Something Old, Something New

I've been wanting to create an Oglala bracelet suitable for a bride for awhile now, and I've finally done it! Isn't this beautiful? Frilly and feminine, it's filled with ruffles from one end to the other. Faux ivory pearls in a variety of sizes are the focals that run through the center, and I used size 15 crystal beads with an AB finish for the picot edging. This piece is called To Have and To Hold.


I've also been working on some simpler pieces: still beadwoven, but modern and minimalistic. When I "discovered" these Swarovski squares, I knew I had to have some. For this little necklace, I used a 14mm crystal clear square with a peyote square (folded over) used as the bail. It's suspended from a 16" sterling silver chain. Just a little bit of bling, this piece is called Clearly Elegant. :-)


Now I'm busy at work on a necklace using some of Lisa Peters' beautiful raku pieces... I haven't quite figured out the entire design, but I'm having fun experimenting with some different ideas.

Before I close, I just want to make sure you've checked out this week's Bead Art Originals items of the week... Visit the BAO blog for details!

Pink!

I'm not a "pink" person. Not by any means. But every once in awhile I venture outside my color comfort zone and create something using pink beads.

Princessa is such a piece. Pink and frilly and girly. All things not me. But fit for a princessa. :-) And this week, Princessa is my Bead Art Originals Item of the Week -- Purchase and pay for this frilly beadwoven bracelet before midnight on January 21 and receive free shipping on your entire order.


Be sure to check out the BAO blog for the other members' items of the week. There are some beautiful pieces there!

New Peyote Cuff Patterns and More

I'm not listing my peyote cuff patterns nearly as quickly as I'd like, but I do have two more of them available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

Jigsaw Puzzle, which is great for puzzle enthusiasts as well as supporters of Autism Awareness.


and Windowleaf, a tropical design that will make you feel like taking a vacation in the Caribbean.


I've also listed a couple of new beadwoven bracelets, just two of the several pieces I've created over the past month or so. It takes me so long to get around to taking the photographs!

It had been a long time since I created a odd count peyote design. The symmetry possible with odd count peyote is great, and sometimes single peyote is required just to get the right amount of detail. I'm quite pleased with this one, particularly with the colors. The frosty finish on the silver lined blue and gold beads is beautiful, and they look even better against the pearly white opaque beads I used as the background. I'm not sure if I'll publish the pattern for this or not... maybe after I make another version or two. (Unless, of course, I receive a special request - then it'll move up in my list.) I named this piece Royal Flourish.


My newest listing is called Water. As I was working on this, I kept being reminded of the foamy froth in a clear blue ocean. The pale aqua-lined beads I used for the ruffles are beautiful, complemented wonderfully by frosty and clear glass focals. Water is created using the Oglala technique, one of my favorites. It's amazing just how much variety one can achieve with this simple technique.


Also new to my Etsy shop is Autumn Bloom, a necklace I created using one of Lisa Peters' gorgeous stoneware buttons. If you've never checked out Lisa's Etsy shop, be sure to visit. She creates one-of-a-kind beads, buttons, and cabochons using porcelain and clay; and I think I'm in love with every one of them. I've amassed quite a collection of them on my own, and just last week I was lucky enough to win $100 worth of Lisa's goodies in her blog giveaway!!! I can hardly wait for the mail to arrive. :-)

You can see just how gorgeous her work is in this flower (click here to go to the listing for a closeup):


I decided to make Autumn Bloom my Bead Art Originals Item of the Week for this week (December 4-10), so if you purchase it before midnight on the 10th and leave "BAO" in the Notes to Seller when you check out, you'll receive a 10% refund! Visit the BAO Blog to see the details on the other members' Items of the Week - aren't they beautiful!!?!!


Back to my beads!

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!

Playing Catchup

Nope, not playing WITH catsup. or ketchup. Playing catchup. You see, I have a "system," whereby I create new work, take pictures, list items in my Etsy shop, upload pictures to my flickr photostream, and then blog about my new stuff. Then I move the files around on my computer, and voila - I'm done. Sounds like a good system, eh? It is, when I keep up with it. When I don't keep up with it, I have to play catchup. So here I am.

