Soups On -The Second Course - 7th Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal - Part 2 - Celebrate!

    Welcome back. Thank you to those who made the second trip. Sorry Kayla for making you wait so long for the big focal finale. Please don't think that my being late is carelessness. I've literally fallen asleep at my computer every night this week working on this, and then got up and went to work again in the morning.
     I have no problem rising to a challenge as far as the creativity goes. My muse never sleeps. Ideas abound. Making connections is where I am really lagging. Between a dial-up internet connection and an overloaded hard drive, and a 22 year old Toyota that's grounded with a seriously leaking water pump, I'm having a hard time getting all that creativity out of my studio.
    I wait with bated breath for a tax return. You know "checks in the mail". The first thing I will be buying is a high speed internet connection and a new hard drive. Then I'll deal with transportation. It's difficult enough , the day to day business, grocery shopping, etc. Doing a show is almost impossible. I've figured that out trying to pull one off this weekend. Trying to coordinate caravans.
    Again my apologies for the delay. I really did put a lot of effort into this, and I'm thrilled with my results. I hope you will be too, and find it well was worth the wait.
     Now for the second course, cause who doesn't love a banquet.

Celebrate! - Let's Hear it for the Boys. 

                                              Part 2 - Celebrate!
    As I said in Part1, I love all things Asian, to the extent that I have Kimonos hanging on my walls. My moniker, PyxeStyx is in part derivative of the chopsticks I pin my hair up with for work and one of my most prized possessions is an antique Chinese carved wooden coffee table with a black lacquer surface that belonged to my grandparents. There's a pair of them in the family brought back from the orient in the 50's by a great uncle who was a merchant marine. So needless to say, the Antique Chinese cloisonne ball focal pendant Kayla sent was loaded with inspiration for me.

  My first thoughts were of Chinese lanterns.....of  Asian festivals....... Chinese New Year ......... Lantern festivals .......or, here we are in April and coming up next, on May 5th, the Japanese celebrate Children's Day.
    Traditionally known as boys day. The Japanese sail Koi fish shaped wind socks in honor of the men of the house. As a child my uncle had these flags hanging over the swimming pool. They were very familiar to me , but I didn't understand their significance until recently. One flag for each male in the household, the father and each of the sons.
     Now celebrated as the more politically correct Children's day. Famous for the beautifully colored flags seen flying in mass throughout villages. It is traditionally a celebration of the beginning of summer................. A great day to fly a kite.

    The two koinobori represent my two boys. Punkin and Freckles are now 16 years old.

The colors of my soup are a little on the dark side, but wanted to do something sunny and happy. So I used the blue and gold Czech glass beads and the green gemstone nuggets as the anchors and surrounded them by vibrant colors picked out of the cloisonne focal.

    I really wanted a garden. Bright, bold, beautiful flower. But how? Well, I have those lacey metal bead caps for enameling in my shopping cart. This is supposed to be a challenge. It's about time you fire up that torch.......

     ...............Eventually, I talked myself into it.
    It's not the flame I was afraid of. It was striking the match. The whoosh of the gas is just scary.
    I'm glad to say that I am totally over my fear and am going to be spending a lot of time playing with my new toy.

     I made lots off cool components to go with my soup. I torch fired all the enameled blossoms and headpins. I also made the paper mache lanterns and koinobori wind socks.
     I had originally intended for all these pieces to be in one necklace, but it got to be way too much stuff. Then I couldn't decide what to leave out (cause it's all so cool) that I divided it up and made more pieces.

    The Chinese character Fu  means good fortune and is adorned by one of the 7 lucky gods of Chinese mythology. Possibly Fukrokuju, the god of wealth, happiness, and longevity.
     I'm pretty sure that the vintage stamping is silver, patinaed to a lovely golden age. It looks like it was once a bracelet link based on where the holes are, so I had to get creative. I used enamel head pins to make the connections. They work perfectly as ball joints allowing everything to swing freely.
    All the large chunky stones are turquoise, with the exception of the large orange flower, which is died Howlite.
    The  little yellow ceramic pig bead is my zodiac sign. I picked it up at a Chinese New Year's parade a few years ago.

 Boar (inoshishi)
Born 2007, 1983, 1971, 1959, 1947, 1935, 1923, 1911. People born in  the year of the Boar are brave. They have tremendous inner strength which no one can overcome. They display great honesty. They are short-tempered, yet hate to quarrel or have arguments. They are affectionate and kind to their loved ones.

The first part bold and daring to represent the boys ( theme music  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7FGbhpr2pg  yeah, I know, total flash back ), the second part a little bit softer to represent the feminine side (theme music  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIb6AZdTr-A   I must be stuck in the 80's ).

Celebrate! Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

    The paper lantern earrings are lacquered, and are reversible with different designs on each of the four sides. Hung with enameled blossoms , cloisonne beads and antique Chinese bells. The enameled flowers jingle with the most magical sound. Like fairy bells.
    I recycled all sorts of goodies to make the Chinese lantern. Paper mache over a copper wire frame. I used everything from recycled book pages, to Christmas tissue paper, to cutting the butterflies out of someone's business card. The Sakura blossoms are a polymer clay cane sample that was included with a recent order. Top and bottom wrapped with sari silk snippets.
    The tassels from Kayla's focal hangs from the lantern. Along with a ceramic geisha girl bead, enamel flowers, glass leaves, cloisonne bead, and antique Chinese bell.

    Thank you to my awesome partner Kayla Potaga    http://www.teejewelry.blogspot.com/    If you haven't yet please stop by and see all she made with her soup.

Thank you to our most awesome hostess, Lori Anderson    http://www.prettythingsblog.com/   She's amazing they way she keeps keeping on, in-spite of all she's been dealt. That woman deserves pie!

Thanks for stopping by. Please follow to join me on my next adventure. 

Happy Hopping!!!!