Art Beads fall piece

For the fall Art Beads design partner program, we were asked to create a piece of jewelry that utilized colors from the Fall 2010 Pantone Fashion Color Report.  I'd been wanting to make a new version of my Natural Sparkle design for a while.  Some of the more neutral shades from the report fit into this design perfectly.

I used two different kinds of Swarovski beads and gorgeous tiger's eye beads from the Art Beads Gemstone section.  I normally don't spring for larger/more expensive items when it comes to beads, even when it's through the blog program because I still like to make my money go as far as possible, but I decided that it would be worth it with the tiger's eye.  It definitely was.  I have a handful left, which I'm sure will go to good use at some point.

I also used some of my free sample beads from Shannon (beadsandbabble) including a few from this lovely Czech mix and this other neat Czech mix that she offers as well as some of her seed bead strands (if you want specific information for those, let me know).  Thanks Shannon!

The drilled sea glass pieces are from Kristina (akkricket).  I'm a little embarrassed that it's taken me this long to use them, but I'm so glad that I finally did.  I have some single drilled pieces, too, that I'm planning to use for another Natural Sparkle bracelet.

I'm sure that some of you know this by now, but the ceramic button is from Lisa (LisaPetersArt).  This is the fifth bracelet that I've made with one of Lisa's buttons.  I've sold three with her buttons.  The only one that's left besides this is my Fall Autumn Explosion piece.  I'm planning to use another Lisa button for my next Natural Sparkle bracelet.  I have a few other buttons in my stash, too (not that that will stop me from buying more in the future, too, of course).

This piece is available in my Etsy shop.  You can view it by clicking here.  As always, if you're interested in something similar but in a different size or with slightly different colors, etc. please let me know.

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.

weekend show, October EBW Challenge voting

Since I know that people are curious, I'll go ahead and post briefly about the show this weekend.  It was pretty much a bust.  I broke even, but that's about all I can say for it.  It was not a juried show, and a lot of people suffered from the lack of diversity in available products.  There were also a lot of people who were just there looking and not buying much.  I had a pretty good time and met some nice people.  Jake and I had a good time visiting some of his relatives while we were out in the Des Moines area.  It's still not a show that I'll do again.  The show that I'm doing in November is also not juried but is larger and has an admission fee so hopefully people who are coming will be more serious about buying.  Hopefully the November show will have more Christmas shoppers, too.

I took some pictures of my display.  I was against a white wall so my larger shots didn't turn out very well, but you can see closeups of my two larger tables.  I had two smaller ones on the side with my business cards, button magnets, pattern CDs, and a few other things.

Moving on, voting for the October EBW Challenge Autumn Falling of Leaves started yesterday.  You can vote at the EBW blog by clicking here.  Voting is on the right side of the page.  You can vote through October 15.  Many people chose to interpret falling of leaves loosely or simply made autumn pieces which was a little disappointing to put it nicely.  Here's my own piece again:

as well as some of my other favorite leafier entries:
Autumn Jewels Beadwoven Necklace by beadsandblooms

Maple leaves bracelet EBWC by AnnaCohen

OOAK Maple Autumn Falling of leaves Necklace October 2010 EBWC by bead4me

Autumn Leaves Bracelet - EBWC Challenge by Starwaves

Drift By My Window Beadwoven Cuff Bracelet - EBWC by littlestonedesign

random feature

There's nothing better for a Friday post than a feature post!  Here's this month's random favorites installment.  Enjoy!

Midnight Rainbow - Beadwoven Bracelet - BHV by ArcticSilver

Business Card Mini Notebooks (10) by PipingHotPapers

Beadwoven Glass, Pearl - Bracelet - 'Forest Floor' by Balanced

Thaumas - Pearl Bracelet by ThreeFatesDesign

Ginger Peach. sugar body polish . 5 oz squeeze bottle by DancingMooney

In case you couldn't already tell, I definitely got on a pearl kick after making my "failed" custom order.  I'm not planning to make a full pearl piece like that one again soon, but it would be neat to do some pearl embellishment sometime.  Wouldn't these be awesome for a Christmas piece?
Nugget Pearls Cranberry Red 5mm 6mm FULL STRAND by PottyMouthGems

How awesome is this?
Crochet, Cotton Swiffer Cover, Hot Pink, Handmade Swiffer Cover by MontanaDaisyGirl on Etsy by MontanaDaisyGirl

PDF Patterns on CDs

One of my new additions for my fall/winter craft shows will be my two PDF patterns available on CDs.  I'm selling that for the same price that I have them for on Etsy.  I haven't done a show since July so I've been getting other things ready, too, and I've been putting a lot of energy toward listing on Ebay and generally cleaning things out at home.  But I finally got everything finished for the CDs today.

I did not realize that the new CD sleeves that I bought this week were multicolored haha.  (The last pack that we had was plain white.)  They'll contrast nicely with my black and sheet music print sheets/table clothes, though.  Besides the CD, each sleeve contains a cardstock cover with a picture on it, a description of the pattern (almost exactly what I have in the Etsy listing description), and a business card.  Here's a shot of it.

I'll let you know how it goes.

For anyone who's interested, here's the information about my show this weekend for those in central/Eastern Iowa: Gloria Dei Lutheran Church Arts and Craft Show.

work in progress, treasury feature

Here's a sneak peak at the set up for my Art Beads blogging piece.  It's going to be my newest Natural Sparkle piece.  I'm going to make an additional Natural Sparkle piece, too, while I have the seed bead mix together, which is why there are so many large beads there.

I am definitely not going to have it finished and photographed before my show on Saturday, but I should have it done sometime next week.

Chris (beadn4fun) included my Beadwoven Bracelet - The Leafy Series - Fall Autumn II challenge piece in her The Autumn Beads...drift by my window... treasury.  Thanks Chris!

 

And finally, I'll end with a new picture of Angel.  Sharla posted one very similar to this one of her Angel a few days ago. :) I couldn't resist sharing mine, too.