Quick Redo

If you're going to sell jewelry, you need to have a few pieces in your repertoire that you can reproduce.

For me, one of those is my lampwork tassel earrings, made with simple sugar beads in vibrant colors. I always try to make these beads in colors that I know I have matching Swarovski crystals in my stash.

The hardest part of this design is the handmade tassel... not really hard but time consuming. It's a classic case of how really simple beads can make a stunning piece of jewelry.

Here they are in Fuchsia and Amethyst.

Showoff: Custom Galaxy Redo

I thought I would create a new tag for pieces I'm exceptionally proud of. So those pieces will be found under "Showoff" in the future.

This is a redo of my Galaxy necklace. That necklace was purchased by the same customer that ordered this necklace. She purchased it for her mother-in-law and admitted she wore it around the house several times. She loved the feel of the necklace but my glass bead choices were not quite her style.

Those lampworked beads were made with rich transparent amethyst and cobalt glasses, rolled in fine silver foil and cased with a reactive clear. The beads appeared to contain their own little universe...hence, the name.

My customer is more a fan of my organic silvered ivory beads. (There are several focals in that style on the Holly's Folly site right now. See "Bead Sets - Page 2.") She wanted a necklace like her mother-in-laws but with those earthy beads. Here it is. It is a long lariat style that closes mid- tummy.

It features a floral design drop - through clasp, Swaroski crystals in Colorado Topaz AB and Jet AB2x, lots of sterling including a hand made tassel.

I delivered it this morning and she phoned to say she feels like a million bucks wearing it. That makes me very happy!

This is the long skinny focal.

The large stop bead and drop through clasp.

Martha Stewart's Blog Contest

Martha Stewart is hosting a blog contest to teach her viewers about blogging. Go post a link to your blog, post a link back to the contest blog and you could be chosen to be featured blog. There are thousands of entries but you never know!

Here's the link to Martha's blog.

And for all those newbies that this contest is going to bring to the blogosphere, a few words of advice:
1) Blog in the proper usage of your language. Slang is not fun to read.
2) Check your spelling and word use. Sure we all have an off moment but if you consistently use there when you mean their or then when you really mean than, people are going to think you are a dummy...rightly so.
3) If you start a blog, KEEP IT UP. I was shocked this week to find someone on a board I frequent was sending folks a post that was actually a month old. If you want to develop a following, you have to post and post and post. It's time consuming and in this busy world, it can start to feel like one more thing you HAVE to do instead of something fun.
4)If you want people to read your blogs, you have to read blogs. It's the age old writer's dilemma but it's true.

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And a note about our enemies at Bitacle.org, the website that steals content from hardworking bloggers and makes their own ad revenue off our words. As a professional writer, I feel so violated by this and that's why the message below has appeared at the bottom of every post.

I recently learned that the web spiders - those things that crawl the net looking for content for search engines - have figured out who is the original poster of the content and basically ignores duplicate posts on other sites!

So, today I checked. While Bitacle is still in business, updating their ICANN records less than two weeks ago, the site is DOWN! Therefore, today is the LAST post with the following footer...at least until it's resurrected again.

BITACLE.ORG steals content. JESUS GLEZ is a THIEF. If you are reading this post on BITACLE.ORG, you are supporting theft of intellectual property. This post was written and copyrighted by CREEKHIKER, who has not given consent for material to be reproduced. Please visit Holly's Folly Bead Blog to enjoy this content LEGALLY.

If you want to know why this message is at the bottom of every post, read this post.

Glass Galore!

Saturday was a great glass day in sunny Southern California!

The CA flame surfers had a meeting in Brea and several of our members demoed vessels. Vessels will be the theme of our next bead swap and I must say, I learned a new and much easier way to create handles for my lampwork vessels during the demo!

Then we hopped on over to Glass Obsessions in Yorba Linda for their big anniversary party. All kinds of food and demos and GLASS! They have a new Glory Hole they are manufacturing and were demoing there. And we saw Janet (one of my favorite teachers) working on encased florals. Another fellow flame surfer, Mike, was demoing his gorgeous marbles.

