Goodbye to Buddha

I love vintage beads and cabochons. I probably love them a little too much, in fact. I have a stash overflowing with lovely treasures.

I've been selling vintage on eBay for a few years, and it's been a great experience. I love it when customers send me photos of what they've done with their beads. I enjoy sharing vintage and sending these pretty little gems out into the world.

There's one sadness, though, and that is when I get to the end of of a particular bead or cab. Today, for example, I set up my last listing of these beautiful green marble glass Buddha cabochons:

Sometimes I find a few more of a bead or cab, but usually once I sell out, that's it. It's not just that it reduces the variety in my eBay store; it's the sadness of not being able to share more of them.

The good news is that I have found more of several different small matte glass leaf cabs such as these matte topaz leaf cabs:

Farewell, lovely Buddha cabs, you will be missed!

Bead Table Wednesday!

It's that time of the week again! I've been pretty busy with sorting beads and cabs, so my picture this week is of a giant pile of leaf cabs in topaz colors, very appropriate for this time of year.

Other than my owl necklace for the Very Vintage Challenge, I haven't made new jewelry in a couple weeks. I've been concentrating on sorting beads. I've managed to get through a lot of the new stuff, but there is one huge bin that is just staring at me, daring me to try and sort it.

Today, I'm working on getting my Laurel Moon eBay store restocked. I hope to have many of the old favorites back in, and I also hope to get a few new beads up as well.

I'm enjoying the last beautiful warm days before fall truly sets in. I've been watching avidly for turtles on my Turtle Island raft. Yesterday, I did see one sitting on the flipper:

Soon enough the pond will be covered with ice, and the turtles will be slumbering. For today, though, I'm enjoying seeing them, and the warm sunshine. For more pond pictures and turtles, watch my pond blog at Your Daily Pond.

The Very Vintage Challenge Reveal!

I've never participated in a beading challenge before, but when I saw the name Very Vintage Challenge I was immediately hooked! You all know how I like vintage, so this was a win-win situation. The challenge is hosted by Michelle Mach and I ordered my kit from her, thinking that this might be a lot of fun.



When I received the kit, I was intrigued. I've never used lucite before, and I've only used Vintaj components once or twice, so I knew this would be a true challenge for me.

I knew I didn't have a lot in my stash that would match, so I bought a smattering of Vintaj and antiqued brass components and chain. I went through my stash and began to pull out semiprecious stone that I thought might coordinate, like fossil coral and carnelian.

I laid things out and began trying to put things together. The first thing I decided was that I liked the Vintaj branch. A lot. I contemplated how to use it in the necklace, and realized that it could be a great centerpiece if I punched holes in it. I pulled out my two-hole punch and went to work.

After I'd modified the Vintaj component, I remembered the ceramic owl beads I just bought, and I thought that it would be a perfect focal bead. I also found some large fossilized wood cylinders, and when I put the beadcap from the kit on top, it looked like an acorn, so I incorporated that as well.

After that, I experimented with different links and textures, and here's the final result:

Hope you have time to stop by the other blogs and see what everyone did with their kits!

Andrew: The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton

Cat: Boo Beads

Chris: beadjewelry.net

Cilla: Tell Your Girlfriends

Cyndi: Beading Arts

Cynthia: Cynth's Blog

Dawn: Morning Glory Beading

Donetta: Simply Gorgeous

Heather: As I Bead It

Holly: SilverRose Designs

Kate: We Can Make That at Home

Kristina: Wild Roses and Blackberries

Linda: Lutka & Co

Lisa: Lucid Mood Studio

Lola: Bead Lola Bead

Mary: MLH Jewelry

Melinda: Melinda Orr Metal & Clay Jewelry Designs

Michelle : Beads & Books

Michelle H.: Firefly Visions

Salla: Blog by Salla

Shannon: Falling into the Sky

Shay: Shaiha's Ramblings

Shel: MiShel Designs

Shirley: Beads and Bread

Stephanie: Pixybug Designs

Tari: Pearl and Pebbles

Terry: Pink Chapeau Vintage Jewelry

Tracy: The Bead Junkie

Mushroom Village

I'm back from the show in WI, and now I am looking at the grindstone and preparing to put my nose to it. I have so much to do, and so many irons in the fire right now! My to-do list is the size of Rhode Island. I have a challenge piece to make, Etsy and eBay stores to restock, shows to prep for, merchandise to sort...whew!

This morning I was stressing about how much I need to do, and my dear husband called and told me to go outside and look next to the garage. Imagine my delight when I discovered this amazing Mushroom Village that had sprung up overnight!

It was so wonderful to take a moment to enjoy the sunshine and the (still) mild weather and wander among the mushrooms.

It's Wednesday!

And you know what that means. Bead Table Wednesday, of course!

This week's BTW is pretty quick as I'm walking out the door on my way to WI. You can see that my desk is in a state of flux:

I have goid foil-backed glass cabs waiting to process, some new funky giant lampwork face beads to put up on eBay as well, the usual assortment of bags and tools, plus the pearls I was working with for my last few projects. I'm really looking forward to making some new pieces this month. I have coins in the brain and mermaids and maybe some brioche agate or pearls or kyanite. Who knows? I hope to have some time to devote to this very soon. Once I'm home from this trip, I'll have a few days before the next show, and I'll definitely be working on my jewelry and bead listings. In fact, I just added 45 items to my Laurel Moon eBay store, including a few new items such as amethyst nuggets and red glass hearts, so you might want to check it out.

