the great pearl reveal

As promised, I listed my pearl bracelet tonight.  For those who have not already heard what happened, the very short story is that this bracelet is the result of a custom order that did not work out.  The customer agreed to exchange this bracelet for some other items from my shop, and I'm reselling this bracelet.  I put a lot of time and effort (and money) into it.  I would love to see it go to a new home.

These are the earrings that I created to go with it.  The customer decided to keep the earrings.  This is the first serious wire wrapping project that I've ever done.  I know that it is not amazing, but I think that it turned out pretty decently, all things considered.

This is the first item that I've ever listed without a music background for the first picture.  The music absolutely did not work with the colors for this piece.  It made the lemon quartz look very yellow, which contrasted harshly with the pearls.  The gray works so much better.  Hopefully this won't upset the look of my shop too much haha.

Let me know what you think.  The very positive response that I from my customer and from a lot of other people about my custom radish earrings helped renew my spirits about custom orders, but some feedback on this piece would still be appreciated, too.

October EBW Challenge piece

As promised, I listed my October EBW Challenge piece tonight: Beadwoven Bracelet - The Leafy Series - Fall Autumn II.  Voting will be on the EBW blog from October 9-15.  I'll have more details about that when it's voting time.

I'm really happy with the result.  I love all of my leafy pieces, but I've made more autumn pieces than any other color scheme so far.  Each one has been unique.  As I mentioned in my last post, I will have a shorter version available soon that will take the place of what's currently up for the original autumn listing (I sold the one pictured back in the winter).  I'm also reworking MY version of this bracelet, which was one of the earliest ones I made and honestly had some technical difficulties which I've since worked out.  While I have the fall seed bead mix, I'm planning to make some more fall leafy earrings.  I'm getting quite the fix of fall colors!  I certainly can't complain.

I'm going to list at least one more new item this week, and I'm planning to do my pearl reveal AT LAST on Wednesday so stay tuned.

weekend happenings

I spent a lot of time this weekend going through more old books that I want to list on Amazon or Ebay.  Just when I think I'm nearing the end of what I want to list, I find a whole new shelf or box that I haven't gone through.  This is a picture that I took in the middle of my progress today.

I linked my Amazon and Ebay shops above.  I have a lot on Amazon.  I only have a few listings up on Ebay right now, but I'll be listing more over the next month.  It's a lot of work, but every book we sell is one less book that we'll have to move again.

I've been working some more leafy pieces this weekend.  I'm going to list my EBW October challenge piece tomorrow.  Here's a sneak peak of it.

I'm going to use the longer leafy piece pictured above for the challenge.  I'll have a shorter one available for sale within the next week, too.

Finally, here's a picture of Angel that I took yesterday.  She's been spending a lot of time sleeping on the couch recently.

As you can probably tell by the scissors that I left there, that is exactly where I usually sit on the couch. :)

radishes completed

I finished the radish earrings last night and took pictures when I got home from work today while there was still a little light.  (The light box really does better with some natural light coming in the room.)  They'll be on their way tomorrow.  I am so happy with the result!  This was one of the most fun custom orders ever.

Again, for those who may have missed it before or don't already know and are wondering "Why radishes?," the earrings are supposed to be similar to ones that Luna Lovegood wears in the Harry Potter books (and movies it seems like?  I honestly don't remember).  When I started making them, I was not planning to make a second pair to sell, but I definitely want to now.  My biggest question is whether I want to keep them as post earrings or make a dangle version?  If anyone has any preferences/opinions, please let me know.  I think that it would also be fun to try other fruits or vegetables.  Wouldn't little lemons or strawberries with the same tiny green leaves look awesome?  You know that I need another little series haha.  It's something fun to think about and would be easy to work on from time to time, though.  I have a wide range of delica colors.  It doesn't take many of them to make earrings like this.

It will be a bit before I had anything else like this in my shop, but if you want something custom at any time, just let me know.  Have a great weekend!

new jewelry displays, radish earrings

It's hard to believe but my next craft show is only a little more than 2 weeks away!  I still have a lot to do to get ready before then.  I did receive one important addition for my fall/winter shows in the mail today: new jewelry displays.  I hope that having a couple vertical displays will add to the overall look of my booth set up.

I know that they'll look even better when they have jewelry on them. I bought both displays from this seller on Ebay.  I was very pleased with the price and the shipping.  It only took about 2 weeks for them to arrive from China.  If anyone is looking for something like this for themselves, I highly recommend this seller.  I'll have more details about my overall display and upcoming show details soon.

I have only relayed my recent custom order saga to Jake and the EtsyBloggers.  If you want to hear the whole story, you'll have to message me privately.  Suffice it to say, I was going to have a big reveal yesterday or today and that isn't going to happen.  I will post more details about those custom pieces sometime next week when the whole thing is hopefully finished.  For now, I keep forgetting to post a picture of the wedding order that I had a few weeks ago.

