BFAC is back, baby!

BFAC auctions are back up!

I must apologize for them not being up on Sunday afternoon like they were supposed to be. I, er, sort of forgot that it was my weekend to list them, and made plans to hang out with my friend (and didn't bother setting up a delayed listing on Saturday like I normally do). When I got home and realized that they needed to be listed, I popped onto eBay only to learn that they had completely deleted the listings, instead of just deactivating them, so there was no easy way to relist them. They had to be completely redone from scratch.

Luckily I still had the descriptions, but I was just way too tired for 2 hours of auction-listing last night, so they got done earlier today.

Anyway, awesome items are up. Just remember that if you are a family member, roommate, or employee of anyone on the BFAC board, you're not allowed to bid! Luckily most of my readers don't fall into those categories ;)

A day with a friend

I spent this afternoon in Marana, visiting my friend Helen. She's the one who I often dogsit for, and I'll be staying with her dogs for 4 days in June. She came up with the great idea that if all our dogs got along, I could bring the girls with me, and then they wouldn't drive Chris crazy while he was working ;) So we all piled in the car, drove up there, and played "Introduce the two little dogs to the three big dogs" with a small intermission for "Seriously Maggie, we've been in the desert for 5 minutes and you already have a cactus spine in your nose?"

Luckily, the spine was removed without causing any damage to Miss Mags' nose or psyche, and the rest of the visit was pure fun. I got to meet the new man in my friend's life and see all of the wonderful work they've been doing on her home, we spoke with each other about our plans in the future, and we played with each other's dogs (and laughed at Daisy and Maggie flirting with her boy-dog).

Oh, and she gave me some lovely, shiny dance things as an early birthday present! A gahwazee coat, some necklaces and anklets, and some music. Lots of sparkle and jingle!

I've been spending more time with friends lately, and I feel good about it. By nature, I'm an introverted, anti-social person, but I'm trying to be more active, friendly and outgoing and I think I'm having some success. Someday, people won't even believe me when I say that I'm shy.

Avatar of the Moon Goddess

I'd like to have more pictures of this necklace, but I decided to go ahead and list it on Etsy today, just in case someone would see the three pictures I have and realize just how beautiful and awesome Avatar of the Moon Goddess is. It's hard to let this piece go, as I have a pair of awesome black and blue silk pants and a silver and cobalt jingly belt. All I need is a cute black top, maybe a cobalt veil, and I'd have the perfect outfit. But I can't keep everything I love, or all I'd ever have up for sale would be a bunch of pink earrings.

Yesterday I made a cute steampunk anklet, but I don't have any pictures yet, so it probably won't be on-line for a while.

But you know what's really exciting? I'm going to the Tahoe Mountain Bead Retreat! I'm going to take a class with Sherry Serafini! EEEE! I love her work. I hope I don't squeel like a fan girl! Plus Beki Haley, who is a good friend and awesome teacher, and Marcia DeCoster, who I am not super-familiar with, but I know it's going to be an awesome class. I'm so excited and I really can't wait. October is a long way away...

Matching Earrings

I love how the bottom motif of these chandelier findings matches the pattern of the blue enamel fans in the tribal necklace that I posted recently, so I adorned the findings with the same beads that I used in the necklace. All that I left out were the big vintage black glass teardrops, because I'm not good at doing wrapped loops for teardrops. Wire and I, we don't get along.

The other thing that I love about these findings is that they're actual filigree, not just molded. Fine twisted wire is coiled and laid out within a framework to form a very delicate and attractive design. The antiquing stays in the little crannies of the twists for nice contrast. They're really quite spectacular.

I didn't really bead last week, because I was getting my house ready for one last house guest (no more until Fall, I say!), and then visiting with said guest. Good times were had. Now this week I need to get out the beads. Since the weather is warm, and I've been dancing, I feel like it might be time for more jingly anklets.

Something very simple

I made this set a while ago, and have been struggling to get enough decent photos to list it on Etsy. I still need some decent close-ups of the focal, which means I won't be posting it until I get a new tripod, but in the meantime, it can pretty up my blog.

The focal is a piece of brass filigree with a foil-backed green glass cab in the center. I bought it at the same place that I get all of my vintage keys at Gem Mall, and I'm pretty sure I got it for free. There was no price on the bag, and they're one of those vendors where they write all the prices on the bag, eyeball it, add it up in their head, and round it down to a nice even number. It's a little annoying for inventory purposes, but awesome for saving a few dollars.

Fluttering Past...

