Valentine's Day Idea #7 - Lavender Hearts Badge Lanyard

Only 32 days until Valentine's Day!

It's been awhile since I made a lanyard - and that's what got me started in this whole beads and jewelry thing in the first place! So today I decided to make a Valentine's Day themed one.

I had a good sized strand of lavender heart beads which, for a fun and Valentine appropriate contrast, I strung with matte ruby seed beads and ruby AB finish heart beads. A couple of heart clasps were the perfect finish. The trick to making a lanyard with heart-shaped beads is to remember to reverse the direction of the beads at the halfway point, so they're all pointing the same direction. You can click the picture to see a bigger version.

This would be great as an eyeglass lanyard, too - I made it rather long, but anything from 28" to 32" works. I like to wear my badge lanyards long, but 28" -29" is the max for eyeglasses.

Don't forget, if you'd like to win a cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Mid-Week Mutterings - Can't Decide...

Before I start with the bead stuff - as the granddaughter, daughter and sister of veterans, and the mother of a soldier on active duty, my honor, respect and prayers to all who have served and the families who stand beside them.

I can't decide if the picture below looks Christmas-y or more like a vegetable medley with cucumbers, onions and tomatoes. I'm finding the results of my design efforts tonight rather unsatisfying.

So here's how this evening's play with the vintage glass from The Beadin' Path went. I stared at the red set of beads. Remembered that I had a little box of what I think of as 'real' green beads I had bought last December and used in Christmas lanyards. Got those out. Strung the middle strand, above, using the red flower and "berries" beads from the vintage glass strand with the green beads.

I thought it was ok, but since there weren't enough for a strand longer than 12 inches, I figured I'd do a multi strand and attach it to something longer - ribbon, chain, wasn't sure then nor now. So I grab the faceted white opaque vintage glass I'd gotten in last month's Bead of the Month package from The Beadin' Path and strung those with the 'pod' beads and some red flower disk spacers - top strand above.

Maybe I should have stopped there, but I decided one more strand. Got out the only opaque red and white beads I thought might work - some diagonally drilled cubes and oval twists. Strung those with the green.

I think there's too much green too close together and that the size of the beads in the bottom strand needs to be bigger to balance out the larger white and red beads of the top strand. It's back to the drawing board. This time I work the pods in with smaller beads and the faceted white beads (which I'm starting to think of as snowballs) on the bottom with red diagonally drilled cubes.

And, nope, again. Sigh.

I'm too tired to try again tonight, but I'll keep working on this. The current thinking is the green and red strand will have to go, but I like it so I'll figure out a way to make it into a longer single strand piece.

Of course none of this is the fault of the beads - both the red set and the white strand are lovely and I enjoy working with beads that have history, which these vintage beads certainly have.

More tomorrow!




FTC compliance disclosure notice of material connections: All items referenced in this post, with the exception of the red vintage glass beads, were personally purchased.

Mid-Week Mutterings - Final Touches on the Halloween Necklace

Cat Picture from Graphics Fairy

Well, I blew it - was going to enter at least one more thing for the April 2010 Bead Trends call and totally let it slip my mind over the weekend. I was so focused on black and gray lanyards I didn't think of anything else. But all is not woe and gnashing of teeth (which isn't good for teeth at all). The May 2010 call for submissions is up:

Bead Trends is currently looking for designs with the following themes for our May 2010 issue

* Quick & Easy
* Fashion Favorites - Features designs from a variety of styles and mediums that can be a personal favorite or necessary staple in any wardrobe.
* Birthstones (Emerald/Chrysoprase)
* Anything Goes - The beaded possibilities are endless and not just limited to jewelry. What about pillows, table runners, picture frames, lamps, clothing, candle collars, wine glass charms, and home decor. This category can contain jewelry and a whole lot more!
* For Mom - Jewelry is the perfect gift for Mother's Day!
* Necklaces
* Vintage styles - Vintage or vintage inspired jewelry.
* Simply "Charming" - All those fabulous designs incorporating charms and dangles.
* Eclectic Design

If you would like to submit your work to this publication, please e-mail a photograph, the name or title of your piece, and contact information to: beadsubmit@beadtrendsmag.com.

If submitting multiple pieces, please send a separate e-mail and photograph for each design.

Deadline for the May 2010 issue is 11:59 p.m. MDT, November 25th, 2009. All ideas should be your original work and not previously published.

We will review all submissions, and if selected, we will contact you by December 1st with additional information. All pieces will need to be shipped to us directly for photography and arrive in our office by December 11th. Your creation will be returned to you insured, after the issue has been printed.

I need to put something on my calendar in big red letters this time. Of course, with getting ready for my table at LosCon, I might end up having to pass on this one.

