Home and Inspired

Now that I'm back home and have a good internet connection and a PC, I can get back to having Daily Specials. Today's special is Misty Isle, a nice subtle grey crystal bracelet that is well-suited to the rare rainy June day we're having here in Tucson.

The above-mentioned inspiration is that I have finally settled on a plan for my 2010 BFAC project, which is due in less than a month. The idea that I came up with when I first got the kit lost its appeal in the intervening months, and I've been cycling through various ideas over the past few weeks, each time thinking "Oh! That would be perfect... no, wait, there's no good way to use the focal/bugles/rose montees." But I finally have an idea that should use all of the beads in a nice way, look good, and be easy to finish in the 3 1/2 weeks that I have left, without me completely giving up all of my free time to work on it. I'm hoping to start it today, after I put the finishing touches on my coin bra.

Well, this is weird

I'm on a Mac.

You see, my friend has a wireless connection. But she forgot to leave me the password, so I can't log on with my laptop. She did, however, kindly leave me her pretty Mac laptop (with its nifty light-up keyboard... tee hee! Why yes, I am easily amused) and said I could use it. So I am.

But... it's weird! Safari doesn't have tabbed browsing... or if it does, I can't find it. And when I tried to load up AOL mail, I spent a good five minutes staring at a spinning color wheel, unable to close my browser or hit stop or anything. And it keeps disconnecting me from AIM, but I think that might just be her connection.

Anyway, I'm going to be out of communication until Thursday evening. No Daily Specials, no bog posts, no Facebook or Twitter or e-mail. Good thing I brought beads!

It's dogsitting time again!

From Monday to Thursday I'll be up in Marana sitting my friend's three awesome dogs -- and bringing my two crazy corgis along for the ride. Will I survive 4 days with 5 dogs? I sure hope so!

Anyway, I'm bringing my laptop and I should have internet, if I can get onto my friend's network. She said I could use her Mac, but I've never used a Mac in my life and I'd be worried that I'd mess something up.

I had planned to bring my BFAC kit along and work on my project, but I'm still up in the air about what I want to do this year. I had an idea right away, but I've really been second-guessing it. Unfortunately, every new idea that I come up with is stymied by one or more of the difficult-to-use beads in the kit. Hopefully I'll daydream something while I'm gone. The deadline is fast approaching.

Oh yeah! My bra is mostly finished, just needs the central motif attached. I'll get pictures when I get back from dogsitting. I'm very happy with how it turned out, though I ended up using a lot more coins than I had planned.

The day I found out that owls got a bad rap

You may remember this necklace from a while back. Well, Athena's Familiar is finally on Etsy, thanks to the fact that I took this nice picture of it back on Monday. Natural sunlight is so good for getting true-color images of jewelry. You can really see the beautiful grey and black mottling of the black labradorite/larvikite (which I finally identified thanks to the Rings & Things gem stone index and confirmed by seeing more of it at their show last month).

Anyway, about owls and how they don't get any respect. As I've probably mentioned before, I like to do little bits of research on things. For instance, even though I don't necessarily believe in such things, I like to find the mystical associations of different stones, animals and symbols that I use in my jewelry. I'm fascinated by belief, and about the stories that surround the beliefs.

So today, I wanted to find some nice beliefs about owls to work into the description of Athena's Familiar. Obviously I already knew about the association with Athena, and through that, the association with wisdom. But surely, I thought, someone other than the Greeks must have felt some owl love.

How wrong I was. Everything else in my Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures was about doom and gloom. In China, Japan, Africa, and America, owls were seen as bad omens, harbingers of death and illness, and more. In Australia, they knew the proper dirge to sing at funerals, which while nice, is a further association with death.

Nocturnal creatures in general were traditionally feared or reviled. I guess early man was so afraid of the darkness and the nighttime that anything that was active during that time had to be an extension of evil.

Nowadays, the owl gets a little more love. Cute idie girls wear t-shirts and jewelry adorned with various owl motifs. Etsy is replete with owl merchandise. In fact, owls are so trendy that I actually questioned making this necklace, but the owl seemed like the perfect way to complete the dark palette of beads I'd chosen (inspired by the tiny dark blue metallic Swarovski crystals. I asked myself "what will go with these?" and ended up with Athena's Familiar). I like to think that my necklace acknowledges and even embraces the owl's unfortunately dark path, and gives those of us with a darker aesthetic the chance to say "I liked owls before they were cool."