I just listed this necklace and earrings on Etsy. I guess that I've been in a stringing mood lately. Sometimes it's good to take a break from the weaving and do a little "instant gratification" beading.

My weekend was fun and busy, with not much time for beading but lots of time for friends. I garnered a few compliments for my kambaba and cicada necklace at the birthday party yesterday, and did a little networking, too. It's fun to get out of the house and hang out with other creative people.

It's an owl!

A little sneak preview of another necklace that's awaiting more photographs. I call this one "Athena's Familiar." It features a two-sided owl pendant by Green Girl, some awesome star-shaped cubic zirconium drops, metallic blue Swarovski crystals, and some unidentified nifty stone beads. Plus clear faceted Czech glass beads with Bali-style bead caps. I have a feeling it will be quick to find a new home, what with the fact that owls are pretty trendy right now and this is a unique, and if I do say so myself, pretty wicked kewl necklace.

I took some great pictures of this one on some black pin-striped paper, but that was after the tripod broke and they were all fuzzy. But I do like this reddish-brownish faux-painted paper. I think it makes for a good dark and dramatic background. I'll probably use it for a lot of Goth and Steampunk stuff.

Anyone want to take a stab at identifying the stones, by the way? They're light to dark grey/black, with moonstone-like chatoyancy and slight translucence. I really like them and think I should have bought more. Why do I always do that? I guess it's because I stopped using stone beads for a while, so I didn't want to buy too many, but I just used them in three projects this week, so I guess my muse likes them again.

A little something for me

I was feeling a little annoyed yesterday, so I made this necklace for myself. It features the carved green stone insect pendant that I bought at gem show, some gorgeous kambaba jasper coins, and green turmaline Swarovski crystals. That's all. Nice and simple. I'm very pleased with it, though, because it looks neat and I did a great job wire-wrapping the bail to hang the bug from the strand. Wire-wrapping is not my strong suit, you know!

The background in this image is scrapbook paper! Last night we went to JoAnn's and I bought a whole bunch of decorative papers to use in my photography. The scattersheet that I picked up for the BFAC photos is nice, but it starts to get drab after a while. I wanted some color and texture to punch up my Etsy images.

I took a bunch more photos tonight before my tripod broke, and it looks like a decent amount of them actually turned out, so look forward to lots of eye candy over the next few days.

Voting time again!

And still I can't get the mosaic to show up as a decent size... whatever. Voting has started for the Time Machine challenge. Go over to the Etsy BeadWeaver's blog to see the mosaic at full-size, links for all of the items, and the voting widget. Lots of great entries this time around, as usual.

The May challenge theme is Hollywood Red Carpet Creations. I don't know if I'll do it or not. It might be fun to make something extra glitzy, but I should probably get started on my BFAC project instead.

Speaking of BFAC, we were inadvertently participating in eBay's definition of shill bidding and they suspended our account for 14 days. That's right, no warning, no chance to cancel the bid, just "We're shutting you down for 2 weeks." Just another thing that I dislike about eBay. Makes me really annoyed that I'm stuck using one of their subsidiaries, PayPal, for a lot of things. Don't you hate it when a company that you don't like buys up the things that you do like?

I think I need to spend more time beading and less time at the computer. There's too many annoying things going on in Internet-land lately.

Pictures soon!

I made a neat necklace today, with more gem show purchased beads and some leftover crystals from my stringing job and other pretty things. I intended to take photos of it and my other recent work, but never got that far. I probably won't tomorrow, either, as I have to clean the house up for the game and mail the weekend's BFAC auctions out to their new owners and write the descriptions for next week's auctions (I was going to do that today, too. Where did the day go?).

Definitely need to work on my time management skills again...

I have a website again!

While I'm still trying to decide what to do next in regards to getting erthefae.com back, Chris and I took a few minutes last night to set my website up at ErtheFae.net. And believe me, if I had realized that it would seriously take only a few minutes, I would have done it a lot sooner!

So anyway, this is the same website that I had before, but at a different address. I think that I took down all of the items that I had sold or moved to Etsy during its downtime, but I need to go through and double-check. That will probably be a job for tomorrow.

Today I had been thinking of taking some pictures and maybe making a necklace, but then a friend of mine called and said "Hey, I'm bored, I'm coming over!" and since I don't get to hang out with female friends very often, I said "OK!" So we played Silent Hill, talked girl stuff, played with my beads, and I tried to convince her that she needs to learn to belly dance. Good times all around.

A sneak peek!

