knew that it was going to wind up being part of the focal -- this little swirly copper loop is just too pretty to sit at the back of someone's neck.  So I chose to use it to suspend the little stone donut.  The necklace itself is an ndebele rope I made using beads from my own stash:  pretty bright copper lined seed beads that coordinate perfectly with the copper pieces Penney sent me.

 

Want to see the "soup" I received?  Here it is!  It has a great collection of metal and natural beads that will eventually be used in some project.  In fact, I have them sitting on my bead board now, while I ponder what I can do with them.  I'm particularly intrigued by the little glass plugs, the ones nearest the hand in the photo below.  Their colors are wonderful, and I'm thinking I might actually try something with wire...

 

 

Now I have some blog hopping to do...  And I'd like to invite you to hop along with me.  You can visit http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2012/08/6th-bead-soup-blog-party-2nd-reveal.html for a list of all the Reveal #2 participants.  Don't forget to visit my swap partner's blog, Faerie Acres!

What do you do with leftovers? No, not food. Leftover food would imply that there was cooking going on, and I try to avoid that whenever possible. I'm talking about leftover beads. We all have them. Those little containers holding just a few beads from projects gone by. Do you mix them all up into bead soup? Leave them in their little containers and order more of the same ones? I know you don't throw them away!

I had some leftover shiny blue beads the other day after I finished a project, and as I was trying to figure out what to do with them (because I really didn't want to create bead soup, and I have way too many of those little containers with just a few beads in them) I happened to notice that the shiny blue beads were a perfect match for some matte blue beads I had just purchased recently. So I dumped out the shiny beads onto my beading mat, added some of the matte ones, and stitched away for awhile to make this cuff. It's such a gorgeous shade of cobalt blue!!!

I'm actually more inclined to try to use all those leftover beads in something that has a pattern. Although I've made quite a few things using bead soup (caterpillar bracelets, for example), I have this compelling urge to SORT beads. Yes, I know. That's just weird.

At some point I bought a bag of mixed beads from Fire Mountain Gems. I'm not sure why, except that I wanted to get a variety, and buying a bag of mixed Japanese beads just seemed like a good way to get some different sizes and colors. I think it was back when I tried freeform for the first time, and I just couldn't bring myself to MIX UP my well-sorted selection of beads. Much better to work with a pile of beads already mixed up.


So what happened? Oh, I made a freeform bracelet or two. And I had fun doing them. But the compulsion to sort all those delicas was just too strong. Now I'm not so off my rocker that I would just sit and sort them into little piles and put them into containers. But sorting while beading into a pattern isn't weird, is it? (The correct answer here is, "No, not at all! It's perfectly normal!")

The result of sorting while beading? This beautiful Autumn Patchwork bracelet. Isn't sorting fun? :-)