New jewelry this month...... Necklace, Handmade - featuring handblown glass beads, Czech glass beads, crystals, and Cat's eye beads. 20" long. $35

Stretch wire bracelet made with Crystals and more Crystals! Plenty of bling, hard to photograph. $15

Another Stretch wrap bracelet, this one made with Cherry "Red Ruby" gemstone beads and white Czech glass beads. $15.

Handmade Necklace, hangs longer at 30". Unakite natural beads interspersed with vintage pearls, giving it a soft, feminine glow. $35.

See something you like? Message me!

Browse my shop.

What I've been doing lately...

I have 3 projects I've been working on. One is an onyx piece that I"ve beaded around and now I'm making a necklace for it. I want this one to be a little different from my others so it's taking awhile. I also have an agate teardrop that I beaded around but haven't put the fringe on yet. You will see those in a few days. Then I got this book: It is so awesome. If you've read my posts, you know how I love beading beads. So I've done 2 so far. The first one looked like a blob. The 2nd was a little rounder but it seems....twisted at the ends or something. The book is wonderful, the instructions are clear. It's just operator error and NO you don't get to see them.

 In the interest of being more transparent (less private), I wanted to share my new Planted Tank blog with you. It's all about my aquarium. If you've never seen a planted tank you should google them. They're awesome and inspire all sorts of creativity.

I'm listening to the Beatles today. I downloaded their album "1." Very cool. What's even more fun? I know all the words. :)

What's new in the studio

This handmade beadwoven and gemstone necklace is my newest piece. I used agate and rose quartz first, weaving frames around them in colors that set off the stones. Then I created a necklace from seed beads and pearls, Czech glass beads, and more. When it was nearly done, I stitched the agate and quartz pieces into the piece. I then wove many more rows to hold them into the design. Fun! :D

It's for sale in my Ruby Plaza shop. Thanks for looking.

Giving Away a Handmade Beaded Bracelet

Wow. My Facebook page is up to 100 fans. I'm thrilled!!!  I am going to give away a bracelet to celebrate. Not just any bracelet either - I wanted to pick a special one. This is a brand new bracelet. It hasn't been for sale in the online shop....I just got it made.  Because it's the holidays and I want to give everyone time to get in on the game, I'll keep this open for one week. Next Thursday is the drawing; here's what you need to do. Visit my shop's Facebook page and make a comment under the post about the giveaway. I'll use a random number generator to pick the post that wins.

Here's the bracelet:

It is made from Swarovski crystals in 2 shades -- green and clear. Thesilver-plated pewter clasp and the focal flower both have tiny crystals on them too. Please visit my page and enter the contest! :)

Craft Show Display

Thought you might like to see the photos from our show. It was not very successful (read: abysmal failure). BUT the 3 of us who did the table together came away feeling as if it was a great learning experience. There weren't that many visitors -- it had been moved from the original location, plus there was another big craft show nearby that day. We don't have control over any of that. We *might* have done better in the main room, rather than a side room... no control over that either.
Also we'd been told our booth was 10X10, so that's what we planned for. Ros and Ken brought the tables, Mickey and I brought the cloths, step shelf, and wire "walls". Mickey had even drawn a layout in some fancy computer program. So we get there, and the space is 9X12. Yikes! Our tables won't fit! We figured it out though, and the sponsors even made tables and chairs available to everyone. All in all it was great fun. There were 43 vendors all total.

Roslyn with her jewelry

This table is mostly mine, with Ken's wooden items on the left end.

A customer checks out our glass cases

Moi!

OK I'm not so photogenic.

Some of my multi-strand necklaces - $20 for 10 strands.

My jewelry show goals are killing me!

People are always asking me what my goals are. Since jewelry – making is something I’ve decided to keep as a HOBBY I try not to have any. But it’s so my nature to approach things like a business: what are your goals? What are the steps to achieve that goal? What are the sub-steps? What supplies do you need to make that happen? Aargh. I drive myself nuts.

This week I actually do have goals, and I’m not meeting them. I feel like there’s an interruption every 10 seconds. It doesn’t matter how important it is – it’s something that draws me away from my craft. And since I’m actually doing my first craft show this weekend, these goals are important. At least to me. J

The show is in Rogersville at the Armory on Saturday. It’s from 10-6. I’m sharing my booth with Roslyn, who is RazzleDazzleMe on etsy. So I emailed her today and said I have 200 pendants, about 100 other beaded pieces, and maybe 50 sets of earrings. And I told her how I feel so far behind. I could feel her laughing in her response: its plenty, don’t worry, we’ll have fun. And yes – we will. If I can just get those other 50 earrings made…….

Here are a few pieces I plan to take with me:

 

                                   

Friday Finds

Today I've been making jewelry and playing on the Internet. :) I find the computer quite a distraction - tomorrow I think it gets moved to the floor while I bead, as there's less than 3 weeks to go until my first craft show.
So - I'd like to feature a lovely find every Friday. Here's one from a favorite shop on etsy. It's a set of hand blown glass beads. They're so organic, so nature-y. If I didn't have a whole cabinet full, I'd have already bought them:

The seller's name is MermaidGlass. (Click to see these and other scrumptious beads!)

Have a happy Friday!

Beaded Bead Necklace Completed, and a Feature

As promised, I will show you the necklace I made with the most recent beaded bead. It took so long because I  did the middle section, then tied it in knots and let it sit on my desk, waiting. I couldn't decide how to finish it.... couldn't even seem to just try something....finally I said, finish it dummy, and if it doesn't work take it apart.
It was done within the hour. I just had to get mean with myself. ;)

Here you go:

And -- here's a lovely collection which features moi -- my pendant is in the top row, second from the left:
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=27885

Yay! My glass tile "bat" pendant was featured in an ARTFIRE collection today.

Spooky White Hall...

  Curated By: antiquorama

ArtFire.com

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