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!

One World One Heart Event

Welcome ~ I'm so happy to be participating in this event! I'm Lisa Boucher from Tuftonboro, New Hampshire where the world is one fluffy pile of snow at the moment. It's absolutely beautiful!

Winter is probably when I am the most productive with my creative endeavors since I spend so much time indoors.  My passion is creating with clay ~ primarily beads and jewelry.  I also enjoy making functional pottery, but making ornaments and wearable art such as earrings, pins and necklaces seems to be where I gravitate.

One World One Heart Event seemed like a wonderful opportunity to meet other creative souls, share some of myself, and reach out and see what's going on out there!

  As part of the event, all participants are having giveaways on their blogs. 

All you need to do is comment on this blog post to have a chance at receiving my giveaways, and the winners will be announced on February 17th.

The peace dove ornament, heart earrings and heart pin are my giveaways for this event. They're all my original designs made from white kiln fired clay.  They also all have a mother of pearl luster overglaze, so they've been fired three times.  Imagine that!

It's a pleasure meeting you and thanks so much for stopping by!

Soup Starter Extravaganza!!

It's here! It's here! My bead soup blog party mix arrived! What a thrill to receive my beads from my bead soup partner Emanda Johnson from Artemisia's Studio!  First of all, the box everything arrived in was a piece of artwork in itself.  I knew I was in for a treat.

And I was right.  What a gorgeous group of beads Emanda selected.

I love these colors and the way the light reflects off of them.  Emanda is a Textile Artist, Jewelry Designer, Art Historian and Lecturer from Denton Texas.  It's very clear that Emanda loves quality beads and knows a lot about them.  This is going to be a bead education for me!

Emanda was kind enough to clearly package and label all of the different types of beads for me.

And I'm really glad she did, because I am more of a large hole bead jewelry creator with my ceramic beads.  I've always admired these smaller hole bead species and am excited to learn about and play with them.  It will definitely be a challenge, but I'm looking forward to it.

Here's a few closeups of the lovelies ~ 

 

 

Dyed Fossil Beads - Soak in Soapy Water?!  What's That all about? I will investigate ~~~

Look at these beautiful jewel tones!  See what I mean about the light reflection ~~?

This silver heart toggle is incredible ~ Love it.

And last but most definitely not least, I couldn't have hoped for a more amazing focal bead than this jewel toned dichroic glass pendant. See how the colors change depending on the background and how the light hits it....

Wow - Thanks so much Emanda!  I Love your taste in beads! I can't wait to get started putting them all together.