Blue Hebron, Majapahit & Trade Beads, Plus Some Market Chokers...

Whoo hoooo! BLUE  HEBRON BEADS! I have been lusting after these for the longest time. An early birthday present to myself, plus these gorgeous Majapahit Javanese beads and more trade beads (pink Cheyenne and African glass trade beads). I'll tell you, I sure wish I'd bought more of the Majapahit beads. They are stunning. The pictures do not do them justice at all.

The blue Hebron beads will be available for sale in small lots. Email me if you're interested and tell me what size(s) you're interested in. To be fair I'll probably sell them by weight. Ditto the Majapahits.

The market itself was again slow this past Saturday, but I kept myself busy and made these chokers, some of which my client bought, the rest of which are now on the table available for sale.



Top to bottom: copper jump rings & copper beads, silver-plated & hematite beads; copper jump rings & copper, stainless steel-plated & hematite beads; silver-plated, copper jump rings & hematite beads; & copper jump rings, silver-plated, stainless steel and gunmetal plated beads & a copper-wrapped silver-plated skull bead



Top bracelet and choker: silver-plated base metal "rock";
Lower choker: silver-plated beads flanking a jumble of large-holed pewter spacers

And, because V-Day is coming up...



Glass beads, sterling earwires

 Thanks for looking!

Display & Storage

Like everyone, I have a problem with storage, both at home and to and from a market or show, as well as the display itself. I try to make my table displays do double duty, so that display box lids are closed and 1-inch foam slabs (from a camping foamie) cut to size are used to cushion boards loaded with earrings, necklaces and doodads and everthing gets packed firmly into shopping bags or bins -- where they reside until the next market.

The plasticated or Tyvek flat-bottomed reusable grocery bags are cheap and so handy. Most sizes and heights of earring carrousels fit perfectly into flat-bottomed Tyvek grocery bags, and your earrings won't go anywhere because the bags don't collapse or fall over: cloth bags don't work at all well for this purpose, anyway, and I stopped using them. It'll take a couple of dollars and a bit of experimentation to find which size(s) work(s) best for your personal needs: beads and jewellery and wooden boards can start to get reeeeeally heavy. Overall, though, I've found it's best to try to keep the size of your bins and bags pretty much to the same size for easy storage/loading up your vehicle.

This is my newest acquisition:


Tiny drop marks of water damage I can live with -- when it's on the table the lid will be open.



Secure lock -- this is the second item I have with this lock style.



I have scraps of foam and black stretch velour to line each compartment.
Sometimes being a packrat pays off -- I always have stuff to fix things with!

I'm thinking that if I cut those ribbons that keep the lid propped half open,
then the lid might fall back flat and I could drape necklaces in there... or I could line it with velour and very thin foam and pin things...

 I admired this box on the table of another market vendor on Saturday and Brenda, of Brenda's Magnetics, offered to sell it to me, saying she was bored with it.

"Oooh... how much?"

"Five bucks."

"Sold."

She said she didn't have space in her tiny apartment to store unused display items so she gets rid of them. Unfortunately, I have tons of room here (space I'm rapidly running out of because I have so much freaking STUFF!). I have years' worth of display items that I'm no longer using and no good home for them. Nothing wrong with these items; I simply don't use 'em anymore.

I periodically cruise the Goodwill, Value Village, Sally Ann and lawn sales keeping an eye out for interesting boxes, clamp-on lamps/spotlights and things that can be repurposed into displays. But, still, you'd be amazed at how easy it is to acquire something you admire from another vendor just by asking.

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!

Valentine's Day Cupcake Picks...

Well, amazingly enough, I did manage to get something done this week, despite a marathon of typing. I was up at 4:30 this morning to finish typing and then proofread everything. I got the job in 2 minutes before the deadline. Then I had a nap.

I put these cupcake picks together in several little 15 to 30-minute bursts this week rather than try to do it all at once tonight when I really should be trying to get some sleep. Very clever of me, no? Actually, it's amazing how much can be done in 15 minutes if everything is laid out. But then, after checking my sales book, I realised I had totally forgot I have to try to wirewrap a 4mm turquoise bead into a sterling silver ring that had lost its stone. Gahhhh...


L to R: small red glass heart picks, large red glass heart picks, pink and red dyed howlite skull picks,
pink, red and blue fairy flower picks, mini-confetti picks

 Those are little flower fairies second from the right if you couldn't tell. I'm wondering if I should make them as dangles. In any event these are available at Let's Eat Cake in Woodstock. If you wanted to order some in a particular colour or style/theme or a large quantity, let me or Rene know.

Thanks for looking!

Workaround to upload photos -- switch to HTML... Blue Sapphire Earrings & New Skull Chokers TA DA!

Success!

Blue Sapphire earrings with Bali silver daisy spacers and sterling silver earwires, $45/pr.

Amazing what you can learn when you go poking around workarounds and fixes on an FAQ page.

So, back to HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone! Thank you to all my readers and I hope this year is filled to overflowing with creativity and good happenings for all of us. I will have momentous news in the next few months. Stay tuned for that. AND I will get back to the creativity as soon as I stop pinning pictures at Pinterest. Oh, my, what a timesucker that is proving to be.

In the meantime, I have made about 50 pairs of this style of earrings, something basic to wear with jeans, to work, to go out at night (although I wouldn't know anything about that. Max and I tend to hit the hay around 6:30 or 7:00 with a book and cookies). Here are the sapphire earrings. I have two lines, basic semi-precious, all priced at $25/pr, includes Ontario HST, and any two pair for $45 (email me for selection). Then I have a line utilising "high cut" stones and I have moonstone, labradorite, citrine, amethyst, emerald and sapphire earrings to date. The "high cut" earrings are priced at around $45/pr, and I'll take 10% off if you buy more than one pair (email me for selection). I printed out a list on Friday night of all the semi-precious stones associated with birth months and zodiac signs and I will be acquiring as many of those stones as I can. Any requests? Email me.

Here, too, are the skull chokers and a bracelet that I made for a client on Saturday morning at the market. I will be ordering more skulls of this type today if anyone wants to commission something similar.



These dangles started out as earrings, but I thought, no......



I'm offering these dangles ready for use if anyone is interested. $2.50 each. I would make them initially ready to string like this, i.e. w/o needing a jump ring, however if anyone wanted them with the top loop facing the front, then I can do that. Again, email me for availability and/or to order.

Large pewter skull dangle, mini silver-plated skulls & two skulls with roses
with copper jump rings as spacers on 1.5mm black Greek leather

And I made my client an adjustable bracelet...

So that's it for now, lots of plans, just have to keep nose applied firmly to grindstone.

Thanks for looking!

Blue Sapphire Earrings... and more skulls!

Happy New Year, everyone. I have been super-busy with typing and making jewellery -- about 50 pairs of earrings in this style:

...

And I went to upload the photos and now find out I can't. Copying and pasting doesn't work either. Is this the end of my blog?

Stay tuned.