Tribal Jewelry Part 3

As promised, this third installation features traditional tribal jewelry. All three of these beautiful pieces were gifts from my dear friend Helen, who first taught me how to dance!

This style of jewelry, made from a silver-tone metal and adorned with bits of glass, plastic and sometimes lapis or other stones, is usually called Kuchi, after an Afghani tribe. It's very popular with tribal dancers, as it gives a very authentic look for a very low price (I've purchased belts of this style for as low as $25). It's also easy to get small pendants and other bits and use them to adorn bras, turbans and more, creating a unified look for your entire costume.

The above necklace is my favorite of my kuchi pieces. Though I'm not a big red-and-blue person, I love the super-long chains. When worn like a choker, the chains still stretch down to my cleavage. I am worried that I'll have to replace the red thread, though, and I might make it a little less authentic by using some SoftFlex so it will be strong and I won't have to worry about any strands breaking while I dance.
This large piece is really too big to be a pendant, and I still haven't decided exactly what I'll do with it. If I had two, I'd make a pseudo-Persian warrior queen bra. I've tried wearing it as a belt adornment with my yarn fringe belt, and while it looked awesome, as soon as I started walking, the fringes tied themselves around the chains. I should probably either use it to adorn a non-fringed belt, make it a bun cover for my hair, or decorate a turban with it.
This necklace lost a drop some time ago. I was going to move the central drop over and put something else in the center, but I've come up with a much more exciting plan. Just wait until you see the revamped necklace! So far, I've only had time to polish it up a bit, but today I'll really start to work on upcycling this damaged treasure.

07/09/09: Edited to add that it's more of a treasure than I thought. While removing the drops today, I found that what I thought was a decorative pattern on the back of the central drop is actually a Taxco Sterling stamp from somewhere between 1955 and the 1970s. Not sure about the upcycling now, since it's vintage. More updates as they happen.

I had an awesome necklace with lapis and plastic dangles with lots of chains and jinglies, but I foolishly forgot to photograph it before giving it to another friend. So instead, I'll offer you a link to TribalSouk, for all the tribal eye-candy you can handle!

New jewelry, new pictures, old beads.

Yesterday's photography session allowed me to get some new items listed today. First, Celestial Celebration which features a carved dragon pendant, and pretty much the entire strand of yummy firework jasper that I bought at the Rings & Things show back in May.

I also listed the Gossiping Pixies earrings, which I made last week while my friend Mara was stringing her first necklace.

Plus I took shiny new pictures that I added to the listings for Athena's Familiar, Automatic Ankle Accelerator, Spiral Journey, and Mysterious Portrait. I'm really happy with the shots on the black pinstripe paper. I think it's a sharp look for my Gothic designs. Definitely going to be using that one a lot.

Then I started listing items for my destash sale! Star of David beads and lampworked vessels. There's more yet to come, probably next week.

As if that wasn't enough, I also took pictures for the next Tribal Jewelry blog post, which will probably be up tomorrow! My camera and I, we've been quite busy.

Oh, and before I forget, today's Daily Special is Moonlit Seductress!

And now, a bra!

Wow, it's gotten all costume-irrific over here at the ErtheFae blog! First two days of steampunk, and now finally, my bra. Sorry about the glare, the non-flash shots didn't turn out.

So. I started out with a cheap padded bra from Target and then I put my DIY skills to use. Ribbon and trim were hand-stitched down, and I accented the ribbon with some copper sequins. Then coins, bells, and "copyrite" beads* were hung from swags of Charlotte** bronze seed beads. For a final touch, I put a round pendant in the center to cover the strip of cloth (called a gusset, I think) between the two cups, so it would look less like lingerie and more like a tribal bra.

It's photographed on top of a scarf that I intend to wear with it. I'll take some model shots of the whole ensemble in a couple of days -- it's too hot and humid today for a 10-yard skirt and makeup.

I tried to take photos for my next tribal jewelry post, but none of them turned out, so I'll give it another try tomorrow with a different background.

Oh yes! In all of the clothing-related excitement, I keep forgetting to post about Daily Specials. Sacred Clouds earrings are on sale today!

*The mysterious "copyrite" beads have tenetively been identified as chalcopyrite, which makes sense. They look about right, and it would be pretty easy for "chal" to get dropped in transit and translation.

**For the non-beaders in the audience, a Charlotte is a small seed bead with a single cut or facet, giving it a little sparkle. They're also sometimes called one-cuts or true-cuts.

More Steamy Pics!

