Time to Post a New Creation

I'm kinda stuck in a creative "writer's block", so I'll post some of my recent creations. It'll make me feel like I've been working hard!

The first piece was for my best, and favourite customer, my Aunt Dot. She loves the colour blue and one night we were looking at all the pendants that she doesn't wear, so I offered to make her one for Christmas. Of course, I didn't get to it by Christmas and couldn't do it until I got back from Grenada, so she received it in May!

The stone is called "Denim" Lapis Lazuli and is quite beautiful. I ordered it from Rio Grande, along with the sterling silver wire. I have Dale "Cougar" Armstrong's book, Wirework, but I haven't really taken to working with square wire. And her designs are just waaaay out there. Maybe my tastes will change as I learn more, but somehow I kind of hope not quite to that extent!  I still need more practice with this technique, but Dot doesn't mind being my guinea pig.

Here's a bracelet I call "Aqua Twist" with my colour design from a Beadwork magazine pattern:

Finally, here are some more stretchy bangles to add to my inventory. This style seems very popular and is very budget-friendly...hmm... hence is popularity?! Both are made with size 6/0 seed beads and the one on the left is from a mix called Earth Tones and the one on the right is called just plain ol' Copper.

I bought these beads at Len's Mill Store, a hidden treasure for beads and a whole lot of other goodies. I went back recently and was disappointed to find that they had raised their prices! Darn. A $2.99 40g tube is now $3.99. Despicable. My complaint was met with a shrug. Hmmph. Story of my life.

No Time to Play With My Beads...

I'm up on this social networking, but I don't really like the time it takes away from actually beading. I've opened a store on Facebook. (click on Blog title for link) I figure since I do my socializing on Facebook, I should have an easy way for people to find a link to buy my jewelry. I'm wondering if there is any easy way to transfer my ArtFire items to this store. Anyone know? I'll have to do some research.

I only have one item posted, but if you go to my business page, /FranMade, look for "Shop Now" on the left hand menu. Just click on that and it will take you to my store. I'm still working on presentation, so welcome any tips, especially a heads up on typos. Here's a screen capture of the page:

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Handmade Festival May 7, 2011

http://handmadefestival.ca/

This was my second craft sale of 2011. My second sale of my beading life. It wasn't as successful as the one in Grenada, but very successful still. It was a great group of people and it's always fun and educational to schmooze with other jewelry makers. It was "Free Comic Book Day" at the main London Public Library, so the customer base was slanted toward young people in super-hero costumes. Oh well, it was very entertaining!

My booth had pretty much the same set up as in Grenada, but I added some display items that I had ordered from Eddies Hang-Up Display Ltd., a Canadian company. I had a mirror, a bracelet t-bar, a velvet lined tray and a business card holder. The necklace t-bar was back-ordered, but I had some photo holders that I bought at a yard sale that did the trick. In Grenada, instead of the bracelet t-bar, I used a wire kitchen mug hanger. That worked well too, even if it was a bit rusty! I'll have to upload the pics from my camera and post them too.

I had a nice beach theme going with some shells and a soft blue and white wrap to simulate a wave. I also had a slide show playing on my computer. I felt that I didn't have a lot of inventory and what I had definitely didn't fully reflect my work. I chose 123 images and ran them on Image Browser's slide show. One technical problem did arise - the screen kept going to sleep and going black. After some browsing and some good guessing, I figured out how to turn off the sleep function.

If anyone knows of an upcoming craft sale in November, I would be very glad to know the details. In the meantime, I'm looking for a venue here in London to show my jewelry. Any ideas?

Please vote!

I am starting to enter some of my pieces into contests. "Althea" was entered into a Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' Jewelry-Making Contest, and now "Flying Cubes" has been entered into an ArtBeads contest for Mother's Day.

 

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get Christina to do the photograph - she would have done something funkier. But I guess there's nothing wrong with "what you see is what you get". If you would like to vote for "Flying Cubes", please visit Make it for Mom Challenge. Thank you!

Crikey! I need a holiday!

Here are a few new designs that I will be showing this weekend at the Easter Bazaar:

The first bracelet is made from a seed from a tropical tree called a flamboyant tree. The second bracelet is made of size 8/0 beads with the peyote accent made with size 10/0. Next time I think I will do the accent in larger beads to save time.

The rings are made with Parawire 20g non-tarnish craft wire. It is so easy to work with. I had been making rings for a client in half-hard sterling silver and did my hands and fingers ever get sore! I'll have to try some dead soft and see how that is for these wrapped rings if they're going to be popular. Here are some made with the sterling silver (except for the little one on the bottom right):

My favourite? The little one on the bottom right!

I'm scrambling to be ready for the show on Saturday. With Friday being a holiday, I sure better be ready by Thursday. I'm having 2 small signs printed as well as more business cards because I didn't know I'd be needing enough for a craft show! I usually get them printed at "Selinger Inc." (get it? inc.? ink?!) and the price is better, but unfortunately, they're not available at the moment. :-(

Back to the beads!

P.S. If you can tell me how to get my white background to actually look white, I will be ever grateful.

Direction, Direction, Direction

I think I've answered the "location" question. You know: location, location, location.  Grenada is "it", definitely. Where else can you get a goat on your front porch...

... or cute little piglets scampering in your backyard?!

As to our future specific location, the house construction is speeding right along. Jason and Frank work long, hard hours. By the end of this visit, they'll have the back part of the house containing bedroom, store room and kitchen ready to lock up until next year. Next year will see construction of the other half: bathroom and sitting room. Here's the progress so far:

And what does all this have to do with beading, you say? Well, I've been selling my jewelry here in this location called Grenada and I've been pleasantly surprised at some of the options that have opened up for me.

First of all, I've sold more of my "Independence Day" collection at the Market in town. (Little happy dance.)

Secondly, I've been offered a space, for free, at one of the largest craft bazaars here in Grenada. It takes place around Easter and I have just found out that vendors have to be invited in order to sell there. (Bigger happy dance and swollen ego.)

Lastly, a fashion designer has opened a new store and wants me, ME, to make some jewelry to accent her clothing displays. (Holy, hippy, hair-shaking, happy dance!)

So, I'm heading off in a few different directions, maybe too many! I guess I'd better get beading!