In other Etsy-related news, I also listed Subtle Charm, and today's Daily Special is Verdant Pageantry.

Things I do when I'm sick

Today's Daily Special: Gothic Romance Earrings!

As the title suggests, I'm sick again. If you're wondering why there was no blog post yesterday, well, there's your answer. I tagged along with Chris when he drove a friend home from the airport, and that friend was sick, and now so am I. Joy.

In addition to being mad and wallowing in self-pity, I've been reading Nightwatch (as usual, the book is better than the movie), and I just put together another Treasury: Every leaf on every tree. I might even get as far as listing new items on Etsy, but probably not today.

Of course, I've also been flooding my body with fluids and vitamins like a good little girl, which is probably why I feel better today than yesterday. Come on body, let's continue this upwards trend!

Tribal Jewelry Part 2

In this installment of my series on Tribal Jewelry, I'd like to discuss different styles Tribal. It's a little dizzying. When I first started dancing, I didn't even know there were different types of belly dance. Then I thought there was just Tribal and Cabaret. Eventually I learned about Turkish, Egyptian, Gypsy, and more, and then I found out that there were different types of Tribal. American, East Coast, Gothic, Steampunk, and most recently, I've learned about Tribaret, a hybrid of Tribal and Cabaret traditions. I can't keep it straight! But I can design jewelry based on aesthetics that I enjoy.

These earrings, which are today's Daily Special, are called Midnight Dancer. Like their sister necklace, Avatar of the Moon Goddess, they were inspired by the nickel silver and lapis Afghani jewelry that many tribal dancers of all walks love to wear.
Inspired by the black and red color scheme favored by many dancers, and by my Gothic roots, I created Spiral Journey. The dramatic colors and woven design make it look almost like you have a tattoo around your ankle, and the quiet bells make a subtle sound as you dance.
This tribal cameo necklace is a bridge between traditional tribal and steampunk belly dance. Black lava, faceted Thai silver beads, and malachite feel very tribal to me, as do the spiral pattern of the copper beads and the African-looking cameo. But copper is a very steampunk material, and though the cameo is tribal, she also reminds me of the elegant Victorian cameos. A fun fusion piece.
And of course, Wastelands Tribe is all steampunk belly dance! Bells to jingle while you dance, and gears, a key, and brass to make it steamy. I also tried to do an unusual steamy color scheme -- rusty red, warm amber, and brown.

The next installment in this series will cover Afghani jewelry and maybe some other treasures from my personal collection!

What Copyrite Isn't.

No, no, this isn't a post about whether or not you can copyright your jewelry designs. It's a post about the mysterious copyrite beads that I bought at the Rings and Things show last month, and am currently using to embellish my coin bra.

Wikipedia and Google gave me no answers, so I decided to ask Dave, the Rings and Things Twitter (and blog and website text and more) guy. He didn't know, so he asked around. No one knew. They could only narrow down what copyrite isn't.

It isn't copralite, aka, petrified dino dung. Dinosaurs were awesome, but they didn't poop out sparkly rocks.

It isn't cuprite, aka ruby copper, because that's far too brittle, and the wrong color.

It could possibly be chalcopyrite, but I'm not sure that's as black as these stones. It does seem like this stone might have pyrite of some sort in it, though, due to the gold flashes.
It doesn't really show in the photos, but the stone has a bit of chatoyancy and flashes of gold sparkle below the surface. It's a very unusual stone, perfectly suited for the fantasy designs I like to create. It seems like the sort of thing a dark wizard or an unseelie faerie would wear.

As Dave asked around at Rings & Things, he did discover that this bead came from some old stock, and was sold to them as Copyrite, but since they had no idea what that was, they put the question mark on the tag. Like most stone beads sold in the US, they were cut and shaped in China, and sometimes the language barrier results in stones labeled with unusual and/or incorrect names.

The next step in the ongoing investigation of this bead mystery is to mail a "copyrite" bead back to Rings and Things for the owner Russ (quite the stone connousieur, I'm told) to have a look at and offer his expert opinion. I'll be sure to blog about what he says!

Speaking of stones, today's Daily Special is Medusa Turning to Stone, which actually doesn't have any stone beads in it, but is awesome nonetheless.