I didn't get enough good pictures of this necklace to list it on Etsy yet, so here's just a little teaser. I actually beaded it quite some time ago and have just had abysmal luck getting decent pictures. I think that I have to go back to doing photography in the game room. The dining room just doesn't cut it.

Anyway, this is an awesome necklace that I made with the idea that it would be perfect for a Tribal belly dancer like me, except one whose favorite color is blue instead of green. Or even one who has a gorgeous black and blue outfit that needs the perfect necklace. There are three of those fan-shaped motifs. I saw them at gem show and simply had to have them. The blue is so vibrant!

True story: with the exception of the earrings that coordinate with this necklace, everything that I've made since gem show has involved components that I purchased at the gem show.

Steampunk Cameo Necklace: 6mm brass Swarovski pearls that I took home from work, and 3mm bronze firepolished beads from Gem Mall.
This necklace: The fan pendants.
A brass necklace: Brass filigree focal and brass chain.
Moonlit Seductress: The size 15 seed beads and the ribbon.
Her Airship Sailed Through Time: The gold iris seed beads and the toggle clasp.

And I'll probably continue this trend with my 2010 BFAC project, which will involve a dichro cab that I bought at the show.

Speaking of BFAC, my necklace went for over $150! Yippy! Be sure to check out this week's auctions, too, there's some great items.

Her Airship Sailed Through Time

Her Airship Sailed Through Time is my entry for the EBW April Challenge, Time Machine. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I think it's attractive, wearable, and fits the theme pretty well. It's also completely not what I had planned originally.

Originally, I was going to make a necklace called Trinkets I Gathered on my Journey Through Time. The spiral was going to be a lariat with a dizzying array of nifty beads and found objects in the long fringe at each end. But as I was working, I realized that I might not have enough black size 8 beads to finish it, and since I had started it so late in the game, I didn't have time to order more. Remembering the neat steampunk heart toggle clasp that I bought from Green Girl at gem show, I decided that instead, it would be a front-clasping necklace with fringe spilling out from behind the clasp.

So yesterday, I went into my temporary beadroom (aka the laundry room) and picked out all sorts of awesome items. Keys, a coin, a carved skull, a carved moon face, various little lampwork beads (domestic and import), vintage beads, stone beads, Czech glass, a scarab, nuts and washers, etc etc. Then I laid them all out on a bead mat and strung a single eclectic fringe. I went to the mirror, tried it on, and found that the fringe did not hang nicely from behind the clasp like I had planned.

Well drat, I thought, now what? Maybe I could attach the fringe to the extra hole at the bottom of the clasp. Except that it was a small hole, so not a lot of fringe would fit. Then I hit on the idea of using one of the washers as a ring to hang the fringe from, so I used a little chain and a jump ring to attach it to the clasp. But it looked so cute that I couldn't stand the idea of overwhelming it with all of that chaotic fringe. What to do, what to do?

I remembered my stash of Earthenwood Studios Steam Stones, so I dug those out and my muse demanded that I use the ship's wheel and the "freedom" charm. Unfortunately, the ship's wheel had a very odd hanging loop configuration. I wasn't convinced that I could cut the superfluous loops off without either leaving poky bits or damaging the tile. But wait! I could use chain to attach the freedom charm to the bottom, and chain to attach the extra loops to the extra hole in the clasp. I could make it work!

At this point, I had the idea that maybe I should get a second opinion, but Chris was working and couldn't be interrupted. Well, forget the approval of others. Like a mad scientist, I was caught in the grip of an idea that wouldn't let me go, and I had to create! I returned to my little beading spot and began linking chains and rings and components until it all came together in the piece you see above.

And all of those eclectic beads and found objects? They're still sitting on my table, waiting for me to put them away before the cat decides that they'd look better on the floor.

It's done!

I finished my Time Machine challenge entry just a few minutes ago. I changed my mind on what to do, and I think it turned out pretty awesomely.

The problem is that I changed my mind after I picked out all of the components I was going to use for the original idea, which was very bead-intensive. Now I have to put them all away. A beader's work is never done!

Pictures and full story tomorrow :)

An Auction Win

This awesome doll was created by Cynthia S. Bicker, and I won it in last week's BFAC auctions. Woohoo! I think I'll hang it in my guest room, to keep vigilant watch over the well-being of my guests.

I took a break from working on my beaded flower to create an entry for the April EBW Challenge: Time Machine. I'm hoping to finish the necklace tomorrow or Friday at the latest. It's going to be a little different from what I normally do, more eclectic, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.