Crystal Restringing Project

It's kind of weird to get back to normal blog posts after what I wrote this weekend, so I'm going to ease into it by blogging about things that I've made for friends (and for myself?) before getting back to business.

My friend Fonda asked me to restring/lengthen three vintage necklaces that belong to her mother, and also to swap out the clasp for magnetic ones so her mom can fasten them herself. Now, I don't normally do this sort of work because I don't have a big stash of vintage beads and clasps and the right sort of stringing material, but she wasn't worried about authenticity, her mom just wanted to be able to wear her necklaces again.

Two of the three were easy-peasy, because they only needed a couple of inches added and I happened to actually have the right beads on hand. But this last one... Well, it's the only thing her mom has from her great-grandmother, and it had been broken and restrung with whatever beads they could salvage for years, until it had shrunk down to this tiny 12" necklace with a chunk of icky plastic beads in it. Those poor vintage crystals!

I kind of hate that I had to use modern beads on this, but I figured since I was already putting a modern magnetic clasp on it, I might as well go with something that I could easily get more of in case it ever needs more repairs. I added Czech firepolished beads in two sizes and and Chinese crystal rondelles, all in crystal AB to match the vintage beads. I feel like it still has that elegant vintage look, but now it's long enough for her to wear and easy to take on and off with the magnetic clasp.

Loss

I used to use this blog to record my thoughts, and I'm going to go down that path again, at least for a day, because this seems to be the best forum to record my thoughts.

Last night I found out I'd lost a friend. We'd never met in person, and rarely spoke over the phone, but there were times we spoke every day via long, rambling e-mails about everything under the sun. This is the power of the internet: it introduces you to people you never would have met otherwise, allows you to form close friendships, and then lets you suffer the pain of watching that friend's health deteriorate while you're too far removed to do anything more than offer the occasional well-wish.

You may be familiar with my friend Marilee. Some of you knew her from the AOL bead board where we met. Some of you may have encountered her on All About Beads on Delphi. You may have known about her work for LL-BFAC. Perhaps you knew her on one of the many science fiction forums she was part of. Or maybe you just saw her posting on this blog with the handle "mjlayman" (or "Anonymous" when OpenID wasn't working). It was because of her desire to post here that I realized I should enable OpenID in the first place.

I met Marilee on-line when I was around 16 and first joined the AOL bead board. I don't remember us being especially close then, but we did have a love of SF/F in common, so we spoke occasionally, and when I went through a tough life experience, she was one of the people who sent me encouraging notes. When things on AOL went south we were among the group that moved elsewhere, so we still kept in touch, and we must have exchanged the occasional e-mail, though I don't remember much about them.

Then one day, she sent me a link to an article called something like "The Ambassador and the Bellydancer" and it was about a diplomat's relationship with a dancer. It was a pretty long article. I responded to a few points that I found interesting. Somehow this set off a chain of e-mails that continued until her recent hospitalization. When things were good, we e-mailed daily. When she was ill or I was busy or out of town, days or weeks would go by without anything more than a quick message explaining the delay. But once things got back to normal, we'd pick up where we left off.

I talk to different friends about different things, based on our shared interests and the depth of our relationship. Some friends are just dance, some friends are just beads/jewelry, some friends are just general life stuff. Some friends I go to when things are bad and I need someone to care, others I always keep things clean and light. Marilee was the rare sort of friend who I felt I could talk to anything about. Some older friends are like a surrogate mom, nurturing but sometimes too much so. Not her. She was one of my older friends who I considered more like a cool aunt. I think everyone needs a friend like that -- someone who has more life experience than you, and cares enough about you to give you some advice, but also doesn't have a parents' need to guide and protect.

It's hard to decide what else to say about Marilee. I could talk about her love of her cats. I could talk about how she used to sell Bali silver beads on eBay and how every package came with a tiny origami crane tucked in. I could talk about how she would send packages out of the blue... maybe some beads that she knew she wasn't going to use, maybe a book she thought I would love, maybe some Pocky because she saw it on Amazon and remembered that Chris and I liked to snack on it. Apparently she was that way with many friends. One time she purchased a necklace from my shop and had me ship it anonymously to another friend of hers who was going through a rough patch.

