Shibori Girl: October 2010

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Recycle... Reuse...

For a couple of years now I've been relisting expired items in my etsy shop. Every four months: another fee incurred and little very little interest generated in those early pieces. Frankly, I can understand this disinterest. Take this piece, for instance. It's a pretty necklace, but very simple and stringing was the only real skill involved with its creation. I decided to cut bait on this one.

I took the pearls off and used them in a new beadweaving project. I loved weaving this over-the-top gorgeous piece. First, I made a focal bead of Swarovski crystals and tiny little seed beads. Some vintage French bead caps make a beautiful frame for this spectacular bead.

Those rescued freshwater pearls went into the tubular netted rope for a nice rich texture. The final touches were beaded end caps and a gold-filled magnetic clasp.

"Cleo"

Once this piece was finished, I felt compelled to do another. I didn't have any other pieces to recycle this time, so I went full out with golden yellow Swarovski faux pearls.

"Natasha"

Fourteen hours (and a wicked hand cramp) later, I can't decide which one I like better.

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Something I've learned about myself recently is: whatever skill I'm using at a specific moment in time is my favorite. Right now, it's beadweaving. Next week, it could be polymer clay. It's nice to know that when I need to take a break from one favorite thing, there's another waiting in the wings for me to enjoy next!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

A Good Cause

Last week I decided to try something new and joined a Street Team at Etsy. They are the Etsy Beadweavers Street Team and they are a wonderful, nurturing group of people with buckets of talent. (You can find a link to the team's blog in my right sidebar.) Each month the group has a beading challenge, and the winner gets to pick the theme of the next month's challenge, as well as bragging rights.

Right now, we are gathering donations for Andrew Thornton, a fellow beader, who finds himself stuck with a daunting number of hospital bills after surgery to treat cancer. This treasury features a selection of pieces for this purpose.

click on the image to see treasury

Please note, 100% of the proceeds from these sales will go directly to Andrew. Please, head on over, click through the treasury and comment to keep it at the front. This is a great reason to buy a gift, or a treat for yourself.

You can read more about Andrew Thornton at his blog. Please feel free to pass the word, post about this on your own blogs, etc.

Thank you,

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The Total Package

I'm slated to do the Alternative Christmas Market show again at the United Church of Chapel Hill. The dates are November 20-21. If you are in the Raleigh-Durham area, I'd love for you to stop in and say, "Hey!". This will be my third consecutive year of participation in this event, and each year I try to spiff up my image a bit.

This time, it's business cards and packaging. I researched online regarding business card design for jewelry artists. All the advice said it was imperative to have a color picture of your work somewhere on your card. Otherwise, the card is simply a waste of paper. People need to have a picture to remind them of why they took your card in the first place.

This weekend I ditched my black-and-white, text only, business card model and went whole hog. Did you know that your local Staples copy center can do a bang-up job of printing business cards? I went with a larger quantity to bring the cost-per-card down significantly, and I also uploaded an image of my own design. For a nominal extra charge I opted for their premium card stock, and I have to say, the final results pretty much knocked my socks off.

~~~

For years I've wanted to offer some form of gift packaging at shows. I found some reasonably priced pillow boxes in two sizes, and made up some pretty labels. I've got LOADS of wired ribbons left over from my ribbon flower-making period. I've precut them to fit the two sizes of boxes, and I think the final result is very appealing.

Now all I need is the customers! :)

If you have any other ideas for presentation, I'd love to hear them.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Thankfully, my days of perching against a heating pad while staring, glassy-eyed, at the tv are done. My number of good days FAR outweighs the bad and I've been crazy Productive Girl. I'm still on a beadweaving kick and have a number of new pieces listed in my shop.

I love making earrings - especially glamorous statement pieces like these:

(Click on the images to see individual listings)