Score!

So, last weekend I was able to buy some beads and things from a friend of a friend who was getting out of the jewelry making business. She was a wonderful lady who made me the deal of a lifetime and let me take everything off her hands for a mere $100. I was shocked and thrilled!

Now that I have had a chance to go through everything, I am sharing some pictures of my haul here. First up, jewelry displays!



This is one of FIVE twirly displays she included. Great for earrings, bracelets, necklaces.. anything really.



There were FOUR of these small earring displays. Great for taking pictures with!



A very nice bracelet display.



Two small necklace displays.



Final display, one large necklace display. I have really been wanting a large one, so this is my favorie of the displays.

Next up are some (by which I mean a lot) of findings, and the storage they came in.



This collections includes silver plated, gold plated, and some mixed metals. More head pins and eye pins then I have ever seen in one place. Earring findings, bead caps, chandelier findings, lobster clasps, toggles... yeah, everything.



The gray case on the right has more misc. findings. The two white cabinets have seed beads, crystals (lots of crystals!) stringing material, some misc metal pieces, and some tools!

Ok, next we move on to beads!



These are the beads on strands... so many pretty pretty strands....



Then we have beads in bags... includes some stones, some cabs, and some metal.



A whole pile of fake pearls and shell beads!



These bags of cloisonne and enameled beads were one of my favorite finds! Do you see the chicken bead? Isn't it adorable?!



CHICKEN!

Ok, so there was a LOT of stuff! Unpictured are two giant spools of 49 strand beading wire (1000 ft each). I especially love some of the metal beads, the glass pearls, and the plethora of findings!

Wish me luck in using all of this wonderful stuff!

Peyote Beaded Beads

For a while now I have been wanting to learn to make peyote beaded beads around a wooden core, but was lacking a good tutorial. While blog hopping recently, I found a link to one, finally! It was in Hungarian, but had what I needed - a chart that listed how many beads in each round for what size core bead! Here is the site that had this information. Below I have translated it to English for you. If you translate the original site, their next post goes over some information on how bead type and finish impact these numbers. I really suggest visiting it for more informaiton!



While doing the first couple of beaded beads, I found it very difficult to hold everything together while I stitched. So I came up with a nifty way to stablize. I took a headpin, put a rubber earring back on it. I then started my beadwork. Once I have the first few rows, I sew in the tail thread, then I add the bead work to the headpin. Next add the bead, then another earing back. The rubber earing backs stay in place and hold everything firmly together. Plus, they are soft on the beadwork!



I found that this configuration not only kept my hands from cramping, but allowed me to easily set the work down if I need to take a break! If you don't have the rubber earring backs available, you could try cutting the erasers off of pencils and using those.



Really handy for the tiny 6 and 8 mm beads! Also of note, you don't have to use a wooden core. You can use any old round bead. Above you will see that I am using a glass pearl. My first attempt (not pictured) was over some plastic beads!

Quote: Life is like one big Mardi Gras. But instead of showing your boobs, show people your brain, and if they like what they'll see, you'll have more beads than you know what to do with.
Ellen DeGeneres, Tulane Commencement Speech, 2009

Bead Soup Blog Party!

So, I already mentioned that I have joined the Bead Soup Blog Party this year, and today I recieved my bead soup! YAY!And since my partner, Sarah Elder of My So Called Junky Life, has already recieved her package from me, I can show you both! Since I forgot to take a picture before I sent, I am using the picture she posted. Here are the mystery items I sent her:



And here is the package I got from her!




Love the pretty bag it arrived in. Love the things in the bag more. So not my normal style, but that is the point! I am really looking forward to playing with these! I have a couple of custom orders I have to finish first though.

Also on the horizon, I am trying to pull together a Talk Like a Pirate Day blog hop. This would naturally take place on Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19th. The idea is that participants will make some lovely pirate booty and then share in a blog post done pirate style! Should be fun! (I hope...)

Quote: 1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.
Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - 2007), Breakfast of Champions

Craft show follow up and Bead Soup Blog Party and a fishy!

First, the Kansas Etsy Team blog today features pictures from our trunk show. Check it out to see a really bad photo of me and some great photos of some fellow crafters!

And B, I will be participating in the Bead Soup Blog Party for the first time this month! I am very excited. My partner is Sarah Elder of My So Called Junky Life. She does some beautiful jewelry made from vintage odds and ends, as well as restoring/altering larger pieces like frames, tables, and such. I really enjoyed browsing her blog and can't wait to see what she makes with the mystery items I sent her!



And finally, in a bit of non-beady craftiness last week, I loom knit a fishy tawashi. Thank you to Brenda Myers of Loom Lore for the pattern. It is not up on her blog yet, but it should be soon.



Quote: Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.
Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD)

Thrift Store Catch of the Day!

Fish! a photo by sallaevilincarnate on Flickr.

Today is the first day of Spring Break in my neck of the woods, so I was out and about with my seven year old niece, Molly. We went to a thrft store where she found a copy of Inkheart for $.99 and I found these wonderful fish beads!

The fish are currently strung with some cheap plastic pearls on what appears to be sewing thread. Not sure what I will do with these lovely fishies, but they do beg for something special. The cost for five cool fish? $1.99.



I also picked up an 18 inch strand of wooden beads in tones of pink and peaches. Mostly spheres, but about six .... well, the are square in the middle and triangular on each end... irregular polygons is what my friend Matthew declared them. Anyway, they are cool. I think I will try doing beaded beads with some and something as yet to be determined with others. Should be fun!

Quote: Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.
Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)

Fading Away

You know it can happen. You hear other people talk about it happening. But you never think it will happen to you. Well, today it happened to me.
There is a woman I work with who has purchased several peyote rings from me. Today she came up to me with one that had been her favorite. It was originaly made with a variety of lovely blue size 10 Delicas, some matte and some shiny. When she showed it to me today it looked like it had mange. Many of the shiny beads had lost their color. Looking at them, I can now see that the color was only applied to the inside of the bead. As this is her favorite ring, she wore it a lot. The constant wear caused the beads to move around on the thread. Moving around on the thread wore the color away. Dammit.
Live and learn I guess. Just annoying cause I thought I already "knew". She is not too upset with me, and I am going to give her a good deal on a bracelet I have made that she likes to make up for it. Still just really frustrating. Luckily, this is the only ring I made with that mix. *sigh*

Quote: Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.
John Updike (1932 - )