New Peyote Cuff Design #7

I don't know about you, but I'm amazed at how fast the time is going this year. Isn't it going faster than normal? Are there really 24 hours in EVERY day?

While I'm marveling at how quickly the time is passing, I'm also marveling at the fact that I'm managing to keep up with my goal to create a new peyote design every week. This is week #7, and I have design #7. Oddly enough, this one began with the beads rather than with a specific design in mind. (I still have a whole sketchbook filled with ideas for other designs.)

I was sorting my collection of Delicas (did you know there are more than 800 colors and finishes of these little beauties?!?!), and I had containers of crystal, white, black, and red that wanted to be put away... until I saw how great they all looked together and decided I wanted to make a simple pattern using those colors. I'd been thinking about a pattern with stripes, but I wanted the stripes to be going from side to side on the cuff rather than from end to end, and I didn't want "regular" stripes. So I just sat down and started doodling, and this is what I created: Curved


As you can see, the stripes go from side to side. And they curve slightly. And overlap in a couple of places. There are seven colors in all, and no matter how many Delica colors are available, I think my favorites will always be black and white. :-)

Speaking of black and white, my other new creation is a caterpillar bracelet: Bennie the Black and White Caterpillar. These are so much FUN to make, even though they take several hours and LOTS of beads. Bennie is really special because of the way I made the fringes. Starting with a base done in single peyote, I added hundreds of fringes to create Bennie's "fur". The fringes alternate between black and white... five white size 11 beads, a black-lined size 5 triangle bead, and one white size 11 bead at the tip... five black size 11 beads, a white-lined size 5 triangle bead, and one black size 11 bead at the tip. A perfect blend of black and white.


Oh, and check out the Etsy listing for this guy. I thought Bennie deserved a poem.

While you're visiting Etsy, I thought you might want to stop by a shop I discovered recently. While I've "discovered" many a shop while browsing on the internet, I came across this one IN PERSON when I was visiting the Frog Level section of Waynesville about a month ago. We went into a pottery shop and studio, and I immediately fell in love with some of the creations made by Cathey Bolton, the owner and artist. The name of the studio is Art on Depot (click that link and visit the Gallery for a little virtual tour) and Cathey's Etsy shop goes by the same name (ArtOnDepot), so it's easy to find.

Cathey has some pottery pieces that feature her "signature" handles. I think these look like seahorses, but she says other people have seen all sorts of things in them. Fiddle ferns maybe? Something kind of industrial? Whatever you see, I think they're cool!

One of my favorite things about Cathey's pottery is her colors. While I can appreciate the earth tones in a lot of pottery, it's really fun to see something in an unexpected color, like... RED!

This set of two mugs is in Cathey's Etsy shop. If you drink coffee or tea in the morning to help wake you up, the color of these will add a little kick.

She has other cool colors, too... bright yellow, a beautiful shade of turquoise blue, lime green.

...

But, as much fun as Cathey's pottery is, I was (not surprisingly) drawn immediately to the pieces she made for jewelry. She has a bunch of her own jewelry creations in the gallery: big, bold pieces in every color and shape imaginable. And she has some big belt buckles that feature oversized oval ceramic pieces with all sorts of colors and textures.

It wasn't until after I'd spent more time in the gallery (I forgot to mention here that right after that first visit I signed up for one of her classes: Four Pounds for Fun, and just last week I went to pick up my creations. I made all jewelry components. Well. That's what I tried to make. Some turned out to be little mutants. But that's a whole other story.)... okay, where was I? Oh yeah. It wasn't until after I'd spent more time in the gallery that I convinced Cathey she should list some of her jewelry components in her Etsy shop.

She has cabochons, buttons, and pendants galore (after all, what ceramic artist has enough time to create jewelry components AND turn them all into jewelry herself?!); and you can see a small selection in her Etsy shop. I'm the lucky one, though... I got to prowl through some boxes and bags and pick out pieces for myself. There are distinct advantages to being able to visit a studio in person, you know. One of my favorite pieces (of course, I grabbed a couple of these for myself) is this red heart pendant.

Doesn't it look like it has dandelion fluff on it? And isn't that neat? :-)

Okay, it's time for me to get out of my chair and get some pictures. Maybe I'll get around to taking pictures of some of my mutant clay pieces today...

Happy Wednesday! Don't forget, all my peyote cuff patterns are still on sale this month: purchase two patterns and receive a third pattern of equal or lesser value FREE (just leave the name of the third pattern in the Notes to Seller when you check out).

Peyote Love

I'm still managing to keep up with my 2010 New Year's Resolution to create a new peyote design every week. Although it's probably going to become a challenge as weeks go by, for now I'm having a really good time working on new designs.

The newest design, just listed in my Etsy shop yesterday, is Radiating Hearts. Modern, simple, and fun, I'm already envisioning this design done with more colors... perhaps varying tones of red and pink, going from light to dark. Or perhaps in all different colors. I'm working on getting the pattern for this one ready to publish, too, so be on the lookout.


