Soup is ready!

My apologies to those of you who visited on Saturday hoping to see my Bead Soup challenge piece - as I was going to be away for the reveal I scheduled the blog post - and managed to schedule it for the wrong weekend! Ooops! And I thought I was being so organised.... 

Anyway, I'm home again now so here it is....better late than never?!

To be perfectly honest I was a little bit worried when I opened the bead soup ingredients Deborah Read that sent me as, lovely as the lampwork and dichroic glass pieces, they were on the opposite side of the world from anything that I would normally use - but that's what this challenge is all about, right? If you'd like a reminder of what Deb sent me please have a look at this post from last month. I did my usual bead soup trick of putting all the ingredients in a lovely wooden bowl that sits on my desk and every now and then I pulled a few pieces out, added some extras in and generally had a play. In the end, however, I decided to use just a focal and one of the two clasps that Deb sent, and this is a little hint of what I did.

I took part in an Artisan Whimsy challenge last year that used a tutorial by to set a flat back stone or found object in prongs that started life as rivets. The rivets were pushed through holes drilled in the backing plate and soldered into place so that they were strong enough to be pushed over the object being set. I set a beautiful Botswana Agate cabochon in silver for that challenge, and loved the technique, so I decided to use it again to set one of the pieces of dichroic glass that Deb sent me.

And this is the glass set in place. I love the contrast of warm patinea'd copper with the blues and greens in the glass. You've probably noticed that I haven't used the clasp yet. I realised once I'd made the pendant that I didn't have enough of the leather I wanted to hang it from, so as soon as the postman brings it I'll be using a clasp, promise!

Please do go and see what Deb made with the ingredients I made I sent her  - you can see her post here, and for a full list of all the people taking part visit  http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.ca/2013/04/7th-bead-soup-blog-party-2nd-reveal.html

I'm actually away this weekend (T's taking me away to Barcelona for an early birthday treat!) so I've scheduled this and I will start visiting the other blogs taking part when I get home!