Latest Skullish Designs...

I've been remiss in posting for a while -- okay, over a year -- but I've been BUSY!!! Here is a small selection of my latest skull work that I've been displaying and selling every Saturday morning at the Woodstock Farmers Market and The Gem Expo in Toronto, plus doing tons of custom work, crystal healing bracelets and custom (non-skull) designs.

Lately, I've been teaching myself chaos wire-weaving from YouTube tutorials along with keeping up with making a steady stream of skull-themed leather chokers, skull, lava and crystal bracelets and earrings.

Find most items I make posted each Saturday live on my Facebook pages, Artefaccio and, for healing crystal bracelets, Chakraluscious.

As always, if you see something  you like, or have an idea for something you'd like to have made, please EMAIL ME at bemacdougall@gmail.com, or come to the Woodstock Farmers Market every Saturday morning, 7:00 a.m. 'til 12:00 noon. For you early birds, I'm usually there by 5:00 a.m.

See you at the Woodstock Farmers Market tomorrow and every Saturday. See you in Toronto the first weekend in March at The Gem Expo! Email me for more information or to chat about your ideas at bemacdougall@gmail.com

Today's Market Production...

I'm in the midst of sorting and packing for the Gem Expo/MetaExpo at the Hyatt Regency on King Street in downtown Toronto coming up fast the last weekend of July. Three and a half weeks to go and -- gasp -- I'm already getting ready, not leaving things until the last day like I usually do...

I've been unearthing orphan pendants and odds and ends of beads, and this morning I played around and made these three adjustable leather chokers. They've all sold, but you can always come to the Woodstock Farmers Market at the fairgrounds on Nellis Street every Saturday (except when I'm at the show in Toronto) from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Tons of beautiful artisanal foods (and crafts), most is organic -- or as good as -- and locally grown/raised/crafted.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you next Saturday!

New Chakraluscious Chakra Bracelets...

Here are my two new Chakraluscious chakra bracelets ready for the market tomorrow at the Woodstock Farmers Market at the fairgrounds on Nellis Street. Come and see these bracelets and more between 7:00 a.m. and noon tomorrow and every Saturday morning.

Both are stretch bracelets with genuine moonstone, garnet, carnelian, gold rutilated quartz, nephrite jade, lapis lazuli, iolite, amethyst and labradorite beads, finished with either white rabbit jade or black lava beads and brass findings.

I make custom jewellery to fit your budget. I also do simple repairs: replace clasps or earwires and restring items.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you tomorrow. Happy Canada Day, everyone!

Chakraluscious Chakra Bracelets...

Design your own custom Chakraluscious chakra bracelet with crystals that are meaningful to you. At the moment I have almost 200 6mm crystal beads to choose from with more added every month. Prices will vary with the crystals used. Please contact me for a quote based on your choice of crystals.

Contact me here to order yours, or come and see me at the Woodstock Farmers Market at the fairgrounds on Nellis Street every Saturday morning 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

Simple, pretty, well-made with quality findings and stretch cord... And every one as individual as you.

Chakraluscious Chakra Bracelet

Bali silver, lava, shungite, 3 quartz crystal, 3 garnet, 3 sunstone, 3 citrine, 3 malachite, 3 aquamarine, 3 iolite, 3 amethyst, 3 quartz crystal, shungite, lava.

Chakraluscious Chakra Bracelet

Bali silver, 3 quartz crystal, 3 amethyst, 3 iolite, 3 blue apatite, 3 nephrite jade, 3 citrine, 3 sunstone, 3 garnet, black tourmaline, shungite, lava.

Thanks for stopping by!

Customer request...

Hard to believe, but some people don't like skulls... I'd made these a few weeks ago...

...and got an email at the farmers market yesterday morning via a pal: could I take the skulls off and add crystals of some kind?

This was the result: tiny powerhouse Herkimer diamonds with lots of flash and fire:

Thanks for stopping by!

Good Advice for 2018 -- and beyond...

Agnes, 02.01.18

I originally read this advice when I was 18. No idea where I first came across it, probably some magazine article. I was living on my own for the first time in a new city, working my first job at a university of all places -- stratospheric intimidation factor right there -- didn't know anyone, and for sure didn't have clue one how the world worked, let alone my place in it. Basically, I was one terrified, gibbering kid from the sticks. But I read it, kept my mouth firmly shut, eyes and ears wiiiiide open. Trust me, it worked. Almost too well. But I learned all kinds of interesting stuff.  

Listening well has served me equally well making jewellery; my customers have in many cases become my good friends. It amazes me how many people don't -- or won't -- listen. More than ever, people are starving to be heard. Jewellery is therapy for more than just us as the makers; it's also a therapy vehicle for our customers.

I've been at the market for ten years and this was my first great Christmas season ever. Even the New Year's market was good! But that was then, this is now: these last couple of days I've been proactively contacting people and filling up my new and pristine daytimer with events at which to sell my jewellery: dates and locations TBA.

I'll be offering a third class at The Gem Expo in Toronto in March on the Friday evening after work, plus the usual Saturday and Sunday mornings, course content TBA. If there's a technique you'd like to learn or refine, please tell me! Best and fastest way to get hold of me is email.

And you can always find me at the Woodstock Farmers Market, every Saturday morning from 7:00 a.m. until noon, although I'm usually there by 5:00.

Now to hunker down and back to workworkwork! Welllll... first more coffee.

Happy New Year to you all!

Christmas Shows & Markets...

Most people who know me know that I do NOT do Christmas craft shows.

Yeah, well... that is, until I do.

This past Sunday I took part in a Christmas artisan show and coffee open house at the newly opened Burnt Brick Cafe in downtown Woodstock. It was a hoot and a half, and everyone had a good time. Next year it'll be held it a few weeks earlier -- too many people couldn't come because of family obligations. (But don't despair -- there'll be one coming up in time for Valentine's Day!!)

My table by the window. The light was good at noon -- but by 2:00 it was getting overcast and pretty dim.

Showing crystal pendulums, gradated blues, purples and cream Peruvian opal necklace, semi-precious wand pendants, semi-precious chip & wire trees, carved skulls, pewter bookmarks, quartz crystal pendants... 

Showing Tibetan silver Hamsa hands, rose quartz stone & wire tree, Chakraluscious healing bracelets, resin raven skull pendants, Taxco sterling silver pendants, semi-precious carved skull and heart pendants...

Shots of the show in the main dining area and the other room with the bar/serving area and kitchen with Rene Hoelscher, the owner, behind the bar.

They make great lattes, of which I drank far too many during the show, and the food there is beyond fantastic. Do not let the word "healthy" scare you away. I had a maple bacon scone: just wow. If you ever get a chance to sample their cheddar/jalapeno/bacon soup, it is truly heaven in a bowl. 

This coming Saturday, 23 December, is your last chance to come to the Woodstock Farmers Market before Christmas. Officially open from 7:00 until noon, I'll be there from about 5:00 a.m. for all you early birds. 

Can't figure out what to get the jewellery-lover on your list? I have crystal cage pendants ready to insert their favourite stone or crystal, jewellery cleaning cloths, carved semi-precious skulls and skull pendants, crystal trees (seen in the above pictures), candles in the shape of crystals, dragon incense burners, plus new artisan-made sterling silver pendants from Taxco, Mexico, and Bali. 

With over 120 different beads to choose from, I can make almost any healing bracelet combo you can imagine. See my Chakraluscious stacking bracelets and aromatherapy/diffuser pendants and bracelets. 

Prices range from $1 to $300, gifts for kids to great-grands -- oh, and FYI, I take Visa as well as any pesky cash. STILL can't decide? I'll have gift certificates available.

I already have my custom-cut half a turkey breast from Miedema's at the market. :-))) Made the cranberry sauce this morning. Just need veg and bread. Maybe some more of Peter's orange brandy Christmas cake. YUM!!! See you at the market!!!

Wrapping a Corroded Old Iron Arrowhead for a Choker...

I bought this solid iron arrowhead from a guy who knew a guy...

Nah, actually, I was wandering around the local antique show a few weeks ago looking for my pal to give her the coffee I'd brought for her and eventually found her. I ended up buying a small box of interesting things, probably paid too much, but "oh, well," right? You want what you want when you want it.

I was told the arrowhead in particular came from Europe and was "old" and "real". That's all the vendor knew. I did some research when I got home and found some information here. Looks to be a longbow arrowhead, vintage the 1600s, used for hunting game like wild boar. Surprising what a heavy sucker it is, too, for its size. It would do some damage, whatever the target.

My next decision was how to wrap it. I didn't want to damage the arrowhead at all and avoid glue unless there's no other way. I figured with all the pitting and corrosion that the wire would have enough to grab onto. The copper wire will eventually tarnish and become a little more blendy. I used a vintage-finish copper jump ring, squashed it down it down to make a D-ring shape to give me two corners to wrap to the arrowhead using 28 gauge bare copper wire. Zig-zagged the wire in back to tighten up any slack. Added three jump rings to jump ring to distribute the weight of the arrowhead on the leather cord.

