Are jewellery sets becoming more popular?

My blue sponge coral necklace sold yesterday at the market after only two weeks out on the table. Whoo hoo! I'm so pleased. Now to make more.

The buyer asked if there was a matching bracelet, but all I had was an adjustable leather bracelet that included the smaller, carved agate bead. They were happy with that. They particularly commented on the large pewter heart clasps that I've used all all my necklaces.

Earlier in the morning I sold a summer-casual white pearl and dyed bright blue agate necklace to an older gentleman for his wife's birthday and we also spent several minutes looking through my earring racks for similar pearl earrings to make up a set. He was very definite about his wife's taste and mentioned that she loved jewellery -- I got the sense he'd bought a lot of it for her through the years. 

Have any of you been asked for sets, or at least similar earrings/bracelet/necklace to make up a set? Is this the new trend, or is it confined mostly to gifts, for greater effect?

It's raining all day today, a good day to be sitting here typing most of the day. It's the Grand River Bead Society meeting, garage sale and par-day tomorrow evening in Guelph -- maybe see some of you there! I'll be bringing turquoise and matte lapis, as well as destash items. I'll be handing in my application form for the GRBS bead show coming up on October 5th and 6th. Mark your calendars for that. It gets bigger and better every year with a variety of great vendors.  

Thanks for looking!



Blue Sponge Coral & Tibetan agate necklace...

I've been wanting to use these blue sponge coral beads for the longest time. I have no idea if they're natural or dyed, although my bet would be that they are dyed. The colour looks a little too even across all the beads on each string, but it's such a pretty blue.

The spotty beads and carved tube beads are agate and the focal bead is dyed agate. The necklace includes copious Tibetan-style zinc and pewter beads and a large pewter clasp for easy on/off. It's about 22" in length. Price is $45, shipping extra. Email me for availability or to discuss a custom design.

Thanks for looking!

New stuff...

Every time in the past three weeks I've sat down here to write and post pictures, something happens -- you know, like a pesky rush typing job comes in or I have to leave or something stoopid sings its siren song and off I go... like the doc in Stratford on Wednesday where I scored a pair of bat-winged skull earrings and a string of large genuine amber chips. Anyway, I was at the Toronto Bead Society Bead Show last Sunday, the 26th, and I brought home a few goodies...

I'd finally finished off some new designs (started by my pal Nancy) and put them into Thyme on 59 the day before, after the market...

And then today, Nancy and Joy showed up at 8:30 a.m. bearing pizza for lunch and dragged me kicking and screaming off of Pinterest to make jewellery and we got lots done for the table tomorrow. Here are just a few things.

I will come back later to write captions. Thanks for looking!

Assorted chokers & more skull components -- and earrings!

The farmer's market was slow again today so I had plenty of time -- at least four mostly uninterrupted hours! -- to make things. Mainly, any interruptions consisted of going to Peter's Bakery for samples of apple strudel (I also bought one, my fave go-to dessert these days), and to the Butcher's Blend when the sausage samples were laid out. At one point, Uncle Dad showed up with samples of pizza and I dare anyone to say no to fresh-cut vegetables and cheese on a thin crust... phhht... not me!

I'm probably like most of you out there, I buy far too many beads, never use most of them, and end up forever falling back onto my own particular favourite beads and shapes. Me, I love the look of all silver and/or mixed metal compositions. In this case, I added one 4mm bright copper jump ring between the Tibetan style large beads (my absolute favourite shape) and the stainless steel plated beads.

I also love the endless possibilities using Tibetan/Tibetan carved agate beads.

And here are more of those skulls I started working with last weekend. I ordered 200 of them from Arton this week and at the rate I'm motorvating through them, they won't last very long. I'm making components for another choker, as well as to offer for sale, and I will be making more with the top loop turned, so that I can jump-ring them together into a chain.

I made a pair of "lady skull" earrings with the addition of a copper daisy spacer.

And then it was all of a sudden time to go home, from whence I will not budge for the next four days while I type my fingers further up to the next knuckle, or so it feels. I wonder how many billion keystrokes I have made when I finally hang up my keyboard and pull the plug on this infernal, timesucking device...

Thanks for looking!

More snake necklaces and some guy-type chokers

I stayed up late on Friday night making two more snake seed bead necklaces and finishing off commissions, and on Saturday at the market I made a pile more chokers for a client. I ended up taking apart by request the triple small howlite skull pendant and making separate pendants using the whole colour range of small howlite skulls in the tray. Needless to say I am now almost out of both sizes of howlite skulls.

Great news -- I stopped in at Let's Eat Cake after the market and Rene told me we have our first order for cake jewellery! For an October wedding -- it will look exactly like the sample cake on Rene's home page. Yippeeeeeeeeeee -- Road trip! Off to Toronto soon to buy champagne-coloured Swarovkis.

Coral Snake Choker

http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/batesian-mimicry-snakes/ This website talks about Batesian mimicry -- amazing the things you can learn when you go exploring, innit?

Eastern Milk Snake Choker

http://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/emr/id.cfm

Variations on White Stone Chokers:

...using copper spacers, with a glass Venetian-style turquoise blue and red bead, and pewter spacers with a silver-plated pewter feather pendant, respectively. These three have been sold, but I can remake any of them if someone wants to order one. I also have deep reddish brown beads of the same type of stone (possibly howlite??), and I will be posting more variations on these themes this week.

Dyed Howlite Skull Choker & Tibetan Agate & Copper Jump Ring Choker

I lovelovelove these small Tibetan agate beads, some of which have translucent bits, here separated by tiny "vintage" copper jump rings.

Off now to see Jess at The Bead Boutique in Kitchener, looking for more pendants and maybe some feathers. My pal Lynn is driving in exchange for lunch, I hope at a great pizza/bagel place that has a wood oven. Wonderful food, and maybe it will have dried off enough by then that we can sit outside.

Any questions? Email me.
Thanks for looking!