October Bead Trends feature

I am proud to announce that I have an item featured in the October issue of Bead Trends magazine!

I am really excited that they chose to use my item as one of their featured pictures in the table of contents.

They did an awesome job with the photos for the feature. Sometimes the photos are really artsy and don't show off the entire item, which can be troublesome if people actually want to follow the directions and make it themselves. But they did a perfect job this time showing off the whole earrings in an artistic manner.

I didn't take a picture of it this time, but Bead Trends features come with a $20 gift certificate to Fire Mountain Gems. Awesome, right?

I made these earrings back in the early spring as a companion piece to my Tropical Destination wrap bracelet/necklace.

I don't like to make a lot of overly matching pieces, but it's fun to make another piece with a bead combination that already works well.

These earrings are now listed in my Etsy shop. They're the first pair of tubular square earrings that I've done. There may be more in the future. As always, you can require a custom pair at any time, too.

Does anyone else have a magazine feature this fall?

Where I Linked Up Today:

olive green tubular triangles

Some of you may remember this new line that I started back in the fall.  I wasn't inspired to do much with it for a while because the response to the those first two pieces was pretty underwhelming.  The necklace finally got a couple hearts after I re-listed in January, but overall the views have been low.  I think that this is largely due to the pictures.  These minimalist chain link designs simply disappear against the music background.  The silver just doesn't stand out.  While I haven't been motivated to re-take the original purple pictures (which as we all know, is also just a difficult color to photograph well), I did shoot the new pieces against gray.  I also experimented a little more with the poses and angles.  I think that this is a neat design and is very original, even on Etsy.  I haven't seen anyone else use tubular triangles quite like this.  So I'm not ready to give up on it yet.

With all of that being said, here are my newest tubular triangle charms, this time in olive green.

The bracelet is available here, and the necklace is available here.  I'm pretty happy with the balance against the gray.  The silver stands out a lot more, but the green doesn't disappear.  I love these two shades of olive green together.  Olive is definitely another underrated color.  I know that charm bracelets/necklaces aren't designed to be elegant/dressy jewelry pieces, but I think that the olive color could coordinate with something pretty nice.

I don't have any other triangles in the works right now, which is shocking I know.  But as always, I'm open to suggestions and/or custom requests.

Also, Margaret (SplendidLittleStars) included my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Dagger Fringed - Pink Garden in her Etsy Bloggers Team Spring green with blossoms treasury.  Thanks Margaret!

And Julia  (TreeBonsai) included my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Monochromatic Explosion in her Monochromatic.. treasury.

why I love my customers

I love my customers because sometimes they come with amazing ideas for custom orders that never would have occurred to me.  The most recent custom order that I finished is a perfect example of this.  Patch (patchfirstshop) contacted me about creating a set of pendants, one in navy blue (which is her boyfriend's favorite color) and turquoise (which is one of her favorite colors).  She's going to give the turquoise one to him for Christmas.  This way, they can each have something that reminds them of the other one.  How sweet is that?

Patch came up with the design for the shape and how it will look like one can fit right inside the other.

For anyone who beadweaves and is interested in trying this: The tubular square is well worth the effort, as I'm sure you can tell from the pictures.  However, it is trickier than a tubular triangle because of the way the piece keeps curving until it's connected right at the end.  I highly recommend getting comfortable with the flat and tubular triangle designs before attempting this.

I have several more ideas for this design now, including several squares in different sizes connected to make a longer pendant.  And as always, if you're interested in something like this for yourself, please let me know.

classic in black

I re-listed one of my favorite earring designs earlier this week (with brand new pictures): Beaded Dangle Earrings - Peyote Tubular Triangles - Black.

You can't go wrong with black!  So classic and versatile.  I'd actually like to make some more tubular triangles for my triangle charm bracelet and necklace designs before I make any more earrings.  I've only done purple for those thus far so there are so many colors/color combinations to use.  As always, I'm open to suggestions for any and all future peyote triangles.

new product line, treasury feature

Like many of my designs, this new product line is something that I've had in mind for quite a while and finally put it together.  I've been a big fan of the Tiffany heart charm bracelet and heart charm necklace for more than four years (which I don't own; I have the Lia Sophia knock offs).  I thought that it would be neat to make a charm bracelet like this, but with a triangle charm.  As I've mentioned before, I love my tubular triangle earring design but wanted to use one of these triangles in a bracelet design.  This is the result of all of those thoughts.  And I also made a necklace design.  Plus the first versions are both purple because a handful of people have requested more purple items.

Silver Chain Links Bracelet - Tubular Peyote Triangle Charm - Purple

I know that the purple looks almost black here, but it's really wonderful rich royal purple.

Silver Chain Links Necklace - Tubular Peyote Triangle Charm - Light/Dark Purple

The gray shots with the necklace turned out so well that I may try taking some pictures of the bracelet with it, too.

