Going out of Business Sale!

Dear fans of Erthe Fae Designs,

Earlier this year I announced that I was cutting back on my business. Well, over the holiday weekend I decided it was time to stop selling jewelry altogether. Next year I will be treating dance like a full-time career, which will not leave me enough time to properly maintain my Etsy shop. Besides, after 15 years of selling jewelry on-line, I need to take a break and try doing something different with my life.

You can use coupon code BUYALLTHETHINGS at the Erthe Fae Designs Etsy shop for 30% off any purchase over $20. If there's something you like, act fast! I will not be renewing items as they expire.

Thank you to everyone who has supported my business over the past decade and a half. I hope you'll continue to wear and enjoy your jewelry for years to come!

Best wishes,
-AJ Reardon, Owner and Designer

Bellydance Costume

Sometimes I put my beading supplies and skills to work for my bellydance costuming needs -- although I would like to point out right here and now that I did NOT make all of that green seed bead fringe, because I hate doing fringe and that much would take forever and be really boring, since it's just one size and color of bead. No, I totally cheated and bought that stuff pre-made on eBay.

What I did, however, is add some extra fringe made with freshwater pearls, Czech glass beads and Swarovski crystals for extra visual interest. And I raided my chain supply for some nice looking copper chain. As for the pretty copper diamond medallions, those were sent to me by my beading and bellydancing friend SaraBeth. I'm glad I found the perfect project for them!

Someday I'd like to do a really intricate beaded belt and bra set, even though that's not really the fashion for my style of bellydance. I just think it would be awesome to make one. But for now I have a lot of easier dance costume projects in the queue ahead of that idea.

Nancy Dale Style Wrap Bracelet

This neat wrap bracelet was made from a pattern by my friend Nancy Dale. Not only is she a sweet person and an amazing designer, but she's obviously a smart cookie to come up with such a clever and attractive way to use a variety of stray beads. This is the perfect project to use up things you only have 4 or less of, and also a lovely way to showcase a smaller lampwork bead, as I've done here.

In addition to the lampwork by MZGlass, my bracelet is made with Japanese seed beads, two-hole Czech beads, Swarovski pearls, assorted Czech glass, and some beads that are either tiger's eye or brown cat's eye. I love it because it's sparkly, but also kind of casual so it's easy to throw on with a pair of jeans or a sundress.

Rick Rack Mountain

It is time to get caught up on posting my recent beadwork! This is a double rick-rack piece based on the design in Contemporary Geometric Beadwork. Kate McKinnon took the photo (my photos are never this clean and clear). It's woven from Delica beads and tipped with tiny Swarovski crystals, and has a gorgeous green silk ribbon running through it. The colors remind me of lush green mountains with a blue waterfall spilling down them.

I like that I was able to use some nice emerald green colors in this one, in fact I think this was the first piece I made when I decided to put emerald in everything this year. By the way, as you will see when I post more of what I've been working on, I have not been sticking to that plan.

Thanks Kate!

I woke up in a bad mood this morning, because I didn't get enough sleep and for some reason I immediately started thinking about things that annoyed me. Then I saw some annoying stuff on Facebook. Then there wasn't anything decent to eat for breakfast. But THEN, Kate McKinnon suggested that I come over to her place so she could photograph my "Crooked Muse" hornwing bracelet and we could take a dip in the pool because the weather was perfect. Things just went uphill from there!

Kate took some really lovely shots of my bracelet from all angles. I love how magical it looks against a clean white background! Plus she said lots of nice things about it, and then when she posted it on the Contemporary Geometric Beadwork page on Facebook, lots of other people had nice things to say. So my ego is good and stroked.

And it really was the perfect day for a swim. Not too hot, not too cold, sunny, gorgeous blue sky. I managed to stay in just long enough to cool off and relax, but got out in time to avoid a sunburn (of course I sunscreened, but I am oh-so-pale). I'm still tired, but I'm not at all cranky!

