working with rainbows

I have a handful of rainbow designs that do quite well, especially around the holidays. It's hard to believe that we're already getting to that time of year again, but it'll be here before we know it. As I restock some best selling items, I'm trying to get enough stocked to keep me set through at least my first few holidays shows and online orders.

After I'd pulled several rainbow palettes for varying pieces, I had a little fun photographing them.

This first set is part of a full spectrum from red to pink, but I really love the lime green, turquoise blue, purple, and pink palette.

What have you been working on lately?

Rainbow Button Earrings

I'm having fun starting some of my new collaboration pieces, but I've also been working on restocking a few best sellers this month.

Editing RAW light box images in Lightroom has been a whole new challenge the past couple weeks. Some of my previously learned skills translate pretty well, others not so much. I'm pushing ahead regardless. Lightroom is still changing my entire photography world for the better, and no, I'm not being paid anything to say that.

Putting together photos of the beads and buttons that I used for the latest set of rainbow button earrings was kind of a little reward for this project. I love having best selling items, but sometimes I burn out making whole sets of very similar items.

I never get tired of these gray backgrounds.

Look at that whole group of pretty earrings ready to go. I'm hoping that if I keep plugging away at little sets like this, I won't get too overwhelmed during the holiday season. It just might happen, right?

I messed up experimented and made one set loaded with beads. They have close to three times the number of beads as the original design. In case you need a bigger explosion of color.

Next up on the best sellers: purple celestial earrings. And on that note...

I've been thinking about new color possibilities for future celestial bracelets and earrings. Black and gray/silver is the first one that's come to mind. Other thoughts? Other ideas? I always appreciate your input!

What have you been working on lately?

Friday Feature: rainbow picks

Inspired by one of my newly listed Etsy items (and my never ending passion for brightly colored things), I put together a rainbow feature today. Enjoy.

Beaded Bracelet - Silver Chain Links - Bright Colorful Multicolored Rainbow by randomcreative

Rainbow Chevron SLR Camera Strap - Free Shipping by seelorisew

Rainbow Polka-Dot Wavy Rimmed Dish - Colorful Pottery Serving Piece - Made to order by chARiTyelise

Rainbow art print, inspirational quote, colorful print, rainbow poster, multicolor art by PrintsByStellaChili

Rainbow Recycled Art Note Card - Mosaic Quilt Collage OOAK Blank Inside by Fuffalumps

6/0 Opaque Rainbow Luster Mix Czech Glass Seed Bead Strand from beadsandbabble

Rainbow Mini Clothespins - Set of 12 by 1PixiePlace

Have you been loving any bright multicolored items lately? Share your favorite links!

new for spring 2013

I have a couple shows coming up in the next few weeks and have been working on a bunch of new items for them as well as a couple display / show specific projects.

I designed my banner with the intention of switching out the photos on a regular basis. My original set of photos was very reflective of my 2012 shop, and it really needed an update. This was a big undertaking to redo the whole set at once, but I love the final result. The banner will look even more amazing when I have it hanging in my booth.

I've been expanding the color combinations for this design as well as the quantity of multicolored pieces, as they continue to be one of my best sellers. I have the transparent button option available on Etsy here and may get the opaque version listed at some point, too.

I realized during my March show that the one area of my booth that was lacking in button and/or music items was necklaces. I have made a handful of button necklaces as gifts and custom orders but have never offered them as a standard shop item. It was way past time to change that. I'm starting with the two most popular color palettes: multicolored and blue and will go from there.

I like to be prepared with lots of smaller button items (magnets, rings, etc.) at all of my shows.

I'm bringing back the most popular version of this button design: multicolored. I have a new take on it for 2013 and can't wait to see how it goes over.

I did not have enough of this button design at my March show and will have a new handful of options for the late spring, including the very popular fall autumn palette (top left).

Finally, I've started scouring eBay and Etsy lately for bulk deals on vintage button cards, as I've run through most of my current stash. I have a couple good resources for wholesale new buttons, but I need unique older buttons for many of my styles. Check out all of these new goodies! I can't wait to share projects with them.

The next couple weeks I'm working on dagger bracelet designs and glass music magnets and getting everything reorganized and packed up for the upcoming shows.

What have you been working on for your shop lately?

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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.

Picasso challenge piece and PDF pattern

The October EBW Challenge theme is Inspired by Picasso.  You can read more about it here.  I am familiar with Picasso's more famous works but had really not studied any of his other work before.  There is a lot of it so it was fun familiarizing myself with lots of Picasso paintings and sketches.  I'm sure that it's not a surprise that the first thing that I gravitated toward was color.  I wanted to pick a piece with a lot of color, which is how I ended up choosing Mediterranean Landscape for my inspiration.

I posted a shot of it earlier but here it is again.  I got this picture from allposters.com.

You can read about how I selected and mixed my colors here.  Overall, I'm really pleased with how that process went, especially considering that I only used colors that I had in stock.  I didn't purchase anything new for this project.  There are a couple tiny things that I could have tweaked, but I still think that the general color palette and nature of the piece is fairly reflective of the original artwork.

I've now used the same right angle weave base and second layer for four EBW challenges in a row.  I'll briefly recap here so you can see how changing the final third layer, width, and color combinations can make such a big difference.

Strawberry Fields Forever is exactly the same design but wider.  I'll be honest: I was planning to make my Picasso piece the same width but decided I couldn't quite pull it off with some of the bead quantities I had.  Four columns instead of six is just fine and also results in a less expensive piece so hopefully that will be more appealing to some people.

After some deliberation, I did decide to add house and sail boat charms to the clasp.  They are easily removable if potential buyers aren't interested in them.  I do think that they add something for the challenge, though.

I thought that keeping the correct color balance with so many colors would be tricky, but I think that the selecting and mixing process got me oriented before I even started working.  I really didn't have any problems with this and didn't even have to refer back to my mixing chart like I thought I would.

This piece is available in my Etsy shop here.

As this was a design that I have worked with a lot over the last few months, the trickiest part of the challenge is that I decided to write the pattern for this.  I'd be contemplating this idea after the success of Strawberry Fields.  Once I knew that I was going to use the design for Picasso, I knew that I had to ahead with it.  I believe in embracing the "challenge" idea with as many pieces as possible.  The pattern was a perfect way to do this.

It was also way past time for me to get another pattern in my shop.  Most of my patterns have done pretty well, but it's been nearly six months since I released my last one.  I have not had great sales for September.  I hope that a new pattern will increase sales again.  It's available here.

The pattern does work for all four of the challenge designs.  The first and second layers are exactly the same for all four pieces.  I explain the differences for the third layer in the pattern.  With the exception of Yellow Brick Road, all of the pieces have a freeform third layer so you really have the freedom to do it exactly as you like.  I just provide some suggestions to guide you on your way.