November Blog Contest With GiveAway

 I am a member of a great group of artists.  We are hosting a blog contest for November.  the prize package below is valued at over $200.00  This is a great opportunity to check out some fabulous stuff for Christmas (or birthdays, or housewarmings lol), and who knows, a $200+ prize would go a long way toward my holiday shopping!  Just hop on over to the gift guide from the link below. 

November blog contest

Want to earn some incredible prizes?  Check out these fantastic shops by clicking on their product pictures below.  Keep track of your favorite shop's name.  Don't forget the shops on page 2!  When you are ready, hop over to our "Poll" page and vote.  It's that simple!  The prize package will be awarded to one lucky winner by random drawing on November 26, so be sure to fill out the contact form on the Poll page.

The prize pack consists of 12 different items,  all of which are listed on the gift guide in the form of  a slide show on the page entitled Prizes.

This contest will be announced on several sites that list contests and giveaways.  The contest is now started and entries will close at midnight ET on November 25th.  Good luck to everyone and thanks in advance for your participation.

 Here is the link to the Gift Guide Site  .  The poll and list of prizes are also on this site. Repeated voting is not allowed.  Vote for up to 3 shops and than your voting is completed.  DON'T FORGET for a second chance to win choose to leave a comment.  You must fill out the form with both your name and your email address, that is the only way we can declare who the winner is and contact them for an address to ship the prizes to. 

Christmas in July Sale!

I will be having a Christmas in July sale in my jewelry shop on Artfire. The sale will run from July 1st to July 30th. I will have a coupon code up here on my blog and also in my shop on Artfire. The sale will be 20% off every item in the shop. Simply use the coupon code CHRISTMASINJULY during checkout and the 20% will be taken off automatically. Please note that this sale starts on July 1st. It does include the sale section in my shop also, so you can find some really good deals!

Beads To Finished Piece

I just love it when my lampwork customers send me pictures of what they have made with my beads. I am always inspired as most of the creations are things I would never have thought of putting together. Scott bought these beads and then sent me pictures of what he made. He is also entering the fire divas monthly challenge with the necklace so please make sure that you go and vote for him! Here are the challenge beads he bought and here is the necklace he made with them. I totally love this design!

Here is the other set he bought and made a wonderful bracelet with.

Etsy Artists

This week I am featuring two artists who have caught my eye in the forums. (Truth be told that is how I find most of the artists that I like. The posts in the forums also give a good indication as to what kind of person lies behind the art.)

stOOpidgERL
Well I have to say the name threw me for minute as it may throw you. I don't, however, believe there is anything stupid about Kim as her sales speak for themselves. Kim has a degree in fine arts/photography and has a wide range of mediums that she likes to work with. Some of those would be resin, collage and assemblage.
She has a totally unique point of view and if you are looking for something out of the ordinary this is the shop you want to got to.



MichellesCharmWorld
Michelle has some really cute, funky items in her shop that take me straight back to my childhood. Take this Barbie necklace made with charms that represent everything we love about Barbie. This takes me right back to the bedroom I shared with my little sister and the hours we spent on the floor organizing Barbie's accessories and getting her ready for her dates with Ken.
The Micky Bracelet is just fun. Talk about memories of those Disney vacations and the sheer joy of seeing Micky in person for the first time. Not to mention the great rides! For another taste of childhood fun check out Michelle's shop and forget about being a grown up for just a bit.

Metal Weaving

Well I wanted to share a new technique that I learned last week at my local labidary club. I took a class on metal weaving (yes just like weaving with wool with a few adjustments I imagine, I don't know how to weave with yarn or wool). I thought the end result was quite nice and now have a head full of plans to adapt, change and challenge myself to come up with new designs using this technique.

As you can see you do need some type of vise to hold the ends firmly in place. I use masking tape to protect the wire from being damaged by the vise. You also need to tape the wires at the bottom in order to keep them together and to mark which side is the front. Because you have to lower the pattern into the vice at least every other time you weave it is important to know which way is the front and which is the back. (trust me on this I am speaking from experience. While you can make an interesting pattern by swithching front to back if you aren't doing it on purpose it is a disaster!)

So once you get to the desired length you cut off the ends and take your frame wire and attach them together with more wire. This can be kind of tricky and does take some practice. Not too tight and not too loose. I will be practicng this with copper and plated metals until I have the technique down well. I actually find the

weaving part to be the easiest of the entire design. So from this point it is just a matter of wrapping and forming into the actual bracelet shape. You can of course make or attach any type of clasp that you wish. All in all it was two, well-spent Saturday mornings to learn this technique. It took about three hours to do the actual weaving and another three to finish it completely. I am hoping that with experience I will get just a wee bit quicker at it. I would also like to come up with some ways to embelish and play with it. Well that's it for now.

I will be posting another blog on some more of my favorite Etsy artists later this week and hopefully will have an update on our puppies (who haven't arrived yet by the way)