Kyanite Necklace & Earrings in Progress... The Gem Expo... & Roman Glass Beads Arriving in August!!!

Here's my dilemma. I have this beautiful and (for me) fairly expensive string of kyanite beads. My inclination, after looking at these beads for months was to KISS -- Keep It Super Simple -- so I strung them with one Bali silver bead in the centre. I like using larger clasps, if for the simple -- ah hah -- and logical reason that people, aka my customers, have told me they really, really like them. They're far easier to do up, not to mention they look cool.

But... in this case I used a pewter clasp which really helps to bring the cost down (and I think keeps the look "up" far better than a boring sterling clasp, at least the ones that are locally available to me at the moment). A sterling silver clasp of this size would whomp up the end price of the necklace considerably. Do I go ahead and offer the necklace with a sterling clasp for a high price, but offer the possibility of a pewter clasp at a lower price? Is this more futility in my battle to be all things to all people and will this possibly confuse them as to the "worth" of my offerings, i.e., does a judicious use of inexpensive but good-looking findings really cheapen the value of the beads they accompany or just make the item more attractively priced? Gaaaaaaaaah...

Well, so much for today's existential crisis. Meanwhile, pictures...

Earrings in a state of contemplation: do I go short, long...? The existentiality of this is one most of you will identify with because I only bought the one string of beads in this diameter and blew through all but four making the necklace. I shoulda/woulda/coulda taken the time to dig out my other smaller beads to put around the back. This is why it takes me so long to use my beads because theoretically -- and practically -- I have just one kick at the design can.

Ewww... I have to say I don't like how the colour turned out when I imported this picture into Blogger. The colour in the necklace photos is more or less accurate.

Let's try it again:

Onto another topic: my Gem Expo display table. Yes, in just seven days from this writing, Ruth and I will be open for business in the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency on King Street in Toronto! Since I primarily sell beads, but the necklaces and earrings I make with my beads have been selling well, I have to come up with interesting jewellery displays that take up very little table space, yet are up front and visible without detracting from the beads.

I bought this towel rack for two bucks at the Goodwill the other day and I'm quite pleased with it.

As always, I will be bringing lots of turquoise, lapis and other interesting semi-precious and powder glass beads in short strings and by the each, coin silver beads and connectors also by the each, as well as lots of pewter pendants and fetish beads. I take Visa and MasterCard, but unfortunately not debit. See you there!

PS: More and more of these items -- both strings of antique and collector beads as well as my necklaces and earrings -- are flying into and equally quickly out of Showcase 800 at the One of a Kind Antique Mall in Woodstock. As a heads-up, I have a shipment of drool-worthy Roman glass beads coming directly from Afghanistan. The beads will arrive some time in August -- alas, too late for the July Gem Expo. I'll post pictures and prices here as soon as I get them.

Thanks for looking!

Nacozari & Kingman Turquoise necklace...

I accomplished one thing today: a month ago, I'd received some incredibly deep blue, rough-edged Nacozari turquoise slices and, after contemplating them every day, finally broke up the string and today did something with them -- well, one at any rate.

Nacozari turquoise slab pendant, tumbled Kingman turquoise chips, mossy-green Japanese seed beads, pewter and/or zinc beads, pewter clasp. The necklace is about 21" long and the pendant hangs another 2". $79 plus shipping and handling. Individual slabs (drilled lengthwise) are available for $10 each. I take PayPal. Please email me for availability.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Customer... Happyhappy Me!!!

I've been making and selling jewellery for about six years now. It's one thing to sell in person where you can chat with customers maybe over several weeks, get to know them and what they like, their lifestyles, they can try different items on, and you can easily make adjustments to make something fit perfectly. But it's a whole 'nother ball of wax posting a picture online that will never be able to truly convey the colour, texture, luminosity or beauty of the stones, the weight or delicacy of a piece, and forget sizing entirely. That's a total crap-shoot.

I had posted this glass skull, pewter and enhanced lapis lazuli bracelet on the blog about a month ago.

Out of the blue -- sorry. Couldn't resist -- last Saturday, which was a long weekend here, came an email from the US wanting to buy it. After the initial whoo-hoo and happy dance, my guts went into overdrive. What if she doesn't like it? What if she's disappointed for some reason? What if the post office loses it? All the what-ifs... I packed it carefully in layers of bubble wrap and mailed it Tuesday morning. And waited.

Then I got another email late Saturday night/early Sunday morning:

OMG.  Here I've been carrying on and what I meant to tell you first thing was that your bracelet came today.

You are really, really good at all the stuff I avoid!!!!  I'll need to take another look at it, but I was impressed with the metal work.  I just have never gotten the hand of wrapping loops or working with wire, period.  I'm a klutz.  

But there's a balance, a symmetry that's very appealing to this bracelet.  The crystal skull just makes it.  And  I totally underestimated the effect of the lapis beads.

Very, very, nice.  Thank you so much.  I think my friend is really going to love this.

Whew! To Nancy LaB, thank YOU for trusting me! Go Canada Post and USPS! It took just five days to get across a border and half way across the continent.

Back to the jewellery table. Again, if you ever see something you like, please email me for more information.

White Pearls, "Black" Pearls -- no, not the ship -- & Turquoise

I had a commission to do for today's market, riffing on a so-called black (aka a dark iridescent purple) and white pearl necklace with plain zinc spacers that Nancy had designed before leaving town and me to my own much less creative devices. I substituted these mini-bump spacers for no other reason than I'm almost out of the plain ones.

Then I wondered what these very pretty 5mm pearls would look like with the same Kingman turquoise chips I've been playing with for the past week or so. Needs more work in the colour-correcting department, but I think it came out okay.

Thanks for looking!