Catch me at the Knot Just Beads Milwaukee Bead Show on Sunday from 10-4 at the Wyndham Hotel - Airport, 4747 S. Howell, Milwaukee WI! I'll have lots of new yums and some great deals on pearls and vintage glass. Stop by and check out what I have!

The eternal sorting

Right now this is what my life looks like:

Desk.

Bins.

Yep. Bins. Bags. Beads. It's all about bins. And bags. And beads.

And bins and bags and beads.

For those of you who don't know, I sell beads at bead shows, with a large selection of beads that I sell for $1 per bag. Which means that I have to sort them, first into dollar increments, and then into bags. As you may have guessed, that's a lot of bags.

Fortunately, I like bagging beads. A lot. But when I have a show coming up, and I have 150 lbs of new beads, and I only have a day and a half to bag, it does tend to get a bit overwhelming. Usually I try to process all of each kind of bead, putting some in the overstock bins and some in the regular bins, but I just don't have enough time before I leave, so I'll have to try to bag at least a little of everything.I'm going to give it my best, though. I have such yummy new things and I want to share!

Home...with new beads!

I'm back from a buying trip for a few days, and then I'll be running off to do the Knot Just Beads show in Milwaukee, WI.

How was the buying trip? Um.

Amazing.

I bought nearly 100 lbs of beads.

I am not exaggerating.

Most of it is glass, some of it is vintage. I haven't even begun to unpack the other 50 lbs of beads I bought the week before. I am swimming in beads. I'm hoping to have some of the new stuff at the WI show, and it should be all up in the eBay store/Etsy shop fairly soon.

Some of it might be up a little sooner because I found some old favorites, which you might recognize below:

From left to right: druzy agate geode slices, turitella agate, amethyst nuggets, silver needle agate, sunstone nuggets, lodalite quartz, grossular garnet, ammonites, amethyst slices, laguna agate

I thought I would never see those gorgeous faceted lodalite quartz beads, and the beautiful turitella agate flat beads as well! This is awesome. I will definitely be restocking and listing new stuff all month. I can't wait!

Dreaming of a new display

Recently I was accepted to the Rustbelt Market show in Ferndale, MI. At first I was so excited I got up and jumped around. I have lots of new jewelry and I'm excited about interacting with people there.

Then I remembered my display woes.

You see, many of my display pieces have been with me for a long time. My neckforms are all 15-20 years old, and many of my props are at least a decade old, if not two. You won't believe this, but I am still using the first set of light bulbs I ever purchased...fifteen years later. I can hardly believe it myself.

Anyway, I haven't been doing a lot of jewelry shows in the past few years, so I've been putting off redesigning my display. There's always something a little shinier to work on, you know?

But I can't put it off any longer. I really want my display to look nice.

Let's get in our time machine and head into the past for a glimpse at my very first display:

It was a hodge-podge mix of everything I had at that time; black material, plastic earring racks, the desk lamp from my desk.

After using it for a few times, I learned some interesting things. The plastic earring rack was awful. The whole rack shook whenever anyone tried to pick up a pair of earrings, and no one could get the earring cards back on except for me.

Even stranger, the black tablecloths seemed to make people head the other way. They'd barely glance in my direction. Except for...kids. Kids could not get enough of it. They would see my booth, and tear themselves away from their parents to come running over, whereupon they would bump into the table and make everything shake. They would grab stuff, and then their parents would come over and hiss, "NO! This is too EXPENSIVE!"

I decided to switch to white tablecloths, and it was like night and day. No more comments about the jewelry being too expensive, and kids seemed positively bored by my tables. My neckforms are still black velvet, though, and they're a bit worn out, and I've gone ahead and ordered all sorts of new neck displays from Rio Grande. Metal displays, wood displays, and faux suede displays, oh my! I can't wait to see them.

I'll definitely be posting pictures of the new display as I put it together!

Helping out Round Rabbit

One of the first craft blogs I ever followed was The Rabbit Muse blog by Nancy, owner of Round Rabbit Designs. Nancy's amazing ceramic work was very cool and her designs were beautiful and ethereal, often with a great sense of fun. I loved the style of her blog and how down-to-earth she is and how devoted she is to her beloved pet rabbits. She's got such an amazing work ethic, pouring her heart and her energy into her work, and she really has wonderful energy. She's an inspiration to her fellow artists.

So it was with a great sense of sorrow that I found out that the recent flooding in New York had affected her. She is okay, and her house seems to have come through with only a little damage, but her studio has been washed away.

As a full-time artist, the loss of a studio must be devastating. I can't even imagine how awful that would be, to lose all of your equipment, your supplies, and your workspace.

Her brother is hosting a page where you can go and donate to help her in her time of need.




You can donate at Support Round Rabbit.

A little slice of Michigan

Recently I sent a necklace to one of my best friends.

She lived in Michigan for many years. We met in high school and immediately hit it off. I wanted to send her something that would remind her of her time here. That's why I chose a Petoskey stone as the centerpiece.

I've always loved Petoskey stones. They're found only in Michigan, and they're remnants of an ancient coral reef. You can find a lot of fossil coral on the market, but Petoskey stone is special and you rarely find it.

The pendant posed a bit of a challenge. The hole was a bit large, and at first I was just going to string the necklace, but then I decided I wanted to use chain. The pendant was too large for a wire wrapped bail; I was also worried that if I wire wrapped it I would need stopper beads on each side, and if I made a wire wrapped link to hold the pendant and the stopper beads, it would be too wide, and it wouldn't hang properly.

So I decided to use a fine chain inside the bead to give it a little movement.

I love the way it turned out, and even better, my friend loved it! I hope it will be a happy reminder of Michigan and the good times she had here.