Happy New Year!

May 2011 bring you good health, happiness and the same excitement for beads and beading, that 2010 did! Cheers!

New Listings

 Big Cartel

 

Face Down Tuesday: Eeeeek Spider!

12.28.10

Update: The leather cording and Pewter Owl Clasps are back in stock at Fusion Beads.

Have you gotten all your components for the FusionBeads.com Reader Challenge?

Better shop now!

Reveal date: 1/10/11

Submit your jewelry to magazines!

It can be quite intimidating, and daunting- the thought of submitting your jewelry designs to magazines. It took me quite a while to muster up the courage to try it the first time. But once you start doing it, it becomes easier and easier, and writing instructions becomes a lot easier too.

Each of the magazines has it's own set of guidelines for submissions. You can generally find this information on the magazines website, or amongst the pages of a physical magazine. Read through the instructions carefully. Some publishers require you to send the jewelry in to them before they decide to use your pieces. Others only require you to send good quality digital images via email to make a preliminary decision.

One thing that is important, is practicing writing instructions. Depending on the publication, you will also have to study how the instructions are written for each. Some require you to write in more details, and some require certain wording when describing techniques.

Create designs that will stand out from the crowd, and definitely try to submit more than one design. Although some designs might be rejected, the more you submit, the more of a chance you have at getting some accepted. It's also smart to submit earrings or bracelets that match your submitted necklace designs. Sometimes publications like to showcase these together, and sometimes separately but within the same issue.

Here are some links to some of the popular beading magazines and their submission guidelines:

Stringing magazine

Bead Trends

Step by Step Wire

BeadStyle

Belle Armoire Jewelry

Beadwork



Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone a very safe, and happy Holiday season, and a beadiful New Year!

Flowers Dots and O Rings

One of my favorite new components to work with are Yvonne's rubber O rings, and petal dots beads- both from her Etsy store MyElements.  These bracelets seem to be quite popular, and people keep snatching them up.  I love the pairing between the rubber and the Vintaj Brass jump rings.  The color combination possibilities are endless- and they seem to work well with Green Girl Studios and Anne's Gardanne Beads enameled rounds.
The green one above is tentatively reserved, but the Purple one below is now available at Big Cartel.

Fusion Beads Reader Challenge: Shopping List

Now, Don't PANIC.  I'm just showing this now, for those of you who might want to shop for these items ahead of time. I'll show the list again in a few weeks and the deadline won't be til January 10th. (that's the reveal date: 1.10.11)
This time around, I decided to shop at an online venue, to accomodate all of my International friends out there! I chose a well stocked online shop, FusionBeads.com. However, I tried to shop for items that can be found at other online venues, just in case these things sell out, or become unavailable. If you shop at FusionBeads, enter the coupon code WELCOME to get 10% off your order!

For this challenge, You may create whatever you'd like. A necklace, a bracelet, earrings, whatever! You can use as much or as little of the items listed, I just show how many I chose to buy when getting these things. If you think 1 yard of leather cord is enough, go for it. If you don't like the lucite leaves, don't buy em. It's up to you-  but it's more fun knowing that we are all starting out with the same components.
Feel free to add in as many components as you want, your own focal, beads from your stash, but just make sure to try to use these components in your final piece.

On reveal day, you will show your project on your blog, and if you don't have a blog- please email the pictures to me and I will show them on my post. This will be a blog hop, so leave a comment on either this post, or the next reminder post, telling me you want to play along, and leave your blog link so I can compile the list. I'll post the list the day of the reveal. Any questions, just leave me a comment! Happy Shopping!

(Links are down below the pictures.)

Olive leather cording (2 yards) Available!

Owl Toggle from Green Girl Studios (1) Available!

Transparent Green Luster Fire Polished Rounds (1 pack of 10)

Transparent Gold/Smoke Luster Fire Polished Rounds (1 pack of 10)

Matte Dark Hunter Lucite walnut Leaf charms (8) SOLD OUT you can also find them at BeadinPath!

