For The Love of Beads BlogThe adventures of Suzanne, Nibbler, and friends in the world of beads and jewelry making crafts

Cindy Wimmer

Recently hosted by Lori Anderson, the Bead Soup Party involved 84 amazing jewelry artists! While I am sorry to have missed out (bad cold coupled with big store changes and I *gasp* neglected my blog reading for awhile. Let that be a lesson to me!), it was such a fantastic trip through the blogosphere reading about and admiring all of the gorgeous designs. It has taken me days to get through them all and I am thrilled to have so many new blogs to read!

Inspiration lurked on every new tab and, while most of the designs were beautiful, some were absolutely amazing! So many, in fact, that I could not possible overview them all here – I highly recommend you hop on over to Lori’s blog post here where she lists the participants and take the tour for yourself. Make sure you get a big mug of coffee and clear your schedule for the day before you get started!

Whitney Lassini

While I love the unique creations in this post, it is not so much about the jewelry itself but rather the way their creators have chosen to photograph them to capture the personality of each piece. Backgrounds and layout can make all the difference in the world in creating a stunning image that captures the eye and imagination.

This first one; designed by Cindy Wimmer of Sweet Bead Studio, really makes the orange in these focals pop by using a book with detailing that matches the darker shades of blue. The wirework in this piece is stunning; organic and somehow nautical, at least to me, and I love how she used the two empty ovals to tie the front and back together.

Nancy E. Schindler

The second piece, designed by Whitney Lassini, is a gorgeous piece in its own right but her use of this smooth, warm colored wood adds a vibrancy and a coziness to the photograph; it reminds me of brightly colored thick wool sweaters and sitting by the fire with a cup of cocoa!

This next piece, by Nancy of The Rabbit Muse, features a stunning focal made with lampwork beads by one of my favorite artists, Sue of Sue Beads. I love the way Nancy has photographed it on an angle, emphasizing its 3 dimensionality and size. What a bold and beautiful statement piece!

Lisa of Lucid Moon Studios

Finally, this gorgeous heart necklace by Lisa of Lucid Moon Studios, really captured my eye. I love the softness of the candy colors combined with the crafty feel of the pendant and this photograph really emphasizes these aspects. I also really like the way she has used clay and resin for this heart – very sweet.

As I said, this is just a sampling of the amazing and inspiring pieces created for this Bead Soup and I do hope you will check out the rest of them. Clicking on each image here will bring you to that artist’s Bead Soup Post and clicking on the links in the text will bring you to their blog homepage. I hope you enjoy looking around as much as I did!

Thanks to all the lovely crafters who participated – it was wonderful to see how you each challenged each other to move a bit outside of your normal jewelry styles and I can’t wait for the next Bead Soup Party!

Cindy Gimbrone of Lampwork Diva

Lorelei of Inside the Studio

After writing our photography series, I decided it would be fun to pick out some of my favorite jewelry photographs from the various blogs that I read regularly and thoroughly enjoy.  So, I did!

It wasn’t easy narrowing it down to just  these four but I didn’t want to have too many pictures all at once. There will certainly be a part 2. In fact, I might even make this into a bit of a series if I have the time and remember.

To take a look at any of these fine blogs, simply click on the picture – you’re sure to find

hours of entertainment, helpful jewelry tips and tutorials as well as lots more pretty pictures!

I love the use of beautiful props, interesting backgrounds, lighting, and focus demonstrated in these photos. They each demonstrate the ability of good photography to really make a beautiful pieces shine.

Heather’s starfish and column not only add some detail to the background, but they are also distinctive enough that, looking at her photos, one instantly recognizes the artist and thinks of the name of her blog!

The rich color of the background in Kelley’s picture really sets of the stunning combination of black and white, something which the dramatic shadow also helps to enhance.

Cindy’s use of the light slanting across these gorgeous orange beads is just beautiful! By placing the translucent beads in the suuny part, she really made them sparkle, while the rich color of the opaque beads is enhanced by the slight shade.

Lorelei’s distinctive style really shows in this lovely closeup of a

bee button.  Her use of apeture makes clear the focus of the photo without detracting from the overall beauty of the piece.

Thanks go to these lovely ladies for allowing me to include these images here as well as for their creativity which is an inspiration to those of us aspiring to perfect our photography style!

I hope you enjoyed this brief look at awesome photography, if there is a photo you think deserves to be in the next post, let me know by email or in the comments and I will be sure to include it!