Locked Away is finally up for bids on eBay! I'm so proud of this necklace. I hadn't looked at it for a while, until I had to get it out to measure when I wrote the description for the auction. Holding it in my hands reminded me of all the hours I spent beading it, all of the little changes I made along the way. I was so into working on this piece that I even worked on it in bed a few times, something that I rarely do because of paranoia about dropped needles (I've heard some horror stories). I could barely put it down. There's something so addictive about bead embroidery.
I'm actually pretty excited about this week's BFAC auctions in general. There's a lot of stunning items up for bids, so you should really check them out. Beautiful jewelry, a doll, a vessel, and a suncatcher! Don't hesitate to bid -- remember that all proceeds, minus our small operating costs, will go to the NCCRA! Help us make this our biggest donation yet.
If you'd like a small update on the state of my attempts to get my domain back, you can check the comments on my previous post. I'm trying not to dwell on it too much. I don't want this blog to turn into a complete font of negativity. Not when there's cool things to talk about.
The first cool thing is TotusMel's Wunderkammer, a brand new Etsy finds blog that focuses on dark and steamy Etsy finds. No cutesy sparrows or candy-colored plushies here! No, this is a blog that features corsets and long black skirts and other things that appeal to Goths, Steampunks, and those who just like a darker aesthetic. It just started two days ago, but I'm very excited to see it grow. Of course, I'm already a fan of TotusMel's, as I own a pair of cuffs and barefoot sandals from her.
The second cool thing is that, since I was annoyed at the internet (you would not believe the trouble my e-mail has been giving me since last night), I spent most of the day off of the computer. Since I'm also caught up on housework and BFAC duties, this meant I had lots of time to bead. Yeah, beading. That thing I do. Except that I haven't been doing it much lately. It felt great to let hours slide away as I stitched one pair of beads after another, growing my unnaturally teal flower to its full size. Tomorrow: stamen and figuring out how I want to attach it to a hairstick.
The third cool thing is that I picked up the latest issue of Beadwork magazine, and as promised, there is a paragraph about Beading For A Cure on the editor's page! Thank you, awesome BW editors, for squeezing it in there at the last minute! Interweave Press really hires some great people. Which also reminds me, you should check out this week's auctions.
And in mixed news, we've been having a lot of wind here in Tucson, which has been blowing around the blinds in my beadroom, shoving everything off of my desk and onto the floor. It broke the cute bowl that I used to keep my thread in, and spilled beads and junk everywhere. This is just the kick in the butt I needed to finish moving things out of there and start pricing windows, so I can rennovate that room and actually work in it. That's another thing I'll be doing tomorrow -- well, the cleaning and moving, at least. Windows will have to wait until next month.
The nice thing about having done business under the same name for 10 years on the internet is that I apparently have a case for trademark on erthefae.com. I've just submitted a form to a law firm who specializes in domain and internet law to see if they can write me a nice cease and desist letter. If that doesn't work, it's lawsuit time. Oh yeah.
At this point, I'm thinking that I should have bid on the auction when it was $60.
Anyway, I've done all I can on the domain front for now, and I've written all of the descriptions for this weekend's BFAC auctions (Locked Away is one of them!), so now it's beading time. Yeah! I've got a flower to finish.
It's been a while since I posted about the saga of my attempts to get erthefae.com back. Some months ago I tried to get it back, only to be informed that the person squatting on it wanted $800. For a small business like mine, that's a ridiculous amount of money, so I simply couldn't purchase it. I was also too busy to pursue arbitration, so I sulked.
Yesterday, one of my husband's co-workers decided that he was going to take up my cause. He put in a small offer on my domain, I guess hoping it would prompt them to offer it to one of us at a more reasonable price. Instead, they informed him that they now wanted $5,000! According to them, erthefae.com is valued at $8-10k, due to high ranking in searches. Yes. That's right. Based on the content of my website, I was highly ranked on searches for the names Erthe Fae and AJ Reardon, and things like Spiral Bracelets. Funny, that wasn't making me a lot of money. I don't think it would make anyone a lot of money.
So it's time to finally pursue arbitration. ICANN's website is full of legalize, though, so I'm going to have to wait until later (ie, when Chris is not on his endless work-day conference calls) so that I can focus on reading it.
I have to admit, there have been times when I've considered just throwing aside the Erthe Fae name and coming up with something different, but I've been using this for 10 years, so I guess I should stick with it.
In the meantime, I'm working on a beaded flower. It's good to actually be beading again. I need to stop letting things get in the way of my work.
My brother-in-law is visiting from NY, and will be here until Saturday afternoon. So I'll be away from my computer a bit again.
Still no photography. I've had to spend my time cleaning house. I tell you, domestic chores eat into my bead and camera time way too much.
I have been playing a bit with the Shaped Beadwork book and hope to be able to post a review next week-ish, along with some photos of my practice attempts. I'm making shapes to make a bracelet to go with the cute dress that I bought a couple of weeks ago. I don't have a lot of Delica colors, but I did have just the right vibrant green and soft gold to match the dress. Woohoo!
These amazing fully-beaded juggling blocks are just one of this week's BFAC auction items. Go, look, bid! As of this posting, only a few of the gorgeous items even have bids on them. This is a situation which must be rectified!
Funny thing about listing these juggling blocks. eBay, in their infinite wisdom, doesn't have a section for juggling supplies. I spent a good 10 minutes searching and deliberating before I decided where to put them. I hope this doesn't hamper their ability to get bids. Denise Smeaton put a ton of work into these beauties!
