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.

Filling up the shop

Confession time: I have a lot of perfectly wonderful jewelry that is not in my Etsy shop due to pure laziness. It's a lot of work to get things photographed. There are plenty of items that used to be on my old website and just need new photos, or items that I made but when I took pictures they didn't turn out, or items that I've made and not yet taken photos of. Basically what I'm saying is that photography is always a huge hurdle for me! Once I get some good images everything else is easy.

I just listed Winged Dancers, which features a lovely Thai silver butterfly pendant. It's part of my campaign to fill up my shop for the holidays. It seems like every time I think I'm going to break 100 items in the shop I sell a few. This is a good problem to have and a trend I'd like to see continue.

My MZ Glass Prize

You may recall that back in October, I took 2nd Place in the MZ Glass Design Challenge. Well, I finally collected my prize winnings this past weekend! Margaret was clearing out some old beads, so my $300 credit went a long way! Doesn't the central beetle remind you of old trade beads? He's definitely going to be made into something tribal.

The 3d butterfly is a new design and I knew I had to have one. If you want one, too, you can visit MZ's Etsy shop, where you can also see the new bees and caterpillars!

And just because I like showing off, here's the winning necklace again:

Butterfly!

Another picture from Aruba. My favorite part about the trip was going to The Butterfly Farm. I'm such a girly-girl about some things and butterflies are definitely one of them. They're simply so beautiful, delicate and ephemeral. To view them in a habitat full of their natural food, and have them flying right around me was just perfect. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so we have to rely on pictures from Chris's iPhone.

This was of course my favorite butterfly, because black and green is my favorite color combination. And oh, the green! The photo doesn't do it just -- the vibrancy, the iridescence... *sigh*

A Bounty of Beautiful Beads

The colors are a little off on this picture... but look! Beautiful beads (and one cab)! From gem show! Clockwise from the top:

A coil/spring bead from JC Herrell. Not only is JC fun and awesome, but her team won the Flame Off this year! GO JC! And teammates! WOOO! I have no idea how I'll use this coil, but it's really fun and called to me.

Brand-new butterfly wings from Margaret Zinser. I saw this pair on Facebook and called "dibs." Clearly the bead gods were listening to me, because even though I didn't get out to the MZ booth until 8 hours into the show, and even though the wings were hot sellers, both of them were waiting for me :) I also picked up a little set of spacers that looks nice with them.

Raised floral cab by Dolly Ahles. I liked the flatter floral cabs that I bought in September so much that I had to get one with a raised clover flower this year. Isn't that green just luscious? Dolly is doing some amazing floral beads, too, some even have tiny 3d butterflies on them.

Greek Math Bead, a gift from my friend Deborah Gray-Wurz. Deb is addicted to making Barb Switzer's complicated little beaded beads, and she made me one in beautiful shades of green and brown. I love it!

Keep your eyes open for more gem show goodies and some actual stories as the week progresses!

I guess it's time to think about Autumn

Autumn Flier is today's Daily Special! With my increased focus on fantasy jewelry, I probably won't be doing as many butterfly and dragonfly necklaces, so you should snatch them up while you still can!

Some of my on-line friends who live in colder climates have been lamenting that with August starting tomorrow, Fall is close on its way. I have a had time getting into this way of thought, maybe because it will be warm well into October here, and maybe because most of our trees in AZ are evergreens, so there's not a whole lot of falling leaves. Maybe it's because I don't go to school, so I don't equate the start of the school year with the end of Summer. Or maybe I just don't feel like beading in Autumnal colors yet. Maybe digging through my collection of leaf beads would help... except that most of them are green. Nevermind!

A couple of other things really quickly...

Class was awesome last night. Learned some new moves, did well at some and poorly at one. We're reaching the point of doing variations and combinations based on the moves we learned in the first two classes, which is pretty exciting. I also bought some nice new additions to my costume wardrobe.

Meri Greenleaf, frequent commentor on this blog, featured one of my necklaces in her blog's Thursday Trove post. Thank you, Meri!

Finally, brooches may be a little delayed, as I'm dealing with a bit of beader's block about them and may even decide to rip out all of what I've done and start over -- I'm not satisfied with how the beads are lying.

A Butterfly Necklace!

It's been a while since I made something with a butterfly. Far too long, in fact! So here's Autumn Flier, today's Daily Design Challenge piece. The enameled pendant is accented by Czech glass, Swarovski crystals, and vintage beads.

At around 11:20am today, we got hit by a nice thunderstorm. I was surprised to hear thunder while I was doing my morning e-mail, as our storms usually don't hit until afternoon or evening. I decided to take advantage of the nice temperatures and actually work in the beadroom, instead of bringing my project into the office. It was a lot more efficient, and Topher liked it. The kitties aren't allowed in the beadroom unattended, but they enjoy the fresh air so much that I've decided they can be in there whenever I am. Lira likes to sit in the windowsills, and Topher usually lies on the floor and looks up at the windows. Of course, with all the rain coming down, Lira didn't come out at all today, and Topher decided to sit in the doorway instead, so he could keep an eye on me without getting too close to the scary wet stuff.