Swingin' Earrings

Today's Daily Special is another favorite: Webmistress. I seriously think these are the most awesome earrings I've ever made and I can't believe that no one has bought them and worn them out dancing. C'mon, what's not to love? Artist-made lampworked beads, swinging chains of vintage beads... and long enough to practically brush your shoulders! I'm about ready to take them out of my shop, put them on Niobium wires, and make them my own. That's assuming, of course, that no one buys them while they're on sale for a modest $30. That's right, $30 for a very unique pair of designer earrings. You can't beat that!

It's beginning to look like I won't do any photography until tomorrow, but on the other hand, when I do start taking photos, it won't just be of jewelry. I'm going to be reviving the "Beads" section of my Etsy shop as I go on a massive mission to destash! Be ready to be dazzled by artist beads, unusual focals, and all sorts of Czech glass, stone beads, and more.

Meanwhile, I've been making good progress on my bra. I replaced the troublesome cowrie shells with some stone beads -- the mysterious "copyrite" to be exact. The silvery-grey and golden flashes go well with the mixed metals I'm using, while at the same time adding a different touch than I'd get from a pre-made coin bra. That's the nice thing about being a beader. I have a lot of unusual materials at my disposal!

Got a new tripod!

Today's Daily Special is The Inventors' Gala Ball. I know I always say something is my favorite, but I really am in love with this one. Those vintage West German disks were something I just had to have. It was hard to work them up into something to sell, I wanted to keep them so badly. But part of succeeding in jewelry is having unique and unusual components, so I made the sacrifice for my art.

In other news, last night I was at Target, walking by the electronics department, and I was reminded of the fact that it had been quite some time since my tripod broke mid-shoot, and that I was way overdue for a replacement. The selection at hand wasn't great, but I picked one up and hope to test it out this weekend. There's a small pile of recent jewelry just waiting for photographs so it can be listed on my website and Etsy.

Busy Friday

Tiger in a Taffeta Dress is the Daily Special for today! An impressive pair of steampunk earrings, just waiting for the right home.

Today is a busy day for me. The house needs some cleaning (dogs are shedding everywhere!), I need to mail the last of the BFAC auctions, and there's lots of other little things that I'd like to do. I'm hoping to be able to get some new items listed on Etsy within the next few days, and do some work on this blog (my link sections are really out of date). And of course, I want to finish my bra.

So I'll keep this short, and post more over the weekend.

Belly Dancer Dreams

Today's Daily Special is Neon Dragon, a glowingly gorgeous woven bracelet over a memory wire core!

Setting up my now-expired Mermaid-themed Treasury was so much fun that today I jumped at the chance to make another Treasury. This one is called Belly Dancer Dreams and it's all things that I would love to wear and dance in. Clothing, jewelry, hair accessories, even some perfume. While I was looking for the right items to feature, I even found some new sellers to add to my ever-growing Favorites list. Oh, how I wish Etsy let us sort our Favorites!

Speaking of things that belly dancers dream of, I'm making good progress with my coin bra. I'd be making even better progress if not for the fact that I decided I didn't like how the cowrie shells were hanging, requiring me to undo all of the dangles I added last night. Need to find something to replace the shells with. It's a shame, because cowries are such an ubiquitous tribal adornment, and they made my bra look a little less cabaret. But I'm sure I'll find something appropriate somewhere in my collection.

The Special For Today Is....

Summer Dragonfly is today's Daily Special! I know it's still cold in some places, but it's felt like Summer for more than a month here in Tucson.

With that, I'm off for more gaming-related nerdery and bra beading (at the same time. Let's see what the guys have to say about that...)

The day flew by

Here to distract you from the fact that I forgot to make a Daily Special today is Maggie! I snapped this picture of her daintily licking her paw in her crate. She used to hate her crate and refused to go to bed every night, until I made her a nice, fluffy fleece blanket. Now she'll go in there randomly during the day to nap or chill -- though half the time, I'm pretty sure she just goes in there so I'll leave her in the bedroom and she can sneak onto the people bed. She's a wily one, that Maggie dog!

As a side note, the crates are plenty long enough for them to lie comfortably in, but for some reason, she and Daisy almost always lie like this, crammed into the back. Do they feel more secure that way? I don't know. It doesn't look comfortable to me.

