Monday, September 27, 2010

What's new?

I added some new work to my etsy shop this weekend.....


I also had my etsy 500th sale!  That's pretty cool.
I feel like I haven't been adding very much new work to the shop since the beginning of the summer, but I hope to be better about that now that the holiday season is near.


I am starting to blog for the Beads-of-Clay blog again this week.
I have been given a big box of beads donated by Beads-of-Clay members and I will be in charge of giving them away randomly and via our 2nd Wednesday giveaways. 
 (Psst,...... I just might do that on some Mondays, and Fridays)
Mostly I'll ask a question and ask readers to answer it via a comment on the blog. This week's question is on E-mail.  As in, I am buried in E-mails and I am often not very quick to answer them.  :-) 
But I want to... and they are important.....


Today I was taking photos of a nice pile of beads/pendants etc for the Art Bead Scene Blog.  I will be a sponsor of the next Monthly challenge :-)
I don't know what the inspirational artwork is for the month, so I had a hard time narrowing down what I wanted to give.


****This post has been modified due to special secret announcement stuff which I had not realized****
;-)


Today I drove up to a shop what sells my work to bring some new stuff and um, hm, ut oh! 
 It was closed!
  I totally forgot that the owner had a big 3 day festival over the weekend and likely needed the day off ;-) 
Monday is my day for these things so either I will have to mail in the new work or wait another week. 


So that's what's going on today.....
Are you getting ready for shows?  Did you have one last weekend? 

Did you make anything new lately? 

Saturday, September 25, 2010

September ABS

I started making this Art Deco style of pendant a while ago but never made one into a necklace...  The ABS challenge helped inspire me to get one done....  This and the movie Avatar :-)  LOL...  My daughter was given a copy of the movie for her birthday last week and it has been viewed SO many times in our house since then.  I couldn't figure out how to make the pendant work.... I was thinking just to tie it with silk or string since it is just such a big statement, but I didn't quite like that when I tested it out---  Anyway--- This feels a little warrior to me :-)  It is kind-of like a big chest plate.  The pendant measures @ 4 inches across.
This may be considered strung beads, but this Art Deco pendant  makes a really big statement alone.  I think adding more would have been too much.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Charm Swap

I made these pieces for Jennifer Cameron's Charm swap quite a while ago. 
I am just getting them in the mail today :-)
Lagoon

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Coming soon to a store near me

Still need to card them up......
And whip up a few more things :-)

Monday, September 20, 2010

30 = 60 + much more

30 earrings sets came out of the kiln this morning.
Now I need to decide where they are going.
I made a few other pieces as well-- Some evil eye pendant/beads~~

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Busy Busy Busy

Look at this mess! 
Can you feel it in the air?  The make is on!  The holidays are just around the corner for those of us who make handmade gifts.....  Are you feeling it too? 
I am happy to be swimming in ideas and struggling to get them made.  I set up a display at a new shop this week.  When I arrived the owner loved my work immediately and swooshed it right out front.  She wants a lot more and I couldn't be happier!  I am much better at making jewelry than selling it and I love when people are excited and want to do that for me.  

Right now I am firing the kiln with a pile of earring/charm sets so that I can add more to that store and possibly another one.....  and as long as I don't get greedy about it-- I think I will add more sets to my etsy shop.  The last sets went really fast.

This week I even went out to a handmade tile store and inquired about showing my work there....  It is possible to make things other than jewelry right???    I have a few really great tile designs that are doing nothing in my attic and I figure they might be happier in a tile showroom.  And I think I need to put my work out for the public more.  It find I make more time for dreaming up new ideas than for doing things with them once they have materialized.

I added this new cabochon to my store this week.  I REALLY love the color on this one!  It's my match for the Lagoon color that is "the season's hot color"   So I love it....  Would love to see it made into something really spectacular.....   Something I can't quite imagine myself :-)

I am really in love with this black center -bright outer thing.  I started going it for the fall/Halloween season and I think I will need to keep it up.  Sometimes I feel like I need to take photos of favorites and plaster the studio walls with them... It is a good idea.  I may have to do that now that I am in love with the picassa picture program.  There is something to be said about always making new ideas, but there is also something to be said for finding what works and not forgetting it. 

As long as I can make time for it today, I will be listing this donut in my etsy shop a little bit later.

And this one too--- First I need to clean house and studio because the pace of life has left a build up and it is keeping me from functioning efficiently--- (see messy desk above)-- and I even left out the messiest parts :-)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Yay! Picasa!

Ohh la la!  I just discovered Picasa thanks to a few awesome friends!  Thanks for the suggestion!
I finally added new work to my etsy shop this week.  All the items here were added to the shop and that pile in the middle is mostly for the upcoming charm swap organized by Jennifer Cameron aka Glass Addictions by Jennifer Cameron.  

I have been having a blast making these charm sets and then making some of them into earrings and some of them into pendants....  I hope you like them too!  I've already started to make another batch since I think they are going to sell really well in my consignment venues.

I also added 5 smoke fired pieces to the shop......  I think I love this picasa program!  Your gonna get sick of seeing everything in mosaic before I get sick of making them :-)

Friday, September 3, 2010

Art Deco-And New work

Happy Labor Day weekend!
This morning I set out to start adding new work to my etsy shop again... I can't believe that I has been so long since I have been doing the etsy thing, but you know, time flys when you're having fun!
This morning I saw a post about the new Art Bead Scene monthly challenge....  Art Deco beads, I thought COOL!  I have some Art Deco inspired beads in my shop...  Whoops!  Not anymore!  All of them had long since left my shop and found new homes out in the world.

So, Instead of the pieces I had set out to list, I listed these Art Deco beads instead!

All of these pieces have stringing loops in different places. I see a lot of interesting stringing directions/ideas in these beads.

I am also having a Buy one Get one 50% off sale in my etsy shop this weekend. Just go though check out and I will refund half of the purchase price of the lower priced items  :-) 

I will also be adding more new work later today and throughout the weekend and if you would like to add things to your order over the weekend, I can invoice you when you are through shopping ...

Maybe we should call this the "Baby needs a new car" sale, lol... Oh my gosh!  It feels like I have been trying to find a good used car forever!  I am going to test drive one that I hope is "it" this weekend and I am a bit short on cash for the asking price....and I'm kind-of a buy it with cash kind-of girl.  But it is my "ideal car"  as far as my personal preferences go.  Wish me good car buying luck!  I need it!  This is tricky stuff!