Bead Soup Process

What I did on my Florida Vacation ~

Day One - Fresh Fruit Salad

In between glorious walks to the beach, bike rides, relaxing, shopping and dining on delicious food, I had time to finally work on putting my bead soup together.  I brought my tasty mix of goodies from Emanda, along with some other beads I had on hand that I thought would go well with the mix.  One thing in particular that I was glad I brought was a bag of mix matched earrings that I bought at the hospital street fair for a song, and ended up recycling some parts into my bead soup creations.

I had hoped to have time to glaze some beads to add to the necklace which I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, but unfortunately I ran out of time, and was not able to glaze them before I left on my vacation.  But that's OK because it ensured that I did something completely different from what I normally do in my bead creations.

Instead, I went to this awesome Bead shop on Canal Street in New Smyrna Beach called Halos and Dreams where it says Beads, Beads, Beads on the door, and they weren't kidding.  Wow - what an amazing place - she has the most incredible selection of beautiful, quality beads I've ever seen, and the owner was really helpful and had some great ideas of what I could use for complimentary beads.

So, these are a few that I chose to incorporate into my bead soup pieces ~

I fell in love with the colors and the way the light reflects off these crystal beads, and you will see on Saturday during the Bead Soup Party Reveal how well they go with the other beads in the mix!

And, I went back to Halos and Dreams a few more times of course, and couldn't resist but to purchase some more beauties, and I have to blame it all on the influence from the Bead Soup Group and my soup partner Emanda and her very excellent taste in beads.  Thanks for broadening my bead world view! 

Turquoise, Agate, Imperial Jasper and Crystal Beads I'll be using for future creations.

See you this Saturday at the Bead Soup Reveal!

And my One Heart, One World Event Giveaway Winners Are........

What a great ride this event has been! I know I've enjoyed cruising around checking out all of the wonderful blogs and meeting other artists from all over the world!

Thanks everyone for your very sweet comments about my blog and my clay work.  I put all of the prize entries in a hat and picked the lucky winners.  OK - so I was hoping to find a top hat, but this chicken pitcher was the best I could come up with....

Lucky Chicken Pitcher Says The Winners Are.....


The Winner of my White, Pink, Red and Mother of Pearl Heart Pin is.....

 Jenxo from Victoria, Australia! 

The Winner of my White and Mother of Pearl Shell Heart Earrings is.......

Gina - The Tatting Goddess from Indiana USA - #299!

And the Lucky Winner of My Peace Dove Ornament Is....

Antonella from Quilling, Art and Expression from New Jersey USA #153

Congrats to the Winners!

Thanks again everyone ~I hope you'll come back and visit soon and see what's new on Lisa's Clay Happenings!

Landmark Moment ~ 100 Sales in my Etsy Shop!

Congratulations and Thank you to Gerry Lee Cruthird from Clay Designs by Glee! Gerry was the customer of my 100th sale in my Clayworksnh Etsy shop. Gerry chose these purple shell hearts for her prize. ~

I'm also a fan of Gerry's work, and purchased this gorgeous leaf pendant from her last year. As soon as I saw it, I knew I just had to have it....

Look at those amazing detailed leaves and the sweet swirl design and the colors!  Check out her latest post about her new ventures in Metalsmithing. Very cool Gerry - I'm envious. Love the bird design.

Thanks again Gerry ~ :)

New Necklace in my Etsy Shop!

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned I was working on some new heart pendants for Valentine's day.  Here's one recently listed in my Etsy shop that I painted in turquoise, bright blue and prussian blue with mother of pearl luster.

I made the raised swirl design toggle and ceramic beads to match the pendant, and strung them on a teal blue cord with complimentary glass and metal beads.

Thanks for taking a look!

Stirring the Soup ~

Bead Soup Ponderings ~

Since I received my delicious bead mix from my bead soup partner Emanda, I've been pondering what spices I could add to the already sumptuous ingredients.  I think it would be fun to add some of my own handmade ceramic beads.  Since Emanda's beads are mostly of the smaller hole variety, I took out a basket of my smaller holed bisque beads.....

I found a few to glaze up and string randomly in-between the other beads in the mix. 

Now to select the colors and start glazing!