Murano Glass: Green and Blue Swirl at Etsy

Amid the mad beading frenzy last night, I managed to post a new necklace. I glossed about three dozen beads, and I still have another two dozen to finish. I'm also working on a commission piece due Friday.

Available at Etsy!

Glass Dreams is now Designs by Dreamweaver

And has a new look! Business cards are on their way. A HUGE bead order will arrive later this week along with shipping material. Moreover, I've opened the Etsy site.

Goddess bless them, lots of friends want to help by giving me ideas about light boxes. However, floating cat dander (think 19 cats) makes it impossible to keep a light box clear of debris. Consequently, I'm currently relying on tiles and daylight. So far, I like the results!

Cards for Display

Finally found the recommended site someone mentioned to me for packaging. I want to put necklaces and earrings on cards for easy display without hanging my clasps on the hook. Fetpak has exactly what I have in mind: http://www.fetpak.com/whstore/main.pl/more_info?NB175

Jewelry Display Tips

Flea markets are a tough venue to vend. We put a tarp behind us Saturday to block the wind, but it also cut light. That stopped sales cold (as did the crazy woman on the other side of the aisle who glared at me for an hour then marked down everything on her table by 50%). When the crazy woman left and pulled the tarp, I sold four necklaces!

This weekend we will have new necklace display racks that will be much easier to keep upright. We also intend to bring our own lighting.

I've been searching for display tips and found this excellent website: http://www.home-jewelry-business-success-tips.com/index.html

Photography: Setting Up Inexpensive Studio

For studio results of jewelry: http://desiredcreations.com/howTo_TLPhotoBlkIce.htm

Learning from Mistakes

Finger prints and finish that will eventually become sticky are only a few of the  mistakes I've made in experimenting with polymer clay. Of course, there are also warnings out there about using Scuply III, which is what I have.

Some things I'm trying: longer baking times. Many blogs write of getting much harder beads by doubling the baking time. http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/baking-beads-break-the-rules/59/

Finger print prevention: got gloves and corn starch yesterday.

Deciding on a finish: http://glassattic.com/polymer/finishes.htm.

Info on creating a buffing wheel: http://www.desiredcreations.com/howTo_TLDremelPolish.htm

On a happier note, here's a wonderful cane technique I don't want to forget. Rather than using translucent clay, this lets you use water soluble clay to create a cane that you make, reduce then peel away the excess:

Butterfly Beads

These resemble butterfly wings: http://desiredcreations.com/howTo_CAButterflyBead.htm

Also found bead rollers at: http://www.poly-tools.com/

Transfering Photos to Polymer Clay

 Instructions can be found at: https://www.cottagefever.com/transfertechnique.html

Another process uses baking parchment: These are on Premo Pearl. Very hard to photograph. Very good transfers. That second one is again a second transfer from a print.


This last one is on SculpeyIII the whitest of all clays and it shows!
Just like the laser transfers all I did was to make a copy onto BAKING PARCHMENT (brand of choice BAK-O-MATIC by Dixie).
Place print onto sheet of raw clay (no water, no medium, no liquid clay).
Burnish (no need to burnish vigorously, seems to transfer rather quickly)
Lift paper off.
Cure.
And that is it.
I leave to to play….
Valerie

Ideas: Flower Beads

Ideas: Pendant

Ideas: Butterflies

Wire Wrap Jewelry

Wire Wrapping and Bead Work Gallery by Beth Murr

Head Pin Loop

Polymer Clay Hearts

Adding Crystals to Polymer Clay

Looking for easy techniques. I like this one!

The Challenge of Flea Markets

There are two flea markets near my home. Barnyard Flea Market is huge, and part of chain of flea markets. Capitalizing on its success, half a mile away and closer to the interstate is Peddler's Junktion, (yes, they spell it wrong intentionally) a much smaller outfit. Barnyard has billboard advertising and excellent restrooms. The Junktion is older, built on a hill, and has poor restrooms. Their future advantage is that they are building storage like buildings and locating in the parking space behind the table. So if you rent a storage building, you get the table and a permanent place to set up for half the cost. With little foot traffic last Saturday, it would not have helped me.

The day was cold and raining. We got the tarp (provided by the flea market) dropped and set up the table. Mostly the only people to visit our table were other vendors. I spent $14 for the table, $6 for a hotdog lunch for two, brought my own drinks, and made three necklaces. Cameron says that at least I had the opportunity to bead in a cat-free environment!

Barnyard requires rental to be paid two weeks ahead of time, which is the furthest out they will book a table. So we've paid for the next two weekends, and we'll see how it goes.

I've run out of focal points and am waiting on the mail, so I'm taking a bit of a break for a couple of days to catch up on my life!

Commission Work

For Christmas, my boss bought focal points to gift to friends, co-workers and loved ones. She then asked me to bead them! The photos are not the quality I would prefer and I'll keep working on that little problem. Nevertheless, this gives an expanded view of some of my work.

There were a total of 12 focal points, which I beaded with glass and shells. I brought them all back to my boss this morning, and she is thrilled! I've pictured a few of them here.

Creation on the Fly

My coworker and friend Deb arrived to work this morning wearing her four year-old-daughter's necklace because the child had said, "You haven't worn my turtle yet, mommy!" It was strung on a hot pink cord, her daughter's favorite color. It so happens that my bead bag was in the car.

So I offered to bead it! Random beads/size including seed beads in white, purple and pink. A couple of other random color's crept in, so her daughter can wear it with anything. I left some of the wire free for the pendant to move with change in size, and then added a chain extender. Just fun, I also framed the turtle with two dragonflies because they are "magic".

New Aquisitions

These are the pendants I purchased today. The ones like this, with the gold background are extremely popular. I've already sold two like this, and was commissioned for another.

This has the spiral image that I love! I did not see this one, nor the one below at the flea market. With stiff competition, I definately want things are different.

This Murano Glass pendant has the caining in it that makes it beautiful. Fire Mountain Gems has beads to match. I look forward to ordering/creating this necklace!