Thursday, February 17, 2011

Bead Soup in Progress!

A few days ago I shared about my bead soup that I received from this rounds swap partner. Now it's time to share a little taste of the soup! It's done, and I'd love to tell you about the cooking process, but I can't show you the final product yet! The bead soup party is on the 26th and I'll be able to reveal all then. For now...



I truly believe in evolution. Not Darwin's kind, but I think that so much of creating is an evolutionary process! I don't think most people realize the work that can go into even a simply strung necklace. Why? Because it's constantly changing until you settle down on the final piece!

This piece started out with a handful of bead soup from Shai. I separated the beads into two groups and I thought I knew exactly what I was doing with this set! So, a couple of nights ago I put the beads on a paper plate (don't ask) and proceeded with my plan. It failed. Completely. I later figured out how I probably could have made it work, but that was after I had finally managed to create something I liked!

So plan 1 down, I was on to plan 2! That failed as well and I was going to make a simple bracelet. I was about half way done when I remembered a focal I had noticed earlier but put aside because it was definitely meant for a necklace.


Trust me - that close up isn't the most flattering - it looks much better as a whole! But I have to preserve some of the mystery don't I? Looking at the focal, and then at the bracelet, I knew what these beads wanted to be - a necklace!

For those of you keeping track - that was plan 3 down onto plan 4. But wait - there's more!

I was originally thinking of using some heavy cream beads (they look like a coffee with tons of cream!) to accent the main beads. I got them out, looked at them under my desk light (the rest of the room is rather dim) and noticed that the shell's Shai had sent me are a dark brown to tan with white accents! Yes, I said white. Bye - bye heavy cream! Onto plan 5.

I pulled out the white beads and started to string the necklace and decided the white was boring. It also didn't complement Shai's shell beads very well by itself. Back to the bead box! Plan 6 was to add in some brown seed beads.


It took a couple of try's after that to get the write count of seed beads to main beads, but I'll leave it at plan 6 because that is such an incredibly normal part of the process that it doesn't deserve it's own incarnation :P

*Phew* That was quite a journey for a simple necklace! It turned out lovely though - and I even have a name for it! I just have to wait until the 26th before I can show it off :) I have one more piece to make with her bead soup too! I'm looking forward to working on that one - hopefully it will be a less convoluted process. Especially because I have a lot of projects in my bead box right now!

7 comments:

Do Be Do Bead Do said...

Looking good! See you on the 26th at the party.

Shai Williams said...

Wow! Those beads definitely had a mind of their own.

KayzKreationz said...

Looks interesting. Can't wait till the 26th to see what everyone has done with their bead soup.

French Elegant Jewelry said...

Your way ahead of me I haven't even started you sound like me with bead design it's try try try and try again. I guess we don't have that I can see it in my head before I make it thing.

Splendid Little Stars said...

Yep! That's often how it goes with creating. But it can be fun, too, working out the possibilities.

Pretty Things said...

I can't wait to see what it becomes!

Sissy and Jack's said...

Can't wait to see how the journey ends! My soup mix is still trying to start its rolling journey.

Cheers,
Stacy