Bracelet Fix

I've been busy with taxes, custom orders, a new job and my mother coming to visit and all the cleaning that entails! But I thought I would share a quick post on a not-so recent order. I sold this bracelet to a blogger buddy at my August trunk show.

 

I always list the sizes of my bracelets and my friend liked a looser fit than this one had. She asked me to resize it. Here are the measurements before on a bracelet sizing cone... this is one handy apparatus if you make bracelets!

 The original was just shy of 7" and my friend needed 7 1/4". When designing a bracelet, I never like to put really bulky beads at the back of the design. I find I have a hard time taking notes or writing or typing, so I added some 6mm crystals to the back of the piece. Of course the whole thing had to be re-strung to make it even.

This bracelet has a sturdy magnetic clasp. I live alone and just love  a clasp that I can close by myself! Here it is after the addition:

For my last trunk show, I left a few bracelets with one end un-crimped so it would be easier and less wasteful to adjust.

Resizing is a PITA but...it's also great customer service.

Necklace Sketches

I promised a customer my sketches for three glass bead focals she purchased ages ago. Every time I printed the photos of the beads, something would happen to them...buried under my desk avalanche...coffee... eh...

I finally discovered a drawing app called InkFlow that allows me to sketch over my own photos in the ipad.

The beads look much darker in the sketches so first I will show off just the beads. First, a long skinny in my Rio Party Series:

Then a focal in similar colors but with lots of metals added in an XL lentil:

Same as the lentil but a shorter barrel: 

Once out of the kiln, I always saw them together in ONE piece. And my customer did too!

The first design is a lariat with the lentil sitting at the dip of the neck.  Long chains (something kinda heavy to support the weight of the beads) wrap in opposite directions around the neck, dropping to each of the barrel beads with a beaded or chain tassel on the bottom:

The second design is a bib style necklace with a clasp at the back.  Chain would come around both sides of the neck to the smaller barrel bead which would be situated on it's side, just below the collar bones.  Crystal fringe could be used to fancy it up at all the wired connector joints.  More chain drops to the even longer barrel, and again to the lentil.

Have you ever designed an elaborate piece with numerous focals??? The downside is... this would be a really costly necklace... but OH! What a SHOWSTOPPER!

Stretchin'

My last few torch sessions have been a lesson for me in what I can do.  Sometimes a customer makes a request and my first instinct is.. "I can't do that."

And then I stew on it for a bit... grousing about the lost work...wondering what people see in my art that makes them think I can do anything...feeling like I have no skills at all.

Months can go by. Then one day, it just hits me.

"Try it," that little voice whispers.

"But I can't, " I whine.

"Just try. See what happens... you never know," it pleads.

"NO!" I argue.

"TRY IT!!!" it screams.

And so it goes until it hits me at just the right time.

One customer asked me to make a cross. I've never made one; don't have the commercial press that is available for crosses. And that voice said, "How did they make them before there were presses?"

I gave a surprisingly technical answer! Which made me realize, I DO know how to make a cross. And so I did. I loved it! Unfortuantely, my hiking buddy called just as I was fire polishing and ... it cracked. But, I know I can do it... and I can do it again!

The other bead someone inspired me to stretch and create was a small, TINY version of my breast cancer goddess beads. I simply told her...I don't do small beads. Then I was making scads of boobies for a custom order last week. I got distracted and added WAY too much glass to the mandrel. Normally, I will pick small amounts off to deal with volume control issues. But it was a bit too much for that. So I started to think about what I could make with that smallish blob of ivory on my mandrel.

And there was that voice again, "Try it!"

So with nothing to lose but time, I tried a small goddess! And she's so cute!

She is for sale, made to order, in my Etsy shop.

I'm very thankful for customers that push me to try new things. They are a tremendous asset when my muse is otherwise occupied!

The Wedding Necklace

I wrote about my niece's antique crystal necklace several times in the past but I finally finished it!

I ended up going with sterling silver. In the end, I just couldn't use the bronze wire even though that's what was used on the back of the piece originally.

The piece de resistance was when I discovered Swarovski makes dragonfly wings!!! The dragonfly is a symbol of good fortune. My niece's uncle and graphic designer is Thai and chose the dragonfly for her invitations... not knowing the niece has a dragonfly tat! When I found the wings... that just cinched it!