2.8mm Matte Metallic Teal/Gold Iris Drop Japanese Seed Bead  (1) 10 gram bag

5mm Tiger Kamagong Ebony Hardwood Round Bead (1) 16 in strand

Secret Santa

I participated in a Secret Santa swap, hosted by Nicole of Lillyella, and sent out my gift to my recipient a few days ago. I got my gift from a stay-at-home crafting Momma in Watervliet MI- I was thrilled to get an unexpected gift in the mail- there is nothing quite like it!!

Kailyn shopped at a local chocolatier and sent some tasty truffles, a girl after my own heart! ;)

She also stopped into her local bead shop, and sent along some gorgeous Owyhee Jasper, Turquoise bird shaped beads,  a hank of gorgeous gold glass seed beads, and some Tulip shaped Unakite! All packaged in the sweetest little Christmas themed TIN!!

I can't wait to find out what my recipient thought of the gift I sent! Hopefully she'll blog about it.

THANK YOU NICOLE, for organizing such a fun swap!

Inspired by...

 ...a watering can.....

African glass seed beads

Tagua Nut

Shibuichi Bird- Green Girl Studios

Lampwork disc- Gardanne Beads

Polyclay Humblebead- Humblebeads

Lampwork nugget- Kelleys Beads

Kazuri round

Czech glass

teal Metal round, and flower- MissFickleMedia

Brass clasp- Vintaj Brass Co.

 ...a chair....
                                                           Silver pendant- Hint Jewelry

Faceted pearls

Czech glass rounds and navy petals

Floral metal rounds- Tierra Cast

 

...a dress...

Ceramic Gingko pendant- TashaMck

wood

Czech glass nuggets

Lampwork- Kelleys Beads

Ceramic rounds- Elaine Ray

Ceramic tabs- Keith O'Connor

Ceramic Flower bead- Spirited Earth

Goldstone

 

Inspiration can be found anywhere you look. Last night, I was surfing one of my favorite websites, and found some items that sparked my imagination in ways I didn't know were possible. Fabric is a great source of inspiration, in the way of the dress and the chair upholstery.  The watering can proved a bit more difficult, but I was lucky enough to find some color drenched metal components from MissFickleMedia in my stash that echoed the metal accents on the bird on the can, perfectly!

When looking at inspirational pieces like these, look at the color, the textures, and the shapes- and pair those things with color, texture and shapes of beads.  In these instances it was easier to create simple beaded pieces, without a lot of wire working or other techniques.

Below are some more images that were inspiring me, but due to time, couldn't get to this beading session. Maybe they'll spark your creativity!

All products from Anthropologie

Christmas #1 and a Link Round Up

Joe and I celebrated Christmas with my family this past weekend. It was great to see each of my parents and spend some quality time with each of them. We came home feeling humble and happy!

For Christmas we'll travel to Connecticut to celebrate with my husband's family. Hoping the weather stays mild like it has been. After getting home last night, I was itching to get into the studio and will have 5 newbies showing up in one of my shops sometime today. In the meantime, click around and enjoy this past week's Bead Blogger links!

A Bead A Day
If you are interested in chainmaille, Lisa had the opportunity to host Blue Buddha Boutique's, Rebeca Mojica, as she kicks off her virtual book tour for "Chained".

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy reviews an innovative new web-based magazines from Interweave.

Art Bead Scene
It's the ABS annual Twelve Days of free art bead jewelry projects! Stop by and try out the Jingle Berry Lariat!

Beading Arts
How about an entire month of fast and easy tutorials for handmade jewelry gifts?

Beading & Books
Michelle shares ideas for beaded napkin rings to decorate your holiday table.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmis makes a button pin much more attractive with a felted background!

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Inspired by the snow on the ground, Cindy created a new ring - the Flurry Flower!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei has moved her bead studio, yet again!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean is delighted to present one of her latest book reviews of a remarkable book called 500 Plastic Jewelry Designs. Come and immerse yourself in the fascination of the heights which can be achieved using this medium through the brilliance of a collection of fantastic jewelry designers!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Want to win some luscious lucite components from The Hole Bead Shoppe? Seize your chance in this week's Thursday Giveaway!

baomp baomp...... chicachica.....

jelly fish

Michael's Reader Challenge Blog Hop

Welcome to the Third Michael's Reader Blog Challenge! With my friends Dani and Nancy, we 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 Necklace using the beads, picking their own clasp, focal and additional beads -- they could add 2 additional elements to their final piece. Today is the day where we all reveal the final projects! Happy Blog Hopping!

