Sunday, May 15, 2016

Bead Peeps Swap and Hop Reveal


First off, a big thank you to our hostess, Linda Anderson.  It's such a big job to match all of us up and coordinate all the behind the scenes action.  I always enjoy participating in swaps.  Sometimes we are paired up with one person, like we are with the swap and hop, and other times we send in a certain amount of beads, charms, pendants, jewelry, and we receive goodies from random participants.  My swap partner is Jenny Kyrlach from Cincinnati, Ohio.  The best part of the swap for me, is now I consider Jenny a friend!

I read through Jenny's blog and Facebook posts to learn more about her.  She loves purple, dark blue, green, burgandy, forests, nature, aquariums and is a paper bead artist.  And most importantly, no pastels!  I took all that into consideration when putting together her bead package.  Of course, I included some of my ceramic beads that I create.  I didn't take a picture of what I sent, so you'll have to read Jenny's blog to see what I sent.  www.anafiassa.blogspot.com

Jenny actually sent me beads, pendants and finding to create 2 sets of designs.  She totally spoiled me!  First I am going to show you how much she sent me that I haven't even used yet.  I will add them to my bead stash and use them in the future....paper beads, crystals, Czech and lampwork glass and fun polymer clay beads.


For this necklace, I used a ceramic square pendant, paper beads, waxed linen, chain, jump rings and a leaf toggle.  Waxed linen is my favorite stringing material.  It adds color to my design, the knots add to the spacing of the necklace and it is comfortable to wear.  This measures 18" plus the 6" pendant makes this necklace a wonderful piece to dress up a plain shirt.


I made a pair of earrings with some wood beads, bead caps, decorative spacer beads and Vintaj ear wires.  I used 20g Vintaj wire to assemble them.


Now for the bonus piece.  Jenny made so many varieties of her paper beads for me.  In both necklaces, I wanted her beads to take center stage.  I love the color combo of white and black with a pop of red.  It's very classic looking to me.  Once again I used waxed linen for my stringing material, but I used red so it really becomes a part of the design instead of just a stringing material.


I hope you enjoyed reading about the swap and my creations.  After you visit Jenny's blog, please hop around to these other wonderful swap and hop designers blogs to see what they created!

Rachel Mallis http://mintmonarch.com
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