Unfortunately, Swarovski doesn't make them with the AB coating but...they still look lovely! I strung similar beads into a dragonfly dangle at the back of her neck. I left the length adjustable as the bride has TWO dresses!

The piece came with a bracelet that is still in perfect condition but she also needed earrings. I made her a red set to go with the wedding colors...

and a more traditional pair that matched the necklace

You'll have to wait a few more months to see the whole look!

Confounding Conundrum

Do the prices of silver - $46 / ounce and rising - have you pulling your hair out??? They have me losing sleep!

As a girl who has purchased sterling by the POUND for my jewelry classes, the thought of buying silver for my students to cut apart is killing me!  And as for jewelry making, I just don't feel I can charge any more for my sterling silver jewelry than I do already. What's a teacher / designer to do???

................. Seriously, I want YOU to tell me!

Calico Kitty - Now in Galvanized Steel! (Snork!)

• I don't like copper unless it's coated and I'm not delicate enough to make jewelry using that anyway.
• I've dabbled with galvanized steel - which will rust eventually. But I figure jewelry isn't going to be left out in the rain! But it is too hard for my students to deal with.
• I actually love the look of anodized steel and made my mouse ear pendants with that.

There has to be something shinier and silver "looking" that holds up to wear and doesn't cost a fortune. 

So what have YOU tried? Have you tried nickel silver? Or Stainless? How does it hold up? Is it easy enough for students to handle?? 

I really need some ideas here and would appreciate your input!

-------------SECRET SALE SHHHHhhhh!-------------
After much research in ebay, I was SO shocked at their fees! I came to a conclusion: I would rather save my customers money than give so much to the ebay crapfund! So, from time to time, I'm going to have a SECRET sale. It will be posted on my Fan Page first (hey, you gotta get something for being my fan, right???) and after a day or so, I will post it here.

I have TWO items marked 35% off on Artfire today ONLY. Together, they would make  an incredible set!
They are both Red White and Blue Sweet Treats:

You KNOW those red white and blue holidays are coming! These are 35% off today only code: RWBfan

The Busy Elf - Part Three

I have a lot of dog lovers in my life. One of my closest friends has everything imaginable but dogs and cats just make her melt. And then there is the waitress at my favorite breakfast joint. She actually saves food for my pup! Poor Mabel rolls on her back and rubs her own tummy after breakfast there!

So, the dog folks got charms this year as well:


I always try to make my dog paws look heart like. Years ago, my sister brought me a t-shirt from Westminster (King of the dog shows!) that read:

When I look at a paw print, I see an upside down heart with four arms reaching out to embrace me. Awwwwww.... I can see a paw print without seeing that.

The bone charms were a big hit!!!

Tomorrow, something for the fusers! See ya here!

Ta Daaah!

See, I disappeared and now, Ta Dah! I'm back! So much for my efforts of blogging here every day!

I had to deal with the "day job" a bit. I had new image plates going in to my two engravers (We require deeper etched rubber stamps for the restaurant chain client.) and it was obvious to me that it was just time to run some new images for the company.

And while I inherited enough artwork to keep the company in new images for a decade, there always seems to be something I need to draw. Plus it takes TIME to clean the art files for digital layout for the engraver.

So, I will get back to my beady chat but I thought I would show you the one image I drew last week for the stamp line that I'm most proud of....


This is my godson sleeping when he was about a year old. (He's about to be 19 in a month!) He had the longest eyelashes as a baby...they were dreamy! What I loved about drawing this image was that he was sleeping on his side and it wasn't until after I finished my first draft that I realized his whole face was skewed (drooping) left. So, I had to redraw the left side of his face to make it more even. Then, when I went to size the image - most of our stamp line is sized to fit on a cookie - I realized that my boy has such a wide face...he didn't fit on a cookie! So I had to cut it apart and paste it back together with the eyes much closer.

So, if you are into stamping on cookies, Sweet Stampen will have a whole new line of baby faces and Jack 0 lanterns ready to go in another week.

And I promise, I will be back tomorrow at http://hollysfollybeads.blogspot.com with a beady post tomorrow.