If you have any old and/or meaningful items that you'd like to have turned into a pendant bring them to me at the Woodstock Farmers Market any Saturday, or contact me here or via email. Maybe I can do something for you.

Thanks for stopping by!

November 2017 GEM EXPO...

I haven't posted pix from the shows all year, but here are my setup photos this time, largely unedited. So happy the show was two weeks earlier than usual, we had a much better turnout even with parts of different subway lines shut down on Saturday and Sunday.

Have to start the trip with sufficient fuel: crispy hot french fries from my favourite chip stand at the top of the hill on the western edge of Paris -- Ontario.

My usual show strategy is to get the tables in place and everything out of the bins and onto the tables on Thursday night, then arrive at 7:00 a.m. on Friday and begin arranging everything.

9:03 a.m. everything is roughly in place; behind the scene, it's a mess and didn't improve at all during the show...

...in front of the scene, everything is roughly in place but I was not in a mindset to make decisions about where things should go. I had new bins of beads that were really throwing me off and some I didn't bring.

At 11:45, the doors have been open for 15 minutes, and this is as good and pristine as my booth will get.

I found stretch velcro bands at Dollarama to keep my plastic drawers and bins closed. I'll be cutting the lids off the translucent bins and using the velcro bands to keep the lids on for transportation. Without the lids it will make for a much cleaner display. That does not look good up above!

LOVELOVELOVE these clear stacking containers with partitioned trays as they are the perfect size for my collection of 6mm beads. I now have at least 100 different beads for my Chakraluscious line of healing bracelets and I'm sourcing more.

For now, I'm using a wooden spool holder that I found at the Goodwill for $3 and spray-painted black to hold my Chakraluscious bracelets. I finally had the absolutely delightful experience of selling an anti-negativity bracelet right off my wrist at the show. Very cool when that happens!

Since arriving back home, I scored two more small type trays to put goodies in, pre-loading being the way to go and these trays fit perfectly into plastic bins for storage and transport.

Some great meals:

Dinner crepe, Crepe T.O. is located a few doors south of the HI-Toronto hostel on Church, just above King. I read a great review in the Toronto Star several months before and have wanted to try it. Yum. I think they were planning on closing early, but they stayed open a bit later for me and several other people who'd wandered in after me.

Sunday night, Ruth and I hit the ever-reliable Jason George for a late night shared meal after packing up the van:

Pusateri's on Bay in Yorkville, Ruth launching an attack on an unsuspecting chocolate almond croissant, sitting there minding its own business. We spent a good hour going through beads and assorted loot.

The show was a lot of fun all three days and Sunday was fantastic. Packed with people all day and I had such great conversations. The classes I taught went well, and it looks like I'll be offering a third, different class in March, so stay tuned.

The next Gem Expo will be held the final weekend of March Break when everyone will be back from their holidays! Whoo hoo! See you then. In the meantime, you can find me every Saturday morning 7:00 a.m. until noon at the Woodstock Farmers Market on Nellis Street. I'm also taking part in the Quarter Auction on December 7th next door in the Auditorium, and on Sunday, December 17th I'll be at the Burnt Brick Cafe on Dundas Street in downtown Woodstock.

Spring...

Working flat out these days -- crazy hours. Managed 20 minutes on my minuscule deck yesterday in the hot sun and too cold wind to -- gasp! -- read a book and eat lunch. Then it was back to typing. I'm surrounded here by carpets of snowdrops, bluebells and purple violets.

On other fronts, I became a great-aunt a week ago... here is Etta, age 1 week. She's a cutie.

Off to Toronto again in a few days on another buying trip. Hope to see you at the market in a few hours. Check out my new skulls, chakra pendants, turquoise, lapis, peridot and citrine rings from Montreal, lapis earrings and bracelets, plus rudraksha and sandalwood beads to wear as they are or have custom made into a necklace.

The Woodstock Farmers Market, at the fairgrounds on Nellis Street, 7:00 a.m. to noon every Saturday.

2,300 Pinterest Saves To Date -- Crystal Suncatchers

Crystal & copper suncatchers on Pinterest and here on my blog.

I can't believe how popular these little suncatchers have been. I still have lots more for sale at the Woodstock Farmers Market every Saturday morning. They're so easy and inexpensive to make: use up scraps of wire and stray beads.

