Kay Mallery - Reflections: January 2012

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Today is the deadline . . .

. . . for me to get my bead soup package out to my partner, Amy, so this will be a short post. Amy and I were paired for Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party. Click on the pic below to see where it started:

Here's a pic of the "teaser" of the package Amy sent to me. Click on the photo to go to her blog!

The package arrived yesterday, all tied up with a pretty green ribbon and included a sweet personal note from Amy. Here's what I received:

Here's a closeup of the GREAT items I get to work with. I can't wait!

Thanks, Amy, for the pretty pendants, beads and clasp? Many thanks to Lori for all her work in putting this party together! And, incidentally, Lori has a book currently being published by Kalmbach. Here's a pic of the cover, I hope the copyright police don't show up to arrest me for stealing it!

Look for it at your favorite bookstore!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Taking the journey . . .

. . . into civilization to procure a pedi for Miss P and some provisions for her as well, we passed by a huge citrus processing plant. Huge trucks full of oranges were lined up, one after the other, waiting to unload their golden treasures. The scent of orange juice was wonderful and inspired this:

Freshwater pearls, crystals and ceramic lemons, oranges and pink grapefruits. Think I'll go get myself a glass of OJ right now!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Bead Soup Blog Party !!!

After my recent very enjoyable experience with with Michelle Mach's Secret Snowflake Challenge Blog Hop, I found my way to Lori Anderson's blog and her fifth Bead Soup Party and I was jazzed! So I filled out my application and waited, all the fingers on both hands crossed. The 200 participants were to be chosen from a total of 384 and today when the announcement was posted, YIPPIE, I was included! My partner's name is Amy Freeland. Stay tuned to see what we create when they are revealed on March 3rd!

And while you're waiting, stop by Lori's blog. In addition to her creativity I really love the positive nature of her posts!

Secret Snowflake Challenge . . .

. . . here's my entry for the Secret Snowflake Challenge. I knew the finished item(s) were to be posted January 15th. I just didn't realize Sunday was the 15th and thought I had till Monday.

Jewelry designer Michelle Mach offered up this challenge on her blog, Beads and Books, last December 23rd.

It's been a while since I entered a challenge -- last time was when Deryn Mentock worked her way through Mary Hettmansperger's book Wrap, Stitch, Fold and Rivet.

Little did I realize how long it had been; here's a link to one of Deryn's November 2008 blog posts featuring one of my entries:

http://somethingsublime.typepad.com/something_sublime_from_th/2008/11/mary-hetts.html

What a great challenge that was! If you really want to challenge yourself, I highly recommend that you get a book like Mary's and work your way through, project by project. But I digress. Back to the current challenge, Michelle Mach's Secret Snowflake Challenge. Here's a photo of the challenge kit contents:

And here are a couple additional photos of my finished entries.

This is part of a Susan Lenart Kazmer clasp. I layered snowflake confetti pieces that came with the kit along with German silver glitter and tiny freshwater pearls in resin.