By the way, I mentioned earlier this year that I was going to try to work only in shades of emerald this year, and while this bracelet is definitely teal, there's emerald in it! The main color is DB1764 Aqua/Emerald Lined AB, and the size 11 accents are emerald iris. I've got two dresses in this exact shade of emerald-teal and I've seen a lot of things that color in the stores, so it's a hot one right now. I suggest you all bead something in this color.

Slowly closing up shop

So here's the thing: I love making jewelry, but not as much as I love dancing. And because there are only so many hours in the day, and even less hours in the day that I can spend with a needle and thread in my hands either making jewelry or making costumes, I am in the process of closing down Erthe Fae Designs. At almost 15 years in business, it's been a good long run, but it's time to move on. Here's what this means:

1. This blog will still be around, because I'm still beading for fun.

2. My Etsy shop will still be around because I have a lot of jewelry to sell still, and beads to destash. In fact, you can currently use code "BUYALLTHETHINGS" for 30% off any purchase over $20. This even includes the stuff I already discounted.

3. I will not be vending at any more shows.

4. I will probably not be filling any custom orders. If you have an idea and I really like it and I have the beads for it, I might do it. But if I have to order additional supplies or it doesn't inspire me, I'm not going to do it.

5. I still have a gajillion beads, so I will still be creating. If you've been accustomed to receiving jewelry from me as gifts, or as donations to your events, you'll probably still get jewelry and it might be even nicer than before because I'll have more time to make things for fun and friends.

6. I'll still be hitting the Tucson gem shows, because I still love beads and beaders. But now that I won't have to stock up on supplies for my business, I'll be able to really focus on buying awesome artist-made beads and cool vintage beads and unusual stones.

Of course, the funny thing is that since I made this decision, I've had to turn down some business opportunities that would have thrilled me at this time last year. But I'm still confident that I'm doing the right thing. Dance is my passion, and since I've started working on becoming a professional, I haven't had the time to dedicate to running Erthe Fae Designs properly.

I'd like to thank all of you who have supported my business over the years, and I hope you'll still keep an eye on my shop, as I have a backlog of things to list and I'll still occasionally list new things as I work on using up my bead stash.

My brother rocks!

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I come from a family of makers. Off the top of my head, here's a run down of what we do:

Mom -- Cooking, baking, sewing, cross stitch, polymer clay, painting, making teddy bears.
Dad -- Building, drawing, painting, polymer clay, once he put together a plastic model of a skull and reconstructed a human face over the top of it.
Me -- Beading, polymer clay, dance costuming.

(This is not even counting dance, music, and other arts that don't result in a physical object)

Until recently, all I would have said about my brother is that he was good at welding, in fact, he does it for a living. But then he decided to take up leatherwork, and wow! He's taken right to it. He made that belt I'm wearing! There's some more bottles around the front, and the pouch and absinthe bottle are both removable. It rests perfectly on my hips, or can be worn around the waist if the costume demands it. The leather edges are perfectly smooth, the dye is even, it's totally 100% professional looking. I'm so proud of my little brother!

This is the part where I shamelessly plug his shop, Zolgar's Forge on Etsy. He has a lot of steampunk and Gothic designs, and a little bondage gear among other things. He also does custom work. So, y'know, if you're looking for something made of leather, check him out. He's awesome!

A couple more clearance items

I'm still marking things down! You can get The Hungriest Pixie Ever for only $60 (previously $75), and Moonlit Seductress has been marked down to $100 (regularly $125). Two beautiful, one of a kind fantasy necklaces that are really overdue to go live in a new home.

Expect more destash beads coming soon, too. I'm busy cleaning the bead room (aka the guest room) in anticipation of my mother-in-law visiting next month, and I'm finding lots of things that need to go on Etsy!

On My Beading Tray April 12th Edition

It's been a while since I did an "On My beading Tray" post! Here's my current project... still beading away on my rick-rack bracelet! But I only have a few rows left, and then I decide how to embellish and fasten it. I think I'm going to thread a ribbon through it, and there may be some 2mm crystals involved in the embellishment stage. We'll see.

I'm glad to be almost done with this piece. I want to be able to wear it already! And also to start making something else. I have so many ideas waiting for me to get around to them, so many beads that need to be used up.

More Clearance!

