Bead Soup Blog Party: Bead Hoarder's Edition

Sign up for this event was on January 28th. I'd participated in a few of the Bead Soup Blog hops organized by Lori Anderson a few years back and they were always fun and challenging. I decided it was time to start crafting with beads again.

The idea this time was to go through your hoarded beads (and all jewelry crafters have them), pick out ONE special bead, and send it to your assigned partner. You were to pick the bead, write a nice note and package it up for shipment BEFORE you knew who your partner would be.

As luck would have it, my randomly selected partner Sally is someone that I already know. I was involved several years back in her blog challenge, Focusing on Life, where each participant would post a blog every week on a pre-determined theme.

I had to drop out of the challenge in the middle of the second year, due to health reasons and other life complications. It's been wonderful to re-connect with her through the Bead Soup Blog Party. We exchanged e-mails, agreeing to stick to the ONE bead rule (while it was obvious that many others were sending much more) and I popped hers in the mail.

Here is what I sent to Sally. This lovely goddess bead was made by my friend, Louise Ingram. I'd purchased a number of lampwork beads from her over the years to make into necklaces and sell at events. Now that I am no longer able to do that, quite of few of these lovelies have been languishing in my bead stash. Each one is different, and each one is beautiful.


Both Sally and I have received our packages and can begin to ponder what to create with them. I knew I was in trouble, however, when I read her note before opening the package inside the envelope. It began, 'I know that we agreed by e-mail to only send ONE bead but...'. She sent more than one bead because 'she could not break up the set'. 

The lovely round beads are the size of marbles, handmade and perfectly amazing. I have a vague idea what I want to do with them but we will see how it ends up. The blog hop is on March 25th, so I have a bit of time to try out a few options and complete my piece. And I cannot wait to see what Sally does with the goddess bead that I sent to her.