From Mole Hill to Mountain

I should know better than to procrastinate with this many sets to photograph and put up on Etsy. This happens to me every year after BABE- what is at first a mole hill becomes a mountain and so I continue to put off photographing 50+ sets of beads for the shop. So here is my first step, and you can be my witness :) You can check out my flickr for more pics and size reference.

I think what is causing me the most angst is the thought of having to untie allll those sets to photograph them loose, and then retying them...so then the thought of 'why not just photograph them tied?'. Although the rules of online selling recommends lots of photos, I'll most likely err on the side of sanity and take pics as they are to save myself time. This way I know I'll get them listed before Christmas, lol.

Post Etching - new beads

Here are some of the beads from a couple of posts ago, etched. My camera seems to be taking more grainy pictures for some reason..I'm trying to figure out what is different since I moved my photo tent to a different spot. I'm thinking I like them better etched, but everything looks better etched to me, haha!

Something to Sink Your Teeth Into..and a shop update :)

Had a consuming craving for bacon after our lovely bike ride but had no tomato (don't really like them anyway) and had to figure out how to make it a little more well rounded rather than just snarfing the bacon right off the paper towels as they drained.

Luckily, I have some of those thin bread rounds- can't remember whose, but mine had the 9 Oats or some such and was toasted and while still warm slathered on one side w/ goat cheese then warm bacon which helped the cheese become even softer.

Cut the thick bacon in half and do 3 layers, top w/ lettuce, roasted red peppers and a light swipe of Trader Joe's Caesar Romano dressing on the other slice before topping the sandwich.

Oh, Yum!

Now onto what's going into the shop shortly:

Still playing w/ the Pixie Dust. And the Z99..

one more update for the weekend..Z99

Thought I'd edit a few more for the shop while the little man is napping, up on Etsy shortly:

Shop Update for Apr. 1st and 2nd

New work going up shortly in the shop:Surely I'm not the only one who loves the colors together in this trio? *slurp* These will be slightly discounted since the two smaller ones were chipped due to my aggressive cleaning..d'oh! Doesn't affect the bead, just makes them less than perfect. Oh, oh- love the bead caps on this one and the crackling is superb. Had a hard time letting go of these capped and cored hollows, so luscious but hard to capture on camera.

Post Tumble Etching

My Moroccan inspired beads after tumble etching overnight:The more I inspect them, the more imperfections I notice. Practice, practice, practice.
Hopefully I'm not the only one that likes this new direction.

Pile of Hollow Big Hole Bead Lovlies

I hope I'm not the only one that loves these- still debating on whether to just core w/o beadcaps or do the whole she-bang w/ coring and double beadcaps. Sell them separately or in a set? Having a hard time making up my mind on this one..perhaps you can help me decide.

Beads and 100 Followers :)

This past week has been a whirlwind of travel, meeting new people, and trying to get ready for the show next month. Just noticed that I have 100 Followers for this blog!- thanks for your interest and here's to showing you work that continues to grab your attention. Met up w/ some wonderful beady people over the weekend and look forward to our next Carolina Firefiend meeting. One member generously let me borrow her Jim Moore press since my Impress Bead Liner was too slim to fit my big beads inside to core and cap. (these three beads above are a few I've done so far, before running out of bead caps) Another is going to tumble etch some of my hollows to see how it compares to my usual acid etch method.
Thank goodness my wonderful cousin is nearby and willing to babysit my little man, making it possible for me to go to these meetings.

Riveting Jewelry

Makes me want to try and do it, too. Etsy Treasury

And Again..two more sets for Etsy

These look nice together- totally by accident that I put that strand of encased crackled beads together and after setting them next to the hollows noticed how nice they look together..hmm, I can see a new set in the future w/ a mix of matte and encased beads.

These will be going up shortly on Etsy :)

Etsy Update!

Finally getting around to re-opening my shop and putting up new work. These are smaller hollows than what I normally make- so if you like them snag them, because I didn't make many.
These will be listed shortly:

Big Daddy

The last few times at the torch I've been trying to work small, as you can see the smallest hollow bead is approx. 11x16mm. As customers keep asking if they could get smaller hollows, I thought it couldn't be too hard to make them smaller...Yesterday, I couldn't take it anymore and my hands decided to try and make the biggest hollow yet- it measures in at 37x49mm, which is nearly 2 inches across. And this made me think what else I could make bigger- smaller sculptural focals, perhaps? Who knows, the big daddy took me more than 30 minutes on my Minor torch and it was a decidely delicate dance keeping it warm enough. It's always nice to feel my creativity start to percolate and see new possibilities.

Briefly Surfacing

Just wanted to show some pics of the beads I've done in the last day or so:
Ok, back to the torch while Z is napping..more pics later.

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.