Friday Feature: black and silver

This Friday Feature is in honor of a couple of my newest jewelry shop items. Do you remember when I floated the idea of black and silver celestial pieces? A lot of people were on board with that idea so I went with it.

(Blue and purple sets are in stock right now, too. If you've been thinking about picking up any of these pieces, I'd highly recommend doing it before the holidays so you don't end up with a made to order wait.)

I've found some other black and silver fashion pieces that you could rock with these of these celestial items. Enjoy.

Women's Black Screen Print T Shirt Dress - Southwest Metallic Silver Feather Print - Wear Day and Night - For Her by sealmaiden

Ribbon Scarf Black and Silver Crochet Winter Fashion by krochetlady

Black Corset Laced Cocktail Hat by MindYourBonce

Black and Silver Diamond Lace Art Deco Clutch Handbag - Gorgeous Formal / Holiday / New Years / Evening / Wedding Purse - Christmas / Bridesmaid Gift by BonneAmieBoutique

Elegant Elbow Length Fingerless Gloves - Black and Silver - Crocodile Stitch Arm Warmers - Made to Order by ArtistBeeBee

Elegant Silver and Black Peyote Triangle Choker - A Sand Fibers Made-to-Order Creation by SandFibers

Do you ever wear or work with the black and silver combination?

Hawkeye gear is back

Hawkeye gear is back and just in time for football season!  Hopefully fans have recovered from their 41-44 loss against Iowa State in triple over time earlier this month.  I'm actually not a football fan, but we do root for Iowa for Big 10 football.

It always surprises me what color combinations do well.  The black and yellow one has been no exception.  After I had my most recent black and yellow sale last month, I decided to make a couple new Hawkeye pieces before we got too far into the new school year.  Click on all of the photos in this post to go to the listings.

I still have a Hawkeye bangle available, too.

As always, I can make any of these designs in other color combinations.  So if you're not a Hawkeye fan and would like a different set of colors for your favorite team, let me know.  I won't be offended.

treasury round up and new goodies

As always, I'm so honored to have my pieces included in treasuries on Etsy.  Thanks much to all of my curators!

Angela (AngelaDesign) included my Beaded Bracelet - Black and Pink in her Black and Pink treasury.  I never get tired of this color combination!

Glass Flower Knitting Stitch Markers (N2) - set of 5 - ready to ship

Christina (BirgittasBeads) included my Silver Dangle Earrings - Pink Shell in her Make it pink, rose, or fuchsia! treasury.

Christina doesn't have anything available in that particular Etsy shop right now.

mellimoon included my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Skinny - Sunshine Gold Accented in her The Sun is Coming Out to Play treasury.  I love the mix of items here.

Amy - mellimoon doll ooak

 I was in Chicago briefly last weekend on my way to Kenosha for my little sister-in-law's high school graduation.  I had not been bead shopping in Chicago in months so I had to hit one of my favorite shops again: Briolette.

I am always looking for more size 6 Czech seed beads.  I use a lot of them in almost all of my right angle weave designs.  Briolette has a pretty good selection so I usually pick up a few when I'm there.  Both the cream and yellow beads will be for my July EBW Challenge piece, as well as many other pieces, I'm sure.  I go through a lot of cube beads for my skinny embellished peyote cuffs, too, so picking up a couple more of those is always a good idea, too.

One of my favorite things at Briolette is their Czech glass mixed bowls.  They sort them by color and let you mix and match to fill the little bags.  I could seriously spend hours digging through them, filling many many bags.  Normally I limit myself to two bags, but I went for four this time, largely because they had so many leaf beads.  I hadn't seen this many there in a couple years.  I picked up a few other assorted shapes as well, including the adorable drilled Domino beads.  I think that they would make perfect little earrings.  I may work up a few of those for Christmas in July.

periwinkle and black is back and other recent happenings

I sold the longer version of this design earlier this month.  I still have the shorter version so I took photos and listed it.

It's available here.  This bracelet has lamp work glass rounds from Jen (blueseraphim), leaf beads from Shannon (beadsandbabble), and a ceramic button from Kristie (artisanclay).  I love combining components from different artists to make my own pieces.  And I absolutely love the periwinkle color in this piece.  It took me a long time to gather different components in the same shade that coordinated for a single bracelet, but it was worth it.  I love the Czech glass in the middle, too.  It reminds me of the vintage blue/white china plates.  These were also components that I'd had for quite a while because they were awesome, but I didn't figure out what to do with them until I got serious about putting this design together.