Anyway, I spent today hanging out with a friend, who has been keeping me company while Chris was away on a business trip (he gets home tomorrow morning, yay!). She arrived before noon, so I didn't get around to my Etsy shop at all. However, I did dance. A lot. Oh, my aching abs! I always dance more when other people are dancing with me, whether it's one friend coming over to dance in my living room, or if I'm on a dance floor at a party. If I dance alone, I'm more likely to stop when I start to feel a little tired, instead of going on until I can't any more.

Tomorrow, life returns to business as usual and I'll have a Special up sometime around noon. But for now, I have a bra to work on!

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.

I'm making a bra!

Well, technically the bra is already made, and I'm just making it better. I decided that I wanted to make my own coin bra. Chris is out of town for 3 days, I'm going to have a lot of free time to kill, and really, it's just time to do something a little different. So bra embellishment it is!

I set out with Chris on Friday night determined to get the necessary supplies. Our first stop was JoAnn's, for heavy-duty thread (to hold the coins on) and ribbon. I wanted a black and silver jacquard/brocade type ribbon. My coins are silver, most of my dance jewelry has silver as the primary metal, so a silver ribbon seemed like a must. Unfortunately, JoAnn's didn't have a single black and silver ribbon.

So I'm making a mixed metal bra. I have a black and gold ribbon, and a trim that is black and a metallic that is somewhere between silver and gold. Plus silver coins, a gunmetal pendant that I might put at the center to hide the strip of cloth joining the cups, and I might even add some metal sequins if I'm feeling adventurous.

The plain black ribbon is for turning the bra into a halter-strapped bra instead, for a slightly less obviously-lingerie look. This will be good for those times when I'm not wearing a ghawazee coat or Turkish vest to cover the straps. Although, I'm torn on making this alteration -- I couldn't find any detailed instructions on-line for doing it, and it seems like it would be less secure than the straps the bra comes with. It would be incredibly embarrassing if my bra flew off when I was dancing, you know.

Whatever I decide to do, I'll post more pictures when it's done!

(By the way, today's Daily Special is Underworld! Awesome Gothic earrings, only $25)

Because I'm the Elf Girl

Elven Soul is one of my favorite necklaces ever, and it's also today's Daily Special!

And my gaming guests just arrived, so there's no time to write anything else. More tomorrow!

Tribal Jewelry, Part 1

Rings & Things' Dave asked in my comments the other day if I'd combined my love of beading and dancing yet. Inspired by that, I figured I'd do a little tour of my love affair with tribal jewelry to wear when dancing. The above is Avatar of the Moon Goddess, which happens to be today's Daily Special, and also very much inspired by the tribal aesthetic.


This untitled necklace is one of my first tribal creations (and also desperately in need of a better picture, but that's beside the point). It features a lampworked fish by an Australian artist whose name I lost long ago, some gorgeous carved jade fish that I bought from a tie-dye vendor at one of the "metaphysical row" gem shows, tiny Afghani jade beads leftover from a past BFAC kit, faceted jade beads from a New York shopping trip, and Bali silver fish from when Marilee still sold Bali beads.


I have waist-length hair. It's good to be able to pull it back when I dance (though sometimes I leave it down and do some head-tossing moves). This pair of hairsticks features some of my first tassels (I need to find my how-to book and make more!), made out of embroidery yarn from the thrift store.


The Belt of DOOOOM! I started this belt long before I was dancing, quickly got bored of it, and didn't restart it until I thought of how awesome it would be to wear while dancing. It's an African helix in black and many shades of green, adorned with peridot, dark green aventurine, and lots of jingly bells. It's currently in need of repair.

Called simply Tribal Strands, this is one of my favorite tribal necklaces. I went through my collection and picked out a crazy variety of gorgeous beads to create this multi-strand beauty, which I frequently wear to Renaissance Faires, for dancing, or just for fun. It has so many colors that it goes with just about everything. I made a variety of woven and strung bracelets to go with it as well, but I couldn't find a picture of them.

In fact, I have a lot more tribal jewelry that I want to share with you, and more detailed thoughts on dancing and adornment, so this is going to be a little series of posts. I'll probably spread them out over the next week or two, so it doesn't get monotonous and so that I have time to photograph a few more things :)

Rarh! I'm a dragon!

Because I love dragons, today's Daily Special is In The Dragon Nest.

