Fall Colors Etsy Treasury

My River Rock Organic bead set is featured in this gorgeous Etsy Treasury by AnotherCountry called "All I Want Is My Fair Share":I love the fall colors, the organic feel and variety of textures and items in this collection. Click the photo to visit the Treasury.

My loaner kiln from the Glass Hive arrives tomorrow, I'm soooo excited! I can't wait to make beads again!

Prehistoric Fish!

These really cool, unique "Prehistoric Fish" were made by Mary Van Hoy of Van Olive Lampwork. I love her style, and love the colors... I see some metallic glass! Check out these fish in her Etsy shop:

Purple Lampwork Treasury

I'm going Treasury-happy on Etsy now. I've created a collection of my favorite recently-listed purple lampwork beads. One of the best things about creating a Treasury is finding new artists and marveling at their amazing and inspiring talent!
You can view the Treasury by clicking on the image or the link below:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c1c2454bd2f8eef44040968/luscious-purple-lampwork
Enjoy your weekend!

Who Loves Green Glass?

Sure, I've heard the rumors.
"No one likes green."
"Green beads never sell."
I happen to love green, it's my favorite color next to purple, and green beads sell quite well for me! I'm flaunting this fantastic color, with as many shades as there are green growing things and with depth and hues as varied as the many waters of Earth, in my first ever Etsy Treasury. Click on the photo to visit!
I created this Treasury quite by accident. I was surfing Etsy and clicked on the Treasury list. I just so happened to click when the lists were below 333, and I was able to create my own Treasury! I wasn't prepared to do this today, but not wanting to miss the opportunity I put together a grouping of delectable green lampwork beads. All of the listings are created by the bead artists themselves.
Enjoy, and please visit the shops of these talented artists, where you'll find many more incredible beads!

Art Bead Scene Blog: Friday Finds with Lorelei: Lampwork Favorites

Lorelei has included this set of my beads in her Etsy Treasury East! Thanks Lorelei!This is a 'destash' listing of an assortment of beads made with Terra, Ekho, and other Double Helix striking silver glasses.

Click the picture below to visit the Treasury page and check out all the gorgeous lampwork! I'm partial to Gardanne's "Pandora Assortment."
Here is Lorelei's blog post about her Treasury:
Art Bead Scene Blog: Friday Finds with Lorelei: Lampwork Favorites

Enjoy your weekend!

Etsy in the NYT

The New York Times has an article about selling on Etsy, "That Hobby Looks Like a Lot of Work."

QUIT your day job?
To some craft enthusiasts that is just the name of a popular blog on Etsy, the fast-growing Web site that serves as a marketplace for crafts and vintage goods.

But to Yokoo Gibran, it was an epiphany.

Ms. Gibran, who is in her 30s, had been selling her hand-knit scarves and accessories on the site for less than a year when she decided last November to quit her day job at a copy center in Atlanta. Thirteen months later, she would seem to be living the Etsy dream: running a one-woman knitwear operation, Yokoo, from her home and earning more than $140,000 a year, more than many law associates.

Jealous? How could you not be? Her hobby is her job. But consider this before you quit your day job: at the pace she’s working, she might as well be a law associate.
Read more...

Very interesting article... hmmm... I think I'll get to work!

Organic Brown and Metallic Beads

I listed this on Etsy tonight. It's a set of 9 beads with 2 that are larger than the others and could be used as a separate earring pair. To me they look like sandstone with metallic ore running through.I'm also going through my bowls of extra beads and making up some 'destash' listings for Etsy. I have so many extras that are perfectly good, I just never made a complete set of them, or else they're a set of the same style but mis-matched sizes. There are lots of reasons nice beads become orphans.
I put up these two destash listings today and they're now sold, but look for more in my Etsy shop during December.
These are made with ASK Blue Bahia and etched:These are Ivory, not etched:

Beautiful Jewelry - Katinn on Etsy

Kathy the Bead Lady, or katinn on Etsy, makes the most gorgeous jewelry using Bali silver, Swarovski crystal and lampworked beads. I love this combination. Below are some of my favorites from her shop.

Ekho Crystals

What was that? Ekho crystals! Just listed in my Etsy shop:These have a pretty mother-of-pearl sheen.

De-Stash Listings on Etsy

I listed a couple of de-stash groups on Etsy tonight, but right in the middle of writing this post, all the beads sold! Well, here's what you missed:I'm making up more destash listings, so I'll be back with another post when those are ready!

Organic Bead Set

I enjoyed making this set of organic beads the other day. The base glass is Ivory, decorated with enamel, silvered ivory stringer, gold leaf, silver foil and Triton:*click on these images to enlarge them, you get a much better view of the detail*The beads are encased with a layer of clear. The clear magnifies the designs underneath, revealing roots, trees, rocks and streams! Truly 'organic'! This set is available in my Etsy shop.

