Secret etsy sale-last day!!!

If you want to get in on the great secret sale from sateam (StarvingjewelryArtists) on etsy, this is the last day, so you better click that blog link below to get the secret code and get to shopping before everything is gone or taken off sale. The sale ends at midnight tonight. All sales processed after that will be back at regular price. http://starvingartiststeam.blogspot.com/

Secret sale continues

If you haven't checked out the etsy secret sale being sponsered by the sateam-StarvingJewelryArtist team-you need to. There are all kinds of deals happening. For example, I am offering a free pair of color matching earrings if you buy one of the Silky Swag Necklaces. I've lowered my shipping costs on the swags and the earrings will ship free.. You do need to know the secret code, though. How do you get that? Just click on the sateam blog link.
http://starvingartiststeam.blogspot.com/ Better hurry, tomorrow is the last day.

The stop today is thebroomcloset...

This is an all around studio where Paula, aka, Picardcreative, keeps her supplies, de-stash and all kinds of goodies that she has decided to part with. There are some cool finds in this studio. I am going to show you some pics of a couple of my faves, then you just scoot over to her studio and check it out for yourself.



Yes, I said thebroomcloset on Artfire. http://wwww.artfire.com/users/thebroomcloset

Freebies available in a secret etsy sale

The Starving Jewelry Artists etsy team-sateam-is having a secret sale on etsy. There are all kinds of freebies from earrings to lampwork beads and shipping. Tons of discounts, too!! How do you get to the secret sale? It's easy-all you have to do is click this link to the sateam blog.
http://starvingartiststeam.blogspot.com/ You just might want to consider signing up to follow the sateam blog, too. Why would you want to do that? Because this is just the first of many team sponsored secret sales. So come on, what are you waiting for-follow the sateam to find great sales!!!

ChantillyLace is the crazy train rider today

What a beautiful studio this stop is. http://www.artfire.com/users/ChantillyLace
Besides making some really neat jewelry, she makes some gorgeous headpieces!!!
Here are some of my favorites.

Artfire is on a roll

Artfire is on such a super roll these days. They have rolled out the new fusion studios. Tey are so cool!!! Verified members get to choose color templates, widgets and all kind of neat things. I love the look of my new studio. http://www.artfire.com/users/DancingWindDesigns There are still some things I want to work on, but I will get there with it. Artfire makes it really easy.

They are also going to be rolling out a new front page look in the next couple of weeks. That's going to be cool, too.
ArtDaly, the artfire news letter has this to say about a couple of things:
$12.oo rate locked in!!!
After much discussion and planning, we’ve decided to lock in our current US $12.00 subscription rate. This means that all members currently signed up at the US $12.00/month rate and all new members will be locked in at this price for life! Our US $12.00 members will never have to pay more than what they are paying now. By being locked in, you’ll never have to worry about the price changing as long as you hold your ArtFire account. Even if the monthly subscription rises at some time in the future, you’ll still be locked in at US $12.00.

The Return of the Free Ride
That’s right, our Free Ride promotion is returning! Some of the rules may be changing, but members will once again have the opportunity to receive a free for life verified account on ArtFire by referring their friends to join as verified members. By referring 12 of your friends to sign up at our locked in US $12.00 rate, not only will you get a free ride, but you’ll also get to pick a friend who will get a free ride too! This friend can be anyone you want; it’s completely up to you. This way you can help out a friend of yours on ArtFire while receiving a free verified account yourself! Official rules will be posted later, but for now, keep an eye open for the free ride program launching later this week!

So, if you don't want to pay listing fees, selling fee's and other misc. fees, check out artfire where there is only one monthly fee.

Beautiful artwork on the crazy train today

Today, we have a stop at Angela's Adornments. http://www.artfire.com/users/Angelas_Adornments

Her shop is full of beautiful jewelry and some wonderful watercolors she has done. I love the watercolor paintings because they remind me vintage botanical prints for some reason.

Here are some pictures of a couple of them, then you can click the link and go see the rest of the cool goodies in her studio.

A gorgeous stop on the artfire crazy train today

Besides being addicted to seed beads, I am also addicted to all things glass. I love glass whether it's beads, vases or stained glass windows. Our stop today is the wonderful glass work studio of DerondaDesigns.

It's improtant to know when buying lampwork beads that they have been kiln annealed. This process keeps the beads from cooling too quickly which makes them vulnerable to breaking easily. DerondaDesigns kiln anneals her beautiful beads.
After looking at all the great beads she has in her studio, I decided that these beads are my favorites. I love the translucency of etched glass and these beads fill the bill.

So, if you love lampwork, and fused glass pretties, be sure to stop in at DerondaDesigns on artfire.

SheDesignsJewelry is our stop today.....

http://www.artfire.com/users/SheDesignsJewelry and it's a studio full of pretty and unique jewelry. One of my favorites is this Blue Flower Necklace. That flower looks like it's floating in the glass.






Sheila also has an Earring Grab Bag in her shop. If I didn't make earrings, I would be checking that out for sure. Best of all, it's free shipping in the US and until the end of May, everythingis 25% off. Doesn't get much better than that!! So, why are you still reading this instead of going to check out her shop. LOL!

Stopping today at BeadAllAboutIt

This is a super cool supply studio. http://www.artfire.com/users/beadallaboutit She has all kinds of gemstones in chips to faceted shapes, Murano glass, pearls-white and beautifully dyed colors-mother of pearl and wonderful Vintaj brass components.
I think my favorites are the Russian Amazonite items. Check them out.

Next Artfire Crazy Train stop is....

http://www.artfire.com/users/debvandetdesigns This studio is full of neat stuff-from jewelry to switch plate covers to adorable little memo books. By far, my favorite item in the entire studio is this switch plate cover. I love the vintage look it has-and would give any room it was in.






You really need to stop by and say hi and check out this studio for some great , handmade finds.

Last of the stash

So here are the last pictures of the bead stash. I realized while I was organizing them and taking the pics, that I am a color junkie. I can open those drawers and just get lost in the colors. (When I was a kid, a bag of M&M's held the same fascination.) I usually do that when my muse has decided to hibernate or take a vacation. It seems that just by looking at the colors and the stones and thinking of color combos will bring that muse just running back to be sure I don't do anything without her. LOL!
Sizes 6, 8 and Charlottes
Czech Ornelas
Bugle beads

Showing off my beads and organization

So today's post will show you what is in the cabinet drawers and how nicely it is organized. Since I have a project on my bead tray, and one in my bead bag, I'm sure this organization will last as long as it takes me to complete those 2 projects

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Agates, cabs and gemstone chips Size 15 seed beads Matsuno and Delicas

DynaMites Crystals and bi-cones

Tohos

This is all you get to see for now. Stay tuned for more pics on Sunday if you want to see. Hard to believe I have more beads, but I do. Guess I'm addicted to the little things.

Stopping in today at a haven

A Creative Haven Studio that is. There is a very eclectic range of handmade jewelry in this studio of my fellow Georgian. blue-aholic that I am, I love this Royal Blue Cat's Eye Necklace.

This picture jasper necklace is beautiful!! That's a piece that would work well iwth casual jeans or a little black dress.

I got organized-well almost

One of the things about making jewelry is the tendency to keep buying beads, gemstones and other things that your muse says you really, really need. All this buying and you need storage. Happily seed beads take up very little space-until you start accumulating pounds of them. I would guess that I have about 30 pounds of seed beads. Now remember, these beads are sold in grams, not pounds, so that's a lot of little tubes and boxes with seed beads in them. I have small amounts of beads, like 7 grams in a box up to 40 gram boxes. Now storage is also needed for patterns, catalogs, finished jewelry, photo props, looms, etc..

Over the next few days, I'll be posting pics of my new found organized studio/ground floor attic room and showing off my cool stash of beads and gemstones. I know I love looking at what other beaders have in their stash, so I figured I would show off my stash, too.

For starters here are photos of your basic rolling cart of drawers you can get at any Kmart/WalMart. I had to take the wheels off of mine-it was too heavy to roll and my husband mentioned that sitting flat on the floor would be better for the cart and it's durability since it had so much weight in it.
The other photo is of a sideboard we got at an auction. I repainted it an off white and trimmed it out in metallic copper. When our son hit the mid teenage years, he needed media storage, so this went into his room and my handy hubby built the top to go on it. It detaches for easier moving. Since my son has moved this in and out of a couple of apartments, it's gotten rather dinged up, but I haven't gotten around to re-doing it. The sideboard holds patterns, looms, catalogs and an assortment of other things like displays and photo props. I need to work on getting that more organized, but it will work this way for now.
for now, that's it. I'll post pics of what's inside the drawers tomorrow.

A stop in Michigan today

Today the Artfire crazy train is stopping in Michigan at MichiganMud Clay Studio.

This is a studio with polyclay goodies. If you don't know what polyclay is, think polymer clay-FIMO, Sculpey and other brands. It's some pretty cool stuff and you can do all kinds of creating with it.
I am a huge music fan with eclectic taste, so this music note is pretty cool.

One of the coolest things about growing up on the beach was all the migrating sea life you could see. One of my favorites was watching the manta rays migrate. To see these huge things-with 30 foot wing spans leap out of the water and land with a thundering boom that would make your ears rings is just so cool-especially when it isn't just one, but a huge school of them. So, I love this manta ray mini sculpture, too.

Our stop today...

We now come to a great shop called AlisunsToo. http://www.artfire.com/users/AlisunsToo

One of the deals in this shop is "Always Two for Won" shipping. If you buy a second item at equal value and it weighs less than 13 oz., it will ship for free. This won't be hard in this shop, because it is Alisuns destash store and the place where things go to live when they won't fir into her other shop-alisuns Custom Crafted jewelry Studio.

Things like this beautiful Crocheted Heart that was crocheted with one strand of embroidery floss. It's wonderful!! I've crocheted and embroidered, so I know how slender one strand of floss is. It shows in the details in this heart.


Go on, go check out this great artfire studio-before beautiful goodlies like this one are gone.

We have a very unique stop today

It's Absolutely Amy's studio on artfire. http://www.artfire.com/users/AbsolutelyAmy
This studio is full of ever changing items and all are pretty cool.
Like this huge de-stash lot of scrapbooking, cross stitching and other stuff. That's quite a collection in one lot. She also has some vintage books, some Kennedy for President buttons and other wonderful goodies. So stop in at her studio and have a peek at a couple of things. Her listings are always changing, so you never know what she willhave in stock next.

Time for another stop on the Artfire Crazy train

This time we are stopping at the Suzbak jewelry studi0-Jewelry To Keep.http://www.artfire.com/users/suzbax
One of her specialties is Mothers and Grandmothers Bracelets. I think these are pretty neat would would make a super gift.



The Mothers and Grandmothers bracelets are made with Swarovski crystals, so you know they have a ton of sparkle to them. The heart toggle clasp adds a special touch, too.

These Peace Earrings are pretty wonderful, too. I love the bright colors and the sentiment.

So go ahead, get that somebody that special, unique gift.

The Artfire crazy train rolls on

Our stop for today is Jewelry by Janzia http://www.artfire.com/users/JewelrybyJanzia


There are some luscious pieces of handmade jewelry in this studio.





My absolute favorite is the Autumn Sunset Necklace. The color is so rich in this, it's absolutely beautiful. This would really dress up any outfit.

There is a wonderful bracelet to match, but you will have to go to her shop to see it.

There are all sorts of gem treasures here. Wonderful things like necklaces of snowflake obsidian, rainbow flourite, and more. So what are you waiting for-go check out her studio!!!!

Stopping in today at JanelsonArts

http://www.artfire.com/users/janelsonarts
You really need to visit her shop-sooo many beautiful things.


Lifelong glass addict that I am, I love lampwork beads. There are some real beauties in JanelsonArts artfire studio, too.

Like these Friuts of Summer Beads


Of all the lampworking techniques, I think dichoric and boro beads are my favorites. Janelson did have a beautiful dichro cab in her shop, but apparently it has sold-good for her and "you are so lucky" to the buyer. I will content myself to show you these beautiful boro beads-Boro Dreams.

Our stop for today is....

the amazing LaDeDa Creations. http://www.artfire.com/users/LaDeDaCreations

She does really cool, colorful stuff with polymer clay. One of my favorite things in her shop is this incense burner. I just love the colors it has-and being a child of the 60's I love the pyschadelic influence, also.

This ring is cool, too. Besides all the cool poly stuff, she also has some bath and body goodies, anklets and earrings.

So have a peek at her shop. I'm sure you wil find something you love for yourself or for Mother's Day.