I have signed up for two bead swaps this year inorder to push myself out of a creative dry-spell. One is the Bead peeps 3rd Annual Swap and Hop hosted by Linda Anderson, and the second is the Bead soup Blog party – Bead Hoarders edition that is hosted by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things. I participated in a BSBP many years back where Lilik Kristiani of Indonesia was my partner.
This time around my partner is Dee Elgie, a bead maker and jewelry designer from Surrey in UK. She has a brand of handmade lampwork beads called Cherry Obsidia and a quirky website called “The doings” to go with it. You can wear the doings, create the doings or teach the doings there. But most importantly she is a teacher at a small school for boys with social, emotional and mental health problems. I love the fact that I am paired with fellow teacher.
All designers, artists, and crafters like hoarding things, pretty things. Things that they will neither use nor sell nor gift to someone else. So this Bead Hoarders edition is all about giving atleast one bead/component that you hold dear to another. It is about digging deep into your stash of hoarded pretties and finding pieces that might be given life by another designer. Interesting, isn’t it? The stipulation for the hop was that we send one “hoarded bead”. It doesn’t need to be handmade, but it must be special to us one way or the other. The whole concept was about giving from the heart and paying it forward.
It did not make sense for me to send just one bead or component all the way to UK so I made up a bead mix. I sent the floral white hearts by Jyothi which were the first lampwork beads/artisan beads I ever owned. I mixed them up a Sheila Davis silver disc bead and some silk thread Turk knots. I also sent a painted metal fish I made by me in 2013 for a class demo. I had kept it all these years, wanting to make something for myself but I guess that it was for somebody else. To add some quirkiness to the mix, I packed the little silver Auto charm and added saree ribbon tassels to my bead sets. The blue bead mix could be used as it is as a bag charm or added to a key ring. I wire wrapped a glass cab that I recently made on a wooden disc and made her a bookmark as a token gift.
Gratitude and hope are my words of this year so I stamped “I hope” in the bookmark to show my gratitude to her for being my partner in this. I am planning to do a full tutorial in a separate post soon. So are you curious to find out what Dee sent me?
She sent me Lampwork hearts too – blue hearts with white leaves! It was a great complement (in terms of colors) to the white and orange hearts that I sent her. Dee had made the beads four years ago probably the same time I made the fish. It is such a remarkable coincidence, isn’t it? She has also sent me some Hematite beads and clasps and some blue and black swarovski montee sparkles. I am still wondering what to make out of them.
The reveal for this Bead Hoarders edition is set for March 25th when I will show you what I made with these beads. If this is your first time swapping and blog hopping here are some blog hop tips to show you the way around.
I hope you find it interesting
Cheers
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