Two Treasuries

This week's FAETeam treasury has a faerie and mermaid theme! I like it a lot.

Only one feature this week but it's a really awesome one -- A Celebration is a Dia de los Muertos themed collection and it has a lot of beautiful items in it. Mr. Skully-Man fits right in!

Treasure Your Ears

Earrings! I just love them. Always have. So this week's treasury showcases the dizzying variety of earrings available from FAETeam.

Only one feature for me this week, but it's a really nice one... Swimming South by the ever-lovely Mermaiden. Thank you Julie!

Mermaids and Octopuses

I made this for Treasury Tuesday! No features for me this week, again. Most of FAETeam has been too busy to make treasuries, it seems.

On a completely unrelated note, today is the last day to enter the giveaway for my leaf anklet, hosted at Aquariann's blog. Click this link, or the handy button on the right. I'd like to thank all of you who have come to this blog via the giveaway! Good luck :)

Treasury Love

Fantasy Artists of Etsy Team has been participating in Treasury Tuesday! Last week I got featured in several but had no time to blog about them... This week, no one from the team featured me, but I have plenty of time to blog! Ah well. I curated the above collection, called In love with a fantasy. Please consider taking the time to view a few items, leave a comment, and maybe share it on your favorite social networking sites!

I was featured in one non-FAETeam treasury at least! My mermaid necklace, Queen of the Arctic Ocean, is in the nautical-themed Out at Sea.

My plan is to get some new fantasy necklaces made and listed at Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs this week, so hopefully next week will be more treasuriffic!

Spring Break at the Beach

When Artbeads.com invited me to pick out a selection of beads that reminded me of Spring, my first thought was to go for something leafy or flowery... but then I saw this octopus and had to have it, so my theme became Spring Break at the Beach! I eschewed dainty pastels in favor of the brighter colors that come out as Spring fades into Summer, the colors of tropical water and growing plants and my favorite warm-weather clothes!

Once I'd picked out the Sterling and Resin Pendant by Taina Hartman, I thought of CRYSTALLIZED - Swarovski Elements, specifically stars and fish! The bright peridot stars were the perfect accent for the octopus. I added turquoise AB 2x crystals and variegated Czech glass as well as chain and a clasp from my own stash to make this simple but adorable necklace that perfectly matches my favorite peridot green t-shirt. You can see the full-length view in yesterday's blog post.

The octopus focal is quite nice, the resin is perfectly smooth, the image shows clearly, and the silver frame/cup gives it a professional finish. However, it's also very tiny, so it's hard to use it as a necklace focal, unless you go really dainty like I did. I think it would be really well-suited to use in a charm bracelet, and other styles would make cute earrings.
My original plan had been to use these clear fish crystals and the Sterling fish clasp to round out the necklace, but they proved to be too big for the octopus focal. Instead, I'm setting them aside to go with this sea faerie lampworked figure from Giggling Grizzly, which I have had forever. There are some Bali fish and Czech pressed glass fish waiting to go with her, too. I'm thinking I might need some medium-weight silver chain, and I'll just dangle all of the fish and hang her in the center.

The fish clasp is just perfect, a hook and eye, with the head and body being separate pieces. It hooks and unhooks very smoothly, and looks nearly seamless when it's connected. It seems like it should be large and sturdy enough to balance out the heavy lampworked focal.

All of my crystals came nestled in the little white compartment trays that Swarovski packages them in, for safe travels and safe storage. As you can see from the photos, both shapes are cut for lots of sparkle. I envisioned the stars as sea stars for this piece, but they'd be just as perfect for a celestial theme.

FTC Disclaimer: As was clearly indicated in the above post, some of the beads in these projects were provided for free by Artbeads.com for promotional consideration. In return, I have posted my honest reviews of them.

A Peck of Pewter Pendants

(and buttons)

Here are my goodies from the Green Girl booth! I already have a pretty impressive stash of Green Girl Goodies, so I focused on new designs. I finally got my hands on the Yeats quote faerie that was sold out in September. In fact, I bought two. One for me and one for business. I think mine might end up in a little charm bracelet.

I like the golden mermaid in the seashell, she reminds me of the focal in my Napping Treasure Hunter necklace, but smaller and shinier. The other two mermaids are both buttons, so they'll probably end up adorning some elaborate bracelets.

It was nice to see both Greg and Andrew from Green Girl. The Green Girl herself, Cynthia, was at home with her new-ish baby!

Tomorrow I'll finally unveil the completed necklace with the shibiuchi faerie.

In a mermaidy mood.

I must have mermaids on the brain today. Napping Treasure Hunter is the Daily Special, and I'm working on a brooch in very aquatic mermaid-y colors.

There's not too much else to say today, except that I did my first driving on an actual road today, driving around other actual cars. Minor backroads, but Chris might have me tackling street lights and traffic by Sunday. Well, that's his prediction. I'm not as confident as he is.

Today's a day for mermaids

The Daily Special for today is Moonlit Seductress. A $25 discount brings her down to a nice, round $100. I think she's just perfect for Summer. Wouldn't she be great for a beach or pool party? Just make sure you take her off before you take a dip -- mermaids love the water, but beads and Ultrasuede prefer to stay dry.

Moonlit Seductress isn't today's only mermaid, however! Last night I had the chance to snag a Treasury on Etsy, so I did. I like to do an actual theme when I curate, instead of just "here's a bunch of stuff I like" so I chose mermaids for last night. My Treasury is called Seduced by a Mermaid and while it is a bunch of stuff that I like, it's also stuff that looks beautiful together.

