Dulcinea... Bead Soup Sweetness

This post is going to appear a little out of order.  You see, I decided a few months ago to participate in the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party, hosted by Lori Anderson.  I probably should have known better, but I always think I can do more, in less time, than I actually can (sometimes my Superwoman cape gets twisted around).  But there I was, signed up to participate, and then I started to panic a little that I wouldn't be able to complete anything with my "soup."

I did finish something, though -- not something elaborate, by any means, but it does meet the requirements of using the focal and the clasp I received in my soup from Penney Klaproth (more about the soup later).  Because I wound up waiting until the last possible minute to work on my piece, there's only one...  this sweet little necklace that I named Dulcinea.

I mentioned before that I was required to use the focal and the clasp (and you'll see later that there were LOTS of other beads, including a huge bag of seed beads and bugle beads that weren't even part of the soup!), but as soon as I saw the clasp I knew that it was going to wind up being part of the focal -- this little swirly copper loop is just too pretty to sit at the back of someone's neck.  So I chose to use it to suspend the little stone donut.  The necklace itself is an ndebele rope I made using beads from my own stash:  pretty bright copper lined seed beads that coordinate perfectly with the copper pieces Penney sent me.

 

Want to see the "soup" I received?  Here it is!  It has a great collection of metal and natural beads that will eventually be used in some project.  In fact, I have them sitting on my bead board now, while I ponder what I can do with them.  I'm particularly intrigued by the little glass plugs, the ones nearest the hand in the photo below.  Their colors are wonderful, and I'm thinking I might actually try something with wire...

 

 

Now I have some blog hopping to do...  And I'd like to invite you to hop along with me.  You can visit http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2012/08/6th-bead-soup-blog-party-2nd-reveal.html for a list of all the Reveal #2 participants.  Don't forget to visit my swap partner's blog, Faerie Acres!

Long Time, No Post - Back with Boots and Beads

May 18 was the date of my last post. Sheesh. I have an excuse, though... we're building a house, and since we're doing a significant amount of the work ourselves, it's been a very busy month. That, coupled with a trip to Kentucky to visit with family, hasn't left me a whole lot of time for beady endeavors. I've managed to finish some custom orders (which I love doing, because it's always fun for me to see how other peoples' colors work), made some pieces for a magazine (yay!), and have even worked on some new goodies that haven't been photographed yet.

But mostly it's been the house. Painting waterproofing compound on the foundation walls. Carrying loads of gravel to cover the foundation drain. Moving tools and supplies from here to there and back again. Shopping for building supplies. Some of it has been fun, but it's also exhausting because the temps have been in the 80s and 90s for most of the time we've been working. It makes for some very long days.

My work boots are doing their job, too. These have been with me through three other houses, so they've already done more than their share of protecting my feet and ankles (I'm a klutz and often trip over things). I did have to give them a new set of shoestrings, but I'd say they're doing pretty good for 15-year-old boots!

The rest of these pictures are some of the recent beady endeavors. Because I just have to share pictures of beady things, right? :-)

Silver Stripe in Zircon Blue Band
A shimmery, stylish bracelet made with gorgeous zircon blue triangle beads and galvanized silver delicas, topped off with a funky vintage button.

Color Burst
Made from opaque delicas in more than 15 different colors, this looks pretty random; but I made sure that no two beads of the same color wound up next to each other! :-)

Color at Play
A bead crochet rope that's fun all the way around. It's 66" long, joined with an invisible join, and crocheted from some of the brightest Czech glass beads you'll ever see!


Ashley
A fringe bracelet made with lots and lots of crystals and faux pearls. This piece was made for the Bead Mavens' Bead Soup Double Up swap, using beads I received from my swap partner.


Trevelyan
Another bead crochet rope, this one made with GORGEOUS Czech glass seed beads with a picasso finish. The name "Trevelyan" is Cornish for Homestead on the Hill, a name I chose because I crocheted a good portion of this piece on the trip to Kentucky to visit my Dad's homestead. I only wish I could have spent more time with my Dad after reuniting with him last summer.

Looks like that's going to be it for this morning... It's time to get back to work on the house. If you'd like to see pictures of the progress on the house project, check out my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/marylou.holvenstot

Button, button - Who's got the button?