I'll be teaching you how to make these and all kinds of dangles, ear wires, chain wraps, etc.in my class:

Tools, Tips & Trick of Jewellery-Making 

on Saturday, March 18th

at the

The Gem Expo

March 17, 18 and 19, 2017

Hyatt Regency Ballroom

King Street West, 

Toronto 

Class size is limited, so sign up early. Bonus: you get free admission for all three days of the show when you sign up for any class. Subscribe and get up-to-the-minute info by email on everything Gem Expo: vendors, classes.

I hope to see you there!

Taste of Poland at the Woodstock Farmers Market...

Yesterday the vendors moved inside the market, officially marking the end of summer. But... to make us all happy, there was a new vendor running the snackbar. Taste of Poland from Hamilton. They were giving out free samples of perogies and cabbage rolls. Holy moley -- soooooooooo good. I am not normally a fan of cabbage rolls but these were fantastic. Everyone was raving about the samples.

If the thought of perogies is a bit much so early in the morning, they have some good-looking breakfasts, as well.

I bought a bag of frozen perogies, fried up some Miedema's bacon and onion, splurged on a tub of sour cream, and a few minutes ago had myself a little Sunday orgy here at the computer...

On other fronts, I am already booking custom orders for Christmas. There are tons of gift ideas from food and craft vendors (several new vendors) in two large rooms. Come to the market on Saturday morning, get all your Christmas shopping done and done early!

Copper Curl Pendants...

One of my favourite sources for wire weaving tutorials is Oxana Crafts over on YouTube. I watched this tutorial yesterday, and then this morning at the market tried making it from memory. Let's just say that overdue library books aren't the only things I've not been remembering lately.

My first attempt was an epic FAIL, if for no other reason than I ran out of wire. The bead doesn't look very good with it, either -- white stripes, not blue like in the photo (blame that on my idiotPhone camera):

2nd attempt turned out the best -- it has two distinct layers of wire as one side tucks in behind. The copper looks good with the red glass:

3rd attempt is okay-ish... maybe:

Comparing mine with the original design here shows I really need to tighten up my twirls. My beads are a bit larger than the one used in the original video, and I found that 2 pieces of 30-inch 20 gauge gave me enough wire.

Well, that was interesting exercise... but definitely back to the drawing board. Do check out Oxana's tuts. They're very easy to follow.

I've been told the November Gem Expo classes will be posted later this weekend. Sign up at the Gem Expo website and you'll get an email notifying you as soon as they're up. Lots of fun classes and you get a three-day show pass with your class fee. Where? Downtown Toronto at the Hyatt Regency on King Street the last weekend in November.

Thanks for stopping by and see you at the bead show!

Fab news...

The Gem Expo in July was a total hoot, met lots of new and returning customers and friends -- and the class I taught went really well, so much so I plan to offer two or three different classes at the November Gem Expo. Stay tuned for advance announcements on that front, and I'll give you a heads up once the classes are posted. This time, though, the classes will be capped at 5 to maybe 8 students, so don't delay in registering. If we know far enough in advance that there is sufficient demand additional classes can be scheduled.

In fact, think about giving the gift of learning to a friend as an early Christmas present. There are jewellery-making classes at the show for every skill level and interest. You'll definitely make new friends and jewellery buddies in the classes, as well.

My fab news is this summer I sold the smaller copper swirl citrine pendant and the wire-woven Sleeping Beauty turquoise nugget ring. Then yesterday I sold the larger swirl citrine pendant.

Aaaand... three weeks ago I sold the double-sided dragon-skin/crackle agate Backside of the Moon pendant.

People who know me know that I am a big fan of more is more, which means my market tables are usually crammed with stuff. Well... the past few weeks I've been experimenting with putting on the table just one or a few items in a style instead of the five, ten, dozen or more that I have... and it seems to be working. There is breathing space now between each item and sales seem to have picked up. There might be a little of the "uh, oh -- there's only one left, I'd better buy it now" scarcity strategy going on, too... maybe.

We also got new lighting in the market building a few weeks ago thanks to a grant. Makes a HUGE difference, so much so that I don't have to put up spotlights all over my table. Instead of walking from sunlight into a dim and depressing building, it's like walking from sunlight into sunlight. It's quite spectacular, actually, and all the jewellery across the table looks ten times better instead of the spotlit puddles I had before.

This summer I acquired some really great crystals and unusually-shaped tumbled and raw semi-precious stones. I'll be posting pictures when I get them made up into pendants. Meanwhile, you can always contact me here or by email for special orders, and you can find me at the Woodstock Farmers Market every Saturday morning, 7:00 a.m. to 12:00.

As always, thanks for stopping by!