Fresh from the desk: Multicolored summer anklet

For my first custom order outside of my circle of family and friends, I was asked to make a fun multicolored anklet out of whatever extra beads I had.  I suggested a few that I had used on my bookmarks, just to get an idea of what she wanted, and she liked these lentil-shaped glass beads with swirls of orange/red, yellow, and blue on a slightly purple-ish base.  There's some foil worked in there too, so these beads are really quite fun to look at, though the picture doesn't do them justice.

True to what she asked for, I used other beads I had lying around.  I have a couple packages of bead mixtures in blues and blues/purples, so those are perfect for projects like this.  I accented the blues/purples with red and yellow seed beads, both colors present in the focal beads, just to liven it up a bit.  The order of beads is cautiously random, without having too many of one color or size close together and making sure to flank the bugle beads and others with sharp-ish edges with large rounded beads to make sure they don't scratch the wearer.  I learned about that the hard way, which was sad because I really liked that necklace I had made.  Maybe I'll just have to try again on that one.

II think I may make more anklets and bracelets like this, with some Millefiori beads and others like these.  It's easy to find those in clearance racks and they're always quite fun, so maybe that'll bump up my impulse purchases.  Today I'll call her to pick it up, so we'll see how she likes it!

Saturday show on my own went well :)

This time, Mom and Dad were at a gun shoot in Wall so I went by myself and I didn't have their garage-sale-ish items to boost my table traffic like usual.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day, 75 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze, and I tucked my table up on the west side of the building so I got as much morning shade as I could.  I borrowed one of Mom's straw hats and a can of spray sunscreen because I didn't have any of my own.  That was a mistake... I'm horrible with spray sunscreen on myself and I missed a large chunk on my arm that's still red, days later.  Sigh.

I made 2 sales to strangers, which is an improvement in that the other sales were mostly to one of Mom's friends, and handed out several business cards to people that seemed genuinely interested in what I could build custom for them.  Time will tell on that one, but it's nice that I was able to get a couple pure sales from people I don't know.  I also got an order that day for an anklet from someone I barely know from work, which I need to go work on when I'm done writing, then the next day an order for earrings to match a hemp necklace I made as a gift for my masseuse (who was also my best friend in elementary school, otherwise I wouldn't have a masseuse! lol!).  I have some work to do tonight, that's for sure, but neither of them should take terribly long.

I got to chat quite a bit with the other vendors that were there, which was nice.  One is a professional jeweler in town who does metalsmithing with Black Hills Gold (characterized by the grape-and-leaf patterns that make up most of the designs, colored to be pink and green - it's fairly widely available, but not everyone knows about it), casting, and wire wrapping, among other fancy things.  I won't get into much of that, I'll leave it to her since I don't plan on investing in the equipment, but I think she and I could work out a mutually beneficial arrangement somehow.  Maybe, we'll see. I'm not sure what I could do to benefit her, but she took one of my cards so we'll see if there's something I can help her with.

I finished my first crochet project!  Pictures to come, I just don't want to spoil the surprise!

Spring Fever: Updates

I'm still digging on the terrace.  I get about 1/6 of the way in 30-45 minutes once a week, at most.  It's been raining too much to get it done faster and the nice days have inevitably been during the week when I'm at work, and the dirt needs a day to dry out after a good rain before I can dig in it without needing the rubber boots.  Hooray for clay that holds moisture!  Sigh.  I'm fast approaching the time where I truly need some help from a machine and Dad still hasn't tried to get the hoist working on the tractor, so every day I dig I get a little more frustrated with the whole thing.  We got up well into the 80s today, so soon it'll be too hot to work outside during the day.  I'm getting rather impatient with that project.

