inspiration from a different source

I thought I'd share a different source of inspiration today.  One of the best parts about creating any kind of art is that you can find inspiration just about anywhere.  It doesn't have to be when you're looking at other art or at anything else related to your field.

One of my favorite catalogs is the Crate and Barrel catalog.  We registered there for our wedding so we got their mailings for a while, but they lost track of us in Iowa, probably because there are no Crate and Barrels in Iowa.  Now that we're in Milwaukee and are only about 15 minutes away from the closest one, we're getting catalogs and coupons.  I haven't bought anything...yet, but there are lots of inspiration selections in the latest catalog.  Here are a few of my favorites.  Hopefully they'll get you inspired, too.

You can actually order a mixed set with all of the colors!  How much fun is that?

Perfect colors for fall.

Of course I love some of their leafy items.

Great dotted picks.

And finally, some awesome stripes.

final Christmas item for 2010

I know that it's late to be listing another Christmas item (although that it hasn't slowed people down from looking at them!), but I got inspired to put these together before I put away my red and green delicas from another project.

They're available in my Etsy shop here.  They'll be on sale through Christmas.  I'm going to mark everything in the sale section down again the week between Christmas and New Year's so if you're not in a hurry, you can jump on that amazing price next week. :)

Since I got into making earrings this year, I haven't really looked back.  I have lots of bracelet ideas that have been burning a hole in the back of my mind, though.  My earring stash is plenty large now so I'm going to concentrate more on bracelets/cuffs again as we start 2011.

new listing, October Top Droppers

I listed one of my newest pairs of earrings last night.  Whenever I poll people about color requests for new items, purple comes up frequently.  So here it is. :) Beaded Dangle Earrings - Peyote Triangles - Purple Striped

As always, purple is very hard to photograph, but the different shades of purple blend together beautifully in person.  I'm planning to make another purple version that matches this bracelet.  After that, I'd like to work on a few more tubular triangles for more earrings, chain links bracelets, and chain links necklaces.

The start of a new month means that it's time to thank my Top 10 Droppers on Entrecard again!  As always, I really appreciate everyone who visits my blog regularly, especially those of you who comment.  Here are the Top 10 for October:
1) The Twitterer
2) Sparkle
3) Moonangelnay on Etsy
4) BeadedTail
5) The Sewing Mom
6) Learn Affiliate Marketing
7) the crazy suburban mom
8) Dave Lucas
9) Three Fates Design
10) Patsy's Words of Wisdom

And as always, anyone on this list who is an Etsy seller and would like an item of theirs featured here, please leave a comment.  I'll feature the item of your choice in an upcoming post.  I'm choosing Sharla's (BeadedTail) for her this month.  I love her new paw print earrings! Furiends - Pawprint Polymer Clay and Black Onyx Beaded Sterling Silver Earrings

I hope that November gets off to a great start for everyone!

back to work, custom order

Before I post about anything else, I want to make sure I mention that my web site is finally up and running with the domain name.  Go check out randomcreative28.com.  It doesn't show up in Google searches yet so make sure to visit and get the numbers up so it will show up. :) Hopefully it will prove to be worthwhile.

As I'm sure that you can tell by my lack of posting this week, I've been spending most of my time at work or getting caught up with things around the condo.  I haven't been doing much with creating new pieces, taking pictures, or doing any other work with Etsy.

That's my classroom for anyone who's interested.  I don't post public pictures of most things work related for obvious reasons, but I thought that some of you would enjoy seeing where I do spend a lot of time from August-May.

Back on the creative end, the biggest thing that I did accomplish this week is that I finally finished and shipped my current custom order.

I created a surprise coordinated piece as well.  I may post pictures of it at some point after the recipient has her package.  I don't want to spoil anything.  You can view the original cuff here.  It's amazing how even changing only one or two colors in a design can significantly alter the entire look of the piece.  As you already know, I'm not interested in creating lots of made to order listings at this point when I have lots of already completed unlisted pieces.  So I'm not planning to re-list this item right now.  But I'm always happy to create custom orders based on any existing designs.

