Bead peeps swap and hop intro

The Bead swap and hop is here once again and my partner is Kelly Hosford Patterson of  Pyxeestyx- The travelling Sideshow. You might remember her as the winner of my BNB challenge on Kolam where she made an exquisite hand piece with a peacock focal.
As a fellow mixed media artist specializing in  artisan jewelry, I was immediately drawn to Kelly’s designs when I first spotted her work on the Bead Peeps facebook group. She creates one-of-a-kind pieces, often putting together varied supplies almost in a collage style showcasing a bohemian free-spirited vibe. She loves working with fibre, paper, beads and her go-to metal for jewelry seems to be copper. She also creates Eco-Couture – tops, skirts, collars, corsets with nuno felting and patchwork.  

 Her one of kind designs can be browsed and bought at her Etsy store. She also does travelling shows and one can find updates and snippets about her latest adventures at her facebook page PyxeeStyx ~ Traveling Side Show. Here is a small sample of her  eclectic work. 

  
 
Because she works with various materials – I didn’t know what would be challenging to her. But since the idea behind the swap is to get out of your comfort zone (and rise to the challenge) I decided to create a challenge by limiting the color palette. As I browsed through her FB and shop I found less of greens, blues and silver so I sent her 2 kits – one sky blue and silver and the second green and orange. The Blue set has glass beads, foil beads, granulated beads, frosted beads – All Indian specialities along with 2 focal – a jhumka tassel finding and a stone Kundan focal.



In our early discussion Kelly had said that she would like to experiment with sari fabrics so the Green set mostly comprised of Saree ribbons (fabrics – silk, spun silk, cotton ikat, and poly brocade) that I cut wide so that she could make multiple ribbons out of them. I sent 3 focals – one Chandran – half moon in kemp (temple jewelry) style and I made the second piece by wiring a green flower finding to a handmade copper amoeba base. I had forgotten all about the artisan component until the last moment and when I got my parcel from Capriliciousjewellery there was this hemispherical dome of polymer clay that would be perfect and I added it. The elephant clasp is green on one side and blue on the other to match with either of the sets. I had wanted to add more charms and bits and ends as a surprise but in my usual fashion had left them while packing 🙁

Kelly sent me gorgeously packed boxes of beads (seriously the paper is GORGEOUS!) last week along with goodies like bitter chocolate, mixed tape (cds) and incense sticks. It was funny that the incense sticks are made about 2 hours from where I live, so technically I should have sent them to her 😉

Here is what Kelly sent me – lots of beads! Some sea glass, some ceramic, some glass – both plain and patterned and some buttons  There is a domed copper focal and a copper wire clasp along with sea themed items like starfish, sea horse, a couple of sea urchins and lots of sea shells in the stash. To see what I what out of this interesting bounty of beads, and paper tune in on May 15th which is out reveal date.

I hope you found it interesting
 Cheers

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  1. motidana avatar

    Wow! Love the goodies you have sent each other and also the packaging ! It will be truly inspiring what to see what you have made for the challenge. Kelly's work is lovely and I specially loved that elephant necklace . Waiting to see how she transforms out traditional kemp ' Chandran'

  2. Little Treasures avatar

    I must say she has exquisite jewelry with a bohemian touch! Her Queen of Hearts earrings have stole my heart!

  3. Divya N avatar

    Me too, I would love to see a western take on the chandran

  4. Divya N avatar

    yes, she has quite the eclectic style

  5. bairozan avatar

    I love Kelly's work, too! And I also think you have a lot in common in terms of vision and materials, it will be an interesting collaboration 🙂

  6. Divya N avatar

    I think so too, lets see how it turns out

  7. Cinnamon Jewellery avatar

    I'm looking forward to seeing what you both make from your swaps.

  8. Jean Wells avatar

    Kelly is one of my favorites. You are blessed to have been paired with her. I know you will be surprised and excited and will fall in love with her work all over again when you see her reveal.

  9. Divya N avatar

    Yes Jean, Her work is very interesting, I am waiting to see the reveal

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