Anyone Want to Have a Party?

I'm on a spree, and I'm not going to stop until my wrists break! The carpal tunnel has been killing me for days. It's easy to let my lack of sales get me down, but then only so many people go to my hair salon. Etsy is a gigantic sea with kajillions of other fabulous items, though I have plenty of folks favoriting my jewelry. I really don't have everything I need (tables, tent, displays, big vehicle to haul it all around in) to participate in art/craft shows, so I've only done that twice (with shared tables). So I've been thinking it would be a good idea to have some sort of open house type thing, but it has to be someone else's house (living on the 3rd floor of a gated condo complex makes things complicated) and someone else's friends (mine are all pretty much tapped out). So I'm busy busy busy creating for the eventual explosion, once all the planets are properly aligned, etc. Anyone local interested in hosting an event for me? I'll bring food & drinks, and clean up, etc. Plus, I'll give you some jewelry for your troubles!

Anyway, here's some new stuff I've done this week.

Old & New: Czech glass, Czech crystal, turquoise, copper chain, spacers and bird.

Julsbeads lampwork pendant, copper chain & wire, hemp cord, and sari silk.

Copper wire, coral, and magnasite.

Mostly Earrings

I've been a bad blogger! I haven't posted since the 7th! I've been pretty busy and distracted lately, but I have had a little time to make a few things. Mostly earrings.

Some vintage bits and some new parts in the first 4 pairs. All the settings came from dimestoreemporium, along with some other goodies I haven't used yet.

Sterling chain, vintage glass pearls, and re-used AB Czech glass amethyst beads.

Vintage crystals and gold tone spacers - these crystals have some sort of silvery coating that makes them extra sparkly.

Vintage crystals & gold spacers from the same old necklace that supplied the beads for the earrings above. Same super silvery sparkle - hard to photograph.

These faces were a bonus gift, since I ordered so much from dimestoreemporium! The green beads come from a vintage deco necklace. The aquamarine and rhinestone rondelles are new.

These were my first experiment in this style of hammered wire frames - the top loops could be more even, and I'll just keep these for myself, but I love the size and movement. So much fun!

 

Julsbeads lampwork beads and turquoise leather. These were the result of a failed attempt at using the leather with a pendant, but the leather was cut, and it was just the right amount and those Julsbeads were just screaming at me and these magically happened. I love when things come to be this way!

 

This was an old necklace that needed reworking. I made the pendant out of paper clay from a silicone mold I made of an antique pill case. I've used other pendants from the same mold before, including sending one to my first Bead Soup partner. I had originally attached it to the same sari ribbon you see here, but with a thin piece of gunmetal chain. I wore it a few times, but it was too spare and needed something more. After sitting idle for a year, I finally reworked it, and I'm happier with it now. Yay!

And for the first time in ages, I'm going list all this stuff (except the copper wire earrings) on etsy in just a bit. I keep taking my new stuff to the salon, but etsy needs some love too.

Long Overdue!

It's October, and for the first time in forever, the weather here in New Orleans is PERFECT! A cool, breezy 72, and I couldn't be happier about it! Of course it will warm up again next week, but for now I'm loving it.

So I still haven't finished the Bead Soup hopping -- I've been very busy with being sick, work, and catching up on Breaking Bad. Does anyone else watch it? I've watched all 4 seasons (minus the two that have yet to air for this season) over the last 2 or 3 weeks. It's so addictive! For a while, I was punishing myself about the Bead Soup hop - I wouldn't let myself make anything until I was done. But there was only so long that was going to work. I'm going to keep hopping 'til I'm done. It'll just take awhile.

In any case, I finally managed to photograph all the stuff I've made lately. It's really not that much, but at least I've gotten some stuff done. I'll try to drop it off at the salon this week and see what's sold over the last 3 or 4 weeks since my last delivery.

For any of you Spotify users, I want to recommend super talented New Orleans artist, Trombone Shorty's album: Trombone Shorty – For True. It's really great, and I'm listening to it right now.


