Going Nautical

The May 2012 Etsy Beadweavers theme is Nautical Inspired.  This is a pretty straight forward theme, but you can read more about it here.  While April's Seed Beads Only challenge was a lot more fun than originally anticipated, I am glad that this challenge and the next one are much more open ended.

As many of you know, I frequently find inspiration from color.  I did a little nautical color palette hunting online to help me figure out where I was going with this theme.

Nautical Colors of Port Jefferson, Long Island

This post has several great palettes, but I've always liked light houses, so I went right for the one with the rich red.

I went for blues and grays that were a little lighter than the original palette, but I didn't add any other colors.

I loved adding the lampwork discs to my skinny wrapped design for my nest piece and decided to use this technique again for my nautical piece.  They don't represent anything nautical in a literal sense, but the colors tied together so well.

I got these beads from Jen of blueseraphim a while back during a big pre-holiday sale.  I try not to purchase in one of a kind beads like this without a project in mind, but Jen's beads are so versatile that I always find a use for them pretty quickly.

I love this embellished addition to my wrapped bracelets and will most likely make more in the future.  As always, if there are any color combinations that you're like to see, let me know.

This piece is available for sale in my Etsy shop right here.  Voting will take place on the EBW blog in early May.  Check back on my blog the week of May 9 for all of the voting details.  To get a sneak peek at the other entries already up and running, search EBWC on Etsy.

Has anyone else created nautical items?  Share your listings and blog posts!

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Where I Linked Up Today:

keeping it simple

My listing schedule and posts are still a little off because the closing date for our new house got pushed back.  So I'm including pictures here of a couple new listings from this past week, both of which are simple every day pieces that can be dressed up or down for any occasion.

This first one is available here.  I created this with the seed bead mix that I had left over after I've completed this cuff.  I don't think that I need to give a whole lot of explanation for why this is a great color combination here.  This is a pretty classic combination of colors.  I love the way that the periwinkle pops.  I made one of these for myself as well.  I love these skinny bracelets.  They're so versatile.  Because they are so skinny and light weight, it's easy to layer several of them next to each other.

Remember my custom order this spring that included this piece?  After I'd completed the order, I put together a similar bracelet to sell.  This was a design that took a long time to create because I really wasn't sure what I was doing when I started.  I re-did large portions of the original three or four times to get it the way I wanted.  The second one that I made earlier this year took almost as long because by then it had been a while since I'd worked the pattern.  I was surprised at how quickly the third one went and even more so, this fourth final (for now anyway) one, went.  This new one is available here.  I can make more pendants and/or earrings on request as well.

As I mentioned in my custom order post, I like the idea of making a set in turquoise.  That hasn't happened yet, but we'll see!

"What's Old is New Again" Art Beads design partners piece

Typically I complete my Art Beads pieces about three weeks after the themes are announced.  I got the initial e-mail for the spring theme at the very end of March and didn't complete my piece until this past Sunday.  The size for one of my bead sets was mislabeled on the Art Beads site.  It took a couple weeks to get a new set of something similar in the right size.  I've also been busy with custom orders (no complaints there!) and all of the moving and graduation stuff.  But I finished it and am really happy with the result.

The theme for the Art Beads design partners is "What's Old is New Again."  We were supposed to use any old or vintage inspired components with or without new components to create a brand new piece.  I didn't have any initial idea for the theme.  I started browsing the suggested site categories and came across these patina daggers in the glass beads category.  I'm sure that it's no surprise that I was immediately drawn to them.  I've been eying some similar ones in Shannon's shop for a while, but hadn't bought any yet.  This was the perfect opportunity to use them.  The whole set with orange, lime, turquoise, and purple reminded me of the 70's, which fit perfectly for this theme, so I decided to go with it.

