That handmade bracelet I wrote about in an earlier post has reached its intended recipient, so I can finally show it off here. I received a lovely note from the person who requested it (the mother of the recipient), and she told me that her daughter loved the bracelet and plans to wear it when she wins her first Oscar. The bracelet, in case you don't figure it out from reading it, was made to commemorate her film's acceptance into the International Film Festival in Egypt. How exciting that must be!!!
So here it is... 50 rows of square stitch, using size 15 delicas in shiny black with matte cream lettering and matte 24k gold leaves.
Today's been a nice, relaxing day. No snow shoveling. No driving anywhere. Just hanging out at home. Yep. This is what we do on our 21st wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been 21 years already. We're not big on celebrations, though, so it doesn't surprise me that we decided to just treat this day pretty much like any other. My husband suggested that we go out to dinner, but he had completely forgotten that (1) it's the day after Christmas, (2) stores will be jam packed with people looking for post-Christmas bargains, (3) restaurants will be crowded, (4) it's Friday, meaning lots of people are out on dates and such. So we'll wait till next week to have our anniversary outing.
I found a couple of exciting things on Etsy today. I logged in this morning to see what was new, and right there on the FRONT PAGE was my Mercurial necklace!!! It was in a treasury curated by Sarah, of thebeadedlily. Woo hoo!!! Sarah puts together some of the best treasuries you've ever seen. They always have something unusual in them, and they always have a theme, and I love them even when I'm not in them! Here's the front page that had me so excited this morning (and this was before I even had my first latte). I got to share the spotlight with some of my other Bead Art Originals friends... Smadar (aka SmadarsTreasure) and Lisa (aka tqbdesigns).
You know what's funny? I went to Sarah's shop to try to choose a favorite thing of hers to show off here. Who knew it would take me 10 minutes to choose!?!!?! She has so many gorgeous things in there that I had to look at each and every one of them. (Actually, I waited too long and my favorite thing sold recently.) Anyway, I finally settled on this "i am a rock" necklace as my favorite, at least for now. I love all the cubes, especially those lava rock ones.
Second, I came across some of my Captioned Critters in a Storque article! The Storque article itself is pretty exciting, as Etsy will finally be providing us with seller stats. It's apparently in beta testing now, with a select group of Etsy users, but it looks like it'll be coming in the near future. Right there in the middle of the collection of Etsy items relating to analytics is my Analytical Anteater! Yay!
How in the heck does a week go by so quickly?!?! Is someone messing with the clocks? Seriously. There's no way there were 24 hours in every one of the days that've gone by since my last post.
First things first... I want to continue the THANK YOUs to all the people who were nice enough to feature my work in their Etsy treasuries. You can always check out all these gorgeous treasuries in my flickr.
THANK YOU to DarkEleganceDesigns for including my Alice and Her Chatty Friends notecards in her treasury, Alice's wonderland.
If you check out her shop, you'll see that the name really lives up to her creations. I had no trouble at all deciding on a favorite, though, as soon as I saw this Amethyst pendant and Swarovski choker. Beautiful!
THANK YOU to a fellow Etsy BeadWeaver, Jamie of StudioJMK, who included Black and Blue in her treasury called Beaded Beauties.
I'm completely in awe of Jamie's beautiful beadwoven butterflies! This green butterfly is my favorite, but Jamie also has other beadwoven beauties in her shop.
How does Susan (ClinkscalesArts) make those perfect little beadwoven beads?! I honestly don't know, but don't you just love these? These three little beads, which make up her Spring Green Necklace, are soooo adorable!
Susan included Titiana Speaks to Bottom in a treasury she curated using some of the entries from the last EBW Challenge. Her treasury was called Shakespeare Would Approve, and I definitely think he would have if he'd been able to see all these creations!
THANKS, Susan!
I don't do very much with fiber, although I love the artistic pieces others are able to create with it. Louise, of scarfitup, is particularly talented at knitting gorgeous scarves and neckwear, and now she's ventured into felting with this piece of wearable art, her Nuno Felt Brooch. Isn't this incredible? You really need to look at all the pictures she has and read how this was created to truly understand the process involved.
THANK YOU, Louise for featuring Black and Blue in your lovely turquoise-filled treasury, Beadlieve Me!
