A Little Bird Told Me...

One of my latest creations....

It started when I was trying to create something out of sterling wire - I won't even say what because it's embarrassing that I ended up so far off my original mark. I wasn't pleased with my progress and in a mini-fit of frustration, I smashed it. Being rather frugal, I couldn't just throw the mess away so I considered how I might be able to re-purpose it.

It looked rather like a bird's nest, albeit a rough one. And so yet another inpiration was born. As the saying goes, there are no new ideas ... so a quick search of the internet revealed (googled 'birdnest pendant').

Nevertheless, I like the way it came out. It's more organic (read: messier) than some of the more structured wire birdnest pendants I've seen online. The "eggs" are cultured freshwater pearls that are woven into the nest.

I wore my creation a couple of weeks ago to a class I attend and one of the other women in class asked me to make one for her. I've also made a pair of birdnest earrings.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Beaded Spheres

Last fall I posted about a beaded ball (for lack of a better term) that I bought in a bead shop that was going out of business. I've been enthralled by the silly thing ever since. I tried searching online to find out how they're made - no easy feat, when you're not sure what they're called. I did finally find some printed instructions that, for me, were way too complicated.

I more or less put the idea aside while I'm took care of my computer issues in December. Since then, I found a brilliant tutorial on a blog called My Daily Bead. The author's technique is so much clearer than anything I've come across.

The photos above are a few of my creations. The gray ball is made from 6mm bicone Swarovski crystals. It's a tad 'disco-ballish' for my taste, but it's easier working with larger beads when you're just starting out. It's made with 30 crystals.

The small white ball is made with tiny seed beads and is smaller in diameter than a dime. I modified the instructions so that I used 3 seed beads for every one bead used in the tutorial (a 3 to 1 ratio = 90 seed beads).

I followed the instructions to created the ball using rice pearls and attached them to earrings. It was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to buying tiny bicone crystals and making these into pendants.

Drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

Celebrating My 12th Sale

Since joining the Etsy site one year ago (almost to the day - Feb. 25 is my Etsy-versary date), I've sold twelve items. Eleven were Etsy sales, one was an in-person sale. Now, I know 12 isn't a stellar number, but still...

A year ago, I couldn't imagine selling a single one of my little creations. Today, I sold one of my favorite pieces. It's a one-of-a-kind (OOAK, for those of you who like acronyms) triple strand aventurine necklace with Tribe Hill silver flowers.

I'll ship it tomorrow and celebrate with a Caffe Mocha.

1000 Markets

In addition to my Etsy shop, I can now also be found on the 1000Markets.com. Here's the link: www.lisaraspino.1000markets.com

1000 Markets is another online artisan venue, much smaller than Etsy (although perhaps not for long). They have a very simple fee structure: free to list items, no expiration on listings, 5.5% + 50 cents if the items sells.

Rather than accepting PayPal (I do like PayPal), 1000 Markets accepts Amazon Payments. What this means for the buyer is that if they have an Amazon.com account (and many people do), they can pay that way. As a seller, I never see the buyer's personal credit card information (the same is true with PayPal).

The downfall: right now, 1000 Markets is a U.S. only site, whereas Etsy is international. Still, I like the streamlined look of 1000 Markets. Check it out sometime.

Did You Miss Me?

Have you, three followers, been wondering where I've been lately? I'll fill you in. I've traveled to Washington, DC (great trip), stopped by Lilly's Bead Box in Knoxville, TN (cool stuff), then picked up a computer virus (GRRR).

I resisted the urge to throw my desktop p.c. out the kitchen window, and decided to wipe the hard drive instead. Thanks to the recovery disks, I was able to restore my system to where it was in 2004. Several hundred Windows updates later (okay, I'm exaggerating - only slightly), and I'm up and running. Unfortunately one of my photo backup disks was bad - I lost all of my jewelry photos, but I can retake those. My family photos (six years worth) are safe.

So my New Year's resolutions are: 1) backup my photos on a flash drive instead of CD (ditto my iTunes library), 2) take new photos of my 100+ jewelry items, 3) write descriptions for the 60 or 70 items that I still have to list on Etsy.

I hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year!