Bead Soup Blog Party: Bead Hoarders' Edition - Reveal Day

I will admit, when I first received the package of beads from Sally, I had virtually NO idea how or what I would create with them. I had expected to receive only one focal bead, but instead she sent two focal beads and a few extras.

I scoured pages and pages of images on Google and Pinterest searching for inspiration. I did not think I was going to be able to create something that would do justice to these lovely beads and was beginning to panic. Thank goodness, I finally found what I was looking for. 

Once I had the idea in mind, it was time to go to my bead stash to find the co-ordinating beads needed to complete the piece. The idea was to use only beads from your stash and not run out to buy new ones.

i did pretty good. The only thing I had to purchase for this project was the bead caps, as I had none of those. Here is the completed necklace.

I pulled the colour red from the two focal beads for the seed beads used for the bottom portion of the necklace. I used all the beads that Sally sent me for the focal points on either side, and clear cracked quartz and red seed beads for the upper portion.

There are some serious construction flaws in this piece, a few things that I did not clearly think through before plunging into making it. I love how it turned out but will have to go back and resolve those issues before I dare wear it for fear of it falling apart, seed beads scattering all over the floor!

Here is the original inspiration for my creation. It is considerably chunkier that my necklace but follows the same basic structure. 

This was a lot of fun to make, and it was great to reconnect with someone I had been out of touch with for several years. Check out what Sally made with the bead that I sent to her. Click here.

A big thank you goes out to Lori Anderson for hosting this event. Check out the creations of the other participants on her blog. Scroll all the way to the bottom to see all the links.