MORE Blueberries!!

The last two sets of kits I posted sold pretty fast, so I have re-kitted both to serve my reserve list and add hopefully a few to my stock.  This blog post has images of the Blueberry Caramel's Claws necklace.

I will contact you if you are on my reserve list, and do my best to see that you get a kit before they go live, sometime this weekend.  I'll update to an actual posting time for this weekend by the end of the today, Friday the 13th of May.

So here are the Blueberry Caramels' Claws kits.  One was from the first posting and the other four are new.  

A was in the last batch, and has some slight pitting, but nice light aqua color.

B has some dramatic patterning with a little light and lots of dark blues.  Both sides quite interesting!

C is very soft and a has some neutral color, along with lots of the lighter blue.  Amoeboid!

D has lots of the paler blue, and looks like a water depth chart to me, with maybe sandbars.  :)

E has substantial taupe neutral color, which I think nicely justifies the copper bezel. 

I'll keep you posted about when these will go live in my shop here, and on my Facebook pages.

12mm Pearl Acorn Earrings

EDITED TO SAY:  Kits are re-stocked in all four colors!

I am pleased to say that I have a tutorial in the FINAL Bead and Button magazine.  I made up a few kits and re-vamped my 12mm tutorial in honor of the event.  It's on sale half price (normally $5, now $2.50) for the rest of the holiday weekend.  I should have written this post on Friday!!!

The tutorial is very similar to the one I did for the Peach Caramel's Claws necklace, and if you own that version, there is no real need to buy the new one.  Except of course that I believe I improved the illustrations and layout just a bit.  But I am just like that. And it includes all the bead lists for the new colorways.  But I'll just give you that here. Not the best quality image, but the best I can do right now.

They are pretty, simple, and I like the scale with my smaller face and bones.  Here are the glamor shots.

I am also working on re-kitting my Fall Flame leaves.  Some are done and in my shop, and the rest, plus one new colorway should be ready this week.

I have done no beading this summer.  I have spent my time in my garden, community parks, and on our many lakes in my Covid kayak.  I have always wanted one, but have never before had the muscle to move one around on my own.  It's a wonderfully peaceful thing, and good for my soul.

I think about many of my repeat clients often, and hope that you are all weathering this year of challenges well.  I do have a couple new projects in mind, and maybe with the cooler weather, I will stay off the water and put some of them together for you.  Till then, a virtual, socially distanced hug to you all!

Pink Abalone Shell Buttons!

 Remember my mission to kit ALL THE BEADS?  I am in an interesting stage in my life, and trying to clean up all my messes.  This was a really pretty one to clean!

When I designed and wrote the tutorial for "A Hazy Shade of Winter" I got out all the stick pearls I owned, and imagined that I would use them for future "rare-just-a-few-of-a-kind" kits for this project.  I am now in the process of trying to clear all those trays and boxes of collected bits, and to focus on finding the perfect finishing touches.  I am really happy to be releasing 5 of these kits on Saturday, March 7th to noon CST.  I MAYBE will have one more, depending on whether an order I placed will arrive with enough supporting beads for one final kit.  When these are gone, there will be no more. Edited to say, the beads that arrived were a paler pink, so I made that last kit up for myself.  I LOVE it.  Very delicate and I sized it to sit right at the bas of my neck and barely dip into my cleavage with a black jumpsuit I own.  Yum. That is what you see above, and you can see the alternating color in the rice beads at the top of the yoke fringes.

The buttons are quite luscious!  They are made from Pink Abalone shell, and some of the nacre is just staggering!  In the photo above, two of the buttons are not catching the light as they could, but you can see a range of beauty in the four that are reflecting like they mean it. They are luminous, and flask from soft grey through peach and pink, with tiny hints of rainbow.

I have supported the pink in the nacre with Swarovski Rosaline Pearls, for H, J, and K beads.  I could find no 5mm in this color, so have subbed 6mm.  This K bead sits in the bezel fringe and also at the top center of the yoke.  If you have a wider neck, the 6mm should work nicely for you, and if your neck is more slim, then I have included an extra 4mm pearl in the K bag for you to use in that center yoke position. These push the pink a little, but feel like a nice choice when I view them situated in position.  The L beads are Czech drops, and transparent Rose with a rainbow finish.  What a good find they were!  They help to make the pinks and peaches and rainbow flashes all hang together.

The A and B (and one row of C) beads form the bezel, and I tried to emulate both the pearly finish and primary peachy-pink shade in the bead choice.  C and D provide sparkle (transparent with an AB finish) and are used as spacers in the yoke and the fringe.  For the majority of the yoke, I chose a flat matte silver bead, trying not to compete with or overwhelm the soft pinks.

I know I have missed the wintery season.  But this necklace with its delicate pink might be pretty spectacular at Easter.  And for what this is worth, as a Northern Girl, I have made Snow Bunnies (like Snowmen, but with ears!!!) for Easter on more than one occasion. So there is still the potential for Winter for at least some of us.

I am hunting beads for one more version of this piece, and hope to bring it to you soon.

Rose Gold Caramel's Claws

I have a rose gold phone.  I have a rose gold wallet.  I have a rose gold cardigan sweater. (There is one in every shop at the mall, I swear!)  So I needed a rose gold necklace.  I thought you might like one too.

