Saturday, April 18, 2020

2020 Bead Peeps Swap N Hop REVEALS! YAYAYAYYAYAYAY!

Hello hello! Welcome to the 6th Annual Bead Peeps Swap N Hop! I'm Linda - I'm your hostess - so great to have you here!

This year, my partner was the amazing Nadine Edris. We had such a fun time getting to know each other a bit. She loves earthy tones in her jewelry. I love her sense of style and balance in her pieces. Her page is here: https://www.facebook.com/moondancejewelrymaine  (You can see what she made on this page - with what I sent her)  I REALLY wanted to challenge her to step outta her earthy box....and boy did I ever send her something she'd NEVER used before...icy blues and whites.  Can't WAIT to see her pieces! =)




On to my goodies!  I received a load of GORGEOUS pieces - all with a beach theme.  Now, if you know me - you know my OBSESSION with the beach.  I just LOVE it!  I've been to both oceans, the Gulf, and beaches in Jamaica and Puerto Rico.  I LOVE the beach!  So, this was a fuuuun project to work on.  Nadine included a sweet little bronze charm that she made and it was kinda the jumping off point for me.



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If you follow my work, you know that I tend to work in coppers and silvers - but this year for some crazy reason I'm ALL about GOLD!  Yellow gold - white gold - rose gold - all of it!  So, these pieces are my first ever - GOLD pieces.  Crazy, right?  So, I wanted to make the charm a focal, so put it on some GERJUS new paperclip chain but it wasn't quite enough...so I pulled out the Mother of Pearl (MOP) pieces she'd sent and found some of the same colored chips in my stash.  I REALLY wanted to pull in some pink to the piece...because of the next piece - you'll see why.  SO, instead of using a traditional spacer (gold) I used hot pink seed beads.  I love that they pull out the pink in the MOP beads, add some pop of color in an otherwise neutral palette, and they won't tarnish. 😇😇 I love how this one turned out.  It's so cute and I loooove the gold chain bc it reflects light, almost making it sparkle.  It's finished with a 2 strand toggle clasp.



Click on any photo to make it larger





One to my "mack- daddy" piece.  This one... this took some planning and strategy.  I found this INCREDIBLE focal by Molly Cooley. I mean - LOOK AT THIS THING!!  It's 2 sided and has a small ray of rasperberry dichro adding that simmer that the sun and clouds will produce.  I just KNEW this was my focal!  Thankfully, no one outbid me.  ;)  So, I got to thinking that this piece would be an AWESOME color block piece. I again when with the gold accents, so it would coordinate with the other piece.  I, also, found in my stash these AHMAZING gold daisy spacers.  I didn't want the whole thing in those spacers - I wanted to use those as a feature, if you will.

I started with pink and gold fumed Czech glass, moved up to a lighter 1/2 pink and 1/2 crystal bead (to reflect the changing of the colors in the bead) and moved to white sea glass to represent the change of colors.  Then I brought out the teals.  OH MY GOSH the TEAL!  I used some of the teal beads Nadine sent, which I LOOOVE (I need some more of those!), and found some INCREDIBLE *matching* Amazonite in my stash (notice the daisies?)!  They are Dakota Stones star cuts - aren't they just *luscious*!?!  Finally, another white and I added the topaz and brown Czech beads Nadine sent, to finish it off, just like the pendant.  So...now I had a dilemma - if I make it short... you won't see the teal.  If I make it long...what if I want it shorter?  Solution: A nearly 1 foot long of more paperclip chain with a heart lobster clasp.  I also added dangles of turquoise magnesite starfish, my CLASSIC BLUE 8mm bicone and another pink gold fumed Czech bead.  Y'all - I'm in LOVE with this set.  As you can see below - I can wear the mack-daddy WITH the other necklace or without...and I'm perfectly content with that.


















Check out what my other friends made!
2020 Swap N Hop
Non-Seed Partners

Seed Beaders



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2 comments:

  1. This is such a nice summer palette that you have worked with. Reminds me of ice creams and cotton candy.

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  2. Linda, all your designs are so summery and fab! Love that multi color block piece, it's perfect for a day on the beach.

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