I've been working on a brand new design the last couple weeks.  I haven't seen anything like it before so hopefully it will be a neat little niche for me. I'm giving the first one in the series to someone as a gift in a couple weeks, but I will hopefully have one to sell within a month.  For those who love purple and have expressed interest in more purple items in the past, one of these new pieces will definitely be purple.  I have a other purple pieces in the works right now, too. :)

sneak peaks, back in stock

As promised, I have a couple sneak peaks of new projects.

Now that I have a few more yellow leaf beads, I'm ready to make my next Indian Summer leafy bracelet.  I'll probably start working on it tonight or tomorrow.

This is my newest Bargello Ribbon cuff from Carol Dean's pattern (SandFibers).  The embellishment was my own idea, though.  This cuff will be for sale at some point.

I also restocked a couple pieces on Etsy tonight.  I made a new version of my green button embellished right angle bracelet, which is the bracelet that I used for my newest PDF pattern pictures.  I still have a lot of work to do before I finish the pattern, but the step by step pictures are done (not edited but taken at least) which is a huge component.

I'm going to retake pictures of a couple other button embellished cuffs this week for the final page of the pattern so I'll be updated some of those other listings soon, too.

Finally, I made a new version of my blue striped peyote triangle earrings.  They have had a huge following on Flickr already.  Hopefully I'll sell another pair in person or on Etsy at some point.  I'm still working on the propped pictures in my light box, but I think that the flat pictures of these earrings turned out pretty well.

new listing, goodies from the weekend, custom order

As promised, I listed a new pair of earrings tonight: fall striped peyote triangle earrings.

These are my largest peyote triangle earrings thus far.  They're designed to coordinate with my Autumn Explosion peyote cuff.  I used the same color delicas for the base of the cuff and for the earrings.  The smaller size has done really well so far, but I may make a few more in this larger size as well.  Let me know what you think!

Also, as promised here are my new goodies from this weekend.

I put all of the loose buttons into the little ziplocks that had held one or two buttons from a particular garment.

There were a number of buttons, mostly neutral shades, on cards as well.

I can use a few of the smaller buttons on cards for earring studs.  A lot of the new neutral buttons will be great for a neutral button charm bracelet.  As you can see in the corner of the last shot, I also got some bells and large gold shank buttons.  One of my friends has an idea for a crazy button/general charm bracelet for one of her grandmas for Christmas that the buttons and shanks will be perfect for.  I am going to remake my original Christmas button charm bracelet while the Christmas in July sale is still going on, but I wasn't planning to include any bells in it (unless there's interest...).

I cannot resist buying Czech leaf beads when they are in bulk like this because they are SO much cheaper than when they're priced individually.  Briolette had tons of green leaves this weekend.  I already had a decent stash at home and wondered why I thought I needed just a few more.  It turns out that it's good that I did, though, because I got a custom order for the leafy series - Indian Summer as a necklace when I got back to Iowa.  Needless to say, I will need a lot of them!  I will post progress/final result pictures of how that goes.  This will definitely be a new endeavor for me.

new listing, June EtsyBloggers feature

I listed my newest pair of peyote triangle earrings today, this time in blue!

blue striped peyote triangle earrings

I am going to relist the green version of these earrings and remake a couple of existing designs that I sold at the Iowa Arts Festival before I make any more striped peyote triangle earrings.  I am always open to suggestions for those when their time comes, though!

And now, on to the other topic for this post: The June EtsyBloggers featured seller is Sharla (BeadedTail)!  I'm sure by now that you already know that I'm a big fan of Sharla's Etsy shop and her blog of course as well as her lovely pets Isabella, Angel, and Sadie.  Please check out her shop and blog if you haven't already!

I feature Sharla's items here on a fairly regular basis, but here are a just a couple fabulous pieces that I haven't already featured.

Ocean Dreams - Tanzanite Swarovski Crystals and Blue and White Striped Lampwork Glass Beaded Sterling Silver Earrings

Natural Elements - Aqua and Brown Stone Beaded Sterling Silver Earrings

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.

first earrings for sale and a new earring design

I finally listed my first pair of earrings for sale on Etsy today! I'm only going to post the top listing picture here since you've already seen them before, but please click on the picture to check out the listing.


