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.

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.

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!

Pastels for Spring

I've been seeing a lot of pastels at the trendy mall stores for the past couple of months. I'm not going to lie to you, this doesn't make me super happy. I just can't wear pastels! I guess I'll coast along on last year's fashions and buy a few new neutral pieces. But for those of you who look great in pale colors, I have a few items to add some sparkle to your Spring wardrobe!

Peachy Keen crystal earrings (shown above) feature white opal Swarovski crystals flanking vintage dusty peach faceted glass (or maybe crystal) beads. Can you believe that I salvaged these from a necklace that was otherwise made of bright orange beads? Crazy, right?

Peach Melon crystal bracelet is a good accompaniment for the brighter shades of coral and light peach. You can probably even match your lipstick to this bracelet, if you have the skin tone to pull it off!

Mint Blossom crystal bracelet is cool and clean and topped off with the prettiest clear flower-shaped vintage button. Oh mint. You're the one shade of green I can't wear! I'm seeing so many pretty little mint blouses in the store that would be really sweet with this bracelet.

If you're looking for other pastels, the Crystal Jewelry section of my shop is probably the right place to look. I've got crystal bracelets in baby pink, pale purple and more!

Love is in the Air

 Valentine's-themed treasuries are already cropping up on Etsy, and have been since around the start of the year. I'm really not prepared. My heart jewelry is really picked over, in fact, I think these two bracelets might be all I have left! I'll have to add romantic jewelry to my list of things to make this week, right up there with steampunk jewelry and hairsticks. Maybe I can triple up and make a hairstick with a heart key hanging from it?

If you're looking for a unique Valentine's Day Gift, you can pick up Blue Heart Spiral Bracelet or Lovestruck Crystal Bracelet in my shop!

Spiral Bracelets!

 I am working to rebuild my stock of spiral rope bracelets. Midnight Meandering is a great black-on-black bracelet that will work well with a variety of Gothic styles. I really like the black-lined clear seed beads in the core, they give it a lot of depth.

Purple Overload also features lined clear beads, but in this case it's a shimmering purple at the core. This was a really tricky bracelet to photograph, those pearly outer beads tend to really reflect the light and turn into a blur in pictures. I don't think I'll be designing with them again any time soon.

But hey, enough about that! It's New Years Eve! I hope you all have a fun and safe evening. Thank you to everyone who has made 2012 a really successful year for me. I hope you'll stick with me in 2013, because I have plans. Oh yes. Plans! Bwahahahah.

Books and beads, my two addictions

 I love to buy beads, and I love to buy books about beading. But too often, they sit around unused. So I've been trying to use more of my beads, and also to actually make some projects from books and magazines. Towards that goal, I made this bracelet from "Great Designs for Shaped Beads" by Anna Elizabeth Draegar.

This is an awesome concept for a book, because I know I'm not the only beader who has excitedly purchased a new style of seed bead, only to be totally stumped on what to do with them. Take the Tila beads that are in this project. I see a lot of designers doing great work with them, but I have not even tried. I took the easy way out and waited for a book project to grab me! It also let me use some size 10 Delicas (which helped dictate the color palette because I only had 3 colors, because I never use them).

The instructions and illustrations in the book were really clear, I was able to make this bracelet over the span of 3 nights while watching a DVD (I also worked on other projects, so I probably could have done it in 1 or 2 sittings if I'd focused). Another nice thing is that Draegar provides alternate options for a lot of the designs, so if you only have a few Tilas leftover, you can whip up a ring to match, or if you like a necklace but don't have enough beads, she scales it down to a bracelet.

I like this design enough that I might make more in other colors, but I think I should delve into another book first!

New and Beautiful

I spent the Thanksgiving holiday in NY, but now that I am home I can get down to listing all of the new stock that didn't sell at the Desert Shakedown! That includes this Hamsa of Earth bracelet, made with chocolate jasper and rhyolite. Expect to see a lot more stones this week! There will be lava/basalt, tiger's eye, amethyst and more.

I love living in the future!

All of these crystal bracelets are coming with me to the Desert Shakedown. In fact, all of my stock is. But my Etsy shop will remain open because we live in the future! Having a smart phone is one of the best things I have ever done for my business. The Etsy app will notify me if anything sells, allowing me to remove it from the table. Meanwhile, as items sell at the Shakedown, I can use my phone to remove them from the Etsy shop. How amazing is that?!?

And of course, I'll be processing credit cards with Square, aka "the best invention ever!" Seriously, if you are a small business like me, doing business primarily on-line but doing a couple live events a year, having Square or one of their competitors is the smartest thing you can do. Especially if you sell a lot of high-ticket items. Sure, someone will probably have cash on hand for a $10 pair of earrings, but do I really want to take a check from a stranger for a $200 necklace? No, I do not.

So anyway, feel free to visit Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs and do all the shopping you want tomorrow, or come see me at the Desert Shakedown to shop in person, or ask me about the Open House that I am having next month.

Purple Crystals

 I finally managed to photograph and list the last two crystal bracelets. These two shades of purple were being especially camera-shy, always showing up too dark, or too fuzzy in pictures. But I captured them at last! Above is Grape Sorbet and below is Velvet Queen.

Both crystal bracelets have sweet vintage button clasps because I have such a button addiction! I love how they make each bracelet even more unique. I think they add a lot of personality, too. The pink striped button on Grape Sorbet is really playful, while the one on Velvet Queen is super glamorous.

Sunny Seattle Summer

 This bracelet takes its name from the fact that I started it during my Summer vacation in Seattle, where it was beautiful and sunny and wonderfully fun. Of course, I didn't finish it until the end of October, but the colors still remind me of my trip.

 I used Jean Power's Caldera pattern which will be in Contemporary Geometric Beadwork! It's the same technique as the Power Puff but with a more complicated pattern which creates endless waves of chevrons. I love the white borders between the various greens and teals.

