Contest Giveaway at The Beadin'Path

Just so you know, The Beadin'Path is having a great contest giveaway right now. You can find out the details here. It's super easy to enter and you stand to win a $150 gift card. Yup, that's right! $150! That's a whole lot of moolah. I could buy lots of vintage beads with that amount of money, not to mention a good handful of Keith O'Connor ceramic beads.....sigh, a girl can dream......

So, anyway here's my bid to enter and win. Below is a pic of a bracelet I made many moons ago using some vintage links and faux pearl clasp I bought online from The Beading'Path. I love it and think it's one of the prettiest things I've ever made. Also, the simplest. Off now to email the good people at TBP the link to this post. Wish me luck!!

Additions to the shop

Apart from completing my commissioned work, I also made 2 new items that I've listed in my Etsy and Artfire shops. A cord bracelet and a pair of earrings. Both feature beads I bought in Tokyo in 2007. I've been hoarding them ever since and finally got round to using them. I have to admit that I'm a little sad at the thought of not being able to stare and drool over them anymore. I hope both items find good homes. 

Coral Ring

Productive

I've been ill with the flu these couple of days, but in between coughing and sneezing, I've managed to make a number of items. First up is a long necklace which a friend wanted me to make. She left everything up to me, except to insist that it be long. I came up with this. Here's a close-up of some of the details.

And then, out of the blue a friend's father called to ask if I could make a necklace. He was going to visit a friend overseas and wanted to give her a special gift. He asked that the necklace include coral and/or bloodstone as these were his friend's birthstones. I found some lovely coral nuggets and combined them with powder blue seed beads which I've had in my stash since 2007 and some beautiful sterling silver beads and rondelles. I hope to goodness he likes it. It's the first time I've made something as important as this, and using gemstones no less. I didn't get very good pictures but for what it's worth, here they are.

The silver clasp is from a wonderful friend who gave me several clasps and pendants for my birthday this year. She's my enabler LOL. I also made a wire-wrapped ring with the one coral nugget that was left over. This post is so pic-heavy, I'll show the pic of the ring in the next post.

Another special request

It's been more than a month since I've posted any pics. So here's one. This is what I made for a friend who wanted a red bracelet. It's a prototype; I re-did it to make things neater and also, to shorten the bracelet. Despite what my friend says, her wrists aren't quite elephant-sized :-).

Little things that mean so much more

As you can see, I've been away for far too long from this blog. It was the usual culprits - work, illness etc - that kept me away. But I'm back and can't wait to get started on new projects. Being away from the blog didn't mean I was bead-free however. I've spent the past few weeks fulfilling some special requests from friends. But silly me - I forgot to take a pic of what I made. So I may have to get my friend to snap a pic of the bracelet I made her. I also repaired a couple of necklaces and just today, I was asked to make a necklace which this person wanted to give to a special friend. I felt really honoured that someone would think enough of my skills and work to ask me to make them a piece that was meant to be a special gift. In keeping with the good news on the jewellery front, I opened my email account yesterday to find that someone had bought one of my necklaces on Artfire. EB (you know who you are) - all I can say is 'Thank You!' and I hope you enjoy your purchase. 

That purchase - coming out of nowhere - means more to me than I can express. To be honest, I've gone so many months without having a sale or any interest in my designs, that I contemplated giving up jewelry-making. My love for beads won out though - I can't seem to stop buying them. But I was starting to get resigned to just making items for myself and friends. This Artfire purchase and new commission have renewed my faith - at least a little - that perhaps what I make is pleasing to people (well, some of them at least). Battling self-doubt has been the hardest challenge for me so far, so things like purchases and requests for commissioned pieces go a long way in helping me believe in my work and the value of it. 

Woo-hoo!

My new beads finally arrived. All of them. And I am ecstatic. For a while there, I thought some of them had gotten lost in the mail. Lucky for me, they were just delayed. So, what do you think?

Aren't they gorgeous? They're all artist-made lampwork beads that I bought from Etsy and Ebay. The purple, blue and cream spacer beads as well as the blue-and-orange discs are from River Oak Acres while the smaller rondelles in the middle - with swirls of colour - are from Etsy seller Outwest. Here's a close-up so you can see the swirls of green and purple and I don't know what else:

I'm loath to use any of them in a piece of jewellery since I just want to hoard them LOL. I'll have to think long and hard about how I'm going to incorporate them in my work. I'm leaning towards maybe a bracelet with cord. Any ideas?