Bead Soup Blog Party

I have not heard from my partner in the Bead Soup Blog Party if she has received her ingredients. It has been a week, so I am assuming she has and it is safe to post a picture. It is amazing to see that her color palette is so similar to the one she sent to me. She had a gold in hers which is not included in what I sent to her. Both have a floral theme. The clasp I have had a while and just could not come up with a design to do it justice. I am sure she will. The flower focals, I had played with this design probably two years ago, I revisited and had forgotten how much I enjoyed making them. I also sent some pink spacers and some etched black with a dragged design that I made to match. The rest are beads from my stash that I thought she might be able to use in the same color palette. Hope she enjoys working with my beads.


I know I have posted pictures of a similar bracelet but I just love it. I have also made two beads this time with two leaves for earrings. I just need to figure out how to handle the top and bottom of the apple. I am going to do the art fair in April and I think this would be a good design to take to that one. I am also thinking about doing home jewelry parties. I need to work out in my head how to compensate the hostess. I think it might be a good addition to the art fairs that I am planning on doing. I could take orders and also have point of sale items. Can't decide if I should teach a jewelry skill to build up a bead clientele in addition to finished jewelry. I could use my same set up that I use for Art Fairs but maybe pare it down a bit. What do you think? If anybody has tried this I would be grateful for any helpful tips.

I also have been struggling to figure out a way to make glass head pins with out using my key mandrel. I think today I figured it out. Hopefully an alligator clip (roach clip) will not melt in the conditions I am going to subject it to. I found some clips that Danny had for models that have a hole in the end and I found in my stash of copper some tubing that just fits in the hole. Wa La . I would like to avoid burning my fingers in this process. I have made a sterling, copper and steel one. There are some design ideas that are running around in my head for these specifically. Maybe tomorrow I can test this new tool. I always love a new tool.