Ileana, another Etsy BeadWeaver, curated a treasury called Etsy Magical Beauties. She had some pieces in there I'd never seen before, and my collection of Etsy Favorites grew by at least two as I clicked through the treasury... :-) Ileana included one of my bead crochet pieces, Twist and Shout in her collection of lovelies. Not only that, but Ileana included Piano Man AND Treble Clef in a treasury called Super Sexy; and included Piano Man again in one called My World in Black and White. WOW!!! THANK YOU, Ileana!
Ileana's shop is called enchantedbeads, and if you take a look at it you'll understand why. I'm a big fan of things from the ocean, so one of my favorite pieces from her shop is this Abalone and Pearl pendant, which she calls "Peas in a Pod." Gorgeous!
Okay, this has to be one of the hardest of these posts to write. Why? Because I have such a difficult time choosing a favorite thing from my friend Carol Dean's shop, SandFibers. Her beadweaving is unbelievable, and Carol Dean's pretty unbelievable, too. Having created my very first peyote triangle just a couple of days ago, I decided to show off her Anything Goes peyote bracelet, made from triangles in beautiful fiery reds and oranges.
Carol Dean was nice enough to feature two of my pieces (Piano Man and Autumn Patchwork) in two different treasuries - A Classic Combination (all black and white, my favorites!) and Bring It On (filled with creations by members of Bead Art Originals). THANK YOU, CD!!!
Jean, aka totallytwisted, also featured me in two of her recent treasuries, Do You Raku? (which included Celtic Square, a piece I made with one of MAKUstudio's raku pieces) and Winter in July (which included Long Island Stone, made from a quartz stone I found on a beach on Long Island in April).
One of Jean's recent listings is this wonderful Beaded Fringe Bracelet, called Winter. Isn't this gorgeous!?
I'm mesmerized every time I look at this Fish Stories beadwoven cuff by Sarah (thebeadedlily). The colors are so pretty, and the design itself is a piece of art! You can see more artistry in her shop and on her blog.
Sarah's been making treasuries lately that feature different members of Etsy BeadWeavers (that's so nice!). She included one of my new cuffs, Evolutionary, in the treasury she curated for Anna (arosebyname). THANKS so much, Sarah!
By the way, if you love Sarah's work, she's offering 20% off all her beadweaving for the EBW Midsummer Madness sale!!
Cheryl of littlestonedesign, another talented Etsy BeadWeaver, included my checkered cuff (Check It Out) in a treasury entitled Not Just for Sissies Anymore! Lots of pink there, but she's right - it's definitely not just for sissies. :-) THANKS, Cheryl!
One of my favorite beadweaving techniques is the Cellini Spiral. Cheryl's Regal Purple Cellini Spiral Bracelet is a beautiful example of the technique.
I had absolutely no trouble at all finding my favorite of Patrizia's (triz) creations! This Purple Balagan cuff is amazing!! All of Triz' work is exceptional, as you're sure to see when you check out her shop and her blog.
Triz curated a treasury called Purple Reign (a Prince fan, perhaps?) and included my Passion for Purple necklace/pendant in it. THANKS, Triz!!
Triz is also a member of Etsy BeadWeavers and is participating in the EBW Midsummer Madness sale, so you can find some of her 2007 collection at 25% off from now through July 27.
Another Etsy seller (from Cork, Ireland!), ArguingTheMobius, created her very first treasury (Eloquence) and included my Eloquent Elephant mini notecards. THANK YOU!
I checked out her shop and her blog and found some of the most beautiful origami I've ever seen. Know anyone who's getting married soon? Wouldn't these origami tulips make a beautiful bouquet?
It seems there are always oopses (?) in life, and SunshineandLaughter collected a bunch of them for her OOOPS! treasury. My Celebrate the Oops labels weren't really a mistake... just make for celebrating those inevitable oopses we all have. :-) THANKS for including them in your treasury!
No mistake at all in this lovely Mother of Pearl Bracelet I found in her shop. So pretty!
Last (but certainly not least) in my long list of thank you notes is Marlaine (wMarlaine), who curated an entire treasury around my Pink and Purple Bouquet freeform cuff - time2cre8 Inspiration! What an aboslute honor from a fellow beadweaver!!! THANK YOU, Marlaine!
I love patchwork patterns, and Marlaine does some of the prettiest ones I've seen, such as this Turquoise and Sparkle cuff. Doesn't it look like this design has stitches holding the patches together? You can see more of her pretties in her shop and her blog (beadalicious).
