newsletter, flame II beads, pictures, treasury feature

I added a newsletter subscription code to my blog today.  You can now subscribe to my newsletter directly from here.  Scroll down and look for it on the right side of the page, right underneath the followers.  I am putting my August edition together right now so please sign up!

I finally took a picture of the beads that I made in my Flame II class a little over a week ago.

I'm pretty pleased with the results.  I don't have any specific projects in mind for any of them yet, but I'm sure that they will work their way into my designs soon enough.  I'm open to suggestions, too.

I edited the listing for my yellow and green stars charm bracelet today and uploaded new pictures.  It's the first listing I have with shots that are on a white background.  It's also the first listing that I have with light box pictures.  Let me know what you think.

While I was taking pictures today, I took one of Angel because I haven't posted one of her here in quite a while.

Finally, Laurie (laurelsbylaurie) included my two-hole button explosion charm bracelet in her Buttons and Bows treasury today.  Thanks Laurie!

 

 You can view this treasury by CLICKING HERE.

up and running again

I got up a couple more old listings up and running today.  The first is the companion piece to the embellished champagne peyote cuff that I posted yesterday.  Here is the champagne peyote triangle pendant.

I will do a little adjusting with my glass/propped up poses in my new outdoor photo set up later this week.  I'm really happy with how the music background poses are turning out.  This was the first time that I'd shot earrings and pendants with the white back drop outside.  I think that it will work, but it will need some tweaking.  The above shots are still MUCH better than the old ones.

The second recently revived listing is my Christmas button charm bracelet.  I sold the original at the Arts Festival, and I made a new one this week.  I am really happy with it.  It's more full and vibrant than the original.

It is part of the Christmas in July sale and will be 25% off for the rest of the month.

One of my EBW members kindly agreed to proofread my pattern today.  Thanks Jacquie!  I'm still planning to have it up and running later this week.  I most likely won't have all of my old pictures re-shot for another week, but I've updated the other information for almost all of my other listings now.  I'll put in the final pictures as I get them done.  Hopefully all of the changes/updates/upgrades will help me continue to increase my sales!

more progress with my first pattern and new pictures

Thank you so much to Tara (ScarboroughSeashells) and Sharla (BeadedTail) for being the first two people to read my Skinny Wrapped Peyote Cuff pattern!  Their input was a huge help with my first set of revisions.  I'm still looking for a few more people to proofread it before I list it on Etsy.  I will put the word out to the EBW message boards tonight as well.  If you're interested, just leave me a comment or send me a convo on Etsy with your e-mail address.  Thanks again ladies!

Among other picture editing tonight, I uploaded new pictures for my embellished champagne peyote cuff and renewed the listing so it would be available again.  This is one of a handful of listings that I let go after the Arts Festival when I decided to update all of the listings that needed updated information and/or new pictures.  But it's back!  I created this design for my cousin's wedding last spring and would love to create another piece like it for someone else.

I still need to take pictures of the coordinating pendant and renew that listing as well.  It should be up and running in the near future.

I finished another pair of earrings and a new Christmas button charm bracelet today.  As soon as I'm able to take pictures of the button bracelet, I'll have that listing up so it will be available for the Christmas in July sale.

doing justice to more old pieces

I am nearly finished with all of my photo retakes.  I have about a dozen pieces left.  I know that there are still more pieces that I may decide to re-shoot later and that I will continue to make changes to the format of my Etsy listings.  I have made a lot of improvements this summer, though.  I'm happy with my progress.  Here are a few of my recent retake shots that I'm really happy with.  Click on any of the pictures to view the Etsy listings.

July EBW challenge, treasury feature, shop progress

The July EBW Challenge The Secret Garden is up and running!  You can view all of the entries here.  As always, voting is on the right side of the site.  You can vote from today until July 15th.  I haven't picked a favorite entry yet myself.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed with these challenges.  There are so many awesome entries!

April and Glenda (rougeriverbeads) included my Autumn Explosion peyote cuff in their Warmth treasury.

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

I did get some more revision work done on my Etsy shop before things quit working tonight.  I have almost all of the listings for my items that sold at the Iowa Arts Festival updated now.  Except for a couple listings that wouldn't save properly with all of the information that I wanted tonight, the only inactive listings remaining are the ones that need new pictures.  I have other items that need new pictures as well, but I've been making progress with that as well.

I'm going to check out Bead Heaven tomorrow with my mom and grandma.  I swear that this was their idea, not mine.  They're having a big sale next month before they move to a new location so I may have to scout it out tomorrow and do shopping then.

I will check in with the Etsy forums whenever I can get on again, but for now I won't be able to post this anywhere so I apologize if anyone sees it more delayed from posting time than normal.

new listing, finally doing justice to an old challenge piece, blog voting

I listed a new pair of earrings tonight: color explosion tetrahedron earrings.

As I'm sure you already know, I love this color combination.  I've used it in my original color explosion peyote cuff and in two pendants: this one and this one.  I got the tetrahedron pattern from The Art of Beaded Beads: Exploring Design, Color, & Technique​ edited by Jean Campbell.  It was fun, but I'm not in a huge hurry to use it again.  If I do make tetrahedrons in the future, they will be bigger!  This size is awesome for small, light weight earrings, but needless to say, it is not too easy to work with.  The bottom of the triangles only measures 1/2" across.  I think that even 3/4" or 1" would be much more manageable.

In my photo retakes today, I took new pictures of my Chocolate Temptation peyote cuff, which was my entry for the March 2009 EBW Challenge Temptation.  Anything that is getting a retake deserves more justice than its current pictures give, but these pictures were particularly lacking.  I have some wonderful new ones now, including these closeups.

