My partner for this year’s hop is the talented lampwork artist Maryse Fritzsche -Thillens of Glass Bead Art and this is the fabulous bead soup she sent me all those weeks ago – not just a beautiful selection of her own organic beads but some lovely sterling silver pieces too…
As soon as I got these beads the big focal in the top left of the picture jumped out at me because it reminded of the beautiful Jurassic coastline not far from where I live…
This inspired my first necklace which uses beaded and braided waxed linen to give a layered effect and a curved sterling silver tube reminiscent of the many coves and inlets along this stretch of coastline.
The region is also a renowned site for fossil collecting so the silver spiral shell is a perfect finishing touch for this piece.
Next up comes a bracelet designed to show off the silver focal clasp along with some of Maryse’s lovely sparkling rock beads. I found some silk that matched the beads perfectly and wove this through sections of chain and then oxidised the clasp to knock back the shine. The bracelet is finished with two Hill Tribe Silver rose charms. The cool palette and contrasting materials in this piece give it a mixed organic/urban feel.
My favourite beads from the soup were the green/neutral toned rocks and I put some of these together with one of my own bronze leaf focals to make another bracelet. I am completely infatuated with rustic seed beads at the moment so multi strands of these in varying sizes were a no brainer.
The palest of the beads from this set I teamed up with the pretty green leaf headpins and a little ruffle of russet suede to create this fun pair of earrings.
All the while I was making these pieces I was going back and forth to that Silver butterfly focal and trying to do something spectacular with it but I wasn’t happy with anything I came up with. In the end I decided I much preferred it with this very simple treatment of fine chain interspersed with Czech glass beads in graduated tones of blue and amber and a chain tail with matching teardrops.
Although I still had lots of beads to play with that’s where I called it a day but I will of course be returning to the rest of my soup before too long. Many, many thanks to Maryse for sending a bead soup that was such a joy to work with and now I can’t wait to see what she has made with the ingredients I sent her.
Lori Anderson, Hostess www.PrettyThingsBlog.com
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