She also bought several pieces of my jewelry over the years, when she saw something that caught her eye and had the funds. I have no idea what will happen to that jewelry now, but I hope it falls into the hands of a friend who will love it as much as she did. Maybe someone who knew her in person and will have happy memories of seeing her wear it.

Thanks to the Internet, I had a good friend for over 14 years (even if we didn't know how good of friends we were for the entire time). And thanks to the internet, I have piles of old e-mails that I could read, and sometimes I might go back to a post on this blog and see her name. It's going to be a long time until I fully adjust to her absence. I know I'll be reading a book and think "I should tell Marilee about this", and I know my in-box will seem so much lonelier without her, without stories of silly cats and new recliners and doctors who don't listen and what the book group is reading this month, and oh, the endless links from the Washington Journal... News pieces, editorials, fashion spreads with poorly-done beadwork, she sent it all and we'd talk about it.

When will I find another friend like that? I don't know. That kind of friendship doesn't happen over night. It builds, with every e-mail or IM or face-to-face conversation, as you get to know them better, and gain trust, and open up, and realize that they don't get bored when you ramble on.

Good bye, my friend. I know neither one of us believes in anything after death, I know you don't know I'm talking about you, but I'm saying it anyway. Your loss will be felt. I'm sorry I didn't know I was losing you until you were gone, I would have liked to make sure you knew how much I appreciated you. I hope you knew anyway.

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!

On my beading tray -- Jan 9th Edition

Welcome to the first edition of On my beading tray, a new blog feature where I will show you what I've got in the works!

Today there are three projects on my tray:

1. I'm embroidering away on the cabochon pendant that I'm making with the bead mix from Allegory Gallery. The onyx cab has been bezeled with bronze Delicas and matte crystal AB size 15 Japanese seed beads. Now I'm adding a row of embroidery using the bead mix. I was frustrated to find that I don't have size 11s to match any of the red beads in the mix, which shows me that I should really buy more red 11s at gem show this year.

2. The marbled green leaves were my first attempt at making beaded leaves using this particular technique, and I will be turning them into dangly earrings. If I like how the earrings wear, I'll make them in different colors for the shop.

3. The three silver-y green leaves will be part of a necklace. There's also a partial matte green leaf. It didn't turn out well and the matte green doesn't go at all with the other green (inside the tubes, they were lovely together).

My family rocks!

Let's take a little break from talking about business to talk about how much fun last night's holiday gathering with my family was! It will also serve as an explanation as to why I won't be posting any new jewelry today. You see, my brother Joe and his girlfriend Michelle challenged us to a gift wrapping challenge. We lost mightily because I waited too long to start, but I did get props for hiding their present (a Groupon for an event they wanted to attend) inside last year's pocket calender, which had all the pockets stapled shut and decoy papers in most pockets. The calender was in turn covered in tape, wrapped, put inside a laptop box over-stuffed with bubblewrap, which was in turn wrapped twice.

But Joe and Michelle brought in a box larger than my washing machine, which had layers of boxes inside, including one in paper mache made of the paper leftover from her family's Christmas. And inside that, the best thing ever... a box wrapped in candy. Michelle did this for Joe last year. It was the first time we met her and needless to say, it made a great impression! We were very happy to be this year's recipient of the candy box :) It has sweet, fruity candy for Chris and chocolate for me, yay! Inside was about 7 more layers of wrapping (including two of tinfoil), and inside that, individually wrapped presents to make for the perfect game night -- a fun nerdy game, ginger beer and rum to make Dark and Stormies, hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows from Michelle's family's chocolate shop, caramel corn, and so much more!

What does this have to do with listing items? Well, all of those treats and the paper they're wrapped up in are covering the dining room table where I do all of my photography! Today is going to be mainly dedicated to cleaning up the post-holiday mess, although I will also work on making some jewelry, too.

