giveaway winnings

I won a giveaway over at Amy's blog a few weeks ago.  I won a gift certificate for Amber's shop (kellen813).  Amber makes a lot of hand stamped, personalized jewelry, most of which is much more than the the gift certificate amount.  Aside from my wedding ring, which is engraved (on the inside), I really don't wear anything personalized and wasn't looking to spend a lot of money to get a gift for someone else.  So I chose one of her wire wrapped rings in blue and asked if I could have it and another one (I wasn't too picky about the color) in a smaller size.

I know that most of her work is made to order or requires extra time because of the personalization.  I didn't expect my pieces to be her top priority.  But the whole process was pretty slow, and her communication wasn't great.  She said that she'd send me a picture of some of the other stones she had...but didn't.  She finally told me that the rings were ready and that the second one would be olive green (still no picture).  It took over a week after that for them to arrive.  Again, I know that I wasn't paying for these, but if it were me as the seller, I would still give top notch service in hopes of gaining a new customer.

The wire wrapping is okay.  I wouldn't have requested the rings if the wrapping in her pictures weren't pretty decent, so I was a little surprised by this.  I am not crazy about doing wire wrapping, but I've done enough of it now to know that I could at least as good of a job as she did if not better.  If I had paid someone else to do this job, I would have been a little upset.  The green isn't as nice of a piece of stone as the blue, but I do like the color.  You can also tell that the two rings are not the same size.  The green one fits pretty well on a few different fingers, but the blue one is loose on every finger except my right thumb, which just looks odd.  This would be okay if the stones weren't as weighty, but the stone makes the ring lean if it doesn't fit snugly.

I knew that these rings would be bulky and thus not pieces that I'd wear on a daily basis, which is okay.  I have a couple dresses/dressy outfits that I can wear with the green ring.  Honestly I will probably end up giving the blue one away at some point.

Her hand stamped jewelry may still be of a good quality.  She's had a decent number of sales and has good feedback so I would imagine that it is.  But I would look elsewhere for wire wrapped rings.

and the blog giveaway winner is...

Thanks to all 14 people who entered my blog giveaway for my 2nd Etsy anniversary!  I used a random number generator to select the winner.

Number 7 is Grace from Hugz Before You Go!  Congrats Grace. :) I contacted her tonight.  She can choose a peyote triangle pendant or pair of earrings in whatever color or color combination she'd like.  I'll be sure to post a picture of her finished piece.  I will most likely make a second version to sell as well.  Thanks again for playing everyone!

I did not have any sales during my free shipping promotion, but I switched some holiday items into my sale section early this morning.  One of them sold today along with another bangle!  I also have a custom order in the works from one of my eBay customers (which is why it pays to give out business cards to everyone!).  She wants some sea glass pieces she inherited from her grandmother wire wrapped into simple pendants.  I'm still so over wire wrapping after my pearl project, but this will be very different and hopefully more fun.  I got the sea glass pieces today.  I'm still waiting for the wire.  I'll keep everyone updated.

congrats, purple earrings

I sold my latest version of the leafy series - autumn with the Lisa Peters button in person to my grandma yesterday. :) It may be the last one with large bronze beads like this. The cone beads are still available, but the bronze leaves aren't. I still have a personal version of it with these cones leaves. I'll be brainstorming a new for sale version with something a little different.

Congratulations to Laura (Lauralia) for winning the January/February EBW Challenge Ocean/Sea with her Imagined Seas necklace! Thanks much to all who voted for my leafy ocean piece, too. :) As always, there were so many amazing entries. The March theme is Fairy Tale. I would LOVE to design something that Belle from Beauty and the Beast (my favorite Disney movie of all time) would wear, but I'm not sure if it's going to come together in time for the challenge.

I photographed my newest pair of earrings today after the latest set of repairmen had finished. (I don't want to speak too soon, but it's the last set of scheduled visits for now at least.) I'm still thinking of a name for this pair. Any suggestions would be appreciated!



I still don't have any of my earrings for sale on Etsy yet, but if you're interested in any of them for yourself, they'll be $7.00 each. Let me know, and I'll create a listing for you. And like all of my designs, you can request them in any color. If I haven't designed something that speaks to you yet, let me know what you'd like. :)

the start of a new series

Thank you so much to everyone who voted for my Indian Summer piece in the EBW September Challenge! I have never received that many votes in a challenge before. Congrats to trintydj who won the challenge with her Indian Summer Sunset piece. So many amazing entries as always!

I actually completed the first piece in my new series - rock garden - at the end of the summer, right after I made my pink/purple leafy series pieces. Yes, I made two of those and still couldn't get enough of those colors so I made another piece with a very similar color scheme. I fully intended to sell it, but when I tried it on to get the measurements for the listing, I realized that it fit me perfectly. I definitely hadn't intended it to be that size when I made it. So I decided to try it out for a week or so and then ended up deciding to keep it. Here's the piece that I kept.


I love the look of this design. I made the next one in green, which is the one that's now for sale in my Etsy shop. (You can click on the picture to get to the Etsy listing.)


I thought about keeping this one instead but I like how the purple fits me a little better. I still love how the green version turned out, though, and hope that others do as well! I'm thinking about making a blue/purple one next.

I completed a leafy Christmas bracelet recently as well! Is it too early to list it?

June EBW Challenge winner, July EBW Challenge entry

Congratulations to LiciaBeads who won the June EBW Challenge: Humor with her awesome necklace Curiosity Killed the Cat! I seriously love that piece. Licia is also a fellow Awesome Chicks of Etsy member. :)


I listed my entry for the July EBW Challenge: Here Comes the Bride today. As some of you may remember, I got the Swarovski buttons that I used in the bracelet as part of my first set of items for the ArtBeads Blogging for Beads program. I still have a set of purple buttons to use at some point in the future, too.


I have had weddings on my mind most of this past year so this theme really could not have some at a more perfect time. As soon as I saw the theme, I knew that this was a challenge that I could not resist. I had a lot of fun with this piece and am really pleased with the result. :)

Please check out Art Beads for any beading supplies that you may need!

Time Machine winner, new listings

Congratulations to beadsbyvezsuzsi who won the April EBW Time Machine Challenge with this beautiful time machine piece! She also has a beautiful triangle bracelet in her shop that I love. I apologize for not including it in my last post with the other triangle creations on Etsy.


I listed a couple new pieces today - another peyote triangle pendant and a chain links bracelet, the first chain links that I've made in quite a while.



Has anyone ordered from Fusion Beads? I usually order from Art Beads when I order beads online, but they don't have any large glass leaf beads. I have ordered some from Oriental Trading before that I'm very satisfied with, but would like more of a variety than they have. I have a large variety of small and medium leaves and have not had any luck finding bigger ones in bead stores thus far. Fusion looks pretty good, but I would appreciate any and all feedback that anyone else has about it.

Cafe Handmade results, naming a new piece

Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me in Cafe Handmade's Friendly Competition! I just found out tonight that I won! My prize is a week of free advertising on the site. :)

I am having trouble settling on a name for one of my new pieces. I have several ideas, but am interested to see what others think when they see it before offering up my own thoughts.




Ideas? Let me know!