I've done a couple more batches of yogurt since the last post on it.  I've reduced the amount of dry milk I use to 1/4 cup per 4 cups of skim milk and it's closer to what I want.  I've also noticed that using the previous batch to culture ends up with a tangier flavor than I like after 3-4 batches.  I ordered some probiotic starter this week so we'll see how I like that after a batch or two.  I'm enjoying yogurt for breakfast with some homemade granola, sweetened slightly with some applesauce.  It sticks with me all morning, better than a bowl of cereal does.  On that note, I've lost a solid 7 pounds since April (maybe up to 9... not sure my first weigh-in was entirely accurate), so it's nice to see a little progress, but as each of my projects gets a bit more demanding my exercising gets pushed farther down the priority list.  I may not stay with Weight Watchers after my promo period ends, for now it's just more stress to plan the meals as rigidly as I need to to make any real progress so there's no point in paying for it if I can't go full-out.  My health is important, but I'm healthy now, if just a bit heavy.  I can handle a little more time like this if I have to, then when I can truly devote the time I need to meal planning and exercising enough I'll get back on the bandwagon.  There's just too much going on right now to make it the #1 priority.

My 4-day work weeks are going well. :)  Last week, my first week of that schedule, was a little bizarre.  My brain skipped Wednesday entirely or something, since normally (for a solid 8 months with few variations) when I worked 2 days in a row it was Thursday-Friday, so I spent all day last Thursday trying to remind myself that it was in fact Thursday, not Friday.  This week has gone better, but tonight I'll probably skip packing my lunch and just go to bed early.  The dishwasher is still running anyway, I'm too tired to wait up for it just to pack a salad.

I'm debating how to get more students and where to hold the lessons.  Going to houses isn't ideal, at this point mostly because of the distractions but also because of the impracticality of me wasting time between each lesson driving all over town lugging all my instruments around if I get more students.  However, it's also not a great idea to expect everyone to come out to my house.  It's out in the country, on a nasty muddy road with all the rain we've had, I don't have insurance on the house yet or a solid set of front steps or walkway, and there's still a major unfinished renovation project right inside the front door with tools and such... My 6-year-old student would probably impale herself on the tools there, if her parents could get her (and probably her sister too) packed up and out to my house for a 30-minute lesson in my small-ish living room.  As such, I really just need a little studio space centrally located in town so I could do several lessons in a row without having to drive all over creation.  Such a place is probably out of my budget for the one day a week I'd use it, so I'm not sure what to do there.  I need to get my instrument chops back up a little more and get a viola lesson to be sure my technique is good enough to teach beginners.  I did find out today that there's a real violin teacher in town, so that takes some of the pressure off of me, but she's booked.  Maybe I can do the super beginners then pass them off to her?  Need to talk to her.  Long to-do list for that one, huh?

Saturday is another show at The White Elephant so I've been beading a bunch this week.  I'll get more pictures up as I go, but at the moment my cell phone isn't working so I can't email them to myself to get a post up tonight.  Sounds like bedtime, yes?  Yes.

Fresh from the desk: Abstract in green

Spring is very slow to get started here.  We've only broken 75 degrees a couple of days so far, the vast majority hovering around 60 with rain and wind.  Let me tell you how un-thrilled I am about this.  It's abnormal for this area for it to be so wet and chilly coming up on June, though I guess last year was about like this too.  Not for this long, maybe... it took us until the middle of May last year to get 3 dry days in a row so that my mobile home could be moved up the hill, since it got stuck in the mud the first day we moved it.  We haven't had many more dry days in a row than that so far this spring.  It's wearing on my nerves and patience, being the solar-powered girl I am and considering the number of projects I need to work on outside that I'd like to get done before the heat of the summer hits. 

I didn't start this post to whine!  I'm sorry!  What I meant to say was I have green on the brain.  In more ways than one really, I'm ready for the lush leafy summer we're destined to have after all this moisture and I'm looking for more ways to be self-sufficient and reduce my carbon footprint.  So far, that includes yogurt, which I'm still experimenting with, but that's for another day. 

