Welcome to the Bead Soup Blog Party blog hop! Lori Anderson, of Pretty Things is our uber-awesome hostess. She paired the 200 participants and we exchanged beads with our partners. I was delighted to be paired with Karen Hess of Monday Musings. Here are the wonderful beads, pendant and clasp which she sent me.
Beads from Karen Hess
The striped heart and polka-dot beads had such a playful nature that I decided to just have fun and make a completely whimsical necklace. I added a few more black and white beads of my own and here’s what I came up with!
Whimsical Heart Necklace
At first, when I laid out the beads on my bead mat, I mixed all the black and white beads together, but it seemed too jumbled and busy that way. So in the spirit of whimsy, I put all the predominately white beads on one side and all the predominately black beads on the other side. I used white beading wire and some white coated chain that I had left over from another project.
Whimsical Heart Necklace
Whimsical Heart Necklace
I like the way the white disc bead echos the shape of the black ring on the other side, however that was not my original intent. I started out with two white glass discs and I intended to make a pair of earrings with them. I put a large black jump ring through one of the discs and hung it from gunmetal ear wires. It was very cool looking! However when I tried to thread the jump ring through the other disc, I found out that it had a somewhat smaller hole. I pushed just a bit too hard and….. Well you can see the results. 😦
oops!
After I was done with the necklace, I still had some pretty silvery gray faux pearls left. A friend of mine had given me four 2-hole ovals of rose quartz. I thought they would combine prettily with the silver-gray pearls, for a nice spring and summer bracelet. The colors reminded me of the gray and pink pussy-willows that are in our yard. I added some silver spacers and bead caps that Karen had sent me too.
Pussy-willow Bracelet
Pussy-willow Bracelet
Earring Giveaway!
I still had the very cool carved wooden beads. These are definitely “my style” – woodsy and rustic. I had just recently received an order of orange handmade glass beads from Indonesia, which I was anxious to try out. They paired perfectly with the carved wood.
BSBP give away earrings
To celebrate the Bead Soup Blog Party, I will be giving these earrings away one week from today! All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post, to be entered in the drawing. I will determine the winner using an online random number generator. Maybe you’ll have the lucky number!
List of Participants
Here is a list of all the participants. Be sure to check both sides of the list, as people are listed in pairs. Have fun!
Hostess, Lori Anderson
Linda's Bead Blog & Meanderings 
When I saw your three pieces together I saw my girlfriends. Each piece represents the style of my two closest friends & myself. You’re giving away the ones that are my style. Count me in. Love all your pieces & the flowers used to break up the participants list.
Heeheee…that necklace is so cute 🙂
Love the earrings! And that heart necklace is too cute. Great pieces all!
Linda, the bead soup you received was such a classic – in the black and white color palette. I like how you grouped the darks on one side, and the whites on the other (and I’m sorry that one of the discs broke!). All three pieces are beautiful!! Thank you for the give away opportunity. 🙂
What a great collection. The contrast between the fun monochrome piece, the sweetly romantic bracelet and the rustic earrings could not be better!
I noticed, also, how I ended up with three distinctly different styles for each piece.
I love the little flower dangles on the black ring in the necklace – just sets it off perfectly! 🙂
love the black and white color theme! Bummer about the broken disc bead 😦
Such a shame one hole was a little smaller and you had a little ‘oops’ but I love the monochrome. Beautiful work Linda 🙂 x
I LOVE your asymmetrical, black & white creation! Absolutely gorgeous!
I love, love, love what you’ve created with the beads I sent!! The necklace is charming and speaks to me of summer, while the bracelet is substantial yet delicate is says “spring!”
You did a beautiful job with your bead soup! Polka dots are so fun!!
I love how you put the black beads on one side and the white beads on the other. That necklace is so beautiful!
i love them let me win !
I love the black and white creation. It gave me some ideas on how to use the white glass discs. I have some similar and I have been wondering what to do with them. Great job!
You probably also got an idea of what NOT to do with the white disc beads! Don’t force jump rings through holes that are too small! 😉
Fantastic LInda. You got some awesome ingredients and you put them together like a professional soup maker. Great job!
Love your designs! I love the earrings. Those carved beads are so cool and go great with the orange!
I love the bracelet too.
Pick lucky 14!
Beautiful! I am been wanting to do some glass lampwork pieces. I love the necklace disign that you came up with!
I love the design you came up with. I’d of never thought of using the white wire in that fashion and it works so well for the design of your piece. Great job. I’ll be back to visit again.
I like how the sides of the black & white necklace are opposite each other. What a bummer you had a little accident with that one bead. I hate when that happens!
Great job, Linda. I like all 3 pieces. I love black & white so that’s probably my favorite and I think you made the right decision to not jumble them all together. There’s so much visual interesting things here and having the black on one side and the white on the other makes is all the more appealing! WTG!!
So great pieces!
I love how you laid that circular bead down – I wouldn’t have thought of that, thanks. The earrings you’re giving away are fabulous – I’m madly in love with orange – they pack a punch!
Oh, that necklace is so much fun, very artistic! And the earrings are great, very tribal. Love all three pieces, each one has it’s own unique style. I think the earrings are my favorite! Maybe I will have the lucky number!
Linda! You pieces are all so pretty, but I wouldn’t have expected anything less from you 😉
I particularly like the black and white necklace. The way you separated the two colors gives it a cool yin and yang feel to it. It’s got a balance and calmness all its own (even if it is full of whimsy on the outside). Very neat.
You did a great job! Wonderful creations! Greetings, Doris
The black and white is adorable! and the bracelet is classic. Nicely done!
Linda, I’m really digging that black and white necklace! Good decision to do half and half! It looks great!
I love the retro to feel to your necklace…nothing better than a black and white go to piece!
that black and white looks great! just enough of each color on each side!!
love the black and white piece!
Lovely – I like how each piece has its own distinctive style! I love all of them – the necklace is very eye-catching.
Love the black and white necklace…VERY fun and whimsical. The bracelet is so soft and feminine looking and the earrings super cute. Great job!
Oh, I love that you chose to keep the blacks and whites separate on the necklace. It’s more graphic and playful that way! I love all other pieces too (but if by chance my number comes up for the earrings, please choose someone else, since I can’t wear any earrings). Great soup!
Great job on all your pieces. Your black and white necklace knocked my socks off. Gorgeous.
These have to be some of my favorite pieces so far. I love how each one is a different style! Black and white is so classic, and the necklace turned out awesome. I would love to win the pretty earrings!
I love the black and white necklace! You did such a great job putting that together. The bracelet and earrings are also beautiful, you did a wonderful job with your soup!
Great save! I broke something in my last bead soup too. I was so upset! Great job 🙂
I LOVE how you worked the black and white piece — you really did an awesome job. And I know what it’s like to break beads like that! And another thing, don’t hammer wire next to beads if you don’t have a steady hand. (Sigh. Don’t ask me how I know that.)
I hope you’ll join me again in the summer!
I never knew that black and white could be so playful. Delightful piece. And that bracelet is so dreamy.
I love that whimsical black and white! What a creative way to compose those beads. Black and white is so classic.
I love, love, love, what you did with the necklace!!! How fun and playful!!! 🙂 The bracelet and earrings are great too! Wonderful job on your bead soup!
Your black and white necklace is stunning. I like the way you balanced it by separating the colors and not making it symmetrical. I always like seeing how you design. So well done.
Wonderful designs, Linda! Such fun and perfect for Spring! Off to do more hopping!
Very nice I love it, I think it will be great to wear in the upcoming spring and summer and is super feminine. Have a great day!
Hi Linda! Glad to see you are participating again this season. I love your asymmetrical design and the lampwork beads are indeed fun and playful. You did a wonderful job with your soup ingredients as always. Cheers!
Lori D.
Love the black and white and separating the sides like that was perfect. Beautiful pieces. Great job!
Everything you made is so pretty! But I’m a sucker for the classic black and white combination (which I hope never goes out of style), so that’s my favorite.
I love how you put that necklace together! But the bracelet….ingenius design with that double-holed bead! It is gorgeous! (Sorry about the broken bead…been there…done that…don’t want to do it again!) You did a beautiful job!
Love the polka dots! That necklace is so fun! All your creations are great!
Oh I hate breaking beads! But it turned out very well so maybe it was meant! Love the bracelet too!
I love working with black and white. Especially polka dots and stripes. You knocked it out of the park with your necklace.
black and white designs are just so classic and classly!
What a great soup. Looks like I got here a little late for the earring giveaway. But I love the way you paired the predominantly black beads on the one side and the white on the other. It turned out lovely. So sorry about your earring accident. And the bracelet is very pretty, too.
Way to go Linda! Love how everything has its own distinctive style! It shows how incredibly creative you are, able to play with a variety of styles and totally rock them! Yay!!
Great necklace. I would totally wear that because it’s so fun and black and white is so easy to find something to go with. It’s wonderful that you didn’t try to fight the whimsy but that you embraced it instead. Congratulations.
Beautiful pieces. You did a great job 🙂
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I love your designs, the black and white necklace is my fav. I love how you did not mix up the black and white beads…great!