Ok, it's time to at least take a hiatus from the Daily Design Challenge. It's been a fun way to get myself beading and listing items on Etsy, but it's started to really become a challenge, and not in a good way. I'm running out of inspiration for one-day projects, while more complicated project ideas build up. I want to spend a week or two able to work on whatever I want when I get up, instead of wasting time trying to come up with something that I can finish within an hour or two.
Today's item is Within the Waves and I am not happy with how it photographed. I might take more photos this weekend, as I have other photography to do.
And now, back to my medusa necklace! I have a ton of work to do tonight (including bathing some smelly dogs!), so I'm enjoying my bead time while I can.
Ok, true confession time! I wove this bracelet a loooong time ago, but because I hate working with memory wire (who doesn't?), I kept putting off completing it. So today, since I really wanted more woven bracelets in my Etsy shop, I finally finished it today. I call it Neon Dragon and it's today's Daily Design Challenge piece.
I feel like I'm trying to come down with something, which does not make me happy. I haven't been sick for a long time and I'd like to keep it that way, thankyouverymuch.
If I've been quieter than normal lately, by the way, it's because much of my time is spent playing with the dogs. They're so cute and wonderful and I spent an hour today just reading with one in my lap, getting some love. I'm trying not to gush too much about them here, since it's a beading blog and not a doggie blog, but expect some more pictures this weekend!
Making earrings and stringing necklaces is fun, but today I really felt like weaving. Unfortunately, I have more than a day of work left on the Medusa necklace, so I decided to come up with something else to work on. It felt like a good day to make a spiral rope bracelet, and then when I saw these leaves in my stash, I thought they'd look pretty at the ends of the bracelet, but it needed to be two strands to look right. I call it Elven Craftsmanship.
By the way, I am now a member of the Etsy BeadWeavers Team! Hurray! If you click the link, it will take you to their blog, and you can vote on the current challenge. I joined too late to be part of this challenge, but I am thinking about the next one. Be sure to do a search for "EBW Team" next time you're on Etsy, you'll find lots of beautiful work!
I don't normally do found object jewelry, but I really liked these little keys that my friends were tossing around at the game store, so I laid claim to them. I paired them with some of the lampwork that I bought from Margaret over the weekend, and created today's Daily Design Challenge piece. I call them Keys to Faerie.
As I was writing their description, I was struck with inspiration for a steampunk persona -- a faerie hunter. Along the lines of Lady Cottington from Brian Froud's books, I could be a slightly unhinged lady in search of faerie folk. Or plagued by them. It would be FUN! I really do need to learn how to sew.
Now that I actually know the proper way to wrap a loop, it allows me to do things like this! I made this necklace this morning, with a little corgi help. It has a few leftover beads from the Collaboration Exploration that I did last year, a little locket that I bought in NY a few years ago, and Sterling chain with lots of dangles. I call it Keeper of Mementos and it's today's Daily Design Challenge piece.
So, the good news is that I found my 100ft spool of Beadalon that I was sure I had ordered earlier this year (it was actually right where it belonged, but I thought it was something else). The bad news is that after making this necklace, I'm down to only a dozen headpins. Yikes! Definitely time to order some findings before the holiday rush.
I feel like doing a little beadweaving, so I think that after I finish all of the networking things that I have to do here at the computer, and put away the leftovers from my last two projects, I'll go pick out the beads for a medusa necklace that I've had planned for a very long time. While I was deciding what to make today, I actually came up with 3 weaving projects. I think what I need to do is make sure to put a little weaving time in every day after I complete my Daily Design Challenge piece.
This is especially important because I'm trying to join the Etsy Beadweavers team, so I need lots of beautiful beadwoven items for my store! Most of my best woven pieces are on my website, though since that is still down, I might re-photograph some of them and move them over to Etsy.
Ok, this isn't a great picture, because the light in the hallway isn't too great, but here are my two corgi girls! The red one is currently named Daisy, and the black one is currently named Maggie, but I think we'll change both names. They're very hard to photograph because they don't like to hold still! I had the perfect image lined up, they were both sitting at my feet next to each other, looking up at me, but when I depressed the shutter button, they both moved their heads. I have lots and lots of bizarre ghost dog pictures, with blurry half-there heads.
The photography gods really weren't with me today, actually. I made these earrings, called Underworld, and I only managed to get one so-so image. I'll have to try to take more tomorrow or over the weekend.
It was fun to make something Gothy today. I haven't been doing a lot of Goth jewelry anymore, mostly faerie and steampunk stuff. It's nice to go back to my roots every now and then!
