Designs by Leah Best

I found this great little shop on Artfire that does the neatest soldered glass pendants. DesignsByLeahBest. My favorite is the white rabbit but her entire series on Alice in Wonderland is stunning! And she has several vintage feel pendants that are just lovely! I have tried my hand at this type of pendant and it isn't as simple as it might seem. Even though the photos are between glass you have to be VERY careful not to let things get too hot as it will discolor the pictures and ruin your pendant. All this while handling a hot torch and melting the solder evenly so that it all holds together. Go and check out her shop, her items are a perfect gift for Christmas or just because you want to treat yourself!

My First Lamp Work Bead Making Class

So I took my first lamp work glass class last Saturday. Can I tell you I am soooo hooked lol! (Thank you Mary for your patience and generosity, you were a great teacher!) I bought the HotHead torch on the spot (thank goodness it was only $40 and hooks right up to the canister of map gas $7.95 at Home Depot) I already have proper venting for my metal work so I was good to go. My teacher was generous enough to send me home with a couple of rods of glass and a couple of mandrels etc to get started so I was playing with glass for the last couple of days. I was also lucky enough to discover that Franz Art Glass is having a sale (60% off!) until the 21st of August. (go check it out I got way more glass than I thought I was going to be able to). So I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of my stuff! I am going to post pictures of my first beads that I made at home so try to hold your laughter. I am still working on getting them round and symmetrical. Some are close, some not so much lol. Also just playing with dots and lines, the basics so to speak.

Sale Ending Soon!

Just a quick note that my 10% off just because sale will be ending soon This will run til the end of August. This is a great opportunity to pick up some early Christmas gifts! I am converting my entire Artfire shop to free shipping (the jewelry shop). This will be permanent. I also now have over 300 items listed so there is plenty to choose from! Have fun shopping!

SilverRiverRocks Is Here!

I have started a basic members shop on Artfire for destash. This will be mostly cabochons that I have cut myself and possibly some fused glass cabs also that I have made and possibly some destash beads. But its really hard for me to give any up lol! I have enough cabs to make something every day for at least two years but I JUST CAN"T STOP MAKING THEM lol! Its so relaxing and they are all so pretty lol! Anyway if things go well I will upgrade this shop to verified soon and start listing more than twelve at a time. I have some beautiful Ohio flint, which is found only in Ohio and is relatively rare. One of my favorite stones and I go and dig it up, slab and finish it myself so you will be purchasing true hand made by me cabochons. Come check it out!
SilverRiverRocks.Artfire.com

Huge Moving SALE!

I am closing my main Etsy shop and moving all of my wire wrapped and beaded jewelry to my Artfire shop. Quite frankly the constant cycle of renewal is just not worth it anymore. I will simply be letting my items expire as they come up for renewal. In the meantime I am offereing 25% OFF and FREE SHIPPING on the entire shop. This is a great deal for you lol! and will make it easier for me as I hope to have less items to move over!

Go HERE for the sale!

Ajdjss Guild Contest and Promotion!

Here is another fabulous opportunity to win some great jewelry and find a whole bunch of great jewelry designers that you may not have known about. Many thanks to our guild master BeadLady5 for all the time and effort you have put into making this happen! Also many thanks to the people who have donated items for prizes and re arranged things in their shop to make it fun for everyone. Here is the scoop so go check it out and find some really great artisans to put on your list of people to buy from!Ajdjss Guild "Spring Cleaning & Treasure Hunt" Event

The Ajdjss Guild "Spring Cleaning and Treasure Hunt" Event starts on April 17th and runs through May 1st.
To visit the guild's shops you need to search in the handmade section for "ajdjss guild" and in the supplies section for "ajdjss guild". When you do this all our studios will come up for you to visit.
When you visit our studios you will find that each one has a special section called "Spring Cleaning"--check out this section for fabulous sales and specials on beautifully handcrafted jewelry and wonderful jewelry supplies. Deals you will find hard to resist.
But that's not all--We are having a "Treasure Hunt"--with the chance for you to win fabulous handcrafted jewelry from our talented jewelry artisans!

Here is the info about our special "Treasure Hunt":
1.Visit our studios and check out the "Spring Cleaning" Section.

2.Find the item with the special "treasure phrase" in the last sentence of it's decription.

3.There are 2 phrases--"This is a piece of jewelry to treasure for a lifetime" or
"This can be used to create a piece of jewelry to treasure for a lifetime."

4. Find 10 studios with the hidden phrases and you will be entered in a drawing for a pair of lovely handcrafted earrings.

Find 15 studios with the hidden phrases and you will be entered in a drawing for a beautiful handcrafted bracelet.