We stocked up on Moretti stringer and Vetrofond basics while there.

Then a quick jaunt across the 91 to the 110 and we were at the granddaddy glass bash of them all. Pacific Art Glass was celebrating more than 30 years in business and were giving away all kinds of stuff... WE got there too late to enter the drawing but, as the crowd wound down, we had three different artists demo for us and two others... it was like a private class! The best part was learning to blow shards and seeing someone make a dragonfly on a bead.

While we were there, I purchased more Bullseye rod and frit and few rods of System 96 to work with my new Remschneider high silver glass.



I was just exhausted that night, but SO happy. So. Cal. is just glass heaven!!!


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CorinaBeads for Sale

I'm trying to destash and clean bit and have a lovely set of Corina Tettinger's lampwork beads for sale. They are from her Tidepool series and she sells them for more now. I am asking what I paid: 100 for the lentils and 60 for the focal. 150 for all. They are for sale on my Buy Beads page.




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Interview with Gina DeStevens of GMD Lampwork

I want to make this blog informative and fun. Since lampwork is one of my favorite things in the world, I want to share some of my favorite artists with you from time time. I'm very thrilled to have one of my favorite artists inaugurate the interview section.

Gina DeStevens was one of the first lampwork artists I fell in love with on ebay. Her work is elegant, precise and often leaves me scraping my chin off my desk. I own several sets of her beads and they fall into the category of "so pretty I don't know what to do with them!" I have the following set framed alongside my other "collector pieces."



But this animal print Kalera set is my absolute favorite.


Now onto the interview:

What attracted you to glass?

I happened upon lampworking by accident. I had never heard of it, and one night while looking on the net for seed beads, I came across this "lampwork" stuff, and immediately fell in love! The whole idea of working hot molten glass was (and still is!) very exciting, and read everything I could find on the subject. I've been hooked ever since.

Many glass artists have training in other art mediums. Do you? If yes, please explain.

Hmmm, I can't really say I've even had any training in this one! LOL! I'm self taught through books, info on the net, and trial and error.

Describe the first bead you made that you were really proud of? Are you still proud of it now?

Oh, the 1st bead I made that I was really proud of was in fact, my 1st bead! A little opaque dark turquoise spacer.



What inspires you?

Color! It's all about color, baby! LOL! I usually get into a "groove" with a certain design, and make it over and over, exploring different ways to combine and/or blend colors using the same design. I get a lot of ideas from fabrics, home decor magazines, flowers, trees, even sometimes food!
[NOTE: As of 9/13/08, Gina has several auctions featuring this very design! Check 'em out with the links below]




Do you have a plan when you sit down to torch? Do you sketch beads or have photos around for reference?

I try to have a mental plan, an idea of what I'm going to make that day, but that's about it. No sketches or photos. I like to brainstorm with the glass as I work with it.

Photography seems to be a key element for any glass artist. What type of camera / lightbox set up do you use?

My photo set up is a homemade light box my husband David made for me out of white plexiglass, a couple of clamp lights, and a fluorescent bulb running through the underside (lighting from underneath helps to eliminate shadows).
My camera is a Kodak Z612.

If the issue of finances (i.e. will it sell?) were of no consequence, what would you spend your time making?

Well, I'd probably make time for more sleep! LOL! But as far as beads, I'd probably explore the more expensive silver glasses even more often, and experiment with them without the worry of "wasting".

What kind of jewelry do you wear? Everyday vs. out on the town?

I love sterling silver and dangly bold earrings. I usually wear one of my lampwork bracelets and occasionally a lampwork necklace. Oswego is a small town, so every day wear is "out on the town".

What is the one skill you wish came easier to you?

Oh, that's easy.....time management. 24 hours just isn't enough time!

What do you love about marketing your business? What’s the hardest part of marketing it?