In other news, my Mom is awesome. You might think that the above mask is leather, but no, Mom made it from polymer clay! It's the perfect blend of black with some iridescent green-gold clay in it, echoing the shimmer of raven feathers. It's so gorgeous! I'm already thinking of all the occasions I could wear it for -- a Gothic bellydance performance, masquerade at Wild Wild West Con (and any other conventions with masquerades), handing out candy on Halloween, etc etc. I really love masks and this one is extra special because it was handmade with love by my mother.

There were a lot of other cool handmade gifts. My brother has really gotten into leatherwork, so Dad and Chris both got awesome belts with lots of accessories for their steampunk costumes. Mom made Dad a sporran to go with his Utilikilts, and Michelle a black and red kitty hoodie. Michelle assembled and painted a Warhammer miniature for Joe (he was really touched, which made me exclaim "Nerd love!" I have joke immunity, after all, I was excited about the Goblins of the Labyrinth book that Chris gave me). And there was so much more! So many of this year's presents game from artists and crafters, whether made by one of us or purchased at Etsy or local conventions. I love how dedicated my family is to supporting artists!

Welcome to 2013

Happy New Year! I've been impatiently waiting for 2012 to end -- not because I really put much importance into the changing of the year, but because it marks the end of the holiday season. Ugh, that makes me sound really Grinchy, doesn't it? Allow me to clarify: There are things I LOVE about the holidays. Time with family and friends, exchanging gifts, indulging in treats, hanging my zebra-in-a-zeppelin wreath and my glorious scarab stocking. But there are also things that I HATE about the holidays: The barrage of sales-related e-mails, awful renditions of Christmas carols playing everywhere you go, increased traffic on the streets, crowds in the stores, the constant worry of whether the gifts I'm buying are "good enough."

Add to that the fact that I am a creature of habit. I do not like that I haven't had any dance classes or troupe practices for the past couple of weeks, or that our jogging schedule is messed up, or that I have to deal with weird holiday hours at stores and the mail not being delivered on Tuesday two weeks in a row, silly things like that. The New Year marks a return to normal, but still buoyed by the happy feelings from the fun part of the holidays.

The New Year also marks the time to start working on all of the things I've been thinking about during the lull over the holidays. I don't make resolutions, but I do like to use the start of the year as a time to think about what I'd like to do in the coming months. This year, that includes some changes to my business:

1. More elaborate beadwoven and embroidered pieces like the one above. I feel like I have enough basic items in my shop, it's time to let myself create more artistically without worrying about the end price.

2. Explore the idea of Art Nouveau aesthetics in beads. I'm obsessed with Art Nouveau jewelry right now. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest sighing over vintage Lalique pieces, wishing they would magically appear in my jewelry box overnight (oh! fighting stag beetle hair comb! you are my one true love! don't tell Chris!). It turns out that all this time, I've been drawn to things that had a Nouveau style to them without knowing that it was a unifying theme in the things I love (up to and including the jewelry worn by the elves in Lord of the Rings).

3. Add hair accessories to my Etsy shop. I've actually been making hairsticks for over a year but I never added them to my shop. Then I sold almost every single one of them between the Desert Shakedown and my open house party, which showed me that I really needed to further develop that line and put them up in my shop. Look for those starting possibly as soon as tomorrow.

4. Add some tribal bras to my stock. This may or may not happen, but I've had a couple of requests for it. Making bras is a bit of a pain (literally, I usually stab my fingers), but I seem to have as good of an eye for composing a bra as I do for composing jewelry, so I may start to do a very limited run of one of a kind bras.

5. Cut down on custom work. To be honest, I really don't enjoy it, and as I put more time into dance and other pursuits, I don't want to have to carve out time to make a custom item. This doesn't mean that I won't do it at all, but it means that I will be more likely to turn down requests.

I have other ideas floating around in my head, but they're less concrete. The future of Erthe Fae Designs depends a lot on how other things in my life go. I may work to grow my business, or if other ventures take off I may shrink it a little bit, but I'll still be around.

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.

Did you have some happy holidays?

Did you enjoy the holiday season? Topher sure did! He decided this bit of wrapping paper was a bag and crawled right inside -- you can see his tail in the corner of the couch on the left side, barely. He's also been enjoying the shoe box that the paper was wrapped around, as it is perfectly Topher-sized. Plus there's been so much tissue paper to shred! And we haven't even reached the big gift exchange with my family on the First. Truly, it is a good season to be a Fluffmonster.