By the way, I'm really liking how most of my jewelry looks against the polished wooden box I've been using as a backdrop frequently. What do you think? I'm considering getting a nice-sized board and asking my Dad to stain it for me, to use not just for my Etsy listings, but for the BFAC photos that I have to start taking soon.

I like insects!

It's true. I like insects. I think it all started when I read a National Geographic article about beetles, and found out how diverse and nifty they really are. That's the big reason why I have a bunch of scarab beads, pendants, and cabochons in my collection -- sure, I like Egypt, too, but mostly it's because they're beetles. But even aside from beetles, most insects are just awesome when you look closely at them. And that's why Insect Picture of the Day is in my blog roll over there on the side.

Now, normally I don't consider myself a very good photographer of anything but jewelry, and I have a hard time taking pictures of the tiny jumping spiders and little brown beetles that are in my apartment. But one day I went outside, and this huge green larva was outside, so I ran back in, grabbed my camera, attracting the attention of my husband Chris and our friend Rene. All three of us went outside and pestered the bug, taking pictures of it. Some of them actually turned out well, so I sent them to David Brady.

And today my picture is on InsectPOD! Yay! David picked the best of the three photos for his blog. The above image on my blog also isn't too bad, which is why I posted it. There have been too few photos here recently!

If you check out the previous three entries, too, you'll see some really beautiful butterfly pictures. Even if you don't share my love for beetles, spiders, and other creepy-crawlies, I think everyone loves butterflies.

Today I'm going to finish up my custom order (I was supposed to finish it last night, but some of the beads didn't work out) and pack up some BFAC items to mail out, and hopefully also start on my gem show necklace. I'll post some in-progress pictures, because I want to write a tutorial to possibly submit to a magazine while I'm making this necklace.

Fashionable Friday: Butterflies Instead

I surprised a friend of mine the other day by telling her how much I'd been drawn to butterflies over the past year or so. I suppose given that my interests tend to lean towards darker things, it doesn't quite fit. But I loved butterflies when I was a little kid, and in recent times, I've just noticed that there are so many beautiful pendants, beads, and artistic things with butterfly motifs. With Spring here, Summer on the way, and a Spring palette for Fall designs, this seems like the perfect time to add butterflies to your look!

Because of this current attraction to butterflies, there's a rather varied selection of jewelry with them on my site. For necklaces, there's Dancing Butterflies (pictured above), Tranquil Butterfly, and On Pastel Wings, which is new for this week! In bracelets, I have Empress of Butterflies and Butterfly Harmony, new this week. And in earrings, I have Flutterby, Imperial Butterflies, and Flying Free, which is also new this week. With all those different styles and colors, there's sure to be something to please almost every butterfly lover!

Many other jewelry artists incorporate butterflies into their work! Chic Cosas has this Mariposa necklace, which I think is just delightful with its earthy colors! And Matilda's Boutique has Butterfly Fling earrings that feature Thai silver butterflies. I just LOVE Thai silver! I also love this Bamboo bracelet! Earthenwood Studio has several style of butterflies, which may be worn on a cord as a pendant, or worked into your own jewelry creations.

Clothing is a wonderful medium for displaying butterflies. This butterfly jacket from Soleil Rouge is simply a knock-out, for instance. I just love that cut, it's so classic! And take a peek at this stunning purple michiyuki jacket on Kimono Momo. Japanese jackets are so very cool, and you can't beat that color. Of course, if you prefer a more casual look, Artwear Tops has this vibrant t-shirt just perfect for Summer!

As it turns out, handbags and butterflies also make a great combination! Becky Oh! offers her Bolsa clutch in a cheery butterfly print. Enamor has a great hand-painted Monarch Handbag which should appeal to anyone who loves orange. Vintage kimono fans like myself may find this purse more to their liking, whereas anime geeks -- also like myself -- may prefer the Miss Butterfly clutch.

You could even accessorize your head with butterflies! I think these Metamorphosis Hairpins, made with Vintage fabric, are just adorable. And there's no denying the 1920s-style appeal of this Lavender Hat, which includes a removable crochet butterfly.

You can have butterflies around the house, too, even if that butterfly bush you planted hasn't been attracting them. Keep your table safe with hand-felted Butterfly Coasters, and decorate your couch, favorite chair, or bed with a rich purple brocade pillow. Hmmm, looking at a lot of these items, it seems that purple and butterflies were made for each other!

Finally, with warmer weather upon us, it's time to socialize! You can involve butterflies here, too! For every-day correspondence, there's cheery notecards from Zuzu's Petals. For a wedding, you could have Plantable wedding favors, which come in a couple of different butterfly designs. I've never heard of these before and I think they're quite cool! And if you've got a little girl on the way, you might be interested in the Flutterby line by Fete!

Whew. That's even almost too many butterflies for me. Almost!