some final green for spring and a custom order

As you know, I've gone a little crazy with green lately.  I had to list one more green item this spring.

It's available here.  I sold my original green button charm bracelet last summer and honestly can't believe that it took me this long to make another one.  I'm really happy with the way all of my newest button charm bracelets have turned out this spring.  I know that you're probably tired of hearing about how much I like the tiny buttons and beads on them, but I am still enjoying that.

I have purple and black/white coming up in the next month.  I still have a couple green mixes to make into bracelets as well.  As always, let me know if there's anything else that you'd like to see.

My most recent customer orders have been going slowly because I've had to wait for new supplies.  It's tough waiting for new goodies!  I'm still waiting for some more leaves to make a new modern leafy bracelet (with a few color changes) and a pair of custom earrings to match this bracelet.  But I got one new leafy bracelet done this past weekend.

I should mention that the blue round focal beads are from alishawhite.  Normally I order lamp work from blueseraphim's shop, but she didn't have exactly what I wanted and Alisha did so I decided to order from her.  Very pleased!   The beads are great, as was everything else about the ordering process.  I'll be using some more of her rounds in the custom modern leafy bracelet, too.

This is longer than most of my bracelets.  I added an extra loop so the buyer will have some flexibility with the length.  The only downside with this piece is that I didn't have enough dark blue beads left over to make another one.  I would still like to make a lighter turquoise one sometime as well, but I don't have enough beads for that at this point either.  The leaf collecting continues!

inspiring art

One of the EtsyBlogger Blog Carnival topics for this month is: Show me your all time favorite piece of art and why you find it inspiring. I don't have a single favorite piece of art, but one of my favorites is one of the classics: Starry Night by Van Gogh.

I did a cross-stitch version of it a few years ago.

I've completed 5 counted cross-stitch kits in my life, and this one was definitely the most difficult. It was well worth it, though!

I saw this neat Starry Night bench in the fine arts building on my undergrad campus when I was visiting it last summer.

I can contribute a lot of the appeal of this painting for me to one of my first cats who was all black and named Sky, short for Night Sky. I've always had a soft spot for things related to the night sky because of her. I also enjoy clouds a lot so I'm generally drawn to sky imagery.

I made a dark blue stars and moons bracelet a couple years ago that I traded to someone back in September.

I have one like it in my personal collection, too. The bracelet above inspired the random bracelet below - silver links celestial bracelet - that is currently available in my shop.

I don't have any other specific plans for starry night/celestial themed jewelry right now, but I'm sure that it's a theme that I'll continue to revisit in the future.

book recommendations, new listing

There are several new jewelry/bead weaving books that I've checked out lately that I haven't mentioned here yet. The first is Custom Cool Jewelry: Create 200+ Personalized Pendants, Charms, and Clasps by Melinda Barta, which I got for my birthday. This is not specifically a bead weaving book and only has a couple ideas that incorporate any bead weaving. However, I will still get a lot of inspiration from this book. I really think that anyone who makes jewelry will. Melinda combines a lot of different materials in unique ways. The pictures and directions are pretty good.

There are also a couple books that I've recently checked out from the library. The first is The Pattern Companion of Beading by Ann Benson. This book covers a wide range of projects in a number of different stitches for both loom and offloom techniques for a pretty wide range of skills. The only thing I was really disappointed about with this book was the pictures. The directions are decent but the only pictures are small and honestly of pretty poor quality. They don't reflect the genius and beauty of the bead work. The second is The Art of Beaded Beads: Exploring Design, Color, & Technique edited by Jean Campbell, which has been the most inspiring book of the three. Any of you who bead weave probably already know that Jean Campbell is awesome. This book is no exception. That's really all there is to way about that. If you are interested in bead weaving at all, you will be inspired by something in this book.

I listed another square stitch cuff today. This one is in dark blue and dark turquoise. I posted a sneak peak of it a while back. Click on the pictures to check out the listing!


I am still thoroughly enjoying these square stitch cuffs. I completed a neutral one this weekend. I'm thinking about doing a bright one next: orange, yellow, and maybe some bright red...kind of a tropical color theme. This weekend I also took pictures of my newest 3D triangle earrings, the new cuff, and a couple more vintage button studs, plus I assembled a handful of new earrings, magnets, and tacks. Yay for nice weather!