First, a close-up of Amy's amazing work! A little too much flash, I guess, because the cream flowers are really glowing and the clock hands got a little lost -- but I still love how this looks on my head! The feathers at the front sort of frame my eyes, the peacock eye sticks out jauntily, and the entire thing compliments my brown hair very well. You can click here to see it on Flickr, where you can also view a larger image.

This image is my new profile picture on Facebook, and I might make it my profile here on Blogger, too. I know my current image is kind of small and you can't really make out any details of what I look like, only that I love green and have wings ;)

And finally, a front view of the whole costume, which shows the neat double row of (non-functioning) brass buttons down the front of my pseudo-corset. You may notice that I am trying, and failing, to look sultry. I blame my freckles.

Tomorrow I'll try to finally provide pictures of my tribal bra!

The day I steamed it up in Tempe

Today Chris and I drove up to Tempe to meet an on-line friend Serge and his wife Sue. Like me, Serge is into steampunk, and he was dressed up to attend FiestaCon/WesterCon. I couldn't attend the convention, so I chose to do what I am told is "ghosting." And to make myself easier to spot, I dressed up in steampunk gear as well. But let's face it, we all know that I love an excuse to dress up!

I'm developing a steampunk persona for myself -- a dancing girl who was abducted by airship pirates, and decided that she liked the pirate life better. It's a good excuse to combine glamorous elements like my bronze bustle skirt and gorgeous feather headpiece with the military-influenced styles of my pseudo-corset (with brass buttons) and suede short-sleeved jacket. Next I need a name for my persona. I think she'll be showing up as a character in my steampunk jewelry stories, too!

Anyway, we had a great time hanging out with Serge and Sue. We all had a lot to talk about, and we stayed in Tempe longer than I expected, only leaving because I didn't want to leave the corgis home alone for too long (Mom did come and give her "grandcorgis" their dinner and some love). It was so much fun to get out of town and kick back with some new friends and chat about sci-fi, writing, work, pets, and childfree life.

By the way, back to the costume. I love sharing my resources! The gorgeous bustle skirt is from Damsel in This Dress on Etsy. I really love my bustle skirt (I may have mentioned wearing it to the Swarovski party back in February). Unfortunately, she doesn't have any in her shop right now, but you could probably request a custom order.

The feather, flower, and clock-hand headpiece came from The Gypsy's Kiss. I clipped it onto a lace headband that I bought at Target. A gentleman at the convention even came over and asked to take a picture of it. It really is that beautiful! Amy does fantastic work, I'll definitely be buying more.

The socks are of course from Sock Dreams. I'd forgotten that last time I wore the skirt, I wore either black lace tights or my brown-striped thigh highs. I can't remember which, but knee-highs are not high enough. That doesn't make the socks any less awesome, though!

And that's about it. The shoes are just from Payless, and the pseudo-corset and leather jacket are both lucky finds from Buffalo Exchange, our local resale boutique. Plus my steampunk cameo necklace, and a brass bracelet that Chris gave me for the holidays.

I'm off to edit more photos and upload them to Flickr. I'll post links tomorrow!

Thrown off

Chris actually got half the day off for the holiday, so I didn't spend nearly as much time at the computer as I would normally. As such, I never really got around to writing a blog post for today.

Tomorrow I'm going up to Phoenix to meet an on-line friend, but I'm leaving late enough that I should have time to set up the usual Daily Special and blog post.

In the meantime, Forest Singers bird earrings are today's Daily Special. Tweet!

Fun times were had!

Today's Daily Special is Asrai!

Yesterday, my friend Mara was over, and we decided that it was time to play with beads. So I taught her how to string a necklace, with some hematite, Czech glass, and a wolf/fox head pendant. It turned out pretty awesomely, and she was very happy with her necklace. I think I've made a new addict.

While she was blissfully stringing her necklace, I was making a cute pair of earrings with some faerie pendants she found. I didn't even remember that I had them. These earrings will find their way onto the website or Etsy next week.

Just Flitting By!

I have a couple of things to do this afternoon before my dear friend comes over for some much-needed fun times, so I just thought I'd flit in and let you know that Summer Dragonfly is back up on Daily Special. Only $30. The For A Summer Day earrings shown in the image are not included in that listing, but are available for only $15. That means for $45 you could have a beautiful, perfectly coordinated set of jewelry that will carry you all the way through Summer and into Autumn.

