‘Mermaid by the Shore’ by Sue H.

If you’ve been following along, you know I was partnered with Sue H. of The Bottle Cork and Crystal for the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party.

<– That’s one of the beautiful mixed-media cards designed by Sue. You can see more of her designs, and read about them, on her blog.

I explained the basics of the Party when I shared a sneak peak of the Bead Soup ingredients I sent to Sue. While my package is on its way to her, and hers to me, I asked Sue a few questions so I could learn more about her and her jewelry. Turns out we have much in common when it comes to our source of inspiration, our favorite materials, and how we became jewelry designers.

When I asked Sue how she came up with the name for her blog, she explained that she creates custom wine bottle stoppers, wine rings, and items such as coasters and hot plate holders out of cork.  She also said “Crystal comes from one of my favorite mediums to use when creating jewelry and [I] use them to adorn my stoppers as well.” She is so talented, she recently won a prize from Creative Designs.

Sue has been designing and creating jewelry for about 10 years. Like me, Sue says she is mostly self-taught. She says she took a few classes on seed beads to learn how to do the peyote stitch and other seed bead stitches. I’ve made a few seed bead bracelets using peyote stitch. Those things are time and labor intensive, and rough on the eye sight.

Sue says some of her favorite materials for jewelry designs are blue glass and turquoise. (Did I mention I have twice as many blue beads as any other color? And that turquoise is my favorite gemstone?) She also likes to create multi-strand jewelry using chain. What a coinkidink, I just started doing that last year.

When I asked Sue about her other creative pursuits, she noted she is on a couple of card design teams, and occasionally teaches classes.  If you haven’t already checked out her blog, you should go take a look at the fanciful mixed-media cards she’s made.

Sue is also working on opening an Etsy shop, but reports things keep selling before she can get them listed. We should all be so in demand. This is not Sue’s first time at the hop (the Bead Soup blog hop, that is). She met the organizer, Lori Anderson, online and has participated before. That’s probably one reason Lori paired us: she was trying to partner us newbies with some seasoned hoppers.

I am anxiously waiting to hear Sue’s reaction to the Bead Soup I sent her. As soon as I do, I will share an unscrambled photo of what I sent her to work with. I know she’ll make magic happen.  In the meantime, here’s a little teaser of the bonus item I included with her Bead Soup. It’s a little dessert, of sorts. It doesn’t “go” with the color theme of the soup, just as desserts don’t have the same flavor as the main course. This photo is scrambled too, for now, Don’t want to spoil Sue’s surprise.

You’ll have to come back for the ingredients reveal if you want to see what this is.

For more updates about the Bead Soup Blog Party, like what’s in that scrambled photo, what my partner sends me, what I make with it, and other shenanigans I may get up to, you can subscribe to this blog, or follow me on Facebook.Or both.