Now where's that from? Button, button - who's got the button? I can't remember. It's something I've heard for years and years, but I'm not sure where it originated.

Anyway, about buttons.

I have them. Thousands of them. I haven't counted, but I'm sure there are thousands of them. They're in a big box, and within that big box are numerous containers with "sorted" buttons. Even though I have thousands of them, I still can't resist looking at new ones when I visit stores that sell buttons. I try to resist buying, but sometimes I swear they just jump into my cart.

Several months ago, as I was going through all my vintage buttons, I came up with an idea for a simple bracelet. It's an ndebele rope (aka tubular herringbone) with a loop at one end (the herringbone is carried right into the loop) and a button at the other. So I made a BUNCH of them and left them at the Art on Depot Studio and Gallery, in Waynesville, NC. They were pretty popular, so I've been working on some new ones.

Aren't these fun?


I'm going to make some more and list them in my Etsy shop. For now, the black and white Checkerboard one you see in the photo is the only one I have listed; but I'm planning to remedy that soon.

Ready for a GIVEAWAY???

It's been awhile since I've done any kind of giveaway on my blog, so I thought this might be a good time for one.

What do you win? A button bracelet in your choice of bead colors (I'll choose a suitable button from my collection). THREE people will win. Because I have LOTS of buttons. :-)

How do you enter? To enter the drawing for a Button It bracelet, you can do one ore more of the following. Please note that all comments must be left on my blog (not on my Facebook page(s), even though you'll see this post appear there). And you must leave a separate comment for each in order to receive more than one entry into the drawing. If you do all of these, you'll leave FOUR separate comments and have four chances to win!

1 - Leave a comment here telling me your favorite button project. Or, if you're not a "button" person, tell me about your favorite supply and how you've used it.
2 - Blog about this giveaway and post a comment here with a link to your blog post.
3 - Link to this post on Facebook and leave a comment here to let me know you posted.
4 - Tweet (Twitter) about this giveaway and leave a comment here. Make sure you include @time2cre8 in your tweet.

Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you (email, or a link to your Etsy or Artfire shop name). If I don't see a way to contact you, your comment will be deleted and you won't be entered into the drawing. :-(

When will the winners be chosen? All entries/comments must be made by midnight on Friday, April 8. I'll use a random number generator to select the winners on Saturday morning and will announce the winner on this blog later in the day.

Whatcha Been Doin'?

If this blog is any indication, I haven't been doing anything at all. But that's just not true. I've been busy busy busy!!

Mostly I've been looking at kitchen cabinets, siding, doors, windows, bathroom cabinets, tile, flooring, roofing, and all the other things that are going to go into building our house. There are so many decisions that go into building a house that it's almost overwhelming. I'm glad we've done this before, because that definitely makes it easier. It's also made easier by the fact that my husband is a carpenter and knows how buildings are constructed; and I'm really good at visualization, so I can figure out what I want without being able to see it on paper. Even with those advantages, there are still LOTS of decisions to be made. Next week we start trekking to local building supply places to get bids.

In between figuring out all the house stuff, I've been beading. Of course. I even managed to publish a couple more peyote patterns last week.

Here are some of the beady things I've done, starting with two new peyote cuffs and two new designs:

Spring Leaves - Shimmery Chartreuse and Crystal Peyote Bracelet / Cuff

Diametric - Dark Bronze and Bright Yellow Gold Peyote Bracelet / Cuff

Then there's this piece, called Root Beer and Cotton Candy, which I made as a gift. I used bead crochet to make this rope, which is long enough to be worn as a necklace or as a bracelet. The beads are vintage cola-colored transparent beads with pale mauve lined beads to create the diamond shapes that are scattered the entire length of the piece. I thought it needed a little something else, so I added a long peyote tube made from the pink beads.


I didn't just make these pieces, but I finally managed to take some pictures and get them listed in my Etsy shop:

Sunshine - Bright Yellow and Pearly White Ruffled Bracelet

And this piece is called Nina (which means "fire" in Quechua, a Native American language). I thought it was a fitting name for this smoke fired pendant created by Kristie Roeder (aka artisanclay). Her square donut pendant is perfectly paired with the dark rust colored Czech glass beads that have a picasso finish (from Shannon, at beadsandbabble).