In other news, my bra got off to a slow start yesterday. My package of sewing needles disappeared! After an hour of digging through the house, I found a short Big Eye needle which I decided to try. It sort of worked, but it poked my fingers a lot and bent a lot. Then late at night, I found a lone sewing needle hiding in my bead needle case, and I was in business! The black and gold ribbon is now sewn down to one cup, and it doesn't look half bad for a beginner job.

Allow me to tempt you...

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.

Moonlit Seductress, an EBWC piece

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!

A focal that I love.

I think this precious mermaid is the last boxwood carving I had that I hadn't used yet. Unfortunately, I've yet to find a seller at the Tucson shows who has the combination of selection/price/quality that I got at the Whole Bead Show in New York City. These were just the prettiest, smoothest, most unique boxwood pieces, and I've used all of them up now.

This mermaid is part of today's Daily Design Challenge piece, Napping Treasure Hunter. She's what I started yesterday and couldn't finish in time. I had to put another 2-3 hours into her today. All of that knotting is tedious! But I like how it looks. I tried stringing the beads on Beadalon, with seed beads between, and it just wasn't working.

Now I have more work ahead of me. To make the necklace, I went through my beads, found a ton of things that I thought would go well with the color scheme I had planned, and dumped them into the largest section of my beaded stringing tray, swirling them around to see how they looked together. Now I have a jumble of leftover beads to sort out and put away.

As promised, some rockingness!

Today has been one busy day, let me tell you. But it's almost done, and soon I'll be relaxing and working on my embroidered bracelet until it's time to go out to dinner with Alex. I can't wait to eat that delicious Indian food!

The above necklace is Queen of the Arctic Ocean. As you can see, it features one of Melanie's very nice water goddess pendants. I wasn't sure if I wanted the mint alabaster crystals, because I'm not usually a fan of opaques, but Chris pointed out that they were a nice seafoam shade, and my brain went "Seafoam = goddess pendant!" perfect match. As an added bonus, the Pacific opal crystals are pretty similar to the darker areas on the pendant. I'm very happy with how she turned out.

And what else do I have to show you? That's right, the 2009 Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure kit! The NDA has been lifted and I'm allowed to show you my photo! I think this will be nice to use as the official kit image for the site and any promotional materials. I have another image of everything in the packaging, which gives a better idea of the size and scope of the kit, but I think this image is more artistic and fun.

If you're at all familiar with my beadwork, you probably have a good idea that these aren't colors that I'd normally put together. In fact, I find some of the colors downright weird. But over all, I am very happy with this kit. The beads are high-quality and I love the fact that there's a wide variety of seed and seed-type beads. The "royal crown" cathedrals are my very favorite item in the 2009 kit. You can't tell in the image, but they're a nice tourmaline kind of green, with that bronze edging. Yum!

I've been gathering things to add to the kit. You're only allowed to add one bead type, but there's no limit on adding non-bead things, so I'm adding one bead and 4 different kinds of other items. I'll tell you what they are once they're all in hand!

Now that I've piqued your interest, it's time to go add some items to my Etsy shop!

Dark Lady of the Depths

Here's the one necklace that I managed to make last week, Dark Lady of the Depths. I really love how she turned out. She looks even better against a black background, but doesn't photograph well that way.

There are a couple of elements at play in this necklace. One was my desire to make a Goth mermaid necklace. Something about the focal bead seemed rather Gothic, and I don't know if it's the dark pewter, or the aloof expression on her face. I'm very happy with how I achieved a darkly elegant look without using much pure black.

The other element is the silver teardrop pearls. I acquired them some time back. They were part of a traveling bead box that was making the rounds of members of my bead forum. I want to say that they were added by my late friend Helen from FL (not to be confused with my local friend Helen, who is thankfully still very much alive. Apparently people named Helen have a tendency to be awesome. Keep this in mind when naming your daughters!), but I can't be sure of that. Anyway, I liked the color and smooth shape, so I kept them for my own. I've tried to use them in several projects since, and they never quite fit. The shape didn't line up with the beads I wanted them next to, or the shade of grey wasn't quite right. I grew very frustrated, because they were beautiful and I wanted to use them. After my most recent failure to work them into a project, I thought about these blackish Swarovski pearls, and how pretty they'd look with the stubborn drops. When I brought home the mermaid, that settled it. They had to all be together. I added the shadow crystal Swarovski bicones and black mother of pearl chips for extra interest. The result is a very harmonious blend of silvers and black.

I'm over halfway done with a woven necklace that utilizes another Green Girl bead, and I also have plans for a necklace with a cool faux jade vintage glass cab that I picked up in NY. Plus I've been working on my book, and tonight I danced for the first time in a while. It feels good to be doing all of these fun, creative things. Of course, I should have been doing my homework.... I guess I know what tomorrow holds for me!

The Latest From Erthe Fae Designs!

Today marks my return to weekly updates, which will be on Mondays for now. There are four beautiful new items up on my site.

Moonlit Garden -- Pictured above. Black and white leafy-floral necklace strung on chain. I find the design to be very classic, and I cannot count the number of things I've seen in the stores and on-line that would match it perfectly.

Contemplation -- A beautiful spiral rope with a mermaid pendant, accented by a small lampworked bead. Worked in earthy colors instead of the aquatic hues most commonly associated with merfolk.

Faded Light -- Crystal bracelet in a light golden hue. Very subdued, and a nice compliment for several other items already on my site.

Forest Singers -- Earrings with lampwork beads, crystals, and the cutest little bird charms.

Tomorrow I'll discuss the inspiration behind my recent work.