I found the soapstone centerpiece for this and have been wondering what to do with it.  It's rather thick, mostly a pale green with some flecks of orange/coral, with a symmetrical shape and an asymmetrical carving on both the front and back.  Considering the shape and size of it, I figured the necklace should be around choker length so it would lay the best.  A comfortable slightly long choker length for me is 16", so that's what I went with here.  It lays comfortably just below the hollow of my throat.  Since the hole is drilled lengthways, it's not a pendant really on its own, but it's simple enough that I didn't want to overload it with anything too flashy.  I beaded a simple daisy chain for it, alternating between green foil-lined bugle beads and matte bone white large seed beads, all surrounded by forest green seed beads.  It's a simple piece, but I think the soapstone is showcased the way it should be.

It's time to build up my inventory for my next Saturday show.  This one I'll be doing alone, but that's alright.  More to come!

Fresh from the Desk: New pieces listed on Etsy!

My Etsy Shop now has double the listings it had before!  Go check it out and see if there's anything that needs to go home with you! :)

Among the new pieces is this one, a slightly tribal carved bone pendant on Sterling Silver memory wire.  I had a little trouble with what to do with this pendant.  It's quite a statement piece, isn't it?  My boyfriend looooooooooooooooves it.  I love the nautilus spiral, but when I got it home I was at a loss for what to do with it.  It sits slightly off-center just because of the shape and the placement of the drilled hole and I didn't have anything that would really complement it on a beaded or hemp necklace like I've been working with previously.  I figured it was time to get the memory wire out again and I'm glad I did.  This slightly tribal pendant needed a stronger treatment than hemp or a beaded chain, but I didn't want to go wild with colors either because it is such a strong piece on its own.  I started looking through my black beads to see what I could come up with and came across my black iridescent Czech glass dagger drop beads that I haven't used in far too long.  The fire polishing gives them a distinct green-blue iridescent shine on one side so it's been a little difficult for me to find an effective use for them as well.  But, once I paired them with the pendant, it all started to come together.  I got out the green shell spacers I used for the custom turtle necklace a while back, some black resin beads, and some silvery shell beads and strung it all on some memory wire so that it sits just at my collarbones.  It could be stretched out to sit a bit lower, but I won't worry about that.

It's now available for $15 on my Etsy shop so go take a look if you'd like!  Again, Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely Mamas out there!

Fresh From the Desk: Time for a change?

Purple glass donut pendant on off-white and
matte blue daisy chain, with rose quartz chips

Carved resin pendant on knotted hemp,
with wood and bone beads

Resin pendant on brown and off-white bead chain,
with brown shell and peace jade

I finished that purple necklace tonight, as well as two more! :) The pictures are bad.  Yeah.  Sorry, I'm in a hurry.  After this weekend I'll take some better photos of what I have left.  Actually, that brings me to my first bit of news.  Someone at our bank is interested in her own piece, which is easy enough, but she suggested that I bring in catalogs or something to distribute when people ask about it.  Hmmmm, that sounds like a great idea!  I don't know if I can pull together a full catalog in any kind of decent time, but I can work on a tri-fold brochure or something with examples of what I can do and options for your own custom piece.  Thoughts on this?  Have an example of hemp, daisy chain, and straight beaded, with options of length, color, and whether there's a pendant?  I think it may be worth a try.  It certainly can't hurt to print off a stack for her, she sees lots of people every day.  This means I need to start scheduling in dedicated time to my marketing.  I have also had a few order/requests from friends this week, which unfortunately will have to wait until I can get up to Rapid to shop again, but all these are signs that things are picking up for some reason. 

I'm also starting to teach violin lessons next week.  I'm not a violinist, and I never said I was, but I have taken the classes, I do play cello, I know the Suzuki method, and the student is only 6 years old.  This one I may be able to handle for a little while.  I'm nervous about it since I don't play violin, and haven't since that one half-semester in 2002 or something when I took the class.  I'm debating advertising for my lessons and setting aside a day each week for them, but I'm nervous about getting lots of requests for instruments I don't play, like the violin.  Piano or guitar, those I can pawn off on someone else in town...those I can't even pretend to play well enough to teach lol!  Also, I don't have a good centralized location for them.  My books, instruments, and tools are at my house, obviously, but it's not quite ready for company yet, it's not really set up for it anyway, and parking will be an issue if I have several in a row.  Maybe once I get the island finished, baseboards in, latch on the bathroom door, and the huge wood box out of the living room...but I digress.  My house isn't a good place right now.  I could use my parents' house, but it's their house so I'm not comfortable taking it over for a whole day every week and the students might be nervous with extra people wandering around.  I know I would be.  For just a few students I could go to their houses, but that means I don't have access to all of my supplies that are at home and are impractical to lug around everywhere.  Can't afford to rent anywhere, and the room at the State Home is way too big just for lessons and people wander in and out all the time.  Haven't figured out the plan for this yet, obviously I'm still a bit anxious about it and finding excuses not to really develop it yet.  Maybe after the lessons have been going for a while I'll have a little more confidence. 

In order to shift my focus to jewelry and music, I need to cut down elsewhere.  My regular job is fine, no problems there, it's a regular part-time schedule with minimal stress.  It may go full-time eventually, but it's not yet.  I have a once-a-month 20-minute job at the VA for $10, which is barely worth the trouble to get there but it's a jewelry vendor contact that I need to stay on top of.  Not like it takes much time anyway.  Symphony is done for the season, so that won't be in the picture again until the fall.  I have lots of gardening, landscaping, and general housework to do, which hasn't been getting done these past few weeks.  I'm on Weight Watchers now which requires more careful meal planning, which also hasn't been getting done very well.  There's occasional things like groceries, bead shopping, and having to hold a large cat that is currently draped around my neck because I've been gone so much the last week. 

Then, the major dilemma, I'm working an extra insurance day up in Rapid, every other week for 6 hours.  It was originally 3 hours once a week, on the same day as Symphony, which after gas and a meal just broke even with itself, but it was alright since I had to be up there anyway.  Now, we changed it to every other week so it takes less gas and therefore yields a little profit, but it still ends up being a whole day up there.  I'm torn in that I can't decide whether that extra $60-80 a month (after gas) is worth losing a day.  I really can't decide.  I guess the question is whether shifting my focus will yield more return, though I do need to go up there every week or two anyway for various reasons.  I really don't know.  My schedule at my regular job has been screwy the last few weeks, so that plus starting WW plus getting ready for spring/working on the house again plus (heaven forbid!) taking a weekend trip to see some friends, I feel like I'm stretched way too thin, like silly putty.  And, the little holes are growing the thinner I stretch.  As it is, no project can get the attention it deserves, and as such nothing is yielding what it should.  So, do I drop the extra day and use it elsewhere, or not?  I just went yesterday and I'm not scheduled to go back until Monday after next so I have some time to decide.  I keep going back and forth on it.  I'm torn!  Help!

Saturday Show Number Two!

Just by way of a quick announcement, I'll be at The White Elephant again this coming Saturday, May 7th from 8am until Mom and I wear out.  This time we'll be better prepared with shade and food than last time and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

If you're in the neighborhood, The White Elephant is a consignment shop at the corner of River St and University Ave, at the bottom of the viaduct, in Hot Springs, SD.  I'm beading like a madwoman this week to prepare, since most of my necklaces sold last time, but here's a sneak peek of tonight's project.  The pendant is purple glass, flanked by rose quartz chips and the rest of the chain is bone white and matte purple-blue stitched into a daisy chain.  If you can't make it of course, feel free to contact me here, on Facebook,  or on sarahdecker.com for your own custom piece.  :)

Happy belated May Day to all and I hope the budding spring is treating you well!