No photography yet, I ended up being too busy yesterday. It took me 3 hours to list all of the eBay items, I had some crystals to string, and there was some housework that absolutely had to be done before the mess drove me nuts. That's how I know I'm feeling better after being sick, is when I feel compelled to go on a cleaning binge instead of beading.
I'm almost over my cold, finally. It's so annoying because I feel like I've pretty much lost a week. All I did was read -- a lot. You can find reviews of the books I've been reading over at my writing blog. Now that I'm feeling better, I'm looking forward to getting back to beading. I've got flowers to make, and beaded shapes to try, and a BFAC project to start!
I also need to take some pictures. This blog is definitely suffering from a general lack of them, and I even have a few new pieces of jewelry that I haven't shown off yet. Maybe I'll get to that tomorrow, in between listing next week's BFAC auctions and tidying up the house and stringing pretty crystals.
Ah yes, the pretty crystals. After gem show, I picked up a job stringing crystals at home, for my gem show boss. It's much like working at gem show, except that I do it at home, and I'm stringing bicones instead of packaging rivolis. It's a nice way for me to earn a little bead money while jewelry sales are slow during the economy, and a fun way to see all of the different color/finish combinations of crystals. Tonight I'm working on emerald AB 2x. Yummy!
Today, I'd like to tempt you with news of an awesome giveaway! The very talented tatter TotusMel, from whom I have purchased tatted cuffs and barefoot sandals is celebrating her one-year blogging anniversary with a Super Awesome Giveaway! The cool thing about it, besides the beautiful prizes, is that you can actually increase your odds by telling others about it. The more people who enter, the more prizes she's offering. So go forth and enter, and maybe shop a bit in her store, too! I can vouch for the quality of her products, I just love my cuffs and sandals and will probably be buying hair flowers from her soon.
Speaking of hair flowers, I want to make some. A lot of tribal bellydancers wear real or silk flowers in their hair. It looks nice, and I'd like to incorporate that into some of my dance costuming. But I'd also like to give it my own twist, and wear some beadwoven flowers instead. I'm daydreaming of beaded flowers on combs, hairsticks, barrettes, and various sorts of pins, to be woven into my hair or worked into turbans. I started one the other day, but I got distracted by shiny crystals, and now I'm sick. Woe is me! But as soon as I'm better, it will be flower time all over again.
I never seem to get these mosaics to load up at a size I like! It would probably help if I did HTML instead of using the basic blogger thingie, but if I took the time to learn HTML, I would have less time to bead, dance, and write.
Anyway! Voting has begun for the Temptation challenge! There are 35 gorgeous items to choose from. Click Here to view the mosaic at a more realistic size, visit all of the item listings, and cast your vote.
April's theme is Time Machine. I can't wait to get started on that! I might even put off my BFAC project, in order to have more time to dedicate to the Challenge. If I can settle on an idea, that is.
In the comments of my last blog post, Arline mentioned that her doll was going up on this week's bead auction. I thought that you all might like to see her! Her name is Fire Dancer, and not only did Arline do all of the bead embroidery work that you see on her, but she also stitched the doll form and made the face. You can see her, and the other eight awesome BFAC items for this week right here. Bidding's already off to a good start!Due to our usual auctioneer being in the hospital (get better soon, Marilee!), I had to take over listing the auctions. I have to say, I am not a big fan of eBay's interface. I messed up the picture on Sandra Graves' beaded vase, and I can't edit the HTML to fix it! On Etsy, it would be a simple matter of going to the photo section, removing it, and re-uploading it. Of course, on Etsy, everything would be fixed price instead of auctioning. Oh well.
Yesterday I received Diane Fitzgerald's new book, Shaped Beadwork, and it looks pretty awesome. So far I've only flipped through it and drooled over the pictures, but I hope to sit down and actually read it soon, maybe test some of the techniques, and post an actual review.
Last night, at around 11:45pm, I finished Moonlit Seductress, my entry for the Etsy BeadWeavers' March Challenge, "Temptation." Given that it had to be completed and listed by the 5th (you know, yesterday), I was really, really cutting it close. I had planned to finish it on Wednesday, but Wednesday ended up being a bad day and I didn't bead at all. In a way, that was for the best, because the ideas that I woke up with yesterday are better than the ones I'd been toying with all week. I didn't come up with the cab edging or the idea to stitch beads onto the edge of a ribbon until I was finishing the embroidery around the cab yesterday afternoon. I wish that the pictures were better, but let's face it, this is what happens when you finish a project 15 minutes before it has to be listed on Etsy.
In other bead and jewelry related news, the 2009 Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure auctions are under way! All photography and auction descriptions by yours truly. All beadwork by around 70 incredibly talented artists. It's a couple weeks yet until my Locked Away necklace goes up for bids, but by all means, you should visit the rest of the auctions and see if there's anything else you'd like to bid on. Remember, all proceeds (minus our small operating expenses) get donated to the National Colorectal Cancer Research Association. Bid early, bid often!
Locked Away is finally up for bids on eBay! I'm so proud of this necklace. I hadn't looked at it for a while, until I had to get it out to measure when I wrote the description for the auction. Holding it in my hands reminded me of all the hours I spent beading it, all of the little changes I made along the way. I was so into working on this piece that I even worked on it in bed a few times, something that I rarely do because of paranoia about dropped needles (I've heard some horror stories). I could barely put it down. There's something so addictive about bead embroidery.
