what I've been working on this week and a preview of my new wrap bracelet/necklace line

Here's my new listing for this week.

I sold a handful of these button bracelets at my final 2011 show.  It's a good thing that I'd made a few brand new ones, including this one, and have several more button sets ready to be made into new bracelets, too.  This one is available here.

I took a lot of pictures before my final show and am still editing and organizing them so I can get items that didn't sell up on Etsy.  Check out these beautiful pieces that did sell before they made it on Etsy.

I actually made two versions of the silver bells charm bracelet, both of which sold.  I also made two versions with gold bells, which did not sell.  I am rapidly running out of steam for Christmas listings this year so unless someone is dying to have one, I will wait until Christmas in July to list the gold.  As the silver is so popular, I will be bringing that back for 2012.

This week I've also been finalizing the last details for my new line of wrap bracelets/necklaces and the detachable charm listings.  I really appreciate everyone's feedback with this entire process!

There will be three different length options: single strand, double strand, and triple strand.  Prices will vary slightly depending on width, length, embellishments, and charms.  The general price range will be $22-$35 with a few higher end pieces anywhere from $40-$70.  No, I did not make all these this past week.  I have been working on herringbone pieces from time to time since the summer.

 

I'll also have a few three strand herringbone pieces.  Edi, yes, you were my inspiration for this color set!

Most pieces will include one charm, often something special like a large glass bead or lampwork focal.  I will have some with simple silver charms or no charms as well.

I've had a number of thoughts about my extra charm sets for quite a while and am now finally putting them all together.  I'm planning to release at least four charm sets within the first month and then keep adding more from there.  Yep, I did use regular paper instead of a card stock or scrap book paper for the third one and the glue did bleed the back a little.  This is a special one for a gift and will not be for sale.

Most charm sets will have one silver charm and one glass charm or other special focal.  I am trying to keep the listings as simple as possible.  However, all listings can be mixed and matched (i.e. one silver charm from one set, one glass charm from another), and I'm happy to do custom sets.  I'll have a BRIEF note about that in the listing to try to keep customers from getting too overwhelmed.  Some of my sets will include custom options, such as initials.  I have 17 ideas for charm sets right now and am open to suggestions, too.  As for an extra chain, the general consensus is that it can be listed separately so I will have a chain only listing.  It will have a jump ring attached to the end so that the charms can be easily attached.

Finally, I had a sudden inspiration that my giveaway piece for the January BBA giveaway should be a piece from my new line.  Of course I didn't have one ready for this so I got to work.

I will most likely be making another one in this color palette to add to my shop, too.

I used this post for Michelle's Delicately Constructed Friday 12/16/11 and Erika's It's a Wrap Link Party - 12/19/11.

a great set of buttons

I listed my newest button embellished bracelet this week.

It's available here.  I absolutely love this set of buttons.  I've had them for a couple years.  I knew that I wanted to make a button embellished bracelet like this.  But it took me a long time to decide what color or color combination I wanted to use for the base.  I kept leaning toward white or cream to contrast with the colored buttons.  I wanted to include the white buttons, though, which would have disappeared against a light background.  I'm not sure when it struck me that I should try black.  It worked perfectly!  I love the contrast.

I'm planning to make a Fourth of July/patriotic themed button embellished bracelet next.  As always, if you have other suggestions, let me know.  I have a wide variety of colors already currently available in my shop here, but new color combination suggestions are always welcome.

This was supposed to be my last new listing from Iowa.  However, the closing date for our new place got pushed back to sometime next week so I will probably get at least one more up here early next week.  Stay tuned.

returning to an older button design and some more leaves for my next custom order

I don't make too many button bracelets like this anymore, but they continue to sell well so I roll a new one out every once in a while.

This bracelet is available here.  I actually sold the original one last summer and finally got around to updating this listing and renewing it, which is why it already has so many views.  These bracelets are simple, light weight, and fun.  They're pretty easy to put together in just about any color combination so if you have any requests, let me know.  As I said above, I don't make a ton of them these days, but as long as they continue to sell, I will keep making them.

Here are some of the final leaf beads that I purchased for my most recent custom order for a couple made to order leafy designs in custom sizes.  These are all from simplypie.  Click on the photos for the item listings.  How can you not love these little leaves?

Bead Trends February 2011

One of my designs is in the February 2011 edition of Bead Trends magazine!  I submitted this back in the summer, got accepted early in the fall, and just got the magazines and other goodies in the mail this past week.

Here are the magazines.  I got two free copies.

I also got a $20 gift certificate to Fire Mountain Gems as well as my returned bracelet.

Here's a close up of the spread.  If any of you get Bead Trends, it's pages 108-109.

I took a close up of the spread for the Etsy item listing, too.

Now that the issue is out, I'm allowed to list the bracelet so it's available on Etsy here.

This is the first version that I've done with this design using metal buttons.  My mom found a whole bunch of these vintage buttons for me at Vogue a while back. I made one other bracelet like this back in the summer, which I almost immediately sold to a family friend. I don't have any more buttons exactly like this, which is too bad, because they're amazing.  I also love the clasp button.  I used one other one like it on this piece.  I might have one or two more left, but that's it.  So I'll have to keep hunting for small metal buttons.

For those of you who are beaders and who are not interested in subscribing to the magazine or buying this issue off the stand, the pattern is available here.  Personally I think that patterns are a lot easier to work through with pictures, which obviously the magazine doesn't really provide.  And if you don't already subscribe, buying the single pattern is a lot cheaper.  Thus ends my little plug for it. :)

Also, for those of you who are beaders, Bead Trends is always accepting submissions for future issues here.  I'd like to get a couple more designs in for the summer issues that they're accepting for now.  I'm really amazed that they took one of my first submissions and hope that they're take others in the future, too.

treasury feature

Yukonski included my Button Bracelet - Blue, Orange, and Yellow in her Beautiful bright colours... treasury.  She curated it earlier this week.  I found it over the weekend.  I finally got a screen shot at home tonight.  Enjoy!

new background, treasury feature

I experimented with a new photo background today.  I'm very happy with the results.  You'll have to let me know what you think.

Here's another sneak peak shot of the pearl bracelet.  I'll share all of the pictures with it after the recipient has it.

I tried shooting a few of the pearl pictures on the music background, but it made the bracelet look really yellow.  I'm really pleased with the gray for it.

Here are a couple more gray shots from today of older items that needed updated pictures.

Etsy has been running incredibly slowly and not very well the last hour so I guess that I'm done there for tonight.  I'll have to upload my shots of the final item here on there tomorrow.  I had a sale on Etsy tonight, woohoo!  I'm planning to reveal my new product line tomorrow. :) Stay tuned.

Finally, I just found this treasury: Sobby included my Button Bracelet - Double Yellow in her Sunshine treasury.

it's been a good summer when..., new listing, August Top Droppers, September sale

You know that it's been a good summer when it's time to order more jewelry boxes!

That was the very end of my current stash on Monday night. :) (I've since ordered more.)  Thank you so much to everyone who has made that happen!

I listed a new button bracelet tonight: Button Bracelet - Summer.

This is one of the very first pieces that I shot in the light box.  I was still adjusting the angles and light settings a little, but overall I'm pretty pleased with it.  These button bracelets have done well on Etsy so I plan to keep listing them.  As always, I'm open to custom requests and suggestions for future color combinations.

The start of a new month means that it's time to acknowledge my Top Droppers again.  I really appreciate all of your support, especially those of you who take the time to comment regularly.  Here are the Top 10 for August.  Those of you who also have Etsy shops are encouraged to leave a comment with an item from your shop that you'd like me to feature here in the near future.
1) Moonangelnay on Etsy
2) BeadedTail
3) The Sewing Mom
4) Go Las Vegas Baby!
5) Sparkle
6) the crazy suburban mom
7) Dave Lucas
8) English Wilderness: Nature Photography
9) Melissa's Jewelry and Gem Blog
10) Simply Shiny Life

The start of a new month also means that I have a new sale on Etsy.  This month, my 6 fall designs are all 15% off.  You can view the sale section here.  I'm planning to remake my fall leafy earring design and list them before the end of the month for the sale as well.

treasury feature, August EBW Challenge piece, light box up and running

I think that this week I've set a record for the number of new treasuries that I'm included in during one week!  Chris Maj (beadn4fun) included my green button embellished right angle bracelet in her "Bead" the Heat treasury tonight.  16 beautiful EBW items that are on sale for Christmas in July.

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

As promised, I listed my August EBW Challenge Gold and Silver piece tonight.  It's my gold and silver wrapped skinny peyote cuff.  I've had this idea for quite a while.  This challenge was the perfect opportunity to finally make it happen.  It also pushed me to create my skinny wrapped peyote cuff pattern that I'll be listing tomorrow.