I am still really into all of these green shades of delicas. I will be listing the pendant with all of these shades and other pair of earrings with one of these shades over the next week. I'm still working on my next flower cuff and have two more earring ideas, too.

I photographed my newest pair of earrings today. My husband says that they remind him of the old Star Trek Starfleet logo. I was not intending this, but it is definitely true.



As mentioned before, they are made with the same combination of delicas that I used in my new ceramic donut necklace. I know that the colors look pretty different in these two photos. In most lighting, they look somewhere in between. I don't want to name them after the Starfleet logo and get in some sort of copyright trouble. However, I haven't thought of another title yet so suggestions are welcome. They can have something to do with the shape and/or colors!

first peyote triangle earrings, new photos for Artists Exposed

I edited the pictures of my first peyote triangle earrings. I played around with several different set ups since I've never photographed earrings before! I'd appreciate any and all feedback before I create my first earring listing on Etsy.

I don't think I want to photograph all of my earrings with this piece because the colors on the glass piece wouldn't always coordinate with the earrings. However, this worked beautifully with these earrings so I thought I'd give it a shot. I think that the cup is a nice size fit for these earrings.

I took a few shots with my classic music background. I think that I'd like to include a couple shots like this in my listings no matter what, but I would still like something that shows the earrings mounted, too.

I also took a few shots with a plain juice glass, too. I like the neutral background that it creates, but I'm not sure that it's the best size/shape for these earrings. Maybe I'm being too picky though haha. This is why I need feedback!


Vicki Diane graciously offered to curate one of her Artists Exposed treasuries for the EBW group. I created my listing tonight. I got a haircut today so I figured that this would be as good a time as any (even though I shot these pictures without natural light). I'll be an alternate so here's hoping that someone's item sells and I'll make it in! You can check out the listing here.

Yes, I had some fun editing these pictures with Picasa. Once I had one of these brilliantly colored images finished, I couldn't go back to the originals.


For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook or who have seen the photo that I used for previous Artists Exposed items, this is the updated version haha.

new triangle pendant

Just a quick reminder that there are only a couple days left to enter my Art Beads gift certificate giveaway! The winner gets a $25 e-mail gift certificate to ArtBeads.com. You can enter until midnight CST on December 31. I will pick and announce the winner on New Year's Day. You can enter the giveaway by clicking here.

I listed a new triangle pendant tonight. The triangle will eventually coordinate with a red striped cuff, but that cuff is still a work in progress due to the previously mentioned technical difficulties. I've had trouble getting back to the cuff so progress is slow. I'm happy with the triangle, though.


I'm pretty positive that my next triangle will actually be a pair of triangle earrings.

I've had a lot of time to do bead work since we got back into town yesterday. I've also had some gorgeous sunshine for photographing so I will continue to list more new pieces over the next week.

Peace Piece

I listed my December 2009 EBW Challenge Peace Piece this week, along with a coordinating peyote triangle pendant. I sold most of my triangles this summer and have just recently begun to replenish my stock.

I have been wanting to do a striped cuff with different shades of a single color. When I heard the December challenge theme, my mind immediately went to the color blue. I decided that this would be a perfect way to try this. And of course it needed some embellishment. I like the way that the organized stripes contrast with the random embellishment. I'm already working on a red striped cuff that will have a different sort of embellishment. :) But for now, here are the blue pieces.

another peacock bracelet, latest Blogging for Beads stash

Here is my new listing for today.


It's kind of the cousin of my first feathered fringe cuff. I have the fringe beads for a blue one as well (which will be larger like the first one), although I haven't started working on it yet.

I received my newest stash from the Blogging for Beads program yesterday. (Also, for the record, I did take advantage of the 20% off glass beads sale at Art Beads. Hopefully that order will be here tomorrow or Saturday.) They're all from the Swarovski Crystal Beads section of Art Beads. Here's a picture of my goodies.
I have a couple ideas for some of the pieces already. As always, I'm also open to suggestions! :)