Find 20 studios with the hidden phrases and you will be entered in a drawing for a fabulous handrafted necklace.

5. There will be 4 winners in each category.

6. Contact Beadlady5 with the names of the studios that you find, your name, and your email address. Beadlady5 can be contacted by clicking on the guild's avatar at the top right of the guild page.

Spring Alert!

Okay check out what I just found on Artfire. Now I am really longing for spring to arrive (as the sun glares off the snow that fell last night and this morning lol)!

All of Andrews items are recycled and I am going to insert what he has to say about them as he is much more clear and coherent than I am lol! As some of you may know I am a big believer in helping our environment and am doubly happy that I found Andrews stuff since it combines my love of gardening and nature with eco friendly things lol! Here is what Andrew has to say about what he does:

Quality And Value

Prized by boat builders and other artists for centuries, clear Western Red Cedar is the very best lumber for outdoor use. Its properties of stiffness, straightness of grain, high strength-to-weight ratio, resistance to decay, beautiful color, and enchanting scent are even greater when sawn from old-growth trees.

Unfortunately, there are so few old-growth cedar trees left, that with a steadily growing demand, the cost of this material is rising at such a rate that it’s becoming difficult for we as consumers to justify its use over cheap-looking shiny alternatives. The good news is, the lower prices I pay for this higher quality lumber gives me room to spend the time to carefully craft into each piece properties of unusual strength, and higher overall quality than normally found in cedar garden structures, and to sell the finished piece at a fair price.

Originality

Every piece is unique, as all have been crafted from woods full of different clues to its history, in decades-old fastener holes, tool marks, embedded mineral stains, and other minor inclusions. Although I saw and plane most stock to uniform thicknesses, I like these imperfections to remain as evidence of its antiquity.

Environmentally Friendly Goals

Thank you for considering recycled cedar. You may be contributing to a healthier future for your children and theirs, by playing the most important role in the preservation of our forests, and encouraging the further use of sustainable forestry practices throughout the Pacific Northwest and all over the world. You are actively contributing to the conservation of some of our most beautiful and beneficial resources, while finding the perfect addition to your garden.

So, go check out his shop at ANDREWSRECLAIMED or just click on a picture to go straight to that listing. Also Andrew might have mentioned something about a give away closer to spring so make sure you check back often.

More give aways are in the works also, including jewelry (not mine lol but maybe in the future), and beauty/skin products, so that's at least 3 give aways coming up in the next couple of months.

Wow I can't believe it!

Not too long ago I mentioned that I was going to be broadening my horizons and listing items on a several new venues. I specifically did a post on Shop Handmade, and how it was eco friendly and helping the rainforest.

Well I just got an email from them that said they were going to feature one of my items in an ad spot in the January edition of Beads Unique magazine! How exciting is that! Truly I am doing the happy dance lol! Needless to say I will continue to list my products on this site and come the New Year, when I need to make decisions on which venues to cull, Shop Handmade will be a keeper. And to confirm what I said in my previous post, this listing is free (can't beat that) you can choose to donate to the save the rainforest or not and it does not get billed til you sell that item. I choose to donate but that's just me. Please take a closer look at this website and if you are looking to help the environment this is the place to shop.

Expanding my selling horizons

So I have been gone for a bit figuratively speaking anyway. Nothing as exciting as a vacation or leaving town or anything lol, I have just been really busy. I have started several new avenues for selling and am pretty excited about it. I have always known that etsy was not the only area I needed to pursue to be successful although it will always hold a special place in my business heart. The direction at etsy seems to be changing and not for the better as far as hand made is concerned and while I took this into consideration it is not the only reason that I am expanding my market. The old adage to not put all of your eggs in one basket is a good one for many reasons.

So for those of you who don't know I also sell stitch markers for knitters and crocheters. That started out as a way to use left over beads and has morphed into into a line of business that is a lot of fun. I find that when I bead shop now some beads say jewelry and some say stitch markers. Some of them say both lol! Anyway my shop on etsy silverriverstitches
is doing quite well. I was approached by a wonderful lady with and offer to sell my stitch markers on line in her shop that caters solely to people who use yarn to craft. Yarny-Goodness
She offered me a great deal, and excellent contract and with the extra advertising she is doing my product will hopefully become more well known. This is one of the ways I have expanded a bit as far as going beyond etsy as a source for customers. I feel this can only be a good thing and I did some serious research before I jumped in. I made sure that the contract that was offered had what I wanted in it before I committed or sent any product. Pam has been wonderful to work with and quite frankly if this works out as well as I hope I may end up sending them all to her since she is the one doing the hard stuff like photographing the pictures, and doing all of the packaging and shipping.