I really need to add more dragon jewelry to my line. I have lots of interesting dragon focals in my collection -- the problem is that I want to keep most of them for myself. It's the same with faeries. I'm just greedy that way.

Yesterday I made the copper and lava necklace that I was talking about. However, it didn't involve mother of pearl, as I apparently don't have any round MOP beads left. Denied the use of a neutral, I decided to go for contrast instead, and chose malachite. The deep, banded greens actually look great against the warm glow of the copper. I'll post pictures soon.

Last night was a gaming night, and it went surprisingly well given the large number of people who showed up and the fact that a lot of them don't get along. We really need to complete the work on the game room. I'm tired of it being half-finished, and all of our books being in boxes.

Fun with 'Net Outages

Today's Daily Special is Snowdrop, on sale for $80 down from $100. Sale ends noon PST tomorrow!

I was a bit delayed with setting up today's special, as our internet was down for about 3 hours. When I say our, I mean pretty much the entire city of Tucson, or at least, anyone who uses Cox. Chris's best friend and my best friend were both suffering 'net outages, and neither of them live very near us. Luckily it came back up.

I'm working on designing a new necklace with some of the beads from my Phoenix trip. Black lava and copper from Rings and Things, and a copper and silver (not sure if it's Sterling or Nickle Silver) focal. I need something else to pull it together -- I'm thinking a little bit of Bali-style silver, and maybe some mother of pearl.

To move things away from "all business, all the time," last night I had a lot of fun dancing. I'd moved my big, evil craft table (long-term blog readers will remember this table as the one that mangled my finger) out of the living room, so there was a lot more room to dance. This meant that of course I had to break out my new 10-yard skirt. What fun! Every movement of my hips or knees was accompanied by a flounce of ruffled skirt. My current goal is to figure out how to do one of my favorite moves that the Ren Faire belly dancers do: kicking up the hem of the skirt and catching it in their hand as they dance. It just looks so impressive, much better than reaching down to pick up the hem.

Of course, you might be asking "AJ, why would you even want to pick up your hem?" and there's an easy answer for that. In tribal-style belly dance, when you wear a big floofy skirt, there's all sorts of little flourishes you can do by picking up the hem, waving it around, wrapping the skirt around yourself, or hold it while you twirl. Similar to veil work, and lots of fun to do.

I'm trying to dedicate a lot more time and energy to dancing, so expect to read more about it!

Specials and Shipping!

Today's Daily Special is Turtle Talisman, regularly $175, now $150 until noon PST on 5/27.

Also, I'm pleased to announce that all of my Etsy items now ship for free to Canada. Next up, I have to get that set up on the website. In the meantime, I will still be refunding the shipping costs for any Canadian orders.

I realize that lately I've been talking mostly about business and very little about my daily life, and I'm not sure why. I'm going to try to be a little more open and chatty here on the blog, as I find that for my own reading, I prefer people who aren't all business all the time.

Beads, Glorious Beads!

Here they are, the beautiful strands of beads that I bought on my mini-vacation. Except for the two glass strands near the bottom left-hand corner, all of these came from the Rings and Things show. I think I'll be good on stone beads for a while. My finds include:
-Brown Lava
-Black Lava
-Kambaba Jasper
-Antiqued Jade
-Eagle Eye
-Nephrite
-Lizardite
-Bone
-Green Jasper
-Copper
-Fireworks Jasper
-Smoky Quartz
-Red Tiger's Eye
-Something tagged as "Copyrite?"
-Lots of Czech glass
-And more!

I'm looking forward to designing with these beads. What I'm not looking forward to is putting them all away! Heck, most of my purchases from the February shows are still in the bags they came in. I think I'm overdue for some Spring cleaning -- before it becomes Summer.

And of course, it wouldn't be a blog post if I didn't mention the Daily Special! Check out Mistress of the Secret Forest, on sale for $85 down from $100.

What Fun I Had!

Before I talk about my trip, I have to do the marketing thing. This is Asrai, and it is the Daily Special on Etsy.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's get down to how awesome my mini-vacation was. First, we hit the Rings and Things show, where for just under $200, I left with a bag full of stone beads, Czech glass, and two focal beads that I bought on a whim, because they were cleverly placed next to the cash register. I whole-heartedly recommend these trunk shows to any of my beady friends who have a wholesale license. The beads are beautiful, the prices are awesome, the employees are friendly. You can check the show schedule to see when they'll be in your area.

