Big Dreams Start Small

Little did I know when I opened my BeadsForever Etsy shop in November 2007 that it would bring such joy to my heart.  I didn't make a big splash when I opened my shop.  Far from it!  It wasn't until almost a year later that I sold my very first item, a necklace I named "Bronze Delight" which combined beadweaving with one of my polymer clay cabs.

Today I had my 200th sale to a very dear facebook friend - one of my dichroic glass cabochons.

While 200 may not be a very large number to many of you, to me it is a huge milestone!  It took a lot of determination and perserverance to stand alone and keep putting one foot in front of another.  I'm so happy I did not give up and let my little dream die.  I praise God for giving me faith to continue on and thank my friends who encouraged me to keep going.

To celebrate this milestone and to thank you all, I am having a giveaway.  Whomever leaves a comment on this blog post will have a change to win this new Walk on the Wild Side dichroic glass cab called Midnight Mystery.

To enter this giveaway just leave a comment on my blog (say anything you want) and your name will be put in a hat for a drawing on November 15, 2010.  Only one entry per person.  Please leave some hint as to how I can get in contact with you to get your mailing address (if I don't know you already).

Remember, big dreams start small.  It just takes a little faith, courage and perserverance.  What's your dream?

Leafy Greens are Good For You!

For the past few weeks I've had the pleasure of collaborating with Marsha Hedrick, a porcelain artist I met on facebook.  Marsha created some new porcelain pendant and end cap sets and she asked me to use a few of them with the Kumihimo braiding technique to create some necklaces.  Here is a picture of the Leafy Green set from Marsha's website, Amazing Porcelain.com which I used to create the first necklace.

For the Kumihimo braid, I used two strands of multi colored fiber, two strands of metallic gold cording, two strands of green and amber triangle beads, and two strands of size 8 transparent dark green seed beads.  I used the round braid pattern to create a 15" necklace.  The slider pendant fits snugly on the 11mm diameter necklace braid.  I attached a bezeled glass drop from the hole in the slider pendant.

After tying off the Kumihimo braid ends, I attached the porcelain end caps and metal toggle closure using needle and thread.  Another option would have been to use wire which can be securely attached to the braid ends and then inserted through the holes in the end caps.  I chose to use thread because I wanted to use matching beads to extend the closure.  The total length of the necklace with the end caps and closure is 17".

Please check out all the other new pendant sets on Marsha's website HERE.  And great news, all the new items are currently on sale!  Stay tuned for more collaboration pieces to be shown soon.

Hidden Glory - Colors of Fall

The theme for Artbeads current blogging design partners is "Colors of Fall."  It was fun to select these gloriously colored artisan lampwork beads for my project - colors I wouldn't normally choose, but that fit the theme perfectly.  I was delighted with the colorful coral and beige mix mini Kaleras lampwork beads in coral, tan, and brown, with hints of blue and green.  To go with the lampwork beads, I chose some Toho Natural Picasso size 11 seed beads and they were a perfect match.  Artbeads has a huge selection and variety of Toho seed beads to choose from.

I added some other seed beads for contrast and created this bracelet which I call Hidden Glory.  The glory of the orange lampwork beads is hidden within the more common browns of autumn.  The bead weaving stitch is the Oglala stitch, named for the beadweavers of the Lakota nation in South Dakota (a great state where I was born)!

I'm very happy with how the bracelet turned out and will be listing it in my Etsy and Artfire shops.

My evaluation of Artbeads' products is given honestly and freely and I receive no compensation from Artbeads for my participation in their group of blogging design partners.



If You are Afraid of Clowns, Don't Look

I was exposed to a new bead artist by a facebook friend this past week and immediately fell in love with her work.  The artist is Uliana Aleksandrovna and her website is way too hard for me to pronounce but you can click here.  Google will translate the site from Russian into English and it worked wonderfully!

Uliana is located in Ukraine, but I didn't let that stop me.  I spent a lot of time looking at her beaded works of art and I kept going back to the Clowns.  I couldn't resist - so I sent an e-mail to her via her website to ask about purchasing them.

She is not on Etsy and doesn't use Paypal, but it was explained to me that I could send payment via Western Union.  Having never done that before, I ventured into a Vons store in San Diego where they have offer Western Union to their customers.  It was so easy - just a form to fill out and cash in hand to pay.  I was given a "Money Transfer Control Number" which I e-mailed to Uliana.  After she confirmed that she had received the money, she mailed the package to me and amazingly to me, it arrived in less than 1 week!

Here is the most joyful beaded work of art I have ever seen.  It makes me smile just looking at it.  If you are afraid of Clowns - don't look!

And part of the joy of the piece is that you can turn it over.

And to top it all off, the clowns came in a beautiful gift bag closed with a hand beaded "closure."

I definitely know how to buy presents for myself!  And I'm so pleased with my gift!  Thank you Uliana.