I also managed, in between answering questions about cabinets (how high, how wide, what will you put in that one, what's that called, should they be staggered or flat, what door style, what color - ARGH!), to publish patterns for two of my older peyote cuff designs.

Crazy Quilt

Desert Camo

And while all those things are actually FINISHED, I was also busy working on a bunch of new things... Some Totally Tubular pendants for a local gallery, a bead crochet necklace that will feature a GIANT bead by the uber-talented Lisa Peters (aka LisaPetersArt), and some other beady goodies of all sorts. Here's a sneak preview of the big bead piece. I love this giant bead, which is almost 2" long with a delicious deep royal blue glaze!


Now it's time to get back to playing with beads. I just know I'm going to have to answer more house questions this afternoon... :-)

Bead Fabric

Bead fabric is one of the terms I've heard used to describe beadweaving, and it fits. Sewing hundreds or thousands of beads together with a needle and thread (or on a loom) yields something that can resemble fabric in the way it looks and feels.

Even though I don't sew any more, I still have a pretty sizable stash of fabric. Some of it is 20-30 years old, but I just can't bear to part with it. It was while I was going through one of the boxes that I came across a gorgeous piece of turquoise fabric with a wonderful drape. I pulled it out of its box and put it down in a little "puddle" and was immediately inspired to create a bracelet pattern from it.

Here's one of the photos I took of the fabric:


And here's the bracelet it inspired: Seafoam Fabric


The color is different, but I chose something in the same color family - teal and seafoam.

The result is very abstract, but I'm quite pleased with it. The beads I used for this version all have different finishes: transparent silver-lined, opaque, silver-lined frost, and transparent.

I think there will be more colors using this design... any suggestions?

Inkblots!

Well, I had a blog post earlier in the week about income taxes, and now I have a brand new peyote cuff design that was also inspired by them. This inspiration was based on just how much ink (albeit printer ink) goes into filling out all those forms. This year was particularly paperwork-laden for us since we moved last year and have to submit forms to both Illinois and North Carolina.

It was while I was thinking about all that ink that I came up with the idea for Inkblots. And although I know there will be another version of this design soon, the initial idea was for black and white - my favorite color combination and something I knew would work for this design.


Now that the taxes are finished, I can get to work on publishing some more patterns in my Etsy shop.

This Week's Peyote Design

While I had no trouble at all coming up with the design this week, I ran into trouble when I tried to think of a name for it. I just couldn't think of anything!

Well, my Facebook fans came to my rescue. I posted a message on my fan page asking for help with a name, and I wound up with more than 20 suggestions! Then the challenge was choosing just the right name from all the great ideas I saw there (sound waves, wood grain, zebra eye, topology... that's just a few of them).

I finally settled on Raindrops. I think it fits because all the shapes are drops, and they radiate outward like water drops in a puddle. The person who chose the name will receive a copy of the pattern (as soon as I get it ready, that is). And all those suggestions I received gave me ideas for other designs...


:-)

Daisy Chain - Come On, Spring!

It's not at all intentional, but there must be something about my wanting spring to show up that's making me think of flowers. Because I'm normally not a flowery person. No flowers in our home decor, no flower prints on my clothes. And even though I like looking at them in other peoples' gardens, I never really got into planting flowers around our house (perennials were much less trouble!).

Nevertheless, there are more flowers this week for my newest peyote cuff design, Daisy Chain. Two rows of little daisies, one going one way and one the other, reminiscent of those chains I used to make when I was little (mine were clover flowers, but you get the idea).


I thought it might be fun to create just a single daisy chain, too, so this narrow version will be listed in my Etsy shop sometime later today. As much as I like wide cuffs, I like this little bracelet with its single row of daisies (or in this case, some fictional turquoise flower).


I was a little speedier than usual in getting the pattern ready for publication, so if you're a beadweaver and want to make your own version of Daisy Chain, the pattern is listed in my Etsy shop (and through the end of the month, you can still get 28% off your entire purchase!). The pattern includes both versions of the Daisy Chain design.






