Winner TIMES TWO!

That's right! I don't just have one winner of 30-Minute Necklaces- I HAVE TWO!!

According to the Random Integer generator,
Numbers 56 and 23 are the winners!

Congratulations goes to

BETH!

and......


IMAGINATIVE JEWELRY!

Send me your addresses, and I will send out your signed copies of 30- Minute necklaces! woot!

I puffy heart Keith O'Connor

Beware, this may be a jealousy- inducing post!   Ceramic bead artist, Keith O'Connor had some business yesterday in New York State, and offered to stop by for me to be able to have my own little personal trunk show. I have never seen all of Keith's beads all in one place and was amazed at the scope of his work, that I had no idea about. Did you know Keith makes buttons!? and Cabs!? And may different pendants and shaped beads? 

So he arrived last night and pulled all the trays out and laid them on my dining room table, for me to peruse. It was all I could do to not climb up on the table and roll around in them all- they were so beautiful all together. Keith agreed that pictures would be cool and so, here you go.

I know, it's pretty amazing isn't it? I could have died.  Unfortunately I didn't have a whole lot of cash to spend so it probably wasn't really that worth it for him to come here but I bought what I could and am happy with what I chose, and know the beads will be put to very good use.

I have to say, there is nothing quite like shopping for beads in the comfort of your own home, with a glass of wine in hand. 

This pic above is my favorite, of all of them that I took. There is something so calming about seeing long skewers of beads in every color of the rainbow. I basically took 2 beads of almost each shape tried to pick colors that were in a variety of shades and not just the teal and greens! 

Below, are some of Keith's newest beads, I am LOVING the floral patterns on these and did buy a few in red and teal, and a few purple too.

Keith told me last night that The Beadin Path, of Freeport ME, now has a large selection of Keith's new beads. You can see them on their website here.

It was somewhat daunting having so many choices all at once.  It took me quite a while to actually pick which ones I wanted- trying to think of how I would use them, and what colors would be cool to have on hand.  


I tried to get Keith to just take them all upstairs to my studio and he could go on his merry way, but that didn't fly. ;)

I am looking forward to buying more of the small rounds in many colors, after my show next weekend. 

And here is most of the selection that I purchased last night....

I'll be away from my computer for the weekend so I'll meet you all back here on Sunday evening when I pick the winner of the 30 Minute Necklaces book giveaway!

Oh, you didn't know about the giveaway?

Go here and ENTER!

30- Minute Necklaces- A giveaway!

30-Minute Necklaces: 60 Quick & Creative Projects for Jewelers by Marthe Le Van is available through Lark Books.  A 136-page paperback book, with interesting and thought-provoking projects that should each only take about 30 minutes to create. This is my kind of beading book, especially since I don't generally like to take a lot of time to create my designs!
I love the inspiring projects, and the fact that there is a little bit of everything, for the beader or the metalsmither. The projects are clear and easy to understand, and the photography is stellar, showing an overall shot of the finished piece, and a nice close up for each piece.
A few of my friends are in this one as well, Erin Strother (who I'm sure you've seen in Stringing magazine) and also author Brenda Schweder!

I have one Author-signed copy of this book, and am giving it away! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post!  I will draw a random comment to win, on Sunday evening, Oct 31st! Happy Halloween!

i wanna go to raleigh

update: I'm going to Raleigh!! Thank you all so much for shopping the sale. The sale code is now expired.
1. i have never been there. but i know a lot of people have moved to that area and really like it. so i'm thinking it would be a cool place to visit.

2. my dear cousin carey lives there, and i haven't seen her in like oh i don't know, 20 years or something crazy. i would love to be able to hang with her and meet her husband, and see her kids who are the most adorable girls ever.

3. i need to go to my favorite online bead store- ORNAMENTEA because that is where their brick and mortor store is located. i may even get to possibly meet Elaine Ray who is one of my favorite bead makers ever.

