peek at the next ebook in the works

Last month I mentioned that I'm working on my next ebook, and I shared my first peek from it. Over the past few weeks I've made a lot of progress on the samples for it and wanted to share of them. I am really happy with my work so far and am looking forward to finishing up the samples and moving forward with final shots for the book.

I always use an acrylic spray for my sheet music pages that I'll be gluing so that the ink doesn't run. On a whim, I decided to paint some of my clothespin samples. I absolutely love the textured look of watercolors over acrylic spray.

Finally, I can't seem to stop making paper flowers. Many of you know that I have been a huge Alisa Burke fan for several years now, and you can definitely see her influence in these flowers. In addition to the influence in the designs themselves, I also took a page from her book and used cheap supplies - Crayola watercolor paints and a Bic white out pen - to make this come together.

What have you been working on lately?

book recommendation, other hobby, redone listings

I have another bead weaving book from the library that I've been reading this week: Seed Bead Fusion: 18 Projects to Stitch, Wire, & String by Rachel Nelson-Smith. There really are only 18 projects in this book, and the bead weaving projects are all based off of 2 basic designs. While it is not one of the more diverse beading books I've ever seen, it does have some of the best instructions. The book includes directions in writing, drawings, and photographs for EVERY project. I've never seen anything quite like it. The photographs are all excellent quality. The other unique strength of this book is that there are pictures for each finished project of exactly what is explained in the directions and nothing else. I don't know if anyone else gets frustrated by this sort of thing in most books, but I think that it can be annoying to read directions for a basic peyote cuff and not understand what to do because every picture uses a different sort of bead or has a much more complicated clasp. This book is not like that! It is also not for a beginner, but it allows someone with a little knowledge of basic bead weaving techniques to take on some more advanced projects because all of the directions and pictures are so good.

In other creative endeavors, I finally tracked down a free transcription for Golden by Fall Out Boy, which has been one of my favorite songs for over a year. No, I don't just keep Chopin books around for photographing jewelry, I really do play the piano. :P I haven't in a while, and it's been fun to work on a new piece again.

I finally edited and upload the pictures that I took of some of my older items last week. Take a look if you get a chance!

monochromatic retro charm fringed peyote cuff

double stranded raspberry right angle bracelet (2 versions currently available)

turquoise right angle bangle
double stranded blue and purple right angle bracelet