Busy But Getting Nowhere

 

I guess it's just that time of year when it becomes a continuous game of "catch up".  Between trying to promote my invisible etsy shop,  AlmostPrecious and make new creations I find myself rushing to "catch up" with laundry, cooking, cleaning, gardening, grocery shopping etc. etc.

 

So today my unfortunately neglected blog is getting a quick promo post . . . and an apology to all my wonderful blogging buddies -  I'm sorry I haven't been dropping by as often as I should to read and comment on your wonderful blogs.   :(

 

Wish there were someway to make my online shop self-promoting.  :)

Below are a pair of my latest creations - Teddy Bear earrings with pink fiber optic Cat's Eye  beads.

As many of you know fiber optic Cat's Eye beads have motion built into them the "eye" moves smoothly up and down as the bead is moved.  Since these fiber optic beads are top grade "A" beads they have a well defined eye and incredible movement.

Okay now I'm off to try to type up a few more jewelry descriptions for my etsy shop and to take a Gazillion more photos . . . of which only about half a dozen will be good enough to use.  lol :D

 

And The Winner Is ....

These earrings are an adorable pair of beaded cube beads that swing from golden teardrop shaped hoops (which are handmade by me). They fall from 14 karat gold filled ear wires that I've embellished with peridot green Swarovski Crystals. These really are so much prettier in person.

Sara, of the blog Red Pine Mountain, has graciously hosted a giveaway for my new etsy shop this past week.  Today she has drawn a winning name for the Monte Carlo earrings. 

A random number generator at random.org  was used to choose the winning number and that number belongs to Rick Kratzke ...  Congratulations Rick.   Rick says these will make a nice Christmas gift for his wife.  Indeed they will.

I wish to thank each and everyone that took the time to visit Sara's blog "Red Pine Mountain" and enter the giveaway  ... but most of all I wish to thank Sara for giving of her time to do this for me.
I'm not sure where she hides them but she must have a pair of gorgeous wings as she is truly an angel.

Wishing you all a lovely week-end.  :)

LOST ON THE INTERNET

Lately I've been fashioning a few new earrings and, at the same time, toyed with the idea of opening a second etsy shop ... yes I'm STILL contemplating this. There is just one thing that prevents me from doing so and that's etsy's reluctance to set up their site to allow sellers to have multiple shops under one email account. Etsy must have some logic in dragging its heels on this but seems to me that there are so many other things that etsy could give its sellers rather than circles and "tinker-toy" features. Why am I so against setting up a new email account ? Simple hardheadedness perhaps. Toggling back and forth from one account to the other is worrisome and I fret about the possibility that I may miss or over look a customer's inquiry or, horrors, an order !

photos above and below ... My handmade yellow berry beads were used in this pair of  golden earrings.  The ear wires are not made by me but are 14 kt. gold filled and I did embellish them with a Swarovski crystal.



My etsy shop has a few pieces of my handcrafted jewelry but since it is supposed to be a supplies shop I want to keep the ratio in perspective and keep the jewelry down to a bare minimum. So I've made earrings and now I've got a few pairs sitting on my desk wanting to be displayed.

photos above and below ... Love these oh so sweet lampwork beads.  Here I've used my own handmade sterling earwires embellished with 4mm, cats eye beads.   

Recently I listed these sweet little Art Glass Bead earrings (photo below).  Named them Dewdrop, as they remind me of the sweet little dewdrop flower.  They have my own handcrafted sterling silver earring wires that I've embellished with a crystal bead in a soft shade of opal green.  Absolutely adore the flower shaped pewter bead caps !  Can not believe that after a couple of days of being posted on etsy and on facebook, they've only received 4 views, one of which was myself, so in reality only 3 people gave them a look.  It was hardly worth the effort of listing them ... or the 20 cent etsy fee !  lol

From Out Of The Rubble ...

Some of you may recall my post about too many inspirations coming from a cluttered tray of assorted beads and findings.  I promised to post about the resulting products and I did manage to blog about a pair of black and copper dangle earrings that turned out wonderfully...so much so that I ended up keeping the first pair made.  : )

Not all things work out as one envisions them and for the past few days I battled with an idea that just refused to come out the way that I saw it in my mind's eye.  I haven't abandoned the idea but I have put it aside and will attempt to create it at a later date, using a different method of construction. 

However even before this battle of wills with those reluctant beads, I did manage to complete a sweet little pair of fun and sassy earrings using 2 of my  handcrafted beaded beads.  

One strand of zircon blue briolettes had a few brios that had shorten tips to them (somewhere along the line in manufacturing the briolette tips had been chipped but then were honed and polished, so this truncation of the tips had been done before I acquired them).  By using my perky yellow beaded beads like bead caps to cover the shortened tips and with the addition of a crystal rondel  in citrine yellow and a firepolished Czech glass bead in the same zircon blue as the briolettes, I had created a pretty dangle...perfect for an earring. 

All that I needed was to craft a pair of sterling silver ear wires, to which I added another zircon blue firepolished beads and voila !

You may notice that the silvery wire on the dangle has been twisted, I did this as there wasn't enough space to use a substantial gauge wire and so 26 gauge was used. Since 26 gauge is rather fragile I doubled it all the way and created a twisted wire to form the loop and wrap with. I may decided to change this out as I can't decide if I like it or not. ?  What do you think ?  Should it stay or should I change it out and use a smoother look ?

From Inspiration to Realization...

A few days ago I did a post on my pile of inspirations, granted it looked more like a hodge podge of assorted beads and findings but each pile was its own little inspiring idea awaiting creation.

I have completed a couple of these piles of ideas and am posting my first one, as promised.  These long dangle earrings are crafted from lead-safe copper wire and a mix of Czech glass beads and Swarovski crystals.  Not too fussy, not too ornate...simple, swingy and super fun.  Unfortunately these looked so good when I tried them on I decided to keep the first pair for myself and had to make another pair for my etsy shop.

Photo above...Combo of  black and red Czech glass beads along with Swarovski Fire-Opal crystals   are highlighted by the warm tones of my copper wire work.  The earring hooks are also my own handmade and bead embellished hooks.

Photo below...Just a part of my head to show my earring being worn...I should have worn a lighter top...no I should have gotten someone else to model them for me !

Photo below...Close up of the spiral wire work that I added to the black glass disc beads.

Since it looks like Etsy is going to take its sweet time to instigate a protocol that will allow us to have multiple shops under one email address or to be able to change our shop/user names, I will seriously have to start thinking about getting a second email address and opening another shop for my jewelry.  Not that my jewelry is flying off the shelves (oh how lovely that would be)  I just don't like mixing my supplies with my finished pieces. 
Aly of  AlyGatr'sEverywhere  I think you need to open an etsy banner shop as it looks like I may be needing another banner some time soon. : )