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!

The Trunk Show is HERE!

Tomorrow is opening day for my first trunk show! You can preview now and I will add prices in the morning. There is a Buy It Now (BIN) option for everything as well as an opening auction price.  To buy it now, just say "mine" in the comments and it's yours for the BIN price. OR take a gamble and place a bid...

The contest is still going on so I'm placing the rafflecopter here. Do please keep spreading the word! I need all the help I can get!!! And I so appreciate it!

I'm having TWO give aways! One for $40 on Facebook. All you have to do is SHARE the original post and you are entered there.

And here on the blog, I'm giving away a $25 gift certificate via rafflecopter (You can repeat certain entries for MORE chances to win!):


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Published! Finally!

I have always wanted to have a bead published as part of someone's jewelry design and it's finally happened! A necklace designed by Suzann Sladcik Wilson has been published in the May issue of Bead Style Magazine. Here's the cover if you happen to be a in a bead shop or craft store:

 

I also got a nice mention in their newsletter this month! It's about halfway down under "Designs We Love."  Suzann is the owner of Beadphoria and writes and designs and is just amazing!

A Woman's Heart necklace design by Suzann Sladcik Wilson. Focal bead by Holly's Folly. ;-)

Fashion Friday: I LOVE Purple

My bestie has gotten me addicted to Polyvore, the the fashion and collection sharing site. I think it's a fabulous way to show off glass bead jewelry! So I plan to put together a new layout every Friday... Fashion Friday. And I hope to not only show off my own creations but those of some of my favorite designers working in glass beads! I hope you enjoy!

I LOVE Purple by holly-dare featuring printed bags

Back in the Etsy Grove

Welp, it took me around 26 hours to get back in the groove with Etsy. Amazing! They shut my account down in under 15 minutes and take 26 hours to get it back on line. When I finally got a second email from them some 23 hours after shutting me down; after I had sent them FIVE emails, four tweets to @Etsy and @EtsyHelp, and numerous posts on their fan page, they claimed not have received any answers to their questionnaire!

It was in RED at the bottom of EVERY email!

Flower Girl Crochet Bracelet

It finally came down to Etsy wanting me to change the password to my shop... which I pointed out that I had done that before I ever wrote them. And, they wanted me to change my email account associated with the shop. I implored that a) the spoof email did not come to that account b) I OWN the HollysFolly.com and have all emails go through MY server to avoid hacking and c) I already have seven emails and simply did not want one more!

Finally, they acquiesced allowing me to keep my own email! OY! 26 hours of hell all because I wanted others to know of a fraud site. As my mother would say, "That's what you get for trying to help someone!"

I don't necessarily believe that but, I won't help Etsy directly ever again! And the EtsySucks coupon good for 25% off on Glass Beads ends at midnight PST tonight!

On to other things: My recent absence explained and... I'm trying something new on this blog tomorrow! Be sure to check in!

Creative Highlights from 2012

I thought it would be fun to review some of my favorite projects from 2012. Looking over my blog posts from the last year, I'm happy to say it was fun and creative!

I was honored again to be selected for the Women In Glass issue of The Flow for one of my eye beads featuring the silvered glass eye murrini of  my friend Janel Dudley

I also won a photo contest sponsored by Archipeligo Botanicals to support breast cancer with this photo of my sister:

The bestie, her sister, a family friend and I planned our niece's wedding. I had a lot of fun making props for the photo booth and pulling off a most elegant wedding! Beading this ballerina (still in progress in this pic) for the candy table was most rewarding:

 

Which leads me to the most sentimental bead of the year:

That heart was made from the champagne bottle used to toast the nuptials. I framed it for the bride and groom with a story for them. The whole post is here.

Speaking of sentiment, I made a record number of Memorial beads... far more than shared here. For some of my customers, the memories are too fresh and painful so I don't even ask if I may share. Others...something magical just happens and I feel so blessed to have been a part of that grief process. (I have one of those to share.... but, you'll have to wait til next year!) While this work takes a lot out of me emotionally.... I'm SUCH a sensitive redhead... it is the MOST rewarding.

I found several color combinations that I simply adore this year. The Rio Party series was just plain fun and I had to make a necklace for myself:

My other favorite is from the Uptown Girl series... I just love the red and black with a little sparkle:

 

But my all time favorite bead of 2012 is this bent bead made in Kim Neely's Ether colors:

It was a challenging and creative year and I'm hoping that 2013 is  even more so and hopefully a little more profitable!

Happy New Year to all of you!

Fun for Fans

July was a REALLY prolific month for me artistically. I made a TON of beads! And... I posted them to my fan page first... where, they often sold! So... I created a new policy to benefit the fans! Buy any item on my fan page within 24 hours (or before I get it up on the glass bead site) and save 10%! How cool is that?

Just convo me on the fan page and save!