I am running rampant through my Etsy shop, slashing prices left and right. Unfortunately I can't afford to offer huge discounts -- I use high-quality beads in my work and I need to get a little something for my time, too. I've always priced my jewelry about as low as I comfortably could to start with, because I want people to be able to afford what they love. I mean, if I could never buy my own jewelry, how could I expect anyone else to budget for it?

But I have been making discounts of $5 to $25 on the following items:

Snow Angel Lariat Necklace
Luck in the Wind Hamsa Feather Earrings
Fractured Tribe Statement Necklace
Malachitesque Spiral Necklace

There's a lot more that I want to discount before the week is done, so if you've had your eye on something and I haven't marked it down yet, don't hesitate to drop me a line asking about it.

Spring Clearance Sale Going On Now!

 Yes, much like all the big retailers that have been inundating our in-boxes these past two months, I too am having a Spring Clearance Sale! You see, I recently came to a conclusion: I have too much jewelry! I know, I know, it seems like that shouldn't be possible, but when you start to run out of nice safe places to put your jewelry stock, and there's no room for more storage, you come to realize that you need to either have a clearance sale or build an addition to the house. And since I'd really hate to be in the middle of construction when my mother-in-law comes to visit next month, it looks like clearance sale it is.

So let's have a quick look at how you'll be helping me by taking part in my Spring Clearance Sale:
1. Help me clear out some older jewelry.
2. Make room for exciting new jewelry.
3. Save me from needing to build an addition.
4. Help fund my trip to Tribal Fest next month, which means in addition to supporting me you'll be supporting the vendors at TF and the local small businesses in Sebastopol CA where I will be shopping and dining.

How can you resist?

I've kicked it off today with three freshly marked down items. Above, my Autumn Flier Butterfly Necklace with retro color scheme and enameled pendant is marked down to $30 from $35.

Keeper of Mementos Faerie Locket Necklace is now only $40, down from $50 and still includes matching earrings.

And the Ice Crystals Spiral Necklace (which would be perfect for your wedding day) has been marked down from $70 to only $60, a great deal for a beadwoven necklace with vintage crystal accents.

Stay tuned for more markdowns!

First Mondays -- Support Artists!

Cynthia Newcomer Daniel posted a brilliant idea today -- On the first Monday of the month (like today!), treat yourself to something created by an artist. It can be small or large... purchase a single audio track or an original painting, whatever your budget can handle. I think this is a perfect idea because I have a big list of Etsy favorites that I'll purchase "someday." Well, why not make the first Monday that someday?

I'm not sure what I'll buy today. Probably something small because I just supported a couple of artists at the Ren Faire yesterday. Maybe I'll buy some music or an indie book, or a little something for my hair (I always need more hair things).

And of course, if the first Monday doesn't work for you, just honor the spirit. Choose that one day a month where you treat yourself and support the arts. And let me know what you buy so I can oooh and aaah appropriately!

Button stash!

OMG I just learned I can make my blogger pictures bigger! This changes everything! Well, not everything, but you know, my blog posts will have bigger pictures now so that's nice.

As promised, here is a picture of the majority of my jewelry-making button stash. There's a bit of an overflow in another box, and every time I think I have them all put away I find even more, but this should be just about all of them. You can see that I have a very nice variety of colors, even colors other than green. There's glass, metal, plastic, shell, and ceramic, vintage and new, mass produced and artist made, simple and quite fancy.

Of course, my favorites include the two translucent green insect buttons that I bought on my vacation to Washington, and the brilliant gold and green insect button that I bought from Nikia, and the shiny blue dragon which might also be from Nikia. The truth is that I can't remember where I got most of these buttons from because I buy them at all sorts of places. Quite a few have come from bins of mixed buttons that have to be dug through to find the best treasures, some are new Czech buttons that I've purchased from different gem show vendors. There's some Etsy purchases, lucky finds at fabric stores, and even some culled from old button jars.

By the way... you may notice that I said this was my jewelry-making button stash. That's because I have a smaller collection of buttons with holes for use on garments. Eventually I'll learn to sew and use them for that, but in the meantime I often replace the boring plastic buttons on clothes with pretty vintage ones. Oh, and there's also the pile of Turkoman buttons that I put on tribal bras and other dance costuming. I just can't get away from buttons!

