Ema K's Trunk Show and Auction

I am hosting an online trunk show this weekend. I am auctioning off over 80 items! Included in the auction are lampwork beads, copper jewelry components and jewelry, all handmade by me. The event begins at 9 am on February 22  and ends at 7 pm on February 24.

Come on over to my Facebook fan page and join in the fun! Auction items can be found here.

All the details can be found on the event page. I hope to see you there.

Focus on Life Week 7

A new blog post is up on my new blog page.
Focus on Life, Week 7, is all about Flowers

Hop on over, check it out and join my new page.
http://www.emakdesigns.com/2/post/2013/02/focus-on-life-week-7.html

New Website = New blog page

Hi Everyone,
It has been a while since I posted here. At the beginning of January I began blogging from my website. I invite you to join me at www.emakdesigns.com/blog.

There is lots of beads, jewelry and fun happenings going on so I hope you will join me.

A 52 week exploration in photography, Focusing on Life. Sally Rusik at The Studio Sublime is hosting a wonderfully inspiring word prompt each week. All the the participants are challenged to take this prompt and translate it into a photograph. I just love the positive thoughts this challenge leads to all week long as we ponder Sally's prompts.

A Wellness Words Jewelry Challenge hosted by Tracy Statler of Make Bracelets.

Lisa Lodge is hosting a jewelry challenge over at Pine Ridge Treasures. 

The 7th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party.

Erin Prias-Hintz of Treasures Found is hosting the Challenge of Music.

I am so excited to share that my work was published in Bead Trends Magazine February 2013! 

All this and it is only the first quarter of the year. I'm sure there will be much more goodness happening. So jump on over to my new blog and follow me.

Thanks for visiting. See you at www.emakdesigns.com/blog.

Lampwork Bead Destash Sale has begun

Today is the day, The HUGE sale over at my Facebook Fan Page. I invite you all to stop by and have a look at all the beads I have up for sale. It is time to let go of some oldies but goodies to make room in my studio for new ideas to grow. There is nothing I want more than to send some beads from my studio to yours.

Here is a brief sampling of the some the beads on sale.

 

I set up a photo album, Lampwork Bead Destash Sale by Ema K which has all the information you need on the how sale will work. 

 See you there, at the Destash Sale.

Happy 2013 from Ema K

A new year has arrived and I am looking forward to it. 2012 was a tough year for me personally and I am ready to move on. One new item on my list is my new website! Yay! I just love the look and all the options available to me here. I can blog directly from my site. I love that. 

I invite you to subscribe to my new blog. I intend to be blogging once or twice a week, so don't worry about getting too much information in your inbox.

What is happening in 2013? Well first up is a huge destash sale. I have been working hard on taking photos of the ooooh sooooo MANY lampwork beads I have. I have too many and it is time for them to find a new, loving home. 
Here is a sampling of one of the pieces which I will selling for HALF OFF the original price! Yes 1/2 PRICE!
It is a good deal for you and allows me to clear some space for new work on my bead table. 

On Monday January 7th I will begin to pictures in a Destash Beads album on my Facebook fan page. The rules of purchasing will be as follows:
The first to comment "SOLD" will be the new owner.
Post your paypal address or send me a message with your paypal address and I will send you an invoice.
Shipping will be $3.00 for the first item and .50 cents per additional item. 
The sale will continue through Saturday the 12th and beads will ship out on Monday the 14th. 

There will be one shipping date because I will be adding beads all week and this will allow you the chance to add additional beads to your order which will ship in one package on the 14th. I will post at different times of the day to allow for various time zones and work schedules, so don't fret about missing out on the bargains.

In February and March I am going to have tutorials published in two magazines. I am excited about that. Stay tuned for more to follow.

Thanks for stopping by and please join me on my new site: Ema K Designs blog.

Have a great weekend, see you Monday.

