Critters - A Sneak Peek

The critters are finished!! I planned to get them all listed in my shop today, but the camera batteries had another idea - they totally died! And the backup batteries I thought I'd charged (I'm sure I did!) didn't have a charge at all. So no critter listings for today. But I do have a sneak peek for you. Enjoy!

 A fawn.

 A bluebird.

A hedgehog.

And a skunk.

 A big huge thanks to my sister Bethanne for taking these. Having a photographer/sister is an awesome thing - every Etsy shop owner should have one! She saves me sooo much time, which means more beads and more jewelry!

With no listings to make, I had more time on my hands this evening and I decided to try out Craft Cult's treasury widget. What a great tool!

Here's a beautiful treasury by Julie of mermaidencreations. She did such an excellent job and I'm so excited to have it named after my Heart of the Forest necklace. Thank you Julie!

And here are a few of my favorites. How fun to be featured alongside such gorgeous art!

Crystalline dewdrops by BrootPhoto

Beautiful spring-green earrings by stregata

And a sweet little mushroom by NatureMandalas

... Well, hopefully the camera batteries will be in a better mood tomorrow and I'll have more critters to show you and some listings in my shop...

Time to Start Painting!

Did I mention I love painting? Seventy little critters total. Hmm... that's a lot...

Let the painting begin!!

* * *

Here's a little pendant I made earlier while waiting for the last batch of critters to come out of the oven. I picked a wild daisy, mixed together the two parts of a molding compound, carefully pressed the daisy into the compound, waited about 5 minutes, removed the daisy, pressed some clay into the new mold.... and voila! a pendant with a perfect little daisy. Fun! Of course I had to bake it and give it a patina too, which explains the black paint on my hands. And now it's listed in my shop.

Come on back in a few days to meet the new painted critters. See you then!

Bead Table Wednesday

Little critter beads are in the works today... bunnies, bluebirds, turtles... and some new ones: hedgehogs, fawns, raccoons, squirrels, skunks (what?! little sleeping skunks are cute, don't you think?), and kitties. Actually this is about two days of work. Several more owls and foxes need their eyes and then it's time to start painting - my favorite part!

Happy Bead Table Wednesday!

Go here to see what's happening on everyone's bead table today.

Amazing Giveaway at Art Bead Scene

Art Bead Scene is having an amazing giveaway to celebrate the new Beads 2011 buyer's guide magazine. Go here for a chance to win a load of beautiful art beads and findings, plus a copy of Beads 2011!

Bead Table Thursday

I finally did it! I missed BTW and am posting on Thursday... I make that sound like it's a good thing. I do have a good excuse... really. Rain. It was raining all of yesterday. And not only did that ruin the lighting for photography, it also slowed down my project.

My plan had been to go walking with Pepper for an hour or so to gather leaves and flowers for making texture beads. Instead, I was indoors waiting for a lull in the rain. At each lull I'd run out in the front yard, grab some leaves, and run back in before getting soaked. And no, Pepper did NOT come with me - she is one unhappy little dog if even ONE drop of rain hits her!

Pepper

So, by the time I had gathered leaves (not the assortment I had wanted) it was nearly dark and I didn't have anything ready to show yet.

* * *

Today I did finish a few things:

Round links and a pendant in pewter polymer clay, textured with leaves from Queen Anne's lace, yarrow, and Venus' looking glass.

 

And three heart pendants.

And then, since I already had pewter out, I made a new little tiny dragon. This one has a purple micro-faceted agate.

I think I'll hang the dragon on a silver or gunmetal chain. I have a design in mind for the textured rounds using a few other polymer beads from my stash and some red rondelles. And the hearts I've listed in my shop. Later I'll be making more bees - the first ones are buzzing off to their new home already. And after that I'm on to new woodland critters.

Happy Bead Table Wednesday... uh... I mean, Thursday!

Be sure to visit the Flickr group!

Of Peak Fest and Tiny Bees

Peak Fest was fantastic! This was my first time doing a spring show and I really enjoyed it. My location was perfect. The weather was gorgeous. Turnout was excellent. Lots of people were shopping for Mother's Day - I had moms oohing and aahing over things and in a short while the dad and kids would return to buy it in secret.

Setup was (mostly) a breeze and my helpers were super fast. We had it all arranged in record speed! This time I had put all my jewelry in little zip-lock bags instead of layering in boxes. Opening tons of little bags was a bit tedious, but the good part about it was that there were no tangled chains and cords. I had separated the bagged jewelry into two boxes - one with jewelry I wanted set out at the start and another with duplicates and replacements for later. For my earrings, I had tacked screen onto a couple of the hanging boards, hung the earrings, and wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap to keep it all in place. All that had to be done at the show was hang and unwrap!

All in all it was a great day and as always I was a little sad when it ended and it was time to take everything down. But the next show will be here before we know it!


I took a few days off after Peak Fest to recharge my creative batteries. I did a little of this and that, and started cleaning up the huge mess that had erupted during the final days of mad panic before Peak Fest. Today I finally broke out the clay to try something new: little tiny bees.

They're fun and colorful - an adaptation of my favorite stacked beads using alternating colors. And they are tiny! Only about 7mm long. I do love making small things! I started with 18 little bees, but when I finished photographing (my backdrop was the deck rail) there were only 17. One had escaped into the grass and leaves below! Note to self: be more careful with the little beads!!

I have new critters (new species this time) in the works and also some texture beads I'm going to be starting tomorrow. See you all then!