Oh Buttons, I Missed You

I had meant for today to be a day of Etsy posting. However, I didn't get home in time to catch the sun light. Shorter days... blast.

I did manage to finish up a pendant I'd started yesterday. Even made it a full-fledged necklace with a chain and everything. And do you see that? There's a BUTTON there! I missed my buttons. And I figured out how to work them into these pieces I've been doing. :)

Copper wire with seed beads and an amethyst chip. Smokey purple crystals and copper chain finish the necklace.

Did you have a good weekend?

Pretty Pendant

Hm.. I'm the only one left in Corner Bakery other than staff... this... feels... um... odd...

I finished making this pendant last night. The wrapped frame (brass wire and pearly white seed beads) had been sitting in my tool kit for about a week and I couldn't decide how to finish it. Then as I was going through my stash of beads, I found this lonely flower. Stick it on a head pin with a brass spacer and VOILA! A pretty pendant.

No clue how I will string it. Any ideas?

I have a terrible headache. I think it has something to do with this tiny cut I discovered in my left ear... right at the opening of the hole... canal? Hole? Meh. Whichever. ANYWAY. Gross. I know. But it's the center of my world right now. I took Ibuprofen and it just blah... didn't work. SIGH.

Maybe tomorrow's post will be about butterflies and puppies? :P Hope you guys had a fantastic weekend and that Monday treats you well! :)

Bread and Butter

I read somewhere that every handmade artist needs to have that "bread and butter" piece. The one thing that they can make over and over again and 1) not really get tired of it, 2) it's the piece that they believe will sell, and 3) they WILL sell it. I think this is that piece.

I had so much fun making this. And I made it during my lunch hour at work (well, technically 2 lunch hours...). I love the color of the seed beads and the feel of the leather on my wrist. It's so easy to wear and... GAH! I just love it. I know, I'm totally tooting my own horn here, but seriously. This is a piece that I drew and it came out exactly how I wanted it to.

...Well, that's not entirely true. I was going to add some dangles to the focal/clasp but decided against it. Do you think it's too plain? I was wearing a t-shirt yesterday at work and decided that this could go with it even though I wasn't dressed "nicely" (hey, I need to do laundry... so sue me :P). But I can see this working with a summer dress. Something white and flowy and pretty.

This one is mine. I'm working on others in more colors. YAY for staying productive! Bringing my jewelry kit to work is really working for me. I get stuff done in the hour I have to eat. It's really wonderful.

What is your "bread and butter" piece? I'd love to see them! Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!

Feathers Turn to Crystal

Remember yesterday's post? I ended up buying the feathers. They're peacock neck feathers, so says the package. And at my bead store, you can get them 2 for $0.50. RH and I did some driving around before picking up these feathers and found out you can get some pretty floral picks with peacock feathers (with eyes, even) in them at Michaels. The one I wanted was $6.99! I'm glad I got the neck feathers because I ended up breaking one of them anyway and because they were only $0.50, I didn't feel too terrible about it.

I was attempting to wrap wire around the ends so I can hang them... well... they're very delicate and didn't like that very much. I decided, anyway, that they didn't work for the design and ended up finding some peacock blue crystals for my earrings.

Much better, I think. Sorry about the crappy photo. Light's not very good in my room at 7am.

These will make it to Etsy... someday... hahaha. I am planning a massive shop update... I just need to find the time. :P

Happy Monday, everyone!

Hathi Necklace

Remember the pendant from this post? I added some brass chain and two pink glass beads and VOILA! A necklace. A LONG, clasp-less necklace. YAY! "Hathi" means "elephant" in Hindi.

I've still got the sneezels. No meds yesterday because I'm stubborn... just took a Benedryl and am hoping it will fix me up in time for work.

Hope you have a FABULOUS Wednesday!

PS. Left over Chinese food for breakfast = YUM!

7AM Blogging

I have a cold. I'm desperately trying to deny that this is true but at the moment, I am going to accept that the sniffly sniffles, sneezels, ouchy throat, runny-downness, and the fact that I just cant seem to get warm means that I am sick. ALSO, my forehead itches something fierce, but I think that's because wisps of hair are tickling my dome *scratchScratchSCRATCH*

I made earrings! Haven't named them. I have my trusty Hindi dictionary so I can name them later for who/where they're going to. Almost all handmade. I'm rather proud. The ear wires and jump rings were not made by me. Had a deadline for myself so I went with ready-made ear wires. The connector, though, is mine. I have such a great love for my wig-jig.

