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!

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!

recent orders/projects/Alchemy

I've put all of my new ideas and planned projects aside for the past week or so because of all of the custom work that I've had!  I've also been working on a couple presents.  The first will be part of my new line of items that I'll be revealing soon.  The other one is my first tubular triangle pendant.

I know that it's hard to tell in this picture, but the dark beads are a wonderful, deep shade of purple.  For those who like this color combination, you will be seeing more of it in the future. :)

One of my two recent Alchemy bids that I won was actually for supplies.  I haven't gotten into destashing on Etsy, but I thought that this would be an interesting opportunity.  This is what I put together this week.

The other Alchemy bid that I won is for the custom pearl and lemon quartz cuff that I won't be working on until sometime next week when all of the supplies come in so I'll have more details about that then.  The other order that I've been working on this week is the wedding order that I mentioned at the beginning of this week.  Here are the two made to order pieces.

The newest version of my Silver Links Ocean Beaded Bracelet.  Yes, these made to order pieces are small so they'll fit the young flower girls.

 And the newest version of my Green Ocean Fantasy Beadwoven Bracelet.  I still have some of these polka dot beads in blue (as well as a few other colors) so I might make a slightly modified version to sell.

I'll post pictures of the complete bridesmaid wedding order after the bride has received it.

great Etsy day, treasury feature

Do you remember how I finished my custom cuff last week?  The woman who bought it is actually the bride.  She got the cuff today and loved it so much that she decided to order the jewelry for all of her bridesmaids and flower girls (6 girls/women total) from me!  I came back from work to find the order completed.  Two of the bracelets are made to order which works out perfectly because I can custom fit them for the flower girls.

That's the surprise coordinated piece that I created for the bride.  Now that she's seen it, you can all see it, too. :) I'll post more details about that order as I finish the made to order items and get everything ready.  I am even more pysched about her color scheme than I was before.

Also, thanks to Edi's post a while back about Alchemy, I've been bidding on items here and there over the last month.  I won two of my bids from this past week and committed to them today!  I think I've worked out most of the details for both of them now.  I'm waiting for their payments to go through before I do anything else.  Those of you who are bead weavers, if you haven't already seen my posts about pearls in the EBW forums and have any experience with them in relation to bead weaving (particularly RAW), please let me know.  I can complete the bead weaving without any problem.  I just want some advice about my materials before I get started because this is a little bit of a new territory for me.  Thanks!  I'll post more details on those projects, too, as they continue to develop.

Finally, my fellow EBW member Jane-Michael (JaneMichel) included my Beadwoven Bracelet - Button Embellished - Rainbow in her Rainbows treasury.

What an amazing start to the week!  I hope that everyone's week has started off well, too. :)