And so, to raise some money for my plane ticket, I am having a flash sale in my shop. Type RaleighBound in the notes to seller on Etsy and I will take 35% off your purchase- I will send a revised invoice but if you forget and pay, i'll just refund the 35%.
 And if you are shopping on Big Cartel, the coupon code for the 35% is also RaleighBound

Treasures found

Sunday morning I headed out with Joe to a small town about 40 minutes away, to go to one of my favorite antique malls- I was on the hunt to find either wooden boxes, or some sort of rustic props for my display table at my upcoming show. Remember last year, when I used the old window? I'll be using that again this year as well- but I want to also use some more vintage finds instead of manufactured jewelry stands. 

Joe had the eye that day and found this really awesome time card slot. Ooookay. Can you believe how cool this is??  AND the color is amazing!! I think it will be fab just hanging on the wall when it's not in use, but I have visions of this holding timecard-size cards punched with holes, holding earrings. I plan to make some cards for it, and then stamp the prices and maybe an owl on each card for a bit of character.

 

I thought I could use these small manila tags, but when I slip them into the slots, they slide all the way down preventing them to showcase the earrings clearly.

So, I'll have to make my own. I could get fancy and create eyelets, and add string to the ones I make, not sure if I will put all that time into it though knowing that people may just ditch em when they get home.

I also found this cute little wooden bench. When displaying jewelry, I like to have things at different heights so that people have a variety of things to look at when shopping. It adds nice dimension to the table and the rustic look of this will work perfectly. I also think it might make a pretty cool photo prop so I may try that out today.

And then lastly, I found this old wooden toolbox, the best thing about it, the leather strap handle! How cool is that!? I haven't seen anything like that before, and this piece is really kind of "off" which I also love. I'm unsure how I'll use this one in the display, maybe if I had prepackaged earrings on cards or something- who knows. Leave a comment if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

From a previous antiquing adventure, I also have this long wooden tool box that has a long metal pipe type handle. I think I might use it, and attach bracelets to the handle for a display.  Next thing on the docket, to find some appropriate non-fancy, rustic lamps for the table. And table coverings. And then I should be well on my way!!

Weekend Bead Blog Links

A Bead A Day Need help embracing seasonal change? Lisa uses a bit of swarovski sparkle to make the leap!
About.com Jewelry Making Tammy has a collection of crafting Halloween project ideas as well as an adorable monster pin for you.

Art Bead Scene A free jewelry project by ABS Editor, Cindy Gimbrone.

Barbe Saint John Barbe 's finally a Cover Girl!

Beading Arts Are you interested in adding found objects to your bead embroidery? Cyndi has just released the fourth chapter of her e-book, which shows you how to go wild!

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi whips up a new necklace with a "Day of the Dead" theme.

Cindy Gimbrone, The Lampwork Diva It's time to get educated and Cindy provides some stats along with rainbows.
Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Check out the goodies Melanie found at an antique mall...What would you craft with these items that are full of history?

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Lorelei is teaming up with designer Erin Siegel, to write their first beading book! Come on over and learn how you can sign up to submit work for the book!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean has contributed a one of a kind jewelry piece which she made to help raise funds for Andrew Thornton's medical bills. She is delighted to help, on behalf of her family. Please come and see the piece and consider bidding. Thanks so much!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton Three of Andrew's necklaces are amongst the gorgeous finalists in Soft Flex Company's "Flex Your Creativity Beading Contest". Check out all of the Steampunk-inspired designs and VOTE today!

BOC EVENT- don't miss it!

This event held by the Beads of Clay group is so fun, you should definitely attend if you are around this afternoon. I am definitely going to try to be there. There are giveaways and great sales on ceramic beads- a great time to stock up on all of your favorites!

Hope you are all having a great weekend.  Yesterday I made this:

I love how it turned out, very earthy and feminine. I am going to have to get more of that cool  brass bicycle chain, it's the coolest.

I went around the house and took some pictures, thought I'd share some of my home with you. Maybe they'll be inspiring photos, who knows.