I also admit, I did this because I wanted to make video support for this design.  So I filmed as I worked the sample.  I have not yet finished the editing.  So maybe, one day, I will do that.  But to be honest with you, I just want to bead, and I have a couple designs begun that are calling my name.  REALLY LOUDLY!

But I do love this necklace. I especially love how the contrast between the matte onyx focal bead and the vibrant rose gold makes the shape of the bezel edge pop!

In the process of designing this colorway, I also designed an acorn cover for a 12mm round bead.  I remember when I published this tutorial, there were questions about whether it would work with a 14mm round, and it did.  But I could not find a 14mm round matte onyx that I liked, and there are no black 14mm Melon beads.  So I re-designed the acorn cap for any 12mm round bead.  It's different enough that it requires new illustrations and instructions.  I really like the earrings because my face is small.  :)

If you own the tutorial for the Caramel's Acorn, or for the Caramels Claws Necklace with Acorn Component, I have added this new tutorial to my Etsy listing and you should be able to download it from your purchase receipt.  I'll include some specific instructions at the end of this post.  :)  Because those 14mm Melon beads will not be available forever. :(

I feel I should apologize for my fuzzy-edged photos.  My camera is glitching, and keeps re-setting itself to tiny Fstops at random, and I seem unable to remember to reset for each photo, so off it goes to the repair shop this week!

In the mean time, I am packing kits, to ship tomorrow and the new kit is in my Etsy shop at this link. 

Lots of parts in this one!  20 different baggies, (some inside others) and an insert to boot!

But it all goes fast when you are dressed for the job.  

And when I am done, I get to go the Gem and Lapidary Workers Show.  I'll stop at the Post Office on the way, with the orders to date.  I listed last night and co-incidentally one of my favorite buyers checked my shop, knowing I list on Saturdays and bought it immediately.  The little cash register noise from my phone nearly scared me off my chair.  But today I am prepared!

If you have purchased the Caramel's Acorns tutorial previously, and would like the 12mm Adaptation, just send me an Etsy Convo from your purchase receipt, and I will send it along to you, at no additional charge.  If you are just purchasing the tutorial, the 12mm adaptation is included in the available downloads.  :)  

A Goal is a Dream with a Deadline

I should begin by crediting Napoleon Hill for the title.  They are his words.

Well, I did it.  I was afraid to voice my New Years resolution for 2015, because I has doubting both my ability, and my willingness to devote the time and money to learning to illustrate. But I did it!

See??  Diagrams and everything!!

Kassie Shaw Inman showed me the way.  Kassie, author Beadweaving Beyond the Basics, has written a tutorial teaching the use of Microsoft Word to create beadwork diagrams.  If you have ever considered learning to work with vector graphics, but were hesitant to commit to paying Adobe a monthly fee of $19 for the rest of your life for the pleasure of working with Illustrator, (a daunting thought to a 62 year old hoping to retire sometime soon) this tutorial might just be for you.

Kassie's tutorial is written specifically for Microsoft Word, but I applied her information to Apple Pages with reasonably good results.  Her ease and relaxed confidence is infectious.  Whenever I could not find a way to solve a problem, I went back and watched the tutorial again, sometimes only for a few minutes, and with her encouraging attitude in my head, went back and FOUND A WAY.  I highly recommend this tutorial.  And Kassie, for that matter, because her simple, Can-Do attitude is an anodyne for all things on which you think it might be best to give up.

And before I leave this topic, Cynthia Newcomer Daniel has an equally fine tutorial introducing the basics of Adobe Illustrator for beady purposes.  But I just could not make a commitment to the monthly "membership".  Plus, I bought a fancy pants Mac Book Pro, and I am trying to make it earn its keep.

I also used Pages for layout, instead of Adobe Publisher, (thus avoiding another monthly fee) and while it was not without its problems, I conquered enough of them to manage to mostly get it to do what I wanted.  One Apple Genius suggested that I plan better before starting the document, when I went in for help with why the document parts jumped freely from section to section without my permission.  I am really proud that the guy is still alive.  I did try to explain that it is hard to know if you are going to need an explanatory image to go with your words until on second final edit, when it seems clear.  I have just one word of advice.  LOCK.  "Stay on page" and "no text wrap" although important, are not sufficient to the task.

Also in Pages, when starting your document Begin with a NEW DOCUMENT, and in the file menu, before you do ANYTHING, "Convert to Page Layout".  Put all your text in text blocks and size them to the size of your text.  Otherwise, things jump about at will.

SO, here it is!

And it has a friend too...

And as you can see, while I was having the tutorial experience, I thought I would also try making a kit.  And that was a VERY BIG learning experience too.

You can see this tutorial in my Etsy shop.  The 12 Volcano kits sold out, although I have more dragon scale beads on order that will enable me to create one final kit in that colorway.  There are still a few Chili Pepper kits to be sold. and the listing is HERE.  (Note: these kits sold out fairly quickly, but I am working on a new set of Volcano ones for late this year, 2016)

I am so deeply thankful for the support for these, my first kits.  If you purchased one, THANK YOU! Please let me know if you have any problems or questions, and show me how it turned out when you are finished.

Note the publication date.  December 10, 2015.  I think a 2015 resolution needs a 2015 deadline, and I think I sneaked in under the wire.  :)  Dream fulfilled!