 ~ Ema

Reflecting and Looking Forward to 2013

The holiday season is here! Are you ready? I still have a few people I need to find gifts for and I am feeling stumped. Hopefully gift ideas will come to me within the next couple of days, as I'm not a very good at last minute gift buying. That thought brings me to the point of today's post. I plan to be off line for the next couple of weeks. Taking some time to spend with my kids and my family without thinking about creating or marketing my work. I hope to refresh my spirit, get a couple of projects off my list and just have fun.

This has been a busy year for me, full of interesting learning curves. While dealing with multiple members of my family having serious health issues (which thankfully are behind us now) I found I completely immersed myself into learning new techniques in order to maintain my sanity.  

I kicked off the year by creating a Katwise sweater coat for myself.

Sweaters were taking over my kitchen.

But I LOVE my coat. 

I took painting classes.

I gifted myself a lampworking class with a fantastic teacher, Trey Cornette. Lampworking classes are very expensive so I don't take a class too often but I really needed something to make me feel better at this time. I have long been an admirer Trey's work and there was no way I was going to miss this opportunity.

These are the beads I created in Trey's class. With Trey's help I was finally able to work silvered glass in the flame without it turning a muddy brown. This was huge and exciting for me! Sometimes it is a small thing that makes me so incredibly happy.

One of the beads I adorned with kumihimo braided seed beads. I just love this piece!

I spent a great deal of time researching and learning metal working techniques. I worked on etching copper in an acid bath and a more environmentally friendly etch using a salt water bath.

These are the results of my first experiments with the salt water etch.

Now that I was creating with metal I needed to finally learn how to use my jewelers saw so I could cut and shape the metal into jewelry components. I read a wonderful book, Metal Artist's Workbench: Demystifying the Jeweler's Saw. This book was extremely helpful in getting me to understand how the jewelers saw works and provided some great practice projects.

A finished piece of jewelry, using lampwork beads and etched copper as a focal which has been colored using Vintaj patina inks. This bracelet was a gift to my niece for her birthday.

In addition to etching metal I learned to emboss and impress images onto metal. Now this is really fun to do!

These bracelet focals have been cut, sanded, embossed, patina added using liver of sulfer, sanded some more, shaped with a partial curve and sealed.

I purchased the book Painting with Fire by Barbara Lewis. Barbara developed a technique of adding enamels to metal without using a kiln. I was lucky enough to visit Barbara at her new store (of the same) and got a mini private lesson. I haven't had a chance to explore painting with fire in my own studio. I intend to do more of that in 2013.

Enameled metal beads

The internet has so much to offer in terms of learning new techniques. I have to credit many of the fabulous women I have met through A Creative Bead Chat group on Facebook. Without them I'm not sure I would have learned so much this year. Thank you CBCers.

There is still so much more I look forward to learning and adding to my work and sharing with you.

I have some exciting events coming up during the first few months of 2013. 

Over my break I will be going through my beads (oh there are so many beads) and jewelry preparing for a huge destash sale during the week of January 7th. Stay tuned to my Facebook fan page for the details.

In February and March my work is going to be published in two different issues of beading magazines! I am very excited about this and will share more details about this in January as well.

In late February I will be hosting an online auction of my work on the Facebook site, Artisans Open Market. I hope you will be able to join me for this event. Stay tuned to my blog and my Facebook page for all the happenings.

I have a few other ideas in the works for January too. I'm thinking about a Component of the Day, offering a bead or jewelry component at half price! What are your thoughts about that deal?

Thanks for joining me and I hope all my friends are enjoying their December Holiday Celebrations and I hope you all have a very Happy New Year.

See you in 2013!

AW Holiday Earrings Winner

The winner is.....comment number 11.
One comment per person was counted to determine the total number of comments. I used a random number generator to determine the winner.

I said the winner would receive a pair of my new earring design but I didn't have a photo of the exact earrings. These are the earrings I will be sending along to the lucky winner.

And the winner is Shelley Graham Turner! Congratulations Shelley.

I thank you all for entering and visiting my blog. If you are interested in owning your very own pair of earrings like this please visit my Etsy shop and I invite you to join me on Facebook  to stay current with my new designs.