So I am doing several other things with the jewelry including a local farmers market (which has turned out to be surprisingly successful), I have place a good portion of my higher end items in a fabulous gallery and I am building my own website from scratch with a web building program that will allow me to sell directly off my own site. (this is turning out to not be as difficult as I thought it would be, just very time consuming). Considering the amount of money I am saving building it myself, it will be worth the time it takes. And I like to do as much as I can myself anyway. I have designed a logo and applied it to my business cards, earring cards, price tags etc so that I have a "brand" that people will recognize. I will be showing those off in another post. I am also looking to possibly do several craft shows before Christmas.

Hopefully I will be posting a little more regularly in the future as summer winds down and we all spend more time indoors. For those of you who knit, crochet, and felt make sure you check out the artists on Yarny-Goodness for some great yarn and yarn accessories.

The Things That People Say Part 2

So I am back with more interesting things that people say to vendors at craft fairs/shows. It is always amazing to me that people do not understand the time and effort it takes to make things. Not just the amount of time physically spent making items but the time we spend online and in person hunting down reputable, affordable dealers for supplies, and the amount of time that we spend perfecting what we do. I also know from personal experience and know this to be true of many other artists as well, we never stop learning new things, and trying to perfect the techniques that we already know. For most of us it is never good enough and this drives us to continue pushing our personal envelope. This is one of the reasons that many of us are unwilling to divulge the source of our materials and many of the techniques that we use just for the asking. We want you to learn by doing just like we did. It tends to make you a better artist than if someone just hands you all of the information. Most of us are more than willing to point you in the right direction to get you started but please, don't expect us to give up all of our secrets we worked so hard to acquire.

Examples

A friend said to me (chatting online): "Maybe you can show me how to make jewelry. I will never have to buy jewelry again!"

My comeback: Logged off.
LOL

I had one of these too!
But then I got really evasive, saying that I buy my wire from the States (via internet), thinking that she might understand my subtleness.. and then she asked me if I could buy the wire for her!

wow, I should think about this a bit more but I did have someone grab my button machine and ask me how it works without asking to touch it. Never touch an artists tools without asking! Don't touch musical instruments, tools that seem like they could be in a tool box like pliers or those fancy artists pens, just don't do it.

Also, every couple of months I get an e-mail from some local person I don't even know who wants to borrow my button machine. They tell me that they want to make buttons and not have to pay my prices!? I usually answers by saying "My button machine is my tool of my trade. I don't think you would ask a random carpenter you didn't know if you could borrow their table saw."

Customer: "where do you get all your supplies?"

Me: *thinking to myself "that is the rudest question to EVER ask a designer"....i said to her w/flat-pan grin "...i get all of it from planet earth." ~ which is a true statement.

"Will you teach me to do that?" (Subtext: "...because I don't want to pay you for something you can teach me for free to make myself...")

"I wonder where she got her supplies"

It's usually "How did you make those?"
To which I usually answer "One at a time."
(One young man of about 13 replied to that, in his best Robert DiNero "So, you ain't gonna tell me?")

I had one guy ask me if I had gold items so he could melt them down. Then he asked me where I got all my stuff.

Ummm... :/

Most often overheard at my booth: a all too common scene:

Nice Lady: "Oh my daughter makes jewelry"

Me: "Yes, I think about 20% of the population does it for a hobby or proffession, it is the sewing of yesterday"

Nice Lady: "My daughter needs to come over here! (calls on cell- "OH daughter- come check this stuff out! You should totally come make this designs and charge so much more!" While looking directly at me)

Me: Is she coming over?

Nice LAdy: Yes, she is, she was just over by the handmade candies

Me: Oh, good, I love to talk with other bead lovers..

Nice lady's daughter : OMG! I love this! Mom, I should totally copy and sell for more! You are so right!!! Hey- you- bead artist, where do you get your beads so I can buy them? I like totally want to make this myself

ME: I have them custom cut and made just for me. Takes 9 months and thousands of dollars (Truth)

Nice LAdy; OH! Daughter! I am so sad for you! You can make so much more money than her if you could do that!

Me: Why dont I give you my bead suppliers name and contact info

Nice Lady 's daughter: That is like so totally unfair! That would take forever!I hate you! I want your beads now! You make it really difficult for others to earn a living at this business!!!

ME: Well, I spent 5 years working for others while doing my jewelry line so I would not spend a dime on credit for supplies and very slowly built up my purchasing abilities. This has taken 11 years for me to get here. No easy road for me.

Nice Lady's daughter: Mom, buy me that necklace so I can resell for 3 times that amount

Me: happy to sell that to you..

