Back to My Usually Scheduled Bead Blogging

Finished two pieces tonight. One I had started at the convention and just needed to finish off, the other I started fresh today. The outside beaded badge lanyard is black Czech druk beads, silver glass seed beads, silver plated saucer spacers and a larger silver colored metal (I have no idea what, have had these for ages) beads. I thought this was a rather 'industrial' design and wasn't sure I'd like it, but I do.

The inside necklace lanyard is from a purple India glass bead mix or two. I picked out all the round ones and sorted them by size and then randomly placed them between the brass beads. The holes in the brass beads are rather large, so I used a tiny gold plated pewter bead cap at each end which fit right into the hole and provides stability around the beading wire. I think it's a fun piece.

Sometime this weekend I'm going to have to do tons of photography (have to replace a burnt out bulb first) and get some stuff up on Etsy. If you see anything in the blog or on my Flickr page you like that's not on Etsy, just email me about it and I'll send you all the details.

One Last Bit of Convention Business

Patti (and I hope I'm remembering the right name) you dropped one of your earrings at my table on Monday when you were showing me some of your lovely beaded work - please email me (see contact info in sidebar to the right) so I can mail it to you!

I'm still not organized in my beading workspace but I do want to work on something new tonight. I often have to get everything just so before I start work, but I'm too tired (still) to tackle that task. I haven't even gotten all the stuff out of the trunk of the car yet. Fortunately it's just two of the smaller totes in there, so I'm not missing a lot of beads.

My beading wire arrived today, so I finally have plenty of the right size wire to work with. I'll finish a piece I worked on yesterday as I sat at my table and then ponder what to do next. There wasn't any real pattern to what sold, although the genuine stone pieces did well. I think just continuing to make stuff I like and would wear is a good plan.

A Bay Con Postscript

This lovely piece is what I bought at the Bay Con Art Show, crafted by a young artist. Her name is Brianna Lee and she came by my table a number of times to chat. She and her father, Gordon Yee had a table in the dealer's room as well. Brianna is an intelligent and talented young lady and I hope she sticks with her art - it's as wonderful and fun as she is.

It's ready to be turned into a brooch or bracelet or even mounted and displayed as is. I think I'm going to want to wear it, but I haven't decided how.

BayCon - Final Day, Final Hours

I was going to live blog one more time from the convention, but after the previous post my 24 hr subscription to the internet service at the hotel must have expired (and early, I think). I just couldn't see paying another $13. So here's the final chapter of Dawno's BayCon Artist's Alley Adventure.

Most of the traffic was to the Art Show room where people were picking up their items from winning bids or the Art Auction. There was a good sized line for a while but by about 1:00 it was down to a trickle of onsies and twosies.

I had a new neighbor today, a seller of 'nerf-y' swords:

I believe I overheard that he does other things - I think he made the chainmail vest he has on and I think he was doing classes and demos at the con, too.

I swung by the dealer's room one more time and bought a lovely rutilated quartz pendant and a new book.

I made two sales today as well. Haven't tallied up the weekend's earnings, but I do believe I'll be quite happy with the outcome.

When I'm less tired and more coherent, I'll post some additional thoughts about the experience.

Atomic Bear - I Took Your Advice

Those are little carved bone (?) skulls. Atomic Bear and I had a chat the other day and he and I were joking about me making more "macho" lanyards. I remembered last night that I had these two skull beads and took his advice.

Last Post for Today

Winding down - made one more sale and had a great chat with the buyer. That's been the neatest thing about being here, just talking with folk and the people watching.

One of my visitors this evening

Midday Update

It's been a pretty quiet day so far. I've made two sales so far. Not a lot of traffic stopping to look, seems like they're all focused on getting to somewhere and rather fast at that. My friend from Absolute Write who's helping out in the dealer's room came and sat at my table for a few minutes so I could visit the booths. I bought a con tee-shirt, a fun tote

and a new bracelet from Spirit of Iron

I had one incident that unnerved me a bit - there was a group of three people that decided to stand in front of the table that I am sharing with another artist. They had their backs to us and were standing side by side about 18 inches in front of us - so there was no room to go behind them, even if you could notice us with them in the way. After 15 minutes, I decided to ask them to just move to the side a bit so they wouldn't block the table. I was very polite, "would you mind please moving, you're blocking our table". The young lady in the center responded by saying "I'm offended that there are three of us here and you're singling me out." I told her, "No, I'm looking at all three of you, but you're in the middle of the group, so, yes, I may be looking at you more than the ones flanking you - I'm not deliberately singling you out." They did move, but they weren't happy about it from the glares I kept getting.