Fresh from the desk: Playing with hemp

Concert week always wipes me out.  Period.  It might be easier if I didn't have to drive an hour to get to rehearsals and such, but I wouldn't want to stop playing and I'm used to it, but I need to forgive myself for getting nothing else done those weeks.

So, with that said, welcome back!  Yesterday I got started on rebuilding my inventory after the last sale and at the suggestion of a friend I decided to try some hemp with simple macrame knots.  I may try more complicated macrame at some point, but not today.  I wasn't sure what to do with the large green aventurine donut pendant, but a fiber necklace seemed to be just the right approach.  It's a large statement stone, but "felt" more like an informal one.  After reading a bit about the stone and its traditional ties to creativity, stress relief, luck, and healing, my intuition there was confirmed.  It's perfectly at home on a string of hemp between wooden and carved soapstone beads and looks great with a t-shirt.  I attached the donut with a lark's head knot in the center of the two strands and tied an overhand knot between each bead to keep it all secure.  I did the same (minus the lark's head knot) with the little turtle that I found at our Earth Goods store in town.  We've been going to that store more and more lately and I enjoy supporting local businesses the only way I can.  On each side of the turtle is a bone disc bead, silver spacers, and round pink and black leopard jasper beads.  Because of the size of the holes, one hemp strand has to go around each of the jasper and bone beads, but I like the effect.  Both necklaces are about 24" long and can be tied to any length the wearer desires.  Fiber is a great way to expand my metal-free capabilities so I should experiment with it more.  I bet my cousin would like the little turtle...hehe!

I also made an anklet for myself just for fun.  I haven't had an anklet in a while so since I needed to use up a shorter length of hemp I figured I may as well do it for myself.  I normally don't make jewelry for myself; I tend to keep the "duds" and try to sell the good designs so I have very little of my own to wear.  Maybe I should get over that, I might be my own best billboard so maybe I should try.  This isn't a great picture, it's too dark and not staged at all and you can see the beads better in the other picture, but I like it. :)  I used 4 wood beads and 3 soapstone beads, the center one being a dark-ish pink and the sides being a pale green.  They came in the same package so they're carved the same but there's a good amount of color variation between beads so it keeps things interesting. 

I might be able to get one more necklace out of that package of hemp, but I'm not sure what else to do with it.  Most of my other beads that would work on it are too small to fit on it, even if I improvise like I did with the jasper.  I do have another wooden donut I could use.  Maybe I should work on something else for a bit, or maybe take it easy for the rest of the evening.  I'm getting a little sleepy.

According to Niche magazine online, the 2011 color of the year is honeysuckle.  It's not a color I would wear, ever, because it would simply look horrid on me in all kinds of ways, but if I were to try to use it what should I do with it?  What kind of beads should I look for?

*Edit 5/11/11* The aventurine hemp necklace is now available on Etsy for $15!

Saturday show a success!

The White Elephant is a consignment shop on the corner by the viaduct in downtown Hot Springs so it has a prime location for drive-by traffic, plus they started doing Saturday events last summer where people could bring in their own garage sale-type items to set up in the parking lot and make a multi-family event where people could leave their unsold items at the store for consignment.  He did this to increase foot traffic and increase and broaden his consignment inventory and it has worked pretty well for him.  He wants to change the feel of his shop to include more furnishings and fewer doo-dads so he's hoping this will work for him this year too.

Well, I'm rather proud of us. We brought my jewelry setup, our old stereo (with components, big speakers, and cabinet), a band saw, belt sander, jigsaw, VCR, various tools and electronics that were only collecting dust and we got rid of a good chunk of it.  All the tools went first, and we made $55 in the first hour thanks to that!  It wasn't much of a jewelry crowd, but I did get some cards handed out and one of Mom's friends came by and bought most of my necklaces, followed shortly by a friend of one of my friends who took another, so overall it was a good day.  We were only there for about 4 hours (that's about as long as Mom can stand it, and I would've needed a lunch break if we had stayed longer) but considering it wasn't an advertised event, it was a little chilly, and there were only 2 other vendors there, I'm very pleased with it.  So, now I need to go work on my inventory again - my Kambaba jasper necklace sold, as well as the wooden flower necklace, and the soapstone heart, one of my layering necklaces (with 2 orders in the works), and my flowery beaded choker (which is easy to duplicate so I'll leave my Etsy listing up on that one and just update the pictures).  We left the stereo and a handful of my old earring designs for consignment and the VCR will be going to the Salvation Army next time we go to Rapid City.

