The Cart Got Before the Horse Yesterday

I listed a new bracelet on Zibbet Thursday evening:

Faceted Citrine, Wire-wrapped with Vintaj Natural Brass Wire

Large faceted citrine, ranging from light golden to deeply gold, wrapped in Vintaj Natural Brass wire. The bronzy brown of the wire looks so good with the golden yellow citrine!

Now when I say "new", I mean new to my online shops; I actually MADE this bracelet about 5-6 months ago, and it' been available in my bead shop for sale, but I never got around to photographing it and listing it online, or even to blogging about it. I don't know why. But Thursday, it caught my eye, and I found myself with the time and inclination to go through the photo and listing process, so the listing went live sometime Thursday night. And I think I tweeted it.

Friday morning (yesterday), I decided to blog about the bracelet, and opened up Blogger to the "new post" page. Then I opened Facebook, and was going to post the bracelet on FB before I blogged, and as I was composing the FB status, a customer came into the shop.

And bought the bracelet. (And a bunch of beads.)

Now I find myself wondering if this trick will work for anything else I have lying around the shop, waiting to be sold? Especially since as I was writing THIS post, a lady came in looking for custom-made Buddhist prayer beads, so we picked out gorgeous beads, and now I have a custom order to make! I'll post the pics when I'm done.

Have a great weekend!

Freeform Netted Necklace

I finished my freeform netted necklace late yesterday afternoon, and it is now available in my Etsy shop.

freeform netted necklace in citrine and bronze hues

detail - freeform netting

freeform necklace toggle closure

Wanna know a secret?

The necklace pictured above is NOT the WIP in all the previous pics on this blog - for example - this pic:

freeform netting WIP (iteration 1)

If you look really closely, you can spot the differences - here is a cheat sheet, pointing out a few of them:

• the ends of the WIP are wider than the finished necklace ends you see in the 3rd pic above
• the WIP contains a lot more large pieces of citrine (big nuggets) than the finished piece
• the WIP contains faceted hessonite garnet, in a burnt orange color

Here's what happened:

At about the time of my March 14 update post, the ends of WIP had reached the width I was shooting for, so I stitched up the toggle bar you see in the finish piece, and attached it AND the Swarovski Cosmic Ring to the ends, so that I could better gauge the finished length of the necklace.

Then I moved in about 5 inches from each end, and started adding more width and chunkiness/fullness to the center of the necklace, in a graduated fashion - in my mind, I saw a sort of a V-shaped overall silhouette to the necklace, with it being widest at the center front, and coming to sort of a "V" when worn. So I moved back and forth across the center with my stitching, while moving further away from the ends with each pass, so that the necklace width kept growing symmetrically in the front.

I was about 30 minutes away from being finished on March 26, which I mentioned at the bottom of this post. The necklace was about 3 inches wide in the very center, and almost had the "V" I was shooting for. Just a couple of more stitches to add. I was so excited!

And for some reason, I picked the necklace up to survey my results - I think I was looking to make sure my last few stitches got exactly in the center. But something bad happened. Very bad.

I call it "turtling", but simply because I refuse to call it by what it really reminds me of.

You know how when a cockroach dies, it always seems to die on its back?

Well, this freeform necklace I had been stitching for weeks "cockroached" on me when I held it up: the thick, wide, chunky center section turned face down, revealing its un-embellished backside - and I imagined it would look like nothing so much as a sparkly feedbag when worn, lying there underneath the chin, waiting to catch crumbs:

Sorry - In my despair, I didn't get pics of my cockroaching necklace.

I tried several things to stabilize the center, but the necklace now had a life of its own, and wouldn't behave at all. It was too heavy, chunky, and wide, and it just lay there, like a hammock. So after about an hour of fretting, I grabbed some sharp scissors, laid the necklace flat on my bead mat, and cut my way right up the center of it, severing all the strands right up the middle. Then, one at a time, I picked up a severed half, and "milked" all the beads off the severed Fireline and into a tupperware container. And then I started sorting them. And then I started stitching all over again.

So the new necklace's silhouette does not "v" in the center, and you can bet I checked how it was lying frequently while I was stitching!

Some of my favorite beads, Part 2

Here are more of my favorite beads, along with their native rough:

Citrine

citrine beads

citrine rough

Rhyolite

rhyolite beads

rhyolite rough

Ruby in Zoisite

ruby in zoisite beads

ruby in zoisite rough

I hope you enjoyed seeing these beads and beautiful gemstone specimens.

The Latest

Still staying really busy with the shop!

Yay!

We had a holiday party last week at the shop, and may I just say: Champagne punch. We had some kick-ass champagne punch. And a lot of fun! It was absolutely pouring rain, complete with thunder and lightning, but we had a great turnout, and a terrific time.

I have very little time to be creative, but I spent about an hour yesterday photographing the things I have made since I bought the shop - and over the next few days, I hope to have these listed either on Etsy or Artfire.

In the meantime, here's a preview:

I love this beaded byzantine bracelet! I used 16 gauge copper rings, and gorgeous cobalt blue lampwork beads.

I made this Sunday as a sample for the chainmaille class I'm scheduled to teach in January.

Love that chainmaille!

Classic black and white herringbone bracelet, made with white 4mm glass cubes, and black size 6 seed beads, and then embellished with black size 11s. Then I found this great vintage black and white button to use as a closure.

This is one of the more popular beadweaving classes I teach.

I came upon this gorgeous freeform carnelian cab which had been set in a sterling silver bezel.

I paired it with carnelian rounds, big chunks of citrine, and big silver Bali spacers.

These are the matching earrings.

I taught myself the Dutch spiral, and this is my first attempt - I used size 8 Delicas, in a rich mauve color, and dark pink galvanized elevens.

It started out to be a simple rope, but then I saw how well it went with this gorgeous painted jasper focal, and here's the result.

I stiched a large bail with the same beads as the rope, and added some embellishing fringe.

This is a fun bracelet - simple peyote stitch using 3 different sizes of seed beads, which gives a ruffle effect.

This bracelet is royal purple, but purple never photographs well for me - maybe I'll learn the secret one day.

This wire wrapped bracelet was a nightmare!

I love the colorful ruby in zoisite focal bead. I love the bracelet, and it fits like a dream, and is very comfortable.

But it is truly one-of-a-kind for me, because it was the hardest thing I have ever done, and I will never make another one!

These aren't the only things I have made over the last 5 months, because several things have actually already sold, but I still hate that my creative time is so reduced by the amount of time and energy it takes to run a small business!

So, Happy Holidays to everyone, in case I can't get back here anytime soon!