bead soup party!

Today's the day! It's time for show and tell with the beads I received from the lovely Joyce Becker. She was such a generous swapper that I was able to use her beads almost exclusively in the two pieces I made. First I'll talk about the bracelet.Here's an overview of the whole piece. The beads she gave me have a very earthy feel which I love, so I wanted to highlight their earthiness.

 Here's a closeup of the clasp. Joyce made the clasp and distressed it. She also patinaed the leaf. Aren't they beautiful?

She included this elegantly marbled blue and amber glass bead, and handstamped the word "create" on the round brass charm.

The only things I included from my stash are the brass bead caps and the gold divider beads. I LOVE my new bracelet!!

The second thing I made was a necklace. I made the pendant first using Joyce's beads (the blue oblong one and the round blue marbled one). I added a hammered silver circle, gold divider beads and brass bead caps.

For the rest of the necklace I used the dark amber beads sent by Joyce, a couple of dichroitic beads in amber tones, two more marbled beads (all sent by Joyce). 

I added brass chain to add a little interest, a lobster clasp, charm on the extender made with Joyce's beads and voila, an earthy, totally cool necklace!

Here's a link to Joyce's blog. I can't wait to see what she made with the beads I gave her!