New Etsy Listings and Photo Setups

Pretty much spent the day photographing jewelry. Cropping the pictures. Then writing the Etsy copy and uploading the pictures to the site. 14 new listings are up ( 3 on the 31st and the rest today), many of them you've seen here recently on the blog. My office is downstairs, my photography "studio" is upstairs where there's good natural light, so I've been up and down a lot today and I'm tired.

Hope you'll take a moment to look at the Etsy listings and give me your input - I still need to figure out how to do a good "teaser" photo as the ones I'm using now don't stand out amongst all the other thumbnails that well.

Sky Blue and Freeway Daisies

The last two nights I've been rather worn out from some long hours on the day job, so I didn't accomplish much and felt even less like blogging. I had the day off today, however, and completed my state sales tax return, and have all my documentation ready for my federal and state income tax, which I have prepared by a local CPA. As soon as my husband's W-2 comes in, I'll be getting that out of the way early this year.

Made a short trip to Michael's to pick up just a couple things I needed to finish some pieces I had started working on and some large sheets of scrapbooking paper to use as backgrounds for photography.

The first piece I needed to finish off with my purchases is this lanyard necklace, made with spiral faceted light sapphire blue Czech glass beads and light topaz faceted bicone glass beads - I started it with pale yellow bicones I had, but there weren't enough of them to make it long enough for a lanyard, so I replaced them with the light topaz ones I bought (enough of) today. It's 29" long, which is a good length for eyeglasses or badges.

The next one I made today, continuing my blue and yellow mood. I knew I wanted to use these translucent pale blue pinched oval beads and bought the transparent light topaz ones to go with them. This one is 32" long.

In both cases, I was thinking about how we're already getting that clear, crisp blue spring sky and the yellow flowers that are already starting to come up in the plantings in front of the house, even though it's still January. I have no idea what they are, we rent and the owner does all the lawn care both in front and in back of the house. The flowers look like a daisy, but are low to the ground and when they're not in bloom, the plant's leaves make a nice year-round green ground cover - I think it's the same plant I've heard called a 'freeway daisy'.

Icky, Mean, Nasty, "What, you again??" Cold Hampers Beading Efforts

Yep, fought off one cold, got another one with barely a week of fair health between. That it was annoying, is the understatement of the month. I've been in a congestion related brain fog for several days and not very inspired or motivated on the beading front. Feeling a bit better today, though, and looking forward to a three day weekend.

First off, thank you to Dave (a frequent commenter here) from Rings & Things for mentioning me on the Rings & Things blog! I took a much nicer picture of the gunmetal and gray pearl necklace he features, in my "studio" (situated in my college-attending daughter's bedroom while she's away at school). I hope he'll replace the other one with this:

I love working with the gunmetal chain I got. Not only is the black chain striking all on it's own, so it's great for pendants, but designing around a different color than the standard silver and gold, leads to interesting new ideas. By pairing the gunmetal chain with "antiqued" finished bead caps or spacers, I keep the color scheme complimentary, but can use things I already have in my supplies and not have to go buy more gunmetal bits. This is important right now, as I'm trying to be thrifty about new beading purchases (although I will, eventually, stock up).

I'm currently working on something using garnet beads (the stone, not just the color garnet) and I'm really loving the way it's coming together. I've always liked garnets and the darker, blue-ish shades of red. My birthstone is ruby, but aside from price, ruby is often too pink or too bright red to go with my wardrobe which is based on 'cool' colors that compliment my skin tone.

When I picked out my High School ring, I had a choice of a synthetic ruby (which I recall not liking because it was very pink) or a real garnet, and the dark red, faceted stone was perfect. I still get wistful about that ring, btw, because it was stolen out of my jewelry box many years ago and never recovered. It was 10k white gold, so I assume it was pawned or sold and melted down. If you ever see a ladies size 5 or 6, white gold with faceted garnet stone, Desert High School (Edwards AFB - the ring has the Edwards AFB insignia on one side - scroll down a bit on the linked page to see, and my name engraved in my handwriting inside) class of '75 ring for sale, let me know!

More to the point, and back to the future, I have a number of burgundy shells and sweaters to wear with my suits - and burgundy goes with black, gray, brown or, and really nicely with, navy blue.