Here is my final necklace design. When I first sat down to create something with the beads, I had tried out a few things, and became frustrated and actually pushed the pile of beads away from me to work on something else entirely.  Two nights ago, I sat down to try again, and came up with this simple, asymmetrical number. 

I doubled the chain on both sides, but on one side, half way up, I wire wrapped a Red quartz rondelle. The red beads were 1 of my additions.  The pewter flying bird pendant from Lynn Davis works nicely with the Wintery mix of beads.

I used that blingy toggle that I got at Michael's when we picked out the beads. Up the right side of the chain, I simply wire wrapped the chosen beads randomly as dangles.

The bird pendant has a hole in the bottom, and figuring out what to hang from it, is always a struggle for me. I love my choice overall- a red silk ribbon with a Black and Raku Lampwork bead from Blue Seraphim- which  has a cool "lantern" shape.

I am so excited to reveal the next challenge but will wait til after Christmas to put up the shopping list. Yesterday I picked out a few things from FusionBeads.com. But the cool thing is, if you can't find the items, you can mostly like find the same items at other online venues too- so you shouldn't have trouble getting all the same components!  A hint: earthy, olive, OWLS, Leather, wood.  :)

Here are some detail shots for a closer look.

 

 http://Lorelei1141.blogspot.com (you are here!)

http://silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com

 http://blog.elysianstudiosart.com/

http://threeredbeads.blogspot.com/

http://starcitystory.blogspot.com/

http://erinsiegeljewelry.blogspot.com/

http://www.thistlefarmarts.blogspot.com/

http://therabbitmuse.blogspot.com/

http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/

http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com/

http://rosebud101-fortheloveofbeads.blogspot.com/

http://jenjuddrocks.blogspot.com/

http://formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

http://www.mylifeunderthebus.typepad.com/

http://deborahmpurdy.blogspot.com/

http://beadhappytoday.blogspot.com/

http://pinkicejewels.blogspot.com/

http://craftyhope.blogspot.com/

http://gr8findings.wordpress.com/

http://tropicbeads.blogspot.com/

http://melissaruth.com/blog/

http://maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com/

http://beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com/

Tentative Blog Hop list for Michael's Challenge...

I formulated this list by the people that left comments on the Michaels' challenge post saying that they were interested in playing along. If you don't see your name on this list and you are participating at tomorrow's blog hop, please leave a comment with your blog link, kthanksbye!


http://silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com

 http://blog.elysianstudiosart.com/

http://threeredbeads.blogspot.com/

http://starcitystory.blogspot.com/

http://erinsiegeljewelry.blogspot.com/

http://www.thistlefarmarts.blogspot.com/

http://therabbitmuse.blogspot.com/

http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/

http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com/

http://rosebud101-fortheloveofbeads.blogspot.com/

http://jenjuddrocks.blogspot.com/

http://formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

http://www.mylifeunderthebus.typepad.com/

http://deborahmpurdy.blogspot.com/

http://beadhappytoday.blogspot.com/

http://pinkicejewels.blogspot.com/

http://craftyhope.blogspot.com/

http://gr8findings.wordpress.com/

http://tropicbeads.blogspot.com/

http://melissaruth.com/blog/

http://maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com/

http://beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com/

Reminder Post!

 

I am here to remind you that Friday Dec 17th, is the reveal date for the current Michael's Reader Challenge!  Click that link if you need to catch up on what's happening.

The basic bottom line- buy the beads in that post, at Michaels....

create a necklace, use your own stash to supplement 2 extra types of beads, a clasp and a focal.

But this isn't really a strict rule, so go nuts!

This is a sneak peek of mine. See you Friday!

(oh, and if you don't have a blog, send your photos to my email and I'd be happy to post them for you!)