Things that make my day

A while back, I sold this brooch, Soaring Wyvern. It was the only brooch I'd ever made. I listed it on Etsy with only one image, and I didn't even have it sorted into a category -- and it sold anyway. Yesterday, the buyer posted her "Best of Ets" blog post and gave me and the Wyvern a glowing review. I've been walking on air ever since. There's nothing quite like a happy customer to make my day, especially when they've purchased something that I wasn't sure would sell.

Ever since Soaring Wyvern sold, I've been thinking that I should make more brooches -- so that's my goal for after I finish my BFAC project. If there's a particular color or style of brooch you'd like to see me make, please leave a comment here or go over to my Facebook fan page and join the Brooch discussion I've just started.

As for today's Daily Special, it's the Automatic Ankle Accelerator! Only $25 for a gorgeous steampunk anklet.

...and back around again.

Today's Daily Special is Aviatrix, because I've reached the point where I have to start repeating Daily Specials! I only have 54 items in the shop right now, and I've realized that I can't really discount my earrings, because with free shipping, I'd actually be losing money on those.

Clearly, this means I have to start adding more jewelry to my Etsy shop. Luckily I have one new necklace ready to be photographed, and lots more items planned for after I finish my BFAC. For instance, I've noticed that I no longer have any spiral rope bracelets on Etsy. This is a situation which must be remedied! Luckily I'm making good progress on BFAC, so I'll soon be free to work on whatever I want again.

In the meantime, Monday is a boring day of laundry and other housework, as I tidy up the messes made over the weekend. Surprisingly, I find that I'm not too achey from yesterday's yoga workout, even though I didn't do nearly as well as I did last week (I made the mistake of eating too soon before it, and the heat nauseated me). I might even dance later, after the house is clean :)

I hate the economy!

Before I start ranting, today's Daily Special is Unlock My Secrets, a beautiful key necklace in earthy orange.

Now, on with the rant. While I was dancing yesterday, I got a phone call from my Mom. She was at Chivalry Sports (aka the Renaissance Store), our local Ren Faire garb shop. They were in the process of going out of business and Mom wanted to know if I wanted any of the belly dance patterns that they had left.

Now, I can handle the fact that my own business is molasses-slow because of the economy. I'm fortunate to be in a position where I don't need to sell my jewelry. What makes me mad is when awesome niche businesses have to close down because no one has any money left to spend on their hobbies.

Chivalry Sports was an awesome store. You could go in there and walk out with breeches, a tabbard, a chemise, an overdress, whatever you needed, and it would be sturdy, well-made, and in most cases, you could throw it in the washing machine and dryer. Because my tastes run towards belly dance clothes, I didn't have much of their stuff, but it was our go-to place for my husband's garb, and I also got my mirrored black skirt there.

By the time Chris and I got there yesterday, the store was pretty picked over. I picked up a few belly dance patterns and one of the basic cholis that I'd been wanting (they were out of black, so I bought white and I'll probably tea-dye it). The mirrored skirts were long gone, as were the various belly dance scarves and veils. It was depressing, as I'd been wanting to go in and shop for months, but their limited hours meant they were always closed when I was in their neighborhood.

And of course, this phenomenon is not limited to Chivalry Sports. Everywhere I go in Tucson, I see empty spaces where small shops and restaurants used to be. Some neighborhoods look like ghost towns, the strip malls empty and in disrepair. I have to wonder how many more neat little stores will fall prey to increased costs and decreased spending.

I'm sorry to be such a downer today, but I think it needed to be said.

A quick post before I dance

The above image is Tribal Cameo, which I listed on Etsy yesterday. Today's Daily Special is another tribal design, Midnight Dancer. I'm really enjoying this line of jewelry. Next up I'm going to make a necklace with some Afghani coins and a mendhi-inspired lampworked bead by JC Herrell.

Over on Facebook, I'm friends with a couple of other dancers, and as such, I keep seeing various dance troupes and organizations in my list of recommendations, but they're all across the country from me. So today I realized that I should search and see if Plaza de Anaya -- where I'll be taking classes starting next month -- was on Facebook, and I was happy to find that they have a group, fan page, and gift application. Hopefully this will help me network with other semi-local dancers, both in and out of the classes I'll be taking. I'm so excited!

The classea are in Tempe, which is about 1 1/2 hours from Tucson. It is a bit of a drive, but my Dad used to commute 90 minutes each way to work 5 days a week, and then we'd frequently make a similar drive to visit grandparents and aunts and uncles on weekends and holidays, so when compared to that, driving to Tempe once a week doesn't seem too crazy. Especially when you look at how the local belly dance class offerings compare to what's available at Plaza de Anaya. Members of the group I'll be learning from are also in my favorite belly dance troupe at Ren Faire. That pretty much made my decision right there.

