Monday Miscellany - Lots of Black & Gray Lanyards

People at work who are interested in my lanyards seem to be drawn to the black or dark gray ones. I ran out of those, so I spent my beading time this weekend making lanyards with jet black Czech glass, hematite, and hematite colored Czech glass. At the end of Sunday evening I'd finished 9 and was almost done with a tenth.

I've managed to get three of these listed on Art Fire for now, too. I'm going to try to get all of them, and a few others up there this week. I am also going to try and finish my Halloween necklace before our office Halloween pot-luck this Wednesday...wish me luck!

Hope you have a great week - see you tomorrow!




PS - here's the three listings I mentioned, in case you'd like to see closeups

Dawno

Sell Handmade

Mid-Week Mutterings of a Different Sort

No jewelry (of my design, at least) in this post. Thought I'd pass along a few bits of information I've received recently that I hope will be of interest.

First, ArtFire - they've recently done two really wonderful things for their sellers.

I got this press release in the mail the other day:

I thought you might be interested to know that we’ve recently launched free unlimited listings for all members during the holiday season as part of our Holiday Free-for-All. Below you’ll find the press release for this new promotion.

ArtFire Gives Away Free Unlimited Listings for the Shopping Season

Everyone gets free unlimited listings for the holidays on ArtFire.com

Tucson, AZ – ArtFire has just announced that they will be giving away unlimited listings completely free for all sellers during the holiday season. This means that everyone can sell and list as many items as they wish for absolutely no cost or fees.

When they first launched, ArtFire revolutionized the handmade marketplace by making it completely free for users to sell online. Site members were able to list and sell up to 12 items at any point on the site, and could have unlimited listings with customizable features for the flat rate of $12/month. However, due to the current economic situation and the upcoming holiday season, ArtFire has decided to remove this 12 item limit for the shopping season, giving everyone on the site the option to list unlimited items for sale.

To make things even easier for sellers, ArtFire has also launched the their Global Product Editor, which gives sellers the chance to make batch edits to hundreds of products in their inventory at once. Although this feature is normally reserved for pro members, ArtFire is opening this tool up so that all members on the site can make use of it.

“Regardless of marketplace or venue we’ve found that sellers who list more items have a much greater success online,” said Tony Ford, COO of ArtFire. “We want to give everyone the chance to be successful, and free unlimited listing will help our artisans obtain more sales during the fourth quarter.”

“Many of our sellers are concerned about the shopping season due to economic issues, and cannot afford to promote and advertise as they had last year,” said John Jacobs, CEO of ArtFire. “This Holiday Free for All will allow them to sell more items than ever before completely free.”

This Holiday Free for All Promotion is the first ever of its kind, and expected to completely change the craft marketplace.

For more information, please contact:

Tony Ford, COO

ArtFire Inc.

1-877-688-2323

http://www.artfire.com

Then today on Twitter, from John Jacobs (you may remember my interview of him, he's the CEO) I saw this:

Etsy Importer is LIVE on ArtFire | http://bit.ly/QWcyY | list your Etsy items automatically & never pay listing fees!

So, I went to ArtFire via the link, followed the simple instructions and voila! My Etsy items (my lanyards) are all listed on ArtFire now.

There are a couple good reasons why I did this. First of all is that I'm disappointed in how little Etsy seems to care about their sellers. Recent changes and revealed information about their SEO policies, etc., lead me to believe they're more interested in promoting themselves to make a lot of money while providing very little in the way of real innovation that supports the sellers. This is the second reason, innovation is the one area where I believe ArtFire is well ahead of all of their competition - their feature set and amazing promotional tools are really superb.

If you're interested in becoming an ArtFire seller, please consider clicking the link at the top of the page (right under my banner) and join ArtFire through my referral link. I'd be grateful, and I know you'll love ArtFire.

(permission to use these photos comes via the 'embed this picture' code on PicApp.com. Click on the picture to navigate to original site)

Next, have you seen the news about the Staffordshire Hoard? Largest find of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found. It's also a trove of design inspiration - the pictures above are just a sample from PicApp.com - go here for 500 more photos on the official website.

So that's it for me today. See you tomorrow!