After a good night of sleep, I got up really early today and got a few things done! I listed not one but two pieces of jewelry on Etsy. One is Elvensoul, the rivoli necklace that I made a while back. I had been planning to put it on my website, whenever it is back up, but it seemed a shame to have it just sitting around. Click the link to see more images. And for the Daily Design Challenge, I made Asrai, which uses some nice Mothwoman lampwork.
The one problem I'm finding with doing the Daily Design Challenge is that I am really eating through my supplies. I think I'm going to have to make a findings order soon. I have plenty of beads, but not necessarily enough Beadalon, chain, clasps, or headpins.
I'm going to save the trip report for Saturday, I think. That will give me time to edit the photos from the trip. I didn't take a lot, but I did get some surprisingly good scenery shots while we were driving down the highway yesterday.
We started the week off with a butterfly, and we end it with a propeller! The funny thing was, I was going to make this week's theme "nature" (yeah, mermaids aren't natural, but fish are, and there were a lot of natural materials in that necklace), but then I went into the beadroom today and realized that I wanted to make something steampunk. The result is Aviatrix!
I had fun picking out the beads. Black was easy -- I've got lots and lots of black -- but the white was trickier. The porcelain white of the focals (by Earthenwood Studios, naturally!) has an earthier, almost dirty quality to it. White glass doesn't go, white pearls don't go, off-white really doesn't go... but these weird dim vintage clean glass beads do. And the square ones echo the shape of the focal, which is a nice bonus! I rarely buy clear beads, and I rarely buy square beads, so I think the only reason that I bought these particular beads is because they were vintage and cheap, two of my favorite things. I may have even picked them up at the same show as the mermaid focal from yesterday's post.
Tonight my friend Helen is coming over for dinner, and I want to bake cookies for dessert, so I'd better get off this computer and into the kitchen.
I think this precious mermaid is the last boxwood carving I had that I hadn't used yet. Unfortunately, I've yet to find a seller at the Tucson shows who has the combination of selection/price/quality that I got at the Whole Bead Show in New York City. These were just the prettiest, smoothest, most unique boxwood pieces, and I've used all of them up now.
This mermaid is part of today's Daily Design Challenge piece, Napping Treasure Hunter. She's what I started yesterday and couldn't finish in time. I had to put another 2-3 hours into her today. All of that knotting is tedious! But I like how it looks. I tried stringing the beads on Beadalon, with seed beads between, and it just wasn't working.
Now I have more work ahead of me. To make the necklace, I went through my beads, found a ton of things that I thought would go well with the color scheme I had planned, and dumped them into the largest section of my beaded stringing tray, swirling them around to see how they looked together. Now I have a jumble of leftover beads to sort out and put away.
The verdict is in! Beaded jewelry does photograph well outdoors on a cloudy day. With another storm blowing in, I took these earrings outside, hung them from a little branch on one of my young mesquite trees, and snapped some shots! I like how the opal glass of the leaves glows slightly in the diffused sunlight.
The earrings, by the way, are called Eternal Spring and they're today's Daily Design Challenge item! I had started working on a necklace, but it grew out of control and by 3pm I realized there was no way I was going to have time to finish it and get it on Etsy today. I'll try to finish it tomorrow.
Now for my travel plans, and how they'll affect the Daily Design Challenge. We're going to leave Tucson Sunday morning and get home Tuesday evening. Obviously, if I'm gone on Monday and most of Tuesday, it will be pretty hard to make, photograph, and list jewelry. But fear not! I have a plan! I shall... cheat! I have two pieces of jewelry made already, one of which is already photographed. Ideally, I will list one from the hotel room Monday night, and the other one from home after I roll back into town. That way I'll at least keep up with my quota of listing items.
Granted, I may not end up listing an item at all on Monday. I may be too busy playing with my new dogs at the hotel. But if that's the case, we'll just have a Twofer Tuesday, and everyone will be happy.
I'm really looking forward to the trip. Not only will I be adopting two adorable little corgi girls, but I'll be spending a night in Flagstaff, a place I've never been. I've never been to Farmington, NM either, but I hear it's kind of boring, so I'm not as excited about that.
The other day, when I was getting beads picked out for the dragon nest necklace, I noticed that palace green opal Swarovski crystals went really well with malachite. Unfortunately, neither of them went with the vintage green egg beads, so I saved the color combination in my mind, finally coming back to it today. Because I like how the pewter of Green Girl's work looks with malachite, too, I decided to use one of her tree pendants, and then I threw some green goldstone in for good measure, because it went and the coin shape of the beads nicely echoed the coin shape of the pendant. And so I give you Tree of Knowledge.
Check out the close-up in the Etsy image. How I love my camera! I was going to take some pictures outside today, because I heard that the lighting is ideal for photography when it's cloudy out, but then those clouds started dumping rain. Good for my trees, not so much for my camera. Maybe tomorrow will work out better.