Today is the office Halloween pot-luck lunch and I finished my necklace last night - you may recall that the items for it were a Friday Pick last month, and that I posted a 'behind the scenes' look at what I was doing.

I've replaced the gold colored ends with gunmetal ones, and used a "Mighty Crimper" to fix them tightly to the rubber tubing (the other ends kept slipping off the gold tone ones that I tried to affix with glue - I'm certain I was doing something wrong). I also used a Chisel Tip Sharpie pen to color the wooden beads orange. I was tempted to try and draw a Jack o' Lantern face on them, but since they were already on the necklace, and I'd have to take the whole thing apart in case I messed up, I decided not to. Note to self for next time - color the beads before assembling the necklace.

But even after I'd taken the picture above, I still wasn't happy with it. So I simplified it way, way, down into this

It's ok, I guess, but definitely not what I'd imagined I'd be making. I'll keep fiddling with it some other time, but that's what I'll wear tomorrow along with my nifty pair of candy corn earrings from Lori Anderson Designs.


Oh, one other thing. I got a folding magnifying glass over the weekend. It is so wonderful. It's small, folds up into a nice flat rectangle that can be slipped into a beading tote and does a great job of helping me handle little fiddly things like the screws on Scrimps. And see the hole in the side in the picture below? That's a smart feature, too. The whole thing is 6.25" x 5.25" x 1.5" and was $5.99. Thanks Fry's!

That's it for now, hope to see you again tomorrow!

Mid-Week Mutterings - Bead Trends April 2010 Call & Stringing Magazine Winter Challenge

I got news over the weekend that one of my designs had been selected for the March 2010 edition of Bead Trends. It's not the first submission I've made there, nor elsewhere, but it's the first acceptance. To say that I'm excited is just a bit of an understatement. With that positive reinforcement under my belt now, I'm thinking about entering other challenges and making more submissions. For example there's:

Bead Trends April 2010 call
If you would like to submit your work to this publication, please e-mail a photograph, the name or title of your piece, and contact information to: beadsubmit@beadtrendsmag.com.

If submitting multiple pieces, please send a separate e-mail and photograph for each design.

Deadline for the April 2010 issue is 11:59 p.m. MDT, October 26th, 2009. All ideas should be your original work and not previously published.

We will review all submissions, and if selected, we will contact you by November 2nd with additional information. All pieces will need to be shipped to us directly for photography and arrive in our office by November 12th. Your creation will be returned to you insured, after the issue has been printed.

And also:

Winter Challenge Title: "Inspired by Art"
Deadline: November 6, 2009
Voting starts: November 18, 2009
Voting ends: December 18, 2009

To enter, please send a clear, high-resolution TIF (better) or JPEG (good) photo of your stringing and/or simple wireworking project that is 300 dpi at 3" x 5" to stringing@interweave.com.

An e-mail will be sent within two weeks after the close of voting for each challenge. Please do not contact us asking for news of the winners before then. Thanks

Challenge Rules: One entry per person, please (so send us your best work!). Submissions must be of the type you would see in Stringing magazine—in other words, projects created using simple stringing, crimping, wireworking (simple loops, wrapped loops, jump rings), and simple knotting techniques. If in doubt, see Stringing 101 (it's in every issue of Stringing) for a list of acceptable techniques. Projects created using beadweaving or other non-stringing techniques (such as netting; peyote, brick, right-angle weave, and square stitches; bead embroidery; chain mail; and macramé) will not be considered for winners.

General Rules: At least one winner will be chosen on the basis of votes for each entry as received at stringingmagazine.com during the voting period. Interweave Press cannot control, and disclaims any responsibility or liability, for online voting and is responsible only for using its best efforts to collect and count the votes actually received. Editors' choice winner(s) will be chosen by the editors of Stringing; all decisions of the editors shall be made in their sole and absolute discretion and will be final.

If an entry is selected as a winner by the voting conducted at the Stringing website, but the entry does not conform to the contest rules, then the entrant and the entry will be disqualified and the next-ranked entrant will be selected.

By entering, entrant is assuring Interweave Press that entrant possesses the right to submit all entry materials for use by Interweave Press as described in these contest rules without the consent or approval of any third party, and Interweave Press is entitled on rely on entrant's right to do so.

By entering the Stringing Challenge, each entrant is granting to Interweave Press the perpetual, exclusive, and royalty-free right to (a) use the photographs and other entry materials submitted by the entrant without photo credit(s) for the photographer(s) who took the photographs, (b) photograph and reproduce the entry in the various print and electronic publications of Interweave Press and the advertising, publicity, promotional and marketing materials of Interweave Press in any and all media, and (c) use the name, image, likeness, and biographical data of the finalists and winners in connection with all of the foregoing uses.

The contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law.

Where are you submitting your designs?



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.

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.

Mid-Week Mutterings - Purple is "In" Again (Finally!)

I love purple. It was one of my High School colors and I wasn't all that crazy about it then, but later in life I realized that dark, jewel tone purples and I went very well together. Yeah, I had my "colors done" back in the 80's - didn't everyone my age do that? I was a classic Winter and purple was the color that looked best with my skin tone and hair.

Some years it's almost impossible to find anything in purple. Lavender maybe, lilac and mauve, possibly, but a rich dark purple, not so much. This year, though, I've seen a lot of mannequins in the department stores dressed in all sorts of gorgeous purple pieces and accessories. The Pantone fall color report (this link is to a pdf file, don't click unless you want to open a pdf) features a color they call "purple heart" which is a bit pale, but I see other colors accented with a much darker purple as well.

And Sunday's Emmy red carpet show - tons of purple! Some purple gowns got 'worst' clucks from the press, (things like 'grape soda' were said) but purple was certainly a color choice for the TV celebrities Sunday evening.

There are some wonderful purple stones, amethyst, purple chalcedony, charoite, flourite, Iolite, lepidolite, sugilite and tanzanite. Swarovski and other crystal and glass bead suppliers, have many shades of purple to choose from, too.

You're probably familiar with the story of how purple dye was very expensive and considered a royal color, as only the very wealthy could afford it. It was a red-purple dye which came from the secretions of a mollusc called Murex brandaris. During the Middle Ages the knowledge of how to obtain that specific purple was allegedly lost and royal blue seems to have replaced its use.

Murex brandaris - Photo: Source Luis Fernández García LP / 2005-09-09, via Wikipedia
Permission to use under Creative Commons "Attribution-ShareAlike 2.1 Spain" Licence

I've recently finished and listed a copper and purple two-strand necklace using amethyst and charoite. Not only do I like the colors, but I'm rather pleased with myself at the design, which lends itself to a number of asymmetrical conformations. This one is my favorite look, but it can be worn 5 or 6 (maybe more) ways, which I show in the pictures at ArtFire.

I'm almost out of charoite, although I have some really lovely diagonal drilled squares still to figure out a design for. They'll be perfect for earrings/bracelets.

What's your favorite purple stone or is it a color you typically avoid?

Today's post brought to you by:

Dawno

Buy Handmade

Mid-Week Mutterings - Day 3 of 3: The Not Quite There Necklace

attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sagbottom/ photo link/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

For those of you who faithfully follow the exciting adventures of Dawno, you may recall over the Labor Day weekend I did some shopping at Michael's. One of the purchases I made was a set of antiqued brass components from Blue Moon's "Royal Boheme" line. There were three metal connectors, each with three loops, which you can see enlarged, in silver, on the Blue Moon site (click here).

I selected one of the connectors from the set, and some chain, to play with, added the hooks which I've had in my stash forever and have no idea where from, connected the charms (leaves and owl from the set of cool filigree and charms I got from Steampunk Supply) and the two stars, then went to bed. I think I'd been in bed about ten seconds before I got the idea to add a moon peeking over the connector, which reminded me of branches - which is why I added the leaves and the owl in the first place. I trotted down stairs past my husband and the cats, to whom I'd just said "goodnight", and who were quite bemused at my rushing back down to my workroom in my jammies and slippers. Well, maybe the cats weren't bemused, but they did give me that cat look that probably means 'all humans are crazy' and I choose to interpret as bemusement.

The next day I stared at it some and took the following picture so I could stare at it some more. You guessed it, Still not quite there.

Decided to move the stars up the chain and add two small Mother of Pearl disks. Decided to paint a 'man in the moon' on the large Mother of Pearl disk...

...using a Sharpie gold paint pen

Here's a close-up of the back showing how I connected the moon with a long eyepin looped at both ends.

However, I'm not yet completely satisfied. I'm mostly unhappy with the placement of the moon disk. Kind of looks like it's in one of those bicycle baskets hooked on the handlebars, peeking over the front of it . Or a beard. Whichever. Will be fiddling with it over the weekend and I'm not sure I'll end up using the moon disk on this one.

So those are the three works in progress for this week. I'm going to have to focus on building up my inventory for my November show at LACon pretty soon and the experimenting will slow down. I've still got a couple pieces in the pipeline to share - one with the new glass 'river rocks' from The Beadin' Path design partner package I recently received, that I'll probably be ready to share in a couple days and the Halloween necklace from my Rings & Things Friday Pick from two weeks ago.