At first I thought I'd use eye and head-pin connections for my work-in-progress, then I decided to experiment. For this piece I used black Soft Flex 21 strand .014 beading wire crimped into the chain.

One of the reasons I decided to use the Soft Flex was that I have only a few eye and head pins left in gunmetal. The other is that the diameter of the hole in the smaller garnet beads is very small and the pins I have are too large. Even so, I have to use a bead reamer (very, very carefully so as not to crack the bead) to slightly enlarge the hole, as to finish attaching the set of threaded beads to the chain, I need to double back into the bead before closing the crimp.

Now that I've gotten this far, I'm pondering where I want to go next. Is this going to be a long necklace, will I shorten it and drape multiple chains, is this the start of an eyeglass leash (that's kind of where I was going when I set up the two matching parts where they are, but I'm not sure that's what I really want to do, now)...?

Happy Holidays - Christmas Eve Post

I began my long holiday break after work today, won't be back in the office until Jan 5th.

Both of my adult children are here, with their respective significant others, for Christmas. Fortunately for me, their SO's families live near by. The gifts are wrapped and under the tree, which still needs to be decorated - my daughter and I will do it today. We've a very, um, eclectic selection of ornaments including strange sequined animals, Star Trek, delicate hand painted glass, and billiards themed. It will be a special tree...to say the least.

I have a couple things I want to accomplish over the break, one is to figure out my California Sales Tax return (due at the end of January) and get it filed and paid. I didn't make that many sales this year, unfortunately, but I want to establish the part time business as legitimate since I do deduct expenses on my federal tax return. I am hopeful that I'll have the opportunity to do 3 or 4 conventions next year - I've gotten an email from the dealer's room coordinator for the World Fantasy Convention that will be local that I'm on the mailing list. I know to keep an eye open for LosCon much earlier this year and I'll check out BayCon again, which was a lot of fun last May. The other con I had hoped to sell at is Potlatch coming up in February, and I haven't gotten any response from the dealer's room coordinator yet, so I'm worried I might not get a space, again...oh well, keeping my fingers crossed!

The other thing is to try and get my workspace sorted out - the room I use for beading is also my home office and prior to getting into beading served as a "library" of sorts for my books (I am a voracious reader and my collection is probably over a thousand books as I can't seem to part with any of them - although a lot are in the garage and in storage). There are also bins of office supplies and other stuff that came home with me when I was moved out of a closed office into a cubicle and then just miscellaneous stuff that I can't find a place for elsewhere in the house and don't want to put in the garage. I'd really like to move out all the books, set up a fairly long and deep table surface for a beading workspace, get some shelving for all the supplies and maybe a pegboard for tools. If I can get a start on it next week, I can do the rest in phases over the weekends. Of course, it's been rainy and if the weather stays that way, it will mean moving stuff outside, prior to deciding if it goes to the garage or elsewhere, will be a problem.

So, before I finish this post, which might be the last one for a few days, here's my most recent finished project.

I started this in Fayetteville last week, it's a bit labor intensive so I didn't finish it there. I thought it was a fun use of the two different sized circle spacers from Bead Gallery.

I used red and green roundel beads inside the larger circle spacer bead, like a bead frame, and smaller glass beads with silver linings in the small circle spacers along with a solid silver metal disk between them, all on silver plated eye pins joined with Beadalon EZLinks. A larger EZLink attaches the final loop to the eyeglass holders. Finished length is 30"

Three New Necklaces Today

It's great to be home! I relaxed today with my beading, making three new pieces today. First I decided to get out some of the new gunmetal colored components I found at the ACMoore store in Fayetteville and my hematite beads. I used some 'black diamond' colored Druk beads to make it less monochrome. I'm not sure I'm finished - my daughter is visiting and she suggested adding more chain to the center, so I may play around with this one some more.

Then I felt like making another Christmas themed necklace and made this eyeglass leash. I used red and green cathedral glass beads, red and green faceted rondells and antique gold filigree beads.

