Trinkets

The closest, independent, bead store is about 20 minutes for me. It's called Just Bead It and they have several locations in Michigan. I don't get there as often as I like, but I did make a trip this week. One thing I bought was the Bungee Bracelet from The Bead Smith. It's a really cool, stretchable bracelet that is covered with chain and 16 jumprings to attach charms to. It comes in 5 different metal colors. Here is the bracelet I created today with it, which is now listed in my Etsy shop. I used various charms, button, and these really cool new safety pins I found at Michaels as part of the Tim Holtz line. I love how they have words and numbers stamped on them for a very vintage feel!

New Earrings...

... now on Etsy.

I hope everyone had a fabulous long holiday weekend! We enjoyed our company and we hope they had fun. My nieces made some lovely polymer creations that I will have to show, and they loved stringing jewelry! As always, I am trying to get back into the swing of things. Where does the time go? Even the best laid plans for my evenings seem to get foiled by unexpected errands, power outages, internet not working, etc..... those are the excuses this week anyway. I'd like to get on a regular schedule of blogging and posting, but it just doesn't seem to happen. I guess I shouldn't stress about it too much because if it loses it's fun, what's the point?

Some Eye Candy

Well, my weekend guests haven't arrived yet and I have the house to myself this morning. So I thought I'd post a few pics quick of some pieces I have been able to throw together quite quickly for myself. I've been playing around with decoupaging lately.... being a scrapbooker, I already have so many papers, glues, glazes, etc.... And of course, peacock images!

Here is a necklace I made, simply strung onto black polyester chain.

Here is a bracelet, in a muted color palette that I love!I wore both of these items to work this week, with different outfits. I'd love to make more decoupaged pieces, especially if I am going to go the all peacock route soon. The possibilities are endless when you think that you can create virtually any pendant or focal bead you desire out of a favorite pattern, picture, drawing, etc... You can get a variety of bezel type components specifically for mixed media, or you can use any flat surface bead you like. Here I used a black wood pendant I had from Michael's, and a bamboo bead I bought at a bead store last Fall.

Technically, it's still Friday......

Thank you everyone, for your comments (and patience) regarding my most recent giveaway of some of my wood components. I enjoyed reading about who you would want to meet and what you would shop for at Bead & Button. The winner is:

Fab Fibers!

A fellow Michigander, please email me your address at hatrudeau@hotmail.com

I apologize for being so boring lately. I am having company this weekend so this week has been busy getting our home ready. My husband was off work this week (unpaid) and he did a phenomenal job in getting the pool ready, mulch & other yard stuff, working on vehicles, power washing - way too much stuff to list. My visitors are coming tomorrow morning and I have a lot of fun plans for my 2 nieces - making paper beads, polymer clay beads and all other sorts of crafty things! Hopefully, this means some new pictures to post and I will get motivated to start creating again. Bear with me, I promise there will be exciting things to come! I have been getting all sorts of goodies in the mail and I can't wait to play with them!

Only 20 more days......

...... until I am shopping at the Bead & Button show! I am so excited! I think this is the 7th time I will have attended the show.So, what I want to know from you is:

Are you going to be there?

Who would you want to meet if you were going to be there?

What would you shop for if you were going to be there?

If you leave me a comment with an answer to all or any of these questions, I will choose a random winner on Friday and send some of my wood burned goodies your way!

ABS - May - Monet

I just entered the Art Bead Scene Blog's May Challenge - Monet's Water Lilies. This necklace is part of my own collection and as soon as I saw the painting, I knew all of these colors were perfect for the entry! I bought the focal bead from Andrea Guarino at the Bead & Button Show several years ago. I hung on to it for a long time before I finally had collected the perfect beads to make a necklace worthy of it's awesomeness. You might remember me showing this necklace a few months ago as part of my lampwork collection.

A giveway, and some events....

Visit Fab Fibers blog to find out how to win these beautiful beads from Blue Heeler! These are so unique, and the shop was immediately added to my favorites in Etsy!I am looking forward to going to the Spring into the Arts walk in downtown Battle Creek tonight! I hope the rain holds off..... This, and the Fall walk, are two events I look forward to every year. I have certain stops that are my favorite, and I often find some cool things to buy!

Also, the Art Center is having a reception tonight and tomorrow for their new Aviation Show. The few paintings I have seen so far are so detailed that they look like photographs from afar! It's a great collection from 10 very talented artists and the exhibit is drawing a lot of interest!

Wood you like some ideas?

Ever since I started my wood shop, Loose Feathers, I've wanted to make some completed jewelry so that people can get inspired with ideas for the components. The following pieces are now listed in my completed jewelry shop, The Peacock Fairy.

This first necklace uses one of my round beads. Take a look on Etsy for more detailed photos. Since the holes on these beads are so large, I used buttons as bead caps. I put a dab of glue on them to keep them in place. Also, I strung tiny delica beads on the eye pin that goes through the hollow flower bead for a subtle little detail.

This is a very simple, but elegant necklace that layers one of my pendants with a peacock from Round Rabbit Extra.This summery bracelet features one of my smaller round charms.

And now, for something totally different from yesterday.

It's no secret that I love all types/styles of jewelry. So it's no surprise that one day I can be playing with mixed metals and a very vintage theme, to the next night playing with bright jungle like materials.

