first post

This is my first post in my new journal. I've had a livejournal for six and a half years and never imagined that I'd want to start another journal. But I decided to make one that will be exclusively for posts about jewelry making. I've always loved beads and this summer decided to get more serious about making real jewelry with them (instead of simply stringing pretty beads together...). Since then I've fallen in love with making all sorts of beaded bracelets and now spend the vast majority of my free time beading. I've made a nice collection of bracelets for myself. I'm now working on an inventory so I can start my own Etsy shop. I am still making things for myself of course but am making a lot of other bracelets, too. My goal is to have my site up and running before Thanksgiving. For now I'm really enjoying learning about Etsy and admiring the work of fellow beaders. I hope that having this blog will be one way that I can start connecting with some of those Etsy members.

I've started taking pictures of all of my work, which are posted on facebook and flickr. I will post some here as well so I can further reflect on my work and hopefully eventually get feedback from others. The first thing that I want to post is the first design that I ever graphed and beaded. It's called Winding Road. My favorite attempt at it thus far is this one:

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the pattern next, although I'm open to suggestions. :)