Then I decided I wanted to finally make something with the handcrafted art-glass bead I bought at the Art and Wine festival back in September from Susie Harper. This features the silver ring spacers and light sapphire blue round glass beads I bought in Fayetteville along with some light sapphire blue Druk beads from Artbeads. In order to keep the larger circle spacers open, I used two headpins on each one to create the loops. I 'threaded' the Druk beads into the smaller circle spacers with eyepins. I'm very happy with how this one turned out. I think the circle theme perfectly compliments the design of the glass bead pendant.

Beading Component Review - Artbeads.com Sterling Silver Beadframe with Swarovski Crystals

I always get excited when a new package from a beading supplier arrives, but I was especially excited about today's parcel from Artbeads.com.

First, because I'd signed up for a beta testing phase of a new buying program and the price, order response time and shipping time was excellent. But second, a month ago I received an email from Artbeads' VP of Search Marketing and Customer Service asking if I'd be interested in doing reviews of their products on my blog.

I have already listed them in my blogroll, and I've mentioned them when I blogged about various items I'd made using their products, etc., so it isn't much of a stretch to add some review content as well. I said I was interested and would like to know more.

The next email provided additional details, like "How you decide to blog about these products is completely up to you. Feature an item in your next jewelry design, use as a component or simply write a review. We don’t want to place any limits on your creativity and always expect you to voice your honest opinion - good or bad."

This was very important to me, as they were also going to provide the review product to me for free. While I love free stuff as much as the next person, I also didn't want to be under any pressure to have to be positive if I didn't like the item and I wouldn't be comfortable turning my blog into a paid promotional site, either.

The only other thing they asked me to do, which, again was not problem, was to include a link to the product and another link to either the Artbeads.com home page or another category page. So I gladly accepted the opportunity. Just a few days ago I received my list of products and one of them really caught my eye, as well as inspired a design idea for an eyeglass lanyard. This is the product:

It's a Sterling Silver Spring Spiral Bead Frame with Swarovski Crystals (there are also lovely and Victorian Trellis bead frames - it was hard to choose). The catalog copy says"These sterling silver bead frames have a beautifully ornate floral or Victorian trellis patterns with granulations and spirals. Two Swarovski crystals add color and texture to this antique style. Bead frames make great pendants, earrings and links in bracelets." They also would make great end-piece focals for an eyeglass lanyard, I thought.

I ordered most of the rest of the supplies for my design from Artbeads: garnet colored Swarovski Crystal 8mm bicone beads to make the beaded chain and put in the bead frame (26 are needed - I got some extras), some sterling silver floral links (4 needed - again, I got extras and am planning a bracelet) to embellish the beaded chain, and sterling silver 20 gauge 1" eye pins (24) for the beaded links. I also had a supply of sterling silver rondels (48) that I'd purchased from Artbeads a while back, that I thought would enhance the overall design. I needed two longer sterling eye pins to finish the bead frames, but I had some longer ones already, so I didn't order more.

So, even though I got a discount price (from the beta program) on all my items, and the bead frames were free, this is not an inexpensive project. (I feel should also mention that I used 20 sterling oval open jump rings as links that I got from another supplier, for whom I'll give an "honorable mention" to in another post as this one is specifically about the Artbeads products).

Ok, enough about the materials. What about the featured product, the Sterling Silver Spring Spiral Bead Frame with Swarovski Crystals?

The bead frame is nicely detailed - with tiny veining in the leaves and just the right amount of embelishment. I did find two very small pits on one side of one of the frames - one pit is very slight and really only noticeable with a magnifier, but the other is a bit deeper, although still very small, and has some antiquing in it making it a dark spot that's just noticeable with the naked eye, especially as it's close on the frame to the bead. It doesn't really, for me at least, detract from the product overall - I was looking for something with an antique or vintage appearance anyway.

There are also two round, garnet colored Swarovski crystals set into the piece on each side of the frame. The crystals are free of scratches and set fairly level and flush to the bezels. Each bead frame costs $16.49 for 1 - 2 frames, $14.99 for 3 - 5 and $13.49 for 6 or more at today's online price. The product is made in Thailand.

So, that's the featured bit of my design, here's how I constructed my vintage style eyeglass lanyard with sterling silver bead frames and handcrafted sterling and Swarovski crystal links.

