Bead Peeps Swap-n-Hop: Beads Sent and Received

The 2019 Bead Peeps Swap-n-Hop is now underway. Signups are over, partners have been assigned, and beads have been sent. Now it's down to sharing what we've received and making something beautiful with it. Let me remind you that the main rule of the swap is that you have to send your partner two of the three: a focal, a clasp, or coordinating beads and one of them must be handmade. 

My partner for this challenge is Bonnie Robbins of Wire and Wonder on Instagram and Etsy. If you check out either of those, you'll see that she does a lot of wirework. A lot. I was a bit bewildered about what to send to her, so I started by looking for handmade elements in my stash. 

I first picked out the Humblebeads willow beads and the lampwork focal (artist unknown) to cover my bases. After that, I considered what kind of clasp I would send. Since her work seems to include plenty of copper, I settled on the idea of making a couple of hook clasps from copper wire. I aged one and left the other raw. Finally, I created a stacked tin flower just for her.

Now, I have to go ahead and apologize for the tags in these pictures. I did take some fabulous pictures before I put the tags on the pieces, but that was when I didn't realize that there was no memory card in the camera. Man, that was a bad day. I couldn't bear the thought of taking all the tags off and then stringing new ones on after the pictures, so I left them for my second set of pictures. Drat. 

To go with the handmade elements, I selected a variety of coordinating strung beads. Some were from my stash, and some were from a trip to the bead store. 

There's a collection of amber shell beads, fire polished beads, glass pearls, and tiger eye. 

I also picked out some other miscellaneous beads, buttons, and charms that seemed to work well in the mix.

I won't list out what they all are. But, it was great fun assembling the collection.

Once it was all gathered, I wrapped the selections up in a way that I thought would be fun for her to open.

Of course, I ended up having to unwrap and re-wrap them when I realized my mistake with the camera, so I know what it was like to open them. I just hope Bonnie enjoyed the process more than I did - I was a little aggravated to say the least.

Here's a look at the whole bunch together.

Almost more fun than assembling beads for someone else is receiving beads from them. Take a look at what Bonnie sent.

Look at all that sparkle! 

And, here's a closer look at what was inside.

Oh, yes loads of crystals and glass and jade and metal bits and a large agate focal. Oh, check out that wire cage - that's my fun handmade element. Bonnie made it in a class she once took. I've got a lot to consider now!

Thanks to Bonnie for the fun elements. Now to come up with something that will do them justice. It's a good thing that the reveal isn't until April 7th. 

Are you swapping and hopping too?