Fresh from the desk: Biker chic

The hills are rumbling with the sound of Harleys.  It's that time of year again and for the next few weeks all the little towns throughout the Hills will be swarming with bikers on their vacations.  Of course, I hope to get in on the action a little. ;)  However, that means I need to gear a few pieces towards them, without looking like everything else they can find at any gift shop anywhere in the area.  Behind the leather and spikes they're all just normal people, dentists and such, so maybe I shouldn't worry about it too much, but there are specific styles and motifs that biker style tends to gravitate to.  Namely, chunky silver chains and skulls (the more skulls the better lol) mostly in black, silver, gunmetal, red, orange.  A lot of them go for the more tribal look with leather, bone beads, feathers, teeth, claws, etc.  Problem is, all of those things are all over every store in the area, so how to make mine different?

My plan, if you can call it a plan, is to stay with the same style sensibility I am used to working in but use the darker colors and keep everything on the masculine side with just a touch of femininity.  The fire agate hemp necklace I made last week should do well.  Last night I made this one, with a carved bone pendant, leopard jasper, rose quartz, and hematite strung with black seed beads and gunmetal silver bugle beads, with the metal-free closure I had basically abandoned for too long just for the ease of using a toggle clasp.  It's strong, a little tough, a little frilly, hypoallergenic, and I hope it bridges the gap a little bit.  If nothing else, I like it a lot!

 This one was simple enough.  Carved bone pendant in the shape of an acorn, hematite beads, red horn beads, black and white bone beads, and glass  beads with a slightly greenish mottled finish on sterling silver memory wire.  The acorn came in the same package as the other black bone pendant above, so I guess we'll see if anyone is interested in that one at the show.  I have other pendants I can switch out, or just leave the pendant out entirely.  We'll see how it goes.  As the evening goes on, I'm toying with the idea of switching it out for the other that was in that package, which is carved to look sort of like a claw.  Maybe I should do that, it would probably appeal to more people than the acorn does.

One more on memory wire.  I'm not sure what the stones are exactly, but the large center stone is dyed turquoise with goldish veins throughout.  The silver spacers jangle a little on the sterling silver memory wire and the white stone chips have grey veins throughout.  This one is definitely something I'd wear regularly, but it's not overly girly.  It's a simple but slightly chunky light statement piece that should make people take notice without being too loud.  I just wish I knew what the stones were... people do ask about that.

I'll make more tonight to get ready for another Saturday sale tomorrow.  Have a great weekend everyone, and enjoy the Rally if you're headed North!

*UPDATE*  I did end up reworking the acorn necklace with the carved bone claw and replaced the seed beads with all hematite beads.  Much better, yes?

Fresh from the desk: Push to Pageant Weekend!

Hot Springs is a small town, but for some reason or another, the Miss South Dakota Pageant has been held here for decades (if not since the beginning... having some trouble finding the dates for that, but it's not terribly relevant for my purposes).  Having grown up here, left, and moved back, I can't quite figure out why something so big would stay here, but it's a huge deal for this little town.  There's a whole weekend's worth of events structured around the pageant.

The event that's of most interest to me at this point is the annual Arts & Crafts Festival held in Centennial Park.  It's a wonderful display of art, handicrafts, local businesses, local musicians, all of that.  Someday I hope to be able to afford a table there (as well as the 3 days the event runs... I'd have to miss a day of work for that now), but this year it isn't in the cards.  I'd need to sell everything I have to break even, so it's not an option.  What I will do, however, is set up my table on Saturday morning on my usual corner at the White Elephant and hope to catch some of the parade traffic there.  It may or may not work, we'll see.

Partly because of this and partly because of my decision to build my inventory and post more listings online, I'm beading like mad this week.  Tonight I made two memory wire necklaces, a pair of earrings to match a necklace I made yesterday, and reworked the green necklace I made a couple of weeks ago.

This one has a yellow carved bone pendant and two similarly yellow carved soapstone beads.   I employed my trusty color wheel to come up with the purple glass beads, and luckily I had a large amount of varying shades and finishes that were the first package of beads I ever bought.  I thought it was time to try to use them up.  That's a bit of a theme for me lately... I have lots of partially-used packages of beads that really just need to be worked with.  I'm not a huge fan of using straight-across complementary colors on the color wheel... they tend to be a little too jarring for me, but after I worked with this combination a little it started to grow on me.  I may try it more, if I have the right beads for it.  We'll see what the public thinks this weekend.  This is also the first memory wire necklace that I've beaded the whole way around.  It really is a bit of an experimental piece, but what else to do with such a stunning pendant?

This one is more typical of my style.  I have a package of dainty large leaf pendants, so I chose one of the smaller ones and added a symmetrical arrangement of shell and wood beads in greens, browns, and white, natural greenery tones to complement the leaf itself and lend their different textures.  I love this piece, and it went together in about 10 minutes flat, so we'll see what the public thinks of this one also.  Personally, it's one of my new favorites.

After making the green necklace a few weeks ago, I immediately started second-guessing myself.  I took it to the Saturday show right after and I wore it for a little while, and my suspicions were confirmed.  It was too long, it didn't lay right, and the daisy chain stitch just didn't work with the heavy soapstone centerpiece.  Tonight I cut it apart and put the soapstone where it belongs, on a piece of hemp surrounded by shiny glass beads, unfinished wood beads, jade-green pony beads, and pale green soapstone.  It's long enough to be about 18", but I prefer to tie it tighter.  The center bead just lays better when it's closer to a choker length.  This is a much better use of it.

Yesterday I made this necklace.  One of these weeks I'll take the time to get some good photos.  Maybe after Saturday.

It's simple, purple and white, 16" daisy chain with a faceted purple glass pendant and two small white shell beads on each side.  It's sparkly, just sparkly enough to be a little dressy but not overly formal.  Purple may be my new favorite color... it keeps showing up in my new clothes, new beads, new designs... I'm okay with that.

Luckily for me, there were smaller matching purple beads available, so I got them at the same time with the goal of making matching earrings.   It's still a daisy chain, still the same white shells around the purple pendant, but in earring form they almost look like a helix, don't they?  I like it.  Lots.  Again, we'll see how this set does this weekend.

Tomorrow I need to make more bracelets and anklets like this one just because they're fun (and to use up leftover beads).  No two will be exactly the same of course, but I should try to do matching bracelets and anklets just in case.  Hooray for progress!  It was a good night!

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!