I'm always amazed at how changing colors in a design can completely change the look of it. Last weeks' new design (Fanciful), for example, was initially shown off in shades of yellow and gray; but just look at how this version looks in black, white, fuchsia, and aqua:


The pattern for Fanciful is available in my Etsy shop. Click here if you're interested in creating your own version!

I'm working on a very special blog post for tomorrow... coming up on 5000 sales in my Etsy shop (woo hoo!), and I'm trying to figure out just how to celebrate. Any ideas? I'm thinking some kind of giveaway... :-)

More Hearts for Tanya...

In less than a week, Tanya Boden (aka AardvarkSilver) goes in for her life-saving surgery, and lots of her friends and cyber-friends are joining forces to raise money to cover the costs. The Tanya fund is getting closer and closer to the $12,000 goal, but it's not quite there yet. Thanks to some of my fellow beadweavers, I've been able to donate more than $60 toward the fund, as I'm donating half the proceeds from every peyote cuff pattern I sell by January 31 (I extended it a week). (You can read about Tanya on her AardvarkSilver blog.)

So if you're a beadweaver and you'd like to try out one of my designs for yourself, you'll get to do that and help someone who really needs it. Check out the Patterns section of my Etsy shop.

It occurred to me that not everyone is a beadweaver, so not everyone needs or wants a peyote cuff pattern. But everybody loves beady things, right? And hearts? So I'm also going to donate half the proceeds from every piece of beadwoven jewelry in my shop that features a heart, from now through January 31. Some of the heart pieces feature beautiful focals by Lisa Peters and Kristie Roeder.

While you're out there shopping, stop by Carol Dean Sharpe's blog and bid on the beautiful Promises of Spring necklace she's auctioning. The auction is right on her blog, and she's donating 100% of the proceeds from it to Tanya's cause. It's a beautiful necklace that features an incredible focal made by Kristie Roeder.



Now it's time for me to get back to beadweaving. So many beads... so little time.

2009? Already?

It's 2009? How did that happen? I wasn't done with 2008! I didn't finish all the things I was going to finish, and in a few cases I didn't even start the things I wanted to finish. I think there should be a recount. I don't believe I received my full 366 days in 2008, and I would like a refund.

Okay, okay. I know it's 2009. I even managed to stay awake on New Year's Eve long enough to watch the fireworks on TV. I made no New Year's resolutions, though. That's just asking for trouble. They're hovering there in the back of my head (do more beadweaving, finish the projects I have started, clean up my Etsy shop, work on my website, clean up the house, pack and get ready to move (!), plan more vacations, exercise, yadda yadda yadda). But you can't listen to the voices in your head or you'll just go crazy, right? So, no resolutions. I resolve to make no resolutions. There.

For those of you who read my previous post, I'm a fast healer. My thumb is still sore, but I've stopped wearing a bandage on it (it's too difficult to do stuff with a bandage on there). And I'm being vewy vewy careful with the utility knife now.

Since I've pretty much caught up on custom orders, I had a chance to make some stuff I'd had in my mind for awhile. This bracelet was inspired just by the color of the beads. The official color name is "champagne," and I thought that was just perfect for a New Year creation. I like asymmetry, so I decided just to run a row of polka dots down one side of the cuff. I wasn't sure how the closure would work if it wasn't centered, but it works great.

The piece I listed today is one of my favorites. It's really simple... just an ndebele rope with some fringes at the ends. But I made the rope to go with one of Lisa Peters' gorgeous raku buttons. She makes so many fabulous beads, buttons, and pendants that it's tough to resist the urge to just keep piling them into my cart (and it's probably a good thing Etsy doesn't have an "add entire store contents to cart" function).

Anyway. I love this heart. I wanted it to be the focal piece for a necklace, and initially I couldn't figure out how to do it since the heart is a button (there's a shank on the back). I finally came up with the idea of making peyote tubes and attaching them to the back of the heart, so now the heart is like a little bolo. It makes the necklace adjustable, and I think it makes it fun. In fact, it's so much fun that I think I'm going to make another one for myself. It's a good thing there were THREE buttons in the listing I bought from Lisa. :-)


Now the second day of the new year is gone. Poof. 363 to go. Time sure flies.

Artistic Flair, EtsyHacks, and Lots of Blue

New stuff... blue stuff... and stuff to do! Catchy, eh? :-) So what's all that about? Well, here goes:

First the NEW stuff.

Recognize that avatar? It's Deb DiSalvo, an artist who creates incredible pieces using fused glass (which she showcases in her blog, Artistic Flair, and sells in her Etsy shop, also called ArtisticFlair). I have to say that before I saw Deb's work I wasn't all that impressed with fused glass. Most of it just looked like blobs to me. But Deb gave me a whole new appreciation of the art form with the intricate and clever creations she makes.

Anyway! Deb's been doing posts related to the Twelve Days of Christmas on her blog, and today (day eleven) she featured ELEVEN of my beadwoven cuffs!!! I was so excited to see which ones she chose, and they're some of my own personal favorites. Deb actually owns one of my other favorites, Evolutionary - I'm glad it's gone to a good home! :-)

There's even more NEW stuff.