To construct my eyeglass lanyard I used a 3" eyepin through a 4mm sterling bead, the beadframe, an 8mm bicone and another 4mm sterling bead and created a second loop. I had to snip a bit off of the eyepin as 3" was a bit long - a 2" pin would have worked fine with less waste, but I don't have any around at present. Then I created beaded links using a 1" eyepin, 3mm sterling rondel, 8mm bicone, and a final sterling rondel before closing a link at the end. I had to snip about a quarter inch or less from the end of the 1" eyepin to get the proper sized loop. Four of these are joined using the oval sterling jumprings. The last one is connected to the floral link without a jump ring.

A note about the floral link, it is only finished on one side, so the eyeglass lanyard will definitely have a 'right side up' to it. The finished side has some nice antiqued detail, the unfinished side is slightly textured and antiqued. The links in my package came with a slight curve to them - great for use in bracelets, and fortunately easily flattened for the lanyard. It was made in Israel and 1 - 4 of them cost $3.89 each, 5 - 9 are $3.59 each, 10+ are $3.29 each. The pattern (which I really like) detail is fairly sharp and precise and I felt it would compliment the bead frame design while fulfilling it's role as a way to add embellishment to what would be a fairly simple looking chain of beads. Since I'm going for a nostalgic/vintage look, it seemed appropriate.

Now this design has a bead frame at each end, to which I have attached clear rubber, adjustable eyeglass holder components. Another design approach could be to link the two bead frames to a larger garnet colored focal piece, sterling silver pendant, or even something made from layered silver filigree stampings and affixed garnet glass gems, put a clasp nor toggle at the other center-point for a necklace.

I usually make my lanyards "convertable" although I decided not to do that with this particuar design, I am definitely thinking about getting 3 (or maybe more) of the smaller sized bead frames and creating a strung design that I can wear as a convertable badge, eyeglass or necklace piece - and if I use garnets or garnet crystals I'll have a matching set.

There's just one more thing I think this design needs, and that's to solder the sterling jump ring links closed. They really give the design the right look, but I'm afraid one good accidental tug will separate one or more jump rings from their beaded links. Then, if the crystals fall and hit a hard surface they'll chip or break.

I've never tried soldering, but I've read up specifically on soldering sterling silver jump rings. While I do have some concerns about the process, and would definitely need to buy some additional equipment and supplies, I think I could do it.

Well, this post has turned out a lot longer than most, but I've enjoyed it. If you thought it provided useful information or gave you any ideas about something you'd like to make, please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you!

More Christmas Themed Necklace Lanyards

Every year I get out my Christmas sweaters to wear to work. I have quite a few of them now, probably a dozen, maybe a few more. Some of the holiday themes, like snowmen on a beige cardigan, bright beaded poinsettias on black, or reindeer posing as a Christmas tree on a light brown knit, but most are predominantly red and green knits with embellishments embroidered on them. I had a few Christmas themed lanyards to wear with them, and now I have many more - two completed this evening. This first one uses 6mm bicones, silver plated pewter mini-bead caps, silver beads and Czech druk beads and it's light weight so it's good for eyeglasses, too.

The next one is Jablonex Czech fluted glass beads in green, silver glass seed beads and red Czech druks. It will also make a great eyeglass lanyard/leash.

Last night I posted the start of this one, here it is completed - larger faceted oval Czech glass beads in a bright red with small green druk beads between them - it will be a dramatic necklace lanyard, but it's too big and heavy for eyeglasses.

I'm not all that crazy about making seasonally themed lanyards, but at Christmas, since I want to wear them with my sweaters, I get enthusiastic. I'll probably make a few more. I hope to get these photographed and up on Etsy soon, too - just in case someone needs a Christmas necklace or lanyard.

It's Great to be Feeling Better and Beading Again!

I've been fighting off a rather persistent virus on top of being unusually busy at work which means I didn't do much beading/jewelry work over the last couple weeks, just too tired at the end of the day to be particularly motivated or creative. I mostly fiddled with one piece, continuing my purple fixation with this one last item before I moved on (at least regarding colors).