Anyway, now that Christmas is past, my Etsy shop is open once more! And starting this afternoon I will be back to listing items in my continuing quest to get all of my current stock listed in the shop. Plus I will keep making new things, so be sure to check this blog regularly for in-progress posts and pictures of the goodies I'm making for myself.

No more Anonymous Comments

My apologies to my friends who have previously used the Anonymous comments option. Spammers have been abusing the hell out of it, and whereas previously Google's filters would catch the comments and delete them pretty quickly, I found that one of my posts had EIGHT comments going back as far as 5 days, and most of not all linking to some really disgusting sites. Excuse me, Blogger, but how exactly did that get through your filters? My site clearly has nothing to do with the sort of content they were offering.

After having to manually delete all those comments, and worrying that there may be others lurking on other posts, I am considering migrating all 3 of my blogs to other platforms. I'll make a decision after the holidays.

Closed for the holidays!

Earlier today I put my Etsy shop into vacation mode for the holidays. Normally I leave it open after my soft shipping deadline just in case someone wants something last-minute and is willing to have it overnighted, but those transactions are just so stressful! So this year one of my gifts to myself is actually closing the store entirely until the 26th.

I will still be blogging in-progress projects, though, and who knows what else, so keep checking in over here. I am in a beading mood. On these cool nights it's nice to watch a DVD with a blanket and a tray of beads in my lap, with endless cups of tea.

Allegory Gallery Seed Bead Fun

 In order to make things more interesting around here, I'm going to be posting more in-progress pictures of projects. I plan to do a lot of seed beading in 2013, so there should be a lot of fun projects for me to document.

My first project involves the Black Beach Bonfire seed bead mix from Allegory Gallery. I shamelessly stole the above photo from their website because it shows the full range of this beautiful mix, whereas my pic below has it in a tube where it looks a little blah.

Because there are so many colors in the mix I decided to go with a simple black onyx cabochon for the focal piece. I'm not sure yet what else I'll be using, but I think there will be some golden key charms to pull out the gold in the mix, and to make it appropriate for Wild Wild West Con in March. I really need to beef up my steampunk stock, and this will have cross appeal for Goths, too. Plus I just really like keys!

Disclaimer: Some items in this blog post were provided for promotional consideration. I am receiving no other compensation for my blogging.

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!

Rarh, Bird Tribe!

 Bird Tribe is one of the new tribal necklaces that I made for the Shakedown! It's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. I love those rough-hewn matte tiger's eye tabs. They were a little pricey but I just had to have them! I think they combine really well with the lava and coral. Lava is quickly becoming one of my favorite materials for tribal jewelry because I can go BIG without it being too heavy, although these particular lava beads are only about 6-7mm.

As for the focal, I bought it at the same time that I bought the wicked skull in Souleater. I would like to work more with this sort of pendant, but I probably can't justify buying more until one of these necklaces sell (so hopefully one will before the next gem show). I can't help it, I have expensive taste!

Where did you get that one?

 At the Desert Shakedown, there was a kindergarten-age girl in our booth for a few minutes, and she decided to entertain herself by asking "Where did you get this one?" about the focal pieces of every necklace within reach, which lead to the realization that I get beads from a lot of different places. Between that, and a conversation yesterday about whether stories help sell products, I was in the mood to talk about where my beads come from. Married to the Dance (above) is a new necklace, and I included its provenance in the description. But it left me thinking about the varied beads I use in each project, and where I get them, and how I get the idea to bring them together.

Take The Hungriest Pixie Ever as an example. I of course got the focal bead from Green Girl Studios at a Tucson bead show. I ordered the ceramic pomegranates from Earthenwood Studio specifically to go with it, and then the colors of those charms set the palette for the necklace. The freshwater pearls were purchased in bulk at a gem show years ago. The green crystals came from the same gem show, but more recently. I think the moss agate is from a Rings & Things trunk show in Phoenix. The padparadscha crystals are leftover from a Beading For A Cure kit. They all came together beautifully, as if I bought them all to be together, but in truth I just have an extensive bead collection to pull from.

