Going Nautical

The May 2012 Etsy Beadweavers theme is Nautical Inspired.  This is a pretty straight forward theme, but you can read more about it here.  While April's Seed Beads Only challenge was a lot more fun than originally anticipated, I am glad that this challenge and the next one are much more open ended.

As many of you know, I frequently find inspiration from color.  I did a little nautical color palette hunting online to help me figure out where I was going with this theme.

Nautical Colors of Port Jefferson, Long Island

This post has several great palettes, but I've always liked light houses, so I went right for the one with the rich red.

I went for blues and grays that were a little lighter than the original palette, but I didn't add any other colors.

I loved adding the lampwork discs to my skinny wrapped design for my nest piece and decided to use this technique again for my nautical piece.  They don't represent anything nautical in a literal sense, but the colors tied together so well.

I got these beads from Jen of blueseraphim a while back during a big pre-holiday sale.  I try not to purchase in one of a kind beads like this without a project in mind, but Jen's beads are so versatile that I always find a use for them pretty quickly.

I love this embellished addition to my wrapped bracelets and will most likely make more in the future.  As always, if there are any color combinations that you're like to see, let me know.

This piece is available for sale in my Etsy shop right here.  Voting will take place on the EBW blog in early May.  Check back on my blog the week of May 9 for all of the voting details.  To get a sneak peek at the other entries already up and running, search EBWC on Etsy.

Has anyone else created nautical items?  Share your listings and blog posts!

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what I've been up to this week

My routine has been a little out of whack this week as I've been recovering from my show and getting caught up on a bunch of things.  Here's a little peek at what I've been up to.

I've been packing up my craft fair supplies so I can get my craft room back in order (for a little while at least).

I've been catching up on household tasks.  Usually I try to catch up on things like laundry over the weekend when I have less to do online, but sometimes that doesn't happen.

I've been working on handmade presents.  I am buying more handmade presents from others than I'm making myself this year.  I would like to give paper related items (cards, bookmarks, etc.) next year, but for now, I'm just doing a couple of herringbone pieces.

I've been purchasing my final Christmas presents (again, some of which are handmade) for others and myself.  As you get older, you end up purchasing more things for yourself since you're less likely to get them from others.  I always treat myself to at least a few things around Christmas.  That huge Amazon box actually only has 2 things in it.  One of them is just pretty big.

I've been getting some new listings up.  I didn't list anything the week before my show and although I sold a fair amount of inventory, I still have a number of new pieces to list now.  This cuff is available here.

Does anyone remember my work in progress post about this piece back in the spring?  I know, probably not.  I burned out on making peyote cuffs and put this to the side for quite a while.  It got lost in the shuffle when we moved.  But I love these clover beads so much and was determined to finish it.  I had nearly finished the base before it felt to the wayside.  The embellishment went pretty quickly.  I love this shade of delicas.  I have used them in other pieces in the past and already have more plans for them in future pieces.

I included this post in Michelle's Delicately Constructed Friday 12/9.

working with metallics and wrapping up May custom orders

I don't work with metallic beads very often.  However, I got inspired to make this piece after I made my winter Art Beads piece, which had metallic cube beads as part of the base.

It's available here.  The small embellishment beads were a freebie from Shannon (beadsandbabble) a while back.  A couple of them are still available here. This was definitely a break from my usual colorful palette.  It's good to mix it up with these neutrals sometimes.

This week I finally wrapped up my last two May custom orders.  I finished the second of two leafy bracelets for a new customer.

The customer wanted the purple in the design and less brown the original.  I never would have though to put purple with this palette, but the result is neat!  I had plenty of beads to make another one so there will be one similar to this in the shop soon.  The new one will have touches of purple and green with lots of gold.  I'm super excited about it.  I  used more focal beads from alishawhite for this piece.

I also finished the earrings to match my periwinkle and black leafy design, a slightly different version of my original leafy design.  Remember my sneak peak?  I had to rework this design a couple times, but the final result was worth it.

I'm not making a lot of earrings right now because there are plenty in my shop as it is and my interests are elsewhere.  But I'm always happy to make custom requests like this.

This week I also got a lovely picture of the recipient of another recent custom order.

I love seeing people wearing my work!