PS - Mid-Week Mutterings picture credit: Portrait of an elderly lady with her daughter by Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818). This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

Hardly Looks Like the Same Necklace Now

Vintage images courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

Ah, Saturday. Sleeping in. Lazing around. Well, at least sleeping in. I have so much stuff to do this weekend and next weekend my daughter is visiting again, so I'll not be getting much done then. I have a special order necklace to make, pieces to finish, and so many ideas to try. But, you're probably here to see what I've got to show for myself for today...

On Wednesday I showed a work in progress using Romance Trios from Soft Flex. This is what it looked like then:

I've been fiddling...here's what it looks like now (click picture for closer look):

It hangs a bit longer than shown - the bust is a bit short so I had to pull the chain down in the back. I like this much better! There are still some finishing details I need to do - a crimp cover here and there - but this is pretty much it.

I think you can see where I snipped the wires and crimped them to create the wisps? vines? that were once part of what Tish called the bow tie, then I made a loop at either end of the beading and fastened two twisted wire rings through them to connect it to an antiqued silver chain (from Accessories Susan). The clasp is made from a twisted wire oval I bent into a hook.

I think I may have 3 or maybe 4 entries to send in to the Flex Your Creativity contest - if you're thinking of entering (and I hope you are!) don't forget that you only have until Sept. 1st.

As I didn't get anything listed on Art Fire, per goal, neither Thursday nor Friday. I'm going to have to do three today to catch up. Fortunately, it's Saturday and I have 1) sunlight for photography and 2) all day to do it!

Here are the eight new ones I've listed so far - I'd be very interested in your candid comments about them - photography, setting, price - whatever:

Dawno

Buy Handmade

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Wandering Around the Beadosphere!

Monday Miscellany - Workroom Progress Made

It's not ready for a photo shoot yet, but I've made huge progress in my work room. I have all my metal beads, components and findings re-sorted into divided boxes, labeled and stacked on my work table. I've got most of my bead boxes also better placed on shelves near the worktable. That said, I have a number of bags of beads left over from projects to sort and put in their appropriate places plus the back half of the room to work through.

I did take a break from working on the room to make a couple bracelets. The first one is Czech glass faceted bicone beads and silver plated spacers.

The next one has large faceted oval Jablonex Czech glass beads in a dark teal with oxidized silver bead caps and irregularly shaped Mabe-type freshwater cultured pearls.

Both of these have small silver plated box clasps with a floral design and are 7 1/2" around. I'll be listing these on Art Fire sometime this week.

Going to be Working Hard This Weekend!

I mentioned the other day that I gave myself a challenge to list one new thing each day on Art Fire. This week I've put up four new pairs of earrings. I haven't made any new ones lately, so I'll need to get busy with that soon, but first I have to get my workroom in order (again).

It's a complete disaster waiting to happen area. My goal for the weekend is to have it so wonderful by Sunday that I can take pictures and proudly post them as my Monday Miscellany post. Since I'm announcing it here, I'll have to do it because you all will be my motivation!

Because I'm working on that, I don't have anything of my own to share, but I can point you to some other great pieces being worked on by a couple of my Twitter friends and from some blogs I follow.

Wendy at Craft Dinner has a darling necklace in progress using Vintage Lucite Moonglow Heishi rondells from The Beadin' Path.

Tish at Just A Tish shows off a heap of shiny earrings.

And here are some really cute and clever soda bottle beads from Jan at Wire My Soul that she's made stitch markers with.

Don't forget that tomorrow is Wandering Around the Beadosphere Day - I'll have a lot more great links to creative blogs for you to check out.

P.S. Today's new listing at Art Fire:

Dawno

Buy Handmade

Friday Pick is On Hiatus!

I have such a backlog of great beads to work with, and ideas with them that I need to turn into jewelry, that I'd better focus on the stuff I already have and not get distracted by more shiny stuff. Which I'll certainly be (and probably buy) if I put together a Friday Pick.

So instead, here's something I've just started with copper beads and chrysocolla from The Beadin' Path.

I just need to think about what else it needs before I'm satisfied that it's done. I usually start things pretty simple and then start adding stuff, this one definitely seems to be going that direction.