Art Bead Scene's theme this month is "Something to Say." I'll be submitting Tree of Knowledge to the challenge today, but in the meantime I have three other pieces submitted, and yesterday I was chosen as the Designer of the Week because of The Mantra! There is a lot of other beautiful jewelry in this challenge, so I feel honored to be recognized. Be sure to check out the other entries!
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.
Last night, as I was thinking about what to make today, I realized that everything I'd made for the Daily Design Challenge so far had an artist-made bead or charm. So I decided to make it this week's theme! As such, today's necklace features a lampworked gargoyle face by Ann Scherm Baldwin. But what's even better than the necklace is the little story that I wrote to go with him, so I think you should go visit his Etsy listing.
So far I'm having a lot of fun with this Daily Design Challenge. I'm looking forward to continuing it next week. I hope you've all been enjoying the new jewelry!
I should have dog-related news this weekend. Woohoo!
I just had a very productive afternoon. Not only did I make the above necklace and earring set for the Daily Design Challenge, but I also made Denise's contest prize earrings and repaired two things for my mother-in-law. All that, plus photography, Etsy listing, and putting away the leftover beads. Woohoo!
The set is called In The Dragon Nest, and if you click on the name, you can see the Etsy listing, with some more fun photographs. The best photo of the day however, was one I took of Denise's earrings, using macro mode and turning off auto-flash. I'll post it on Saturday.
I still have a lot to get done today. The housework has piled up a bit while I've been off in beady land. And I need to pick out my next major beadweaving project, since The Mantra is finished. I'm thinking maybe something with an embroidered cabochon, since Locked Away was so much fun.
So. I decided to do something different and try a "model shot" for today's Daily Design Challenge piece, and of course, I had to be more own model. I was trying for "sultry" in this shot, but I ended up with "surly" instead. Plus half the necklace is missing from the shot.
Would you like to see the entire necklace? I really think you should go take a look, because I'm very happy with how it turned out. I call it Unlock My Secrets.
Other than the fact that I make a lousy model, photography went better today. I set up a make-shift photo studio and got a few good shots (plus some pretty lousy ones). I can't seem to find my tripod, which is annoying. It's a good thing that my camera has such a good inner stabilization system.
Oh, and there's progress on the dog ownership front -- but I don't want to say too much until I have a better idea if it will work out! I'm trying not to get too excited, just in case the rescue agency turns me down. So please think good "AJ and Chris would make great corgi owner" thoughts for us!
The Daily Design Challenge got a slow start today. I overslept (stayed up too late writing again!), quickly developed a headache, and hadn't set up a photography space over the weekend. But I let none of that stand in my way. And so I present to you the very first item for the challenge: Unseelie Lover.
These earrings feature some pretty porcelain hearts by Earthenwood Studio. I just love designing with Melanie's beads. Whether I want to make Gothic, Faerie, or Steampunk jewelry, she has all my bases covered. I accented the hearts with some vintage glass and those new-ish red coral Swarovski crystals.
I'm not thrilled with the photos. I'll do them differently tomorrow. I'm once again using my dining room table as a photo studio, which isn't ideal. I might try setting up in the guest room soon, I'll just get a card table to set up in there. That will at least work until such a time as we furnish the guest room (currently the only furniture is a single bookcase!), at which point I'll probably have another suitable space picked out.
As I've mentioned over the past couple of days, I've decided to put my focus on my Etsy shop while my website is down. And then I thought... well, why not really focus on Etsy? Why not pour a ton of work into it, so I don't even have time to think about the really annoying problem with my website?
So I'm giving myself a little challenge. Starting on Monday, every week day I must complete a piece of jewelry, photograph it, and list it in my Etsy store. That means five new pieces of jewelry a week! I will be doing this until at least the end of the month, or until my site is back up -- whichever comes second!
Now, most of these items will be earrings and strung necklaces, because there's only so much I can do in a day, but I plan to also have large woven projects in the works that will get posted on the day they're completed. For instance, my in-progress lariat will hopefully be ready on Monday or Tuesday -- maybe Wednesday if I get really fancy with the fringe.
I think I'm up to the task, and I hope that you, my friends and readers, will enjoy the constant new eye candy and will encourage me not to be lazy and slack off! Now it just needs a catchy title for convenient blog labeling purposes. I think I will call it the Daily Design Challenge!
Ok, it's time to at least take a hiatus from the Daily Design Challenge. It's been a fun way to get myself beading and listing items on Etsy, but it's started to really become a challenge, and not in a good way. I'm running out of inspiration for one-day projects, while more complicated project ideas build up. I want to spend a week or two able to work on whatever I want when I get up, instead of wasting time trying to come up with something that I can finish within an hour or two.
