Someone contacted me on Wednesday via Etsy about selling some of pieces at a new boutique. He's opening a store in West Palm Beach, FL in December where he will be selling unique handmade jewelry. He was impressed with my work in my Etsy store and would like about 5 pieces initially for the boutique. He sent me a draft contract via e-mail, which looked good, so I'm waiting for the real contract in the mail now. I ordered business cards this week so I'll have some to send with my pieces (as well as to give out as needed wherever). I also need to put together an information sheet about myself and order price tags. I never imagined that I would have an opportunity like this, especially so quickly, but I'm thrilled that it's happened! I will post more details about this as they happen.

I've tried a few new designs this week. Any and all feedback on them is much appreciated!

the start of my Etsy shop, plus a few new bangles

I officially opened my Etsy site on Halloween! It's going to take a few weeks to get my inventory built up, but I'm very excited to have gotten established. It's been awesome watching people already checking out my items. I'm going to add a few more items tomorrow and then officially announce it on Facebook. I'm also going to post the links to my flickr photostream and this blog on Facebook. This has been one of the few motivators for me this month amidst all of my sinus issues. I feel really good having managed to pull it off in spite of everything. I can also really enjoy it now that I'm starting to feel a little better - *crossing fingers* that this lasts and continues to get better.

I'm going to post pictures of my newest right angle weave bracelet and right angle bangle. I'll put up pictures of what I've done with a different pattern or stitch in my next post.

Because I hadn't made anything with green and blue in a while and was feeling deprived haha:
I took Jake's suggestion and made a bangle with black and silver:

As planned, this post is about the right angle weave bracelets with peyote toggles and loops. The first one I ever made was one that I'd made before as a bangle:


The second one is a little departure from my usual all turquoise / other blues and greens color palette haha. I have quickly learned that it is true that purple is very hard to photograph accurately. The darker purple beads are really not quite the color in this picture, but it will still give you a decent idea what it looks like:


The third and final one that I've made thus far is also a departure from my usual colors:


I'd really never done one like this before, but I love how it turned out. Jake (my husband for those of you who haven't known me very long) suggested that I make one with black and silver next. I finally have some silver lined Tohos ordered and am looking forward to doing that as one of my next projects. :)

right angle bangles

This bracelet is in both Getting Started With Seed Beads by Dustin Wedekind and Mastering Beadwork by Carol Huber Cypher. Wedekind does a much better job explaining it and providing clear visuals so if you're interested in learning the technique, I highly recommend checking out his book first. Cypher does show a variation with a toggle and loop that I've used, too, but will save that for another post. Here's what I've done with the original bangle so far:

Most of you know this already, but if you don't, you will quickly learn that I love these colors:

The start of the fall weather here inspired me to make this one last week:
And then I made this one just this past weekend:

As always, I'm open to suggestions about where to go next with this pattern. :)

first post

This is my first post in my new journal. I've had a livejournal for six and a half years and never imagined that I'd want to start another journal. But I decided to make one that will be exclusively for posts about jewelry making. I've always loved beads and this summer decided to get more serious about making real jewelry with them (instead of simply stringing pretty beads together...). Since then I've fallen in love with making all sorts of beaded bracelets and now spend the vast majority of my free time beading. I've made a nice collection of bracelets for myself. I'm now working on an inventory so I can start my own Etsy shop. I am still making things for myself of course but am making a lot of other bracelets, too. My goal is to have my site up and running before Thanksgiving. For now I'm really enjoying learning about Etsy and admiring the work of fellow beaders. I hope that having this blog will be one way that I can start connecting with some of those Etsy members.

I've started taking pictures of all of my work, which are posted on facebook and flickr. I will post some here as well so I can further reflect on my work and hopefully eventually get feedback from others. The first thing that I want to post is the first design that I ever graphed and beaded. It's called Winding Road. My favorite attempt at it thus far is this one:

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the pattern next, although I'm open to suggestions. :)