I made custom versions of the two bracelets on the left (which were made to order anyway so it worked out well) for the flower girls, which is why they are so small.  The other four bracelets will be for the bridesmaids.  I included the button earrings in coordinating colors as a surprise gift.  This bride has been an amazing customer, and I'm still in awe that she ordered so many bracelets from me.  I hope that she has a wonderful wedding.

Finally, my newest custom order is for a pair of Luna Lovegood inspired radish earrings.  I found a pattern online that she liked and used the concept to create my own original version of it.  Here's a peak at the first radish, finished, with no post yet (she specifically wanted posts).

I love the way this design turned out.  I had no intention of making a second pair to sell, but I am definitely planning to now.  I will take more pictures of the final product and post them here sometime in the next week.

EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival wedding post

I couldn't resist this Blog Carnival topic.  So you get a little break from my normally scheduled topics.  I got married almost 4 years ago, and I started this blog 2 years ago so I've never posted any wedding or honeymoon pictures here before.  I had fun going through my old pictures.  This is probably way more pictures than you wanted to see, but I hope that you enjoy it.  We don't have digital copies of our professional pictures so all of the wedding pictures here are from the disposable cameras at the reception or from other people's digital cameras.  I've also included a few pictures from our honeymoon in Oahu, Hawaii.

One of Jake's aunts and one of my uncles took pictures at the rehearsal.  Here are the ring bearer and flower girl.

And a shot of the church.

In case any of you didn't already know/believe that I'm a dork, this really was our cake topper.

I love creating black and white or sepia versions of pictures.  Here are a few that I did from the disposable cameras.

And the honeymoon.

Hawaii is seriously one of the most beautiful, magical places in the world.  I've been twice and would definitely go back again.

Hawaii is one of the two places in the world (the other place is Disney World) that you can get DoleWhips.  We probably ate 6 of them while we were there.

I normally take pictures of a lot of random things on trips and don't get a lot of people shots, but here are the two of us at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Birthday Cake, free samples, sneak peak

I finally listed my Birthday Cake cuff tonight.  Some of you may remember that at some point this summer, I posted a sneak peak of the Birthday Cake bead mix.  I shot the original pictures before I made my light box so I decided to retake them over the weekend.

I generally have a difficult time naming my pieces.  If I do name them, I almost always do it partway through the creation process or afterward.  This name just came to me, though, as soon as I started putting the bead mix together.  I still think that it's very fitting.  And I really love this button.  It ties everything together nicely.  I made another bracelet with this same seed bead mix but no other embellishment that I'm going to list at some point, too.

Shannon (beadsandbabble) was so pleased with my inclusion of her chocolate dagger beads in my random feature earlier this month that she offered to send me some free sample beads!  Of course I wasn't going to say no to that!  They arrived in the mail today, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

Some of these beads fit into my Art Beads fall blogging piece perfectly.  I've been planning some simple jade pieces for a while as while.  The neutral/metallic seed beads on the right will coordinate well with that green.  Thanks again Shannon!

Some accepted another Alchemy request today so I'll be working on that custom request this week.  I picked out the beads tonight.

I'll leave your imaginations open on that for now.  And no, it's not anything Christmas related even though it is that color scheme. :)

Finally, I got confirmation today that I will have a piece published in Bead Trends February 2011!

continued leaves and rock gardens

I finished two new rock garden designs this weekend and updated the listings for both of them.

Beadwoven Bracelet - Purple Rock Garden

The colors are more vivid in person.  The button looks a little bit garish with the beads in the pictures, but everything really does balance out well.

Beadwoven Bracelet - Blue/Purple Rock Garden

I started my newest autumn designs, too.  Here's a sneak peak picture as I started laying out the beads.

I hope that this week gets off to a good start for everyone!

new goodies

I finally broke down and started selling on Ebay tonight.  I am not a huge fan of Ebay, largely because I got hacked through it a few years ago, but hopefully it will be worthwhile.  My username there is randomcreative if anyone would like to look me up.  I'll post the link at some point when I have more items listed.  I was planning to post here earlier tonight, but I got wrapped up in the Ebay thing instead.

Here I am now, though.  As promised, I've been working on rock garden and leafy designs this weekend.  There are some of the new leaf beads that I'm including in my new pieces.

I also got the daggers that I ordered from The Beadin' Path this week.  They don't have a huge selection of items, but they have a nice collection of daggers.  Ever since I completed my blue dagger design, I've been thinking about lots of other possible dagger designs.

I can't believe how nicely the purple shade shows here.  Aren't these gorgeous beads?

new fall treasury, other fall happenings

I curated a new fall treasury tonight: Fall Owls.  It was really fun doing another seasonal themed treasury.

Also, on the subject of fall, Jake and I went apple picking last weekend. :)

I made an apple pie back on Sunday.  I will most likely make at least one more with our current batch of apples.  I finally shipped my pearl bracelet and earrings today so I'm concentrating on other projects again.  Among other things, I have the beads assembled for a handful of leafy and rock garden bracelets, which includes my EBW Autumn Leaves entry.  There is no way that I'm missing this challenge!  I'll also be working on my Art Beads blogging program fall piece once my supplies arrive.  Have a great weekend everyone. :)