2013 Christmas designs

One of the toughest part about shows is keeping inventory stocked because you never know what will and won't sell from year to year and even show to show.

I had no idea that my Christmas designs, both new and old, would do so well this year.

But it's been keeping me busy this month. That's a good thing.

As many of you know, one of the things that I love about my customers if that they come up with some of the best ideas for new designs.

I hadn't made button dangle earrings in this style with Christmas colors before, but I had a customer at a show who wanted earrings with silver bells to match the coordinating bracelet. So here they are, in both silver and gold.

All of the designs featured in this post are available in the jewelry shop. As always if you have any questions about anything or are interested in a custom order, please don't hesitate to ask.

What have you been working on lately?

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.

voting for the August EBW Challenge and my newest red piece

Before I get to red, I want to mention that voting started for the August EBW Challenge Gold and Silver today!  Voting is August 9th-15th on the Etsy Beadweavers blog: http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com.  Voting is on the right side of the page.  You can view all of the entries in the most recent blog post.  My entry is number 5: Gold and Silver Wrapped Skinny Peyote Cuff Bracelet.  Thank you so much to everyone who has already voted for it!

For those who are bead weavers, you can purchase the pattern for this cuff here.

And now the other topic for this post: red. :) I know that I've written this before here, but I still believe that red is one of the most underrated colors.  I remade my Red Striped Beadwoven Peyote Triangle Pendant design this week.  Because it took me so long to finish the coordinating cuff after the pendant, I never did photograph both pieces together.  I figured that now would be a good a time as any to do that.  I shot some new pictures of the cuff as well.  The originals weren't bad, but these are better.

Because the ribbons were such a big hit at the Arts Festival, I'm photographing all of my pendants with ribbons now.

Here's one of my shots of the two pieces together.  You can see the other shot in the triangle listing.

In an effort to show more modeling poses, I took a few pictures of myself wearing the pendant.  This was the best one.  I don't know if I'm going to use something like this for all of my listings now, but I think that's worth continuing to experiment with the idea.

Also, at everyone's urging, I experimented with some different arm/hand model poses for the cuff.  Let me know what you think.

I still love how the coordinating cuff turned out.  It was a lot of work coming up with this design, but it was well worth it!

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.

gift certificate, back in stock, more pictures

I picked up my beads from the Flame class today.  As I'd hoped, there were a couple that I really like and a small handful that will make neat irregular focal pieces.  I'll take pictures of them tomorrow.

I won a $25 gift certificate for artisanclay a couple weeks ago.  You probably already know that I'm a big fan of Kristie's work.  I won one of her ceramic clay donuts a while back, and I also have a set of her ceramic buttons (that I haven't used yet...a tragedy, I know).  I waited until Jake and I got back from the Dells to spend my gift certificate.  My goodies arrived today!  I got the Small Blue recycled glass pendant or charm and the Stoneware clay bead set in Vivid Blue.  I will most likely keep the pendant for myself and wear it on a simple ribbon or chain.  I have a couple ideas for the clay bead set.  More details on that as it comes together.  Thanks Kristie!

I updated the listing for my raspberry and gold right angle bracelet today.  It's officially back in stock!

For those who love my peyote triangle earrings, my purple pearl peyote triangle earrings are also back in stock.

It's interesting going back and taking pictures of older pieces.  Some pieces are really hard to photograph well either, typically because of their shape (my normal "poses" don't work very well) or color.  In those cases, my new photos don't always look that different from the old ones.  But some photos significantly improve.  I'm really happy with the new photos for my blue, turquoise, and white fringed peyote cuff.

completion of my international order and button trade, new listing

One of the bracelets that my first international buyer ordered was my Valentine's Day button charm bracelet. I sold the original during the spring so I put together a new one for her. I snapped a picture of it before I packed everything up.


I made another one to list as well. I am going to wait until I can take some outside or natural light pictures of the new one before I relist it on Etsy.

I uploaded the pictures of my button trade with Kelly tonight. Here's a picture of my full stash.
Ever since I saw my dad's parents back in August, I've been searching for maroon beads and buttons. My grandpa is a professor at Texas A&M, whose colors are maroon and white. I'd like to make a few A&M items that my grandma can sell or give as gifts to friends. Maroon is VERY hard to find, though! Kelly was so nice to go pull some maroon buttons for me, which is why those are all separated. I am also so excited about all of the SMALL buttons in the mix. They'll be perfect for button embellished right angle bracelets.

I also took a picture of just a few of my favorites.

Finally, Kelly attached this neat vintage fish button to the card that she included in my package. How cute is this?!
Thanks again, Kelly! :)

And now: my new listing for today: my newest wrapped skinny peyote cuff.
I'm thinking about a blue gold-accented wrapped cuff next. As always, I'm open to suggestions!

more non-Etsy sales

I went to Chicago from the 10th through the 13th. While I was there, among other things, I sold five more pieces, two of which are so new that I hadn't even listed them on Etsy yet. I had taken pictures of everything that I brought with me, though, so you can still see the new work.



The first one will still be a very easy one to list as a made to order item. I may go ahead and make another one at some point so I can have one on hand. The second one is a new design I've made two of now. The other one is all blue and will be listed sometime this month. I'm thinking about making another embellished cuff with the gold cubes for detail, but with an all green background. As always, feedback on the new design as well as other ideas for color and embellishment are appreciated.

My sales covered the beads that I bought at Briolette and Bead in Hand while I was there. I went to Briolette when I was in Chicago back in February, and my mom bought me a stash of beads from there for my birthday, too. I hadn't been to Bead in Hand in about three years, though. It was good to go back. I love the two bead stores in the Iowa City / Cedar Rapids area, too, but I love the variety of different stores.

Don't forget to vote in the current EBW Challenge if you haven't already! You can vote at the blog by clicking here. Thank you to everyone who already has voted.