I used some Blue Moon glass faceted rectangle beads in amethyst with fancy bead caps and then used antiqued brass eye pins and tiny (3mm) faceted amethyst glass beads to create a jeweled chain. The necklace is about 24" around and the pendant adds a couple more inches:

Over this Thanksgiving holiday I did manage to find some time between family and cooking to work on a few things, though. I decided I wanted to make more copper pieces and I liked the way the peridot glass looked with copper - as you can see, I've made quite a few things - some are just bits and pieces that will eventually become something else - earrings or more necklaces. I'm particularly fond of the long necklace at the right - I haven't measured it, but it's probably 34 - 35" before adding the length of the pendant. The center necklace with the large faceted rectangles was inspired by the focal piece which is half of a copper toggle clasp. Next project will be to make a necklace to match the earring at the upper left featuring the foil-lined coin beads, and, of course, the other earring.

Lastly, one more Christmas color lanyard featuring a very pretty faceted glass bead in red and some 3mm green Druk beads.

I'm pretty excited about something that I've been invited to do here on my blog, and soon I'll reveal all. I hope you'll keep checking back for the news!

New Etsy Listings - Holiday Badge Lanyard Necklaces

As threatened, uh, promised, I've put up several holiday themed necklaces on Etsy. Some will look familiar as I've posted about them recently. Others were made last Christmas, before I started blogging and joined Etsy. I'm very pleased that the gold plated lanyards from last Christmas held up so well - no tarnishing, and with minimal care (frankly, they just hung on a necklace stand) in a fairly humid environment. Can't say the same for the silver plated ones - I will be re-stringing a few as a result.

I set up a new winter/Christmas themed backdrop for my photos and priced two of the lanyards in the 'bargain' category.

Today's Holiday Necklace Lanyards

Finished two more new lanyard necklaces in red and green to wear for Christmas time. These will be added to my bargain lanyards group as they are entirely Czech glass and seed beads. The first is 31" long and features large (10mm) pinched oval glass beads culled from Blue Moon glass assortments and some iridescent glass seed beads (as with all pictures you can click it for a larger view).

The second one uses 6mm fluted green pressed Jablonex Czech glass rounds, separated by ruby matte glass seed beads (possibly Toho - I didn't keep the original label, something I do now) small, clear square beads with an iridescent finish (also Czech glass) and an oblong red glass bead of forgotten origin. This is quite light and at 29" is a good lenght for an eyeglass leash.

I put together a bracelet design with some fun red glass beads and silver 'bali' style spacers but wasn't happy using stringing wire for it as the wire seemed too fragile for the fairly heavy beads. So I tried attaching some crimp ends I had to a length of jewelry cable but it didn't work out. Now I'm a bit stumped on what to use for the bracelet, although I have a few ideas that I plan to try.

Using Carved Beads to Add Texture and Interest

I found some beautiful carved turquoise beads at Global Beads the other day, and was musing on what I wanted to make with them. I remembered some carved jet beads I had and the design started to come together.

I used some tiny turquoise beads I also found at Global Beads, and freshwater cultured 'rice' pearls along with the carved beads and some 14k/20 gold filled rondelles to create this 28" lanyard necklace. It is very light, so it would also work well as an eyeglass leash.

I like the striking contrast of the jet beads to the pearls and turquoise and think that it will look lovely with black and gray outfits paired with a turquoise blouse or sweater (I have several of those and I tend to make things I'd wear).

(This post brought to you via the magic of technology which allowed me to compose and post date so my blog wouldn't be completely dark during my conference week.)

Unwinding from the Day by Beading

Last night I posted about how I didn't bead because of an intense day at work, today I did bead for the same reason - the beading is relaxing for me, and tonight it was the perfect way to wind down for the evening

Back on September 7th I talked about some beads I bought at the local Art & Wine Festival, some of them were lovely tablet cut beads I'd not seen anywhere at the time, but I did finally find a supplier (Mermaid's Cove) and bought more. Tonight's necklace lanyard is from the latter purchases, made from the Seafoam Opal beads.

I haven't measured it yet, but I think it's about 30" long and it's light enough for an eyeglass lanyard, too, if you are ok with something rather distinct that close to your face - this design would definitely stand out.

I also made matching earrings

Now I'm stringing faceted alexandrite colored glass rondelles and spiral cut faceted alexandrite oval beads in a pattern similar to the Chateau Picard and others I've done in a variety of colors. I think I have 6 or 7 in all now.

