Tree Wings Studio Giveaway!

Rebekah of Tree Wings Studio is doing one last giveaway for 2012! You can find out more on her blog here.

More beautiful art beads...

Guess what? In my last post I shared with you that I won some of Gaea's handmade beads. Well, they've arrived! And they're gorgeous. It's a beautiful set of ceramics in earthy and pastel colors. I'll share photos soon, I promise!

But for now, I have more art beads to share. I won an absolutely stunning set of beads from Caroline of BlueberriBeads. You can see the exact set I won here. And now for some photos of what I've made so far...

In this bracelet, I used Caroline's stoneware dragonfly, copper lentil, stoneware barrel, and her beautiful silvered glass lampwork spotty barrel.

I went with a natural, beachy theme and added some faceted aqua quartz from my friend Tanya of FusionMuse. The beads are wrapped in solid brass wire and finished with a handmade clasp.


 

Here's another pic of that gorgeous dragonfly bead. This bracelet had a lot of ooohs and ahhhhs at a recent show and will be listed in my Etsy soon.





I've made another bracelet with Caroline's beads that has some scrummy larimar and heat patinated brass chain. It'll have to wait for another blog post, though.

Something that has managed to find its way into my shop, is gemstone earrings. I made two pairs of copper earrings with my handmade rosy ball end headpins. I love how the little balls of copper add that extra bit of detail to these earrings.
 

Aren't those gemstones yummy? The yellow pair has faceted yellow sapphires and smooth citrine drops. I love how the citrine sparkles.

The red pair has faceted rubies and the daintiest Turundu sapphires. All those little facets add a surprising amount of sparkle.

I love making these little rustic earrings. A bit of sparkle, a splash of color, and just the right amount of femininity mixed with rustic simplicity. What could be better? If you'd like to see more photos, you can find them here.

Lucky month

November has been fantastic. I love the Autumn, but it's been more than the colorful trees and cool weather. I've had so much good news this month on my jewelry. Happy customers in my new Etsy shop, commissions, and other news I can't share quite yet.

What I can say is that I've been extremely lucky to win some beads! First off was a bag PACKED with beads from Cazz over at Beadercollie. It took a whole evening to sort through them. There were gemstones, seed beads galore, Czech glass, and everything sparkly in between. I've got tons of new ideas and jewelry in the making!

Then, even more good news. Gaea (does she need an intro?) from Gaea Handmade contacted me. Much to my surprise I won her art beads over on Art Bead Scene. I had no idea! The beginning of November was totally hectic, and I didn't expect to win. So it slipped by. Gaea was sweet enough to contact me nearly 3 weeks later! How lucky am I?

I can't wait to get Gaea's beads, but in the mean time, I have a few commissioned pieces that I'll be working on. I'll share those with you over the weekend.

And since it's been such a great month, I'm going to do a another sale in my shop when I reach 100 favorites (already at 96!). So, if there's something you like, let it be known!

Thanks for reading, and to all my American friends and family, Happy Thanksgiving! It seems like I've got a lot to be grateful for. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

And to my UK friends, I hope it stops raining!

A new blogger in the realm...

Well, well, there's a new blogger in our midst. I'd like to give a warm welcome to Cazz of Beadercollie! She's a fab resin artist of many talents and lover of dogs.

Cazz has a shop on Etsy by the same name, and her shiny new blog can be found here. And what's she up to? A giveaway! She's giving away a big bag of beads to one lucky reader.

Have a look and say hello!

Etsy, discounts, and celebrating...

You know that Etsy shop I said I was working on? It's now open! You can find it here. To celebrate, I'm doing a discount. Use the code GRANDOPEN1 at checkout to receive 25% off your order.


And following on from my last blog post, I've been stocking my virtual shelves with my art beads. Some of my owls have already sold! You'll find more owls, faces, and rustic designs. Check it out!

Meet the Moss Goddesses and other clay musings...

Clay, clay, clay. That's all I've got on the brain recently. Well, there's more than that, but I can't get clay off my mind. I've tip toed in the realm of polymer clay before. I've made a handful of beads, a few faces, and a sprinkling of sculptures. But now I want to understand the clay. I want to experiment, try techniques, and perfect them.

So, I'm back at it. Mostly, I've been playing with acrylics on baked clay. I've also been doing a little texturing and carving. Today, I'd like to show you my Moss Goddesses.

I've never seen this kind of face cabochon before. It all came together one evening. I'd set out to make some face cabs. I started picking up bits from my stash - gemstones, sterling silver...and it went from there.

This moss goddess was my prototype. I just made her and decided to see what would happen. She has two emeralds and a ruby in her forehead, plus a sterling silver nose ring and spiral on her cheek. The moss and painting was done after baking. I liked it, but I wasn't over the moon about moss. I shared some photos of her in one of my groups on Facebook, and peopled liked her. Must be something right! She was even popular enough to prompt a commission.

 

And so my second moss goddess was born. This one has rubies and just a silver nose ring. The application of the 'moss' is a lot neater, and I'm seeing even more potential. I've already started on other beads with a similar moss application.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the moss is most definitely not real moss. That would be something!

I'll be playing with clay again today. I plan on working on some rustic cats (RustiCats! Naming them is as much fun as making them) and will share some faux leather clay books and owls with you in the future. For now, I leave you with a tiny Pebble Owl. He's the mere size of a penny...

Giveaway - don't miss it!

Another exciting giveaway has come up. Tanglebeads is doing a giveaway of $90 worth of stock from her Etsy shop. If you win, you choose what you get! Tania makes beautiful lampwork beads and jewelry.

Have a look at her blog to find out more.