Once I was set on the patinas, I hunted through my own bead stash for cube and seed beads in coordinating colors.  I supplied all of these myself, although three of the cube bead sets were ones that I'd purchased from Art Beads on my own.  You can see my sneak peak post about this here.  I filled in the patina daggers with orange, lime, and transparent green daggers.  I love the dagger beads on Art Beads, but as I've posted about here before, it's cheaper to buy them in bulk elsewhere.  Usually I get a few unusual designs from Art Beads and fill them in with bulk solid colors.

This is the first dagger bracelet that I've made with side fringe.  I used coordinating orange and lime pressed Czech glass beads, along with the seed beads, with the same technique that I use for my other skinny fringed/embellished bracelets.  If you want links for the specific Czech glass that I used in this piece, let me know.

Art Beads has several awesome triangle clasps in their clasp category.  I choose this one because it was vintage inspired and has the circles on it, which mirror the ones on the patinas.  Normally I would have used a button from my own collection, but we need two product categories for our pieces, so this was a perfect way to make that happen.

I decided to name the piece after That '70s Show.  I thought that this would be appropriate as I grew up in the 80's and got my inspiration for this retro color combination from my own generation's pop culture.

I love the way the colors came together in this piece.  I also love the side fringe.  I think that the size and shape of the beads that I chose worked really well as a little border.  I may experiment with similar fringe in the future.

It's available here.  I collected some new green daggers in the process of making this bracelet so I'm planning an all green dagger bracelet in the future.  That's the only dagger piece that I have in the works right now, but as always I'm open to other suggestions.

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.

triangles and newest custom order completed

I listed my newest skinny embellished cuff this week.

The cuff is available here.  I don't even remember when I first decided that I should make a triangle embellished cuff.  I ordered the first three sets of triangles well over two years ago.  This past fall I finally got motivated to find one more set to round out the color combination and to make sure that I had coordinating cubes.  These pictures really don't do the color balance justice.  The green and purple blend beautifully with the blue.  I'm pleased with the overall look, especially the chunky triangle side fringe.  I would love to make another one of these if I can ever put together another great set of triangle beads and cubes.  Triangles can be hard to find.

I also completed a new custom order this week.  I am almost as excited about the story behind this order as I am with the finished jewelry.  Shannon (beadsandbabble) has a friend (acquaintance? not really sure about the connection) contact her about a jewelry order, using some of Shannon's beads.  Shannon is super busy right now getting ready for her son's wedding and filling tons of orders for her shop.  So she referred her friend to me and sent me a note as well about the order.  The request seemed pretty straight forward.  We worked out all of the details.  She ordered the beads, which I shared here previously, and had Shannon send them directly to me.  As soon as we got back from Milwaukee last weekend, I got to work.

I'm not sure why the bracelet picture is a little more vivid.  The seed beads are from the same hank as the necklace beads.  This was definitely a little different endeavor for me.  It was a pretty straight forward project, but like with just about any new crafting technique, there is a little learning curve.  Honestly the hardest part about these pieces for me was mastering the square knots.  I got my directions from this tutorial and kept them in front of me the entire time I was working on both pieces.  Otherwise the stringing and clasps weren't too difficult.  FYI, if anyone is planning to make pieces like these: it's really important to glue every square knot.  You can wait until the end to glue all of them, but I found it easiest to keep everything tight by gluing as I went.  I use Loctite Super Glue, which is some of the best glue you'll ever find.

Both pieces have extender chains so the length can be adjusted on either as needed.  Both pieces can also be worn straight or twisted.  These pieces are gifts for a good friend of the buyer.  Hopefully she'll be as pleased with them as we are.

I also have to give Shannon another huge thank you for the referral!  I never would have gotten to do this without her.  As always, her beads were wonderful to work with for both pieces.  I am not in a hurry to make anything like this in the near future, but it's tempting to just so I can order another Czech seed bead hank.

I'm waiting for my massive load of leaf beads for my next custom order now.  While I'm waiting, I'll be working on my Art Beads piece and the plan for my next EBW challenge piece.