May custom orders are officially wrapped up.  Bring it on June!

at long last, a third bargello ribbon cuff

I honestly don't even remember when I finished this.  It was at least a couple months ago.  But now it's available on Etsy right here!

I didn't include this last picture in the listing, but I thought that it would be fun to post it here.

When I first made these earrings, I knew that I had to make something else with this color combination.  It took me more than a year of starring at those beads on my "to do" beading tray to finally do it, but I'm so glad that I did.  I still love this color combination.  I think that it works perfectly with Carol's bargello ribbon pattern.  If you'd like this pattern for yourself, it's available here.  There's a commercial pattern as well if you're interested in selling your ribbon cuffs.

I've slowed down on delica peyote cuffs lately.  I don't have any specific plans for more bargello ribbon cuffs at this point.  This pattern is so much fun, though.  This is the third ribbon cuff I've made, and I'm in no way tired of it yet.  I'm sure that I will revisit it again sometime in the future.  For now, if there are any other bargello color combinations that you'd like to see, let me know.

"What's Old is New Again" Art Beads design partners piece

Typically I complete my Art Beads pieces about three weeks after the themes are announced.  I got the initial e-mail for the spring theme at the very end of March and didn't complete my piece until this past Sunday.  The size for one of my bead sets was mislabeled on the Art Beads site.  It took a couple weeks to get a new set of something similar in the right size.  I've also been busy with custom orders (no complaints there!) and all of the moving and graduation stuff.  But I finished it and am really happy with the result.

The theme for the Art Beads design partners is "What's Old is New Again."  We were supposed to use any old or vintage inspired components with or without new components to create a brand new piece.  I didn't have any initial idea for the theme.  I started browsing the suggested site categories and came across these patina daggers in the glass beads category.  I'm sure that it's no surprise that I was immediately drawn to them.  I've been eying some similar ones in Shannon's shop for a while, but hadn't bought any yet.  This was the perfect opportunity to use them.  The whole set with orange, lime, turquoise, and purple reminded me of the 70's, which fit perfectly for this theme, so I decided to go with it.

Once I was set on the patinas, I hunted through my own bead stash for cube and seed beads in coordinating colors.  I supplied all of these myself, although three of the cube bead sets were ones that I'd purchased from Art Beads on my own.  You can see my sneak peak post about this here.  I filled in the patina daggers with orange, lime, and transparent green daggers.  I love the dagger beads on Art Beads, but as I've posted about here before, it's cheaper to buy them in bulk elsewhere.  Usually I get a few unusual designs from Art Beads and fill them in with bulk solid colors.

This is the first dagger bracelet that I've made with side fringe.  I used coordinating orange and lime pressed Czech glass beads, along with the seed beads, with the same technique that I use for my other skinny fringed/embellished bracelets.  If you want links for the specific Czech glass that I used in this piece, let me know.

Art Beads has several awesome triangle clasps in their clasp category.  I choose this one because it was vintage inspired and has the circles on it, which mirror the ones on the patinas.  Normally I would have used a button from my own collection, but we need two product categories for our pieces, so this was a perfect way to make that happen.

I decided to name the piece after That '70s Show.  I thought that this would be appropriate as I grew up in the 80's and got my inspiration for this retro color combination from my own generation's pop culture.

I love the way the colors came together in this piece.  I also love the side fringe.  I think that the size and shape of the beads that I chose worked really well as a little border.  I may experiment with similar fringe in the future.

It's available here.  I collected some new green daggers in the process of making this bracelet so I'm planning an all green dagger bracelet in the future.  That's the only dagger piece that I have in the works right now, but as always I'm open to other suggestions.

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.

triangles and newest custom order completed

I listed my newest skinny embellished cuff this week.

The cuff is available here.  I don't even remember when I first decided that I should make a triangle embellished cuff.  I ordered the first three sets of triangles well over two years ago.  This past fall I finally got motivated to find one more set to round out the color combination and to make sure that I had coordinating cubes.  These pictures really don't do the color balance justice.  The green and purple blend beautifully with the blue.  I'm pleased with the overall look, especially the chunky triangle side fringe.  I would love to make another one of these if I can ever put together another great set of triangle beads and cubes.  Triangles can be hard to find.