The part I love about marketing my business is that I can do it from home. I've been a stay-at-home mom, but a business person at the same time. I can go to work in my jammies if I want to (and many times, I do!).

The part I find the hardest is a catch - it's hard, because I'm at home, and never really leave my job. The ongoing dance of balancing career, personal time, and family can be tricky sometimes when it's all in the same place.

What made you decide to start marketing frits?

At first, I just wanted to buy a few frits that I couldn't find at any of the places I had purchased before, so I bought a few kilos in bulk, took out what I wanted and figured I'd just sell off the rest. Well, that was COOL! So I bought more, and sold more, and......

Please include any links you would like my readers to know about.

My website - GMDLampwork
My ebay -
The Frit Shop
GMD on etsy

Take a moment to check out this fabulous artist's work!

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Bead Show Prep

I'm still processing what I've learned from the two bead shows I did this summer. One of my Lest Beads Team members, Inferno Glass posted a few great tips from her recent experiences - all wonderful points and I wanted to add a few more.

1) To pick up where Inferno left off, I cannot emphasize enough the Be Friendly part. I recently attended a local show to see if it might work for me in the future. A local beader I know had purchased a craft kit and sat there working on her new project. The booth right past hers had much simpler beads but the artist was so engaging! The line at her booth only proved the point!

I find myself a bit shy at these things. It's easy to sit there and think "No one likes my beads. Why am I here?" So I give myself a chore to get me out of my own head. I make a goal to add at least 40 new people to my mailing list every show. How do I get people to sign up when we're all on email overload??? I have a drawing in my booth every hour!

2) Which brings me to marketing secret #1 - Gift Certificates. I used to give away jewelry and beads and my rubber stamps for PMC but I ended up mailing them after the show which cost me more money. Then I remembered the great gift card secret. Depending on which survey you believe, anywhere from 10 - 80 % of all gift cards are NEVER cashed. On my own websites (Sweet Stampen and HollysFolly.com), it is closer to 80%...seriously!

My beadie buds have very mixed feelings on this. I give certs out to my winners in amounts ranging from $10 to $50. My friends all fear their online shops getting cleaned out with give aways... but it rarely happens like that for me or my best friend (who runs a golf business. She too estimates that over 90% of her gift cards are never redeemed.)

I look at it this way: It at least gets them to my store to look around- possibly several times. Do I care if they cash it in? Heck NO! I WANT them to! What better advertising is there than, "Hey, where'd ya get that cool bead?" "I won it on HollysFolly.com" ??? NONE! It's priceless! But that has to be a risk you are willing to take. I'm still new at this and have nothing to lose.

3) Table Height - Bead shows are tiring for everyone. Most shoppers are bent over tables for hours on end. It's one thing if you're looking at piles of stone type beads where they're all kinda the same. But lampwork requires more attention. You want the customers to linger. They have to if they're going to see everything. If you raise the table so they don't bend over, guess what? They stay longer! They stay longer, they buy!

4) Visual Interest - Make your booth interesting to the eye. Find something to add vertical height (and increase your sales "real estate") and interest to your booth. My friend Bindy Lambell uses palm trees. I found some interesting jewelry trees shaped like women (more like Barbie than any actual women!). I mix those in with the boards I mentioned in an earlier post. I even have a card display made from a china teapot from my rubber stamp show stash. The wires that hold cards, hold beads pretty well too. It's dead center in the photo...in front of my chair.

While I did not raise my table at this show, I did have some interesting vertical displays to make the most of my real estate at the table.

5) Show length... ask around to other friends in the field... is the show too long? Too short? My last show was a two day show but day two was dead. I made exactly the amount I needed to pay the second night of my hotel and no more! I would have been in the same financial spot to go home the night before. Others were in a similar spot. Sellers were wandering around, not even concerned that a customer may pop by... it was that dead! This show could clearly be one day only.

