A bit about my swap partner and soup has arrived!

and by soup I mean BEAD soup...the very best kind! I am pleased to be participating in the 8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party, hosted by the lovely Lori Anderson...visit her blog here for more information on this annual event. This is my second time participating and I just can't say enough about what a wonderful party it is! Lori is quite ill at this time, but with the help of a wonderful, supportive husband and son, as well as several wonderful ladies in the bead community, she has managed to bring 400+ jewelry designers together and partner us, so we can swap beady goodness and create beautiful designs. THANK YOU Lori and as always...love, light and healing to you. THANK YOU Rick and Lisa...I know your help to Lori and the community was invaluable when bringing together the final lists and answering questions in Lori down time. Now onto the beady goodness and my lovely partner...

Kashmira Patel, of Sadafulee...Always in Bloom is my partner for this blog party. I hope you will click on her name and a take a visit to her blog. It talks about how she got into jewelry making and her connections with Project Why in New Dehli...an organization helping area slum kids. Kashmira and I were already facebook and bead group friends so this is a nice opportunity to get to know more about her. As we were preparing and exchanging soups, she was also preparing for the annual Bead Cruise...of course I'm jealous! So it will be very exciting to see all the lovely photos and hear about the fun...she also took the soup I sent her so at least it got to travel along! But enough on that...back to what I received...the packaging was simple and lovely, and included to separate soups.

First a gorgeous spring assortment which includes a focal from Barbara Bechtel, painted wood beads from Hope Smitherman, seaglass, african tube beads, silver findings and natural stones...Kashmira notes she isn't sure what they are...I believe they are unakite but I haven't had a chance to pull out my gemstone reference sampler yet to check for sure. I definitely see several inspiring designs here...so much gorgeous color!

Second a beautiful earthy assortment which includes a special butterfly pendant, Kashmira notes it was difficult to part with...hopefully I do it justice...it is gorgeous! Coordinating green beads...which I have something similar, might be a type of stone or marble, have to check...black lava bead, brown/gold stone beads and rudrasksha beads...which are seeds used in prayer strands in India. I have seen them before but never worked with them in anything so really looking forward to seeing how the designs come together...which of course many swirling with this soup as well!

I am so inspired by all the delightful goodies I received...I've fondled them, searched through my stash to see what else I might want to add, and even just looked over them for hours pondering the possibilities! Below is a picture of what I sent to Kashimira...

I hope she is enjoying her goodies as much as I am mine...please come back May 3 to see what I make and hop around to see all the fantastic designs! Until then...