I also completed a new custom order this week.  I am almost as excited about the story behind this order as I am with the finished jewelry.  Shannon (beadsandbabble) has a friend (acquaintance? not really sure about the connection) contact her about a jewelry order, using some of Shannon's beads.  Shannon is super busy right now getting ready for her son's wedding and filling tons of orders for her shop.  So she referred her friend to me and sent me a note as well about the order.  The request seemed pretty straight forward.  We worked out all of the details.  She ordered the beads, which I shared here previously, and had Shannon send them directly to me.  As soon as we got back from Milwaukee last weekend, I got to work.

I'm not sure why the bracelet picture is a little more vivid.  The seed beads are from the same hank as the necklace beads.  This was definitely a little different endeavor for me.  It was a pretty straight forward project, but like with just about any new crafting technique, there is a little learning curve.  Honestly the hardest part about these pieces for me was mastering the square knots.  I got my directions from this tutorial and kept them in front of me the entire time I was working on both pieces.  Otherwise the stringing and clasps weren't too difficult.  FYI, if anyone is planning to make pieces like these: it's really important to glue every square knot.  You can wait until the end to glue all of them, but I found it easiest to keep everything tight by gluing as I went.  I use Loctite Super Glue, which is some of the best glue you'll ever find.

Both pieces have extender chains so the length can be adjusted on either as needed.  Both pieces can also be worn straight or twisted.  These pieces are gifts for a good friend of the buyer.  Hopefully she'll be as pleased with them as we are.

I also have to give Shannon another huge thank you for the referral!  I never would have gotten to do this without her.  As always, her beads were wonderful to work with for both pieces.  I am not in a hurry to make anything like this in the near future, but it's tempting to just so I can order another Czech seed bead hank.

I'm waiting for my massive load of leaf beads for my next custom order now.  While I'm waiting, I'll be working on my Art Beads piece and the plan for my next EBW challenge piece.

I keep forgetting to post my newest crafty hub here: Shipping and Packing Resources for Online Jewelry Sellers.  If you've missed any past hub links, all of my crafty hubs are linked on the right side of my blog now.

a new garden for spring 2011

I'm not the best about making and listing pieces in the right season, but I had to list this piece while it's still spring.

It's available here.  This is the third flower embellished cuff that I've made now.  The second one is still available in my shop here.  This new one is more like that second one than like my first one.  It would be fun to do another bright cuff like that.  But I love all of the red in this new cuff, too.  And I have not gotten tired of the dark green base.  I would make another flower cuff just for that.  The disc beads are from Art Beads mixes.  I've been collecting the flowers over the past year, mostly from local bead shops.  And the button clasp is another Lisa Peters creations (LisaPetersArt).  She's been listing lots of new goodies lately so go check out her shop if you haven't been over there in a while.

As I've mentioned recently, I'm slowing down on the peyote cuffs for a while.  But I still have a decent number of flower beads left so there will probably be another one of these cuffs at some point.

sneak peaks

While I was on my metallic kick recently, I put together this mix for another skinny fringed cuff.

I may take out a couple of the finishes when I start to bead it if they make the piece too dark or just don't really fit right.  It's hard to tell at this point.  But it should be a neat color palette for me.  As I'm sure you know, generally I don't work exclusively with neutrals.

And while I'm waiting for my new Art Beads blogging package, I've also been working on this piece again.

I really don't have the patience to work on one delica cuff with no breaks for other projects right now, but it's nice to have one to pick up when I have a few minutes.  It's much easier to do this than get out my cross-stitch or try to squeeze in one small section of a right angle weave piece.  So slowly but surely, I am getting this piece finished.

In other creative endeavors, I made chocolate chip cookie bars this week for one of the conference nights at school.  My floor is cooking the meal for all of us teachers, and of course, I signed up for dessert because I still love baking over all other kinds of cooking.  You can get this recipe here.  I left out the nuts this time.

I also had my ever present little helper to assist with my most recent photo taking sessions.

bargello rainbow

Does anyone remember this sneak peak?  Probably not haha.  I upgraded my Bargello Ribbon pattern from Carol Dean (SandFibers) a few weeks ago and finally listed one of my bargello pieces on Etsy, which you saw the sneak peak of way back in the summer.