Lest you think I'm focusing all my attention on coming up with new peyote cuff designs, I have to show you this latest freeform peyote cuff. The colors I used for this one were suggested by Lisa Peters (aka LisaPetersArt, on Etsy), chosen to comply with the Art Bead Scene Color Challenge: Turquoise.

I hadn't really thought of entering the challenge, but when I reached the point of finding a closure for the cuff (freeform means I don't really plan the beads or closure out ahead of time -- so I had to go on a search for just the right button when I got to the end). And just look what I found! I freely admit to having a collection (hoard) of Lisa Peters' beads, buttons, and cabochons; and here was this raku shank button that fit into my bracelet perfectly.

This piece, called Sunshine on Water, is almost 3" wide at the widest point. You may think the blue colors are what inspired the "water" portion of the name; and while that's partly true, the main reason for it is the ruffly wave I incorporated into the top of the cuff. This one is WILD.





I think I have freeform out of my system for awhile... What to do next? I think I should probably finish the necklace I made, using another one of Lisa Peters' pieces, and my newly learned technique: right angle weave (RAW). Yep. That's what I should do. :-)


Time for more beads... and some Pillsbury cinnamon rolls with latte. YUM. :-)

New Peyote Cuff Design #8

Wow. #8. I can hardly believe it.

I had a few designs in the works, and I was actually trying to do some sort of fish design for February. Something fitting for a Pisces. I fiddled with a couple of ideas, but they just weren't working out right. And then I started playing around and wound up with this new design, which I've named Staccato.


The colors for this version were inspired by the upcoming Bead Art Originals color mosaic. An uber-talented polymer clay artist on our team, Dee Wilder (Malodora), chose green and silver for the mosaic; and I can hardly wait to see how it's going to look when all the participants' pieces are together.

I've already beaded another version of Staccato, but I'm not going to post pictures of it just yet. Not because I'm keeping it a secret or anything... I just haven't gotten good pictures yet. So it will have to wait.

I did list one other thing in my Etsy shop today, another one of my funky chunky fringe bead clusters. I named this one Tumblewood because I used some fun little triangular shaped wooden beads for the fringes. Isn't this fun?


If you're looking for peyote patterns, my 3-for-2 pattern sale is still going on through the end of February... And just in case I have a design in my shop that you really really like, but I don't have the pattern listed yet, you can let me know. I'm working on getting all my designs turned into patterns (hard to believe I had so many of them), and I'll be glad to move one up the list.

And now it's time for a little beadweaving (I'm working on a new freeform piece) and watch a little hulu.

Happy Thursday!

Free to Be...

It's been a long time since I did any freeform. Whenever I go back to do it, I wonder why there are such long lapses in between freeform pieces. But I guess that just fits in with the way I do everything. My gnat-like attention span makes me move from project to project, and sometimes from technique to technique, at the drop of a hat. There are just so many FUN things to do and not nearly enough hours in the day! Peyote, freeform, ndebele ropes, bead crochet... and that doesn't even take into consideration my wanting to learn new techniques and new art forms (polymer clay, ceramic/porcelain, etc., etc., etc.).

Well, the freeform bug finally landed long enough for me to finish a new and VERY colorful cuff. I didn't intend to do anything freeform, but I was digging through some "bead soup" looking for beads of a particular color and decided that I needed to use some of the soup.

So here's Free to Be. Free to be what? Well, I guess that's up to the wearer to decide. I almost named this one "Fly, Be Free" because I kept thinking about Robin Williams throwing an egg into the air and telling it, "fly, be free" back when he was Mork from Ork. I like the Free to Be name though.



While I'm thinking of it, I should give credit to the maker of that lampwork disc I used as the closure (isn't it perfect?!?!). It was made by MaryAnn of LindenAvenueDesigns. She has LOADS of great discs in her Etsy shop, just in case you're looking for such things. They're fun.

Time to put the bead soup away (yes, it's still sprawled all over my beading board) and start on a new project. Or maybe I'll work on getting another pattern ready.

In case you're looking for peyote cuff patterns, I now have 20 of them in my Etsy shop! I just released the pattern for Daisies yesterday. You can find all of the patterns I've published so far by clicking here.