I can't decide if this one looks too Christmasy and if the two greens clash too much, but I like it anyway. (As usual, click to enlarge any pics.)

This was inspired by my new love of stick pearls after my own Bead Soup piece. I didn't realize these were drilled at the top though - I was hoping they were center drilled like the ones I used in my Soup necklace. I added some faceted rubies I bought at the last gem & jewelry show and some gunmetal rhinestone rondelles I recently bought. I'm going to have to get more soon, 'cos I LOVE them!

New lampwork from Julsbeads plus some rutilated quartz I had, and some copper rhinestone rondelles.

Trinity brass settings, which I LOVE! And some faceted black crystal. I'm not going to steal these from myself, but I'm so tempted.

Wacky little pirate ship charms from Heather's Big Box o' Vintage Goodies. They're such cute earrings though, right?

Stick pearls, labradorite, and those silver beads are soup leftovers!

More of the new Julsbeads lampwork beads with copper drops I liver of sulfured.

Wood, jade, and agate. They're very eco-modern, as I was describing them last night.

My first ever use of cabochons! More goodies from Heather's box, glued onto some filigree rounds. So retro vintage cute.

Aren't these colors generally associated with Miami Vice?

I fell MADLY in love with this fabulous lampwork focal bead by the talented & hilarious Julianna Julsbeads Cannon the second I saw it. It took me a while, but I eventually bought it. And then I had to promptly hoard it for months. But really, it's because I had to wait until all the right ingredients came together with the perfect inspiration. I wasn't going to waste that beautiful focal on some lame-o design just because I was in a rush to use it.

Patience is indeed a virtue. Behold the splendiferousness of this focal. I think I did it justice :D

Must Get Cracking!

I haven't been the queen of productivity this week, but I've gotten several small things accomplished. I went to my hair salon to pick up my sales, and because I hadn't done so in about 3 weeks, I had quite a bit! Because I'm paying my stylist in jewelry instead of commission, she said she wants something super fancy this time. She's requested a purple and gold necklace made from sari silk -- the details are up to me. Because she's wonderful and fabulous and oh so good to me, I want to make sure it's just perfect. Also, I promised it to her on my next hair appointment, which is a week from tomorrow. So I need to get cracking.

A fair amount of cracking happened last night in the form of Focal Creation. I can't decide if it's pretty or tacky as all get out. Do you do that to yourselves? I figured I'd suspend judgment until the rest of the necklace is made and I see it all together. I almost took a picture to post here, but I figured you all might need to see the finished product as well. So after that, I began piecing together the start of the necklace I'm making with this gorgeous creation from Julsbeads:

(Photo by Julsbeads)

That mostly involved picking numerous threads off of the cream colored piece of sari silk I'm using. Then I had to combine all the threads into little piles and tie them into knots, which I attached to jump rings. Unsure what to do with them, I stuffed them into the ends of my mannequin's stockings. They don't belong there, but they are within reach of my beading chair. I had to stop when I realized that my next step was hammering, and it was nearly midnight. Sadly, living in a condo does not lend itself to late-night hammering. I'm eager to return to both projects, but my stylist's comes first.

Today, I signed up for Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party! WOO WOO!!! I'm super duper excited about that. I spent a few minutes looking through my supplies this morning, trying to see what I might pick out for my care package, and my first thought about what to send turned into a sketch and plans for another necklace! I was so thrilled by the idea of it, I couldn't bear to part with it. I'm really looking forward to trying to figure that one out, but again, Jeanne's purple and gold and hopefully not tacky necklace. 

Hopefully I'll get a couple of things made this weekend so I can post some new pictures for you. Oh, and lastly - Jeanne said that if I can make enough jewelry, she has a friend with a boutique on Metairie Road (for those of you not from around here, that's a pretty posh shopping area) that she's certain will want to sell my jewelry. Hooray! So I really, really, seriously really need to get cracking. I just need to figure out a way to speed up the creative process...