Nice ladys daughter: Why dont you just sell me the necklace for what the beads cost you, I think you should because I am a beader too and buy from Fire Mt.

Me: ( It takes me to hear this before I think: WTF????) I am so sorry, but I need to sell at what it is priced at. My babys need food you know!

Nice Lady: Why dont I make it up to you by buying you that nice handbag you want

Nice ladys daughter: Pout....

I love art and craft fairs. I was at the Christmas craft fair last year. There were 2 ladies stop by my booth. They examined everything inside and out the say: "Would you show me how to make this. I don't want to buy, I can make it if you'll show me how" Wow, I said: "Why would I want to do that? How much do you want to pay for the lesson?"
They left without saying a word.

"Where do you get your stuff from? I was thinking of doing the same thing, but I don't know where to get the stuff" !


As you can see most artists and crafters find this type of thing rude and belittling. We really don't mind giving tips about techniques and supplies if you are a serious crafter but don't expect us to give away the farm just so you don't have to pay for something you think you can make yourself.

Usually, if the person is serious about starting a "craft" and making jewelry I might point that person in the right direction. After all, if they go online they will find the information regardless. I don't really have time to teach. I barely have time to create! And if I was to teach anyone I would definitely charge for my time and supplies.

I have had people ask me oh how do you make that? Basically just to see what information they can get out of me... I laugh and tell them "I can't." or "Sure I can tell you, but I charge $30 an hour for my time." Short, plain, simple, straight to the point.

I still do not understand why people think it is just a hobby. Yes I do have a full time job, but I also work on my jewelry practically full time as well. The fact that we sell our work online, on craft shows/fairs, makes it more than just a hobby, but some people take that for granted.

brynnalex
LoellaMedina
nanouke
brainscan
pattymara
sexygeekwithattitude
TheSilkRoad
GivingGrace
Asianexpressions

Etsy Artist of the Week

PENGIES

I ran across this shop in the forums and just couldn't resist. These are little penguins made of fimo clay in an assortment of poses and colors. Her is what Caitlin says in her profile about her "pengies".

Pengies are little model penguins, made of a special clay called fimo. Each little critter has it's own personality, with a name & message to suit. They are bright & colorful, and they all need a loving home, so take a look & maybe take one home...

Now these are also customizable as far as names, colors, personality and sayings go. They come in two sizes. You can also request a holiday themed pengie by using the "convo" feature on Etsy.

What can I say?! These just caught my eye as being really cute and colorful and some of the expressions on their faces are great. Go check out her shop and take some home.

How To Make Sterling Silver Head Pins

Okay I promised to do a picture tutorial of how to make headpins at home. Please be patient as I am recovering from pneumonia.

Obviously the first thing you will need are your supplies and someplace safe to light your torch. I don't recommend your living room. I know you may not like those curtains but trust me there is a better way.

You need your sterling silver wire 18 to 24 guage round either dead soft or half hard.(personal preference and depending on what you are using them for) Something to hold them with as you apply your torch. I am using what is called a third hand. Basically anything that will hold your wire and not catch on fire or melt while near the torch. Your fingers do NOT fall under this category and will most definitely burn. Even if you miss them with the torch the wire itself get hot all the way to to top so be careful. it to cool completely or use tweezers, pliers whatever to remove them from your holder.(Yes I am speaking from experience, take my word for it). You also need a torch. Mine is from Home Depot and was 14 dollars. Please read the directions FIRST. Move anything flammable from around your space you will be working in. (you would be surprised at how far the flame actually goes). Now you will need to cut your wire to the appropriate length ( I am still working on how long to cut for the amount I want to have left but it is just a matter of trial and error to figure out the right length.) Hook up your first piece of wire and light your torch. Apply the flame to the bottom of the head pin and watch for it turn red. This does not take long! As soon as it turns red it balls up and you can remove the torch and turn it off. Either wait for the pin to cool or use a tweezer or plier to remove it from you third hand.( I cannot emphasis this part enough, third degree burns do ugly things to fingerprints!). Continue with this process until you have made the desired amount of heads pins. This is what they should look like at this point. Not very attractive and kind of dirty looking.. At this point they need to go into the pickle pot so that the fire scale will be removed and they will start to look like usable pieces. Again please read all the directions for your pickle if you have never tried this before. After pickling the head pins come out with a whitish coating on them. This is normal, please don't panic, you have not done anything wrong. The next step is to toss them in your tumbler and give them a spin for about two hours. This not only makes them nice and shiny but also makes them stronger. Then you just straighten any that you need to straighten and you have now created your very own headpins to work with. I hope this has been a helpful piece for those of you just starting out. Please follow all safety and handling instructions when you attempt to do this.
Many thanks go to the fine etsians who have been kind enough to share their knowledge in the forums and in tutorials of their own. Not limited to but including

GlitterCritter, LooseWireStudio Stereotte, and WireYourWorld to name a few.