There was no booth fee so we felt no guilt whatsoever in spending the day on a street corner, especially since the band saw and belt sander sold immediately.  We just need to convince Dad to clean out some more tools and I need to get to beading!

Fresh from the desk: Everyday layering necklaces

Do you like them?  My boyfriend's mom wanted one like this, in all silver (like the one on the far left) and after doing that and getting set up for the day at The White Elephant tomorrow, I thought these would be a cute way to boost my impulse buys as well as use up some beads that were sitting around.

From the left, since the colors are a little weird on my phone camera, they are: Silver/silver, white/pink, white/gold, brown/gold, white/blue, purple/pink, green/ble, pink/green, pink/red, teal/matte white, matte blue-ish/yellow.

I'll end up wearing one tomorrow to demonstrate and I think the matte blue-ish/yellow one is my favorite, but what do you think?  Those bugle beads are a wonderful color, they're a little iridescent blue/purple but the matte finish gives them a very unique look that I thought would be nicely offset by the pale pearly yellow of the seed beads. 

The silver/silver, brown/gold (which is also the colors for University of Wyoming where I got my undergrad...didn't realize that until halfway through hehe), and white/gold are meant to be neutrals, with the white/pink, pink/green, and blue/yellow a step above that, with the green/blue, purple/pink, and teal/white being more showy.  They're 15 inches long with a 2 inch extender chain and spring clasp, made quickly using surplus beads so I can offer them at $10 each (or less, if someone wants more than one) without hurting at all.  How would you wear them?  Would you do wear one at a time or a few in complementary colors?  What other color combinations would you want?  Maybe I'll wear three to show the possibilities.  Hmmm.  I should go make sure all my display stuff is packed and signs are correct, need to get to bed so I can get up bright and early!

*Edit 5/11/11* These are now available on Etsy for $10 each!

Saturday shows begin!

This Saturday 4/2 Mom and I will have a display of jewelry (and some electronics and stuff we'd like to get rid of) at The White Elephant, 107 S River St in Hot Springs, SD!  Come by to see my pieces in person! :)  Remember, my favorite projects are custom ones, so if you want to pick up your own custom piece this weekend let me know what you need now and I'll get it done for you.  Thanks!

Fresh from the desk: Soapstone heart necklace

Okay, so this isn't a brand new design, you caught me.  But, it is part of my Spring/Summer 2011 line and it's available on Etsy for $15 so I thought it should get a little plug.  I made it just before the show we went to before Valentine's Day and it got a lot of attention at the booth, but no takers for whatever reason.  It's a soapstone heart on an 18" beaded chain.  It's metal-free like many of my necklace designs so the clasp is a ball-loop closure with a leopard jasper bead in the same color scheme.

I've had the purple and teal seed beads for a while and have wanted desperately to use them, and I am working on a little square-stitch bracelet, but that will take far too long to finish to make it worth selling for what I'd have to charge for it.  I happened across this lovely heart and had to use it somewhere, and luckily when I got it home I realized that those purple beads were exactly the right color.  I used pale pink (almost white) bugle beads and bone-white seed beads as the centerpieces for the daisy-chain stitch.  I brought in the teal beads because it was a little too monochromatic with just the purple/pink/white.

The transition from purple to teal was an experiment really, to see how it looked if I changed every other bead for a couple of "daisies" before changing completely to the other color.  It's a unique look, though I keep going back and forth about whether I really like it or not.  It looks better when worn than laid out, I think.

