HALF OFF everything in my Etsy store

Hello Fans...

Surely this Over-the-Rhine piece, now framed,
has to be worth $98 to SOMEONE who loves
the neighborhood!  Come on, buy this!!  :)

I'm going to be honest with you ...  I'm halfway between jobs in the middle of 2 months of being unemployed, and I need money for April rent.  Everything in my Etsy store is 50% off.  That includes the Stacker Bead Tutorials, bead embroidery and Stacker jewelry. 

This not working thing is driving me crazy.  I can't wait til the new jobs starts up.  I'll be working for a new fine fabric/yarn shop in College Hill in Cincinnati.  Can't wait to get back into the creative retail community again!  Until then, it's Etsy sales and babysitting.

What's up?! Been a while.

Sheesh, it seemed like for months the "publish post" button couldn't get touched by my curser. I wanted to update the grand public with all the shows, classes, sales, and new items, but just couldn't! No matter what!

Well it works now.

So here's what's going on:

Saturday, March 24 I'm going to teach a 4 hour class (10am-2pm) on the basics of polymer clay beadmaking. We'll dabble in some fun techniques...students will get to use a pasta machine to flatten sheets. I'll bring all sorts of doo-dads and such. It's going to be in the Karen Trimble-Shell Studio at Brazee Street Studios in Oakley, Cincinnati, Ohio.  If you are interested in taking the class, email me so we can set up payment arrangements.  The class is $65 (due by March 22) and there's a $10 supply fee due day of class.  You have to pay me directly, not register through Brazee. 

On Etsy, I posted a monster of a beaded necklace that kind of took me by surprise. I joined the Etsy Bead Embroidery Guild a couple of weeks ago and was prompted to challenge myself with their Bead Fest theme: Filigree. The picture of the piece is up there near the top...if you are interested in seeing more, go straight to the Etsy page for it.

On Friday, March 30th I'm going to set up for Final Friday at the Pendleton Art Center in Cincinnati on the 4th floor in my friend Nancy Gamon's studio (400-b). Last month was pretty amazing....had an impromptu buy-one-get-one-free on the earrings and sold a lot.  A couple hundred artists have studios open once a month. Pretty sweet. I'm going to have the sale again.
If you would like to know more about sudden Etsy sales, classes, new work and whatnot, please "Like" my Ovenfried Beads page on Facebook. I'm pretty unpredictable and will often toss out some unbeatable deals or great announcements.

Thanks for coming back!

Other People's Stacker Beads.....Part 6

(Note: There is an issue with some formatting today, so I cannot present direct links through my text or make the end of it look particularly easy-to-read. Just check out my Etsy shop, which is listed on the sidebar, if you want to get a tutorial of your own.)

So my Stacker Tutorials have been selling like crazy, but I've been getting very few responses as far as follow-up photos by buyers. I suppose some folks just don't want to send pix for whatever reason and that's okay. Some may be taking their time to perfect it before they send them, and that's fine.

Well last week I received photos from a buyer who had received the tutorial less than a week prior. I thought I was looking at my own Stacker beads! I looked at them and marveled at how well she fine-tuned the technique in such a short amount of time.


This "she" I'm talking about is Marty McGraw, of Indiana. She says, "I sell my finished jewelry at Of Switzerland County in Vevay, Indiana (www.vevayin.com), The Artisan Gallery in Madison, IN, Shoppe on Main in Warsaw, KY, Arts-a-Poppin' in Indianapolis, and The Enchanted Sleigh in Centerville, IN. I used to have an Etsy shop, but it's currently not open. I don't have a very impressive web presence!" She may not have much of a web presence, but she does get her stuff OUT THERE where people can touch and feel and see it in person.

There are a couple of things that she demonstrates in the photos that is something I point out in Step 3. If you switch around the order of the 5 colors that you choose, you will get different beads. She also had some great feedback about some other steps. If you don't have the tutorial, these steps will mean nothing, but if you decide to get it, refer back to this.

~ In step 6, pretend the stripes in the ball are going from left to right, 90 degrees compared to the picture in step 5. That is the position that you will roll the ball so that you get the great long striped cone in Step 7.

~ After you cut and created 2 stacker beads, go back and continue step 6-8 with the remaining fat end of the cone. You will get more stacker beads that way. Any small scraps can be rolled into tiny balls to complement the rest, as Marty demonstrated in the second photo.

Thank you VERY much Marty for sending me your pictures and feedback! (And for the excellent feedback! I hope to edit the directions once my current stack of printed tutorials is sold out)

Right now my tutorial is on sale....as of posting this blog, I have 6 left at 20% off!

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!

Stacker Beads from France!

Here is the first submission of photographs from a nice gal in Cournon d' Auvergne, France. Her name is Isabelle Sebillet, and she has a blog you can check out. She really uses color and shape in ways that I never have. Many pieces are just outright out-of-this-world! Thank you Isabelle for sending me photographs. I love to see what people do with them!

Click here to purchase the tutorial that Isabelle got on Etsy. Make your own, then send me photos!

Stacker Bead Tutorial now for sale

Hello there!

It's been a wild fall. Lots of crazy things on the personal, professional and spiritual fronts. Sorry I'm not so good at keeping up with this. I've spent the majority of my time working the day job, and filling in the rest of it getting amazing new work made for a big show I'm doing this Saturday in Cincinnati, in Clifton.

Anywhoo, I received many emails from folks seeking a tutorial on my Stacker beads. I responded by having one created by my good friend Aimee, a great artist and designer. Though the layout is simple, it explains how to make the beads, with photos that go with each written step.

I have opted to have it printed on real paper rather than just email a PDF, because I am including a couple of Stacker beads with the tutorial so you can have one in hand to study and hold in person. Any kind of craft like this is so tactile, and just emailing a file didn't seem like I was offering enough for the money. I want you to get a fun package in the mail and not just another bill!

The tutorial is $15, and it includes the printed steps, the beads, and the cost of shipping for customers in the US and Canada. International customers will pay $1 for shipping....which is less than it will actually cost, but will help defray some of my costs as well.

I am selling it through Etsy, though you are free to contact me if you want to order one directly. I accept Paypal, which you can use with your credit card or a check without joining. The tutorial is an affordable alternative to taking my class on the subject, especially for folks who can't get to Cincinnati!

Thanks for checking it out...

New Stacker Jewelry!

It's been forever since I made Stacker necklaces and bracelets. This summer has been so stinkin' hot that even the thought of trying to roll them out is enough to make me go jump in a lake. BUT I enjoyed some fan-nage and cold water and whipped up these pieces yesterday....and posted them on Etsy.

This summer is starting to bum me out, because I have stacks of ideas of things to do...new tools....and more Stacker beads, now that I used a bunch of 'em up!

Thanks to Cynthia for posting my chevron beads on Polymer Clay Daily today. It's always a great surprise to be on there.