Bead Soup Blog Party 8- Reveal!

Hello friends!

Well today is the big day! How did you do? Did your designs just jump onto your bead table and transform into amazing creations? 

I will just give a quick re-cap of things before my reveal. My very talented partner is Jael Thorp of Jael's Jewels. She sent me these amazing beads with which to work! She really spoiled me!

So believe it or not, I broke the rules! Shame on me! It's been a crazy time. I just recently moved and ran into a run of interesting problems to say the least with my studio still sitting disassembled in my garage :( You can read about the "demon sink" episode here. Nothing kills creativity like stress! Ick. 

So I did something I don't normally do. I took on more things than I could "handle". If any of you know me you know I am NOT what I call a "pressure cooker"(the people that work best under pressure) or a procrastinator. Lately in life I have had to let things go, give up my plans, go with the flow, and "fly by the seat of my pants". This is really challenging for me, but provides me with some good balance. 

So how did I break the rules? I didn't use our "required" pieces to design my soup.  I looked at it like this. I figured I would just start with the things that inspired me and hopefully putting those things together would keep that good energy going. 

During one of my morning meditations. Jael's heart beads came into my mind with this design around them. I recalled a pair of earrings my friend Melissa had made that looked very henna patterned with lots of negative space. This is the design that popped into my head. When I got done with my meditation I sat down to create these earrings! I call them "Sunshine Lotus" earrings.

"Loving Lotus Rays" -Jael's hearts with the faces and petals make me think of flowers and suns. This design works both as flower petals or sun rays. The earrings are surprisingly light for their size and I just love the negative space and repetition of the petal/ray shape in the design. 

Polymer clay heart beads- Jael's Jewels 

Patinated hoops- Starry Road Studio

Raku Wooly Wire- Wooly wire Etc.

Here is what they look like worn. Amazing, huh?! I really love the look of them! Now I am inspired to make another pair of these with my lotus beads inside! 

My next design I totally fell in love with! I was on a super beachy theme of beads so I blame that for my desire to create this piece.

Here are some of the beads from my beach collection.

This was the bead that was really talking to me. I just love this sweet little ocean and shore bead. Don't you just love the little waves lapping up onto the sand? The shimmer of the glitter? The color faded waves, sandy texture and shell? Yep, I love it all!

Here is my design in progress.

Here is a close-up of the "cord" part of the design. I just love all of the details! I was especially pleased with how I rocked those tumbled recycled glass hoops from Trinket Foundry! There are no holes in the hoops for stringing materials. I make swirl centered wooly wire connectors to make the hoops into a chain, and then used hemp to suspend the recycled glass rounds across the center :D

I love the contrast of the bone beads and fish vertebrae along with my stone textured lampwork and the shimmer of the raku beads by Xaz. I chose a hill tribe copper simple hook clasp to stay on that oceany primitive theme. I didn't want anything to fussy or fancy for the clasp.

For the pendant I wanted to create a long dramatic focal point. I used one of Karen's gorgeous flower hoops at the top with one of my ocean beach stone jewel wing dings, and Jael's beautiful beach bead at the bottom.

I call this one "99 problems, but a beach ain't one". This necklace is a bit hard to photograph in some sort of normal sized photo since the pendant is so long. I think this shot really got all of the details in one photo.

Beach shore bead- Jael's Jewels

Ocean Beach Stone Jewel Wing Ding, spiral beach stones "white sands" coins, and beach stone spacers "sandy fossil"- Genea Beads

Flower hoop focal- Starry Road Studio

Raku rounds- Xaz

Recycled Glass hoops- Trinket Foundry

Here is what the necklace looks like worn.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Want to see what everyone else created? Check out our other participants here.

Happy Hopping!

xo Genea

Bead Fest Philly August 2013- Continuing Show Prep

Hello friends!

Wow is it getting INTENSE! Bead Fest Philly August 2013 is RIGHT around the corner! I have been busily working behind the scenes getting ready. You can see my first post about show prep at the Love My Art Jewelry blog here. So much has come together since that post. I have been steadily receiving orders for displays, Staci and my collab magazine in Belle Armoire arrived, my banner, and business cards arrived, and I have a small box of glass on the way! 

So before I spiral off on a tangent here is a coupon for $5 entry to Bead Fest! Just print this off and bring it to the show to receive your discount! Please feel free to share with friends! 

I started this little Pinterest board to show some Sneak Peeks of some beads some of my friends and I will be bringing to Bead Fest. Some are beads that have not been sold before and will debut at the show!  I need to add some more things to the board, but you can be sure to see a wonderful selection of my body of work from the last year as well!

So now is the fun part where you get to see what I have been up to in photos and who doesn't like photos?! :D

What is making beads without some burns?! Ouch! 

I caught the glass in between my fingers before dropping it on the floor! 

Bright Earth "Weeny Dings"! 

Some "Ocean Urchin Serpent Eggs" and "Ocean Serpent Eggs"! Aren't they AMAZING XL size?!