TGIF

What a whirlwind of a week it's been. I am looking forward to a nice quiet, relaxing weekend. One thing I'm looking forward to is finally chatting with Erin to see how it all went this week, she had her baby girl on Wednesday!  I don't know any details, but can't wait to find them out! I hope we can maybe Skype and I can actually see the baby too! That will be such a treat. Gotta love technology!

I am loving the beautiful and positive response to our big announcement this week! I am already seeing some really great submissions in the Flickr group, I can't believe you guys are SO FAST! I want to reiterate the fact that if you have any specific questions about the submission process, please feel free to email me. I would be happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have.

The jewelry pieces above are now available for sale in my big cartel shop.

have a great weekend!

coming soon: a few great book reviews and giveaways!

making him smile

 this is me with my 15 yr old brother, Bren

bren doesn't say much.

he hates talking to me on the phone.

and i can rarely make him smile.

that's why i bought him this ugly doll.

 i mailed it to him today.

so if the doll doesn't make him smile....

maybe these photos will. ;)

have you made someone smile lately?

Important Announcement that surpasses all other announcements

 

We want this to be fun and exciting for you as well! We are sharing this opportunity with all of you here in this beading community. We are looking for jewelry designers to contribute projects to our book! Yes, that’s right, YOU could be apart of this with us and have YOUR work “out there” and published in a BOOK and get paid for it!!! What could be better than that! We have chosen one contributor already, but we’ve decided to open the field up and give some others a chance to be part of this project. We are looking for one other designer, possibly two. If you are chosen to contribute to the book, you will be paid on a per project basis. We would like up to 5 projects from each contributor. Your jewelry designs and complete instructions will be printed in the book along with your name and contact info. You will also receive a free copy of the book when it is published. We are excited to be able to take an opportunity like this and share it. We hope you will be really enthusiastic about this upcoming book project! So, now you want to know what the book is about, right? Well here it goes:

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: A Jewelry Accord: 50+ Innovative Styles Using Leather, Lace, Ribbon & Cords
A fundamental jewelry-making instruction book with a focus on the use of alternative materials in beaded jewelry such as, leather cord, suede lace, waxed linen cord, cotton cord, silk cord, ribbons and other cords. This book teaches how to incorporate these materials into jewelry designs using basic jewelry-making techniques such as stringing, wire-wrapping, knotting and braiding.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR:

Do you enjoy using cords, ribbons or fibers in your jewelry? Would you be super excited and pumped to have your designs published in a book? If your answer is YES to these questions, then you could be who we are looking for!
There are some rules and requirements, so please read carefully.

• Please US residents only. We are very sorry, we wish we could invite absolutely everyone. :(

• We can not accept any projects that have been previously published.

• Your projects must represent original work by you.

• You must create your projects using basic jewelry-making techniques such as stringing, crimping, wire-wrapping, wrapped loops, knotting, simple braiding, etc. Think Stringing Magazine. Look through the techniques section to get an idea of what would be appropriate for this book. You may use more than one technique in a single piece.

• Necklaces and bracelets only please.

• Your jewelry projects must incorporate at least one type of cord or ribbon material in each design.

• We encourage you to use various cord and ribbon findings to finish off your pieces such as crimp-style or fold-over style cord ends, glue-in style cord ends, cone findings, clamshells, knot cups, ribbon ends or clamps, etc. Please look around and see what’s out there on the market today for options.

• We encourage you to use art beads and/or artisan made findings and jewelry components, if you want to, although this is not a requirement.

• We also encourage you to try incorporating more than one type of cording material in a single piece. Try mixing suede lace with silk ribbon or linen cord with leather cord or whatever combination you can come up with! Have fun with it! Use your imagination and don’t be afraid to experiment with the materials! 