My brain is fuzzy. I'm so glad I got up to do this post. I don't think I'd be able to do it later. Rest, yummy warm food (maybe soup?), and a trip to the post office are at the top of my list of things to do today. Its also date night... rest is very important so I can actually have a fun date night :P

PS. I'm not sick. It's just allergies... right?

Didi Pendant

I was at a loss for words when I opened this window to write. Then "Are You That Somebody" by Aaliyah (which was one of my favorite songs in high school) came on Pandora... got me dancin' in Corner Bakery and ready to write!

You may recognize the above pendant from this post. However, it is not that pendant. The pendant from that post currently hangs from a simple black leather cord around my neck. The one above is an almost identical pendant. It's slightly bigger and has a better wrap job... it is, after all, the second pendant I finished (started and abandoned probably three other ones). This one is going somewhere special and I don't want to jinx anything by mentioning where it's going. Sorry, folks. I'll let you know when I can :D

I didn't want to just string it on a piece of cord so I linked some minty green glass bead with copper and added some dark purple crystals. I hammered a hook clasp special for this necklace and finished it off with some brown leather. The finished necklace is a bit asymetrical because of the clasp, but I like it. I'm hoping who I send it to likes it too.

BTW: "Didi" is sister in Hindi :)

Hey, do you guys have any special tips for photographing necklaces? I was having a bear of a time trying to get the whole thing into the picture so I ended up just photographing the main part of the necklace. Do you hang them off a wall and photograph them like that? I should have done that I think...

Messy First Step

 Here's a peak into my bead stash. I pull this out every time I make jewelry.

I know. It's rather horrid. I had a freakout a few days ago because I KNEW I had copper crimp beads and couldn't find them in this mess (really, who could?). I sat on the floor crying, about ready to throw out all my beads and just start over when RH calmly pulled out the bags and said we just need to sort through the mess. Well, of course, there were no crimp beads. But, I decided it was time for a new system.

We went to the Container Store and found these awesome little boxes with tiny compartments. LOVE! We bought two of them and I've taken the first step toward a new bead storing system. I couldn't think of a way to organize and RH asked how my favorite bead store organizes their merchandise. They just do it by color! So, that's what I'm doing. Baby steps. I'll get there.

I like labeling my little beads too. Most beads are glass... this one is stone but I can't remember what kind! Brain fart...

Oh, and if you're curious as to what happened to the elephant charm from yesterday's post...

I made a pendant last night with some brass wire (brass wire is WAY stiffer than copper wire, btw). Used some wonderful new seed beads. I LOVE seed beads. Now... how should I string him???

First Ear Wires

This wire wrapping thing was easier with smaller seed beads! Who woulda thunk? It was such a bear wrapping the beads around the pendant I made in this post. But the wraps on these earrings are nice and tight.

I love seed beads; they're like little gems and I'm loving wrapping them around wire shapes. For the earrings, I used some glass crackle beads I have in my stash. I also made my own ear wires! A first for me!

They're rather thin but the holes in my ears aren't very big so not a big deal. They hold up nicely even for 24 gauge wire. I suppose I should hammer them to harden but haven't done that yet. I added a piece of purple crystal for extra sparkle.

Rather late with this blog post but am still making the blog-a-day challenge for November. Tish led me to the site NaBloPoMo which stands for "National Blog Post Month." I joined up. Haven't had a chance to explore it yet (I'm on vacation :D) but it looks like a really cool community for bloggers!

It's been super hot here in SoCal. Today, the high was 99 degrees! Sigh. Hoping it will cool down soon. How's the weather been for you?

Wired Dragonflies

I couldn't find my headpins (how does someone just LOSE a thing of headpins!?) and ended up making something of my own for the fire polished beads dangling with the dragonflies. I could always change them if I find my headpins (still unbelievable) but I rather like the little swirly I made.

My wire sculptures are a bit messy, no? I like them like that. I wonder if others do too?