After the show, we left Mesa and headed off to Scottsdale, where our hotel was located. I used Hotwire to book the room, which meant I didn't know where we were staying until after I paid. This could have been disastrous, but it turned out to be perfect. We ended up at the Scottsdale-Paradise Valley Doubletree Resort, which was pretty sweet. Nice room, quiet hotel, and a great pool and hot tub to relax in after dance class. Plus, it was really close to downtown Scottsdale, which as it turns out is just like a California beach town minus the beach. I'd happy visit there again. If you happen to find yourself in downtown Scottsdale, you should consider eating at the Stax Burger Bistro, which was delicious.

On Tuesday night I had my dance class at Plaza de Anaya which is basically one of the best places ever. It was my first time taking a real dance class and I enjoyed it immensely. I can't wait to be in the position to drive to Tempe weekly and take classes -- yes, it really is worth driving 1 1/2 hours each way, when you consider that no one is teaching American Tribal belly dance in Tucson, and they also have an amazing selection of dance clothes for good prices. Which reminds me: I finally have a 10-yard full circle skirt. Eeee! I can't wait to dance in that!

Then on Wednesday, it was over to the Bead Museum. Chris and I purchased a membership, then leisurely browsed through all of the exhibits. I had already seen most of it on a previous trip with my parents, but it was nice to see it all again, share it with Chris, and talk about it with him. Then I did my part to save the museum by doing a little shopping in their gift store, where I picked up a bunch of seed beads (including some metal size 11s) and some gorgeous cabs.

After that it was back home, where my cute little corgis and my awesome friend/dog sitter were waiting for us. I'm pleased to say that the girls were very good for their sitter, maybe because they learned that if they laid around being quiet she'd say "Aww! You guys are being so good!" and give them treats without them exerting any effort. My dogs are very treat motivated!

Now it's time to start putting all of my new beads into my inventory spread sheet, and maybe take some pictures of my haul to share tomorrow.

Having Fun in Phoenix

Well, actually, I don't know if I've been in Phoenix proper yet, but I'm having fun in the Phoenix-area. The Rings and Things show in Mesa was great, I got a ton of awesome stone and glass beads, which I'll go into greater detail about on Thursday.

In fact, to be honest, I'm way too tired to go into detail about anything. I'm going to go crash out on my comfy hotel bed and catch up on my blogging later!

The deal with this week's deals

Today's Daily Special in my Etsy shop is Wastelands Tribe. Inspired by those bellydancers who have chosen to embrace the steampunk aesthetic! I love this necklace and really need to make one in "me" colors. 20% off today only, marked down to $100 from $125 until noonish PST tomorrow.

You may notice that I don't have a website special today. That's because I'm going to be out of town tomorrow and Wednesday (yay!), and while Etsy is easy to edit on the go, my website is not. So there are no Daily Specials on my website until at least Thursday. But my huge clearance sale is still going on, and there are still many awesome deals to be had, so don't hesitate to head over there and browse.

As much as I'd like to continue to blog, I really need to go tidy my house for the dogsitter and start deciding what I'm going to wear in Phoenix so I can pack.

Upcoming Changes

The above image is the Daily Special at my website, Sacred Grove. The Daily Special on Etsy is Keeper of Mementos. Daily Specials will now begin and end at approximately noon every day.

I mentioned in yesterday's blog post that I had some more changes planned for my business, and I figure I should talk about them here. They're both good news!

The first is that I've decided that Canadians deserve a shipping break, too, so Canadian orders will now receive free shipping. I have not set this up yet, so if you are a Canadian, and you buy something, I will refund your shipping fees.

The second is that while my website was down, I started listing my crystal bracelets on Etsy at their old price of $40, instead of the new price of $50. When my website came back, all of those bracelets were still marked $50. There's no reason for something to be more expensive on my site than on Etsy, so I'm going to mark them all back down to $40, despite the rising cost of crystals. In the meantime, if you buy a bracelet before I reprice them, I will refund you the $10 difference.

I'd have already made these changes, but the problem is that when I spend too much time adjusting shipping fees and jewelry prices, it leaves me no time to make new products! We can't have that happening, now can we?