• If you are chosen to contribute to the book, you will be responsible for supplying a complete materials list, list of tools used, complete instructions and a resource list for each of your jewelry projects.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING:

1. If you think you might be seriously interested in this opportunity, please fill out this form and send it ASAP.

2. Please join the Jewelry Accord Flickr Group and start submitting your jewelry designs that fit the above mentioned criteria. To be considered for the book, you must submit at least 1 jewelry design. You may submit up to 5 designs. We ask that any and all interested individuals to please have your jewelry designs submitted to this flickr group by December 1st 2010. Thank you!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us. My email is in my profile. We are looking forward to hearing from you! Please feel free to spread the word on this CALL out! Happy Beading! :)

OH! and here is Erin's link!!
doh!

Gaea's Copy Me Challenge

Gaea decided to challenge us,  and requested that we take inspiration from this bracelet and reinterpret it in our own way. You can read her original post here.  I was one of the lucky ones picked to create a piece for the challenge.  The others that were chosen at random were:

 Michelle
Erin
For My Sweet Daughter
SueBeads
Spirited Earth


At first, I was a bit stumped. The "Copy Me" challenge was taken a bit too literally and I started out creating a bracelet that looked scarily too much like this original. So I revamped my piece into a more "lorelei" style and ended up with a necklace in the end.

The focal on my necklace is a pewter heart lock from Lynn Davis. I hoard many of Lynn's pieces, but was finally willing to let this one go. I tend to really really love each design that features one of her pendants. Some people are just SO TALENTED. seriously.

I dispersed the Mermaid rounds that Gaea sent to all of the participants, in between some cranberry glass rounds, and chain, in darkened silver tone, and brass. Mixing metals is always a great way to create a true vintage inspired piece of jewelry- but it modernizes it just enough.

I wire wrapped a couple of garnets by the LOVE focal, which plays off of the garnets used in Gaea's original bracelet design. The stamped Love focal is actually from Jeanette Blix of Fundametals.
This was another of my totally random beading projects where I didn't lay out the final design but instead just grabbed beads and and components and put them together randomly.

I really loved this challenge and hope that Gaea hosts something like this again soon. It's a great exercise to stretch your imagination and creativeness and teaches you how to be inspired by the overall design without completely replicating the piece of jewelry bead for bead. I hope that the people who struggle with this task, learn something great from this post.

Perfect Pairings

All clothing can be found at Anthropologie

All jewelry from Lorelei Eurto:

Can be found at big cartel or etsy

Michaels Reader Challenge- Blog Hop

Update! I have been adding links all morning so be sure to get the most updated blog hop list on my post this morning!

 
Welcome to my first Reader Blog Challenge! I chose several strands of beads and some chain from Michael's craft store. I posted the pics here on my blog and readers ran out to their local Michael's and snagged as much as they could from the choices I gave. The "rules" were that each person needed to create a piece of jewelry using the beads, they had to create their own clasp, and if they wanted to add beads, they could add 2 additional elements to their final piece. Today is the day where we all reveal the final projects!

As you can see, this is my necklace below. I created a longer style and my additional beads were: a strand of copper fringe chain, some ceramic beads from Nan Emmett of Spirited Earth, and the focal- is a wood ring. I also grouped all the chain into one of Elaine Ray's ceramic bead cones. Now, as I'm looking at the pics, I realize I did not follow my own rules- because I didn't even include a clasp on my necklace. Good going Lor. Well, better luck next time.
And there will be a next time! I think that the next time, I'll pick a nice well-stocked online venue like Fusion Beads. This will allow more International beaders to participate.

A couple people chose to email me their photos, since they aren't bloggers. So I'm going to share those with you here as well.

First up is Stephanie Silva. Looks like Stephanie created a longer style necklace with some dangles off the focal. Her additional items were brass chain, some ruby colored rounds, and I see some sweet creamy white chain links used in a unique way!  

Judy of Three Red Beads, submitted a gorgeous design- the one thing I notice is the embellished clasp. How beautiful! Looks like she added in some iridescent triangular seed beads in a red tone, and is rocking the multi-strand style. Love how this one turned out, very unique!!

