Dings and Things

Hello friends!

Are you frantically scrambling to finish up all of your holiday loose ends? I am happy to say I am just about done with mine ;) I loaded the last of my new beads and jewelry designs into the shops today. Wanna see??

Here are the NEW pretties I added to the shop! The top two pairs of earrings I made for gifts, but the others  on the bottom are in the shop. Do you ever look at your beads and immediately think of people? Well that's how it was when I made my new Dings and created the earrings :) I love it when that happens.

The bottom two designs just kind of came together ;) I used my new "silver snowfall" glass headpins for the "Silver Snowfall Spiral" earrings on the left because I received some GORGEOUS wooly wire that matched them perfectly! The other earrings I created I called "Circus Carousel". The gorgeous verdegris patinated hoops are from Starry Road Studio and the super amazing batiked spikes are from S L Artisan Accents. I had some of this design in my mind for a long while, but mostly the spikes and the hoops together. When I pulled out my beads I found some awesome matching Wing Dings from my "Bright Earth" set! Magic is all I can say!

More dings! Do you remember "Lagoon"? It's been FOREVER since I had that set in my shop! I was really happy to get some more made. I even did some new stone neutrals in the weeny ding size. They are super tiny and super sweet! I just love their small size and texture :D

Here we are again back at square one with my dreads. My last set were coming loose and they were so full of wax they weren't dreading. I was sad to have to brush them all out and wash with dawn soap. It was a nightmare to say the least! Luckily my friend Joey that just finished up beauty school was kind enough to section all of my hair for us. It took him 2 HOURS to get all of my hair sectioned into nice even pieces for Ricky to dread. 

Here are the new dreads so far. Wow, they look like a HOT MESS, but they will tame down in a few days. We tried the twist and rip method and the back combing method. NO WAX this time so they will be a fuzzy mess for a bit. It's ok though cause I don't give up easily. All things worth having are worth fighting for. That's my little quote to myself. It's always true ;) 

Well on that note I should go grab some late lunch/early dinner and get to creating some more Christmas gifts!

Wishing you and yours a most magical Holiday Season!

xoxo Genea

Workin' my way back to "Normal"

Hello friends! 

I am trying to get back into whatever groove my new "normal" is. I made these beauties this week. I'm still having a little bit of a hard time getting on a normal schedule since everything is so not normal. Luckily awesome beads are still working their way out of my hands :D

Um, HOLY DELICIOUS, huh?! 

Here are some of the beads I made last week. Some of them have already sold, but the pile of beads was pretty ;)

Here are the NEW beads you can find in my Etsy shop.

I made this AMAZING pair of earrings for my friend, Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio. I made them to match her special birthday necklace her husband commissioned me to make for her birthday. Aren't they going to be magical together?!

Are these, SEXY or what?!

She is going to be the envy of all her friends :P 

Things are still all kind of crazy around here as I try to get my schedule back to normal. In baby news, we are still waiting for little miss Ayla to make her appearance. It was an up and down roller coaster for all with the doctors trying to decide what to do as far as delivering her early. I was told she is a nice healthy 7 lbs today and looking awesome! Her induction is scheduled for this Saturday, but I am hoping she comes earlier naturally. I heard induction SUCKS BALLS :( I also hope she makes her appearance before the 24th so she is a Libra instead of a Scorpio >:D There has been a huge fuss over it being "Scorpio Season" and celebrating that little Ayla will be a Scorpio. We shall see... 

Well I best be off! I have some dinner to eat before visiting my little sissy at the hospital.

See you soon! Thanks for stopping in!

xoxo Genea

Gettin' my BEACH on! NEW work in the shop!

Hello friends!

Wow what a MARATHON SHOP UPDATE! I was crankin' out those beads this past week! Some of the awesomeness didn't get snapped up a the preview so the shop was lucky to get a fine selection of new awesome work!

The "Q&D" for those of you that just want a quick peek before heading to the shop.

So I had to list EACH one of these in the shop. Instead of posting each one, you can find them HERE.

Yep, same here. See above ^^

These are SO pretty and they just were not very cooperative to photograph. You can find them here and here.

"Innie" style Sea Urchin clasp on steel. Boy is this metal HARD to shape! Not sure if I will be making more of these for that reason so if you love them, grab them!

"Outie" Urchin Clasp

"Outie" Urchin Clasp

Wing Dings "Rainbow Urchin Silver Sand" Um.. yeah, I DID it! Aren't these so incredibly GORGEOUS?!

Wing Dings "Ocean Beach Stone Jewel" O...M.... G... Nice relaxing day at the beach?! I think so!