On Niches, and Fitting Into Them

There's a reason behind the current huge clearance sale going on at my website, and it's not just because I wanted to make money to spend at the Rings and Things show next week. It all has to do with niches.

I decided some time ago that my desired niche was fantasy jewelry, but then I continued to make non-fantasy jewelry when the inspiration to do so struck me. Recently, however, I'd been thinking about my business and how my shops (website and Etsy) had a rather hodge-podge appearance. Goth jewelry, faerie jewelry, belly dance jewelry, steampunk jewelry, butterfly jewelry, and "hey, these beads are cool" jewelry. I was trying to cover too many bases.

As such, I decided that I'm no longer going to make non-fantasy jewelry (at least, not to sell). I'm going to focus on my niche. This will give my shops a more unified appearance, and give me a little more focus when I'm shopping. It will hopefully help me attract the sort of customers that I want -- that is to say, girls like me who love Renaissance Faires, sci-fi conventions, and dressing up.

It will also effectively prevent me from ever being featured on any sort of trendy indie blog, or in any fashion magazines, but I'd already pretty much realized that would never happen anyway.

I'm still deciding exactly what will still be allowed as part of my line -- does nature-themed jewelry count as faerie jewelry? Is bellydance jewelry fantasy enough, since I'm designing for Ren Faire dancers? Do I want to keep designing steampunk jewelry, or leave it to all the brass filigree-and-watch guts designers? But in the meantime, it's pretty easy to decide that all of my generic florals and plain woven necklaces needed to go, as well as some sci-fi inspired jewelry. I'm sure that as I become more decisive on exactly what niche I want to fill, I'll clear more things out, and maybe even branch out in new directions. I'm excited about it!

My clearance sale will eventually move to my Etsy shop, too, as I have a few things over there that don't fit my niche. And there are other little changes coming to my business, which I'll blog about over the next couple of days.

In other news, I was out all afternoon and part of the evening, so I decided to carry over yesterday's daily specials into today. I'll set up new ones earlier in the day tomorrow, as 3pm was really just an awkward time to do them.

A lot on my mind

My mind is full of thoughts and ideas right now, and I can't really get them gathered together well enough to write a decent blog post. So let's just go over a couple of things real fast, and tomorrow I'll write a real post!

1: There's a huge sale going on at my website. I'll go over the why tomorrow.

2: Speaking of my website, the Daily Special over there is Phoenix Feathers. I love this necklace and hate that it's waiting around in a box, instead of being worn by a beautiful woman.

3: The Daily Special in my Etsy Shop is Sacred Clouds. These are really pretty earrings and would look cute with a blue or white summer dress, don't you think?

4: This weekend is your last chance to bid on BFAC auctions!

5: I am SO looking forward to going to Phoenix/Tempe/Mesa/Scottsdale next week. I need a change of scenery like nobody's business.

Specials for Today

Since the weather is so perfect for anklets, and I've been busily making some to list in my Etsy shop, I decided that Palo Verde Pixie should be one of the specials for today. I have an anklet very similar to this that I wear frequently. The beads go great with the sort of earthy greens that have been popular the last few years, and the leaves and flowers are a cute look for Spring and Summer. I've been thinking of making similar designs in other colors, for those who don't love green as much as I do.

And over in my Etsy shop, my beautiful Midnight Enchantment bracelet is on sale. The black and purple palette is delightfully Gothic, and the joy of my crystal bracelets is that they look equally nice with modern or historic-themed outfits. I wear mine with everything from jeans and t-shirts to silk cocktail dresses.

As usual, both of these Daily Specials will run until 3pm PST tomorrow.

There were also two specials yesterday, but I didn't get the chance to promote them because I spent all day chilling with my friend and then all night gaming with my group. I should probably be like the rest of the group and take my laptop to the game with me, that way I could blog and Twitter and whatnot, but I prefer to play with beads during that time instead. I got some great progress on my Gothic-Tribal anklet last night, and hope to be able to list it, the Steampunk anklet, and maybe another one or two anklets this weekend.

Today's Daily Specials

Today I decided that I should really have Daily Specials on both my site and my Etsy store. So today's two specials are Lilac Whisper (website) and Napping Treasure Hunter (Etsy).

I also decided that the specials should be easy to find, because I do want people to buy them. My Etsy shop now has a Daily Special section, and on my website, the Daily Special will be featured on the front page. What could be simpler? Well, I guess maybe checking here for them, or stalking me on Twitter or Facebook. Whatever floats your boat.