Tess Miller of Totally Beadazzlin Jewelry Designs submitted a piece with a pendant focal!  Here's what Tess said about her piece: "...I loved your eclectic selection of beads ~ several that I wouldn't normally have chosen.  I grabbed pink Rhodolite and some yummy purple Amethyst as my two add-in options.  As I layed all the beads out and pondered, they seemed to be begging me for an asymetrical design ~ something I've not been hugely successful at completing in the past (yet another challenge).  I also wanted to come up with something unusual for the clasp, so I ended up attaching the base of my homemade clasp and the hook portion together on one side, using the white chain on the other side and giving the length of the piece a little more "adjustability".  I hadn't seen that before and I’m kinda diggin' it the more I look at it."

And we have another longer style necklace from Ellen Wagner. Ellen added some beautiful copper filigree pieces, a large green coordinating focal, and did some funky weaving of the green pearls and chain at one side. Clever! Ellen couldn't find the wooden cubes she she bought some interesting wood cylinder beads and used them in her final piece.

Betty just got her necklace image to me and I wanted to add it in before the day gets away from us! Looks like Betty went with asymmetrical style, which I Love!! And check out that interesting stringing technique at the front of the necklace with the jade and chain. WOWZA!

Sue and Danny submitted this lovely necklace to me this morning. Danny has Autism, but loves to bead! I can't say I blame him! He puts all the beads together, and Sue, his Mom, does all the wire wrapping and stringing. It turned out lovely, and Danny was quite excited to be part of his first contest. I applaud them both!

Here is a submission from Paula... A more complicated necklace design that is out of this world. Love that dragonfly focal!

Paula said:
"I added shell rectangles from bead gallery to balance out the square to circle ratio of the components, another larger white chain from bead landing, and I used enamel paint to create a white washed finish on a dragonfly pendant from enchanted planet and used findings from bead landing, ( I missed the make your own clasp part, sorry again)."

Melanie submitted her necklace to me, and this is the first time that someone other than family and friends has seen her work! Join me in giving Melanie a sweet round of a applause because she did a great job with this challenge! I love the simplicity of her necklace design!

Birgitta (love that name!) emailed me her necklace design this morning, and I was excited to see another International diva that has been able to participate in this challenge.

Birgitta had Nan of Spirited Earth send her the Michaels beads, and she came up with a knock out necklace. She had this to say about her piece:

So I had to come up with a new idea....
In the same envelope sent by Nan (spirited earth) I  got some  jummie
stuff she made that I decided to use
her leaf in front and branch :)  Thanks Nan for the help!!
I got the white lentils and wooden cubes + the white chain
I choose multicolor jade ( a bit pumpkinlooking)  instead of some soft
green from my own treasures and some big but round white pearls...(no
green pearls)
I was rather brave too / solder on copper a ring to the white chain
(matching my clasp)  but it only got a little bit brown ....matches the
rest :)








Enjoy hopping through all the blogs to see what everyone came up with! Happy Sunday!

Mary Harding
Hilary of Fryestyle
For My Sweet Daughter
My Life Under the Bus
Kristie of DreamSomeDesigns
Linda's Bead Blog & Meanderings

Copper Diem

Andrew Thornton
TyneBodenNecklaces
Raida of HavanaBeads
Erin of Treasuresfound
Molly of BeautifullyBrokenMe
Beading by Malin de Koning

AuntieAnnie
Gr8Findings
Deborah M Purdy
Spirited Earth

Erin Siegel Jewelry
beads by breul
Beads for Busy Gals
Cynths Blog
Nayas Organized Chaos
Crafty Hope
2 catch a hummingbird

Rosebud For the Love of Beads
Jamberry Song
Peacock Fairy
Elysian Studio Art
Designs by Debi
sweet girl design

Silver Rose Designs
Tropic Beads
Imaginative Jewelry
Magnolia Attic
Jeni Smathers
Glass Addictions