Next time I'm just going to get the Art Show manager to talk to people - I don't need some snotty kid with a bad attitude and no social graces giving me shit. I paid to be here and unless she had her badge tucked away, it didn't look like she did.

Sunday Live Blogging from BayCon

People were waiting in the hall this morning when I got here, to get into the dealer's room. I hope I'll get in there today, I'd love to pick up some goodies.

Got here right around 9 am, set things up and a very nice lady offered to take my picture at my table.

No shoppers yet. Forgot my cash box at home, so I got money from the ATM and used twenties for cheapo stuff at three different stops to get change.

Another Live Blogging Post

I've seen people in Steampunk, vampire, pirate, fairy, Indiana Jones, and one or two Star Trek costumes - it's quite a diverse fandom here.

It's been great sitting between two artists (drawing) and talking art and comics. I'm getting pretty tired, but I'll hang in there a while longer. Last night I took everything back with me in the car - I'm debating tonight about asking if someone would mind terribly storing some of my stuff here in one of the locked rooms.

My battery is nearly dead, so I'm going to say good night for now!

More Live Blogging from Bay Con

Wow - the last 3 hours have flown by. Here are some of the folk that have passed by:

The Jetson ladies


Lovely Pirate Lady (dig that hat!)



Her Pirate Fellah



Three Jolly Pirates



My Table Mate, Carlos the artist



Elegant couple



A tough customer (my husband, actually).


Made more sales! This has been a very fun day.

Live Blogging from Artist's Alley - BayCon

The hotel staff unlocked the doors, but couldn't turn on the lights. Dealer's room was supposed to open at 10 and I showed up at 9 to see this. They finally got in at about 9:45. As a result they didn't open the dealer's room until 10:30.

I've had a pretty nice trickle of visitors and made some sales. Here's a happy customer in a really classy pirate costume.

Also just finished talking to a lovely lady and have two custom sales to do by the end of the day for her!

More later - have to get to work!

Dawno's Report from Day 1 at BayCon

I loaded up a huge amount of stuff into my car today - much more than I really could have ever used, but I'm one of those people that would rather take stuff I don't use than need something and not have it. You should see how I pack for a weekend trip.

Once I had that done, I had to go to an office supply store for a cash box and the bank for change. Got to the convention hotel at 3-ish. The parking was jammed full, but I found a spot on the ground floor - it was almost as far away from the hotel entrance as you can get, but I really didn't want to take the elevator with all my stuff, so I was glad to have found it.

Getting all my stuff together for one trip was a bit of a logistics challenge. I have a large, black nylon covered, rolling "cube" case - it's intended to be a travelling office - inside it were all sorts of bins and things for file folders and office supplies. But because it's wide and not too tall, it's great for stacking other stuff on the top. It also has lots of great zippered pockets inside and out. I had it crammed full.

I also took my backpack for the camera and some miscellaneous beading supplies that didn't fit into the other containers and a messenger bag for my wallet, laptop and a book, a tote with all my beads and the wire carousels to display them, the bead buddy lap desk and the zippered bead container tote. Most of it fit in or on top of the rolling cube. The downside was that I think I was carrying and rolling about 80lbs of stuff and it was a long hike. Tomorrow I hope to get there early enough to get a closer parking spot and I'm definitely not taking in everything. If I decide I need something, I can just go to the car for it.

Was set up and ready to go by 4. It was fairly quiet on Artist's Alley for most of the time, but I did ok, broke even on the cost of registration and the table fee. I hadn't labeled my necklace lanyards, so part of the time I spent putting on price tags. One of my friends from Absolute Write Water Cooler was there helping a friend who has a booth in the dealer's room and she brought her (Melody Rondeau) over to my table. It was very nice to chat with them and I look forward to getting a chance to check out their booth sometime this weekend. Next time I do this, I'm shanghaiing a helper!

No pictures today, but I'll try to take some tomorrow. The theme of the convention is pirates and there are many wonderful costumes being displayed on the convention attendees. Definitely need pictures! Oh, and there was an artist's reception this evening, too, but I was pretty tired and just wanted to get home.