A couple of people who've purchased patterns from me have posted pictures to my Facebook fan page. Yay! I love seeing what others do with my designs!! Keep 'em coming.
:-)






One last thing before I sign off and get back to beading... I'm still donating 1/2 of the sale price for every pattern sold toward the fund raising effort for Tanya Boden (aka AardvarkSilver), to help cover the cost of the surgery she needs to have in the very near future. So if you've been ogling any of my patterns, now's the time to grab one!

Monday Newness

I've decided. I'm going to try something new this year. I'm going to try to create a new design every week. Ambitious? Truth be told, I have no shortage of ideas -- just time to execute them. We'll see how this works out.

So far I'm on track. It's week #2, and I have two new designs.

The first one, Two Hearts, was obviously inspired by Valentine's Day. It's a relatively simple design with two hearts facing opposite directions, separated by a swoosh. I'm thinking of making another version of this one using more than just two colors. Any suggestions?


My second new design is this stylized Feather. It's simple and modern and oh so much fun, and I've already created a second version of this one (no photographs yet). I just love the look of it, don't you?


Do you have any special goals for this year? Resolutions? If you do, and you feel like sharing, and you're on Facebook, join the 2010 Beady Resolutions group! Lots of people have already joined and are sharing away. There are even some great discussions going on about organization and storage and several other topics.

And... if you're on Facebook, become a fan of my page: time2cre8

:-)

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Our future neighbors are blaming us for bringing all the cold and snow from Illinois down here to the Smoky Mountains. It's not our fault! Honest!!

It is cold, though, and it has been for about a month now. Maybe that's what's inspired me to create so many pieces that look icy. Or maybe it's just because I like the metallic delicas so much, but I just keep going back to these beads. (In fact, I'm going to have to order more of them soon!)

I guess it's fitting that my Bead Art Originals item of the week for this week is my Ice and Steel cuff. Purchase and pay for this cuff before midnight on January 14 and receive free shipping on your entire order PLUS a 10% coupon good on your next purchase - just by mentioning "BAO" in the Notes to Seller.

And for those of you who are beadweavers yourselves, if you want to create your own version of this particular design, you can purchase the pattern! It's the same as my Fruit Cocktail cuff, just showing what a difference it makes to choose different colors. (In fact, I have 17 patterns listed now, and I'm working getting more of them ready.)

Continuing the theme of ice and steel, although I didn't really intend it to be a "theme", I just listed two new pieces that share this same icy look:

Galactica
(an ndebele rope, 48" long, that can be worn as a necklace or as a bracelet!)

Concentric cuff

Now I'm off to play with some beads. I think I'll try some WARM colors now -- maybe that'll help with the weather.
:-)

Blog Giveaways

Everyone loves a giveaway, right? :-)

In addition to mine (click HERE to enter), I posted a message in the Etsy forums and found a few more for you:

From Irish Rose Creations, for a beautiful heirloom quality crocheted afghan (deadline for entry is December 31).

From SewArtsy, for a cup cozy and matching tissue cozy by Maggie Sue Designs (deadline for entry is December 12).

From The Lone Beader, TWO giveaways! Click here to enter for a $25 artbeads.com gift certificate (deadline is today, December 9, so hurry!). And click here to enter for a chance to win a copy of Lark Books 'Creative Native American Beading' (deadline is December 12).

From acrudele, a set of crocheted cacti (these are so cute, and I don't think even I could kill them!). Click here to enter (deadline is December 31).

From Lemon Drop Studio, you can enter HERE to win a set of five (5) ponytail holders made by WendiWinn. Deadline to enter is December 15.

From SatinDollCo, you can enter on her BLOG to win a really cute red flowered cell phone charm. Deadline to enter is December 12.

And from Christie Cottage, you can enter HERE to win a beautiful set of silver hoop earrings made by ElunaJewelry. Deadline to enter is December 15.

Obviously this is just a small sampling of all the giveaways going on this monthea. I posted one thread in the Etsy forums and had all these responses, so go check them out!