It's available here.  As you know, I really enjoy embellishing cuffs.  This is one of those ideas that I had in the back of my head for a ridiculous long amount of time before I actually put it together.  I got the inspiration for the colors from this set of bowls.  It's great how inspiration can come from different mediums like that.  The delicas were pretty easy to find, but it took me a long time to get all of the cubes in coordinating colors and figure out exactly how I wanted to work the embellishment.  And then of course, I actually had to bead it.  I'm so happy with the result, though.  Carol's pattern is amazing.  I still love this color combination, and I'm very satisfied with the embellishment.

The next bargello cuff that I list won't be embellished, but if you like this look and/or have ideas for other color combinations, let me know.  I may make more in the future.

working with green and more organization

I've been working on several green projects lately.  I'm sure that I'm not the only person in the midwest who's very ready to see some green outside again.  Unfortunately, it will still be a while so I'm getting my green fix through my beads.  One of these projects was a new version of my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Fringed - Silver Accented Green.  This was another piece that was in desperate need of new pictures.

I was planning to write a pattern for this design with pictures of this piece, but I made a really stupid mistake pretty early on in the process...and didn't realize it until much later.  I fixed the mistake in the piece, but it was too late to go back and re-shoot the pictures without taking apart the whole thing.  And I didn't want to do that.  So even though this is one of my first original designs, there is no pattern for it yet.  I'll get the motivation to come back to it again soon.  For now, you can still enjoy this newly redone version of it.

I've made a lot of progress on my bead and button organization in the last week.  I took pictures of my button organizers right after I finished them.  I'll get some pictures of my bead organizers soon.

The first organizer is mostly new buttons.  Some of the color sorted ones on the top have new and vintage buttons mixed together.  Most of the mixes are themed by shape or holiday.  I have maroon and white together because I collected a whole bunch of maroon for this design and coordinating button magnets. 
All of my metal buttons (most of which are vintage) are in the right bottom corner.

I have so many blue buttons that I made an overflow section in this organizer.  Most of these buttons are vintage or are from random sewing/craft store button clearance bins or destash cards.  Some of the vintage buttons are from my grandmas and great-grandma's collections, too, that were passed down to me through my mom.  I haven't cut into my buttons cards from Christmas yet that I blogged about here, but once I do, I'll sort them in as well.  I have a small overflow of vintage neutral buttons that I'm keeping with some other craft supplies that I can add as needed (it will be a while).  I also have everything from my button magnet tray bagged separately for whenever I return to that endeavor, but ALL of my other buttons are in these organizers now!

Voting for the November EBW Challenge

Voting is up and running for the November EBW Challenge Holiday Treasures.  As always, you can vote at the blog.  Voting is on the right side of the page.  Check out this post to view all of the November entries if you haven't already.  You can vote between now and November 15th.

In honor of this challenge, I'm posting one of my new favorite Christmas beadwoven pieces.  It is not in this challenge, but it should have been.

FATHER CHRISTMAS Bracelet Cuff by debger

 Debbie has a nice SANTA CLAUSE cuff, too.

Birthday Cake, free samples, sneak peak

I finally listed my Birthday Cake cuff tonight.  Some of you may remember that at some point this summer, I posted a sneak peak of the Birthday Cake bead mix.  I shot the original pictures before I made my light box so I decided to retake them over the weekend.

I generally have a difficult time naming my pieces.  If I do name them, I almost always do it partway through the creation process or afterward.  This name just came to me, though, as soon as I started putting the bead mix together.  I still think that it's very fitting.  And I really love this button.  It ties everything together nicely.  I made another bracelet with this same seed bead mix but no other embellishment that I'm going to list at some point, too.

Shannon (beadsandbabble) was so pleased with my inclusion of her chocolate dagger beads in my random feature earlier this month that she offered to send me some free sample beads!  Of course I wasn't going to say no to that!  They arrived in the mail today, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

Some of these beads fit into my Art Beads fall blogging piece perfectly.  I've been planning some simple jade pieces for a while as while.  The neutral/metallic seed beads on the right will coordinate well with that green.  Thanks again Shannon!

Some accepted another Alchemy request today so I'll be working on that custom request this week.  I picked out the beads tonight.

I'll leave your imaginations open on that for now.  And no, it's not anything Christmas related even though it is that color scheme. :)

Finally, I got confirmation today that I will have a piece published in Bead Trends February 2011!