Whew! That's a lot of thanking! It's really fun to browse all the treasuries and then to check out the shops of the curators. Although I try to keep an eye on the creations being listed by my fellow beadweavers, I always find new pieces in their shops.
Now I'm off to have some lunch!!
Oglala bracelets are so much fun to make! I'm not a "ruffly" person by nature, being much more comfortable in t-shirts and sweatpants or jeans than in anything with frills, but I still enjoy making these bracelets. This one is called Lavender Frill, and I just listed it in my Etsy shop (you can see more photos there, too).
I have thousands (probably more like millions) of Czech glass beads, in every color imaginable, and I really enjoy going through my stash and holding different colored beads next to each other to see how they look. When I held these clear lavender beads (which have an aurora borealis finish) next to the glass pearls, I knew I had a winning combination. The perfect finishing touch was the tiny Czech glass 15s I used to create the picot edge, as they have the same pearl finish.
With the holiday weekend, I somehow got behind on showing off the treasuries in which I was featured. I'd love to be able to post them here every day, but they're probably much more exciting to me than they are to readers of this blog. I do want to thank the people who featured me over the past few days, though.
Please check out their shops! I've looked at them all, and I guarantee you'll find some great things in them.
- Kathy (aka KathysKraftyKreation) does beadweaving and makes all sorts of beautiful bracelets, cuffs, lanyards, and other things with thousands and thousands of tiny beads. I think she might love them as much as I do! Kathy's treasury was a walk through her favorites, and I was honored that she included my Ribbon of Beads in it!
- Dee (aka DinkingAround) has TWO Etsy shops (I can't imagine keeping up with two). She featured one of my Surly Cats (Cat Want Food Now) in a treasury that was filled with all sorts of silly felines. Dee's DinkingAround shop is filled with really fun pendants.
- Jill (aka outofthepinksky) is someone whose Etsy shop I ran across when I was dropping Entrecards, and now I check her blog regularly. Her shop is loaded with all kinds of earrings, everything from glam to hilarious! Jill included my Obama cuff in a treasury all about politics. Really! It was fun! :-)
- Staci (aka PinkPoochDesigns) is a fellow member of Etsy BeadWeavers. I'm in awe of the photo ribbon bracelets she creates. She has Audrey Hepburn, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and even The Joker designs (along with many more); and they're all wonderful. Staci's treasury featured loads of pink and green in an homage to watermelon (I wanted to race to the store to buy one!), and she included my Check It Out cuff among the yummies.
- Ileana (aka enchantedbeads) is also a fellow Etsy BeadWeaver, well known for her fabulous beaded and beadwoven brooches. Ileana featured some of the goodies that were created for the July challenge, a Midsummer Night's Dream, even though she didn't have enough space for all 31 entries!! She was nice enough to include my entry, Titiana Speaks to Bottom. (Be sure to check out the EBW blog on Wednesday so you can vote for your favorite!)
- Bea (?) (aka Humblebea) put together a treasury of smiles. Actually, her treasury made me laugh out loud! She was nice enough to include my Understated Greeting card, Nice Smile, in the collection. I don't have any little ones around, but if I did I'm sure I'd want them to have something from this shop. There are some of the most adorable little felt Mary Janes in there!!
The VERY SPECIAL treasury I have to mention here, though, is the one assembled by Sarah (thebeadedlily). She wrote about the inspiration in her blog, but just imagine my surprise when I came across this one!!! A treasury named after me!!! And including my all-time favorite color combination!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!
Whew! What an exciting weekend!
And the winner is...
The winner of the Etsy BeadWeavers Stormy Weather Challenge can be found on the EBW Blog. There were an AMAZING number of votes this month! Thanks to Sarah (thebeadedlily) and Carol Dean (SandFibers), who both posted an equally amazing number of comments in the Etsy forums to keep the voters coming to the blog.I didn't keep track of the number of visitors here, but I wound up with 24 comments! So I used a random number generator I found online, and the winner of the Chocolate Covered Cherries netted cuff is........... Jean! (totallytwisted). Jean's a member of the Etsy BeadWeavers team also, so I hope my little bracelet bears up under scrutiny. :-)What's funniest to me is that I was reading all the comments as they were posted, and Jean's said that she never wins anything. I guess she can't say that any more.
