Tree Wings Studio: 2014

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone! And Happy Thanksgiving to you!!

It's time for my last sale of the year…

It's been such a wonderfully successful year for Tree Wings Studio, filled with so many good things—you each have helped to make it the best year yet—thank you so very much!

Starting today: November 27th through December 1st (until 11:59pm EST)

you can take 20% off any order placed in my shop when you use code THANKYOU2014!

I'm only going to be completing just a few more bead batches before I take my year-end break (It's time for family and pie baking! :-), so grab all your favorite beads while you can!

Go here to start shopping.

Happy, happy Thanksgiving my friends!

On AJE Blog ~ Country Goldenrod Earrings Tutorial

Another pair of earrings for me… and a brand new tutorial for you!

Go here to see the tutorial and make your own earrings!

Happy beading!

On AJE Blog ~ On Wild Autumn Winds Earrings Tutorial

As promised—a brand new earring tutorial using Bethanne's new leather chevron rectangles! I'm so happy with the way these earrings turned out!

Go here to see the tutorial and make a pair for yourself!

The chevron rectangles, aster wheels, and seabird beads are all available in my shop. :-)

Happy beading!

Fall Shop Update!

It's time for another shop update!

Up first, are these brand new burned leather focals…

But these are not my own work—they're made by my sister Bethanne! Gorgeous, aren't they?!

And some rustic chevron rectangle focals, also made by Bethanne. These are so much fun! Lucky me—Bethanne gave me her first pair! I've got an earring tutorial in the works to show you all very soon.

And now, a few new things from me…

So many of you have asked me to make matched pairs of my little daisy charms for earring designs… and so I'm now offering them in my shop!

Daisy charms now in gossamer white.

And a brand new daisy focal too…

Both Bethanne and I are loving this half moon shape right now. It's nice to have some different shapes once in a while, don't you think?

Half daisies in rustic copper brown. I think these would be a great station in a chunky beaded necklace… I need more time to make jewelry!!

And one last pressed flower bead in gossamer white.

In sleepy critter land, raccoons and skunks are back in stock. And… turtles and squirrels have returned in new colors—orange wood turtles and red squirrels have joined the shop too!

See everything in my shop here.

Happy Fall!

The Winners of the Fall Giveaway!

And… the lucky winners are…

"Fading Flowers" goes to TesoriTrovati!

"Flight in Purple Skies" goes to Lindsay!

"Early Frost" goes to Saraccino!

Congratulations to each of you ladies!!

And a big thank you to all of you for entering, sharing, and shopping! You can be sure there will be more giveaways coming along later.

And… now it's back to the studio for me. Brand new pressed flower beads and a few new critters are in the works. Come back here for a peek at what's new in the next couple days.

Happy Monday!

Fall Sale and Giveaway!

* * * This sale and giveaway has ended. * * *

Thank you to everyone who entered, shared and shopped!

It's my most favorite time of year… I'm feeling so inspired to make new beads, but each day it's a hard choice between going out for a walk in the gorgeously colored woods to enjoy the sights of autumn… or make beads. Today it's been raining again and with more heavy rain expected to fall for the next few days, it looks like the bead-making is going to win! I really can't complain, though—what better way to spend a rainy week!

And now it's time for a little fun for you all too! Starting today and through October 18th, everything in my shop is 20% off when you use code AUTUMN20 at checkout. Go here to start shopping!

And… because fun to me always means more beads… I'm having a giveaway too!

Here's what you could win…

"Fading Flowers"

My first ever giveaway with one of my sister Bethanne's gorgeous hand-drawn links (I always get the best for you all! :-) … with a copper brown daisy and a denim blue Queen Anne's Lace ring to complement.

"Flight in Purple Skies"

One of my purple sunset leather feathers, an eggplant purple daisy charm, and two little gold ravens.

"Early Frost"

Yes, it's already frosted here… although I have yet to be up early enough to see it—crazy night-owl me! Anyhoo, this brand new Queen Anne's Lace pendant is inspired by that frosty white and the glittering gossamer of the early morning. I added a little sleepy chipmunk and chocolate truffle speckle bead to make this set perfect for fall designs!

The Rules:

 To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment in the comments below. And you get extra entries by leaving additional comments for doing one or all of these:

1. Becoming a follower of Tree Wings Studio blog
2. Sharing my GIVEAWAY on your blog, facebook, twitter, or pinterest
3. Sharing my SALE on your blog, facebook, twitter, or pinterest

Be sure to leave ONE comment for EACH thing you do.

And don't forget to leave your contact info.

Of course, international bead lovers are welcome to enter too. :-)

(Feel free to use any of the photos posted here when sharing.)

This giveaway will end on October 18th (at 11:59pm EST) and I'll announce the winners on October 20th.

And here's a peek at a few new things in my shop…

Queen Anne's Lace pendants in "Gossamer White"… there will be more beads in this color in the coming weeks!