It's been busy around here lately, so that's my excuse... I've had some custom orders that needed to be finished (hooray!!), getting ready for new carpet in the living room (which means moving furniture and all sorts of other fun stuff), packing for the upcoming move (July?), listing stuff on craigslist (and dealing with some rather flaky people who don't bother to show up when they say they will), taking a bunch of stuff to the Salvation Army, trying to get ahead of the weeds in the yard, and about a bazillion other things. As always, I'd just like to request some more hours in every day. :-)

The Luscious Lavender and Pearl custom oglala necklace was finished and sent to its new owner. I don't know if she's received it yet (maybe today), but I love the way this turned out. She asked for it to be fuller than is usual, so this wound up being an incredibly lush piece.


I made a black/white/silver version of Maelstrom. I think this is my favorite one, although the purple and orange versions are cool too. I think there's going to be a multicolor version in the near future...


I also made an ultra-wide (2") version of Bright Right Triangles, this one using gorgeous grape-colored lined delicas and ab finish crystal delicas. It's much prettier in person (it was also a custom order, and I don't know if the customer has it yet). I HATE photographing purple!!!


I've been working (playing, really) on some new designs, too. I was really happy with "Pods," and I'm sure there will be more versions of that one; but I'm also pretty happy with this one called Playing with Blocks. This version is all done in blues and greens, with a little yellow thrown in for some pop, but I'm anxious to see how it'll look in other colors. I love geometric designs, and lots of my doodles look like this -- overlapping blocks.


The other new design was modeled after part of a pattern I saw on a piece of fabric (part of the fabric stash I'm packing away in boxes to prepare for the move). This one, which I named Bends and Bubbles has a really retro look, so I decided that the first version of it would be in retro colors. I used all silver-lined frost beads in gorgeous shades of red, purple, aqua, and white. I LOVE the way this shimmers!


Part of me wants to make a version of this using white, yellow, and reddish-brown... No matter how many times I look at it and see "retro," I still see bacon and eggs in there. Or maybe I'm just hungry.

Okay, now I'm feeling a little more caught up, so I'm off to move some furniture. What an exciting life I lead. :-)

What's in a Name?

Sometimes I think of a name while I'm still making a bracelet or necklace, and other times it seems like I'll never find the right name for my beadwoven pieces. I like being able to find names that have meaning or that somehow relate to the look of the piece, so I'll sometimes look at baby name websites so I can find a name that works. I've even tried some of those fantasy name generators, but I haven't used any of the names yet.

In a few instances, when I've used a focal bead created by another artisan, I've incorporated the artist's own name or the artist's name for his/her creation into my piece's name: Lisa's Heart (a herringbone bracelet that features a raku button made by Lisa Peters), Over the Moon (a multi-strand necklace that features lampwork beads made by Moon Stumpp), and the Natasha Necklace (which features a gorgeous polymer clay bead, called a Natasha bead, by Dee Wilder of Malodora).

Do you spend a lot of time thinking of names for your creations? Where do you look for them? I'd love to know how other people come up with their names!

One of my newest creations, Aglaia, was named for one of the three Graces, from Greek mythology. The name means "beauty" or "splendor," and I thought it was a fitting name for this brilliantly colored twisted ndebele rope. This piece combines deep dark magenta with orange-lined citrine colored beads to create a versatile accessory that can be worn as either a necklace or a bracelet. And this time I made matching earrings!

This was another piece that wasn't really planned (I seem to have a lot of those) but just demanded to be made when I happened to see these beads next to each other. The combination of colors is amazing, don't you think?

I'm not really that familiar with Greek mythology, so I had to do some hunting for the name. For some reason, I keep tracking down Greek names for these twisted ndebele ropes.


Another new piece, which isn't quite finished yet, is this Luscious Lavender and Pearl necklace. I'll admit I didn't really put much thought into that name. It's a custom order for a very special repeat customer, and I was more concerned with getting to work on it and getting it listed than I was in tracking down just the right name. Sometimes a descriptive name works, right?