What's that thing? What's etsyhacks? No, it's not Etsy with the flu. It's one of the cooooooolest things ever! I only "discovered" this yesterday, but it's already saved me some time; and I know it's going to continue to save me even more time.

etsyhacks is a bunch of tools written by the super-nice husband of an Etsy seller to help with some of those tasks we do every day in the course of running our shops. The tools require that you be using the Firefox web browser. If that's the browser you use, it's just a few steps to upload the tools you want and start using them.

My favorite so far is the buyer info tool, which makes it oh-so-much easier to send a convo to a buyer (which I do for each and every sale, to let the buyer know I appreciate them and that I've shipped their package) and to see past convos with the buyer. There are a bunch more. I (sadly) had to cancel a transaction today for non-payment, and I was able to use one of the tools to make the cancellation easier.

Go check 'em out! Save yourself some serious time! And if you love them, make sure to show your appreciation by donating or buying ad space.

***

And now for some BLUE stuff.

First is this treasury I created a couple of days ago. It's been so hectic here that I didn't get a chance to post about it when the treasury was active, but I think it was really pretty. I chose pieces by some of my Bead Art Originals friends, all incredible and all beautiful (and any one of which I would be thrilled to find in my Christmas stocking).

Apparently, this is a blue week for me. Not because it's sad, but because I had to pull out the blue beads for some special requests.

The first blue creations this week were these two blue hearts. One of these will be going to the winner of the Day 3 drawing (Grace) in the Twelve Days of Bead Art Originals Holiday Giveaway (there's still time to enter the drawings for days 11 and 12). Grace requested a blue heart: "I've gone back a few times and looked at those hearts, I love them all, but I think I would really like to have a solid one - like the red one in your shop but with a blue heart. I'm a jeans wearing kinda gal so if you could do that I would be ever so grateful!" So here are the two I created:

The other BLUE creation this week is this bracelet, which my husband's aunt ordered for one of her jeans-wearing daughters:

And finally, the STUFF TO DO... lots of printing, lots more beadweaving, presents to wrap... Note there's no mention of cooking or cleaning.
:-)

The Bead Art Originals Trunk Show, which was last Thursday night, was a great success! Read about it here.

While you're visiting the BAO Blog, be sure to check out the Items of the Week for this week. Once again, there are some beautiful pieces and some great deals.

My offer this week is a free pair of matching earrings with the purchase of the Luscious Lime and Teal Necklace. That's the necklace in the top center of the mosaic.

Just check out those other gorgeous pieces! I haven't even checked out the offers yet, but the pieces shown here are just beautiful. I'm sure lucky to be a member of such a talented group of artisans.

---

It's been busy around here again... My husband's back has improved, thanks in part to the steroid shot he received last week. He's scheduled for another one next week. It's so nice to see him have some relief! He's still not doing very much, and his back is still bothering him a bit, but it's a drastic improvement over how it felt just a couple of weeks ago.

Despite the list of things to do...
- BAO trunk show
- BAO website updates
- my website updates
- laundry
- cooking
- yardwork (did I mention I have a whole truckload of mulch sitting in the driveway, waiting to be spread all around the house?)
- planning for a vacation
- cleaning up the house (we have company coming)
- keeping up with my Etsy shop
- and a million other things!

...I've managed to fit in some beadweaving. So here are the newest creations:

Leather and Glass

Red Paint on Cement

Bois Peint

Autumn Patchwork Quilt

Leaves in the Fall

Imprisoned Heart

Not that I'm looking for things to do, but I've been thinking about changing my avatar. More about that later.
:-)

They say variety is the spice of life. I don't know who "they" are, but I do like variety; so I've been trying to create lots of different things for my Etsy shop. You may think it's because I want customers to have a lot of choices, and that's definitely one of the reasons. The other reason, though, is that I have the attention span of a gnat and am always doing different things.

These new beadwoven pieces were all created over the past couple of weeks. Different colors, different styles, all fun!

Amphitrite's Tears (ndebele rope)

Dionysus

Celtic Spiral in Khaki and Red (SOLD!)

Lime Green Simplicity

Heart of Glass

Running Hot and Cold

Art Show in Metropolis

Pretty different, don't you think? Wait'll you see the piece I finished yesterday!
:-)

Heart-shaped glass magnets. I've been having fun making magnets, and I was so excited when I found these little hearts. They're about 1" tall and wide and almost 1/2" thick. My first bunch was made with flowers as the images, and they're way neater than any of the photos look. They're listed on Etsy, 3 of them for $3.50!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5221312

Valentine ACEOs. You knew it had to happen. Valentine's Day approaches, and I just had to create some artwork to celebrate the day. Even if it's not celebrated very much in our household, there's usually at least some recognition. :-)

The first drawing was truly inspired. Cupid Snares a Heart is another drawing of my silly long-nosed fairy creature. Cupid has never looked like this before!

The second drawing began as a surly cat, but after I had him sketched out I just couldn't leave him looking surly and mad. So I had to give him a smile. He's much happier now.

The last one is called An Unlikely Valentine, depicting the romance between a bird and a worm.