New Items Listed

Seems forever since I have posted to my blog. I haven't had a spark of creativity for the last six months. I guess, since I left the Artists' Undertaking Gallery last summer, I had less reason to bead as much as I used to. I'm still at the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery (recently renamed) and we can jury in items each month only up to three times if they don't sell. I took my overstock to a new art/craft shop in Hyattsville, MD last October and sold a couple pieces, but they had to close down in May. So guess what, MORE jewelry just sitting around the house. Now I can wear it all the time, though ! Anyway, haven't felt like making MORE new stuff, just 'cause I can't think of what to do with what I already have. So, little by little, it's going in my Etsy shop, like this bracelet I made last fall: Bracelet Got the Blues and these earrings I made around the same time:Red and White Ball Earrings

Etsy Beadweavers' August Challenge Entries

The latest challenge the Etsy Beadweavers have engaged in used the theme "First Ladies of Style". Check out the incredible entries in the challenge and make a visit to the Etsy Beadweavers' blog to vote for your favorite. As usual, I haven't entered. I guess it's been almost two years since I entered something. Seems I was always under the gun to finish something completely unrelated for my galleries, and could never fit in the time. I WILL make something again sometime, I promise ! For now, all I can do is vote !

Shades of Grey Necklace

Shades of Grey Necklace, originally uploaded by ambrosianbeads.

Finished up my second beaded cab project and have enjoyed the entire process. Looks like I'll have a few more up my sleeve, I've had a bunch of cabs chillin' in a box now for about six years !

New Classes at Off the Beading Path

After re-thinking my beadweaving class offerings, I decided to go with shorter, more beginner level classes at a very affordable price ($15--can't bead, I mean beat that !). I was originally offering 3-hour classes which used my kits, but wasn't getting any takers for those. I came up with some smaller projects which the owner approved and put them on the schedule. I offered an intro to beadweaving which had the student make a simple leaf design with size 8/0 beads and intro to brick stitch which used a simple graphed pattern I made with BeadTool. A few students signed up for those and had a good time. The next class on the schedule is bead embroidered cabochon pendant or pin and I have several people down for that. I'm also offering triangle earrings, peyote tube bracelet or earrings and brick stitch circle earrings or pendant. These are the upcoming class dates:

Feb. 28 2-4 pm Bead Embroidered Cabochon
Mar. 14 3-4:30 pm Triangle Earrings
Apr. 5 2-3 pm Peyote Bead Tube Bracelet or Earrings
May 9 2-3:30 pm Brick Stitch Cirvle Earrings

YouTube Views

As I was winding down from an afternoon of beadweaving classes, I decided to check my YouTube channel to see how many views I've gotten on my one-and-only beadweaving tutorial. I was shocked to see that it's been viewed almost 7400 times !!! I think it might be due to it's location on a jewelry and beading blog that I didn't know about until it showed up in my Google Alerts.

I'm not that happy with the tutorial as my camera doesn't take great macro shots, nor do I have a digital video camera. However, I wanted to get something out there as an experiment until I am ready to upgrade my equipment. The one thing I love about the tutorial is the music of my friend, Nana Frimpong, and his amazing djembe playing. When I post another tutorial, I plan to use more of his music. I think it has a certain meditative yet purposeful sound, perfect for beadweaving.

Etsy BeadWeavers February Challenge...

JanFebMosaic, originally uploaded by wMarlaine.

...is entitled Tropical Holiday. Please visit our Etsy BeadWeavers blog where you will find links to each entry then vote for your fave !

Quick Earring Display

Quick Earring Display, originally uploaded by ambrosianbeads.

Last month, I whipped up a whole bunch of Batala themed jewelry (red, white and black color scheme) for a Batala fundraiser. I wanted to display the earrings on a wire form, but didn't want to spend any more money on fancy earring cards, so I tried out an idea. I took some free twisty ties, folded them in half, taped them to the back of the earring cards, folded the loop over into a small hook and voila ! Easy hanging earring cards :-)

Writing Instructions for Designs

I have so many designs that I would love to write instructions for, but I always hit a brick wall when it comes to including good diagrams. Since I'm a cheapskate, I'm not about to spend $300 on some drawing program which takes a college course to learn how to use. So I've been battling with the programs pre-installed on my computer plus limited trial use and freebie programs. I can't seem to find a program (that I can figure out) that allows you to move the circles or ovals (bead shapes) around and put them where you want them. They always seem to jump to some pre-determined location. Plus I would love to make them look 3-D, etc.

I have had a bit of luck, though, after reading some messages on the BeadTool Lovers Yahoo group list where I discovered the free program, Inkscape, along with a link to this fantastic tutorial which is soooooper dumbed down, just what I need ! I worked my way through the detailed instructions, was able to create some 3-D bead shapes, numbered them and was trying to do the final step which is drawing a thread path, and for some reason, the lines keep disappearing ! And I was so close to getting it. I'm determined and will try again because people are asking me for certain patterns and all I have been able to do is take photos of each step. It's a very time-consuming effort and often I'm not satisfied with the detail of some shots. Once the item is made, I'm not going to make another exact copy just to work up to that point for a re-do of a photo :P

A customer was requesting the pattern for my Chevron Chain and Peyote Bracelet and the other day I got lucky and remembered that the pattern had been available on the Bead Bugle website. I had sold the design to Bead Bugle about five years ago (for a little more than the price of a finished bracelet :P) and decided to check for it. Lo and behold, it's still there. I don't know how many millions (lol) they have made off of it, but at least I was able to give my customer the opportunity to get it immediately. Back to working with Inkscape now !