I keep forgetting to post my newest crafty hub here: Shipping and Packing Resources for Online Jewelry Sellers.  If you've missed any past hub links, all of my crafty hubs are linked on the right side of my blog now.

Birthday Cake, free samples, sneak peak

I finally listed my Birthday Cake cuff tonight.  Some of you may remember that at some point this summer, I posted a sneak peak of the Birthday Cake bead mix.  I shot the original pictures before I made my light box so I decided to retake them over the weekend.

I generally have a difficult time naming my pieces.  If I do name them, I almost always do it partway through the creation process or afterward.  This name just came to me, though, as soon as I started putting the bead mix together.  I still think that it's very fitting.  And I really love this button.  It ties everything together nicely.  I made another bracelet with this same seed bead mix but no other embellishment that I'm going to list at some point, too.

Shannon (beadsandbabble) was so pleased with my inclusion of her chocolate dagger beads in my random feature earlier this month that she offered to send me some free sample beads!  Of course I wasn't going to say no to that!  They arrived in the mail today, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

Some of these beads fit into my Art Beads fall blogging piece perfectly.  I've been planning some simple jade pieces for a while as while.  The neutral/metallic seed beads on the right will coordinate well with that green.  Thanks again Shannon!

Some accepted another Alchemy request today so I'll be working on that custom request this week.  I picked out the beads tonight.

I'll leave your imaginations open on that for now.  And no, it's not anything Christmas related even though it is that color scheme. :)

Finally, I got confirmation today that I will have a piece published in Bead Trends February 2011!

first PDF pattern for sale, treasury features

As promised, I listed my first PDF beading pattern tonight.  You can purchase the Skinny Wrapped Peyote Cuff pattern by clicking on the name or on the picture below.

I had fun at the Flame II class at Beadology this afternoon.  I did a lot better than I thought I would, considering that I haven't practiced at all since the first class nearly a month ago.  We'll see if I still think that tomorrow when I pick up my finished beads haha, but it was a good time.  I will post pictures of my finished beads like I did last time.

The Christmas in July treasury craziness continued today.  I found my Christmas in July items in two more treasuries.  amybunz16 included my Christmas button charm bracelet in her Christmas in July treasury.

You can view this treasury by CLICKING HERE.

LovelyTiffy included my skinny raspberry square stitch bracelet in her Christmas in July treasury.

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

Both of these treasuries were curated by Etsy buyers.  It's neat to see people who support the site through their sales are also promoting it through their treasuries!

treasury feature, August EBW Challenge piece, light box up and running

I think that this week I've set a record for the number of new treasuries that I'm included in during one week!  Chris Maj (beadn4fun) included my green button embellished right angle bracelet in her "Bead" the Heat treasury tonight.  16 beautiful EBW items that are on sale for Christmas in July.

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

As promised, I listed my August EBW Challenge Gold and Silver piece tonight.  It's my gold and silver wrapped skinny peyote cuff.  I've had this idea for quite a while.  This challenge was the perfect opportunity to finally make it happen.  It also pushed me to create my skinny wrapped peyote cuff pattern that I'll be listing tomorrow.

I really love the button on this cuff.  My mom gave me a stash of vintage buttons for Christmas that she'd purchased in bulk from a fabric store, which included a large number of metal buttons.  This is only the second one that I've used so far.  There will be more of them in my pieces in the future.  You can search "ebwc" on Etsy for more challenge entries that have already come in.  I'll post more about the challenge as voting approaches.