There was also a graduation happening at the venue as well, and a man in a very fancy robe - like you see on professors at college graduations - walked by with an older gentleman in a nice tweed jacket and dark slacks. He took one of my business cards as he walked by. It was one of those times I wished I could read minds - I'm so curious to know why he took a card!

I did work on, and finish, one more lanyard while I was there - one of the hexagon glass bead styles, this one in cobalt blue glass and silver seed beads. Not sure what I'll work on tomorrow - but I have plenty of supplies to choose from!

Did I Mention Flickr?

I have just about everything I've ever made posted up on Flickr - stuff that's not on Etsy or here can be viewed there.

Packing for Tomorrow

I've been putting together my stuff to take tomorrow. I've got five plastic divided bins with beads and one more with all the other pieces and parts like clasps, Scrimps, wire guardians, etc. Seed bead tubes in the side pockets and tools in the lid. Two hard plastic cases with fold down drawers with more beads - those are all strapped into my old folding luggage roll-along thing.

I've put two ziplock baggies of miscellaneous beads in my backpack and it will also have to carry my laptop. Upstairs in the "photo studio" aka daughter's bedroom, computer networking equipment room and exercycle room, I've got the stuff I'll use when I sell something - bags and little boxes, tissue, pouches, that sort of thing. I'll need to figure out how to transport that - probably in a tote bag. I will also need one more rolling carrier to bring my beading lap desk, my finished bead lanyard necklaces, and their displays - guess I'll use a piece of luggage. This is undoubtedly way too much stuff - but I won't know for sure until I get there.

So Much to Do, So Little Time Left!

Well, the big BayCon weekend is nearly upon me - I've got a lot to do to get organized still. I've completed about 16 or 18 beaded badge lanyard necklaces since last Friday.

I finally got some pictures taken, but have so many more to do. Since I'm losing daylight and one of my photography lamp bulbs burned out, I had to stop. I'll do more tomorrow.

I will also try to take shots on my cell phone at the convention and post them via the mobile blogging feature, so they'll go up without any text at first. I'll come back and add some commentary when I have time.

Wish me luck! Until next time, here are a few of the things I've made that I'll have on display at the convention:

Cobalt glass with a light blue feathered design


Gold iridescent glass bi-cones with smoky quartz beads


Hematite colored glass hexagonal and druk beads


Jade and freshwater pearls

Clasps Finally Arrived!

Clasps came today - this evening I finished off nine necklace lanyards, one of which was a new one I made this evening. Still no time for pictures - hope to get a number taken tomorrow and post. Watched NCIS season finale with my husband while I assembled a few of them. I'm really excited about two of my recent creations - the one with jade and pearls and another in very high quality smoky quartz with 14k gold filled donut spacers. (edited to add picture of smoky quartz necklace lanyard - the jade and pearl one is in the post above)

If they don't sell this weekend I may just keep them for myself, I like them so much.

Early meeting tomorrow, so heading to bed now.

A Very Short Sunday Post

No pictures tonight - had a very busy day with lots of new stuff. Hoping my clasps come tomorrow so I can finish them. I'm a little anxious about next weekend. Since I don't know how much room I'll have, I'm not sure what I should bring other than supplies since the purpose of the Artist's Alley is for the participants to work on their craft as they sit there.

I've been watching Jerico on my laptop as I bead, CBS.com has full episodes online and since I've never seen the show I'm watching from season 1. Come back tomorrow night - I'll do a full update and share some shots, whether the clasps come or not.

More Red, White and Blue Beaded Badge Lanyard Necklaces Coming Up!

Once again, Google search, as seen in my Site Meter details, led me to make another red, white and blue beaded badge lanyard necklace, since someone visited here after searching Google. I can't put it up on Etsy yet because without the lobster claw clasps I need I can't photograph it. I'd hoped for delivery yesterday, but for some reason the tracking said it arrived in Oakland in the morning and went back to Oakland the same afternoon - weird. I expect the order will be delivered Monday as it's in the local shipper's location today. Too bad they didn't deliver it today - I'm getting backed up with nearly finished stuff. (you can click on all the photos to see a larger image, by the way)

Also made these two new ones, featuring clear glass beads with white details. I've had these beads for some time now but until I got the new opaque white glass beads I wasn't able to come up with a look I liked for them.

I finished a making an eyeglass lanyard using petite pink ceramic beads with a bit of a woven detail to them (they're one of my favorite beads and I bought tons of them), pink lined seed beads and 4mm opalescent white druk beads. I'd been working on it on and off for awhile, just kept putting it down to do other things.