New Etsy listings

The bracelet above features a sweet little bird charm from Jade Scott. She used a map on this one, of Canada/New York- which I think it is pretty darn rad since I  live in NY. I used teal African glass, Faceted ovals of lemon chrysoprase, and coral stone ovals, and Vintaj Brass Co. findings.

This necklace turned out really cool. The ceramic cab, made by Lisa Peters, fit perfectly inside one of the little wooden bezels I had bought a while back. The cab has a shimmery quality to it that didn't really photograph very well, but is so pretty in person!
 I placed it on a simply strung necklace with orchid color peanut seed beads in a shiny and matte finish, and some metallic Swarovski crystal accents.

You can find both of these in my Etsy shop.

New Studio Space, again.

I swear, after this move, I am NOT moving my studio again. For a long time. anyway.
Here's how it all went down. We were long overdue for a new bed. We bought a new bed. We wanted to keep the old bed, because Joe built the headboard himself.  So the Studio moved down to the first floor office, the old bed moved to the ex-studio, and so. here we are. a new space.


The new studio is about 3/4 the size of the bedroom I was using upstairs. I suppose other than breathing room, there is really no need for that much empty floor space in the old studio. This one is definitely more cozy, and another bonus.... I can just yell to Joe who is in the family room watching the tube, instead of calling him on the phone intercom system.

The office part of the office, (desk and computer) stayed where it was because of the whole cable line/phone line issue. Also the large black bookcase/cabinet thingie stayed where it was, but the books were taken upstairs. The one thing I couldn't fit in the new space was the bookshelf that was holding all the bead bins.
So now, the search continues yet again, for the best solution for bead storage.  The bins, stacked 9 high, isn't really working- and one of these days, they are going to come crashing down, beads going everywhere, causing pure chaos and havoc.

For now, this works. It can definitely be improved and I'll be working on that.  In the meantime, I gotta get my butt in gear and start finishing up designs for the Jewelry Accord project before the first deadline.
If you don't hear from me much lately, just know- I'm here. Under this big pile o' beads.

Another Open House

I've mentioned my jewelry designer friend Tara before in the past, she's part of the shop on Etsy called Beaded Bird Designs. Tara had an open house last night for her jewelry and some home decor items that she crafted. I wanted to show you some pics of her set up, she did a lovely job showcasing her jewelry!

It was so festive for Christmas, with handmade paper garland, and greenery throughout the house. Tara had great lighting on her jewelry too, which makes a huge difference when trying to sell it. I need to work on this for my next show.

I love this little luggage suitcase thing that she used to display necklaces on! And the stacks of books on the table gave it a cool vintage feel.

For some of the displays she even ripped out pages from old books, and displayed her pieces on these. It all falls in line with her jewelry style. She creates a lot of pieces using chain, vintage skeleton keys, old watch parts, and buttons, all paired with a few colorful beads.

She had a drawing for a prize, and I won a pair of earrings! They are the sweetest pair, and will look great with everything.  I also bought one of her necklaces that has a cool Keith O'Connor ceramic bead on it (see the ohe in the pic above of the suitcase display, its the one on the far right!)

I also got a sweet fabric pin, just love it!! The fabric is a pretty print with blues and browns!

Love how she rolled up large printed paper and draped the necklaces acrossed it! Very Clever! And the open book with the necklaces dangling down, that is so cute!

Here are wall hooks and mirrors that Tara embellished. What a nice presentation, eh?? She did a nice job, I know she was nervous about it, but I think it turned out great!!

Hope you are all getting all your Christmas shopping done. I've been avoiding it like the plague. Can always think of something else I could be doing. That's not good. Like, I only have 14 more days left.

ack!

New Blog!

Come on over to the new Jewelry Accord blog, and find out who the contributors will be for our upcoming book!  While you're there, become a follow by click the Follow button on the side bar. We'll keep you updated on designs featuring cordings, special guest bloggers, giveaways, and more!  Click the pic to take you there!

Friday Favorites

 Lichen- JenniferTough

 Fir Tree with Owls- Intres

Owl Camera Strap cover- StudioMacDesigns

 Attaining Godspeed- Mincing Mockingbird

Lapidary Whimsy Shard set- Ellen Dooley

 Bird Clutch- Studio Waterstone

seriously, someone PLEASE buy this because I am truly coveting it for myself, and

we all know I do not need another zippered pouch. Hush up, Nancy!