Beach Stone Droplet "Ocean Jewel"- So I have to tell you about the details cause they are not totally apparent and I want you to appreciate my labor of love on these babies. The top parts including the button are shiny and the bottoms are matte and stone textured. They take forever to clean and protect to give them the matte and shiny look. They are SO worth the effort though, as you can see why!

Now my brain is totally fried. I pulled my back the other day too so I can't take anymore sitting in the chair.

See ya later! I hope you enjoy the new pretties!

xo Genea

Turned into STONE- Shop update

Hello friends!

I am excited to share my new beads with you! Don't you love it when you really feel like you "nail" a design? I think I have finally gotten there with this technique. It's been a long frustrating process at times, but the more  you work at it, the better you get and the more you learn. It's true. The best advice I can give about lampwork is "Practice, practice, practice". It's so true. I think I learn something new every time I light my torch. 

So there was talk in some of the bead groups I am in about how it seems like no one is blogging as much anymore. The general consensus was that now people were spending more time on Facebook and Pinterest. I must say I am guilty. It is so easy to catch up on chats, photos and new work on Facebook that that is where I spend the bulk of my online time. So with that in mind, this will be a short and sweet blog. 

Here is a full shot of everything that I added to the shop today if this is where you "want to get off the ride" and get onto other things like Facebook and Pinterest ;P But, if you want to hang around you can see the larger individual images of the beads with a link and a little bit of chatter.

So I am SUPER STOKED that I can finally "nail" this stone textured design! As you can see I got some AMAZING shots of the glass as well! Thank God, cause I had just about given up. Can you believe I got these shots as the sun was setting? I don't get too much sun on our balcony during the day, but we get a bit of angled sun by the front door area. That is where I took these photos and quickly, I might add. The sun was dropping behind the roof tops quickly. Ok on to the beads!...

Beach Stone Spacers "Coral Peach".

Beach Stone Spacers "Mint" 

Earth Stone Droplets "Sahara"

Spiral Earth Stone "Sahara" focal.

If you remember awhile back this is the bead I used for my friend, Kathy's necklace :)

I was kind of keeping it a secret for now, BUT.. I just shot the tutorial for this necklace! I still need to edit the photos and write up the instructions, but this is something you will see in the shop hopefully soon :D

Beach Stone Spacers "Frosted Fibers"

Wing Dings- Beach Stone- "Frosted Fibers"

Wing Dings- Beach Stone- "Pale Aqua"- These are already SOLD OUT! I guess these were everyone favorites ;) Don't worry... I will make more ;) 

Wing Dings- Beach Stones- "White Sands".

Thanks for stopping by to see my latest creations!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo Genea

From a Snow Storm to the Beach- Etsy Shop Update

Hello friends!

Wow, did we get some SNOW in the Midwest, or WHAT?! Did you see this?? 

Ok maybe it doesn't look that bad, but we have to have gotten like 2 feet of snow fall over the last week and a half or so. It was pretty crazy. Growing up by the Great Lakes, I love me some snow. The only down side is that Ricky got stuck staying in Olathe, Kansas(about 45 mins from here) cause he had to keep the gym open. 

So what do you do when you are snowed in?? Make jewelry, duh. :P

So here is what you can make with my new moon and star beads :D I used  a bunch of Staci's amazing beads as well, and you know how I love my Wooly Wire! Wooly Wire is going LIVE on Lima Beads today too! So go tell Nellie how excited you are for her! :D

I also made this bracelet, which I LOOOOOOOOOVE! I actually switched around beads quite a few times before I got the bracelet just how I wanted it. I actually didn't intend to use one of Karen's "Pie Beads" in the center, but I LOVE how it turned out! Lots of goodies on here by Karen along with some more Wooly Wire and my "Lagoon" Weeny Dings :D

I also made myself these wonderful earrings. I called them "We are all made of Stars". I named them after a Moby Song. I used some of Karen's amazing hoops and her raku star with my "Galaxy" Headpins.

So I when I made stuff for listings this week I went in a totally different direction. I went from snow to the BEACH. So I blame it on a few different things. 1. Listening to Jack Johnson. I had the hankering for some protein pancakes the other day. Jack Johnson has a "Banana Pancakes" song(which I am in love with btw). So I had both... 

Ok so they look kind of terrible, but the are DAMN DELICIOUS. You can find the recipe here- Banana Pancakes. Ok so you have to make the pancakes and play the song so you can get the full effect :D This song is SO happy :D "Making banana pancakes and pretend like it's the weekend"! 

