Wednesday, July 3, 2013

ZnetShows Summer Challenge :: Partner Pick

ZnetShows has a new twist on a bead soup swap. We were sent a catalog to peruse and pick out 5 items for our partner. Then ZnetShows sent our items off to our partner. My partner, Sandi James, sent me a gorgeous soup to play with, and it was full of green - my favorite color! I tried to include the links to all the beads I used below just in case you want to do a little shopping on your own.

In my soup was some small pebble sea glass in a sea foam green color. I absolutely love these! I paired it up with some light green fabric. Now here is a great idea. Christine over at One Kiss Creations happened upon a furniture store getting rid of the sample books from last season (aka, free). And those books are full of great fabric swatches to use for beading. She let me sift through and pull out some samples to try. This is my first piece using one of them. I did a little bead embroidery along the edges, and then ran large chain along the sides so I could add sea glass dangles to a very Beach Boho piece. 
As a second piece I did a necklace I call Spring Equinox with it's yin-yang colors of light and dark ... dormant and rebirth. I used one of the beautiful green sardonyx stones and did a freeform peyote around it using that same light-dark theme. The green and white beads are a pretty candy jade faceted bead. I finished it with one of the leaf connectors from the soup. This one could be worn all sorts of ways!

The next piece is a simple double helix pattern using various tones of greens and some lovely opaque green Chinese crystals from the soup. The smaller green rounds are a light jade. 

I love the flower petal pattern in this next bracelet. I picked it up years ago and haven't had a chance to try it out. It actually beads up very quickly as a RAW (right angle weave) with large beads. The pearls have a faint green tinge to them, which is just gorgeous. I wanted to bring that out a bit and added a button closure in a soft green. This one feels very luxurious on!

Ok, one last pair of earrings. I LOVE these crystal twist beads that I paired with more Chinese crystal. It is a simple pair, but would be lovely for a summer night out. I have more, but ran out of time to keep beading. So, I'm sure I'll be back with more ideas using these pretty lemony yellow crystals.

For the final surprise, ZnetShows is doing a giveaway .... so head over to their blog and get your name in! They've got some amazing beads, and rumor has it that they pulled out a little of all our soups for the give away!

29 comments:

  1. I love the piles of beads that you got!! All of these pieces look good.

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  2. These are all just stunning! I particular like the peyote around the green sardonyx!

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  3. Those candy jade rounds are so beautifully faceted, and perfectly combined with the green sardonyx. Beautiful designs, all. I can just feel how silky that RAW bracelet would be on my wrist! Such a fun idea for a bead swap!!

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  4. Free fabric AND beads... I am SO jealous, Cynthia. What lovely designs!

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  5. These greens are so refreshing, all your designs use them to their advantage. Gorgeous and fun.

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  6. Al of your creations are so beautiful, Cynthia! I especially love the lemon yellow crystal earrings!
    Off to check out the giveaway :)

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  7. Love your creativity and the different designs you created with each set of beads. Looks like it was a g great challenge!

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  8. These are all gorgeous...I love green as well, and I do not use nearly enough! I laughed when I read "simple double helix"....this from a non seed-beader! Beautiful!

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  9. Wow, you have been busy! I think my favorite piece is the necklace! Beautiful and different! Everything is stunning!

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  10. All of the different shades of green make each piece so unique. Love the earrings!

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  11. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful..

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  12. Wow! These are just so beautiful!!! Great work with your package. I love the way you encased that large sardonyx stone!

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  13. Cynthia I agree that the sea foam nuggets are yummy. My favorite is Spring Equinox with it's freeform embroidery. I really like all of your pieces.

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  14. Great selection of beads you got! Love your designs - can't pick a favorite - they are all great!

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  15. Your design came together so beautifully. I especially like the way you worked with the sardonyx. I received some of that too but totally didn't give it enough credit now that I see what you did with it. Simply amazing. The dark/light contrast you gave to that necklace is too cool!! Fabulous!

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  16. Very beautiful creations...I especially love the bracelet with the fabric swatch... :-)

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  17. I adore all of those beautiful pearls! And the beadwork on that green sardonyx is divine. Great job!

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  18. I love the pearls and the small pebbles they work very well in these designs for a beachy look!!

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  19. Inspiring and beautiful. I love the stash you received, and what you created from the stash is absolutely breathtaking.

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  20. Your designs are beautiful! Your Beachy Boho bracelet is so unique and fun!!

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  21. Wow! really lovely designs, you did great!

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  22. Wow, beautiful designs and perfect colors! :-)

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  23. So admire anyone who works with seed beads and does bead stitching! Great work!

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  24. Love all the pieces that you did, but the yellow crystals spoke to me the loudest! Great beachy jewelry!

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  25. Seed bead work on the sea glass was fabulous. I love the bracelet as well. Such beautiful pieces.

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  26. Beautiful pieces! Spring Equinox is stunning. I love the freeform stitch around the focal piece. What a cool find of Christine with the fabric swatches. It must be full of goodies!

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  27. Such wonderful pieces. I'm always in awe of the beadwork you and others do. Very pretty and feminine. Nice job.

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  28. What an amazing collection! Each piece is so unique and the color is fantastic.
    Valerie
    Everyday Inspired

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  29. Seed beaders always amaze me. Lovely jewelry designs.

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