More Cape Cod pics

Nauset Lighthouse:



Scargo Tower in Dennis:



Marconi beach, which was once the home to the Marconi Station, the first wireless station in the US. I'm really fascinated with this because it represents the pinnacle of technology at the time, and it slid into the sea years ago. We move on to each new technological jump so quickly, and the older inventions fade away. There is a mockup of the station in a little gazebo so that you can see what it once looked like.

I have no idea if it actually slid into the sea or not, but my imagination has taken over and I can see the wireless towers rusting away into oblivion under the turquoise waters...

Trying to brainstorm a new piece...

I have given myself several days off in a row (twelve, eeee) and I'm hoping that I have time to tinker with a few things. I only work maybe a day or two a week at this point, but I find that it does kind of put a crimp in the week.

I'm hoping to find time to work on my Etsy shop. I've restocked the scanned beads that I've sold, but I still need to restock the photographed beads that I've sold.

I've also put aside several pieces of jewelry from my show inventory that I'd like to list there as soon as I can. I really like the response I've gotten from Etsy--more hits than at eBay, at any rate.

So this is the prototype for a new bracelet...



I'm not pleased with the way it turned out. I was going to add picture jasper rounds to represent sand, only I didn't like the way they looked. In fact, I didn't like almost anything about it except for the beautiful glass beads and the awesome charms.

I think that I don't like the charm bracelet chain. I'm going to remake it with a smaller chain and use the flat square beads to connect the pieces of chain instead of having them dangle. And I'll find something else to help offset the length of the charms (with the links, they're rather long, and there needs to be something of medium length, I think). I gave my mom this bracelet, and I'll try making another one this week, I hope. I feel really inspired by those flat beads--they're made from vintage glass and as soon as I saw them I thought of seafoam. I very much hope I can make it work!

Back from everything

I haven't posted in a while--I just didn't have time between the conference in Chicago and then running off to our honeymoon in Cape Cod.

We had a very nice time, except the timeshare was a bit...er...surprising. It was a motel conversion, and at first glance I couldn't find the bed, only to discover it was in the closet--yes, it was a genuine Murphy bed.

I took some fun pictures, we went to some pretty places, and we had some lovely meals.

One of my favorite things was the glass museum at Sandwich. We watched a demonstration of glass-blowing and pressing glass, and got to see lots of wonderful pieces of pressed glass. They have several rooms containing hundreds of pieces. They also have a very cute display showing what a glass recipe creator's desk looked like, along with an audio recording of his great-grandson explaining how things worked. It was really neat.

Some pictures from the museum:



The different glasses are colored by minerals, which I had heard before. They had one yellow color that was colored by adding uranium to the mix, and they had a Geiger counter nearby to show the levels of the piece.



I love this pic--the matte glass pitchers look so nice together.



This was fascinating: apparently they made targets for Annie Oakley.



I have a few more pics to share, but I'll save them for tomorrow.

Nice to be back and blogging!

Off I go

I'll be in Chicago for a conference this week. Will see you all when I return on Monday. Have fun beading!

Identifying beads

One of the most difficult things about listing items on eBay is trying to come up with a good title.

Tonight I was trying to figure out the article number for a vintage Swarovski bead (it's a ribbed rondelle, and I just can't remember what its nickname is), and I came across the directory at the Beadin' Path, which was quite complete and beautifully photographed.

The rondelles weren't listed, but I know I'll find them eventually. Still, having to research things and try to see what others list them as is an interesting process.

You never know what to expect

Today's show was an experiment in psychology, as they all are. What attracts customers? What bores customers? What drives customers away?

I really do need a new display. The black velvet neck forms have to go--I need to go all grey/white.

The wire closet rack organizers need to be switched out for something else.

They've definitely done their job for a very long time, but I need something new and interesting.

Tomorrow is another show

This has been a very busy summer for me, and I'm looking forward to September, because I have very little planned for that month.

That said, I still have to get through the rest of August. Tomorrow is a show in Oxford, and though we are experiencing lots of rain and lightning, tomorrow's forecast is lovely--partly sunny, and in the high sixties.

Hopefully it won't be too cool. I often find that there is a "temperature range" for jewelry buying. Some people don't like to try on or even think about jewelry if it's too hot; same if it's too cool. But high sixties should be enough.

I don't have as much inventory as I would have liked, but I've managed to clean out a few jewelry boxes and bags and found enough to make a halfway decent display, at least. It's a small, one day show, and I'm not too worried. I made another set of eighty earrings to fill in my charm earring display, and that should help.