If you know of any more giveaways, feel free to post them in the comments here. And don't forget to enter MY GIVEAWAY!!! :-)

A New Peyote Pattern, Some New Necklaces, and a Giveaway

I've finished a new pattern! Actually, I finished and published it yesterday, so it's available in my Etsy shop. This pattern is for my Op Art design. I've only made two versions of it myself (black and silver, and chartreuse and purple), but I think I might make a new one soon. That's if my gnat-like attention span doesn't take me off in another direction, which it's been known to do. :-)


I've also been working on some new, simple pieces to list. Truth be told, I wear very little jewelry; and when I do wear something, it's usually very simple and tends toward being either black and white or metallic. These first two pieces both feature metallic delicas. The second one even includes a little bit of steampunk look (because I have a big collection of watch movements that I bought for a different idea).

Industrial Neopolitan

Give It a Little Steam

Those peyote tubes are really fun, and since I already had a mixture of ten different colors of opaque delicas (from another project), I thought it would be fun to make a looooong skinny tube from some of them.

Tooty Frooty

And the last of these newer, simpler pieces actually began life with a whole different idea. I wanted to make a twisted ndebele rope using silver delicas and crystal size 15s. I made the rope using three of the size 11 delicas and one of the size 15 crystal beads for each row, and it just didn't twist the way I wanted. Of course, I wasn't able to tell that it didn't twist the way I wanted until I had about 10" of it finished, and by then I just didn't want to disassemble it. It was still really pretty - just not what I intended. As I was holding it and playing around with it, I got the idea to just tangle it into a knot and see what happened. And I liked it! It's an irregular knot, but that's part of the fun. It can be manipulated to change its look, but it will always be a knot because I joined the ends together. I decided to suspend it from a simple sterling silver chain, which goes perfectly with the silver delicas. Isn't this better than disassembling? :-)

Silver Tangle

So that's what's new. At least what's new and what's been photographed and listed. I have a brand new set of photo lights to try out, but I haven't set them up yet.

And now...

THE GIVEAWAY!

It's been awhile since I've done a giveaway, so I'm planning to do a couple more before the end of the year. This one is for one of my Oglala bracelets, one I've never listed in my Etsy shop. I named this one Marcella because the one you see pictured here was created as a gift for a friend of mine (and that's her name). The one you'll receive won't be this exact one, but it'll use the same beads: matte copper toned beads for the ruffles and faux pearls in various sizes for the focals. They're really lovely together, don't you think?


And now for the entry requirements...


Leave a comment here telling me which item in my Etsy shop you'd like to give or receive for Christmas.

and for more chances... receive one additional entry for each of these (so you can have a total of six chances to win). If you do any of the ones in the following list, be sure to leave a separate comment about each one:

1. Blog about this giveaway and leave a link to the blog post in a separate comment here.
2. Follow me on Twitter (tell me who you are on Twitter, so I'll be able to find you and follow back!). If you're already a follower (thanks!), tell me who you are.
   
3. Tweet about this giveaway. Be sure to include #time2cre8oglala in your tweet.
4. Become a fan of my time2cre8 page on Facebook. If you're already a fan (thanks!), tell me who you are.
   
5. Post a link to this giveaway on Facebook.

So if you take advantage of all those entry methods, you'll leave six comments here and have SIX chances to win! Make sure you leave a way for me to contact you (email, Etsy shop address, etc.) in your comment.

All entries are due by midnight (ET) on December 12. I'll use a random number generator on December 13 to choose the winner. (The winner will be contacted via the contact info left in the comment, but I'll also post it here.)

Stay tuned... I plan to do more giveaways this week!
:-)

Christmas Shopping

Have you started yet? Finished yet? I wonder what shopping is going to be like this year. We're in a new place, and I honestly don't even know all the stores that are around. There's a Wal-Mart. And a Best Buy. And lots of galleries and shops populated with handmade items. I'm amazed at the talent I see exhibited in the shops around here. It's fun just to walk around and look at all the goodies from local artisans. Maybe someday I'll assemble some of my beadweaving and see about placing it in one or two of those shops.

When it comes to shopping, really shopping, I admit to being supremely lazy. I am so spoiled by being able to shop online these days. If I know what I want and know I can buy it for a good price online, I'm perfectly content to track down what I need and have it brought to my doorstep. I know I'm not the only one either. How long ago did the term "Cyber Monday" come into being?

