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:

 

                                   

Wednesday's Photos: Chalk Art

OK so I'm a day late posting :) This is chalk (sidewalk) art. I found the first few when I looked for Tampa, FL and their annual chalk art festival. Then I did a search for more. There's some r-e-a-l-l-y amazing chalk art out there. Take a look:

Artists, in order of pictures: Julian Beever (Muses and Coke), John Akers (heron), Ellen Reilley Marshall (cow), Mic Knight, and I believe the final close-up is also Mic Knight's. If you like those, you might also enjoy these spectacular 3-D works: http://www.tracyleestum.com/portfolio/3d-street-art

New Glass Tile Pendant Kits

Hurray. I finally got my kits together for sale. I have pendant making kits with the round cabochons (like the Halloween ones, I'll post a few here ....). They're for sale. I've made both

regular style with various pretty papers, and

Christmas style with a red/green assortment. I'm posting listings for 2, 4, 6, and 10. What do you think? Is that enough, or too much? Should there be a kit for making 1? I'm trying them on both eBay and etsy.




The instructions for making the pendants are in a previous post, here, and I'm including bails and ball chains (and of course the glass cabochons) in the kits. For some reason it's taken weeks to get these together! I hope they work out.

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

Fine Art Paintings

Beaded Bead, Part 3

I finally got away from tile pendants (which are awfully fun) and ATCs (which are awfully addictive) and got back to beading. For this one, I purchased a pattern from JewelryTales at Artfire. The directions were blessedly clear, something I especially appreciate as I've been trying to follow so many bad ones lately!

Somewhere near the end of the bead, I panicked. It seemed that the last few rounds, which should outline the 4 pearls, were not going to outline them at all. I contacted the designer, who was very willing to help but didn't really understand the problem. Haha.

So I quit on it for awhile. Then I picked it up and looked one day, and said what if...... I just add in another bead or 2 in the bare spots, around the circle? So I tried it. Hooray! I'm so glad I did. The last two rounds, the ones that frame the pearls, make the whole bead tighter. It makes you able to see the crystals that are woven into the sides. I'm really excited with this one; it's the closest thing yet to a beaded bead that can take center stage. I've already started on the necklace it's going to hang on.......stay tuned.......