Caf or DeCaf?

Made a beaded badge lanyard necklace that compliments the eyeglass chain I posted about yesterday. All glass beads, the small cream beads are Czech druk, the lozenge ones are from the local Global Beads store as well as the flat oval light mocha colored ones. I'm temporarily calling it "Cafe au Lait" but not sure that will stick.The silver beads are glass seed beads and silver-tone disk spacers, that I use a lot and hope I can keep finding them.

Here it is with the eyeglass chain - I think they make a nice pair.

I'm working on something with my vintage style beads and some very nice faceted disk rhodonite beads and small rhodonite oval beads. I have a couple rhodonite cabochons as well, they may work with a filigree setting...we'll see.

Holiday Beading - Started Working in Silver

I've begun working with my 20 gauge silver wire. I'm making much smaller loops with very small beads in white, ecru, beige tones and connecting them with silver jump rings. I'll keep going until I run out of jumprings or the right size/color beads, which ever comes first. Hope to have something long enough to actually wear when I'm done.

Will finish it off with some silver chain and a lobster claw if it's short and make it an eyeglass leash if it's long enough - I'm at 12" right now (need about 24" for a short one). This morning I also finished a red glass bead necklace with copper links, 24".

Detail of silver chain, red/copper & silver chain full length:

click picture for larger view

Will be traveling on business this week, not sure how much updating I'll be able to do - thinking about taking some stuff on the trip to bead with in the evening, have to make up my mind soon as I leave Wednesday morning.

Love, in Lavender

Well, I played around with the design I mentioned last night and just couldn't get it to look the way I want. I will have to poke around at the bead stores this weekend and see if I can find just the right aquamarine stones or colored glass something(s).

That decision out of the way, I now needed to figure out what I wanted to make tonight.

"Hmmm," I said to myself, "you haven't done anything purple in a while."

So I pulled out the purple drawer - oh, that one's the purple drawer with the gray beads, hematite and pearls. See, early on when I was getting my beading area set up, I bought this 10 drawer thing I saw at JoAnn's for my beads, every two drawers is a different color: red, purple, blue, green, orange. The drawers are just the right height and width for a single plastic organizer box with a couple inches in the front and about one inch on the side for other stuff that didn't fit in the box. So in every other drawer the bead color matches the beads inside. Well, except for the red drawers at the top - I have clear beads in the top and white beads and pearls in the second one. At the time I didn't have many red beads. And the orange ones at the bottom - those have pink beads in them. I have a lot of pink beads.

So, back to the story, I pulled out the other purple drawer, and looked at my purple beads. I had bought two strings of tiny, opaque lavender glass heart beads ages and ages ago. I'd used, or thought about using, some of them at one point, because a number of them were loose in the storage box, but I had lots and lots left. Decided I wanted to do something with them.

Poured them out on the BeadBuddy lapdesk bead design board. Stared at it for a considerable bit of time. Lots of little hearts - enough for two long lanyards. I'll just do one for now, I thought.

"What else needs to go into this?" I mumbled. Then I decided on the tiny, dark amethyst purple glass bicone beads between the hearts - nice contrast.

For the center focal, I used a glass bead I've used before as the main detail bead on a lanyard, which has light lavender leaves over a milky opaque color that is just a blush of lavender, put two small amethyst druk beads, and two larger iridescent amethyst glass beads, on either side of it. There, ready to go.

I merrily strung the hearts so the points would face the focal. I finished it, put on the hardware, and realized as I held up the "finished" piece, that worn as a badge lanyard the hearts would all be upside down. As an eyeglass leash, they would be right side up as they ascend to the glasses, that's good, and worn as a necklace, the hearts would all be fine since that's how I designed it on the board. Conundrum. Do I re-string the whole thing and alternate the orientation of the hearts (point-bicone-point, bumps-bicone-bumps, and so on) so it works as a badge lanyard?

I'm putting that decision off for tomorrow. Here's what it looks like now, with the hearts all oriented points toward the focal.

OOOOH Goodie! New Beads!

I love finding packages in my mailbox or opening the door to the smiling delivery person (I'd specify, but I get UPS, FedEX and DHL depending on the supplier I order from and how fast I want my shipment).