One reason why I'm so keen on having Daily Specials is that I'm going to a Rings and Things trunk show in a week, and I'd like to have a little extra spending money to buy new and exciting things. While I'm up in the Phoenix area, I'll also be visiting the Bead Museum. As you may or may not already know, they're having some financial difficulties, so I'm going to try to help them out with a little gift store shopping, as well as purchasing a membership. If you live in AZ and haven't already visited the museum, it's worth spending a couple of hours there admiring the collection.

Introducing Daily Specials!

For at least the next week, I'm going to run a series of Daily Specials. For one day only, one or more items will be discounted! Today's Special is the Forest Singers bird earrings. Regularly $40, now $30 until 6pm PST Tuesday. And remember, always free shipping in the US!

Also, the last week of Beading For A Cure auctions is running now. There are some beautiful items sitting there with very low bids, so now is an ideal time to try to buy yourself something special and help a worthy cause.

Be sure to check this blog, my Twitter or my Facebook for tomorrow's Daily Special(s).

Spoiled by my secret buddy!

The bead forum that I'm a member of has a great program called "Beads For Birthdays" where all participants are assigned to be someone else's secret birthday buddy. My birthday was on the 1st, so on the 30th I received a big priority box that said "No peeking til May 1st!" I patiently waited until the day and opened it up, to find all sorts of wonderful packages big and small, popper bottles, a card, and even a bag of treats for the girls. Topher was NOT in the box, he just likes to be the center of attention.

Hmmm... everything is wrapped in Scotty Dog paper. Could this be a hint as to my buddy's identity ;) I'll find out next January!

Topher says: "Baby, I'm all the present you need!"


A cute card, and an even cuter beaded wizard keychain! I attached him to my dice bag, much to the game master's amusement last night.

So many amazing goodies! Hmmm... Next time, books in back, beads up front! You really can't see what all is in this image, so in no particular order:

Mastering Beadwork. I've been eyeing this book for a while but hadn't purchased it, and now I'm glad I waited! It covers a lot of weaving techniques, including some I haven't learned yet (like Dutch Spiral and Diagonal Peyote), and its convenient spiral-bound format means I can leave it open to learn from. Very handy!

Bead Embroidery by Yukiko Ogura: I just saw this book on Amazon the other day. Bright, well-illustrated book which shows how to do a lot of decorative bead embroidery stitches. I can see using these techniques to embellish some dance clothes in the future.

A flip-latched box full of cube seed beads and pretty silver-edged glass teardrop beads in lots of colors. I think I might use this box to store and transport my BFAC project, it's just the right size for that sort of thing.

Red Velvet Cake 3-in-1 Body Wash/Bubble Bath/Shampoo. Smells amazing, lathers up nicely, and even has a recipe for cake on the front! And I'd just run out of body wash, too.

Surgeon's Hands lotion. If it's good enough for doctors, it has to be great for this beader's battered hands!

A Turbie-Twist. Clearly my buddy knows of my long hair. Can't wait to see if it really does work better than a towel. Have to wash it first, Mr. Self-Centered Topher Cat assumed it was a cat pillow and now it's covered in his fur. *sigh*

Two packages of sparkly green square-shaped sequins. I'll have fun with these!

A doll form. She reminds me of a dragonfly faerie, but without wings, so I think I'll make some polymer clay dragonfly wings, Christi Friesen style!

Pearls! Pretty silvery-grey ones, faceted ones, and bubbly-textured ones. All gorgeous!

Cabs! Lots of pretty earthy cabs and stone focal beads that could double as cabs.

Cinna-Bun Spiral Beads. Pretty enough to string, flat enough to use in embroidery.

Stone chips: Earthy ones and amethyst ones.

Stone beads: A strand of green tube beads, and a strand of green and white stripes overlapping dimes.

Mystery Thread: Clear Japanese thread. I shall have to experiment with it.

PowerZap: I think it's one of those cool thread burners, but it might also be a mini-taser for keeping the gamers in line.

Shell beads: tiny, pretty shells that can be worked into embroidery or jewelry. Oooh, maybe I'll work them into a tribal bra!

So, thank you very much to my ultra-generous and awesome birthday buddy. I love it all :) Oh yes, and the puppies love their treats, too!

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.