Happenings

I've been woefully neglectful of blogging my crafty capers of late, so I thought I'd catch up.

I had some serious good fortune in the last few weeks to have not one but TWO items on Etsy Front Pages thanks to treasury goddesses 3s and Lazy Giraffe which lead to an avalanche of hearts for which I am most grateful. Lazy's lovely orange and pink treasury features my Pining for Goshen pendant and 3's pinks and blues features my White Vinyard earrings. Here's hoping for more features in the future!

I've been spending a lot of time in creative mode lately as well. The gorgeous cabs and beads that I've bought from the Rock and Gem Show have been burning holes in their little storage bins, so I've done my best to rescue them from their plastic prison and get them into pieces. As you can see, in the previously mentioned "Envy" piece, the tourmaline and peridot beads have been encorperated and my new "White Lotus" pendants with marquis cut rainbow moonstone cabochons have emerged out of some of my show finds! Stones often inspire the shape of a piece, especially in the case of White Lotus; the marquis shape lends itself to long, elegant shapes.

Since receiving a heapin' helpin of beads in the post recently, I've been trying to decide how to use them to maximum effect and have come up with an earring style that can showcase a number of beautiful beads all at the same time.

Although it saves a fair amount of cash, I often have to pay import fees from American suppliers, so I spent a lot of time having to run out to the local sorting office to retrieve parcels being held for ransom by customs and excise. This week, I finally got a much needed shipment of beads and silver. Some of these beautiful garnet and garnet briolette beads made it into "The Temptation of Proserpine"; a luscious red pair of earrings representing the 6 pomegranate seeds that doomed Persephone to 6 months as year as the queen of the underworld with her abductor, Hades. I absolutely love how these turned out. I'm a bit of a garnet monkey, to be honest, so seeing this much garnety goodness in one place got me all hot and bothered.

On a slightly smaller scale, I wanted to show off some of the stunning citrine beads from my collection, so the "Limoncello" earrings were born. I often forget about citrine when creating; it's color is kind of pale and is easy to overlook when faced with a pile of vibrant beads all screaming, "PICK ME!", but put together in a cluster like this, they creates a cheerful, yet understated mood. They make me think of the drink who's name they share, which is completely scrummy, especially in the summertime. I am terribly tempted to make a pair of these for myself, but there is MUCH to be done before I can think about personal adornment!

I was really pleased to have also made a sale in the last week! My "Bombay Bride" earrings are now trundling their way across the country towards their new home. This sale edges me closer to my milestone 10th sale! The 10th customer, will of course, get a little extra treat with their purchase, so if anyone cares for a bit of shopping, please check out the shop.