It's Bead Soup Time Again!

Now that the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge is over, I'm excited to announce another favorite challenge that I try to do annually.  2014 marks the year of the 8th Annual Bead Soup party and I'm in!!  This will be my 4th time participating and I'm thrilled to participate again.

What is "bead soup?"  Well, to begin with it's the brainchild of the amazing Lori Anderson who somehow manages to organize and orchestrate this colorful event and does it seamlessly.  Interested beaders and jewelry makers sign up and are then assigned the name of another participant.  The two participants each create a package of beads that include a focal and a clasp and send them to each other.  The idea is to challenge yourself to use colors/products/styles that you aren't familiar with to see what special designs you can make, and the only rule of the event is that you must use the focal and the clasp you are sent.

I love to "jump outside of the box" and have been paired with some of the best bead buddies ever including Karen Williams, Karyn Bonfiglio and Dot Lewallwn.  If you want to see some incredible beading and jewelry art, be sure to check out their work!

Today was the sign-up date for this fun event, and soon Lori will be pairing us with our new Bead Soup partner.  Stay tuned for updates -- this afternoon I'm going to go through my drawer of lampworked beads and findings to put together a unique package for my soon-to-be revealed bead buddy!