I'm generally not a fan of hearts in designs.  I can't really explain why, except that there are so many used in so many designs everywhere and my natural instinct is to avoid things that are ordinary, overdone, or cliche.  I don't like words in wall art either, which is getting increasingly prevalent.

Not sure what that had to do with anything, but there it is.  I just hope that this doesn't fall into the "generic heart necklace" category and that someone will take it home and love it the way it deserves.

Fresh from the desk: Wooden flower necklace

This design is a bit of an experiment. But, really, aren't they all? I came across the large wooden flower in a clearance bin and just had to have it. It came with two matching leaves, which I'll probably make into a pair of matching earrings.

The main issue I had with this was the fact that the flower has no drilled hole like most pendants do, and I wasn't about to try and drill one myself. It's light and fairly thin and I probably could have, but I wanted the challenge of trying to make it work without drilling. I started with a daisy-chain stitch with very pale pink bugle beads with a lovely pearly finish. They're so pale I've had trouble using them before without them ending up looking white. I framed them with opaque bone-white seed beads which helps differentiate the colors a little bit, but subtly. The flower is enough of a statement that it didn't need wilder colors than that. I had some wooden beads on hand I used for the metal-free loop-ball clasp and above the flower on each side. The tassels have copper-colored Swarovski crystal pearls to add one more texture while staying within the color scheme. Noticing a trend with my texture obsession? lol.

The first idea I had for this wasn't quite like it ended up. The package had 2 flowers in it so I may try that later with blues instead and see how it turns out. The flower ended up being more of a stabilizing structural element than it looked at first glance in the package, but really, I'm okay with that. It gave me a chance to work with a different approach to a Y-shape necklace and to make another subtle statement piece. Is that a contradiction in terms? A subtle statement? Maybe not. I see a lot of people wearing large brightly-colored necklace and wonder what they're thinking...some of those things are sooooo ugly. There's nothing wrong with making a statement with some class, right? Right.

Fresh from the desk: Custom turtle necklace

My cousin is wonderful. She immediately ordered earrings from my Etsy shop to match the necklaces I had already sent her. She officially rocks my socks. Then, she proposed a challenge to me: she loves turtle jewelry but has had trouble finding any. I'm on it.

Honestly, the hard part was finding the turtle pendant. I didn't have all day to look and I don't get up to Rapid City very often, so my shopping choices were Michael's and Hobby Lobby, and to get it done quickly enough that Mom and I weren't late for our respective rehearsals. There was one turtle pendant at Michael's. One. And it was bright shiny orange glass. Not exactly what I had in mind for my cousin, who is a character but with class. I suspect there may have been more that would usually be in stock, but there were a fair number of empty pegs in the charms/pendants section. Instead of making that one work, we tried Hobby Lobby next. It took forever, and the first 3 that we found were very childish-looking, but we finally found this little tortoise.

I wanted to keep the design simple and small but unique. I couldn't use any overly large or bright beads with the little guy or he'd be hidden (I've decided the bead is male. Yes. Why? Who knows. Does it matter? Not really.). I decided to stick with a green/silvery palette to avoid overdoing it, but instead focused on using several different textures within the color scheme. I prefer to use earthy materials rather than metals, partly because of my goal to keep my designs hypoallergenic and partly because i like to use different textures like woods, glass, gemstone chips, shells, and pearls to keep things different and interesting. We found Heishi river shell beads in the same green as the "belly" of the tortoise and iridescent labradorite chips to complement both the silver and dark green.

In this design, I see the rocky journey the desert tortoise must make across the shimmering desert sands and rocky iridescent hills to find the green sustenance he needs, to remind us that even if the journey is difficult it is necessary but can also be beautiful. Maybe that's corny. Maybe I've been staring at it too long. Maybe I need to go to bed. :)