Slow Progress

I feel like the tortoise instead of the hare trying to get my inventory built up for my first show next month. But I suppose since the tortoise won in the end, this sort of progress is good. My Etsy shop will be lacking in love and new items since most everything will be going w/ me to Oakland.

After making these and falling in love it reminded me of a friend saying she could never work in an animal shelter since she'd fall in love w/ all the animals and want to bring them home. My beads have metaphorically morphed into cute animals that I don't want to let go, lol. But just like at the animal shelter, these beads need good homes, too. :)

One possible reason I may not want to let them go is due to the amount of work invested into each one. The beadcaps are made by me as is the bead and then they're cored after all the prepping is done on the tubing. At least an hour's time is put into each bead- this isn't including the times in the kiln for annealing the bead and firing the bronzclay.

Now I'm just waiting on more sterling and copper tubing to come in the mail so I can get more made. Ordered from Metalliferous and they were super nice and had awesome prices!

I've been field testing a smaller peg w/ my Impress Bead Liner and it's mucho easier adding bead caps instead of trying to just core the bead. I'm not sure why, maybe it's just me. Doing beads like this also makes me think sterling tubing is a little more 'elastic', I guess you could say, than copper. Or maybe I just need to compensate and cut the copper slightly shorter. Anyhoo, it's still a work in progress, but I'm so glad to be able to make this style that has been stewing in my mind for a while now.

Let's just hope they do well at the show..

More Work

Another BIG focal that has been cored w/ bead caps in Bronzclay. I had to grind on my Impress Bead Liner to get it to fit, lol. After about 30 minutes of futzing around and learning about carbide grinders, it finally fit *snugly* into the press.
The sterling silver cored big hole bead is up on Etsy. Love the colors! I'm crazy about the blue and mustard look together.

Extreme Busy-ness

I've been absent due to extreme busy-ness, lol. I have around 70 hollows for the show in November and think I need to triple that amount. If they don't sell, I'll have plenty of stuff to put up in my Etsy shop. Speaking of Etsy, I just listed the trio set and finished a special order for a customer.

What I'm most excited about is my large hollow focal that I cored. The colors don't show nearly as well here as they do in person. I've realized that I'm horrible at photographing jewelry, lol. The pendant is 1-1/8" x 1-1/4" or 28.5x32mm. The bead caps are Bronzclay and for me, the rustic/organic look is really jivin' with me, but I'm not sure if my (potential) customers would feel the same.

Etsy Update

I didn't get this done yesterday, here are the new beads up in my Etsy shop:

Lynda Moseley(SC Diva) Jewelry w/ my Beads

Lynda Moseley is a recent customer who used some of my beads in her jewelry. She sells her gorgeous polymer clay pendants and jewelry on Etsy. I've long admired her polymer clay transfer pendants since they predominately have a botanical or nature theme, which I love! Here are just a few pics of her work using some of my beads:
Here is the link to one post on her blog where you can see more pics :)

OMG- I'm on Daily Art Muse!

Check out Susan Lomuto's Daily Art Muse and you'll lose yourself for hours clicking on all the gorgeous things she mines from different places - let me tell you, I never thought my work worthy of DA Muse! I'm actually one of the small pics on the front page right now- squeeee! Thanks, Susan :)

The Press Arrived!

My Impress Bead Liner arrived this weekend and I've been coring like a mad woman when I had the time. I now totally understand why beads done this way are so much more costly- it takes quite a while to get everything ready- measuring, cutting, deburring, filing, coring..THEN you take pics after admiring. I haven't broken a bead, but I did tear the tubing on the first three beads I did- too much enthusiasm?

As much as I love this press, there is a huge problem w/ size impediments. My hollow beads are LaRgE and chubby and the press is only so wide- I supposed most people use this for their small cored beads that go on Pandora, etc. bracelets, but I had to be a rebel. So now I have a dozen or more hollows that won't even fit into the press to get lined :(

I've been waiting on pins and needles for Dave to custom fabricate smaller pegs so I can core my 3/32 and 1/8" hollow focals- now I have to concentrate to make ones that will fit into my press.

We won't tell hubby that the next big purchase will prolly be a (whisper it now) Jim Moore press. Maybe he'll consider it my Xmas present?

One nice thing I noticed is that there is some leeway in imperfect bead holes- you know how sometimes you have a slight high spot or not much of a pucker where your glass caught too far out? As long as it's not too extreme, you can core it and you can't tell it wasn't perfect in the first place.

So here are some pics- I hope to get some of these listed tomorrow on Etsy: