spring treasury and a remake of a girly design

Michele (idahobeadweaver) included my Beaded Pendant - Peyote Triangle - Spring Green in her Etsy Bead Weavers are Ready for Spring Green and Blue Skies! treasury yesterday.  Thanks Michele!

Also, here's one of my recent remakes.  This listing was badly in need of some new pictures.  The OT that I work with at my school bought the original one over the summer so I still get to see it, which is neat.  I'm going to make a turquoise/red version of this design next.  I have some other remakes done (just not photographed) so I'll have some more updated listings over the next couple weeks.

Beaded Bracelet - Silver Links - Girly

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!

playing with fire

I am primarily posting to share that the Flame I class that I took at Beadology today was a lot of fun.  I've learned all of my bead weaving and button techniques through books and the Internet.  I hadn't taken any sort of art class in a very long time.  I have been fascinated with the process of making lamp work beads ever since I joined Etsy and started "meeting" people who make their own beads.  I have seen how fused glass pieces as made, but I had never seen, much less worked with, lamp work glass techniques.  I now have a much greater appreciation for the precision, patience, and amazing creativity that goes into the amazing lamp work that some of my favorite Etsy sellers like Jen (blueseraphim) do.

I had a good group of classmates and a very nice instructor.  Everything was very low pressure.  I certainly learned a lot.  I'll get to pick up my annealed beads tomorrow.  Once I see how they've turned out, I can decide whether or not I want to share them here haha.  I'm hoping that there will be at least a couple simple beads that I'll be pretty proud of.  For a first effort, I think that I did pretty well.  Beadology offers Flame II, which will have a session this summer, so I'm going to do that.  I signed up today.  Now that I've taken Flame I, I can use some of their equipment (for a fee) during open studio time, which is pretty cool.  I'm not sure that I feel totally qualified to do that haha, but it's still cool.  I certainly don't have the time or the money to pursue it seriously, but it was a very neat experience.  I'm sure that Flame II will be, too.

The class was four hours today, and it FLEW by.  I did make one piece at home this afternoon: a simple remake of one of my earliest designs.  I sold the original over a year ago and will now have new pictures for the listing.  I'm really hoping that between new pictures, the Christmas in July sale, my new newsletter, and launching a couple patterns I will start seeing some more sales on Etsy.  I will hang in there with Etsy one way or another because I love the community and I continue to gain a lot from it regardless of my sales, but I'm determined to get some more sales, too.

Tomorrow is already filling up quickly.  Hopefully I'll find some time to get outside and take some more pictures in the natural daylight, though!

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.

treasury feature, remake, wedding

As predicted, we've been really busy the last few days with all of the wedding events for one of Jake's best friend. It's been so much fun. :) Now I'm playing catch up with everything else.

My fellow EBW member Paula (PFordCustomJewelry) included my multicolored diagonal stripe peyote cuff in her Peyote cuffs! treasury in Treasury East. Thanks Paula!
You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

I edited and updated the listing for the leafy series - modern today for my newest version of it. I'm actually still in the process of tweaking the original version for the customer, but there is a new version for others now.


I took almost 175 pictures during throughout the weekend of the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception, and the other events surrounding everything. I still haven't gone through all of the pictures from my sister-in-law's confirmation weekend a couple weeks ago so I obviously haven't gotten to all of these yet either. I edited a couple of my favorites, though.

milestones and the newest leafy autumn

I reached 300 hearts on Etsy tonight!


I also recently reached over 100 followers on this blog. I'm closing in on 100 followers on Twitter and 100 fans on my Facebook page, too. Your support means so much to me everyone! :)

I updated my listing for the leafy series - autumn tonight with new pictures and details.


This bracelet features four lamp worked beads from Jen (blueseraphim), one of Lisa Peters's (lisapetersart) ceramic buttons, and the last of my metal leaves as well as the usual fantastic assortment of Czech glass leaves and other glass beads. :)

a taste of spring for New Year's Eve

On a whim, I decided to remake my spring garden fringed peyote cuff over break. I updated the listing today.


I made one other skinny fringed cuff over break as well that I'll be listing soon, which also features green. I think that my next skinny fringed one will be some sort of pink/black combination (mostly pink, hint of black).

I hope that everyone has a safe and fun New Year's Eve! Stay tuned tomorrow for my next EBW Challenge entry and my December Top Ten Droppers list. :)

revisited design and more button magnets

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

I have not had an opportunity to photograph in sunlight in a couple weeks now. Most of the time that I'm at home now, there isn't even any natural light. Since I'm at home more during the day now for Christmas break, I finally caved and shot in natural light sans sunlight yesterday. I was pretty pleased with the results.

I finally finished my blue embellished cuff (revisited) that I picked out the beads for back at the end of the summer. The listing on Etsy is now updated with new pictures and measurements.

The green version is still available here in my Etsy shop. I'm pretty sure that I'll be making a red/purple version next, but as always, am open to other suggestions, too.

I made two more sets of button magnets for Christmas presents. I did go with the color combinations that I previously mentioned: pink/green and black/white. I don't know if this is something that I'll be offering in my Etsy shop at some point, but I am having fun with them. Any thoughts about this would be appreciated! I would like to try some button tacks at some point, too.





Cheryl (littlestonedesign) posted a great message on the Etsy Beadweavers' message board earlier this month about her success with sending a monthly newsletter for her Etsy shop. It's no secret that I don't have a ton of Etsy sales and would like to do more with what time I have to promote my shop. Has anyone else had a lot of success with sending a newsletter? If you have, I would love to hear more details about it!

remake, hottest treasury spot

I listed this remake yesterday. I sold the original design back in July and thought that the design was well worth repeating.


For the second time this year, I made it into a treasury that reached the hottest spot in Treasury West! Right now it's Vicki's Bloggers Exposed treasury. The comments space filled up quite a while ago, but you can still click on the items for another 20 hours or so by clicking here. Thank you for the support everyone!

a remake listing and a few other random things

Congratulations to the November EBW Challenge winner grakowsky with her Hibiscus Necklace! I am in awe of everyone who participated in this challenge because it was simply not something that my bead weaving skills are up to (at this point anyway). Absolutely gorgeous entries! Good luck to everyone who is also working on a piece for the December challenge right now. :)

Lisa (Alterity Art) is featuring the first in a series of Christmas giveaways on her blog right now. The first person featured is giving away a lovely set of handmade coasters. You can check out all of the details on her blog by clicking here.

I finally completed a sale today with a college friend that I started back in August. That is rather ridiculous I know, but at least it's finally squared away. One more sold item cleared out of my Etsy inventory!

I listed a remake today. I created the original version early in the summer and sold it before I could list it on Etsy. It's now back and listed here. This was a tougher design to create and bead than it looks like. The first one drove me a little crazy because it made me a little dizzy haha. The second time around went much smoother.

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!

remake (with blue dots!)

I listed a remake today of a design that I put together over the summer. I sold the original before I could even list it on Etsy. I'm happy to have another version in my inventory and now listed on Etsy.



I will be listing a couple other new items over the next few days, too.

Emerald City revisited again

Before I post my pictures of the newly remade Emerald City, I'll mention a minor frustration that happened earlier this week. I went to Michael's and discovered that they have completely gotten rid of their Czech seed bead collection. It's relatively easy to find size 11 Czech seed beads elsewhere, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to find size 6, especially around here. Both of the bead shops that I frequent when I'm back in Chicago carry a wide variety of them, but the Iowa City shop does not. Neither Art Beads nor Fire Mountain Gems carry them. I like using Japanese seed beads for some projects, but size 6 Czech seed beads are a staple for many of my designs. I guess I'll have to stock up when I am in Chicago. I may not be back again until Christmas, though, and I'm a little worried about my supply dwindling before then. If anyone has any advice about where to order them online, I would appreciate it!

Since I sold the most recent version of my Emerald City right angle bracelet at the end of the summer, I decided to make another one. I ended up making two of them in different sizes. One is 6" long (the standard size for previous version) and one is slightly longer at just over 6 3/4" long. Here's a closeup of the longer version and then a picture of both of them. You can view the Etsy listing by clicking on either picture.

remake, completed trade

I uploaded pictures of the new version of this bracelet this week. I sold the original off Etsy last month and decided it was worth making another one.


I completed a trade with knitterye this week. She makes wonderful jewelry. I traded her my coffee 'n cream bangle for her Pale Starry necklace. Thanks again Rorye!

I have a lot of newly finished pieces that I need to photograph. I may brave the heat this afternoon and take picture of at least a few of them. :)