Double the pleasure, double the fun!

Sometimes, my favorite projects are those with built in inspiration. I love making jewelry to match or reflect something else.

This year for Christmas, I bought my aunt 3 different scarves.
Now, my aunt is a very put-together lady!
She likes to match!

So, I decided I would make her a bracelet to go with each scarf. I took the scarves with me to the store and mixed and matched beads to find just the right combo.
Here are the final products :

#1

#2

#3. 

I love the way they came out, and I really think she will love them!

Now you tell me... do you like to match things, or take direct inspiration? Or do you prefer to be as spontaneous and creative as possible? 

Me? I enjoy both methods. I feel very enthusiastic when I have to make a direct translation from something else into jewelry. It's a challenge, but at the same time, they tend to come together pretty easily. However, I also like to just go crazy and use a bunch of beads that I love, and see where they take me!

Jump Rings!

I ordered some colored jump rings a few weeks ago from The Ring Lord, and some rubber oh! rings from Fire Mountain. The rubber ones came last week, and the colored ones came yesterday. I'm super excited. I bought some jump ring jewelry at a recent craft show for some ideas - I'd always wanted to try making some jump ring jewelry but seeing it in person is much easier to grasp the concept.

I can't wait to show you what I make with them!!! :)

Not much blogging lately, sorry about that. With the holidays fast approaching, we're slammed. (Both with orders and gifts).

I received some beads from my stepmom yesterday, and 2 gift cards to Michaels (one from my stepmom, one from my work Secret Santa). Sometimes people think that giving us Michaels cards wouldn't be that great for us. We must already have tons of supplies. We must already have lots of beads. But nope. Opening up a present of strings of beads is the best. Getting to go shopping for beads is even better! I love receiving beads. It's fun to see what other people pick out for you.

What about all of you? Do you love receiving gifts of supplies?

Last of the Season

This past weekend we had our last craft fair of the season! We didn't make a killing, but we at least made our fee back. And for once, I didn't buy ANYTHING from anybody else! That's a victory ;-) (Melissa and I are kind of shopaholics! hehe!)

So, we had a tiny table, but we squeezed as much as we could on it.


Brad's table looked nice, as always!


We got serenaded with Christmas carols by a choir


It was a nice day... but now we're back to Christmas orders and Etsy! :-)

First Vlog! :)

Go easy on me :)

Coming Soon?

I was looking around itunes video podcasts today and there is no one that does jewelry making videos on itunes. Now, clearly, I don't think I have a good enough video camera to make a podcast, but I certainly could do youtube videos. Or flickr videos.

So, it got me thinking. I think I may do a few "vlogs" on here. :) I'll have to see how Shannon did hers (which I totally forgot to watch, I'm such a bad friend). :(

Thoughts? Videos you would like to see?

As promised

Here is one of the fine silver wire wrapped bracelets.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=35204732

Fine Silver Wire

We've recently started using fine silver wire for wire wrapping and making our own headpins. This weekend I made 3 freshwater pearl bracelets wrapped with the fine silver wire (pictures to come!). The huge benefit of using the fine silver is that it is essentially pure silver, and does not tarnish like sterling wire does. It's amazing!

I definitely am considering trying to order some fine silver wire in other gauges (we are using 24 gauge right now), but it all depends on price. However, as I'd like to start doing some more upscale pieces as well as our usual beaded jewelry, it might be worth the investment.

Well, at least we looked cute!

Well, I can't say anything about the craft show that Melissa didn't already say :-)
Except that, no matter how long a day, how far a drive, or how much a monetary hit we took—I still always have a good time just spending the day with my girl! So, its never a total loss for me.

Anyway, I took a pic of our table to share...
We had 1/2 the table space as the last show, but we still managed to fit a lot out there, without making it look too stuffed.


Here's some earrings lookin' all cute...


I don't feel like craft fairs are the right venue for us, but it seems to be the best option for getting out there locally. Unfortunately for us, beading & jewelry making is still very popular, and so we're going to have too much competition at every show. I guess we also need to ask the coordinators about whether or not they are letting in non-handmade vendors before we agree to do it!

STOP THE IMPORTS

We did a craft show today, where there were sixteen other jewelry vendors. Two of them had imported goods. How do I know? They had a TON of sterling silver pieces, like rings, and they were about $3 each. No real crafter can do that. Ever. Even for a sale. Not wire rings, SOLID RINGS. We didn't even make back our $75 table fee.  We raked in $37.

And this place also let in Silpada. Come on. Since when are Silpada, Tupperware, and Tastefully Simple consultants crafters?

I'll be sending the organizers a nasty email tomorrow.