6) Food and water - You will never get to take a break when your tummy tells you it's time for lunch. Pack some almonds, a protein bar cut into bite size chunks and some water bottles. Throw in some wet wipes too. Handling money is a filthy job!

7)Booth sitters - some shows provide volunteers to give you a minute to get some food or run to the bathroom. But not all allow their volunteers to handle money. Ask before the show. At my last show, I was told they come around regularly. They didn't. The first day was busy and one made an appearance around 2:30 - 4 1/2 hours after the show opened. I had seven shoppers in my booth with beads in their hands and trays when she asked if I needed a break. I motioned toward the customers as I said, "I desperately do, but not NOW." She didn't return for hours.

If possible, arrange to have a friend or customer you trust come by and relieve you. Or make good friends with your booth neighbors.

8) If you are a beadmaker, you MUST have some jewelry made from your beads. Finished jewelry at a bead show??? Yes! It inspires them to create something similar with your beads. It makes them buy! And, there are jewelry buyers at bead shows too. One of my biggest sales came from someone who just had to have my sample bracelet!

One lampworker friend confessed, she really doesn't care if her jewelry sells or not. It's there to sell her beads and if the jewelry does sell, she looks at it as a bonus but knows she'll need to make another display piece.


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New stuff

Hello! I spent the day listing new Lampwork goodies on the HollysFolly site. And I moved an older set, Sweetie, to Etsy. I added new buttons and a sweet set of squeezed hearts in Denim frit -my own blend ;-) - on a white background.








And, I put up last winter's holiday beads for one last chance for my regulars. Time to start clearing out last year's designs. I also moved some beads over to my SALE page.





Hope you bead heads had a wonderful weekend. Busy week ahead for me... but I hope to be back on the torch real soon. Have a good one!

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Beginnings....

I've had a really hectic month. In addition to taking a job in the film industry, doing my first solo bead show, a death in the family, I've been teaching my tushie off! For the past few weeks, it's been a class every two - three days!

Since I often teach in a college setting, I have to bring tools to sell. My jeep turns into a traveling bead shop! Lots of loading and unloading and setting up. And while all of this can be very time consuming, it's also very rewarding.

I taught beginning bead stringing for the first time in a few years this week. It's so fascinating to see these ladies who know they like jewelry or beads but aren't quite sure how it's all put together into wearable art. Their eager faces and excited eyes dance with the possibility of making their own jewelry.

Some come with a few tools. Some have boxes and boxes of beads but have never even thought about making jewelry before. Others have no clue and leave so excited.

So, how did it happen for you? Anyone out there care to comment on their first jewelry making venture?


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BITACLE.ORG steals content. JESUS GLEZ is a THIEF. If you are reading this post on BITACLE.ORG, you are supporting theft of intellectual property. This post was written and copyrighted by CREEKHIKER, who has not given consent for material to be reproduced. Please visit Holly's Folly Bead Blog to enjoy this content LEGALLY.

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Sea Dreams

My back is still on the mend but I wanted to move some stuff around on the site. Waterworks has moved to Etsy and I've added Sea Dreams.

This XL raku seahorse, trimmed in lavender is my very first! And I have to say, one of my favorities. I love the texture of his tail, his fat belly and his perfect little nose! He is a major large focal!

With him is a matching fish, an octopus sitting on a raku bead with her big red lips, two etched sand dollars, a shell and one little raku round. A nice set all around.








For Waterworks, I pulled stringer for well over an hour before starting these puppies! An abstract series of teals, blues & violet. Formed in straight sided lentil press (Spree) and then gently "puffed" in the flame. I used all three sizes of the Spree press: 13, 15 & 18 mm.



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BITACLE.ORG steals content. JESUS GLEZ is a THIEF. If you are reading this post on BITACLE.ORG, you are supporting theft of intellectual property. This post was written and copyrighted by CREEKHIKER, who has not given consent for material to be reproduced. Please visit Holly's Folly Bead Blog to enjoy this content LEGALLY.

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