I'm not planning to make any more bracelets with this particular leafy variations any time soon, but I do have two made to order leafy series bracelets in the works right now.  I'm waiting to hear back from one of the sellers that I bought some red leaf beads from because she sent a different set of red beads instead.  But I have all of my new blue leaf beads so I'm going ahead with that bracelet.

Angela (AngelaDesign) included another one of my bracelets in a new treasury this week.  Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Embellished Square Stitch - Red/Purple is in her Purple and Red treasury.  Thanks Angela!

metallic bangle and some treasury love

I listed a new bangle this week.

It's available here.  I'm not making a lot of bangles these days, but this has been a popular design so I made another version.  I love this kind of jewelry because it's simple and classic.  You can wear it for just about any occasion.

I was very fortunate to be included in several new treasuries this week.  Check them out!

(Is anyone else frustrated by how the treasury format keeps getting bigger and bigger?  I think Etsy's trying to discourage these screen shots or something.)

Kelly (MadeWithButtons) included my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Skinny - Sunshine Gold Accented in her Gimme Some Sunshine Baby treasury.  Kelly just opened up her new button shop this month.  I'm so glad that she's creating again!

CatchSomeRaes included my Button Charm Bracelet - Yellow in her think Happy thoughts treasury.

Christina (AnnasAdornments) included my Beaded Bracelet - Button Embellished - Rainbow (which now has 17 hearts!) in her Button-Crazy! treasury.  Thank you, Christina, for another fabulous collection.  And thank you, Lisa (Alterity) for the comments on my blog and on the treasury page about how we're in this awesome collection together!  Lisa also has amazing button jewelry.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my monthly Top Droppers and commenters appreciation post as well as my May sale information!

newest shell bead earrings and button bracelets in the works

I promised quite a while back that I would make earrings to coordinate with my black shell bead bracelets.  I finally listed one of the pairs of earrings this week.

These earrings are available here.  I'll list the smaller version of these earrings soon.  The vote for the coordinating earrings was black so that's what I decided to make.  But if you prefer white, just let me know.  I still have some white shells.

I have sea green and pale blue bracelet and earring sets ready to photograph, too.

I sold five button charm bracelets on Etsy last month.  I've started restocking my stash.  I know that my shop is still plenty full, but my button bracelet supply has diminished.  It's been one of my few designs that has sold consistently on Etsy so I'm not going to stop making them any time soon.  I have blue in the works right now.

All of my new button charm bracelets will have beads like this recently sold button charm bracelet has.  They have been popular and are something that sets my button charm bracelets apart from others that are available on Etsy.  The turquoise/red combination will be back as well as green and purple.

working with periwinkle again

Thank you much for all of the birthday wishes yesterday!  I had a bad cold all weekend but otherwise it was a very nice birthday.

I listed a new periwinkle and black piece last night.  It's available here.

 

I bought the periwinkle/black lamp worked beads from Jen (blueseraphim) back in 2009 simply because they were awesome.  I had no idea what I was going to make with them.  I got the ceramic button from Kristie (artisanclay) as part of a giveaway and bought the leaves (mostly from Shannon of beadsandbabble) back in June.  Then I had to find periwinkle seed beads and figure out what else I wanted to use in the piece.  I'd been holding onto some of the other glass components that I included for quite a while, too.  It was way past time to use them!  And I finally put it all together this winter.  I know that this is a very winter-y piece.  I WILL list some of my lovely new green spring pieces soon.  But the colors in this piece can work for other seasons as well.

I actually made two versions.  As you can see, this second slightly shorter version is nearly identical to the one above.

I'm not planning to make any more like this, but it was neat using the leaf beads in a slightly different way than I usually do my leafy and rock garden series.

organization and a sneak peak

As part of our effort to clean and organize our condo before we will most likely move in June, I have been organizing my beads.  We have a lot of random things stored in shoe boxes.  I'm trying to get rid of those.  I used several large craft organizers in my classroom the first couple years I had my current position.  I don't anymore so I took them home.  My goal is to get all of my beads, buttons, and findings into proper craft organizers and throw my remaining current craft supplies (E-6000, extra pliers, etc.) into a couple small storage bins.

