Cleaning House on Etsy

In an effort to whittle down my stock in my Etsy store, I am offering 60% off everything listed through December 3, 2017.  Any purchases of $20 or more will automatically be reduced 60%.  Shipping is still free.  No coupon codes.  No need to join Etsy to buy.  If the final purchase total is $50 or more, I will include a free gift worth $15 or more.  It really couldn't get any easier!

Below are a few examples of the math.  There are lots of items under $20 that also qualify...you just need to buy enough to equal $20 or more at regular price.  To purchase or check out the details of each, just click on the picture.  If you have any questions, please contact me through Etsy.

Urchin-Bead Embroidered Necklace     Regular price: $225  Sale price: $90

Super Stacker Bead Necklace-Polymer Clay    Regular price: $150  Sale price: $60

Bead embroidery--"Don't Spill Your Pills"    Regular price: $85    Sale price: $34

Rusted Cotton Fabric    Regular price: $28    Sale price: $11.20

Stacker Supreme Necklace     Regular price: $75  Sale price: $30

Ellipse-Bead Embroidered Pendant    Regular price: $30    Sale price: $12

30 turns into 40

Today I increased my whole-store sale discount to 40%, through May 18.  Coupon code is "MOM40".  This discount applies to everything in my store, including these amazing brand new earrings that I just made the other day.  (Regular price is $65...can be yours for $39!)
There is an Etsy shop event today protesting Etsy's allowance of mass-produced items being sold as handmade.  Although I completely agree that Etsy should maintain it's insistence that items be handmade by the shop owner (except, of course, in the instance of vintage and supplies), I need to be open.

More information about the protest and the reasons behind it can be read here.

Beaded Boombox with a New Friend

This first photo is a picture of Kathy Brannigan. She is an artist from Visionaries and Voices, an art studio in the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio that provides a place for adults with disabilities to create and sell their original art.

Kathy is one of many artists who are being paired up with established artists of many mediums who are creating collaborative pieces of art to be auctioned at a gallery fundraiser on April 23. She is holding the finished piece that we made. I took one of her existing drawings, copied it exactly onto some heavy interfacing, then embroidered it with colored seed beads. I worked on it between 45 minutes-3 hours per day for 3 weeks.

This second photos is a picture of me and Kathy, taken about 2 weeks ago during a followup visit. I sat and embroidered the piece while she worked on other art.

Here is the first photo I took of the beading process. The boombox on the left is a photocopy of her original drawing. You can see on the piece on the right that I got about 2 beads on there.

This photo shows where I beaded the main outline. There are also some long waves of white beads on the white interfacing, which is kind of tough to see in this picture. I beaded the entire white background before I was going to start ANY color in the picture itself. I thought it would never end.

Here you can see where I started the red. She wanted the segments to be solid colors. I used small shiny dark red seed beads and shiny bugle beads in a broad horizontal stripe pattern. She was able to be confident that metallic corners would be nice, but I had to move forward on color selection due to some schedule conflicts. I always thought, "What would Kathy want?"

I did a LOT of beading between pictures. In this photo you can see the stripes in the red sections, the metallics in the upper corners, and the green center area and the handle. Notice how the antenna stops at the top.....it didn't stop there!

Here is the gold!

And here is the finished piece. I filled in the very round center with metallic silver and grey beads inside a blue-violet square. The antenna popped right out of the top and extended beyond the 6"x6" limit I imposed. It will be professionally framed.

Today (March 10) I dropped it off and was surprised at the small twinge of sadness I felt. It was so great to get to know Kathy during our visits and become intimately familiar with this drawing of hers. While she thanked me over and over for beading it, I had to thank her for drawing it. I plan on visiting her and hopefully doing some more collaborative work with her. Her drawings speak to me, so translating them into beadwork is a cinch.

I really hope to be invited to do this again. With the success of the piece combined with the new friendship with Kathy, I'm sure this won't be the last time! Thank you V+V (Nick, specifically) for inviting me to do this.

If you would like to purchase this piece, attend the Double Vision gala in April and be the highest bidder!

New work now online!

Do you know the best way to annoy your Facebook friends?

Post your new Etsy items...each and every one of them....

Often several a day.

And hope that someone will buy something.

If I Were Ever Incarcerated.....

...I would immediately request to lead a crafters group. Give me my polymer clay, tools, seed beads and fabric and I would have a whole gang of women (no pun intended) creating a line of Prison Gear.

Creating small treasures is about as close to Nirvana as I can get on earth. Art is a therapist.

Above is a new pair of earrings......polymer clay cabashon made using the Stacker method, with Czech faceted glass and seed beads. Earwires are Saki silver. You can buy them on Etsy or come buy them at the Pendleton Art Center this Friday. I'm having a great sale....

Buy One Get One Free on ALL BUTTONS.

Buy Two Get One Free on ALL EARRINGS.

Visit my website for more info about Final Friday and my work.

Newest Finished Pieces

This bracelet/earring set is a new bead design, derived from my "baby snail" design I've been doing for years. The sphere is basically flattened, creating a place for the swirls to be focal. I like these more than the round ones now, so I'm going to make more.

This nice ATC is a gift for a girl in India who I sponsor through CCF. She'll be 14 in August but I'm going to mail it to her sooner. I think I got the batik at Hancock Fabrics.

Living downtown, I'm a real downtown snob. This pin is for folks who love Over-the-Rhine, the neighborhood just north of proper downtown. The gorgeous architecture, colorful population and the rich history of the neighborhood makes it a real gem. I tried to represent the vibrant life in this pin. It was for sale on Etsy until I noticed the black string underneath the clear glass beads in the letter "R". Just WAY too obvious of a flaw. In the meantime I'm slapping it on one of my purses to show off, and hopefully get orders.

Newest finished pieces

This fish is not a funcional 'thing' right now....just has a backing that looks like water. I could attach a barrette finding or hanging apparatus on it, but I think I'll wait . One of my BIG DREAMS is to create a whole school of these embroidered fish. How many lifetimes would that take? Probably just this one, if I stopped making everything else. BTW all of my fish eyes are a single Stacker bead. You can buy it from my Etsy store. Check out my links on the left for the link.

Newest Stacker bead necklace. When I was sick a couple weeks ago I went nuts making Stacker beads. I have to make a few hundred of them to have a quality selection to choose from. Not all Stacker beads are great, but I do pick the best ones for the powerful pieces like these. It's for sale in my Etsy shop. If you would like a shot to make your own, visit this page.

Combining my polymer clay focal pieces with seed bead embroidery is one of my favorite challenges. The two just seem to go hand-in-hand. This brooch is also for sale. Mokume gane is my favorite polymer clay technique. It takes practice to know when your loaf is gonna look good or look like shit when you slice it. Some clayers just take all their scraps, slice off a chunk and call it mokume gane. But no....it's a bit more refined.

New OTR Bead Painting

Here is my newest "bead painting". I would write an elegant description about it, but I am totally exhausted from a 9 hour road trip from Washington DC. Click on the title "New OTR Bead Painting", and you will be taken directly to the Etsy ad where I posted it. Yes, it is for sale.

I will write more about my trip this weekend. As for now, I need a shower and a nap!