 I was originally going to do olive and bronze, but let's face it, I do that too much! I needed a summer brights bracelet.

Now that it's finally done, I am ready for more beadweaving and embroidery! I think I am going to particpate in NaSeBeMo, which is like NaNoWriMo but for seed beading instead of writing. Weaving and embroidery every day! Woo!

More crystals!

I am still adding more crystal bracelets to my shop! Only a couple left, though, so I should be completely done with them this week until I decide to make more. I think my focus will first be on other styles of bracelets, however. My stock of spiral bracelets is quite low, and I could use some new strung bracelets, too.

Anyway, I just listed Dark Gloaming Gothic Crystal Bracelet. Tanzanite is a great color for Fall and Winter, it has a bit of a grey undertone that goes well with more understated colors. Not that the Pantone forecast for Fall is very understated, but if you're a Goth, you're probably going to stick with more muted shades like this.

Personally, I'm starting to get excited for Fall. Maybe it's because I remembered that I have green faux suede boots. Maybe it's because I just ordered an awesome new hoodie. Maybe it's because Autumn is the busy season for belly dance performances. Either way, I am ready for Summer to make its exit!

The Last One!

This Alexandrite Crystal Bracelet is the last one from that batch of photos! I need to re-photograph a few that didn't turn out, but I think I'll take a break and get some new necklaces or earrings listed first. I also need to sit down and design some new anklets since I am almost out. A jeweler's work is never done!

They Keep Coming

Ok, I really need to photograph something other than crystal bracelets this week! I love them, but it gets boring to list multiples of any type of item -- there's only so much variation I can have in the descriptions while still adhering to the dogma of SEO.

This beauty is called Spring Snow and it brings my shop up to 95 items! I should hit the big 100 this week, unless a lot of items sell. Please note, I will not complain if I do not hit 100 this week due to sales. Don't hold back on my account! Buy as much as you want. Heck, buy it all. I will happily refill the shop while buying new dance costumes with the proceeds.

Celtic

As I was listing this Knotwork crystal bracelet on Etsy today, I realized that I don't really work with Celtic themes a lot. I don't know why this is. I love knotwork, and I've certainly purchased focals and other buttons with Celtic designs, I just don't seem to use them very often. I should definitely change that, as I feel it's a good fit with the fantasy theme of a lot of my other work.

Loving what I do

I just listed this cute little Lovestruck Crystal Bracelet over on Etsy. In thinking about how to theme today's blog post around it, I was reminded that lately this blog has become really commercial and that I don't really talk about my life at all anymore. So now that we've got that shameless self-promotion out of the way, let's talk about something other than what is in my Etsy shop.

Dancing remains my primary obsession. I'm in classes 4 days a week, and practicing almost every day at home. Later this month I will be performing a solo with a live band, which is a pretty big step for me. I am also still performing with Fire & Gold Bellydance, my teacher's student troupe. My goal is to eventually go pro. You can of course read more about all of that at Confessions of a Dance Pants Addict.

Lately I have been killing time playing Guild Wars 2, a video game which came out last month. Probably not the best use of my time, but it's been a really long time since Chris and I had a video game that we enjoyed playing together. The game has a crafting system, so of course I am a jeweler in game, just like in real life. Unlike real life, my jewelry in GW2 has magical powers.

A less frivolous use of my time is my new blog Politely Worded! For a while now, people have come to me when they wanted a little help writing a difficult response to someone. I decided to spin that off into a blog, so more people could enjoy my writing hobby. It updates once a week currently, but I may switch to 2-3 times a week if I get enough letters to answer.

Lastly, for those of you who care about my four-legged companions, they are all in good health. Lira continues to be very spry for her age, no one ever believes that she is 16ish years old now! Topher has also crossed over into what pet food manufacturers consider senior, but I am in denial about that. He will always be my kitten! My 18 pound fluffmonster of a kitten. Daisy and Maggie are in the prime of their doggie lives and remain convinced that every human was put on this earth to give them belly rubs. I think I'll go back to doing weekend updates with pet pictures.

Back to listing!

I am trying very hard to get my shop up to 100 listings! The fact that many of my crystal bracelet photos did not turn out is slowing me down a bit, but I did get this Night Sky crystal bracelet listed today.

Pro tip: Photographing bracelets laid out on a black pillow against a black background does not lead to success. Especially not when said bracelets are woven out of dark crystals! Some of the lighter, brighter colors turned out alright, but the vast majority of the 111 photos that I took had to be deleted!

It's a butterfly kind of day!

 I just got back from delivering this pendant to Margaret of MZGlass. The cabochon is her work, and I did the bead embroidery. It's liberally embellished with fire opal Swarovski crystals! I like how bright and cheerful it is. As I was getting into my car to leave MZ's place, I saw a huge butterfly fluttering across her yard. No doubt, it's a butterfly kind of day!

Not only did I deliver this pendant (and take home a lampworked butterfly/moth for my own collection), but I also listed this Teal Butterfly crystal bracelet. It features lovely Pacific Opal Swarovski crystals (one of my favorite colors) and a Sterling Silver butterfly clasp.

Warning: Crystal Bracelet Invasion!

 I think a while back I mentioned on this blog how I had found a stash of crystal bracelets that I had never listed on Etsy. Well, I got distracted by a few things, like needing to make a new costume bra for a troupe performance and then going on vacation, but today I finally tackled those bracelets! They're all in the image above, as well as a few that were already listed. I wanted to show a wide variety in the updated listing for a Custom Crystal Bracelet.

Taking the photos was so time-consuming that I was only able to list Picnics and Sunshine Crystal Bracelet today. Consider it the harbinger of the incoming crystal bracelet invasion!