Needless to say, this is easier said than done, especially because I would rather be crafting than organizing.  I'm planning to organize most beads as I go, filing them into their new homes after I finish projects instead of throwing them back into shoe boxes.  I organized my findings first because they were honestly the easiest part of the task to accomplish.

The Czech glass and more specialized components (handmade ceramic buttons, etc.) will be pretty easy to organize, too.  I'm going to keep working at it slowly.  The buttons won't be too bad either once I get a color system going.  I'm not positive how I'm going to sort my seed beads.  I figure I'll save that for last and see how my storage space looks when I get there.

I organized my living room work space last weekend before my in-laws came for a last minute visit.  This way some people can believe that this is how I normally have my current/next in line projects organized on that table.  (Anyone who does any sort of crafting knows what a funny idea that is.)

You'll notice that we still have the castle walls on that same table.  When we gave our second TV to my little sister-in-law this winter, I was able to relocate most of our smaller plaster pieces to the mantle, but I don't know where we're going to put the walls when it's time to sell our place.

Finally, here's a sneak peak of one of my current projects.  I have so much finished, not yet listed inventory right now that I haven't taken too many "in progress" pictures lately, but the process pictures can be just as fascinating as the finished pictures.  This is an idea that I've had for literally almost a year (although the metal shank button clasp was a more recent addition to the overall idea) and I'm finally using some of the beads that I bought almost that long ago to make it happen.

I'm also planning to remake this bangle design when I've finished, which has an almost identical color palette.

classic in black

I re-listed one of my favorite earring designs earlier this week (with brand new pictures): Beaded Dangle Earrings - Peyote Tubular Triangles - Black.

You can't go wrong with black!  So classic and versatile.  I'd actually like to make some more tubular triangles for my triangle charm bracelet and necklace designs before I make any more earrings.  I've only done purple for those thus far so there are so many colors/color combinations to use.  As always, I'm open to suggestions for any and all future peyote triangles.

Farmer's Market wrap up, new listing

The Iowa City Farmer's Market went pretty well today.  I didn't have nearly the kind of sales that I did at the Arts Festival, but I did have enough sales to make it worth my time.

Among other sales, I sold these earrings that I hadn't even listed yet on Etsy.

I did remember to take a few pictures while I was there.

I broke up my two card tables for the Farmer's Market, which did help bring people into my booth and look at all of the items more than at the Arts Festival.  People really didn't look at many of items that were in the middle back portion of my table during the Arts Festival.  So it was good to see that this helped.  Ideally I think I would like to have a longer table with one or two shorter side tables to create more visual interest, but this works pretty well for now.  I can only make so many upgrades to my display for each show.  You can see the cinder blocks in the back, which Jake helped me tie up this morning.  They worked very well.  As you can also see from this picture, the weather was gorgeous.  It got a little hot toward the end of the morning, but I can't complain otherwise.

Here's the stash of buttons magnet that I brought, minus a few from the first button magnet sale.  The easel was on of my few additions to this show.  It worked wonderfully for drawing people to the magnets and inviting them to pick them up.  Unfortunately it kept tipping over, even after I taped it down so I eventually put it down.  The easel will still be great for indoor shows.  The star and heart magnets were very popular again.  I'm planning to make more of them as well as more Christmas magnets (you can see a few in there now) for my fall shows.

Here are the button earring studs that I had out for the show (this is about half of them).  The water damage on a couple of the cards is from all of the rain at the Arts Festival.  I was surprised that NONE of these sold today.  They still got a lot of compliments.  Hopefully they'll continue to sell in the future.

There will almost definitely be openings for the Farmer's Market again this summer.  I may do it again at least once.  I don't think it's worth the effort more often than that because I'm not going to have repeat customers the way the food vendors are.

I listed another new item today: black and pink fringed peyote cuff.

As I'm sure you already know, I love the pink/black color combination.  I set the beads for it together in a bag quite a while ago.  I finally got inspired to complete it after I made Sharla's raspberry cuff back in March.  I love how it turned out!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July!  Jake and I are spending it with some extended family, but I'll still be checking in at random over the next couple days.

