History Hop Participants

The sign ups for the History Hop: Paleolithic Style are now closed. Thank you all for joining in! I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with on December 9th.

And, if you need a refresher, here's the original History Hop sign up with info on the Paleolithic era. I've linked to all of your blogs below and double checked they work, but if you find one doesn't, just let me know!

Full list of participants:

Leah Curtis (hostess) - Beady Eyed Bunny
Shaiha's Ramblings
Anafiassa
Emmanuelle
Julia Hay - Pandanimal
Rachel Mallis - Mint Monarch
Beadrecipes
Robin Reed - Artistry HCBD
Joanne Tinks
YeeLen Spirit Designs
Karin G. - Gingko et Coquelicot
Dini Bruinsma
Deborah Apodaca
Tapping Flamingo

Facebook Participants:
Laura Bailey Taskey
Album for Facebook participants found in Bead Soup Cafe

The Facebook reveal is for participants who do not blog. I've created an album specifically for this challenge in the group Bead Soup Cafe. Click here to go directly to the album. You'll need to be a member of the group to upload your reveal photos. It's a great, supportive group, so there are plenty of reasons to join!

History Hop button!

Who doesn't love buttons? I wanted to make a button (that neat little photo that you can add to your blog to show all the fun things you're involved in) for this round of the History Hop, but I hadn't made one in so long, I wasn't sure I could! Apparently, things have gotten easier since I last made one, not harder.

You can add the button below by copying the text in the box (below the image) and adding it to your blog. The image will show up wherever you put it on your blog and links back to the main History Hop: Paleolithic blog post - where a full list of participants will be added by the reveal day. The button image is 200 pixels wide.

1: Go to your blog

2: Add the relevant widget and place it where you'd like it to appear (see mine on the sidebar?).

• Blogger: a new HTML/JavaScript gadget.
• Wordpress: a new Text widget.
• Typepad: a new "Embed Your Own HTML" module.

3: Copy and paste the code below (make sure you copy the whole code) into the widget/magic box you just added.

4: Make sure to save!

<div class="beady-eyed-bunny-button" style="width: 200px; margin: 0 auto;"> <a href="http://www.beadyeyedbunny.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow"> <img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/694/22696700204_47e2239685_o.jpg" alt="Beady Eyed Bunny" width="200" height="134" /> </a> </div>

Thanks, Dini, for the nudge! :) And thanks to Code It Pretty for the super easy button builder!

BSBP8 Reveal!

The long awaited reveal has finally arrived. Are you excited? I am! 

My partner this year was Caroline Dewison from BlueberriBeads. I consider myself very lucky! Caroline is a wonderful ceramic bead artist in the UK. I have always been fond of her adorable birds and urchin beads, but I didn't tell Caroline that. That's exactly what she sent me! Well, birds, urchins, one of her new house beads, more ceramics, and a whole bowl full of extra beads.

Here's a little reminder of the oh-so Springy purple and green soup I received.

The bronze clasp is by another talented UK artist, Lesley from Thea Elements. I've never used one of Lesley's clasps before, but they are definitely one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of designing with.

So, knowing I had to use the clasp, I excitedly moved on to my first piece. How could I resist doing yet another sea themed bracelet? 

 

 

In the bracelet, I used the clasp Caroline sent me, her ceramic urchin bead, chunky fluorite and citrine gemstones, a sand dollar charm, and agate and citrine as charms between the chunkier beads. All of the extra beads were from my stash, I'm glad to say!

I wire wrapped all the beads in solid brass and torch fired my own ball ended headpins to use wtih the faceted agate beads I added.

Here's another picture of that sweet urchin bead Caroline made.

 

My second piece ended up being in a very different colour palette. I just love the zesty little chartreuse Czech glass drops Caroline added to her soup. And what goes better with green than purple? I stacked them on copper wire and added a pair of beautiful lampwork 'butterfly wings' by Earthshine Beads. Decorative copper earwires, et voila, Spring earrings!

I'm not usually a pastel-loving kind of person, but for Caroline's birds I made an exception. The soft lavender tones of her bird bead really won me over. I ended up using a mix of cream and pastel purple and green for this bracelet with just a hint of blue.

It's a variation on a series of bird bracelets I've done recently. Caroline's bird sits above a nest of agate eggs and Czech glass blossoms. I used the Golem lentil she sent me and some more beads from my own stash. The speckled, egg-like creamy ceramic beads are by Thea Elements. The ceramic daisy clasp and purple rounds are by Tan Grey.

And now for the finale...I chose to use Caroline's large, purple bird as my focal bead. The purple beads Caroline included in her soup were just perfect for each other. I immediately made the bird into a "stacked" pendant with its own nest (purple eggs included!) and one of those adorable butterflies dangling below. I added the leaf for an extra woodland-feel.

 

I had a bit of trouble deciding what to string the pendant on. I wanted something simple but different at the same time. I played around with silks and copper chains, but decided on using some recycled leather and wooden beads from my stash.

I used the leather to weave the wooden circles together for a collar style at the front of the necklace. I thought the necklace looked great sitting just below the neck, so I kept the overall length fairly short.

I wire wrapped Caroline's dimpled ceramic beads at each end of the wooden beads to frame the focal area. To finish it off, I made a brass clasp and wire wrapped it those teeny-tiny purple Czech glass beads.

And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed seeing what I created. I have to thank Caroline for being such a great swap partner and for sending me this fantastic soup to work with. Of course, a huge thank you to Lori Anderson for pairing us and for hosting this wonderful blog hop!

You can check out what the rest of the participants made at this link.