BSBP7 Reveal! Hooray!

The spectacular Lori Anderson is throwing another world-wide celebration of creativity, the Bead Soup Blog Hop.  My partner this time is the astonishingly talented Nancy Dale. If you don't know her work, go check it out here, and check out the beautiful things she created with the soup I sent her here.

After seeing Nancy's work, you can perhaps understand why I was a little nervous about doing justice to the soup she sent me. ("A little nervous" = "shaking in my shoes, staring at the wall and murmuring mantras to myself")

And in Nancy's case, "soup" = "soups".  She sent two distinct colorways, both featuring lampwork by JulsBeads.

gorgeous turquoises, creams, sterling, gemstones, and seed bead mix

warm greens and golds, vermeil, seed bead mix

I started with the turquoise mix, wanting to use as much of Nancy's soup and add little (or nothing) from my own stash.  I know it's a sign of hell freezing over - denying myself the excuse to go bead shopping!!  But seriously, Nancy spoiled me so completely, there was really no need to enhance it.

The first piece, a necklace, uses many of the lampwork beads, turquoise and jade beads, crystals from the seed bead mix, sterling spacers, and the silk ribbon that Nancy had tied the bead soup package closed with (too pretty to waste!)  All I added here was my own handforged clasp, and the textured silver rings.

Nancy and I are both beadweavers (though I realize I'm flattering myself to put myself in the same sentence with her name), so I had to do a freeform peyote piece.  I detached the triple strand portions from the clasp, and used the toggle and loop here.
And what would a soup be without a few pairs of earrings coming from it?