3D in black

It turns out that the Arts Festival does NOT provide anything for our booths. I was hoping that they at least provided some sort of tent, but they don't. In the less than 2 hours that I saw Jake today (we're working opposite schedules this week), he okayed it for me to buy a tent. So I did tonight. I was certainly not planning to do this, but I'm glad that I did. Jake is an Eagle scout and has a lot of great camping equipment, but we've only been camping ONCE in the 8+ years that we've been together. Maybe the new equipment (I got an instant shelter and the screen walls that go with it) will motivate us to go again once the festival is over. Even if we can't go right away, the tent is something that we'll be able to use for years for both camping and future craft fairs.

I was also very excited to find picnic table clips in the camping section of Target! As I've mentioned before, I've been looking for them ever since I found out that I got into the festival. I also got a pack of large ("quilting size") safety pins tonight. Between the screen walls, the picnic clips, the safety pins, and my paper weight pen holders, I'm feeling pretty good about things not blowing away. As I'm sure some of you know, Iowa can be VERY windy, but I think I've done about everything that I can to prepare for it.

I mailed, e-mailed, or hand delivered my fliers for Eastern Iowa family and friends this week, minus the ones that I'll give out to my co-workers the week before the event. I think that my next little project will be sorting and tagging all of my jewelry. I have already tagged the majority of my items because I do sell a fair amount in person, but I need to make sure that everything has the rounded prices that I'll be using for the festival.

I've been keeping busy with all of the booth prep stuff and haven't done a lot of creating, but I did list a new pair of earrings tonight. These are the first pair of 3D triangle earrings that I have for sale! I am really excited about them.


I would wear a pair of earrings in this design a regular basis if I had pierced ears. Because I don't, I'm trying to figure out how I can incorporate a 3D triangle into a bracelet/cuff. I have 3D triangle earrings in both spring green and a blue mix that I'll be listing shortly, too. I'm thinking about doing a version in red next.

continued weekend progress

I hope that all of the mothers reading this have had a Happy Mother's Day. :)

Today was another productive day with crafty endeavors. I finished the majority of the signs for my booth. Currently I have them under a large book to flatten them out a bit. I will take (and post) pictures of them later this week. I've decided that I will have enough magnets to sell them at the Arts Festival so I need to finish all of the ones that I have assembled but not yet glued. I made a decent amount of progress with that today. I photographed three bead woven items and two button stud earrings. I organized my finished but not yet photographed button stud earrings. The weather was gorgeous today, and I was able to photograph outside. Finally, I finished a cuff that I've been working on intermittently for the past couple months. It's similar to my Easter morning peyote cuff but with a fall color scheme.

I picked out the beads for a pink/black skinny peyote cuff. I think working on Sharla's cuff a couple weeks ago inspired me to make another skinny cuff right away because I finally finished pink/black one yesterday. While I had the pink base beads out, another idea came to mind. Normally if I name my pieces, I don't do it until they're completed. Also, I normally don't pick out the button that I'll use for the clasp until I've finished the rest of the piece. However, a name popped into my head right away, and while I was searching for a pink/black button clasp, I found a perfect button for this cuff, too.

Here's my mix with the button. It's going to be a wrapped cuff like this one but with more embellishment. I'm going to call it Birthday Cake.


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

earring cards, metallic bangle redone

I started asking around for general advice about earring cards on both the EBW message board and the EtsyBloggers forum thread a couple weeks ago. I got a lot of great tips about them from both groups. Thank you to everyone who did respond! Sharla (BeadedTail) suggested that maybe Edi (memoriesforlifesb) could make something for me. Edi very generously offered not only to make some for me but to create a custom design. We worked together to figure out what background/lettering/etc. and sizes I wanted. You can see Edi's sweet blog post about it by clicking here.

The cards came today, and I had to take a picture of them, too.
Thank you again Edi! :) I am so excited about how they turned out! Thank you to all who left wonderful comments about them on Edi's blog. I hope that others who view them here like them as well. I ordered rubber earwire backs from Art Beads today to secure my dangles on their cards (and for anyone who might want some when they purchase their earrings).

I completed the last couple items that needed to be reworked for my old custom order last night. Here's the new metallic bangle that will be on its way tomorrow.
This means that the original, smaller version is available again (although as always, I'm happy to create something in a different size for you). I took new pictures of it this weekend for my Etsy shop. Click on the picture to check out the listing.