Friday, November 28, 2008

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you are enjoying the rest of the long weekend. I have been having a good time with family thus far. I've had the opportunity to share a lot of my jewelry pieces in person, which has been nice. People are great about giving me feedback through my pictures online, but it's different in person. It's been nice seeing the reactions in person. I'm also planning to give bracelets to my mom, mother-in-law, and little sister-in-law, and I have a much better idea what I will be giving now and what sizes I will need to make everything.

I was accepted into the Etsybeadweavers' Street Team (EBW) today! I have been admiring their work ever since I found out about Etsy back in July, and am very excited to be a member now. You can check out the EBW on blogspot: http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ (my name is not under the members list there yet...hopefully it will be soon) and on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/etsybeadweavers/ . You can also find EBW pieces on Etsy by searching for "ebw" or "ebw team" under the handmade items section.

I already posted about my Christmas charm bracelet. Here are pictures of the other Christmas bracelets that I have made thus far:

This one does not have to be worn at Christmas time, but I think the colors are fitting for the holiday:

Monday, November 24, 2008

As promised, here is the picture of me wearing my new pendant:

I have everything ready to send to the boutique and will mail it tomorrow after work. I am really proud of how many pieces I finished this past week - 9 different pieces, several of which I made two of so I can list one on Etsy and send one off to the boutique. I will be listing the over the next week or so. I'm going to post pictures of my three favorites (which was hard because I love them all):



This is my husband's favorite. He helped me pick out the colors. I'm calling it Defying Gravity peyote cuff as a tribute to Wicked (same colors):

Saturday, November 22, 2008

I finally got the boutique consignment agreement in the mail at the very end of this week. I have business cards and jewelry tags now, and I put together a flier about myself. I'm just finishing up the pieces I'm going to send. I'm sending five - a button bracelet, a button charm bracelet, a right angle bangle, another right angle weave piece, and a peyote cuff. My goal is to have everything ready to send before Thanksgiving so I can get it in the mail before we head out of town for the holiday.

I finished Sarah's button necklace. She's waiting until her next pay check to purchase it. In the mean time, if anyone else is interested in a necklace, I'm happy to take more custom requests. I will most likely relist the item as such after she does purchase it.

I received my pendant from yjja123 this week. It is gorgeous! I strung it on a silver chain. I took a picture of myself wearing it a few days ago. I'm going to do a big picture upload later this weekend and will post it after that.

I'm featuring my button charm bracelets in this post:




And I'm posting two pictures of my newest button charm bracelet posting - a Christmas one:


Saturday, November 15, 2008

buttons and other randomness

No word yet about the boutique unfortunately. I am working on a custom order for a friend, though. I've done button bracelets thus far, and she wants a button necklace. Exciting! We finally settled on the button and jump ring/toggle colors tonight. I'm going to start on it tomorrow. I also traded with someone on Etsy this week. I'm getting this pendant from yjja123 exchange for this bangle. We mailed our items yesterday so they are still in transit. I can't wait to see the pendant in person. I'm still debating whether I want to simply string it on a silver chain or if I want to make a beaded chain for it. Any thoughts? Please check out her shop. She has lots of other beautiful pendants as well as necklaces and other fun things. Also, to other Etsy sellers: I am always interested in discussing trades like this one. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you're interested. :)

Going back to the subject of buttons, I haven't posted any pictures of my button bracelets yet. I've made both button bracelets and button charm bracelets. I'll post pictures of the button bracelets and save the charm bracelets for another post. I'll also have to post a picture of the necklace when it's finished.

I made this one for myself. I've since shortened it a little bit:
There isn't one in this color scheme in my shop but if you'd like one with it, let me know!


I'm a sucker for the black and pink color combination. I also made a peyote cuff with this color scheme.


My school district's colors are purple and turquoise. I got inspired haha. Again, if you want one like this for yourself, let me know.

I made one very similar to this for my friend Linsday who originally introduced me to Etsy this past summer as a small way to say thank you. I liked it so much that I went ahead and made another one for my shop.

And finally:

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Someone contacted me on Wednesday via Etsy about selling some of pieces at a new boutique. He's opening a store in West Palm Beach, FL in December where he will be selling unique handmade jewelry. He was impressed with my work in my Etsy store and would like about 5 pieces initially for the boutique. He sent me a draft contract via e-mail, which looked good, so I'm waiting for the real contract in the mail now. I ordered business cards this week so I'll have some to send with my pieces (as well as to give out as needed wherever). I also need to put together an information sheet about myself and order price tags. I never imagined that I would have an opportunity like this, especially so quickly, but I'm thrilled that it's happened! I will post more details about this as they happen.

I've tried a few new designs this week. Any and all feedback on them is much appreciated!


Sunday, November 2, 2008

the start of my Etsy shop, plus a few new bangles

I officially opened my Etsy site on Halloween! It's going to take a few weeks to get my inventory built up, but I'm very excited to have gotten established. It's been awesome watching people already checking out my items. I'm going to add a few more items tomorrow and then officially announce it on Facebook. I'm also going to post the links to my flickr photostream and this blog on Facebook. This has been one of the few motivators for me this month amidst all of my sinus issues. I feel really good having managed to pull it off in spite of everything. I can also really enjoy it now that I'm starting to feel a little better - *crossing fingers* that this lasts and continues to get better.

I'm going to post pictures of my newest right angle weave bracelet and right angle bangle. I'll put up pictures of what I've done with a different pattern or stitch in my next post.

Because I hadn't made anything with green and blue in a while and was feeling deprived haha:
I took Jake's suggestion and made a bangle with black and silver: