Bloom 9 at the Coast Collective

The Coast Collective is welcoming in spring with its 9th annual Bloom show!  The opening is Saturday April 1 from 1:00-3:00pm, and the show runs Wednesday to Sunday until April 16th.

The beautiful photography art on the poster is by the amazing Penny Pitcher, who has three other pieces in the show as well, so if you like what you see, you should definitely come check it out!

I have a Forget-me-not Fringe necklace in the show for a bit of springtime vintage charm:

Hope to see you there!

New Pieces Ready for Acres of Art

As promised, I am posting some pictures of new pieces I will have ready for the Coast Collective's  Acres of Art show on July 12th (details in a previous entry).  Many of them are familiar designs in new colours, but there are a couple new designs or new variations on old ones.

Let's start with new colours in familiar designs.  I've done a bunch of new colours in my pearl bracelets.  As you'll see, I've expanded into some brighter colours for the summer months.  These are made with glass pearls and seed beads and have lobster claw clasps so I can add an extender chain and make them adjustable if need be.  They are $20.

The first is a combination that makes me think of August in the Okanagan, of multitudes of grasshoppers singing in the sun baked hills.  It's caramel pearls with gold-core green seed beads.

The next bracelet features the same gold-core green seed beads but has green pearls.  I suppose it's the June or July to the previous bracelet's August.  Or more of an herb garden.

The final piece using these seed beads has violet pearls and is definitely more of a flower garden or summer meadow.  I really love this combination.  I'll almost definitely do a necklace in it at some point.

  

 

And here's the three of them together because I'm considering doing a multi-strand necklace in these colours.  They also happen to be Mardi Gras colours, which is fun.

Sticking to the violet and green theme, I also have a set with green pearls and some lovely oily-finish violet seed beads.  Kind of a reversal of a green "vine" with violet blooms.

I also did one with those same oily-finish violet seed beads with lilac/lavender pearls.  This one is cooler in tone.

And to finish off the range of purples, I have one with the violet pearls and iris seed beads.  The violet pearls really bring out the pink iridescence in the finish on the iris beads.

The next few bracelets all feature navy blue pearls.  The first one is relaxing, deep and cool with silver seed beads.

The next features a bit more contrast -- in fact, its opposite on the colour wheel -- in the form of clear copper-core seed beads.  I feel like the copper makes the blue pop more vibrantly.  And I don't know why, but I feel like copper is the metal of summer.

The final navy blue piece features blue copper-core seed beads which give a more muted version of the previous design while adding extra depth through the second shade of blue.

I'll fess up I did also do a few more neutral pearl bracelets.  I noticed when posting my previous batch of photos that I was out of white with silver, so I made one to go with the necklace I have.

I also decided to try a white with iris.  I was delighted by the result.  It's very delicate and feminine and airy.

I also brought some colour to white pearls with the icy blue seed beads I've come to love.  You've probably already seen them with dark grey or black pearls, but I can't believe I didn't mix them with white before, because it's gorgeous.

Which brings us to necklaces, because I loved this combination so much that I made a necklace in it.  Here it is on my snazzy new bust.  Like my other single-strand pearl necklaces, it's $39.

I also have a couple new multi-strand designs to show you. 

The first is in sun-kissed gold tones.  It's an asymmetrical two-strand design of white pearls with bright gold seed beads and caramel pearls with clear brown seed beads.  I have a few shots so you can get a good sense of it, and a close-up of the filigree box clasp.

The next is a triple-strand center with a single strand chain.  It's a design I came up with to make a triple strand necklace more manageable in terms of time and materials.  The single strand chain is a new design featuring white pearls and grey-silver core seed beads.  This is attached to a lovely silver-coloured three-to-one connector which is in turn connected to light grey, dark grey, and black lines of pearls with iris seed beads.  It's quite long and I need to get a larger bust to display it properly.

That's it for pearls.  I actually have a couple more bracelets to show you.  They are two versions of lace stitches with seed beads.

The first is done with grey silver-core seed beads and is horizontal lace.  Because of the number of beads in each loop, it ends up curling or ruffling, which I'll fess up was by accident but I thought it was pretty fun so I kept it.

The next one is more of a cuff.  It's vertical lace made with pink pearl-finish seed beads and edged with black pearl-finish or hematite-finish seed beads.  It looks really fun emerging from a long sleeve, but I think it could be pretty funky summer-wear too.

Back to necklaces.  I have another familiar design with new colours.  It's a daisy chain with bugle bead leaves in blue.  So it's a forget-me-not chain.  here it is on my new bust and then a bit more of a closeup on my old flat stand.  Like its violet sister, it's $30.

 

And the final piece I want to show you isn't new at all, but I am forever trying to get a good photo of it.  Here's my latest effort, on my new bust: Treasures of the Deep.

And that brings this really long entry to a close.  I am busily at work on new beach glass pieces for the show as well, since everything I've posted photos of before is over at the Maritime Museum.  I may or may not have time to post photos before the show on the 12th, but even if I don't get pictures up, they will be there.

Final Photo Update: Miscellaneous Pieces

Hello all,

Here are the last of the pieces I photographed on my big photo spree.

I'll start with the daisy chains.  Up first is a necklace of violet blooms with leaves in between, giving it a sort of 1920s retro fringe feel (seed beads, bugle beads, lobster claw clasp):

 These necklaces (I do have them in more colours now and am happy to make them in any colour requested) are $29.

I also have some daisy chain bracelets of various designs, any of which can be made into necklaces if someone wants (seed beads, bugle beads, e beads):

The violet one with the leaves is $15 and the pink and forget-me-not blue ones are $12.

I have a few more simple and inexpensive bracelets made from seed beads.  First up are some looped varieties, for $10:

I also have some looped with an extra strand which because of their colours I call my goldenchain bracelets.  I think I stole the term from Dylan Thomas.  They're $15.

At the other end of the pricing spectrum I have a new shot of my Treasures of the Deep necklace.  I want $299 for this, so that's what it is if I sell it directly.  If it goes into a gallery though, the price will go up based on the commission they take.  I'll let you know if that happens.  (seed beads and mother of pearl focal bead, filigree hook clasp)

And finally I have my celestial charm bracelet, which can be worn one of two ways.  This bracelet is $15.  This first photo shows it in a spread out bangle style (seed beads, various metal charms):

It can also be worn twisted up in a tight rope:

And that concludes the updated set of photos.  Next post you'll be seeing some of the new pieces I've worked on since then and/or some fresh photos of my earrings.

Pop Up Holiday Market in Centennial Square (and some pictures, as promised)

The next event where I'll be selling some items is the Pop Up Holiday Market at Centennial Square (downtown Victoria), underneath the Ferris wheel and among all the holiday lights. 

The market will run Fridays from 5-10pm and Saturdays/Sundays from 12-5pm from November 29th until December 22nd.  More details can be found at harbour living.  Sadly, the market was rained out today, but hopefully I'll be able to be there tomorrow.  I don't think I'll do any of the Friday nights, but I'll probably do a couple Saturdays or Sundays.  I'll keep you posted when I know which ones I'll be attending.

In preparation for the holiday market, I made some more holiday-themed items.  Like I said in a previous post, I made some jolly holly earrings with glass pearls.  Here are the ones with two leaves (seed beads, bugle beads, glass pearls, gold plate ear wires):

And here they are with three leaves (same materials, just more bugle beads):

I also made a necklace to go with them.  I decided to avoid gold altogether for the necklace and to go back to the cluster of three seed beads as berries.  I'll probably make a pair of earrings to match perfectly.  (seed beads, bugle beads, lobster claw clasp in gold plate):

And here's the necklace again just as a jumble on the table because I almost like it better that way.  I may make a few lengths of this just to wrap around the bases of candles or something.  I think that would be quite pretty, at least until wax started dripping into them, haha.

You may recall that I mentioned that at the Gifts show I discovered I needed to make more variety of lengths for my bracelets.  One customer brought a couple back to me that she'd bought and asked if I could change the length on them, and after we talked for a bit we decided it would be best to add some extender chain since they're gifts and she doesn't know the exact gift size of the recipients' wrists.  Here's a picture of the chain extender I put on, just so you have an idea of what that would look like.  (seed beads, glass pearls, lobster claw clasp, silver plate chain):

I think the little pearl with the seed beads on the end of the chain looks fairly cute.  I chose a larger chain because I thought the size being more consistent with the bracelet itself would be less jarring.  Thoughts?

And last but not least, my fringe necklace that I finished up during the Gifts show.  I promised you a slightly clearer shot, and here it is.  It's still not perfect, but I didn't feel like setting up all my multi-angle lamps just to photograph one necklace.  Next time I do a photo shoot of a bunch of my work I'll get some more pictures of it, assuming I haven't sold it by then.  (seed beads, filigree clasp, mother of pearl "focal" bead):

Since it's a big/fancy piece I've decided to give it a name.  I'm calling it "treasures of the deep" since the idea was that it would look like waves or currents of water, and since the focal bead is made of mother of pearl.

It's probably a fairly safe assumption I won't sell it any time soon (and that you'll therefore get better pictures) since I'm asking $180 for it.  Does that seem reasonable?  I spent about 40 hours making it, but I know no one will pay the $400+ that minimum wage plus materials would cost.  But given all the time, and the sheer volume of seed beads and expensive extra fine beading thread, I'm not parting with it for a small amount either.  In the few hours it was up at the show, it got a lot of attention, so who knows.

That's it for today.  If you've read this and then see me at Centennial Square, let me know.  I should be there tomorrow (Sunday), and I'll post again when I know my next day there.

Gifts for Myself and Others Report

Hello fabulous readers! (aka, Hi Mom!)

I thought I'd make a brief report about how the Gifts for Myself and Others show went, since I chattered about it so much in advance.  It was my first crafts show, so it was very exciting.  Prepare yourself for a long slog.

On the Thursday before the show, we were allowed to come in for a few hours and set up our booth/display, but not allowed to put out any of our product since there would be no security that night.  I should have taken more pictures, but here's the one I do have of our empty setup.  There's a big table out of view, across from the shelf.

Friday we were allowed to come in a few hours early and fill up our display with all of our lovely items.  As I said before, I was sharing a booth with Deb Thurlbeck, who makes all of the lovely fabric sculptures you'll see below.

We'll start with a shot of the overall display/booth.  We did rearrange things a bit as the weekend went on, partly as figures sold, partly just to keep things interesting, but here's how it started out:

 

Doesn't Erin the Heron look wonderfully festive in his little Santa hat and collar? And the peacock on the table is quite a show-stealer, isn't he?

My jewellery was mostly clustered on the left side of the table there, as you can see.  Here's a closeup from day one.  Sorry, it's a little blurry:

Here are a couple less blurry shots of sections of that main table spot:

As you can see, I had quite a few bracelets out.  Beaded bangles and the S curves with pearls in all sorts of colours.  I learned that I need to make a greater variety of bracelet lengths though, or at least have some extender chain and pliers on hand so that I can make them adjustable.  My preference with bracelets is not to have the chains though, personally.  What do you think?  Leave a comment and let me know if you like to have a length of adjustable chain on your bracelets.

I also had a few things on the stepped tables along the side.  You'll notice the earring tree under the lamp in the corner.  After a while I realized nobody was noticing it there, so we moved it up to the shelf, though I don't have a picture of its new home.

The giant glittery pine cones you've probably noticed are real, and enormous.  Deb collected them on a trip to California and then glitterified them.  I think they're just delightfully festive.

Here's a closeup of some of my donut wraps.  Deb and I finished setting up much faster than expected, so I had time to make a chain for the copper one.  I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the shape of it.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  (Again, I apologize for the quality of the images.  I took these with the camera in my phone since I forgot to bring my actual camera along.):

Oh, and here's another shot of the copper one with its chain (comment please!) against a lighter background:

In between moments of talking to delightful people about my beading and Deb's fabric art (and a bit of browsing and shopping through all the other wonderful vendors) there were some lulls when I was able to work on some more beading projects.  Here's a pair of festive earrings I came up with.  I call them my jolly holly earrings:

I also made another variant of those with red pearls.  I'll post a picture later.

The last project I had time to work on was a fringe necklace I'd already spent a good 35-40 hours on in the past.  I kind of stopped counting.  I had done all the fringe, but I wanted to turn the ladder stitch over the fringe part into brick stitch in order to tidy up places where you could see knotted thread and also to make it less inclined to flop back and forth over the top of the chain rather than lie straight.  I was really pleased with how the brick stitch helped with both of those goals.  Ta da!

I don't know if black is the best background for it.  The colours are supposed to look like flowing water, which is why I put a pearl in the center, since it could be a natural jewel of the deep.  I may take a better picture later, but in the meantime, let me know what you think of the colours, what you see in it.

So that's about it.  I think our display ended up looking quite lovely once it was filled in and that our items complimented each other quite nicely.  Sea horse giraffes may have wound up wearing bracelets as necklaces for parts of the show, but sadly there is no photographic evidence to prove it either way.  It was lots of fun and I got to talk to lots of great people (shoppers and other vendors).  I look forward to doing more shows in the future.