By the way, Artbeads is having a really great newsletter subscriber only sale that ends tomorrow - you really want to be on their mailing list when deals like this come along. Sign up here.

I've got no idea what I'll be talking about tomorrow - I'll be sending off some interview questions to Rebeca Mojica from Blue Buddha Boutique soon and I'll have used the Wubbers tools enough to do a review of them soon, as well, but right now I'm stumped on what to do for tomorrow, other than I'm pretty sure it won't be a review or interview. I'll think of something, though, so I look forward to seeing you here on Thursday!

Mid-Week Mutterings - Wubbers Tools

Wubbers. Got two pair with the gift certificate I won in the Rings & Things June/July Review a Product contest last month. I love the handles, they're very cushy, the length and shape of them is also quite comfortable.

I haven't used them enough yet to say how well they do - the primary selling point of Wubbers is the hand finishing to prevent marring of wire or jump rings. I am particularly interested in seeing how they do with colored wire, as nicks in that tend to reveal the color of the base wire beneath the finish. I have a flat nosed pair - something I've been doing without so far, but have wanted, and a bent nose pair.

Once I've used them for awhile, I'll talk more about them and how well they do. If you've used Wubbers, feel free to comment about them here!

I'm glad it's Wednesday - just a couple days to go before the long weekend! Come back tomorrow for a review of a very special book by one of my favorite people in the Beadosphere.

Mid-Week Mutterings - Romance Trio Necklace

Before I get to the title piece, I have to point you to Wendy Gibson's Craft Dinner post. She has created a wonderful jewelry set from a selection of vintage Lucite from The Beadin' Path that is amazing and wonderful! The pendant and bracelet feature lemon moonglow Lucite buttons used in a delightfully creative way.

Ok, on to today's necklace work in progress. When I first started beading I made some pieces with rose quartz, silver beads and matte crystal beads. 3 or 4 years later the silver has really tarnished and the matte crystal beads have a gray look to them from the beading wire I used. I don't remember what brand, but it tarnished the insides of the beads, I guess.

I unstrung them and decided to re-use the quartz (carved knots and small rounds), some rhodonite beads and light rose matte glass beads with the Romance Trios in a three-strand necklace. I've added some light pink glass leaves on pinch bails and length-wise drilled glass tulip beads, too.

It's still a work in progress - more dangles to add later. Getting too late to finish tonight for the publication time of this post at 6 am tomorrow, plus I need to get my beauty sleep!

Mid-Week Mutterings - Lucite Flower Necklace

Before I get into my featured necklace I want to pass along my congratulations to my co-winners of the Rings & Things Customer Review drawing! Mara Nesbitt-Aldrich, Maneki, Christy Minnis, and Jody Blackwell - Congratulations! I feel really lucky this week - I think I'll play SuperLotto tomorrow.

My July bead of the month selection from The Beadin' Path had seven colorful Lucite flowers. Red, pink, purple, two green roses, orange and yellow. I chose the yellow and orange flowers to make a necklace because I had the yellow beads out from the Sunflower Starry Night bead necklace and knew I had several packages of a bright 4mm orange (hyacinth) Druk beads in my stash. By the way, the yellow and orange Druk beads are from Artbeads, their selection of these is quite good, in many colors and finishes, and they're a staple in my designs.

I strung the first strand as seen above, but thought I would add another.

Not completely sure if it's going to stay this way...still seems to be missing something. I think it needs more Lucite flowers and probably another strand of beads.

P.S. - A word from our sponsor:

Dawno

Buy Handmade

Mid-Week Mutterings - Beadalon Quick Link Connectors Bracelet

Trying to jump-start my creativity, I got out some silver plated jump rings and the large sized silver plate Beadalon Quick Link connectors. It only took a few minutes to make a basic bracelet with those.

The Quick Link connectors just need to be pinched closed with pliers. Beadalon recommends their pinch bail pliers, I used bent chain nose.

Beadalon also makes an EZ Lobster, a quick close lobster claw - again, you just pinch the open end closed over the jump ring to attach.

This made the base bracelet fast and easy to assemble. The jump rings needed a little wiggling to get closed, but otherwise it is just connect and pinch. I'd say you could make a bracelet in 15 minutes or less, but I neglected to time it. The bracelet base used 12-6mm jump rings and 11 connectors for about 7" length.

Then I started adding beads either directly on to jump rings or with simple loops made from head pins.

And this is what the finished bracelet looks like flat -

And hanging on a wrist -

I just got a package from Rings & Things full of Soft Flex Trios, and I'll be playing with them tonight and reviewing them my Thursday Reviews & Interviews post.