I recently acquired two of these peacock pendants. They really gave me an ethnic/African/jungle vibe. Maybe it's because I have a scrapbook paper with all these animal prints on it, including a peacock which is unusual for the standard animal prints. Or maybe I was inspired by my friend Sarah's ceramic piece she made for me a few weeks ago. At any rate, I listed this necklace in my shop. To give the manufactured pendant a more handmade look, I decoupaged some words onto it. I really like how the black and white text pulls the zebra connectors together into the piece.

With the second pendant, I made this similar necklace for myself, having the leaf beads create an ombre effect.I also listed this bracelet. I made a necklace in this same color palette last Fall with a larger pendant I had like this. It's an unusual color combo, but I really like it. It's perfect for summer!

I'm Back....

So, I thought when I finished school, I was going to have all this time to make jewelry and blog. Uhhh, why isn't this happening yet? Oh yeah, I know why. Spring is a very busy time when you own close to 2 acres and have to open up a pool! My hubby and I have always worked as a team - there are no gender specific duties around our house - especially since he is still in school, I have to pitch in and help. There's a lot of give and take sometimes, but whenever I start to moan about it I just have to remember that he does a killer job cleaning the bathrooms (which is usually something he does).

I was especially frustrated this week when I did get into the studio because it seemed like I had bad mojo. Wednesday night I was working on gluing some flat back components back to back and proceeded in getting glue all over my fingers. Thursday night I knocked my container of a gazillion crimps all over the floor! Even last night I had an episode of cutting a chain too short. But, today was a great day and I got many projects done. Just in time too because I need to fill up my shop again with all sorts of new goodies. I had to deactivate them all on Friday when I took my stash to a store I sell at in town and the owner wanted to keep everything there! Usually, she picks and chooses what she wants. Hey, I'd rather have them out to a new market than sitting here at home.

Anyway, I thought I'd start by showing how I used the rest of the treats I won from Zoa Art's giveaway. Remember the Patina necklace? It's still available and it's absolutely one of my most favorite creations!

I used their Prosperity charm in this necklace, full of talismans. I haven't gotten back to etching copper yet, but had this extra plate from the first batch I did. It has a ton of other cool charms, including a Hill Tribe silver peacock feather I bought from Shiana a while ago.I also used 2 of the Hill Tribe silver feathers to make these simple earrings.I also shared a while ago my first experimentation with resin, in which I filled the other bezel I got from Zoa Art with a peacock feather. This one is staying with me, but I finally strung it onto a simple necklace of labradorite chips separated with tiny delica beads. The subtle shimmer is a perfect match to the metal and image.

New Woods

I just added some new wood items and some destash to my Loose Feathers shop.

What do you think of this ring? Would you be interested in one, and if so what design(s)? There are different shapes and sizes I can order from Fusion Beads.

I've also been experimenting with round beads. It can be a little tricky to put some of the design plates around them. Would you like to see more of these?

Can you help?

A weekend full of 5K training and yard work have left my feet and hands in serious need of some TLC! And my mind in serious need of some studio time. But until I get there, here are some questions I am hoping my lovely blog friends can help me with…..

Last week, I brought my jewelry into work for a few days (now that I have my awesome comic book store organization system). I was donating a few pieces to a friend who was involved in a silent auction AND I made several sales. This posed 2 questions:

1. Since many of the pieces I sold were on Etsy, how can I move them into my “sold” gallery for people to still see? Right now, they are deactivated. But would I sign on under my other store name and pretend to buy them or would this cause something negative down the road?

2. Since I work for a corporation, my husband warned me about possibly getting in trouble for soliciting something for my own personal gain on company time. I can certainly see his point here, but what about all the other people who sell for organizations their kids are in (like Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts) or people who are demonstrators for home parties like Silpada, Creative Memories, etc…? I’m certainly not going to make a habit of bringing it every day, but maybe every few months? I’ve advertised my Etsy sites, but I’ve found that when people see things in person they are more apt to buy.

I’m thinking about re-evaluating my Etsy shop – probably after my Art Fair on June 20th. There is just so much competition on Etsy that I am toying around with the idea of specializing my pieces more:

3. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to specialize in only bird related jewelry (owls, peacocks, other birds)? Or even narrow that down even more to only post peacock themed jewelry on Etsy? Any other pieces I make can be sold at the local stores I am involved with. As much as I love the aforementioned birds, I think I’d still have to make other designs. And of course, I am still planning on doing the wood components.

Lastly, I make a gazillion trips to the post office and notice that many sellers print their own postage/shipping labels:

4. Would this require me to simply get a scale so that I know the weight so that I can do this too? I mean, really, the only reason I go to the post office is because I don’t know how much postage to use.

Thanks everyone and I hope to have some new things to show you soon!

I tweeted m.... opps, I mean, I treated myself.

So, owls don't really tweet, but this was a fun play with words in the title. As my first week of freedom (from school) comes to an end, I decided to treat myself this morning to this lovely necklace from Designs by Lorelei. This certainly was a week full of owls with graduation hats! How perfect! My husband always teases me that I like to draw out celebrations as much as possible. This probably comes from the fact that my birthday is around Labor Day, which happens to be a long weekend anyway. In that same spirit, we are going to an Opera tomorrow evening to celebrate our anniversary which isn't until the 18th. Hey, why not - you only live once - make every day count!

I am getting ready to go scrapbooking tonight with some lovely girlfriends, but hope to get in the studio this weekend.....