Sunday Soldering

This past Sunday, my friend Kris and I got together at Ye Olde Bead Shop to solder - it has been months since either one of us soldered, and we were so excited!

Kris and I share a "Kate Richbourg Connection" - let me explain: Kris took a tube riveting class from Kate at the Bead and Button show last year, and Kate was MY fabulously generous and talented partner in the last BSBP (Bead Soup Blog Party) - what a coincidence, right?

Kris purchased an autographed copy of Kate's Book Simple Soldering when she was up at Bead and Button, and she brought the book to the shop so we could try some of the projects - we joked that Kate was right there with us! I had previously borrowed the DVD from Kris, and enjoyed watching it so much - it is done SO well, and it was nice to put and face and name on my BSBP partner - it really felt like she was right there, talking to me, as I watched the DVD!

 Simple Soldering, by Kate Richbourg

We made 2 projects from the book on Sunday - the stacking rings, and the beads:

my stacking rings

textured & soldered silver saucer beads

The beads were very difficult to photograph - they are so shiny (after a spin in the tumbler) that they were almost too reflective to get a good pic.

I love my rings - wearing them now! Thanks for the help, Kate!

As I said last week, there is just not enough time to do everything I want to do - I wish I could solder more often! It is tough when you don't have designated work spaces (and time!) for all the different media - it's a pain having to put one set-up away in order to set up for soldering, or enameling, or glass fusing, or beadweaving, or whatever - when I win the lottery (that I never play, LOL) I am going to build a huge, beach front, airy studio with separate, well-appointed workstations for each and every one of my jewelry addictions!

It's Bead Soup Blog Party Time Again - Meet my Partner!

Bead Soup Blog Party (BSBP) - what is it? It's the brainchild of Lori Anderson, who gets this thing rolling a couple of times a year. Every time, the party gets larger, and larger... and this time, it's so large that the party has been split into 3 separate "mini-parties".

Lori gathers all the participants together (virtually, of course), parses them into pairs, and each member of a pair mails their partner a focal bead, some matching beads, and a clasp (the "soup"). The partner then adds in some beads from their own bead stash, and creates jewelry magic! Then on the reveal day, all the participants reveal their creations on their individual blogs, and everyone (not just participants - everyone is invited to THIS party!) hops around visiting blogs, and oohing and aahing. It's a lot of fun!

I last participated in Lori's Bead Soup Party in August of last year - and this is one of the pieces I designed with my soup:

This year, I am paired with the talented Kate Richbourg. Kate started working and teaching beads in 1992, and this year marks her 20th anniversary as a jewelry instructor. She started at The Bead Shop of Palo Alto CA in what she thought would be just a temporary job until she went back to school to get an advanced degree. 20 years later, Kate reports she has no Master's, but she does have a career that she loves!

Kate was Class Director and instructor at The Bead Shop for 10 years. During that time she also traveled around the country teaching classes. She left The Bead Shop in 2002 and opened her own bead store, Beadissimo in San Francisco, focusing on classes and interesting beads from around the world. Her store ran its course and closed in 2008. She then went on to become Director of Education for Beaducation.com, where she helped broaden their online class offerings and did "all kinds of educational stuff" for them. You can check out her free classes on their website!

Kate and Beaducation amicably parted ways in January of this year and now she teaches and writes full time. She has a book on Soldering coming out at the end of this year. Her book came about when she pitched the idea to create a book for the home metalworker based on her class experiences. Folks can preorder through her website or on Amazon.com. Kate's videos are also available in her Etsy shop.

Kate and I will be mailing our soups to each other next week, and I hope she loves what I've put together. I am so excited about this challenge, and can't wait to see what Kate sends me. The reveal date for our creations is August 25 - so stay tuned! What we design is top secret until the reveal! But I'll be posting pictures of the soup Kate sends me as soon as I get it, plus some behind-the-scenes info about the creation of Kate's soup - but I'm not allowed to post any of that until after she receives it. No spoiling the surprise!