What Do a Win, a Field Trip and An Upcoming Give Away Have in Common?

This posting, of course!  I'll try not to be long winded!!  I had two contests that have just recently ended.  One was for the last 180 sales in my shop.  It didn't matter if you purchased 10 items at a time or one.   Each sale counted as an entry.  The winner of this was Kelli Pope....  That beautiful necklace that you see is one that she designed.  I love it and wanted it for myself, but it already went out to a buyer of hers who owns a gift shop?  Right Kelli?  A gift shop or was is a museum?  Either way this woman searched for Kelli on the internet after buying numerous "Kelli Pope" necklaces and a museum that carries Kelli's jewelry.  I HOPE she likes it as much as I DO!!  ;o)  Kellie has some other work on my website.  Check 'er out!  You won't be disappointed!!!!

The second offer I had was free beads to my 1000th customer.  That winner was Shannon from Missficklemedia.  You'll see from her sales that she does a terrific job with forging metals, patinas and ice resin.  These beads are some of my favorites from her shop.  Check it out if you haven't run there already.  My goal is to be like her.....She has almost 6000 sales...Holy Moly!!!!  Her components are very unique and will definitely make a difference in your custom designs!

A Field Trip....well, I'm off the the Museum of Earth in Ithaca today with a bunch of 11 and 12 years olds. That sounds like a blast ;o)   I'm actually looking forward to it.  This year's students have been the best in years.  The past few years, I was making reservations to live on the funny farm since I knew I'm would be heading there SOONER than later.  Phew~  just when you've had enough~some sort of peace comes into your life.  Hey, maybe I'll even get some ideas for beads and pendants while I'm there!

IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY SIGNED UP FOR FREE BEADS, please do so on my April 3rd blog.  I'm hoping to have them done by Sunday...Monday at the latest!  Weekend coming!!!!!  YAY!!!

NEW PENDANTS

I got this idea from Kelli, who has become a friend (even though we've never met) :O)  I've written about her before.  She lives in Indianna and our online friendship started through etsy.  Anyhow...You can see more of her work at my website.  With that said, I started making beads by tracing beach stones.  My husband is like, "Why don't you just make a ball and press it into shape?"  Never thought of that I guess ;o)  Actually, I'm liking my method because they are imperfect and have an edge to them more than they would if I started with a ball.  Here's a few pics of them incomplete, one that I made for a customer and one that Kelli put into a necklace....  What'd'ya think?

DRESS 'ER UP!!

I decided I try something different in terms of pendants.  I got this idea from one of my favorite jewelry designers Kelli Pope (mcpeanuts).  In almost all of the necklaces that I have seen from her, he uses more than one piece where the pendant hangs.  I thought, "Wouldn't it be kinda cool to have coordinating pendants that are shaped similiar to beach stones....nothing too busy, since it's up to the jewelry artist to complete the design?"  I can't remember when this one popped into my head, but it was probably during either my ride home from work or while exercising.  I seem to get many ideas during those times.  I also thought that it would be kinda silly to come up with a pendant like this, but not have coordinating beads to go along with it.

This Week Pre-Listing Look.....

I'm trying to use the colors from this year's Pantone Color Chart, but also keep them in my own earthy style.  I've also tried out some bezel designs.  I think I may keep one of them to try my skill at using my granddaughter's pictures and a little ice resin on top.  I'll let you know how they turn out.  Please feel free to convo me on Etsy if you see anything that you would like to reserve.

ETSY CONTEST...

CONTEST
Only 190 sales away from reaching 1000! Be one of those sales that helps to get me there and win all the beads pictured! I will enter names for a random drawing that will take place as soon as I reach my goal :O) Happy Beading!!!! MaryAnn

The Results Are In...

Although, the picture really doesn't do these any justice, what I mostly experience are many little lovely's, in many different shapes and sizes. I like to make small sets of a variety of shapes and colors. The beads that are the most time consuming are when I use mulitple glazes. Trying to figure out what might look good together and not clash can sometimes be a challenge. I love challenges so I'm also loving making these little works of art.

On a Search.....

Here's one of my large hole beads. I originally started make these because once upon a time when I was just making jewelry I had gone on a search for large hole beads. This was before I knew anything about Etsy. Well, much to my demise, I could only find wooden ones which is not what I was looking for. These are a little more time consuming for me to make, but worth it!