As always, I am open to other suggestions for the next versions of this design.

Finally, Carrie (carriegrab419) included my Peyote Cuff Bracelet - Autumn Explosion in her Autumn Splendor treasury.  Thanks Carrie!

new listing, treasury feature

I listed a new pair of tubular triangle earrings earlier this week: Beadwoven Earrings - Tubular Peyote Triangles - Aqua.

No matter how many colors I experiment with, this shade of aqua/turquoise is still one of my favorites.  I never get tired of returning to it.  As I mentioned in my last post, I have some purple items in the works now.  I'd like to make another pair of pink earrings like this shade at some point, too.  As always, I'm open to other suggestions as well.

Edi (memoriesforlifesb) included my Peyote Cuff Bracelet - Autumn Explosion in her Happy Fall Y'all-EtsyBloggers Style treasury.  Thanks Edi!

I hope that everyone is enjoying the long weekend!

recent orders/projects/Alchemy

I've put all of my new ideas and planned projects aside for the past week or so because of all of the custom work that I've had!  I've also been working on a couple presents.  The first will be part of my new line of items that I'll be revealing soon.  The other one is my first tubular triangle pendant.

I know that it's hard to tell in this picture, but the dark beads are a wonderful, deep shade of purple.  For those who like this color combination, you will be seeing more of it in the future. :)

One of my two recent Alchemy bids that I won was actually for supplies.  I haven't gotten into destashing on Etsy, but I thought that this would be an interesting opportunity.  This is what I put together this week.

The other Alchemy bid that I won is for the custom pearl and lemon quartz cuff that I won't be working on until sometime next week when all of the supplies come in so I'll have more details about that then.  The other order that I've been working on this week is the wedding order that I mentioned at the beginning of this week.  Here are the two made to order pieces.

The newest version of my Silver Links Ocean Beaded Bracelet.  Yes, these made to order pieces are small so they'll fit the young flower girls.

 And the newest version of my Green Ocean Fantasy Beadwoven Bracelet.  I still have some of these polka dot beads in blue (as well as a few other colors) so I might make a slightly modified version to sell.

I'll post pictures of the complete bridesmaid wedding order after the bride has received it.

newsletter at last, new listing, July special, June Top Droppers

Happy July everyone!   Where did June go?!  Summer always go so fast...

I finally sent out my first newsletter today!  We'll see what happens.  If you're interested in joining the mailing list, please convo me on Etsy by clicking here. :)

I listed another new pair of earrings today: blue tubular triangle earrings.

I've had an overwhelming response for more purple earrings so my next pair of tubular earrings will most likely be some shade or combination of purple(s)!  I haven't decided exactly what yet.  Let me know if you have any more thoughts or other color ideas.

I got my shop updated for the Christmas in July sale today.  All of my items tagged "Christmas" are 25% off.  Many other items tagged "red" or "green" are 15% off.  I have updated all listings that apply with sale information and sale prices.  You can view all of my sale items by clicking here.  All custom Christmas, red, or green items this month will also apply to sale prices.  Please let me know if you need any more information about this.

And finally, a new month means that it's time to acknowledge my Entrecard Top Droppers again!  Thank you so much to everyone who continues to support me through Entrecard.  As always, if you are on the Top 10 list, have an Etsy shop, and would like an item featured here, please let me a comment with a link.  I will feature your item in a post in the near future.  Here are the Top 10 for June.

1) Dave Lucas
2) Moonangelnay on Etsy
3) Go Las Vegas Baby!
4) Alterity Art
5) The Sewing Mom
6) BeadedTail
7) English Wilderness: Nature Photography
8) Three Fates Design
9) Paperkraft.net
10) Hugz Before You Go

award, new listing

Duni (Lovely Purses) and her cat Sammy were so kind to give me and Angel the Happy Cat award.

As part of accepting the award, I'm supposed to list five things that make Angel happy.
1) eating almost any kind of cheese
2) eating almost any kind of ice cream
3) sitting with/working her non-existent front claws on plastic laundry baskets
4) watching me work on counted cross-stitch
5) sitting with her tank water bowl
Thanks again Duni and Sammy! :)

My inventory is still kind of a mess after the Arts Festival.  I did take pictures of everything that I brought with me.  I just didn't edit all of the pictures or write much down about most of them yet.  I will slowly edit the pictures and post listings for the items that I didn't sell at the festival.

I listed the first new one tonight: spring green tubular triangle earrings.

I was a little disappointed that not one of the three pairs of tubular triangle earrings that I had sold at the Arts Festival, but they still got a lot of compliments.

I don't know what color combination I'll be using for my next tubular triangles.  Any suggestions?  I'd still like to work one into a bracelet/cuff sometime.

I received confirmation last night that I'll have a booth at the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church Arts & Crafts Show in Urbandale, IA (Des Moines area) in October.  It's really nice to have another show to look forward to already!