I love making these oglala pieces. After several of them, I think I've finally figured out the right "formula" to get the length I want. They're really pretty simple to make, and it's fun to play around with different colors and different focals. In fact, I have a bunch of bigger beads I purchased specifically to use for some oglala pieces... now if I only had the time to get them made!




Here's a spring-themed cuff that was no problem at all to name: Shasta Daisies. Oh, if they were all this easy... :-) But then that would be boring, wouldn't it?


The latest piece to exit my beading board is the one that brought up this whole naming question. The idea for the colors in this caterpillar bracelet came from my friend Deb DiSalvo of ArtisticFlair (fused glass artist extraordinaire!). Deb suggested that I do a caterpillar in black, white, and red (coincidentally some of my favorite colors), and I finally got around to working on it. It's hard to tell from the photos, but the base of this bracelet is made from black-lined smoke colored beads. They wound up being almost completely hidden by the 342 fringes I added. Yes. 342. I counted them. :-)

Anyway, after looking through baby names, flower names, coral names, Welsh names, Swedish names, and French names (whew!), I finally settled on Galadriel. I'm a huge fan of J. R. R. Tolkien, and Galadriel was a Noldorin elft princess renowned for her beauty and winsdom in his novels. The names means "maiden crowned with a radiant garland," and that just seemed to fit this piece. Don't you agree? Hey Deb, whaddya think???

Hello, Alice!

Spend just a couple of minutes in my Etsy shop, and it'll quickly become obvious to you that I LOVE Alice in Wonderland. Actually, I just love the Sir John Tenniel illustrations; and I have a great time thinking of ways to use them for cards and tags. My favorite of all the characters is the Mad Hatter. How could you not love a character who runs around in checked pants, a bowtie, and a top hat???

With all the different cards and tags I've made featuring the Alice illustrations - in their original black and white, in the original colors, and then my altered versions which have red highlights and pink highlights - I can't believe it didn't occur to me earlier to do a version in sepia! As soon as that thought flitted through my head, I edited a bunch of my favorites of the images to make them sepia toned; and I just finished making them into greeting cards, printed on some beautiful offwhite parchment.

I guess I was thinking about the Alice illustrations more than usual because I was working on this HUGE pile of Alice cards and envelopes for a custom order. These are on their way to the customer - I hope she loves them! It took me awhile to cut, fold, and glue all those envelopes (250 of them). And since I just kept seeing Alice and the words from Jabberwocky (which is what I printed onto the envelope), it's only natural that I'd be thinking of other Alice things to make.


Lest you think I've ONLY been working on Alice things, that's not the case at all. I'm still playing with my beads pretty much every day. I do almost all of my beadweaving at night while I'm watching TV (have I ever mentioned that I can rarely do just one thing at a time???).

One of my newest creations is this Oglala bracelet, called Cherry Lime Fizz. Doesn't it look fizzy to you? When I bought the beads that run down the center I had no idea what color I'd use with them. I first picked up a tube of red beads, but then I saw the tube of lime green ones lying there; and it just seemed like they wanted to be used for this.


Now that I know that Barbara (the customer who requested the freeform bracelet and Oglala necklace I wrote about in earlier posts) has received her package, I can show off the little pendant I made as a gift for her.

Obviously, this was made to be the perfect complement to the freeform bracelet.

I don't think I've ever done a freeform pendant before, but it was just as much fun as the bracelets are to do! In fact, it might have been a little MORE fun because it took less time.

I may just have to do more of these...

in my spare time.
Ha.

Lightning Strike

I couldn't wait. I have a million other things to do, but I just couldn't resist working up a new version of this design (the previous one, Fractured, was featured here). I wanted to work on a "lightning" version even while I was making that first one!

I thought about using really dark blue beads for the night sky, but then I remembered some photos I took of a lightning storm at night. The flashes were incredible, and the storm went on for a long time. I had just bought my digital camera and wasn't able to figure out the best way to take the pictures using some of the camera's features, so I was relying on instinct and timing to snap these as the lightning flashed across the sky.