Back to destashing!

I'm doing some spring cleaning on my bead collection, tidying up and reorganizing and rediscovering things that I forgot. This is also serving as good inspiration to list some of my excess beads on Etsy! I have entire hanks of Czech glass leaves that I really only need one or two strands of, so it's time to get them listed again.

I started with these grape leaf beads because I think they are just perfect for Summer designs. Such a nice clean, crisp color!

There are more leaves and other shapes of beads coming soon, so keep an eye on the Destash Beads section of my shop.

Nautilus Bracelet and Button Love

I love these little nautilus buttons from Green Girl Studios. They're just the right size to be a clasp for a small bracelet, and just the right combination of creepy and cute.

Cthulhu in a Shell spiral bracelet is another piece that I worked on during Wild Wild West Con. The pewter and pine green color combination is nicely squidgy, I think and perfectly compliments the button. I'm pretty happy with the close-up picture, too. Macro mode and I were playing nicely this week! I hope that having clearer pictures of the lovely buttons on my beadwoven bracelets will help Etsy shoppers see just how special they are.

You see, I don't just use buttons as clasps because they're convenient, I use them because I feel that they add to the character of a piece. I love to sort through my collection and pick just the right one, and more than one project has been changed or outright abandoned due to my inability to find a button to match the beads I had chosen. Buttons are serious business!

I think next week I'll post a picture of my collection and discuss some of my favorite types of buttons.

Created During WWWC

I created this crystal bracelet during Wild Wild West Con. I suspected there would be some down time, so I made sure to pack a few bead projects. I love the rusty color of Indian Red Swarovski crystals for steampunk beadwork, and they're perfect with bronze iris seed beads. The star clasp gives it a nice Victorian air. I call it Star of the Machine Age. I know the Victorian era wasn't called the machine age, but I think it would have been in an alternate history where mad scientists made steam-powered devices, don't you?

Anyway, much of my time at the convention was spent either beading or dancing. One of my favorite memories of the show was when I was hanging out in the booth with my brother's girlfriend, and we were both dancing along to some Beats Antique that was coming from the bellydance show on stage, and a man in the aisle was also dancing a little bit outside our booth. So I said "Come on! This is the dance party booth!" and he got really into it and danced his way in, and we were all rocking out... until the song ended. Then he looked really embarrassed and shuffled away!

Well, random dancing guy, there was no need to be embarrassed. We all get carried away by the music sometimes, and any booth that I am in is a safe space for dancing. No judgement, my friends, no judgement!

Contemporary Geometric Beadwork Review

 It's finally here! Well, actually, it's been here for over a week and I'm finally blogging about. Let me start by saying that this isn't really an unbiased review, since I've been popping over to Kate's house periodically to bead along with Jean Power, drop off beadwork to be photographed, ooh and aah over the contributions coming in from various beaders, and bellydance at her gem show party. So I've been a little involved. In fact...

 Look! I made that! Squeee! My 2mm crystal adorned olivine green Power Puff bracelet is in the triangles section.

 And what am I working on first? A rick rack bracelet! I need to master the rick rack technique before moving on to some of the other projects in the big, so I decided to make a nice big double-sided one, though mine won't be a bangle because I didn't feel like futzing with sizing. Because emerald is the 2013 color of the year according to Pantone, I decided that everything I make for the next little while will involve some shade of emerald green instead of olive, which has allowed me to explore with different secondary colors. This one has pale mint green, sky blue, and an edging of robin's egg blue which you can't really see in these pics because I was only a few beads into it. Anyway, the robin's egg was part of my pre-order swag so it seemed only fair that I use it in the first project I did from the book.

As you can see, I have been moving right through this zig-zaggy bracelet. Between the instructions and the diagrams it was pretty easy to get it started, even with splitting my time between beading and watching a DVD. The spiral binding means I can lay the book open on the arm of the couch and consult it as needed.

