7.3 Bead Soup Blog Party

This is my soup for the 3rd reveal of the 7th Bead Soup Party Blog, well, most of it. I got my great soup from my partner, Brandy Thomason McNair of Bella Vita Jewelry. Click here to check out her jewelry with my beads. I say this is most of the soup as I was so in love with some of the beads I made my jewelry piece before I took the photo (bracelet below). The little green chips on the top are Kyanite. I think the green rounds are jade, maybe....they were in a baggie labeled "?" along with the lovely purple stones. The focal is a faceted bamboo agate. There are some handmade charms in copper and brass and some antique buttons.

Here is a close up of the handmade charms Brandy made. I haven't made anything with these yet; I'm ashamed to say. I will use them, I promise. I think I'll add the little WA charm to my bracelet, see below.

This necklace uses the rings that Brady labeled "Vintage". I think they maybe Lucite or Bakelite, I'm not sure. I usually like to make beads to use with my focal piece and that was an issue this year. The focal bead was a lovely large bamboo agate (see below). It is a lovely white stone, but with a lot of grey. I made at least three sets of lampwork beads to go with it and they did not match at all. The beads above were they 3rd set I made. I used silvered ivory glass to get the grey and yellow colors, but they were just too dark, but I thought they looked great with the warm yellow rings. Brandy also sent a copper clasp, so I wired wrapped the beads with copper wire and used a long copper chain. I added rings of coiled green wire to bring out the green in the beads. I think I should have either gone without the rings or more asymmetrical (but I have a really hard time making asymmetrical items).  The cain doubles through the rings so there is a length option. I used my torch to patina the copper with fire for blues and purple colors, but it didn't really stay on the wire when I manipulated it. I think I may patina with either LOS or vinegar. I'm not sure if the green/blue color made with the vinegar will clash with the green in the glass beads (I can always change out the green coils to match better or use a contrasting color or take them out all together).

Here are the stones and antique button I snatched out of the package and made into a wrap bracelet immediately. So quickly that I have misplaced the baggie that had the name of the stones. Brandy, little help with these? I just love them.

Here is my focal bead, the bamboo agate. It is so lovely and I'm not happy with what I have done. I focused so long on making matching beads, I kind of didn't come up with other ideas.  I have not done any wire wrapping before, so I took a shot. I think the shot missed by quite a bit. Oh boy, what a sad little pendant.....  Of course, I should have used the stones I used to make the bracelet, look how perfect they are together...

Many thanks to Lori for organizing the blog hop and CLICK HERE to find all the other blogs.