For Stella

I've been busy the last few weeks. Moving, prepping for a convention at the end of September and making some special pieces.

I made this piece for my husband’s aunt. She’s returning to Malta in a few weeks, and we wanted to give her something nice.

He found out her favourite colours (pink, purple and topaz) and that she can’t wear any metal next to her skin other than pure gold.

Topaz comes in a many, many shades, but I decided to go with gold for that colour, since it’s the one that will work best with the other colours.

I made a clasp with wire, that I covered with polymer clay, to make sure there are no allergy issues.

Silver lined golden yellow seed beads, rose quartz, dyed howlite, wood.

Another necklace for my husband’s aunt.

She requested something in a choker length, in neutral colours that would go with almost anything.

I came up with a cute little Nepal stitch choker in shades of white, grey and clear.

I hope she likes it!

Grey, white, lustered white and transparent AB glass beads, wood

Steampunk Work in Progress

Some work in progress and bead selection photos from a new commission piece I’m working on.

This is another steampunk inspired piece.

Bead Table Wednesday 08aug12

I'm vending at a gaming convention in late September, and am trying to make some jewelry that will appeal specifically to gamers.

Lots and lots of games involve dice... so I decided to make some!

They aren't regulation, but they certainly are adorable.

They're made from polymer clay and glass seed beads and will be used to create earrings, pendants and the decorations on hairsticks.

A little set back...

Unfortunately life sometimes throws us curve balls.

At this point, due to one of those unexpected curve balls, it looks like I will not be able to launch the siggybeads web store on Artfire til September.

I of course will continue to make all sorts of interesting things and post my adventures, successes and failures here.

It'll just take a little longer before I care share my work with everyone out there.

I'll keep you all updated here.

Thanks for your patience.

Too Hot!

Its been too hot to bead and too hot to blog for the last week or so. But it has been the perfect temperature to shop in big, frosty air conditioned stores.

The bulk of my shopping has been a little bittersweet. A fabric and sewing store in the area has decided to no longer sell beads and is selling off their stock at up to 60% off their regular prices. It saddens me that yet another local source of beads is drying up, but I'm certainly not going to let that keep me from taking advantage of the great prices.

It seems like thirteen is my lucky number, since that's how many tubes of beads I've picked up (thus far at least).

Some are colours I use constantly, others are ones I use rarely or have never used at all, but that I have ideas for. One, well, I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but when I didn't pick up a tube on my first visit, I kept thinking about them until I went back!

So shiny... so colourful...

Yeah... I think I'll be back for more!

Canada Day Craft Faire and My Current Goals

First off, the Craft Faire was a blast.   I have never had so much fun working before in my life.  I got to meet and speak to all sorts of people about my jewelry and beading in general.  I even managed to sell several pieces and might have a few custom requests in the next little while.

Secondly,  I have several goals for both this blog and my little business, and I thought it would be a good idea to list them here to keep them close at hand.

-post here 2 to 3 times a week

-get my ArtFire site up and running by the first of August

-get a Flickr or Tumblr account for photos of my pieces up and running

-make a watermark to protect my photos while they're floating around on the internet

-get a new camera, as mine is about 10 years old (this is sort of a longer term goal than the others listed)

It will be a long journey, but I'm confident it will be an interesting one!

A July of Firsts!

Its the first of July today! Happy Canada Day to any of my fellow Canadians that are reading.

It's going to be an exciting few days for me for a variety of reasons.

I'm going to my first craft faire, where I'll be sharing a tent with my friend Jenny. She'll be selling her original artwork and prints, and I'll be selling my handmade, beaded jewelry.

I'm starting this blog to share my adventures with glass, stone, polymer clay, metal and thread. So much thread...

And I'll (hopefully) be launching my online store through ArtFire.com.

Please keep an eye on this blog for everything siggybeads.