Spiral binding is just one of the things that separates this book from more mainstream bead book offerings. Another is the honest, conversational tone about topics like thread and needle preferences. There's no sanitized generic terms here, the book discusses actual brands so you know what to actually look for or avoid. This chatty tone continues throughout the book. There's a lot of text, making it a bead book you can actually READ!

As you can see, the photos are nice and clear on white backgrounds, so you can really see what an entire project looks like. I mean, I enjoy taking macro shots like the one above, but it's less than ideal for showing the whole of a piece and helping you decide whether you want to make it. Likewise this one below:

Great detail shots are ideal for selling beadwork on-line, but not really for beading books. Give me the full picture so I can really see what I'm making and know what it looks like.

Although beginners could do some of the projects in this book (and work their way up to the rest if they're good at going in order), I feel like it's best-suited to intermediate and advanced beaders with a love of beadweaving and thinking for themselves. There's some basic technique and a good amount of projects, and also photos of other peoples' projects and discussions of what they did differently, without actually stepping it out. It serves as a springboard for designing your own work -- which you can then send pictures of to Kate to see if she wants to include it in Volume 2 (by the way, since I do live just around the park from Kate, I've already seen some of what will be in V. 2 and I have to say it is AWESOME work. Lot of clever beaders out there!).

To learn more and/or order your copy of Volume 1 or pre-order Volume 2, visit the Contemporary Geometric Beadwork blog.

Some gem show goodies

If you're looking for proof that I haven't quite been myself lately, you need look no further than the fact that it is past the middle of March and I am just now posting some of my gem show purchases. Shame on me!

This isn't quite all of the focals I bought, but it's what came to hand when I decided to take a picture today. There's awesome new lampwork by JC and MZ, raku by Mak (who is so awesome that she came to my bellydance performance while she was in town for the show!) and two labradorite cabochons by... uhm... some guys from Mexico? Every single one of these things is prettier than it looks in the picture.

Happily I've already been making use of some of the beads that I bought at the shows this year, mostly seed beads, Delicas, and some crystals. I'll post pictures of what I've been working on as I try to get back to a regular blogging schedule.

WWWC Wrap Up, and The Future.

I'm not going to lie to you... Wild Wild West Con did not go as well as I had hoped. In fact, it really didn't go well for me at all and I did not make a profit. This has been the third vending event in a row that has seriously disappointed me, so I am taking the rest of the year off from shows. They simply don't work for me. I spend the weeks leading up to them setting aside other things (dance, updating my Etsy shop, socializing, etc) so that I can make lots of new jewelry and get everything ready, then I sit all day (or weekend!) in a booth for next to nothing. Not to be a total downer, but it really sucks.

This has strengthened my resolve to put my focus this year in beading for beading's sake rather than for business's sake. I am tired of chasing after trends waiting for the one that will actually make me some money. Forget that. There are easier ways to make money. Ways that don't carry the sting of rejection when they fail.

I will be having a couple of Open Houses this year, as I actually made money hosting one of those, and I will be keeping my Etsy shop open, but for the most part I will be spending my bead time exploring embroidery and weaving, making things without caring whether I can sell them. Expect to see more big, elaborate, expensive pieces in the shop and less $10 earrings. I'm excited to see what I make with this new-found freedom, and I hope you're excited for me, too!

WWWCII Preview!

It is hard to believe that the day after tomorrow, my brother and I will be setting up our booth for Wild Wild West Con II, Tucson's premiere steampunk convention. I do not feel nearly ready. I need more jewelry! But here's a preview of what I've been working on, from left to right:

Larvikite cabochon embellished with Swarovski crystal sequins and Japanese seed beads, accented by a tiny black enameled key, hanging from a strand of more larvikite.

Vintage key suspended from a strand of roughly faceted chunks of labradorite, tiny freshwater pearl disks, and smoky quartz.

Pewter winged skull (inspired by vintage gravestone imagery) at the center of a strand of Czech glass and Swarovski crystals.

Black stone cabochon embroidered with Japanese seed beads, accented by a key pendant, strung on a black and gold ribbon.

And wow, is that background way too busy! I remember now why I don't use it for product shots.