I also have been busy getting all the stuff I think I'll need at my very first public crafting/selling adventure next weekend. I have boxes, bags, new displays (the blue and black ones used here are two of my new ones, they're covered in a raw silk material - I got several colors of them.) I'll be assembling the accessory packs and putting them in little bags, gold organza for the gold accessories and silver for the silver - the wedding aisle in Michaels had these in just the right sizes.

The weather's been quite warm here, which makes it challenging to sit and bead in my workroom - it gets a lot of sun and we don't have air conditioning. I use fans and keep the screen door open, but it still gets very hot. Nonetheless, I've gotten a lot of work done, have two more works in progress - one with a fun square millefiori glass bead and some rich orange 4mm druk beads and the other using amethyst colored glass beads. I'll probably finish tonight and post the pics tomorrow.

Google Search Phrase Gives Me an Idea for New Lanyard Necklaces

I check my Site Meter stats pretty regularly to see how folk find this little blog and if there are ever any outclicks to my Etsy site. (not many, sad to say). The Site Meter stats show the referral link that sent someone here. Lots of passers by arrive by using the "next blog" link in Blogger. And they stick around about 0 seconds on the whole *grin*.

One of the visits that caught my eye was a search phrase: "clear bead lanyard". I immediately got out my clear hexagonal beads and made a lanyard and will probably do a couple more with different styles of beads. I even spent the first five or so minutes after I went to bed thinking through some ideas. (click picture to enlarge for detail) Since I found seven silver swivel lobster claw clasps tonight, I can finish it and post it to Etsy tomorrow! I wonder why the package is seven and not eight. Would have been nice if it were eight in a pack, I could finish four lanyards tonight instead of three.

By the way, if you see something here you like but would prefer it in a different color or with slightly different beads, email me - I can work with you on your custom design and transact the deal directly.

Thank you to the Google-er from Los Angeles for the inspiration!

Yep, I'm Going to the Con With My Beaded Lanyards

While I wait for my new lobster claw clasps to arrive, I'm using these clever "Bead Stoppers" to keep my lanyards from falling apart. Tonight I've finished a jet and carved black amber necklace lanyard,

a red, white, and blue necklace lanyard using red Czech glass hexagons,

and a blue, white, and red necklace lanyard using blue Czech glass hexagons.

I think I'll do two, or at most, three, more red white and blue ones before I stop making them. Too bad I couldn't find opaque white hexagon beads.

It's very hot here tonight - temperatures were around 97 degrees F this afternoon and it's not cooling off fast enough. With a couple of computers running and the lighting to see what I'm working on, my work room is warmer than the rest of the downstairs by, I'm guessing, 10 degrees. Makes it a bit hard to get into the work.

I got an email from my contact at BayCon for Artist's Alley - seems I'm all set! Now I have to figure out what to bring and how to tote it around! I have a couple of contraptions for that - a nylon tote with lots of zippers and pockets and velcro and elastic, that holds 5 or 6 bead storage boxes, and two hard plastic tote cases that have little drawers on both sides, that don't so much pull out as down part way - that will be good for spacers and bead-caps. I'll probably fill those up and maybe a bin as well with beads and tools. Then there will be the display stuff to show my finshed work. I have to put price tags on all of 'em too! Got my work cut out for me now.

New Necklace Lanyard and a "Maybe" Lanyard Necklace

In addition to a new lanyard necklace with olivine glass and light green and yellow seed beads, I also put together a piece with gold freshwater cultured pearls. It's asymmetrical in design, which is a different approach for me and I've not decided whether it's going to be a lanyard necklace, yet. I've got some nice clasps I can use if I decide against making it a lanyard. I got the idea for the necklace from a book I bought called Making Designer Gemstone and Pearl Jewelry by Tammy Powley.

(click to enlarge picture)

I ran out of silver lobster claw clasps with a swivel doing the red, white and blue necklace badge lanyards I mentioned Monday (and posted to Etsy today) and the place I just ordered from is out of stock. I hope I can find them somewhere soon - I've just got a little over a week before BayCon and I've taken the plunge and applied for a space in Artist's Alley. I guess there's still a chance I won't get it, but if I do, I need those clasps soon!

Work in Progress on a Wedding Necklace

4-5mm freshwater cultured pearls, good quality, very nearly round but sold as "potato" shaped, with 6mm lapis lazuli beads - again good quality with nice flecks of 'gold' and a little white. I've spaced the pearls and lapis with tiny silver colored glass seed beads. The clasp is sterling and lapis.

I have an alternate one I could use instead, with an imitation pearl and silver metal (probably plated nickel) also.

The necklace is at 20" now, waiting to hear back from the potential buyer if she wants a longer necklace and what clasp design she prefers.

Patriotic Theme and Selling at a Local SF Convention - Maybe...

With Memorial Day and the 4th of July coming up, I thought I'd do some red, white and blue badge lanyard necklaces. The first above uses 4mm faceted Czech crystal beads (had to use clear instead of white, but it works) and the second one features seed beads and some ovals in blue and red. Yes, that's another phone camera shot - I'm seriously thinking about getting a second camera so I don't have to either go upstairs to my "photo studio" (which reverts to my daughter's bedroom when she visits) or bring the camera down here to my work room, which, either way, means at this hour of the night, I'm bound to disturb the husband who's trying to get to sleep.

In other news, I'm seriously considering setting up at an "Artist's Alley" table at BayCon on Memorial Day weekend.

The Artists' Alley is a place for artists to create and sell their work while interacting with convention attendees. It is open to all artists, however you must actively work on your art at the alley tables (these are not dealer's tables).

So I'd take lots of beads and my tools and sit and work on new lanyards at the convention, as well as display some for sale. I think it would be a fun time. If I decide to go ahead, I'll just have to work my butt off to make sure I have enough variety of stuff to show. I'll probably work up some more matching bracelets and earrings, too. The main thing I'm worried about is that I'm not set up to accept anything but cash - I have used PayPal for my Etsy payments, so I haven't had to worry about getting a merchant credit card account. Maybe I'll visit the bank and see what that entails. Otherwise I guess I can hand out my business card and encourage people who want to use credit cards to contact me online so they can pay thru PayPal. hmmm. Gotta make up more business cards...

I have been to a couple of cons so far, and I enjoy the social aspects as well as the panels, so I'd miss out on some of that - but it's a good opportunity to see if what I'm doing has a market with con-goers, who generally seem to be supportive of artisans and hand-crafters. I'm thinking, since one has to wear a membership badge at cons - perhaps one would like a nice necklace lanyard for it? If not, the table isn't expensive to rent and the convention hotel is about 10 minutes from home, so it's not a huge investment to risk.

Yeah, I've pretty much talked myself into it. *grin*

Happy Mother's Day!

Since both of my children called me, it's been a perfect Mother's Day. My son is in Iraq and has been out on missions lately, so it's extra special he was able to call today. He also had flowers sent (pictured above) that arrived on my doorstep after he called, so I didn't have the chance to thank him personally, but I'll send him a note telling him how lovely they are and how much I appreciated him thinking about Mother's Day when he's got so much on his mind.

Since I'm an empty nest mom and both children live far from home, I have a lot of time to bead, even on Mother's Day. So today I sat down in my workroom and finally decided what to do with the rutilated quartz beads I mentioned a few posts ago - I strung them between gold spacers and beads. It's one of the more opulent pieces I've ever made and I'm quite pleased with it.

I've got a start on a new one in lavender, now. I'll probably finish tonight. The main bead has a lovely "petal" design in it in a darker lavender and white, so I'm using matching druk beads between them. I've been playing around with a pink bead I like, too - just not finding the right combinations.

I'm going to plug my "Bead Buddy Dual Lap Desk" - it's a lap desk for beaders with a cushion at the bottom, a three strand bead design board with plenty of recessed areas for beads. Under the design board is a space to bead on with the longer bead mat they included, if you prefer that to using the design board - which I do when I'm using a lot of seed beads that are hard to pick up from the design board. With the lap desk, I can sit out and watch TV with the husband and bead at the same time. Since I spend a lot of time, otherwise, in my workroom, it's nice to get out of there, but not lose productive time.

It will also be good for long car trips or to pack in my checked luggage (won't try to carry-on any beading tools, that would definitely get me stopped at security with the wire clippers and other tools) when I go on a long business trip or to a convention. Anyway, I think it was a great purchase.

Productive Day for Beading

Today I shot a number of my pieces for my Etsy store and put two new ones up: amethyst Czech hexagonal glass and the black glass hexagon with howlite and snowflake obsidian.