Now, on to the pretties. I fell in love with an old favorite glass that changes color depending on the light. This set is called Moody Melon (shown in fluorescent, natural and incandescent light) :

I played around with more Bent Bead styles... this one is Galene. She's my fave!

I made a few more Glass Pacis... this one sold to a member of my bestie's family and lives in Hungary now! (remakes available).

I made a striking but simple bead. I love LOVE stuff like this! Two colors just reacted! This was to be a color test for a Memorial Bead. I knew right away it would not work for the intended project but it was so pretty, I annealed it!

I made a few keys... The vessel is here... still need to list the other one.

And a made a stunning focal that sold to a friend from high school. I had to make her matching earrings...just 'cause! I'm so happy with the finished piece:

And that was just the tip of the iceberg! If you haven't visited my glass bead shop in a while... there's TONS of goodies! And be warned... my fan page finally hit 250... the number of fans I walked away from because of SEO... so there's a fan only sale coming. It will be generous and last minute!

Hope your July was prolific!

More Fantastic Jewelry from Pocketsful!

Michelle, the fabulously talented artist / designer behind Pocketsful sent me pics of ANOTHER gorgeous pieces featuring my beads!  Check out her necklace featuring my made to order vine and leaves beads in bronze. Isn't it stunning?

Michelle has also been making bracelets... this one features my spacer beads:

Michelle has been selling to friends in person and right off facebook but she also has her Etsy shop that she's filling up! Michelle hasn't listed these in her shop yet but if you see something you like, I'm sure you could covo her and inquire about the pieces!

Pocketsful Makes My Day Times FOUR!

I mentioned I had more jewelry to show off! I'm finally un-jet-lagged enough to semi-coherently compose a post!

Michelle, the fabulously talented artist / designer behind Pocketsful sent me FOUR photos of finished pieces! Nothing makes my day more than seeing my beads in a gorgeous finished piece of jewelry! Check these out:

 I just adore my long skinny focal set off with pearls! The next three all feature my favorite silvered ivory.  I really love how these came out:

 Michelle hasn't listed these in her shop yet but if you see something you like, I'm sure you could covo her and inquire about the pieces!

Making My Day

Nothing makes my day as an artist like seeing my beads used in a glorious piece of jewelry. I was blessed to receive photos from two artists a few weeks ago.

 The first is from Los Angeles designer Eleanor Burian-Mohr of The Corner Store Goddess. She used my Mickey / Minnie set in a beautiful bracelet and earring set available on Etsy.

Aren't they lovely???

I'll feature the next set of photos in another post later in the week.

Photography Conundrum

I recently had my Etsy shop critiqued and the one thing that really got me down was the comments on my photography. I've always prided myself on my photography skills and I've even been published but I have to  admit, product photography is HARD!

So I set out to build a better set up.When I ran across a build your own photo tent on a jewelry designer's blog, I thought it was something I could do.

Her blog recommended an used large priority mail box.  The top and two opposing sides were cut out and replaced with vellum. The front was cut away and wrapped with aluminum foil and placed in the rear for more stability. A photographic paper was laid in the bottom and lights were placed pointing in the three vellum windows. I'm not posting links to her tut because... as you will see, the set up didn't work for me...


I will say that for round one, I did not have matching lighting... I had one flourescent overhead and two incandescent lights on the side because that's what I had at home. I also took my big fancy smancy light box apart and put it in the bottom of the cardboard setup.  This is the raw photo followed by my color correction in photoshop:

I noticed that some of the high-silver beads I had seemed blurry in this set up so the next day I purchased 120 watt equivalent matching fluorescent lights and removed the lightbox and replaced it with white matte coat cardstock. And the photos got WORSE!

I could not remove that ugly yellow tint from the fluorescent lights... and the photoshoped colors are hideous... So... I went back to what I've been doing... outside on my bannister with a notebook of cardstock in indirect light.

Not perfect but... as close to the real bead as possible! In the end, I wasted several days and still have no idea how to take better pictures!


Glass bead Bobbin Necklace is here.

Just For Me

It's rare that I sit down at the torch and make something just for me. I often end up with beads that are not my best - something that is off center or even has a crack (eek!). I make myself a necklace or bracelet and still get lots of compliments...it pays to be a walking billboard for your business!

But I've always wanted a bobbin bead. And knowing "my customer" so well, I knew it had to be purple. Gaffer's new Purple Rose and Royal purple seemed a perfect fit. Still those are pricy glasses so I used a much cheaper COE 96 for the core since bobbins use a fair amount of glass. I used another Gaffer glass - Chalcedony - in frit form for accents.

Once I had my bobbin, I knew I wanted it to sit on a necklace so I could see the metal so I went back to the torch and made a matching big hole bead. By threading the BHB onto the ribbon first and threading the bobbin over both ribbon ends, the bobbin sits flat on the necklace.

I've always like wearing unusual sized beads this way... this is an old silvered ivory necklace of mine:

Do you have an unusual way of wearing big hole beads??

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