Ema K: March 2012

It is incredibly warm here today. In fact it is hot! I can not believe it is March 18th. This time of year we are usually buried underneath mounds of snow with temps beginning to warm up into the 40's. There is NO snow and the temp reads 77 F right now! INCREDIBLE! Incredibly gorgeous that is! We are very happy New Englanders!

The unseasonable warmth has inspired lots of project around the homestead. Today's projects include.....

Starting some seeds. Some of the beauties that will growing in my garden this summer.

Taking a photo of this guy .... "No don't take my picture."

And taking him back to his dorm after spring break.

Getting ready for the summer season. :D We set up the new summer resort. The last one got destroyed in an unusually early October snow storm, that was the only snow to speak of this winter season. (picture me doing a little happy dance.)

Bringing the deck seating out of winter storage. So we don't have to sit on the floor in order to eat our dinners on these incredibly warm evenings, when I insist we have our meals outside.

A bit of basking in the sunshine (she looks hot, doesn't she?) and taking this girl for a walk. She is going in for surgery tomorrow to have a tumor removed. So I am going to hangout with her today while my husband takes son 2 back to college.

Now I need to go find my shorts so I can get outside for a walk. More happy dancing. Have a great day!

Welcome to my Bead Soup Reveal. This is a world wide event graciously hosted by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things.

In January Lori paired everyone with a partner and the beads promptly began their journey to their new homes world wide. I was partnered with Laurie Keefe Cecere.

I sent Laurie this collection of beads. You can visit Laurie's blog, Tree of Life, to see what she created.

Laurie sent me a beautiful package of goodies

The main rule of Bead Soup is that we must use the focal bead and the clasp we received from our partner.

I found this Bead Soup to be particularly challenging. I wish I could put my finger on exactly why I felt that way. I loved the pieces I received but I just could not come up with a design idea. I was completely stumped. This does not usually happen to me which made my artistic block even more mystifying. For more than a month I have been racking my brain for a design for all these beautiful pieces. It was only this week that I finally had a direction. As I sit and write this blog, the day before the reveal, I am waiting for my kiln to cool. I decided I needed to make some lampwork beads that I could add to my Bead Soup. A kiln doesn't cool quick enough when you are sitting around waiting for it.....hurry up, checking the temp again.

It occurred to me today why I have been having such a difficult time with design ideas.

1. Over the course of the last year my family has been dealing with medical issues. This month two members of my family were undergoing surgery. Needless to say this has made it has been difficult for me to connect with my artistic spirit.

2. Another fact occurred to me as I was playing with my Bead Soup ... I consider the beads I received from Laurie to be on the small side. I can't believe I am saying that! I have always been a small jewelry wearer up until the last year. I've gone big and suddenly had no idea what to do with "small". Let me just take a moment here to say those off white spacers are THE SMALLEST lampwork spacers I have ever seen! Kudos to the artist who created those spacers. Making such small, even spacers is not that easy.

3. The color scheme is not colors I usually work with.

But...putting #1 aside, #2 and #3 are EXACTLY the point of Bead Soup! Bead Soup is about stretching ourselves to work with materials, colors and bead styles we would not normally choose to work with.

Alas, I had an idea and set myself down to git 'er done!

A personal challenge I wanted to accomplish with this necklace was to create a variety of layers. I have seen the work of others that I love. I would characterize the work as having many different layers to it. I hope I have accomplished that.

The Necklace

The clasp, connecting on the side

The tiniest lampwork spacer beads ever, copper, howlite rice beads and turquoise nuggets

Lampwork nuggets and Kalypso dots

The focal pendant

Fini!

Many thanks to Lori for hosting this wonderful event! You can swing by her blog and read about other Bead Soup happenings, Lori has a book coming out soon!

The following is a list of all the Bead Soup Participants. Enjoy!

Hostess, Lori Anderson

Special Book Sneak Peeks, Cindy Wimmer

1. Adlinah Kamsir (Singapore) and Hajer Waheed (Kingdom of Bahrain)

2. Adrienn Lukacs (Hungary) and Agata Grygiel (Poland)

3. Agi Kiss (Hungary) and Carolien Muller-Genger (the Netherlands)

4. Agnes Asztalos (Hungary) and B.R. Kuhlman

5. Alesha Conklin and Becki Mendivil

6. Alice Peterson and Carol Dillman

7. Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu

8. Amanda Dittloff and Brandy Thomason McNair

9. Amanda Tibbetts and Andrea Trank

10. Amy Freeland and Kay Mallery