There's the slight possibility of something dangling from the flower at the bottom of the large focal, but I have an idea I'm going to experiment with first. Whether it works out or not, you'll find out about it here!

Speaking of lots of shiny stuff, today my August beads of the month from The Beadin' Path arrived, a lovely selection of glass beads crafted to look like sea glass (some of which are BeadClub specials and not in the catalog) another bag full of Lucite beads (now I can finish the necklace I featured last Friday) plus more yellow and orange Lucite flowers to finish up the necklace I shared on Wednesday). Obviously, I have plenty to work with, so I need to get to it.

See you, I hope, tomorrow!

P.S. - I challenged myself, on Twitter, to list something every night until I run out of things to list. Here's the pair of earrings I listed last night on Art Fire:

Dawno

Buy Handmade

Monday Miscellany - Some New Photos for Art Fire Store

Before I get into the Miscellany, Blanche from Sha-sha Handcrafted Jewelry got the "One Lovely Blog" award and passed it along to 10 other crafty bloggers, and one of them was me! You should click over to her blog and visit all her nominees, too!

The rules are:

• Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
• Pass the award to 10 or more other blogs that you love. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

My nominees (and you don't have to accept, just know that I think you've got lovely blogs!) are :

ABeadADay
Baubles and Babbles
Bead Origami
ErtheFae
JustATish
Kell's Creations
NiftyKnits
SmuTopia
WillowWalker
WireMySoul

I worked on photography Sunday and re-listed one piece and put up one new listing. While I have a number of new pictures ready to go, I'm going to space out my listings to try and get some front page views.

Anyway, here's the old vs. new main view pictures of one of my pieces:

old

new (and you can see the rest of the "poses" by clicking the link)

(click to enlarge any picture)

And here's the new listing

I'm not sure if I'll add the props to this necklace's listing - it's a very busy necklace as it is, but I kind of like the idea of the jewelry posed as if on one's dressing table just before getting gussied up for the evening, which is why I thought I'd try those props.

This one will probably go up today:

I didn't get around to cleaning up and re-organizing the workroom. Ended up working right at my computer desk with one of my shoebox lid DIY lap beading trays. I showed off one of those pieces late on Saturday, but I'm so fond of it, I'm going to share it again.

(click to enlarge)

It deserves a great name, too, but I can't seem to come up with one. What would you call it? I'm very doubtful that I will ever try to sell this, I just like it too much to give it up!

Also am working on another piece with Lucite floral bits from The Beadin' Path, a light pink rose (like this one but not such a bright pink) and two large leaves (like these but in a light olive) - I thought I was finished, then got a wild hair and tried something different, it's not working out exactly as I want, so I'll be playing with it more.

I've added a little slideshow to the very bottom of the blog (you'll have to scroll all the way down to the footer) where I've put pictures of myself through various ages and stages in my life that I've stored in Photobucket for one reason or another. If you want to know a bit more about Dawno, please take a peek.

Hope you come back tomorrow for Tuesday Tidbits. Also, want an easy way to read my past Sunday Wanderings or Thursday Interview and Review features? Here's the link!

Mid-Week Mutterings - Big News About Tomorrow's Post

Why is that sketch of a dog in a sailor suit up there?
Why are his hands oddly shaped flippers?
He's an odd mutt!
Wednesday's theme is going to be Dawno's odd mutterings.

Wednesday's I will mutter about things to come and things I have done and things I may be imagining.

This is primarily because I'd yet to come up with a theme for Wednesday's posts and here it is, Tuesday night, when I need to write my post.

It may still come to me to do something different, and it may stay this way - I'm feeling quite flexible about it.

In light of the decision I've made to try and organize my posting around themes for each weekday, I have decided that on Thursdays I'll be doing a review of either a jewelry, crafts, or beading book/article, or a jewelry/crafts/beading blog or shop *or* an interview of someone whom I hope will be of interest to readers.

You may recall my interview of Tish from Just A Tish, and I would love to do more interviews of bloggers who comment here, or who I know from Twitter. I'm looking forward to featuring you - and I'm hoping you won't be shy when I ask.