At first I wasn't sure about these black necks. I had originally wanted to do all Linen cause I wanted to have that "recycled" look to them, but the black necks really make the beads *POP*.

My little earring hangers. Ricky helped me order. We thought we were only getting 5 and they came two in a bag! Awesome cause I LOVE to make earrings! He he.

After looking over my table of beads I thought, "OMG I need to make more of THOSE!" So here they are!

I was bummed to not find kraft paper bags, so I had to settle for the white bags. They are kinda crappy quality, but they work. I thought maybe I could get away with just stamping them in a solid color, but they are way more dynamic multi-colored. *sigh* 

I loaded up my counter top with them. In this photo there are 56 bags strewn across the counter! I must have stamped almost 250 bags!

Each bag was then loaded with my new simpler style business card. Sorry for the dark cell photos. 

Here is a look at my table display. It was more laid out to see how things looked on the different color tray backings and to see what beads I needed to make versus actually doing the display. I still need to make my wooden boxes for height.

Who knew?! The black looks AMAZING on the linen. I also put the store textured beads on the linen as well. I really want you to be able to see the texture well.

The bright beads looked good on the light bamboo mat. I also made a little sign. I heard awhile back that having eyes watching you made you less likely to steal. How about the "Wisdom Eyes of Buddha" watching you with  a friendly little reminder?! :P

The ivory urchins look really amazing on the black!

Doesn't this "Ocean Serpent Egg" look awesome on the chocolate brown bamboo mat?! Oh and I was trying out the idea of doing smaller GB tags in the future. I sure can't go back now and re-tag everything... or well... NO, NO.. they will have to be just fine. Lol.

Oh and you know I had to make some smaller "Seahorse Hearts" and a HUGE "Seahorse Lentil"! So amazing! 

Did you see my BANNER?! YAY!!! I am so happy with it! Looks like I got the 6ft one instead! Lol. 

Well that about does the post for today! I am so looking forward to seeing and meeting you all at Bead Fest!

xo Genea

Spoils from Staci

Hello friends!

I told you I was doing my posts in backwards order. I actually received Staci's box before Karen's, but didn't get them all edited in order. 

Soooooooooo here is my awesome box from Staci! 

Ok so again with the awesome packaging! This is SO important peeps! I am a firm believer in packaging everything you send out like a gift. It's so wonderful to open up packages that are beautifully wrapped. It's an extra treat, and TRUST ME your customers will love it!

What is every more awesome is that Staci actually MADE this bag. She sewed up this sweet little pouch and tied it with a piece of batik fabric. So pretty!

Isn't she so cute?! She even made me a pouch in turquoise and my wrapping tissue was lime green with GLITTER :D AND... it was tied with batik fabric(one of my fave fabrics!) :D

She sent me one of her AMAZING bird skull beads! I am still in shock and awe at how real these look! So cool! I even have this amazing idea in my head for it :D

I just LOVE this medium spiral(which is fairly large next to my smaller work, but I love it!) and my URCHIN pendant! OMG I LOOOOOOOOOVE it! I had my eye on it for awhile ;) 

Here is a better pic in my hand. Um did you see this charm! HOLY CRAP it's amazing!! I told her she needs to make more! Just look at all of that texture on the urchin! Pretty sweet eh?!

She sent me one of her awesome sugar skulls! I can't wait to make this into my "halloween time of year" piece. I was just thinking I needed some tasteful holiday jewelry without being cheese and this is perfect! I LOVE sugar skulls too! 

I also received one of her wonderful spider webs and this pretty big piece of drilled beach glass :D

Check out these fanciful bronze flower caps. They are nice and thick.

Here is how the other piece came packed. I LOVE that she used this beautiful scrap of fabric to wrap up the jewelry she sent. I think the fabric has such a nice touch to the packaging for sure! 

Staci went through some of her past jewelry and sent me one her beautiful older works! It's so pretty! Deep purples and blues. I Love this chunk of kyanite on the left! 

Thanks for checking in to see my goodies from Staci! 

See you soon!

xo Genea

Staci Louise Originals- Sale and GIVEAWAY!

Hello friends!

Be sure to check out Staci's SALE and GIVEAWAY!  Here is where to shop and how to enter for the giveaway! 

Natures Dark Beauty

A little bit of this and that

Deep Ocean

Stop on by and shop for that special someone on your list!

xo Genea

LIMITED EDITION COLLAB RELEASE AT MIDNIGHT!

Hello friends!

It is FINALLY HERE!!  The release of our LIMITED EDITION COLLABORATION SETS! I will be listing them in my shop at Midnight tonight(US central time)!

 Ugh.. I am SICK. I got this nasty cold, but I pushed on through today getting the listings all ready to do. It's amazing what a cup of coffee and some ibuprofen will do! 

So to pick up your sets you will need to visit BOTH STACI AND MY SHOPS. Yep, that's right.. all 25 sets are DIFFERENT and we each have different sets in our shop! Are you ready to see what is in store for you??? I thought you might! Here is your SNEAK PEEK before they go LIVE!

See you at MIDNIGHT!

xo Genea