I also completed a new howlite and snowflake obsidian necklace lanyard - I liked how those looked and had howlite in two sizes, so I used the larger one this time.

Plus, I finished a red and black one I mentioned I might do in Friday's blog. All in all, a productive day, I'd say.

The Dawno's Beaded Badge Lanyard & Jewelry Notecard

I use CafePress to host some goodies for the Absolute Write site and occasionally I make stuff for myself, too. For example, back when I was in L.A. I saw this gorgeous teal colored flowering plant. I took a picture (scroll down in the post previously linked, for the picture) and it turned out pretty well. So I went and had a 2008 calendar printed out using it, which I think turned out lovely.

I also decided to make some notecards for my little beading business - to send as thank-you cards and who knows what else. They turned out pretty well - and you might recognize the photo I used.

I'm also going to, someday, make some cell phone "charms" that look like little beaded lanyards, clip them to badge blanks with my business card printed on them and give them out. Someone could use the clasp at the end to hook a little charm to, I think, so it's something that might actually be kept and used.

Not sure when I'll get motivated to do them in number, I've made a prototype and it's a bit time consuming. Also, I have to print the business card on the badge using clear labels that I stick on the blank badge stock - the cost of a card printer to do it directly on the badge stock is over $600.

12 Step Program for Beaders?

A new batch of beads came today. It's an addiction, isn't it? I can't seem to stop buying beads. I don't think I've hit bottom, so no Beader's Anonymous for me. My husband might be considering an intervention, though. Anyway, there were some colors of druk beads I wanted to work with and they arrived, so I did a couple new pieces tonight. Since this is a short post, I'm using a bigger picture.



The outside piece is made with dalmatian jasper and black druk beads; the middle one is made with black and white druk beads with a white quartz disk shot through with black threadlike inclusions; the center one has small howlite beads, a bit larger snowflake obsidian bead between them, separating jet black glass hexagons - they're all around 30" long, it's just the draping for the picture that makes them seem different sizes. I'll probably start on something tomorrow with the red hexagons I got. Or maybe the hematite...can't decide yet.

Time to Clear up the Clutter

Finished the teal and aqua one I posted about last night, which is up on Etsy, also the the yellow and mother of pearl lanyard from a few days ago. I also did two new ones: one with light pink, matte glass bicones and faceted pink/peach Czech glass, and another with amber iridescent finish (called AB finish) oval beads accented with a light amber bead between two small cylindrical gold-pink beads.

Now I'm at that place where I need ideas to appear. I'll rummage through my boxes of beads and eventually get inspired. One thing I think I need to do is experiment with colors - I sort my beads by their colors and tend to stay rather within one color scheme, so it may be time to mix things up a bit.

In the meantime, I will probably go back to the hexagonal bead design for two or three more necklace lanyards, I still have some colors I haven't done yet. I've also got some semi-precious gemstone beads I want to work with, too. I'll need to spend some time tidying up my workspace this weekend. It's gotten a bit cluttered and instead of designing, I get distracted by the mess.

Tonight's Work In Progress - Badge Lanyard Necklace in Teal and Aqua

This one will be about 32" when I'm done - using faceted glass in teal with teal lined glass seed beads and a larger aqua faceted bicone bead between two flat teal glass diamond beads with a bit of detail to the edges - hard to describe and not easy to see in the small photo. The thing about this one is that I got all the beads at different times and different places just because I liked the color or shape. It's another case of just "wandering" through my beads and seeing a possibility, playing around with them on the design board and having a voilà moment. That's pretty much how I do all my necklace lanyards.

The Hexagonal Bead Series

I've completed four necklaces using a hexagonal pressed Czech glass bead in various colors. This is the name one supplier, Artbeads.com, gives to the "wavy diamond" shape I posted about previously that I still can't find in a light pink color. What Artbeads did have, was a very nice selection in other colors that I matched up with 4mm druk beads and tiny silver glass seed beads for these.




I spent some time this evening looking at the GoogleCheckout and PayPal checkout tools. I've got a ways to go before I get things the way I need them to open up my personal storefront website. The GoogleCheckout requires a publicly visible address and I'm not comfortable using my home address that way, so I guess I'll have to get a PO Box or use a Mailboxes, etc. type service for that.

The shipping charges are also going to be a puzzle to work out, as I need to have the flexibility to charge different amounts depending on weight and shipping zones. Lastly I'm going to have to get my new domain set up with my hosting company. There really aren't enough hours in a day!