So, for tomorrow's interview: Big News! Tomorrow I will post my interview of John A. Jacobs, CEO of Art Fire. I'm really thrilled he agreed to be interviewed for my tiny blog way out here at the end of the long tail of the Beadosphere. And it all started with Twitter, by the way - more on that tomorrow. I hope you'll visit (and tell a friend or two to drop by).

Back to the muttering -

Time is getting short for me to prepare for Bay Con, so I really need to get the whole thing organized in my head. I talked about making a project plan, never did it, though, and am quite regretting it. I may still try to get these final 9 days charted out. I want to bring a good selection of steampunk style things, but I also did pretty well last year with my basic lanyard fare - which was all I was doing at the time. I'm a bit stalled by the indecision of it all.

Even so - I got back to work last night on my steampunk-ish mini-charms. Added one new one (in the center), added a touch to another - there are some nearly microscopic-ruby jewelelled bits in two of them now.

(click to enlarge for detail)

I also started on this mixed metal medallion. The two larger pieces in back aren't glued in yet, and the brass wedge at the bottom of the centerpiece, which has two tiny ruby jewels in it, isn't glued in yet, either. I think I'm going to try and clean that piece up a bit before gluing. I'm considering putting a pin/bail back on it so it can be worn either way.

While I was rummaging for a part, I came across this found object I picked up in a parking lot. It was very scratched and dirty, but I cleaned and buffed it with an emery board and then again with a 3-part nail buffer board. Someday I may actually get real sandpaper and polishing stuff... I have no idea what it's made of, could be full of lead for all I know, but I think I'll work it into something and make sure I put a tag on it with all the requisite warnings about unknown material, etc.

Ok, enough mutterings. Please come back tomorrow for the interview - post goes up at 6 a.m.!

And the Shiny Stuff Keeps Coming or, How I Exhausted the Mail Carrier

I want to plug a few things I've read lately that I can't wait 'til Sunday's Wanderings Around the Beadosphere post to share.

First, Wendy Gibson of Winged Heart Studio has a column up at the ArtFire sponsored Handmade News. Wendy is one of their regular columnists for the Craft Trends section! Congratulations on the great gig, Wendy!

I understand there may still some spots open at Handmade for anyone who'd like to also become a paid editor, columnist or volunteer contributor, but I bet time is running short.

Tish is still collecting donations to help Chance run, she's only asking for 50 cents - and needs just over 900 more donations to reach her goal - which was 2000, so she's beyond the half-way mark in just a few days. Tell a friend, add your 50 cents, tell another friend.

Where do you go for inspiration that's not another beading crafter? I like Autonomous Artisans, Nikon Sniper, The Smitten Image and sometimes just doing a search on Google Images.

Now some notes about my day - Yay for my May's Bead Club beads from The Beadin' Path. Yummy summer-y sherbet colored heishis, bright silver-plated shell charms, large chrysocolla pendant bead were in this month's pack. Ideas for these are bouncing all over my brain.

Then there was more yay for Vintaj brass bits and caps and disks, and beautiful Lunch Specials beads from Lima Beads (sign up for their emails - you'll be glad you did). I don't know what is in today's special (today meaning the day you see this and click) but I got some beautiful rhodochrosite heishis and lemon ice and violet elongated faceted cubic zirconia teardrops at super prices. These CZs, with their own pre-attached bails, are definitely on my wish list.

Last but not least, this gorgeous borosilicate lampwork glass nautilus shell pendant from LaffingGull Lampwork

I'm going to be a designing dervish this weekend - only 2 weekends to go before Bay Con and I want to have a nice stock of Victorian and Steampunk style pieces.

Another Contest!

Each month for the past couple of months, Rings & Things has had a contest on their blog. Yesterday the April winners went up:

Congratulations to the winners of our April contest, “DIY Display Ideas“, who are:

• Mary Berg, who had several great tips (check them out!).
• Lyn, who shared from her 35 years of experience.

And, announcing the May contest on the Rings & Things blog, which is a free-for-all comment raffle:

• You enter by leaving comments — so visit often.
• You find out you won by…? Visiting often! (2 winners to be announced at the end of May.)

May the luckiest person win!

