Raindrops On A Wire

I have made quite a few clear or frosted glass lanyards. I love the look and how they go with anything. I'd made one a few weeks ago, wore it to work one day and forgot to photograph it. Tonight I got it photographed and listed on Etsy. It's 30" long - a good length for a badge or eyeglass lanyard, but it's a bit heavy for eyeglasses, unfortunately. It does look really good as a necklace, though.

The main challenge I have with the clear glass pieces is getting good photographs - it's a bit hard to really see the design well. It looks lovely when worn - so it needs to be seen draped, but my bust display is white and the glass just does not show up against it.

Moss Agate and Ceramic Bead Badge Lanyard Necklace

Just finished - I was trying to think of how to set off the moss agate beads and remembered that I still had quite a few blue/green ceramic beads from when I was visiting Orange County, CA this winter and found a great bead store in Huntington Beach, Beadology. If I could ever afford to open a bead store, that store would be the one I'd try to emulate.

I will be using that blue/green bead (center - oval bead) for something else soon - I really like it.

Here's the new lanyard. It's 32" long with silver plated copper beads, silver glass seed beads, moss agates and the blue/green ceramic bead between tiny, silver plated, pewter disc-shaped spacer beads.

I recently began reading Katie's Beading Blog on my Google Reader and she's posted about Ornament Thursday. While I'm not one of the Ornament Thursday team, I do have a piece that fits the theme, "Red Hot".

Made from red bamboo coral ovals and large beads, with smaller red glass Druk beads and silver glass seed beads, silver plated beads and findings. The silver bead is one I've been trying to figure out how to use in something for ages - its texture consists of little circles with darkened centers - and for the life of me, I am reminded of a brain when I look at it, so it's been challenging to use, up till now - I think it complements the large silver bead in the Brighton necklace that I made this piece to go with:

Chunky red coral and silver Brighton necklace "Full Moon Rising". I also have the bracelet and earrings which I can wear with the lanyard alone if I don't care to wear the necklace and lanyard together.

Another Not a Lanyard Necklace

A while back I made a couple of necklaces using stone 'fans'. Tonight I finished a necklace with prehnite teardrops in somewhat of a fan shape. I like prehnite with plenty of dark threads in it - makes it interesting.

The smallest beads in the necklace are glass druk beads in peridot green. In natural light the color of the druk glass beads looks a lot closer to the color of the prehnite, but in the artificial light they appear to be a bit bluer. I'm not sure if that's going to be acceptable or not. No idea what they look like under florescent light yet. The clasp is a hook and eye with a nice scroll detail.

New Pieces Up at Etsy

Two new sets are up on my Etsy page now, as well as individual listings for the pieces of the sets. The photography and listing process took most of the afternoon, but it's done. I'm still way behind - I've probably got 15 or 20 beaded badge lanyard necklaces that haven't even been photographed yet.

Etsy has improved the photograph upload page so you can re-arrange the thumbnails now. Good job, Etsy! There's also a new field on the page where you add your price and the shipping terms, where you can select the special section your pieces will be listed in during the listing process (I've got sets, eyeglass lanyards, earrings, bracelets and semi-precious stones as my sections). Previously you had to do that from a separate page after you'd made the listing. All in all, the enhancements are definitely appreciated.

Tried a Different Look for a Couple Beaded Badge Lanyards

I have a lot more work completed, but still haven't done any photography to speak of. The sets above are a bit of a departure from my usual style, but I really like how they turned out. The one on the left has jade beads in it, the other turquoise, with ceramic and glass beads. Only the turquoise set has a matching bracelet and earrings so far.

And I'm Back!

After a long break from blogging, (but not from beading) I'm back. I've done a lot of new stuff but since my "photo studio" is my daughter's bedroom and she was visiting from college, I didn't have a way to take pictures of the new stuff...well, enough with the excuses, I didn't post, now I am.

I did a display at my company's Juneteenth crafts fair, sales were disappointing but I learned things. I'm going to have to invest in some better signage, drapes, displays, etc., if I'm going to compete with people who are regular vendors at shows and fairs. I had thought there would be more employees showing who wouldn't have the fancy set ups - but I'd say a majority of the vendors were not employees and very practiced at display. My product is the right niche for selling at a venue like that, but my location was towards the back and right at the door was a huge (lovely) display of jewelry that included badge lanyards. By the time they reached me, anyone who wanted one had bought one. The best thing about doing that event was that I finally got my state seller's permit so I could participate. It was easy to do, filled out the form online, got there early and was done in under an hour.

I'm probably going to play catch up with some of the stuff that's been made since early June, but here's a brand new piece I just finished, in howlite. I've got another one just like it, nearly done, in snowflake obsidian.

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