Good thing is, the gallery who carries my jewelry will be getting whatever's left over from this, and they'll be as happy as clams. Also, I'll be able to list my new things on Etsy, finally. I have nautilus bracelets and all sorts of goodies, and I've been holding off until I get this last show out from under my feet.

New strategies, yet again.

Today I set up at a discount art market. I have done the show before, and thought that it was worth another try, but it just didn't seem to go well today.

Plus, because it's a long drive, there was the expense of gasoline to worry about.

So I'm not doing that show again.

Artists and vendors are always having to juggle shows. I'm forever tinkering with my schedule.

Beading techniques

I remember making my first project. It was a wire-wrapped bracelet, and I made it in a class at a local bead store (now long since closed):



After that, I took a second class, where I made a necklace on Soft-Flex wire. I took a few more classes as well, where I learned more about wire-wrapping and stringing, but I never took a needle-and-thread class.

Eleven years later, and I still haven't figured out thread projects. Every time there's a new trend in beading, I look into it, but I often don't end up trying it. When it was all the rage to make stretch bracelets with Swarovski crystals, I bought Stretch Magic, but I never used it. When the silk string trend started, I made a few necklaces, but ultimately decided not to continue. I've seen ribbon necklaces, bracelets with fiber, everything under the sun--but I've never veered from Soft-Flex or sterling/goldfill wire.

Often I see these approaches, and I think them imaginative and interesting, but I can't bring myself to try.

When I was still in high school I spent my entire weekly allowance ($20) on a necklace at a Renaissance Festival. I put it on and absolutely adored it. I wore it for about an hour before it felt a little itchy and I adjusted the necklace with my finger--whereupon the entire necklace broke at a single point and several beads were lost.

Clearly this is a silly reason not to make something on thread, and it isn't the only reason; honestly, I just don't have the patience for threadwork. But it does pop up in my mind every so often. I would hate to have someone buy something from me, only to have it break within hours.

I really adore Soft-Flex and am working my way through my third 1000 foot spool at this point. It's a great product and I am very much impressed by how it holds up. I made one necklace eight years ago that I still wear today. It's been through a lot of wear and tear--a baby once played rather violently with it for hours--and yet it still looks great.

I also love working with sterling wire, though I rarely (if ever) use half-hard; I prefer dead soft for everything. Less wear and tear on the hands, I suppose. Also, it's easier to control. I buy a pound of dead soft 20 gauge at a time and it generally takes a year or so to go through it, especially when I'm doing a lot of shows.

A room of one's own

I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of space in my apartment. When we first moved in seven years ago I had originally planned on making the master bedroom the office, but finally backed down when it became clear that it would be a struggle to get the bed into the smaller bedroom.

At the time I simply resigned myself to less space, though it irked me. Why must the larger room be the bedroom? After all, it's only used for sleep. We spend almost no time at all in there besides resting. There's no TV. And I have to say that, seven years later, I wish that I had stuck to my guns and made the smaller room the bedroom.

The office currently contains three desks, three chairs, a couch, two tables, two large paperwork cubicles, a TV on a TV stand, a paper shredder, and a huge stack of cushions. The closet is full to the brim with beads in boxes and clothing. It would be so much more wonderful to have all of this in a larger space.

Fortunately, I'm moving in December. Moving into a house, no less. And this house has three bedrooms: the master bedroom, overlooking the pond in the backyard, a long narrow bedroom, and a small guest bedroom.

I'm going to keep the guest bedroom as it is, and we are going to use the long narrow bedroom as our bedroom.

The master bedroom will be our office. A beautiful view, plenty of room to fit all of this furniture (and more), and a brand new laminate floor will make me a happy person indeed. I've told a few people of my plans, and those who work 9-5 jobs have looked at me in surprise about using the master bedroom this way; those who work for themselves smile knowingly.

I need a space of my own to make this work. I need a place where I won't have jump over the arm of a sofa in order to get to my jewelry desk. I need a place where I can actually see my printer instead of stashing it under a table.

I plan on buying a new desk from Ikea. Something big and broad, with lots of cubicles for boxes, labels, printers, everything. I need to overhaul my entire system because jewelry and beads are what I want to sell.

The place where I work erratically is not doing so well, and I am thinking that either I'll be quitting in January or I'll be laid off before then. I am so eager to transform things and hunker down in our new house. I'm so eager to be in a place where I can actually paint and hang pictures without worrying about losing a safety deposit.

I'm looking forward to a new start, and a room of my own.