An Oldie but Goodie - Glass Gardens

This past week I dusted off an old design to bring it back for the fall. Glass Garden Bracelets! 

 

This bracelet involves sewing with beading thread and a needle.
Patience is required to ensure the thread does not get snarled. 

Green, purple and fall colors waiting for magnet clasps and safety chains.
What color will be next? Black? Blues? Reds?

To read about the process from start to finish check out this blog post from 2010. http://beadware.blogspot.com/2010/08/making-glass-garden.html

Angeline Spa

A lovely selection of Beadware stone necklaces can now be found at the gift shop at Angeline Spa at the Clearwater Resort in Suquamish! 

The Spa is nestled behind the Clearwater Casino and next to the hotel. They serve both resort guests as well as the public. They offer a menu of facials, manicures, pedicures, body wraps and massage for women and men. The Hawaiian Healing massage and the foot reflexology sessions sounded great to me. I relax just writing about them!  

The manager and staff are very personable and will make your comfort and relaxation their top priority. Check out their website or give them a call at 360-598-1420 for more information. 

Working with Belinda the manager, we selected a variety of nice stone pendant necklaces with various healing and metaphysical qualities.

 Flower jade to enhance your confidence.

 Sodalite to soothe you.

 Snakeskin jasper to help move energy during your massage.

 And several dragon blood jasper pendants to ground you and heal your heart.

These as well as several more necklaces can be found in the gift shop, along with a nice selection of body and and bath products. Tell them Beadware sent you!

Recent Work - Flower Jade

I try to keep a selection of every color in my booth. Right now I am low on greens and purples. This weekend I made a dent in green with these flower jade necklaces.

All of these have sold

 Mixed with Afghan serpentine and green jade.

 Mixed with aventurine.

 Mixed with green jade.

Mixed with moss agate.

Final Dragons Blood Jasper Series

I used the last of my dragons blood jasper today. It has been a productive week. I added 11 new necklaces to my inventory. (I sold 3 so a net gain of 8, two steps forward one step back!)

For half of them I added a second stone or pearl to the mix. All are in yummy fall tones.
All of these have sold. 

Mixed with freshwater pearls and a dark brown seed bead.

 The coins are Birds Eye Rhyolite and then finished with a soft brown seed bead.

 Mother of pearl and a dark brown hex cut seed bead.

  Wood beads and a warm brown hex cut seed bead.

 Faceted agates and bronze seed beads.

Carnelian, agates and rust seed beads.

 A soft olive green and pewter.

 Matte rose seed beads and pewter.

 Garnet red seed beads and pewter.

 Bronze iris seed beads and copper.

Rusty seed beads and copper.

Recent Work - Red Dragons Blood Jasper

Here are a few more in this series. next in line are more with rusty reds and then I will switch towards browns. Such yummy colors for fall!

All of these have sold

 Rose, Swarovski crystals and gold plated brass.

 Matte rose and pewter. This might be a record - it sold
 less than 12 hours after I finished it!

 Matte espresso bean and red with copper

 Matte espresso bean and rust with copper

 Multi-color matte metallic with gold plated brass

  Multi-color matte metallic with gold plated brass

Matte espresso bean and red with copper.

Oh the Things People Say

Recently there was a post going around Facebook about 10 things not to say to an artist/crafter. I had heard everything on that list. I have also seen numerous posts on artists online groups I belong to complaining about the stupid or rude things people can say.

Yes I get a little tired of every third person telling me "I love the way you use sand dollars in your display" or "pretty' or "I'll be back" or "nice stuff".  But I smile and acknowledge the comments. And yes I have had comments that I consider rude or thoughtless. Those customers I quickly dismiss (sometimes sticking my tongue out at their retreating backside).

I feel that the customer is wandering by hundreds of booths that day and they took the time to come into mine. And not only are they coming in, but they are making an effort to communicate with me and telling me something they feel is positive about my work. And for every ten common comments, there is one that really stands out. "I love your use of color" or 'you have a nice sense of balance". Or from someone who did come back "I like your work the best". One of my favorite comments was just recently "your work reminds me of things I see in the Sundance Catalog, except that I can afford this".

And the sand dollar comments (I use them to display bracelets), even tho they can get old, they remind me of a very happy experience. A young girl and her mom came into my booth. The girl was admiring the sand dollars. I reached into my supply box and got a sand dollar and gave it to her. She burst into tears!! Her mom explained that the girls dad had just passed away and that they used to go to the beach to collect sand dollars.  So we all hugged and a few more tears were shed by all. (I get teary eyed just writing this!)

Most of the time the comments are meant to be a compliment and I take them that way. There is always a silver liming if you look hard enough.

Todays Work - Red Dragons Blood Jasper

I love saying the name of this stone. Dragons Blood Jasper. Am I easily amused? Perhaps. But it is a pretty interesting looking stone. Today I worked in shades or red, coral, rust and copper.

All of these have sold

Dragons Blood Jasper is a protective and grounding stone.

 It increases courage, energy and strength.

 This Australian stone is good for heart healing.

 It calls for the gentle strengths of love, forgiveness, and compassion

 - the only energies that can tame the inner dragon.