Are you curious about the origins of the beads in any of my other work? Just ask and I'll do my best to answer -- though sometimes I may have to say that I honestly don't remember! As of last month I've been doing this for 14 years now. Whew!

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.

Small Business Saturday!

I'm holding over yesterday's Onyx Friday specials for Small Business Saturday! If you pop over to Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs you'll see items with "SBS" in their title. Those pieces are discounted.

This will be my last sale of the year, and probably my last sale until NEXT Onyx Friday. I put too much into my jewelry to just discount it at a whim. However, I know that we all want a bargain when we can find one, so I chose a variety of items to put on sale. Some are budget-friendly, and some are not. I put faerie, gothic, belly dance, and other designs into the mix so there should be something for just about everyone.

Anything sold this weekend will be mailed on Monday!

Onyx Friday

I am pleased to be part of this exciting event! Here's the official description:

Onyx Friday: a black friday alternative
Friday, November 23rd, 2012
Starts at 8am (PST)!

Get your holiday shopping done at home AND support fine artists and craftspeople all over the country.

Tired of getting up at 5am to go shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving? Trying to fight your turkey hangover and putting on your "fat pants" so that you're comfortable enough to go out and brave the crowds? Fighting a little old lady for the last $40 stereo system on the shelf? Getting run over by shopping carts as you dare to enter the store?

Forget all of that awful business!

Wouldn't it be nice if you could get all of the adrenal rush of shopping at the same time as the rest of the world while sitting on your warm, soft, comfy couch in your pajamas? Stretched out under a blanket on your lap, fuzzy slippers, and hot cocoa in your hand? Shopping away like the rest of America in the comfort of your own home?

And the BEST thing about it?! All of your shopping done in one place, on one day, from artisans and crafters all over the US!

Siren Song Productions presents "Onyx Friday: a black friday alternative"!

We scoured the earth for the finest in crafters, artists, performers, and film makers for an incredible line up of AMAZING products! These artists are offering their items on sale for ONE DAY ONLY and you will not want to miss out on this opportunity!

Whether it's stunning, shiny baubles created with antique beads, cutting-edge clothing , hand-crocheted winter-wear, independently-produced DVD's, or one-of-a-kind accessories or limited-edition fine art, you're bound to find it here!

Eat as much as you want on Thanksgiving, cuddle up with your kitty, and get ready for one of the biggest and best sales online ever!

It's super simple to join in on the sale and fun!
1. Log in to Facebook on the morning of the sale.
2. Go to the "Onyx Friday" event page.
3. Look through all of the beautiful items posted for sale!
4. See one that catches your eye? Just click the link provided to purchase and be directed to the sellers website!

It's that easy!

We'll see you there!

 

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Erthe Fae Designs will have a dozen items on sale as part of this event! Oh, and for those of you who do not use Facebook, you can of course still get the sale prices (everyone can), FB is just the primary vehicle for advertising it. So while you can go to my shop and buy the sale items, you won't know what everyone else is offering without being part of the event.

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.

Strange Souvenir

This necklace is made with some souvenirs from my trip to Seattle. The focal was purchased from fellow bellydancer Tempest at a dance festival in Bothell (which I have decided, against all logic and evidence to the contrary, should be pronounced Bot-Hell), and the awesome drop beads are from a bead store in Bellevue, where we were staying.

I didn't intend to buy any beads while in Seattle. I made no plans to visit bead stores. After all, I have plenty of beads and didn't really need any more. But I ended up buying beads anyway! The Bellevue store was within walking distance of our hotel, so we went on a whim. I also randomly stumbled across a bead store in Bothell while looking for an ATM, so I bought some things there. You'll see some of those next week, if the items I'm making with them don't sell at the Desert Shakedown.

By the way, I'm of course not selling this necklace, as it is way too ME and serves as a happy reminder of my Summer vacation. But I will see Tempest again when I go to TRIBAL FEST (!!!!!!) in May, so I might bring back some more bird skulls to share.