Brit Pack Beaders Challenge - Component Reveal

Welcome (back) to the Brit Pack Beaders Challenge. In my last post I introduced you to the Brit Pack Beaders - Rebecca Anderson, Claire Braunbarth, Bo Hulley, Jo Tinley and myself and explained how our team challenges would work. Well, today is the day we reveal the components that our 'pack' mates sent us to create create a piece of jewellery for our very first challenge inspired by 'Tangle' by Carolyn Saxby.

Remember, this will be just as much a surprise for us as for you since everyone of us has been sent slightly different components by the other four  members so we have know idea what anyone else has, apart from the piece we sent. I'm not going to keep you waiting any longer other than to say that as far as what I have to work with goes, I love it and I think everyone has done a fantastic job in drawing from the image. Here it is then...

Pretty tasty ingredients don't you think...

My photo doesn't really do justice to the lampwork focal Rebecca sent me, It has lovely blue/green swirls on a sandy base which not only picks out the colours from the picture, but is also very evocative of a beach or shoreline. She also sent me a large metal ring which perfectly picks up the colour and texture of the rusty chain.

In Bo's accent bead pack I found some of her lovely hand made textured ceramic beads which pick out the brighter more vibrant tones along with some pretty, neutral pearls (very apropos), tiny seed beads and Czech glass beads. So far so good, these are working well together for me....

Claire was responsible for embellishments and she sent me lovely and unusual things including aqua knitted wire mesh and some pretty cotton wrapped rings that she made herself. I've never used either of these and plan to have some fun with them. She also sent hammered silver rings, charms and organic washers with two cute shell charms and a length of natural hemp. I love the way Claire's pieces reflect the shapes and textures of the photo.

Up next are the stringing materials courtesy of Jo and who could fail to love those gorgeous aqua and rust silk strings from, if I'm not mistaken, Marsha Neal. She also added some blue cotton cord for variation and texture. Jo won't actually be creating this time around as she is spending the summer on distant shores but she wanted to be involved from the get go so very kindly sent her contribution anyway - thanks Jo.

I should perhaps point out that we agreed not to open our packages before we'd  posted our own so that  our offerings wouldn't be influenced by what we'd already received. I was responsible for sending clasps and it probably won't come as any surprise to you or the recipients to know that I made bronze clasps for everyone! I tried to take the textural elements from the image as my inspiration and on the clasp I got I used rope to create the pattern. I won't spoil the surprise on the other clasps, you can see those when you visit the rest of the pack's blogs.

So there you go...what do you think? I am extremely happy with the items everyone sent me and when you look at these two pictures together you can see just what a great job they've done. This could easily have been a selection put together by one person for their own use and considering there were five pairs of hands in this I'm actually quite amazed at just how well everything gels - thank you ladies

Now, I'm going to dash off and check out what everyone else has got in their bead pots and I hope you'll join me using the links below. Oh and don't forget - the final reveal will be on Wednesday 8th of August so make a note to come back and see what we've all done with our goodies.

Lesley Watt - THEA jewellery you are here

Rebecca Anderson - Songbeads

Claire Braunbarth - Smitten Beads

Bo Hulley - Bo Hulley Beads

Jo Tinley - Daisy Chain Designs

Lesley