Flower Lentil bead set- Golem Studio

Ok, Moving on...

Let me catch you up one what you've missed these past few days, before the cranky pants showed up at my blog.  Erin arrived at the airport on Friday, late afternoon. I drove to Syracuse to pick her up, and it was great to see her walk through the airport. If only we lived closer, she's one of those people that you want to hang out with every second because she's positive, easy going and so rad!

We headed home and picked up Joe and then headed to our favorite Mexican restaurant for some grub. It was delicious! That night we did some last minute beading, and Erin created some earrings for our book that are going to knock your socks off. We talked shop, we talked shopping, we talked jewelry, and Christmas, and Family, we talked and beaded and enjoyed ourselves well into the night. 

Saturday morning, we enjoyed a great breakfast out, and then started getting everything set up for the Open house. The food is always my favorite part of this event- I made Chocolate Chip Zucchini bread, we had tomato pie, hummus, tabbouleh, pretzels, chips, french onion dip,  and Toffee crunch cookies (that unfortunately burned) The fire burned warmly in the fireplace. People started arriving about 2pm, and it was pretty steady for 2 hours.  Although I probably didn't sell as much as I did last year,  the sales equaled last years totals- all in all, a great success!

After that ended, Erin and I went out to Michael's so that she could pick up the beads for the Michael's challenge. (the reveal date is Dec 17th!)  Erin and I are so different in our shopping habits, Erin is a thinker. She plans things in her head as shops, where I get so distracted by the pretty that I just buy the first thing that catches my eye.  I ended up buying several boxes of Swarovski crystals in a myriad of colors, and some chain.

We headed next door to TJ Maxx, as I've been constantly thinking of better ways to store my jewelry. We were looking for jewelry stands but ended up finding the coolest fabric lined trays instead. I think these are wonderful. The compartments are big enough for even chunky necklaces and pieces don't get all tangled with each other, which is a goal lately! Of course we had to get one of each color!

That night we had a nice chat session with Nancy, since she got a new mac and we can now skype. That girl always makes me laugh, and it was cool to see Nancy and Erin talking face to face for the first time. Unfortunately the conversation was geared towards the cranky pants comments on the blog, and not more fun and interesting topics like beading and shopping. 

Got a great nights sleep that night, and Sunday we enjoyed an enormous brunch at the Radisson. Headed out to Syracuse, and stopped in at a local craft fair where Nancy was selling her wares. It was a packed show, they really had a wide range of different vendors. I snagged a couple of cute ceramic tumblers. 

From there we headed to the local Barnes & Noble to kill some time before Erin's flight. We had a chance to take a small video of the announcement of the Contributor winners. Now I just have to figure out how to get the video OFF the camera. I can see it's on there, but when I put the card in the computer, it doesn't show up. Reading the instructions would probably help but that's not how I roll. So if anyone has any suggestions,  please let me know!

It was sad to see Erin leave, and I am looking forward to our next visit to Amesbury this summer to see her, and Josh and the baby. But we are trying to plan a fun beady trip to NYC sometime in mid-January.  I hope it works out, I am dying to go back to Metalliferous again.

In other beady news, the contributor announcement will be happening very soon.  I am working on jewelry for our book first and foremost!,  a fun Secret Santa swap, the Michael's challenge, the Christmas party donation for the silent auction at work, and will be putting together posts for the 12 days of Christmas BOOK giveaways! Lots going on in the studio these days- I'm also planning on moving the studio downstairs to my office. A smaller space, but we are doing some rearranging upstairs to accommodate a new bed in the master bedroom. One that will allow more room for Miss Marley to stretch out her paws, and not lay on top of my legs every dang night.

Hope everyone is enjoying the comforts of home, the holiday hustle and bustle, and getting all their shopping done. Speaking of shopping, ours is currently on hold due to some fraud that ended up resulting in an empty bank account. :(  Hoping it all gets resolved soon!

Cheers!