Finally, my blue striped peyote triangle earrings are one of Linda B's Top 5 Etsy Finds for 7.1.10!  You can vote for them on her blog by clicking here. :) The winner gets a feature on her blog!

back from vacation

Thank you much to everyone who left me comments while I was out of town, especially those who left comments about my Art Beads summer piece!  Jake and I had a wonderful vacation.  We went to the Wisconsin Dells for 5 days.  I took over 500 pictures so it's going to take me a while to go through them all, but here's one of us at Devil's Lake State Park (about 15 minutes south of the Dells).

There was another couple on the lookout point who asked us to take their picture.  They were kind enough to take the above shot of us.

I may post more details about the trip here as I continue to go through my pictures.  Otherwise look for more about that on Facebook soon. :)

I didn't do any beading and button work while we were out of town, but I did pick up my current counted cross-stitch project again.  I bought this wizard kit back in 2007 before we'd even moved to Iowa, and I started working on it during the summer of 2008.  I'm pretty sure that I won't finish it for at least another year.  I will try to get a picture of my progress again at some point.  Angel loves to watch me work on cross-stitch so I may try to get Jake to take a picture of her "helping" me sometime.

I took pictures of a bunch of older pieces before we left and have continued updating listings today.  Here are a couple of them.

purple and blue right angle weave bracelet

stripes and checks peyote cuff

more upgrades/improvements

Thank you to everyone who replied about my new banner and avatar!  I really appreciate your honesty.  I put together another new banner and avatar earlier tonight.  Taking some advice, I included full shots of my pieces on the banner.  The avatar is a partial shot like my old avatar was, but it has better detail than the one I made yesterday.  I also incorporated sheet music more prominently.  Hopefully all of this will help!  You can check them out here.  The new avatar is also on other sites like Blogger and Facebook so you may have already seen it tonight.

I got a postal scale today.  Thank you to those who gave me advice in that area as well!  From here on out, I will provide tracking information for all orders that ship in the USA and are paid for through PayPal.  While I was thinking about packaging/shipping today, I decided to take pictures of my packaging (while I got my raffle winner earrings ready to ship) and put together a packaging image for Etsy listings and whatnot.

I updated a couple more listings with new pictures tonight.  The first one is my Winding Road with checked border peyote cuff.  This is one of the first peyote cuffs I ever wove with delicas.

The second is one my black and silver right angle bangle.

I did get both of my raffle winner packages in the mail today (as well as a couple more used book Amazon packages, woohoo!).  I worked on Father's Day cards tonight instead of my Art Beads piece.  I may still sit down with it for a little while before I head to bed.

three items to check out

I've already made a lot of progress this weekend with my jewelry pictures and inventory.  I got behind a couple weeks before the Arts Festival with editing pictures and getting descriptions ready for new items, and I'm still playing catch up.  There's still a lot of work to do, but I feel good about everything that I've accomplished.  I also made a lot of progress editing non-jewelry pictures from this school year.  I have posted everything that I want to from October through May on Facebook now and have ordered a bunch of new prints to put up at home and work.

I listed my neutral square stitch embellished cuff today.

I am really pleased with how this picture turned out.  I think that it's one of the best that I've taken in a long time.

I used a few random components left over from one of my Art Bead's blogging stashes in this cuff.  There are several Swarovskis as well as a handful of Czech glass beads, including Czech glass hearts.  As it goes with all of my embellished cuffs, I had fun pulling components from a variety of sources.  Some of the beads in here I picked out when I was making my wedding jewelry almost 4 years ago!

I lowered the cost of all of my embellished square stitch cuffs in my Etsy shop today.  From here on out, they will all be $40.00.

I made a new version of my tri-color with red border triangle pendant that I sold last summer and updated the listing with new pictures today.

Because the ribbons were such a big hit at the Arts Festival, I will include ribbons with all of my pendants from now on, both on Etsy and at craft fairs.  If you would like a different length and/or color than the one pictured in the listing, just let me know!  I current have red, white, and black and am happy to get more colors as people request them.

I sold the coordinating bracelet for this pendant at the Arts Festival and made a new one this past week as well as a matching pair of earrings.  I will list both of them sometime in the next month.

While I was taking pictures of some other new items today, I took pictures of my older turning to fall bangle whose renewal is coming up soon.

I have a handful of other older items that also desperately need new pictures.  As their renewals come up on Etsy, I'm planning to update their listings with new pictures.  I have a lot of respect for people who edit huge numbers of listings at once.  I don't have the motivation to do that!  Instead, I do my best to continue make changes a little bit at a time.

the leaf obsession continues

I listed my second leafy bracelet (second made for the purpose of selling it...) today.


I know that this isn't really the right time of year to be sporting this colors regularly, but hopefully everyone will be able to look past that and appreciate how awesome this bracelet is. I can't get over how amazing leaf beads are. They give the double stranded right angle weave look that I love a whole new feel. I made a version of this for myself, which I haven't worn yet, but I will all the time when fall comes (which I'm really not ready to think about yet...).

I photographed eight pieces this past week. Two are remakes of older ideas and six are brand new. I spent most of this week working on a couple new pieces for myself, one of which I will be listing as a made to order item. I've already made two new pieces this weekend as well. :)

May EBW Challenge Winner

Congratulations to CieloDesign who won the May EBW May Hollywood Red Carpet Challenge with her Suprastellar Red Carpet necklace! The June challenge theme is Humor. I will be sitting this one out as well. I may try for one of the other summer challenges.

I finally took and will be taking more pictures of my newest items today. I have the new bracelet that I mentioned in my last post that uses the same colors as the triangle, two remakes of older original designs (that are currently listed as made to order in my Etsy shop but I feel I need to keep in stock because they've proven to be popular designs), and the jewelry that I made for my cousin's wedding (that is this coming weekend!). I am pretty sure that I'll be listing the wedding jewelry as made to order.