Anyway, even though it's a hot Tucson afternoon, I'm going to go dance now before we have to start tidying the house up for tonight's game. And tomorrow is yoga! My days are filling up with fun activities.

For all of you steampunk bellydancers

I just listed Automatic Ankle Accelerator on Etsy today! I plan to take more pictures of it, but I figure there's no harm in listing an item with only one picture. That one image might be enough to convince someone to buy it, instead of it sitting around here, unseen and unloved.

The story that prefaces the item description is part of my ongoing attempt to build a world and cast of characters around my steampunk jewelry line. There's Professor Langstrom. Some of his inventions -- such as the Aetheric Chronology Manipulatronic mentioned in Her Airship Sailed Through Time -- are actually effective. Some -- like the Automatic Ankle Accelerators -- need a bit more work. Halcyon Greene, the lady adventurer who owns the time-traveling airship, is based on a roleplaying character of mine. Next, I believe I need a name and persona for a lady inventor, as I keep mentioning them in item descriptions as well.

I also listed Mysterious Portrait today. And today's Daily Special is also one for the bellydancers, the Spiral Journey gothic tribal anklet.

Happy Fairy Day!

Yes, today is Fairy Day! You know I can't let a day like this go by unremarked. To celebrate, I'm having a sale in both my Etsy shop and website. Lots of faerie jewelry on sale, in lieu of a normal Daily Special :)

I'm also going to celebrate by wearing my wings (as seen in my profile picture). I'll definitely wear them for tonight's game, but I'm torn on whether to wear them out for sushi. I think they might be a little too big and I don't want to get in the way of the nice waitstaff at the sushi place. As much as I love the look of BIG wings, I really need to buy a pair of small wings for when I want to be a faerie without also being a nuisance. Because I'm so happy with my current pair, I'll probably buy my little ones from Fancy Fairy.

So very sparkly!

I've just added a listing to my Etsy shop for a custom crystal bracelet. You choose the colors, the length, and what sort of clasp you like, and I make it happen. I love these bracelets! I have several in my own collection, and I've made them frequently as gifts. I've also sold dozens, and I never get tired of making them. Who could get tired of sparkly crystals?

And speaking of bracelets, today's Daily Special is Within the Waves. A great deal on a cute bracelet that would be perfect for a day at the beach.

With just a few weeks left until the deadline, I'm finally moving along on my Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure project. I got a lot done on it yesterday, in between dealing with various house emergencies that kept popping up. I'm hoping to finish it in a week or so, so that I can mail it with time to spare.

More Owl Love

There's a quirky Chicago-style pizza and Italian food restaurant a few blocks from my house that always has silly phrases on their marquee. This weekend it read "The Owls Are Not What They Seem." I'm not sure if that's a pro- or anti-owl statement, but it made me decide that Athena's Familiar should be today's Daily Special!

Not only am I happy with how this necklace came out, but Chris really likes it, too. It's sitting here on my desk, and the other day he said "I do like that pendant... in fact, the whole necklace is pretty cool." Of course, it's also far too girly for a meaty-thewed barbarian like him to wear. Some of my work is unisex, but this is definitely one for the ladies.

In other news, my abs and shoulders are hurting from yesterday's yoga work out. I like to think that my abs are in better-than-average shape, what with my love for chest lifts and rib circles in my dancing, but clearly I was using them in new and unusual ways yesterday. I'm hoping to dance tonight, and hopefully that will work some of these aches out.

Also, Up was pretty good. A little too silly at points, but I enjoyed the fact that it wasn't afraid to be sad or serious at times, it has a big airship, and lots of dog humor.

Yay, yoga.

A really quick post because we're about to take off to see Up.

First, today's Daily Special is Pearl Branch. I love this bracelet, but it's very short, so it's been waiting for the right person with the right tiny wrist!

This afternoon Chris and I went to a yoga class at his gym, and it was a lot of fun, so we'll be going every Sunday. Yoga is great for bellydancers, as it increases flexibility and balance, so I'm very happy to find a place to take it just a few blocks from my house.

And now, movie time!

Tinkering around.

Today's Daily Special is Subtle Charm. $20 is a great deal for such an elegant necklace and earring set!

I've just finished doing a little work on the blog, tidying things up, removing links to blogs that I don't read anymore, that sort of thing. I also provided convenient links to all of the places you can stalk, er, find me around the Internet. Twitter, Facebook, my writing blog, all had been strangely absent from my links. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of all this social networking.

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.