With those photos in mind, I opted to use these brilliant Iris Violet/Green beads for the sky and some very pale pink silver-lined beads for the lightning. I love this version of the design (Lightning at Midnight)!


I also finished the Oglala necklace I was making on Saturday, and it's already on the way to its new owner. I hope she loves it!

Playing with Oglala

Ever since I first came across the instructions for the Oglala technique in Mastering Beadwork, I've been hooked. It's such an easy stitch to master (well, I thought so anyway), and it produces beautiful results. The stitch itself is a type of netting, and because more beads are added to each row it winds up being very frilly and ruffly.

A lovely repeat customer (Barbara) requested that I create an Oglala necklace for her using a mixture of copper- and bronze- colored beads and freshwater pearls. There was some discussion about whether to create the ruffly part of the necklace using a different color for each row, but ultimately Barbara decided she'd like just a random mixture. I haven't quite completed the necklace (still have to add the pearls), but I think mixing the beads (four different colors) was a good choice!

Not that I needed to practice, but I decided to make a bracelet using the Oglala technique before I began the necklace. Did I mention how much fun these are???

I recently purchased some really primitive looking brown and clear glass beads at a show in Milwaukee with the intent of using them to make a different type of Oglala bracelet than I've previously done. All my other versions have been very symmetrical, using the same size and type of focals, but I'm really happy with this one with all its different sizes and shapes. It's hard to tell from the photos, but there are some that look like root beer barrels (you know, those hard candies you like so much), one with a twisted pattern in the glass, one that has slight facets, and some plain round ones. All the clear beads have a white core, where they were removed from their mandrels, so they look neat.

The whitish colored beads used for the ruffly part are vintage Japanese beads - clear glass lined with white. This one had me thinking about that half gallon of ice cream stashed in the freezer, paired with some of my favorite Point root beer. So this one is called Root Beer Float. hehe.

I've just been sent a tip that is going to allow me to spend more of my time beadweaving... Feel free to use this yourself! You'll be amazed at how much more time you have. :-)

Always keep several Get Well cards displayed on your mantel...
so if unexpected guests arrive, they'll think you've been ill and unable to clean!

Some more pictures, some new listings, and a question. I'm going to start with the question, though.

How do you price your work?

I'm not just being nosy or anything, but I'm curious. Do you really think about everything that goes into your creations? Or do you price your pieces at lower prices than you really should, in hopes of appealing to buyers? It's a pretty safe bet that everyone who's creating work to be sold is accounting for materials, and you're probably giving yourself at least some sort of hourly wage, but in looking at the prices being charged on Etsy, it appears that many of the sellers are shortchanging themselves... and in the process, they're devaluing the work of their fellow sellers.

I'm by no means an expert on pricing, but I have spent some time recently analyzing the pricing structure on my beadweaving in an attempt to place an appropriate value on my creations. A lot of thought went into developing a formula that would work. While many people use a formula as simple as cost-of-materials x 2.5 or 3, that type of formula doesn't work well for something like beadweaving, which requires relatively low material costs but a great deal of time.

So, what do you account for in your pricing?

1. Materials. You know what the beads, chain, wire, clasps, jumprings, etc., cost. Right? Did you remember to include the cost of the gas you used to drive to the store? Sales tax? Shipping costs?

2. Fees. There are lots of fees associated with selling, even on a site like Etsy where the fees are relatively low. There's that $.20 listing fee. The 3.5% transaction fee. PayPal fees, which vary based on the type of PayPal account you have and the type of account and/or location of the buyer. Think you have everything covered? What if your item doesn't sell the first time it's listed? Do you have some extra fees built in to cover renewals? (One of the best ways to "advertise" your work on Etsy is to list frequently. If you're not making all sorts of new creations every day, you should be renewing the ones you have in your shop so they get some extra attention. Every renewal puts your work on Etsy's front page, even if it's only for a few seconds, and you never know who might be looking.)