So 2.I was talking with Karen and I had shown her these star headpins I had made. She had told me I should try doing starfish! Hmmm.. great idea Karen! 3. I was also showing Karen some of these Ivory stone textured beads I made awhile back. She told me I needed to make more and she had ordered some so I figured  why not, right?! They were awesome beads.

So here are the back sides of the "Star Bright" beads. Where I started with the whole star headpin design.

Here are the starfish designs. The first is raked up the sides, the second is "painted" on and the third is painted on with dots. You know I like to start out simple and make the design more intricate. I loved the super dotty one best so that is what I decided to make for my listings :D

"Teal Tide Starfish"- This sweet little pair would be perfect alone or added with other beachy beads :D

Spiral Beach Stones "White Sands"- Wow, didn't these turn out GORGEOUS? They make me thing of beautiful white sandy beaches. The ivory textures really well so these have some wonderful pits to them!

Beach Stone Droplets "Pale Aqua"- I chose this color because it makes me think of that pale pretty aqua beach glass. This glass textures up really nicely as well. So pretty. I know you all love that pale aqua too.

Spiral Earth Stones "Sahara"- You may remember this favorite! I was lucky enough to score some of this wonderful glass from a good friend(thanks K!) since the big supplier is out at the moment. I didn't get too far making multiples of this since I cranked out the other beads, but I do have a set up for grabs ;)

I hope you enjoyed my A.D.D. blog post! lol. Now I must RUN upstairs and RIP into my 3 packages that arrived today!!

Have a happy Thursday!

xo Genea

Hearts, Hearts, Hearts, and Love.

Hello friends!

I had an impromptu listing go on today. I did this for a few reasons... 1. I got a great response on the photo I posted of my first run of Valentine's Day hearts 2. It is my 7 year wedding anniversary(so it seemed fitting) 3. Valentine's Day is JUST around the corner ALREADY(can you believe it?!).

So without further adieu, here are my lovelies!

"Ammonite Jewel Tribe" -OMG.. pretty sure this is my FAVORITE heart! I love how tribal it is and the rainbow ammonite and jewel dots! Wow! :Love the pointy wings too!

"Ocean Serpent Egg" Heart- So if you loved the "Ocean Serpent Egg" design in red, you will LOVE this heart! I tried out this design on a heart for one of Karen's xmas presents :D I know you all LOVE red even though I hate it so I went ahead and made one for ya ;P

"Electric Lime" Spiral Earth Stone Heart- If you loved the "Electric Lime" Earth Stone beads, you will LOVE this heart! I thought it would be awesome to make a matching heart focal and I was right! :D

"Storm Cloud Silver Lining" heart.  So this design was inspired by another design I made for *someone's* gift(she hasn't seen it yet) except I used a gorgeous charcoal gray base instead. I love how this heart turned out, stormy witha silver lining :D

Well I hope you enjoyed my first run of hearts. I hope to make more this week :D

See you soon!

xo Genea

Shop Update-PAIRS! Lampwork Glass Headpins.

Hello friends!

Well you've asked and here I am to respond. I have been asked for pairs so there they are! I have just stocked the shop FULL of wonderful pairs of your favorite headpins! Perfect for that one pair you may need to create for a special gift or just for yourself(cause surely you deserve one for all of your hard work this Christmas season, right?! RIGHT.).

A little bit for everyone. If you like BRIGHT, got it. Distress and stone looking? Got it. Recycled glass? Got it!

Recycled bottle glass headpins

One of your favorites Ice blue on Copper! Earth Droplets "Ice Blue" on copper

No, you aren't seeing double, I did do them on both metals! This pair is especially cool. See the little tornado inside? he he Earth Droplets "Ice Blue" on steel.

Be green and wear it! Earth Droplets "Kelly Green" 

You get extra points for not only drinking your beer, but for making it into something :D Earth Droplets "Root Beer" 

"Cream Silver" headpins. A super funky mix of yellow green ivory and SILVER. Yum! I made these JUST so I could use them in one my earring pairs I was creating :D

Suh-weet Huh?!

Distressed Stone Headpins

Droplet Earth Stones "Black Lava" a perfect mix of stone, black and color! 

Droplet Earth Stones "Frosted Fiber" perfect for the color shy. Oh and they go with everything ;)

BRIGHT headpins!

Swirl Pod "Lime and Aqua"- You all have LOVED seeing these on facebook so I suspect they will move quickly! Oh and maybe even more so when you see what I made with them!

Um... AWESOME! and they are light weight too with lots of negative space! 

Swirl Pods "Pink Ribbon"- pretty in pink and black! 

You may have noticed the super sweet Wooly Wire in my earring desings! You can expect a post on those coming up soon!

xo Genea