And the winner is... Forbesfarm (aka Sandy), with her Many Shades of Royalty purple freeform beadwoven bracelet, #2 in the mosaic you see in the previous post.

Oh... but you want to know who won MY contest!

That would be purplehug! I'm off to email her now to see what color pendant she'd like me to weave for her.

Thanks for voting, and thanks for participating in my contest! Next month's Etsy Beadweavers Challenge is Caught in a Net, meaning that everyone will be creating something using a netting stitch. So please check out the entries again, and please visit me again!

The Etsy BeadWeavers October Challenge, A Study in Monochrome, has once again resulted in some gorgeous entries! Carol Dean (aka SandFibers) has created a mosaic of the 21 entries.

This month, in honor of the challenge and... well... just because I want to, I'm offering a prize! Here's the deal. The poll will be open until midnight on the 29th, so you have a few days to decide on your favorite. It's going to be a tough decision!

1. Go to the Etsy BeadWeavers Street Team Blog and vote for your FAVORITE entry into the October Challenge "A Study in Monochrome".

2. Come back here and leave a comment telling me that you voted (I don't need to know for whom). Your comment must be left by midnight on the 29th (same time the poll on the EBW blog closes).

3. Your entry will be entered into a drawing to win a beadwoven pendant in your choice of colors. Click here to see some pendants that are listed in my Etsy shop.

4. Visit my blog again on October 30th to find out who won (the winner will receive an email) and to find out what the November EBW Challenge will be.

Don't wait! Go vote NOW!

Etsy Friday... It's such a tradition with some bloggers, and I've been thinking for awhile of doing something special for Fridays. The only problem is that half the time I'm not even aware of what day of the week it is (and to think that I used to laugh at my husband when he lost track). Now that I don't have to go to work every day, it doesn't really matter what day it is! What a nice feeling.

Anyway, I've decided that my take on Etsy Friday will be to feature something from the shops of the other Etsy sellers who purchase from me! I've met some really wonderful people on Etsy, and I'm always thrilled when another seller chooses to purchase my cards and tags to use with their own creations.

So here goes... some my favorites from the shops of my customers! :-)

Amy, of ovenfriedbeads, creates some of the prettiest polymer clay beads I've ever seen. Coincidentally, a friend of mine sent me a link to this necklace just a couple of days after Amy bought some of my artwork!

Jodi, of BeadworxAZ, purchased a HUGE batch of mini notecards and tags. And then she asked me if I would be interested in a trade for some of her gorgeous lampwork beads. The result? I received some of the most gorgeous lampwork beads I've ever seen. It took me two days to pick them from their website. Jodi and her husband both create lampwork beads, and the bead you see here is Mark's. Jodi also makes these precious little fairy doors, amulet bags, and other things. I sure hope they run out of tags soon...

I'm not much of a knitter, my skills being limited to going back and forth in a straight line, but if I were I'd sure want some of Aija's stitch markers! zeromarkers are made with natural stones and freshwater pearls, and they're pretty enough to be jewelry. My favorite thing in Aija's shop right now is this roving in those beautiful shades of blue and purple. Wow!

Lolavalentinos' shop is filled with all kinds of hairclips, supplies, drawer sachets, and other fun stuff, but I really like the simplicity of these sterling silver earrings.

I love this shade of purple!!! That's what I thought when I found the beads that went into this necklace. Apparently I thought it twice, because I found the crackled glass ones in Tampa two or three years ago, and I found the Czech glass seed beads at the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee this summer. Isn't it nice that they found each other in this necklace? And if you've fallen in love with it, it's in my Etsy shop!

It all started with a mixture of beads, and for some reason the black, white, and orange ones just called out to me that they'd like to be turned into something fun for Halloween. I've been playing around with some different styles of beadweaving, so I decided to try making this ruffly bracelet using those pesky Halloween beads.

The bracelet style is one I found in a book called Mastering Beadwork, A Comprehensive Guide to Offloom Techniques. It's called an Oglala Bracelet, named for the beadworkers of the Lakota nation in South Dakota who are credited with the stitch. It turned out to be a lot of fun to make, although I'm not entirely convinced that the amount of beads called for in the pattern is accurate. It sure seems like I used more than 5 grams of beads for this!

As for the book, there are all sorts of patterns and ideas in there that I want to attempt, so I'm sure it will be well used. I don't usually follow patterns as they're written, but I use them as a jumping off point to create something of my very own.

Check out this piece in my Etsy shop!

I'm in such good company in the Etsy BeadWeavers group. Although the monthly challenges just began in August, it's apparent that this group of beadweavers has a passion for the craft.

Although some of the Street Teams on Etsy have regular themes or specials, I've noticed that most of them promote items that may already be in their shops. While there's nothing wrong with this concept, I love the 'rule' that was established with the BeadWeavers' challenges -- each piece submitted must either be newly created for the challenge or not previously listed in the participant's shop.

It's fun to see what everyone creates for these, and the challenge for October is no exception. Just check out what's been created so far! The month's not over yet, with almost two weeks remaining for more challenge pieces, so I expect there will be even more.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Here comes Halloween!

Sometimes I wonder how the things I make are used, and Rebecca (aka bananasaurusrex) sent me a convo to show me how she had used some of my gift tags. These particular tags were created using a vintage image. I scanned it, cleaned it up a bit, and created round tags. I tied 'em with twine, but Rebecca changed the twine out for some lovely ribbon.

She's tied them onto some lovely lavendar sachets (ooo-la-la-lavendar) she created from vintage handkerchiefs. The sachets are gorgeous, and I'm sure they smell as wonderful as they look!

The Etsy BeadWeavers October Challenge, as posed by Helena (aka maneklady) is 'A Study in Monochrome.' I was actually amazed at how much of my work is monochromatic. I like the play of light when different shaped beads are blended together just about as much as I like playing with all different colors and patterns!

I had just finished making this caterpillar bracelet from some dusty lavendar colored beads, and I decided I'd see what I could do with a necklace and the caterpillar type fringe. When it was finished, I decided the necklace would be my entry (well, one of them) into the challenge.

So out came those dusty lavendar beads again, and MANY hours later I wound up with this!


I can't believe how many beads are in there. I'm really happy that I had a large enough supply of this particular color and size to be able to finish this, as I don't remember where I bought them and wouldn't be able to find more.

The necklace has a tubular peyote base, and as I knew I was going to add all those little fringes to the center and make a 'pod' shaped focal point, I opted to enlarge the tube in the middle. When I was finished I couldn't believe the texture and feel of this. It's nothing like the caterpillar bracelet, which is almost slinky. This thing has some heft to it!