An Etsy Seller and Fellow Blogger

I know that I usually do a post on an etsy seller and link to the blog on the sidebar but I am going to do this one a bit differently. There are lots of sellers on etsy who also have wonderful blogs and it would take years to post everyone of them.

BUTTERFLISLM
This particular etsian has added to her blog a very long list of beautiful shops that you can find on etsy. If you want to check some of them out you can go here http://butterflidesign.blogspot.com/
I am guessing that you can spend several days checking out her list alone. And it is a chance to see some really talented artists. So I was browsing thru her shop and came across this very cute and practical crocheted scrubby. Now my sister's, husband's grandma makes me a couple of crocheted scrubbies every year for Christmas and I love them. They work really well and they wash easily in the washer. However Stacy has gone one step further and has crocheted hemp yarn in the middle of hers. This means MORE POWER to clean my stove and countertops. (My teenagers can leave a horrendous mess and walk away. Three hours later when I come home from work I practically need a flamethrower to get the dried on gook off the stove). So I suggest you check out her blog for lots of cool etsy artists and check out her store for some great crocheted items. (She does more than scrubbies lol!).

Next Round of Etsy Artists

Sorry it took so long, it has been really nuts around my house. (See previous post to see why!). Everyone comes to my house for Thanksgiving also so I need to clean and cook and ..... I have called my daughter off of school tomorrow to help ( she is fourteen). She asked to stay home and help cook and since she is a 4.0 student and has only missed one day I said yes. (and I really need the help). So anyway here are two more of my favorite Etsy artists with some really unique and fun things.

HIPHOSTAGE

Donna has some really cool vintage items in her shop. I don't know a whole lot about vintage but I keep going back to check and see if she has made any other great finds! Donna has done some selling on the other e site (whose name shall not be mentioned lol!) and has decided that Etsy has some unique features and that she would give it a try. She is also a member of the CASTTEAM (Christian Artist Street Team) and Etsy Believers. Not only does she have super cool items in her shop, she is a great person too. I have never seen a negative post from her in the forums (mind you this can be difficult to do some days!) and she is always encouraging. Check out her shop for some great items!

STEREOETTE

Joi is originally from Texas and currently in New York with some really unique things. She makes jewelry, sews clothing, makes bags, fuses glass and screen prints cards and fabric. In her spare time. I found her items to be unique and interesting and I have never seen anyone meld acrylic with metal in the way that she does. Very cool! If you are looking for something unique and different and just a little bit quirky then her shop is the one you want to check out!
I also have to mention that she is one of the people who generously shared some information on beginning metal smithing with me that was very helpful and saved me a good bit of time and money in my search for what I needed to get started. Not everyone is willing to take the extra time to help out a beginner. So thanks Joi!

Round Four of my Favorite Etsy Artists

Okay so this week I am featuring two artists. One is a jewelry designer and one makes the most incredible bags... Anyway I chose these two not just for the items that they make (although they are well worth checking out) but also because of the way they respond to people in the forums. Always helpful and kind (and honest in a nice way when needed) they just really stand out as good people.

DesignedbyLucinda

Lucinda makes some really awesome jewelry ( I struggle with posting other jewelry designers on this blog , let's face it, it is competition for me so when I do decide to post a jewelry designer it will be someone I truly admire.) She has some really beautiful designs and quite reasonable prices. She stands out in the forums as well, always willing to help out the new people with good advice and is generally always patient and kind.

I have it on good authority that she has a ton more stuff that she hasn't gotten around to listing yet (although I know she is working hard on it lol) so if you are looking for something in particular just ask her she could very well have it. And if she doesn't I bet she can make it.

HerRoyalMajestyBags

What can I say? She has the most awesome collection of bags and I can't wait until I get some spending money. Veronica is from Maine and says that her husband is awesome! That alone gets kudos my book lol. Her bags are fabulous and very well made. They come in a wide variety of colors and styles so there really is no excuse not to buy something from this lovely shop. Vibrant colors and patterns that quite frankly make me drool.

She also has a lovely sense of humor and has posed quite a few thought provoking questions on our etsy forums, always geared at having people take a good look at how to improve their shops to get the most out of what they are selling. I always look forward to hearing what she has to say, I usually learn something that is to my benefit.

Well that 's it for this week. I really hope that you will check these two talented ladies out. You can find the link to their stores on the right under etsy artists.