Daily Craft - My design needs your vote!

You may remember a few weeks back that I won a set of beads through Artbeads' "Tuscon Ten" contest.  So, part two of the contest was to create a design using those beads, with the beads making up at least 50% of the design.  Usually, I just let inspiration come to me when thinking about jewelry pieces, so it was different to have the parameters of my design set by the beads in hand.  The biggest challenge I faced was figuring out how to combine the different sets of beads, which I may not think to put together under other circumstances. 

In the end, I designed two necklaces.  The intent was that they could be worn separately, or together.  The first necklace used the giraffe beads combined with the tiny peacock pearls, and wire wrapped together with antiqued brass wire.  The second necklace tied in the antiqued brass with chain, and I decided to go with a lariat style so that I could feature a couple of the larger beads at each end.  I think the end result ended up being pretty cool!

Now onto the second part of the contest though.  I could win a giftcard from Artbeads for my design and could use your help!  If you could take a minute to vote for my design, please scoot on over to this Facebook page.  Voting is open through May 20th.  You can also check out the designs on the Tuscon Ten Pinterest Board.  Thanks all! 

Daily Craft - A custom made necklace

While I am definitely in baby mode when it comes to my recent crafting, I was asked to make a necklace for a co-worker.  When time permits, I'm all about making custom pieces as it makes me think outside of the box and create something that I may not usually do.  I've also been frighteningly neglectful of my online shop since getting pregnant, so jumped at the chance.

In this case, it ended up being a beautiful smokey Swarovski briolette, wire-wrapped to a quatrefoil link.  Now that I've made the finished item, I love this design and need to make more like it!

Daily Tip - Jewelry photography

When I started photographing jewelry for my shop, Crave Creation, I wanted a consistent clean background with as few shadows as possible.  I discovered that for earrings, this wasn't a big problem as they're quite light. I taped some thread across my lightbox, and was able to suspend the earrings to photograph.  However, necklaces were proving to be a bigger problem.  I wanted a way to photograph them that would show how they hang but the thread I was using for the earrings just wasn't going to be strong enough.

The answer?  Use a wire coat hanger!  I bent the "neck" of the coat hanger at a 90 degree angle so that it provided a base, and then I can use the rest of the hanger to drape the necklaces from.  That allows me to take a photograph from this....

...to this...

...or even something more like this (which shows more of the necklace length).

I can also use this for earrings as the wires are easily moved to whatever position you need them in.  I finally have a purpose for those dry cleaning hangers!

I found this tip while surfing the internet on a lunch break.  Unfortunately I've forgotten which site I found it on (as I'd love to give credit where due) but it was too good not to share.

Daily Craft - Blood Lust!

With Halloween only a week away, my posts seem to be developing a bit of a theme!  Sunday night, a friend of mine commissioned me to make her a custom jewelry set (earrings, necklace, bracelet) for Halloween.  Time permitting of course, I'm always up for the challenge of a custom order and I knew this one would be fun given the theme.  We agreed upon red and black, and I wanted to make something that suggested Halloween, but can be worn year round.  Here's what I came up with!

My inspiration began with the red crackle glass beads, which really suggested blood drops to me.  I'm also a big fan of the black/grey ombre as the beads look different from every angle!  At first, I was torn between mixing up black and silver wire to connect the beads, but after playing around for a little bit, decided that the silver was going to be a cleaner look.  I'm calling the set "blood lust" seeing as it has a certain vampire glam (although I guess vampires wouldn't want to be wearing a ton of silver).  Hoping the recipient will find many uses for these pieces beyond the upcoming 'holiday'!



In other news, while shopping for beads, I noticed that Joann was getting rid of their Halloween costumes at 60% off.  I will admit that the last couple of years, I've been a complete slacker with preparing my costume and this year, haven't come up with any ideas whatsoever.  Now, while I didn't find any costumes that I could just buy, I did find a pretty amazing mullet with mustache wig set....and now I'm inspired.  Stay tuned for more on that!  :)

Are you dressing up for Halloween?  Do you have your costume ready, or just slacking like I am?!

Daily Craft - Fleur De Lis & a shop preview

I'm not usually drawn to necklaces seeing as I seem to have a habit of getting them either tangled in my hair, or wrapped around my neck in choke collar fashion, at some point during the day.  It's probably why I'm so drawn to making earrings, which I've never managed to strangle myself with...to date anyway.

That being said, I found some super cute Fleur De Lis pendants at Michael's yesterday and set about making necklaces for my new shop.  The second I made this necklace, I knew I wanted to keep it - which leaves me glad that the pendants came in a pack of two, one for me and one for somebody else out there.  I used simple black acrylic beads and used a chain to join the sections.  I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

Speaking of shops though, you may notice that I have a widget on my sidebar now.  This is not the type of widget that comes in a Guinness can and keeps your beer tasting delicious.  It will however take you to my shop, which is in beta right now.  I'm still working on logos, pointing the domain to the right place, and all that back-end fun, but feel free to browse.  I'm hoping to make a proper grand-opening announcement soon!