I really love the button on this cuff.  My mom gave me a stash of vintage buttons for Christmas that she'd purchased in bulk from a fabric store, which included a large number of metal buttons.  This is only the second one that I've used so far.  There will be more of them in my pieces in the future.  You can search "ebwc" on Etsy for more challenge entries that have already come in.  I'll post more about the challenge as voting approaches.

I got my light box up and running today.  I'm really pleased of how well everything is working so far!  I  followed the instructions from this DIY tutorial on the digital-photography-school.com web site.  The only things that I did differently are that are used two lights instead of one (on the recommendations of many Etsy blogs/forum posts about light boxes) and that I used Ott lightbulbs (on the recommendation from this Etsy forum post).  For those who are interested in doing this themselves, here's my breakdown of the materials/costs:
-1 large cardboard box (I had this at home because I don't throw out boxes when we'll almost definitely be moving within the next 2 years, otherwise you can probably get one from work)
-white poster board (I already had this at home from my craft fair sign project, but poster board is less than $1 a sheet at Wal-Mart or Target)
-white fabric (I spent $2 on a 100% cotton fat quarter at Jo-Ann Fabrics, but I know that many of you probably have this already...FYI the fat quarter was almost the perfect amount for my box)
-2 desk lamps (I got mine for $10 each at Target, make sure that you get lamps that will accommodate 60W bulbs...a lot of desk lamps are only 40W)
-2 Ott bulbs (I got this kind of bulb at Lowe's for $5 each)
I also used scissors (both paper and fabric), masking tape, and a ruler, all of which I already had at home.  I did not use a knife or glue like the web site tutorial suggests, but you can certainly use these materials if you choose.  The only other thing that I purchased is my tripod, which was this tripod from Target for $15.  It had by far the best reviews out of all of the cheap tripods (under $30) that I browsed this week.  No, it would not be conducive for professional shooting or extended outdoor shooting, particular in areas with uneven footing, but for limited indoor shooting, it's great.

So as you can see, the costs were pretty minimal.  Here it is all set up.  I ran a power strip over to the desk so the desk lamps could reach.  I weighed the bases of the lamps down so that they could angle down this far.  Jake has pretty much moved his main painting area to the living room so I should be able to leave my box set up on this desk in our second bedroom.

I did a small shooting session when I got everything up and running to make sure that it works.  I used a single page from a version of Fur Elise that I got free from Dover online last year.  It doesn't look as classy as my Chopin book, but until I run off some single pages from Chopin (the large book doesn't fit when it's open in the box), it will work.  You get a sneak preview of my newest button bracelet here.

I shot a handful of of pictures with white backgrounds, too.  It doesn't really feel like me haha, but I am pleased with how it looks.  Maybe I'll get used to it as I get more comfortable with the box and the tripod.  As I wrote earlier today, I'm definitely not giving up the music background, but I might experiment with 1-2 white background shots for a listing.

Jake got excited about the light box and had me photograph a few of his Warhammer models.  I had the lights aimed more directly overhead when I started, then switched to the side angle that you see above.  These couple shots are from the side angle.  The detail is much better.  The top of the models, especially the faces, got lost in the dark (even with editing), when the light came from overhead.

My crafty work also inspired Jake to work on his next storage box for his models that he's had the materials for for quite a while.  This was another great DIY tutorial that we found online a few years ago.  This is Jake's third DIY box.

treasury feature, Farmer's Market tomorrow

Lorena (gemagenta) included my Christmas button bracelet in her My Christmas Wish List! treasury.  Perfect for the Christmas in July sale. :)

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

I've been getting ready for the Iowa City Farmer's Market tonight.  Again, for those of you in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area: It's 7:30AM-noon Saturday July 3, right across from City Hall in downtown Iowa City.  I was planning to take pictures of my newest button earrings and magnets today, but I got busy with other things this afternoon.  Needless to say, it didn't happen before I was ready to pack things up.  Maybe I'll take some pictures of them there tomorrow.  Either way, I will definitely try to take SOME pictures while I'm there.  I have lots of new button earring studs, especially green and purple ones since they were so popular.  I also made lots of new button magnets.  I think that I'll have even more than I had at the Arts Festival.

Also, perfect for the Fourth of July, I'll have these earrings.

I sold a pair like these at the Arts Festival.  Hopefully I'll  sell another pair tomorrow.  If you'd be interested in some for yourself, let me know.  I have a few more of these buttons.  The earrings are only $5.00. :)

treasury feature

Thank you E927 for featuring my double yellow button bracelet in her YELLOW! treasury!


You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE until Sunday September 6 5:58AM EST.