autumn in June

June creations part one

All these pieces remind me of Autumn. Autumn in June perhaps ? Everything is listed on my artfire. enjoy.

New look contest!

I have changed the look and feel of my artfire shop to go with a coffee theme! I have a new avatar and banner courtesy of promo pixie and I am having a contest!! I am labeling the different sections of my shop to mirror categories from a coffee shop and I need your help !

Here are the rules:

1. Be a fan of my facebook page and follow my blog.

2. Come up with a creative coffee-shop themed category name that relates to jewelry or accessories.

3. Leave your suggestion as a comment on my blog.

Rewards:

All suggestions that I choose to use as live categories will win a $10 Gift certificate to my artfire shop.

All entries, whether I use them or not, will be placed in a raffle for an individually brewed item of their choice ($25 value) - winner can chose something living in that category or have be brew something up!

This is an easy one folks - everyone can win !!!

I have moved my blog to wordpress: beansboutique.wordpress.com as I find blogspot incredibly difficult to use.

Possible new artfire guild

I am toying with the idea of starting a new artfire guild for recommending fellow artisans for custom work. Do people often ask you to make them things you can't or dont want to make? And you try to tell them about artfire and how easy it is to search for items but they just nod and stare blankly? Do you then go on artfire yourself, find the precise thing they are looking for and send them the link, only to find out they have gone to the mall of all places in search of said item? THis is something that happens to me a lot. oh wow your jewelry is pretty, but its not very me. Do you know someone who does work with beachglass? Or can you make me a ring? SIx month ago I would have spent time and money trying to satisfy every customers wants just so I wouldnt dissapoint them. Now, I only accept custom work that I am comfortable with and enjoy doing. But wouldn't it be wonderful if we could easily fufill all of these needs for custom items by forming a network of artisans who will commit to sending a personal email and working with customers referred by fellow artisans ? I think it would widen our collective customer base tremendoulsy, especially at this time of year. If you are interested, let me know and I will send you an invite.

Inspired by upcycling/recycling

Beans boutique has a new outlook on supplies! UI am going to start looking at old things like they are new again and try to remake/repurpose them into wearable art.
Interested? you should be - there's something in it for you.

Donate old jewelry that contains beads, chain, findings, pendants, charms and in return you will get a gift certificate to my store! The more you send me the bigger your gift certificate - and if you have a shop on artfire or etsy and donate I will blog about your shop !
The pieces you send will be ripped apart and repurposed so you may see "pieces of them" in a number of different designs.
I am so excited about this venture - If you are interested please comment and I will give you my contact info!

FInding an artistic point of view

Lately I fell like I've been in a rut creatively. I can make stuff sure, put things together and so forth but I dont feel as though I have really been doing my best as far as my creations. I have been super focused on using the right beads and materials to keep my prices low, because I mostyly sell at craft fairs - people want a bargain. At least the ones Ive been to. SO I feel like Ive been throwing things together.
I do have a ton of beads, but sometimes Im afraid to put too many different ones into a design or to get too elaborate because I want to keep my prices low. So most of my designs tend be be more of the "basic" variety. I see a range of different priced and quality jewelry on artfire and etsy and seee that is sells - so what is my problem?
The last episode of project runway really inspired me. I dont remember exact quotes, but TIm GUnn was reviewing a desiners outfit and basically said, This is nice but, what does this say about you as a designer. You are not expressing your point of view. and at the Runway Heidi and the judges said that the runway is a place to push the envelope. So, iIve decided to start pushing the envelope.

Im really inspired to start designing instead of making. Tonight I made a simple neclkace and earring set , using purple sky quartz rounds, chez glass, funky spacer beads and my fave chandelier bases, which I love, and one going to make the same one in a different color - instead I I looked through my bead collection and decided to push the envolope to the brownish red round gemstones I added purplish, reddish, brown chips that I have had forever and did ot know what to do with, I mixed them with some base metal silver toned chain that I had on hand, and added to different color acryllic leaf charms dangling of chain accented with beaded droplets. totally fresh design.

Although I find both necklaces attractive, the desing element n the second is definitely more original and unique. I plan on posting both to artfire tommorow amnd linking back to this page.

quck one before work

My plan of action for posting items is to post 2 new items to artfire a day. That should give me time not to be bored of snapping pics and also to write a decent description. If I do more, I do more. But I cant do less. must do 2 a day. that way on my days off, I can craft and dont have to spend all this time taking picks and listing !