3. Time. This is where everyone seems to falter. You probably include at least some sort of hourly wage in your calculation, to cover the time it takes you to create your pieces. Do you include the time it takes you to design the pieces? How about the time it takes you to do the photography? Or to write up your listing? Do you blog about your creations? Post pictures to flickr, Talent Database, or other places to promote your work? How do you account for the time it takes you to do those things?

4. Packaging/shipping. You probably account for the cost of postage when you calculate the shipping cost for your listing. You might even account for the cost of packaging. Are you sure you have everything? Bubble mailers, boxes, bags, tissue, bubble wrap, ribbon, string, tape, mailing labels? Gas for the trip to the post office?

We all have different skills, we work at different rates, and we create different types of art. So it's unlikely that there's a formula out there that would work for everyone. Just be sure that when you're pricing your work, you're giving yourself credit as an ARTIST. Don't shortchange yourself. And don't devalue the work of others who may be creating in the same genre by offering your creations at prices that are too low.

*steps down from soapbox*

Okay, enough of that. Now for the pictures. These are my newest listings, for two very different bracelets.


First is an Oglala bracelet, Garnet and Mauve Ruffle. These are so much fun to make, and even though I'm not a "red" person, I love the colors in this piece.

The ruffles are made up of beautiful clear beads that are lined with a pale mauve color, and then there's a picot edging made from size 15 garnet colored glass beads. The larger beads are painted glass, and I added some little strands of the size 15 beads for some extra embellishment.



The second bracelet is very different from the Oglala. This one, Abstract in Bronze and Sand, is the same design as the Evolutionary cuff I created awhile back, but I used only two colors of beads this time.

The beads in this one are have a matte metallic finish (my personal favorite). The bronze beads, which have an iris finish, are absolutely gorgeous!







Hey, look at that! I managed to get some pictures taken today!!! Of course, there are a few other things which I should have gotten done that didn't quite make into my schedule... but then, that's always the way.

Looking for some bargains and good deals? Check out the Bead Art Originals Items of the Week!

It's a great way to get a beautiful piece of jewelry and get a bargain at the same time. Some members offer free shipping, some offer a special gift with the purchase of the item of the week... you just never know what it's going to be.

This week I'm offering a free pair of matching freshwater pearl earrings with the purchase of this Pennies and Pearls oglala bracelet.

Visit the Bead Art Originals blog to see the other members' offerings!

I was all set to take in-progress shots of the bracelet I intended to make with these new ceramic beads, but then I got carried away in the making and didn't do it!

Okay, so I've really only used one strand of the beads so far, those beautiful twisted ones in the neutral tones. I really love the way these look in the Oglala-style bracelet I just listed:

Dah da-da daaah! Drum roll, please. Today is my 20th wedding anniversary!!! Well, technically it's OUR 20th wedding anniversary, but my husband doesn't really participate in this blog, so I can just say it' mine. 20 years. I can hardly believe it. Sometimes it seems like we've been together forever, and sometimes it seems like it's gone by in the blink of an eye.

To celebrate, I'm cooking. That's not high on my list of favorite things to do, but right now the love of my life is sick with a bad cold; so there's a big, juicy prime rib roasting in the oven. It smells soooooooo good. I hope it tastes as good as it smells. Along with that, we'll have spinach salad and a baked sweet potato. Yum yum.

Since my husband didn't want to pass along his cold to any friends or relatives over the holidays, we stayed at home and watched movies. Actually, he watched movies and I listened to them (and glanced up occasionally if something sounded particularly interesting) while I did some new beadweaving. I've just listed these two new bracelets in my Etsy shop.

This one is called Icicles. All those fringes remind me of the ice dripping off the edge of a roof.


I couldn't come up with a very creative name for this one, so it's just called Black and Silver Ruffles. This stitch (Oglala) is such fun to do that I just keep making bracelets and necklaces in this style. It's a very easy stitch, but the result looks complicated and fabulous!

I did more beadweaving than that, but those are the only two pieces I've managed to photograph so far.

Now I'm off to check that prime rib...

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!