Bethanne just finished this new color palette for her "Emily" design in gorgeous misty tones. And we now have them listed as singles… a perfect accent to any necklace or bracelet… or to use as a focal.

I'm always making daisy charms—this time in rustic copper brown for your fall-themed jewelry.

Ravens and seabirds are listed too!

Go here to start shopping…

Happy shopping and winning!

Playing with new polymer colors

A few weeks back a lovely customer asked if I had some other color options for my Dragon Shield pendants to match one of her own bead mixes and I happily agreed to let her pick through the possibilities as I was already mixing new colors.

But… since I was going to be highlighting the polymer with acrylics, I couldn't simply show the raw colors. So each color had to be first baked and painted—and how was I going to do that quickly and without just baking boring blobs of polymer?

Make some brand new focals, of course!

With the gorgeous fall weather quickly approaching, horses have been on my mind even more so than usual. Last week I dug out my riding tack, gave it a very much needed cleaning and oiling, and hopped up on horseback—okay, "hopped" is the wrong word—I'm not at all in riding shape at the moment! I went out for a short ride on both my noble steeds and it was so nice to be riding again… although, I am still a little sore today!

So, of course I wanted to make something with horses. I pulled out my favorite horse stamp that I made a few years ago, a fancy button, some richly detailed silverware handles, and my daisy mold…

Then I just played with different arrangements of the patterns… and enjoyed it immensely!

And now they're in my shop!

Well, the ones that haven't already been snatched up, that is! :-)

And this little one here…

Mine.

After photographing, editing photos, and setting up the listing for it in my shop, I gave into the fact that I really wanted to keep it for myself and have put it on my jewelry making table for a new necklace. A bead-maker needs a few beads for herself once in a while, right?

See what's left in my shop here.

More designs coming soon!

AJE August 2014 CoM Challenge Reveal ~ Crimson Raven

Another month has flown by… and it's time for another Component of the Month Reveal! These monthly challenges really are one of my most favorite things about being a member of the awesome AJE team. This month is extra special since it was my turn to host… and I'm just bursting with excitement at finally getting to see the brand new creations everyone has dreamed up with my hand painted leather feathers!

For myself I chose one of the long focal feathers in black, grey, crimson, and copper… and here's what I've made…

I love long necklaces!

And I love these colors! There's something so incredibly beautiful and special about seeing the flocks of birds flying in the richly colored sun-setting skies of autumn—when you can only see their silhouettes mingled with black tree branches against the smoky grey and crimson red—that's what these colors remind me of, and so I've titled my new necklace "Crimson Raven".

For the focal I used a large Russian lace agate donut and a smaller donut in carnelian and wrapped them together with hemp. And then with a little more hemp and a dot of glue, I tied the feather in place. Two gemstone rounds—like the setting sun and rising moon—yes, that seems fitting for an autumn themed necklace, I think…

On either side of the feather I strung czech glass ovals with spotted brass spacers and iris grey seed beads.

And next I made a grouping of art beads, mixing up the arrangement just a bit on either side to keep things interesting. I used three of my own hand-painted speckle beads, a few of my tribal birds from my latest bead batch (the white gulls are in my shop already and weather permitting I'll have the ravens listed on Monday. :-). I added in a couple red creek jasper rounds, some hematite faceted beads, and a pair of lovely rustic black ceramic rounds from Lesley Watt.

For some reason finishing the backs of necklaces often takes me longer than any other part and after first contemplating several more complicated options, I decided to keep it simple—I ended my beaded front section with seed bead loops and used micro suede lace tied with hemp to finish it off.

One last bit of hemp cord to tie it all together and there you have it!

Time to hop! Follow the links below to see what everyone else dreamed up with the leather feathers they chose. Thank you all so much for joining me in this challenge!

Guest Artists

The AJE Team

Rebekah Payne <— You are here!

Caroline Dewison

New in the Shop ~ hand-drawn art focals… handcrafted by my sister!

Finally! Finally!

We've been anxiously preparing for this day… so many details and processes to finalize first… but at last you can now find my sister Bethanne's gorgeous art focals in my etsy shop!

For practically forever Bethanne and I have been "partners in creativity"—we aren't always working on the same project together, but we constantly bounce ideas off one another and find great support in each other. For so long we have both dreamed of spending our days making various pretties to share with you… several years ago that dream came true for me… and now I'm so thrilled that Bethanne is just embarking on that same dream of her own!

And I'm equally excited to see what you all dream up with her brand new hand-drawn focals!

Come take a peek at the first ones, now live in my shop…

Each focal is a miniature work of art—carefully and individually hand drawn in color pencils (no transfers!) on shrink plastic by my sister, Bethanne. All of her designs are her own original work, and as you've probably already guessed, her favorite motif has always been roses, but you'll also see a sprinkling of boho style wildflowers in monocromatic shades and whimsical garden posies—each one is a perfect way to add a unique touch of floral beauty to your next jewelry design!