Reveal

Here we are finally...it's reveal day!! Yay! Way back in, gosh, January I signed up for another round of the Bead Peeps Swap 'n' Hop. For one of these hops, participants are partnered up and send each other a bead soup. Then, before a certain date the participant is to make something with what is sent and reveal it in a post on their blog on reveal day. This is my 4th swap of this sort and each time I have found a way to push myself and make something that I didn't expect.

 This time I was paired up with Deborah Adpodaca and she sent me a soup inspired by the ocean near her in sunny Florida. Here is a link to her blog. Let me tell you, those beachy tones made me feel warm when I received them in the middle of winter! As it turned out, I was in the middle of a few projects when I received what she sent, so I had to hold off and finish those up before I could move on. I try not to stop in the middle of something and don't have many UFOs hanging around because of it. Even if I don't love what I'm making, usually by the end either I do, I've learned something from finishing it, or someone else loves it. ANYWAY, here is a reminder picture of what I sent her, followed by a picture of what she sent me.

What I sent to Deborah: Shibori Ribbon, Lampwork beads and a yummy clasp 

What Deborah sent me.

As I was designing, I found that the focal that Deborah sent to me,was going to be a challenge simply due to its size. Actually, as soon as I saw it, I knew I was going to be making a larger necklace. Since I'm obsessed with Shibori ribbon (Seriously, I have more colors than I could probably use in all of the projects I could make in a year and just ordered more at my son's T-ball practice this morning! I can't help myself!!) I knew that needed to come into play as well. I typically order my ribbon through Glennis Dolce, the maker of this wonderful ribbon, or Aria Design Studio who also sells it (and by the 1/2 yard too, which means I can buy even MORE!) I just fell in love with the "Oil on Water" colorway and once it arrived I knew that it was meant to be with this big focal. As it turned out though, many of the seed beads were just a little "off" with this ribbon, but I was able to use some of the awesome twisted brown bugle beads she sent. I was hoping to use some of the big white beads because they reminded me of the bubbles in the focal, but the contrast against the blue silk was just too great. 

As I worked, I planned on it to be much more wavy and not as symmetrical as it ended up. The beaded rope was a challenge for me only in that I had a hard time figuring out what to do for that piece of the necklace. I used the "Briar Rose" spiral stitch pattern with two hole triangles that I picked up from my LBS (the pattern and the triangles). The two hole triangles really complement the triangle shape of the focal. End result: I love the whole thing! Even still, I'll be posting it to my Etsy site soon. 

The mess to clean up before my next project can begin!!