I don't win many contests, raffles, lottos, etc. Although, I've had some runs of very good luck with the Wheel of Fortune slots at the Las Vegas Hilton...anyway, I encourage you to visit the Rings & Things blog and comment often in May. You'll reduce my chances of winning, but it's worth it to get you over there to join the conversation.

Been busy getting new listings up on Etsy and Art Fire. Etsy is where I just list lanyards and the occasional matching piece, Art Fire is for my other jewelry. I've experienced a few minor frustrations with Art Fire - can't delete pictures, things I saved in the new product edits aren't there when I go back to change something, so I have to add them all over again. New site, glitches expected, just hope things improve. The niftiest new feature on Art Fire right now is the button to "tweet this item". If you see something of mine you like, I'd love it if you'd tweet it! Happy to return the favor, too.

Speaking of Art Fire, here's a message from our sponsor:

Dawno

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Look Where The Beadin' Path Took Me!

Remember those Bead Club beads I got? I've been working on some bracelets with them!

Made with some of the "Luscious Luster" April bead club beads from The Beadin' Path. These are 10mm faceted Czech glass described as "We selected some lush yet spring inspired shades we don't usually come across at our usual glass suppliers". I chose Swarovski crystal bi-cones, sterling or gold filled beads, sterling or gold filled links and Tierra Cast bead caps, and floral embellished fancy toggles to complete the design.

These are probably the most ornate bracelets I've ever made, but the beads are really luscious and inspired me to a more glamourous look. They'll be listed at my shop on Art Fire until May 21 then they go to the con with me if they aren't already sold.

P.S. For anyone who saw this Sunday at the tail end of my Wanderings post - that was what we call a user error...I meant to cut that part and make a separate post, which I've now done. So, yeah, it's a bit of deja vu for you, sorry!

And now a word from our sponsor:

Dawno

Buy Handmade

Wandering Around the Beadosphere...I Mean Blogosphere...No, I Like Beadosphere!

Lately I've been smitten by thoughts of the ocean, wishing I could fall asleep to the sound of waves rolling in, smelling the fresh salt air. To compensate, I suppose, I've collected a number of shell beads and am working on a number of new designs using ocean/seashore themes. Here's a new ocean/seashore design I finished today and have listed on Art Fire:

I've decided to use Sunday as a day to share links to some of my favorite beading blogs (and their bloggers). Without further ado, here's Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere:

A Bead A Day Lisa shows off a new bracelet made from beads she featured earlier in the week. Peace symbols in it may have inspired the dreams about the 70's I had last night.

Just ATish Tish has a bumper sticker.

At Perfectly Twisted you can see beautiful examples of wrapped wire jewelry by a very talented artist in this technique.

Smu Topia has an ocean themed Friday featuring Etsy artists.

Aww, all the Twitter posts (Tweets) disappeared from the Rings & Things blog. You can see Dave (who Tweets as @Rings_Things on Twitter) and the team with their new bike, though.

I'm hoping the Artbeads blog will update soon. If you haven't visited the top post right now is the Beadaholics 12 Step Program. Artbeads' most social Tweeter is @BeadGuy but they have a company account, @Artbeads, too

Heather (who Tweets as @beadinpath on Twitter) has a post up about amazing vintage beads The Beadin' Path acquired from an estate sale of a high end costume jewelry design house.

Would you like to see your link up there next Sunday? Mention and link to me, and this list of blogs & links (feel free to copy and paste), on your blog this week, leave a comment with the link to your post here, and I'll feature one of your posts in next Sunday's list!

Check the blogroll in my sidebar for some of my other favorite places to visit. Remember, you can add me to your list of blogs to follow, if you're a Blogger user, by visiting your dashboard and adding my URL.

A message from our sponsor:

Dawno

Buy Handmade

Beachcombing Necklace

Used some of my new beads last night - shell heishis and little whole shells, with tiny freshwater pearls, amber shell beads and brass Artistic Wire.

Reminds me of summer days spent at the beach, searching for little shells, chasing waves. I decided to make this with a rustic look. I used 26 gauge Artistic Wire in an antique brass finish to link the heishi shells and make the dangles.

See some additional closeup angles at my Art Fire shop!

Dawno

Buy Handmade