Happy Hallowe'en!

I hope you all had a lovely, spooky day!

The days grow shorter

The pond has leaves floating on the top of it. The trees are getting bare. I'm starting to want to withdraw into myself, and I find that I want to make jewelry. I have house guests this weekend, but I have Monday and Tuesday to myself, and I think I will do a little playing with beads on those days.

Plus the mini photography studio needs to be set up again...

I think it's time to experiment!

The listing continues

I've put all sorts of new items in my eBay shop! I've found some lovely base metal chandelier earring findings, and some great vintage Japanese marble glass leaves.





The earring findings are really beautiful. They're so easy to use to make earrings--just attach hooks to the top, and hang a few crystals on the bottom of each!

Committing to jewelry

I've been so absorbed in selling jewelry supplies that I haven't done much in the way of jewelry recently.

So I've decided to commit myself to listing one piece of jewelry a day in my jewelry Etsy shop. I'll try to keep this up until the end of the year. At worst, it gives me some practice with my photography skills, right?

Jam-packed weekend!

Tomorrow I'll be at the West Michigan Bead Expo in Grand Rapids, MI. And then on Sunday I'll be at the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild Bead Bonanza in Southfield, MI. I'm running around the house, packing everything, rebagging inventory, and printing out more signs.

Hope to see you all there!

Milwaukee bead show

This Sunday I will be at the Knot Just Beads Milwaukee Bead Show from 10 until 4. It takes place at the Milwaukee Wyndham Hotel near the airport (the address is 4747 S. Howell).

I'm still packing and putting together my merchandise. I'll have some new things and a lot of great closeout beads, as always.

Hope to see you there!

Cleaning and organizing

After taking care of a few odds and ends at my grandmother's Assisted Living apartment, I've come home to start some organizing.

I've purchased another cabinet from Best Craft Organizers, and I've just put it together and labeled the drawers. These things are addictive, I swear; I've already filled the new one, and I'm contemplating a third.

I have new merchandise to sort and lots of things to bag for my upcoming shows. And here, a pic of the nightmare so far:



It can only go up from here, right? *grins*

Unfortunate news

I just drove in from a business trip to find out that my grandmother passed away tonight. Fortunately, I will be home for six days and that will allow me to help my family out with the arrangements before I leave again.

And another Day of the Dead necklace...

...this one featuring a lovely pendant by Gaea (website).

Which brings me to a small story. I originally ordered the pendant in March, and read her emailed instructions, which stated that the order would be custom-made and the next firing would be in April. For some reason, I don't think I really understood that I'd receive it April; I thought I would receive it in May. I didn't need the pendant until late August, so I wasn't concerned.

Well, May (and June) are crazy months for me because of Bead & Button, and I didn't even think about the pendant. It wasn't until July that I remembered it.

I contacted Gaea, who was extraordinarily nice, and she researched it and said that the pendant had been shipped in April.

I was flummoxed, until I realized that my home Paypal address was incorrect--it was still listed as the apartment address. The business address was correct, and I'd assumed it would be shipped there.

Since Gaea never received it back, and we never received it, I believe that it was either lost in the mail, or stolen by the apartment's new tenant, which makes me very unhappy indeed, considering that an entire set of checks was sent there by mistake and they still haven't resurfaced.

But I digress. I purchased a new pendant from Gaea, who very kindly looked through her inventory to find something similar, because there wasn't enough time to have a new one made.

My picture doesn't do the pendant justice, but here it is:



Frosted black onyx, faceted pearls, antiqued sterling silver chain.

Making jewelry

I haven't made much jewelry recently, but I did make a piece for a dear friend of mine:



It's very simple, meant to be a casual piece.

The skull pendant is from Andrew Thornton of Green Girl Studios and is made of bronze clay, and the beads are fossilized wood.

I've always loved skulls and memento mori, and it's wonderful to be able to design with such a fun piece!