Holiday Ornaments and Snowflake Earrings

I can't tell you how excited I was to find a variety of shatterproof ornaments at k-mart this year. When I saw so many colors I went a little crazy and bought lots of them. Shatterproof is the way to go IMO, why bother with glass ornaments if you'll be worried about your child or pet hurting themselves with glass.
I'm not sure how many more ornaments I'll be doing, as it's time to be working on holiday gifts!
Here are the ornaments I have so far, all listed in my etsy and artfire shops.












The snowflakes I used for the last 2 ornaments, and for the snowflake earrings below are an original pattern from Sandra D. Halpenny, and is used with her permission. Thanks Sandra!
The snowflake earrings would be great for holiday parties or even everyday wear. They're cute and they weigh next to nothing.

Well hello again!

It's been awhile. I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday season, one filled with lots of love, family, egg nog, all that good stuff!
Unfortunately for me, things got a bit hectic at my office job. Without delving too deeply into everything, I've had less time to do more. Suffice to say, my internet presence and social networking have taken a back burner.
I still have made time to bead, but I haven't been as aggressive as I usually am about it. Last year, I put a lot of time into photographing, descriptions, listings on online auction sites, and marketing. While I can't say that it did nothing for me, perhaps I had a few sales from it all, it's not how I want to continue to spend my time. So, I decided that this year is going to be for me. Sure, I'll put a few items on etsy from time to time, but I have one main goal - to have fun! There's a bunch of patterns out there I want to try, ones in magazines that I enjoyed looking at and "mentally beaded" along with, that I never actually physically did. There's some cross needle 3-d patterns I want to try - because they look fun, and a bit challenging. If I get around to listing them for sale, that's fine, if not, that's fine too. As long as I am having fun, it's all good.

Not to leave you completely without beady goodness - here is a little something I made for myself for New Years Eve. The necklace was inspired by Russian beading, and the earrings are a classic Russian Leaf. I wore a lovely black and gold sequin dress and gold sequin boots, so this set really completed the outfit for me.

Jack-o-lantern Earrings

I'm still in the Halloween spirit, and I felt like making a little something for myself this weekend. I found a tutorial for a jack-o-lantern charm online, so I thought I'd make 2 and turn them into earrings. Cute, right?
Here is the tutorial for anyone interested in beading up one or two of their very own: Jack-o-lantern charm tutorial
You could even substitute cream colored beads for the orange and make a Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Something for ME!

As I delve deeper and deeper into my art, I find myself making less and less items for myself. Custom orders, gifts for friends and family, and keeping inventory up to date all takes a good amount of time and effort. Occasionally though, a special event will prompt me to make a set to match an outfit. New years eve was such an event. My theme for the night was pink and brown, my entire outfit revolved around that. Having no pink and brown jewelry in my wardrobe, I just had to make something to match, didn't I?
I wove this choker with silver lined brown delicas and pink opaque toho seed beads. Delicas aren't usually the greatest for netting, but I find when I mix them in with tohos the drape comes out just lovely. I finished it with antiqued brass wire guardians, and an antique brass lobster clasp. It feels great on, I'm really happy with how it turned out.

The earrings I struggled with to be honest...I took them apart several times before getting it just right. I originally was going to do a fringe type dangle earrings, but things just didn't turn out that way. I ended up with a fan dangle (not a fandango). They match the necklace superbly, and have a wonderful swing to them. I used opaque brown, matte pink, and metalic pink toho beads, along with metalic brown bugle beads. They were finished with antiqued brass earwires. I'm looking forward to wearing them for years to come!

Bumps in the road...

For the past couple years, I have been using Photoshop CS on my husband's desktop computer to create graphics, and also for cropping and color-balancing photos. Sunday his computer died. Ironically he had ordered a new laptop which he just recieved Monday. Maybe the desktop got jealous and decided to pout.
Because there's no need to fix/replace the old computer (other than my need for PS), I'm outta luck when it comes to photo editing. We have ransacked the house looking for the Photoshop disc but cannot find it anywhere...ugh!
So, until I can find the PS disc, or find a suitable replacement for it (suggestions welcome), photos may be a bit scarce.

I do have a couple earrings to share however, I got these done right before the computer died.

This first one reminds me of feathers. I wove them with cylon blue seed beads, black bugle beads, and matte purple/blue hex cut beads.



This second pair I call "Cabernet & Rust". Deep maroon red bugle beads really compliment the metallic gold delica beads. I finished these off with antiqued brass wire guardians, and antique brass foldover earwires.


Both are available in my Artfire shop HERE.

I am in love...

...with my freshly built lightbox, and the man that built it.

My husband (and knight in faded patchies as I like to call him) was quick to the rescue when I got frustrated with my lack of quality pictures. When I mentioned the lightbox he was excited to make it, he loves a good project. And I love a good picture...it's a win/win! Lol.

He says there's lots of things he could have done better but I think it came out great. He used diffuser panels on 4 sides, and some concoction of wood framing/velcro allowing it to be broken down. He even dug out an old 3 headed adjustable lamp from the shed for me to use. I have to find some cooler white light bulbs to use, but I took some test shots last night with some bulbs from around the house and I'm quite pleased with the preliminary results.

I have lots of work ahead of me. As any creative person knows, taking photos of your work is NOT the most fun part, and can take lots of time. However, I am determined to get fresh, crisp photos of my entire stock of goodies.

Speaking of fresh, I stitched up four pairs of earrings yesterday...it was addicting. I have done a couple pairs over the course of my beading days, but for some reason yesterday I just couldn't stop! I don't know why I haven't made more of them, they're so fun and there's lots of room for versatility. Here are 3 of the 4 that I got photographed so far:

Yes I KNOW it's winter, but I can't seem to stop playing with bright colors. Purple and green especially, they're one of my favorite color combos. This pendant is a funky half-beaded bead, with a full beaded back. The center is a pretty swarovski glass pearl, and woven around it is delica and toho glass seed beads.

Catching up on things...

It's been over a week since I posted anything that I've been working on. In part, this is due to not being able to get the quality of pictures I desire.

Hopefully soon I'll have some fresh shots of all my etsy shop items though. I've contacted a friend, Brody, over at Polarity Photo. Brody takes some amazing shots. His passion is..um...legally being escorted into abandoned buildings and capturing the decay of the untouched.
Here are a few prime examples of what he sees through his lens:

That's just a taste. Definately check out his site for more amazing photography.

Now...onto the jewelry.

This ring and earring set was the absolute biggest pain in the butt to photograph. After many attemps, I settled a little bit on the picture. I'm excited to show them and I just couldn't wait any longer.

I've done rings and earrings of this style before, but I do have to say these are my favorite. Red and black together are just such powerful colors. This was woven with matte black delicas and checkerboard swarovski crystals. Again, I was going for a vintage/flapper style, and I think I captured that quite nicely.

This next bracelet is something I made as a gift for a friend who shall remain nameless. I don't think she's a blog reader, but better safe than sorry!

It was woven with toho seed beads, and overlayed with purple swarovski pearls.

These next bracelets are purely fun. I have had this stash of plastic pony beads for the longest time. Pony beads, meet stretchy cord. =)

Some new items for October

Having bought some various orange and black beads last week, I've been eager to play with them (silly dayjob getting in the way of my fun). Not knowing exactly what was going to come out of it, I just started going to town, and came up with these. Cute, dangly earrings with a touch of swirl.


Originally when I started on this one I was thinking it was going to be a bracelet, but it wanted to be a ring instead. It was a bit too thin for me to be a bracelet, and when I wrapped it around my finger it looked fabulous...so a ring it shall be!