CiM Crocus and Triton

"Crocus" by Creation is Messy is one of my favorite glass colors, especially for Spring. It's a beautiful translucent pinky-purple glass, similar to an Effetre Alabastro, but easier to work with. Here is a set of Crocus beads decorated with Triton scrolls:This set is in my Etsy shop.

I'm getting back into the CiM colors lately. Next post I'll have a picture of *what happened* when I combined CiM "Heffalump" with Triton!

New "Destash" Category in My Etsy Shop

I've created a new category in my Etsy shop: Destash! Time to do a little spring cleaning. At this moment I've got two destash listings, with more to come throughout the next few weeks.

First item up, a focal bead made with CiM Ginger, silver foil, and Pandora encased in clear. The clear/Pandora combo turned yellow, which sometimes happens when I work silver glass or silver foil and clear together for a long time in the flame. Still pretty cool I think:The second destash item is a set of etched beads made with ASK104 Bahia Blue, Violet Nights and Berry Creamy:
My 'destash' category will have everything from beads that are good seconds, to beads that have been hanging around the studio for a long time, beads that are extras from sets, as well as really special sets that I've been hoarding in my personal stash for a very long time because I liked them so much. Stay tuned!

Psyche Leaves

This is a set of sculptural leaves made with Double Helix Psyche glass. They're available in my Etsy shop:

CiM Crocus and Larkspur Beads

Last week the 10 lbs. of CiM glass I won arrived in the mail. The colors are gorgeous! I haven't found time to play with them all yet, but I did manage to dive in to some of the new opaline purple color "Crocus" and the gorgeous lavender transparent "Larkspur." TDF! These beads have a core of Crocus encased in Larkspur, with Triton scroll designs:They're in my Etsy shop right now!

Etched Cubes

Here's a set I've just finished and posted in my Etsy shop:These beads were made with a base of black, then rolled in Terra coarse frit. After striking the Terra just until dark brown, I formed each bead into a cube. This process took a little while and the heating and cooling struck the Terra the rest of the way.

The next day I etched the beads in an acid etch solution. Terra doesn't etch very easily, so only the black glass etched and the Terra stayed shiny!

I've been teaching myself how to make a cube shape for a few months now. It's kind of tricky! I've found that parallel mashers don't help me very much, I just flatten the sides with my hand-held marver. PPP!

Helpful Site for Etsians

If you're an Etsy seller, you might want to check out this on-line tool at majaba.org. Type in your Etsy username and it brings up a list of who has hearted your shop, hearted individual items, and the ratio of views to hearts.

The list at majaba.org is easier to navigate than Etsy's (albeit slick and cool) "see who hearts this shop" feature. Try it when you want to heart back people who have hearted you. It's also informative - you can easily see what some of your most popular items are.

Try it out, it's fun. Click here to go to majaba.org.

I found this site when I was "blurfing" around to other bead blogs. Here is the post I found at The Beadful Life @ beadFX.

More Metallic Disks

Along with the Kronos disks in my last post, I listed two other metallic spiral disk sets on Etsy today. The first set is made from the lovely Double Helix odd-lot M-166, a.k.a. pinky purple luster, or what I call "Midas," which I'm sure is what the 'M' stands for in 'M-166' - whatever the name it's definitely one of my favorite glasses! The second set pictured is made from the ever-fantabulous Psyche. What will my boyfriend think when he finds out I want to marry Double Helix glass? He probably already suspects something... :-D

:-D

Kronos Spiral Disks

Kronos... always one of my favorite Double Helix glasses. Ever since the newer glasses like Psyche, Nyx, and Triton have come out, my Kronos has been gathering some dust. I could hardly believe it when I realized yesterday that I've never made a set of spiral disks with Kronos. I had to try. And wow - I am amazed by the color! Why didn't I do this before? Here they are (Kronos2 Disks):

In the past I have made spiral disk beads with the Kronos odd-lots K-102 and K-108. Those two glasses are heavenly. I never expected that I could get great color from regular Kronos2.

This set is in my Etsy shop right now. I think I'll be making more of these!

Colorful Psyche Disks

I've just posted these Psyche disks in my Etsy shop. I love the color I got on this set!
I reduced the Psyche in a different way than I usually do. Normally I hold the beads several inches away from the long yellow cones of the reducing flame, spinning them very slowly in and out of the heat. For these, I flashed them rapidly right at the tips of the yellow cones. I think the micro-blasts of reduction they got made the variations of color on the glass.

I first used this technique with M-166, the DH odd-lot that makes a very shiny rose-gold color. I noticed that flashing it close to the flame made the rose, purple, green and blue really come out on the M-166. After trying this technique with Psyche I'm very happy with the results.

The technique doesn't work with all the Double Helix reducing glasses. Some like to be reduced at a farther distance from the flame. I guess it all depends on the look you are going for with your beads. That's the funnest part about beadmaking - playtime and experimenting!