Bead Soup Blog Hop Reveal !!!!!!! yeah!!!

What I sent....

Let me cover the basics first!  Run, don't walk, to see what my blog partner made with the beads I sent her... you can see it HERE .  wow.  Simply wow! I can't say anything else because I want you to visit her blog and comment darn it!

Did you go?   Wasn't it fun??? Did you leave her a comment?  OK, before we get to my soup, you can

click here to see all the other lovely folks participating in this round of the blog hop. Be sure to check some of them out.. no-one expects you to hit them all, but it's well worth some time to check some of them out!

OK.. now my turn!

What I got!

Maria sent me 2 ( so generous!! ) of her exquisite handmade butterfly pendants.  They really are to die for.  The main pendant is this wonderful mix of blue and green with a touch of almost metallic fuchsia.  The colors Nature paints with!

The beauty of the wing was such that I didn't know what to make for some time.. I didn't want to overwhelm the pendant, which would be so easy to do.  I didn't want to make it so dead simple that it was boring either.  I really wanted the wing as the focus, but still try to interject alittle of myself in it.  I laid out a couple different ideas, and I sketched alittle, but it wasn't working.

Maria also sent some crystals in colors that matched the wing... after giving it more thought I decided to walk through my crystal stash and add to the color palette.  That got the juices flowing.

I also decided to add that little bit of me, I would add a charm in the front that didn't hide the wing.  I also used different types of chain  to give it more texture, and make it slightly asymmetrical, all without loosing the star of the necklace, the pendant.

I found in my stash this broken butterfly charm that used to have 2 loops on top.  One of the loops was broken, so I took off the damaged part, filed and sanded down, and then hung it on the pendent itself.  I added a crystal drop and a ladybug dangling off the butterfly charm.

I ended up doing 3 strands of chain.. it's hard to tell in my crappy photos ( it was crappy photo day, not sure why ) but there are 12 different styles of chain involved, most of it from vintage necklaces.  I made up bead units with wire and then added chain more or less randomly between them. 

I put the clasp in front which I think works well.. it seems to balance the piece.  Makes it easy to take on and off too, always a bonus.

I used a silver plated brass flower and some crystals to hang down from the pendant. 

Crappy picture alert! give you some idea how it would look on.. the pendant is definitely the main attraction!

I purposely put few crystals in the back for comfort.

Probably the best pic I took all night!! you can clearly see the blue edges of the wing, and you can see how the charm hangs in front but doesn't really cover anything up.

I hope you like it.. I had fun playing with it! The rest of the beads and the other wing are going in the stash for now. 

.