Well, for all you cyber-shoppers out there (or at least for the ones who read this blog), I've been busy stocking my Etsy shop with some new goodies. I'm going to be listing a lot more over the course of the next few days, and on Cyber Monday I'm going to offer some super specials. I'll post about some specials here on this blog, some on Facebook (become a Fan!), and some on Twitter.

I've added a couple of new peyote cuff patterns to my Etsy shop this past week, so now I have nine of them listed. Check them out here.


In addition to those, I've listed a few new pieces I've made (you know, for all you Cyber-Shoppers out there). I'm really behind in photographing my creations, but I'm hoping to improve on that. I recently bought a photo light box (it just arrived last week, one of those online purchases I mentioned before), so now I'm not stuck with taking pictures just during the daytime. I've already discovered I need more lights, though, so I'm not fully in the swing of things just yet.

Slate Blue Cobblestones

Ice and Steel

Concentric in Passionate Purple

Christmas

Rastafarian Topography

And last (but not least), for all you girlie-girls out there, I created this new Oglala bracelet, called Princessa. I'm really a tomboy, but that doesn't keep me from moving outside my boundaries and working with pink and ruffles. :-)


Time to get back to the beads. Have fun shopping!

Heck Tick!

I wonder what the search engines will do with that... I'm sure you've figured out that I really mean "hectic." That's the current state of affairs here.

I just had to take some time out of the schedule to show you the newest listings - three different pieces, all very different from each other:

First is my Giraffe bracelet. I actually created this design more than a year ago (!), but the giraffe was visiting my friends at Interweave Press, waiting to see if he was going to join his buddies in one of the magazines. He didn't make it, but his pal the Limelight Leopard appeared in the June/July 2009 issue of Beadwork. Giraffe is back at home with me now, but he's looking for someone else to take him in and love him. :-)

You'll see more animal prints appearing in my Etsy shop soon... more versions of the Leopard, a couple of Zebra, and a Tiger! And there will be some interesting color combinations also... since some of these animals will be "living" in the cities, I had to change their coats.

Another of my new pieces is called Lothiriel. One of my Etsy buddies, Deb DiSalvo (aka ArtisticFlair) suggested a red, white, and black caterpillar. The one I created just prior to this one, called Galadriel, is done in those colors, but since the base is the only part of it that's black, it's kind of hidden. Not so with this one! Doesn't this one really look like a caterpillar?! You know, one of those you're not supposed to touch because you'll get stung...

I made a comment when I uploaded the pictures to my flickr photostream that someone had suggested these colors, but then my cosmic sister Carol Dean Sharpe (aka SandFibers) pointed out to me that no one really needed to suggest to ME that I use red, white, and black. She's right - they're my favorite colors!

The newest listing I have is for a design I came up with a couple of weeks ago. The design was inspired by a piece of fabric (now carefully packed away and ready to be moved), but I had to come up with a different name for it. As I looked at the design, it occurred to me that it looks a bit like a topo map. So here's the first version of Topography, created in some ultra-cool retro colors.

Although I've spent most of my beading time since I returned from the Bead and Button Show working on custom orders, I just had to make something with one of the beads I bought from Lisa Peters at the show. These little tube beads of hers are so cool. The colors are wonderful, and I really like the tall, skinny shape! I gave this one a very simple treatment -- just an ndebele rope done in colors to match the bead, with a loop and toggle closure. Named for the colors in the bead, this one is called Curry and Sage.


If you've visited my shop recently, you may have noticed a sharp reduction in the number of items listed... Work continues on taking inventory of all my stationery so I can turn that part of the business over to someone else! The only cards and tags I have listed now are ones I actually have on hand. I'm still taking custom orders from some of my repeat customers at this point, but I won't be listing any new stationery items. And I'm offering a 25% discount on all stationery purchases over $10, good only for the inventory I have on hand, so if you've been wanting some this is a great time to pick them up!

I'm kind of sad to see the stationery go, but I really want to be able to focus on my beadweaving (not to mention how much I need to focus on preparing to move!!!). I know the person who's going to take them over (her name is Allison, but I can't give you her shop name yet because she's going to open a new one) is going to have great fun making the Captioned Critters, all the Alice in Wonderland things, and all the other pieces!

Time to get going... after one more latte!
:-)