Yesterday what I found was a package from a new place I thought I'd try, beadsonsale.com, which popped up in my gmail header as a 'sponsored link' and I succumbed to the temptation to click it and just peek, mind you, I had no intention of buying anything, really...

I ended up with the beads in the picture below, plus some lovely smooth, round 6mm amber and very nice Lapis (the color is deep blue, and the majority of the beads have a good amount of 'gold' pyrite flecks) 8mm round beads.

The beads below are (starting at the top) 24mm Hemimorphite disks, one was badly chipped and the others may or may not have gotten a bit banged around, I'm not sure how hemimorphite should look, this is my first purchase. But, beadsonsale didn't pack the stones as well as my other suppliers do - and the bits of stone in the bag was the evidence the worst of the chipping happened in transit.

Next is a strand of 12x17mm rectangular blue Amazonite, then 9x10mm Brazilian "flashy blue" Kyanite, which I really like and am looking forward to working with. Then my favorites, lots and lots of simply gorgeous vertical faceted smokey quartz 10 x 15 mm barrel beads - the color and clarity of those beads are stunning and fortunately they weren't chipped or scratched. My fuzzy picture doesn't do them justice, but when I make something from them, I'll make sure I get a really good quality photo.

Only new thing I've made recently was a royal blue and gold eyeglass leash - thirty tiny blue seedbeads, then a tiny seed bead sized, gold plated metal bead, before thirty more seedbeads and so on until I reached 30". The reason I did that particular eyeglass leash was that I spilled the blue seedbeads and as I was cleaning them out of the carpet one of those tiny gold beads ended up in the mix. Right then I decided on the pattern I wanted and started stringing the beads.

Before I go, I'd like to recommend my Absolute Write colleague, Jenn Nipps' site Creative Tips, the forum, the blog and on Twitter.

I simply love getting her inspirational tweets on Twitter - they never fail to make me smile and they're all ready encouraging me to try and stretch my self a bit.

If you're on Twitter, you should definitely follow creativetips there. If you're not, well, go join so you can get these wonderful little encouragements on your cell phone or via the web (and you might think about following me too, just for the heck of it).

Gearing Up for Fall with an Onyx and Dark Amber Shell Combo

Just finished a 32" piece using 4mm black onyx and 6mm amber shell beads with tiny gold plated metal seed bead spacers. It's designed (and shown here as the inside necklace) to be a complementary eyeglass lanyard/leash for the necklace lanyard I made while I was in Denver. I'll do another complementary piece or two until the beads run out.

I may hold it out from Etsy to be one of my LosCon pieces - that is if I actually get confirmed. Still haven't heard. I've gone from being hesitant to hopeful - I'll be disappointed if they didn't have any spaces left by the time I sent in my application.

More Moss Agate and Ceramic Beads

I liked the lanyard I made the other day so much, I'm making another one. This time I'm alternating the ceramic bead with seamless round silver beads and moss agate. There will be a matching bracelet and earrings, too. Then I'm going to make a moss agate eyeglass leash. The greens are just too compelling to let go!

I've completed a dealer's room form for LosCon - the Los Angeles science fiction convention that occurs over Thanksgiving Weekend. Now I just have to get up the nerve to commit and send it in.

Why am I hesitating? Display and payment methods, specifically credit card acceptance. I think coming up with an attractive display is probably not the hardest part. I have a few things I'm going to have to make and buy, but I'm confident I can figure out how to make an attractive display. The table length is 6' - not sure how wide nor how much room I'll have behind the table. I think I need some easels so I can put up some standing displays behind the table.

I have a mannequin and quite a few silk covered standing necklace displays in multiple colors. Signage, drape(s) for the table and the standing displays (I have seen a lot of really nice ones made of large picture frames and I think I may go that direction) will finish off what I need for now. Oh, and get business cards printed up. I make my own, but I think it's time to invest in those.

As for payments, it's a bit of an investment to get set up to accept credit cards and I'm not 100% sure I want to deal with it.

The last thing is I really should do is make more bracelets and earrings. I probably have done about a dozen earring sets and about as many bracelets. I don't enjoy making those as much as making the lanyards, unfortunately.

Back a little later - here's the finished lanyard, 32" long:

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.

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.