I got my light box up and running today.  I'm really pleased of how well everything is working so far!  I  followed the instructions from this DIY tutorial on the digital-photography-school.com web site.  The only things that I did differently are that are used two lights instead of one (on the recommendations of many Etsy blogs/forum posts about light boxes) and that I used Ott lightbulbs (on the recommendation from this Etsy forum post).  For those who are interested in doing this themselves, here's my breakdown of the materials/costs:
-1 large cardboard box (I had this at home because I don't throw out boxes when we'll almost definitely be moving within the next 2 years, otherwise you can probably get one from work)
-white poster board (I already had this at home from my craft fair sign project, but poster board is less than $1 a sheet at Wal-Mart or Target)
-white fabric (I spent $2 on a 100% cotton fat quarter at Jo-Ann Fabrics, but I know that many of you probably have this already...FYI the fat quarter was almost the perfect amount for my box)
-2 desk lamps (I got mine for $10 each at Target, make sure that you get lamps that will accommodate 60W bulbs...a lot of desk lamps are only 40W)
-2 Ott bulbs (I got this kind of bulb at Lowe's for $5 each)
I also used scissors (both paper and fabric), masking tape, and a ruler, all of which I already had at home.  I did not use a knife or glue like the web site tutorial suggests, but you can certainly use these materials if you choose.  The only other thing that I purchased is my tripod, which was this tripod from Target for $15.  It had by far the best reviews out of all of the cheap tripods (under $30) that I browsed this week.  No, it would not be conducive for professional shooting or extended outdoor shooting, particular in areas with uneven footing, but for limited indoor shooting, it's great.

So as you can see, the costs were pretty minimal.  Here it is all set up.  I ran a power strip over to the desk so the desk lamps could reach.  I weighed the bases of the lamps down so that they could angle down this far.  Jake has pretty much moved his main painting area to the living room so I should be able to leave my box set up on this desk in our second bedroom.

I did a small shooting session when I got everything up and running to make sure that it works.  I used a single page from a version of Fur Elise that I got free from Dover online last year.  It doesn't look as classy as my Chopin book, but until I run off some single pages from Chopin (the large book doesn't fit when it's open in the box), it will work.  You get a sneak preview of my newest button bracelet here.

I shot a handful of of pictures with white backgrounds, too.  It doesn't really feel like me haha, but I am pleased with how it looks.  Maybe I'll get used to it as I get more comfortable with the box and the tripod.  As I wrote earlier today, I'm definitely not giving up the music background, but I might experiment with 1-2 white background shots for a listing.

Jake got excited about the light box and had me photograph a few of his Warhammer models.  I had the lights aimed more directly overhead when I started, then switched to the side angle that you see above.  These couple shots are from the side angle.  The detail is much better.  The top of the models, especially the faces, got lost in the dark (even with editing), when the light came from overhead.

My crafty work also inspired Jake to work on his next storage box for his models that he's had the materials for for quite a while.  This was another great DIY tutorial that we found online a few years ago.  This is Jake's third DIY box.

Skinny Wrapped Peyote Cuff pattern

I have the first draft of my first beading pattern finished.  Needless to say, it feels pretty awesome.  I took almost 60 pictures of the bracelet that I used for the pattern while I was making it and then just over 20 of the finished product.  The finished product will be my August EBW Challenge piece so I will post more details about that sometime in the next couple weeks.  For now, here are some older skinny wrapped cuffs that I created.

I sold the second piece right after I finished it last summer, but you can click on the first and third pictures to view their listings.

Before I publish the pattern, I would really like to have at least a few people proofread it for me.  You do NOT have to be able to bead weave to proof read for me.  It would actually be preferable if I had a couple people proofread who don't bead weave or are beginning bead weavers.  I think a lot of the terms and explanations will be more self explanatory if you've made peyote pieces before.  I'd like to know how they read for someone with little or no experience bead weaving.

I have the PDF ready so if you'd be interested in proofreading, please leave me a comment here or send me a convo on Etsy with your e-mail address.  Please note that the pattern does NOT and will not ever contain instructions for the peyote stitch.  Peyote stitch instructions are readily available online, in books, and in beading magazines.  Also, please note that although the PDF you will receive will not be the final version, you will be allowed to keep it and use it for personal use as it is intended if you so choose.  Thank you in advance!