Sassy Sunflower Bracelet

Ideas are still pouring through my mind like a rushing river.  Unfortunately there isn't a pool to collect them in.  A few have managed to wash ashore long enough for me to capture them.  This Sassy Sunflower bracelet is one of them.

I've tried to push myself out of my comfort zone when it comes to working with colors.  Yellow is a color that I usually have a hard time combining with other colors, but I think this one turned out pretty sweet.

You can find the pattern for this bright perky bracelet at BeadPatternsBoutique and at The Bead Coop.

The bracelet is available in my ArtFire Studio.

I'm still working on my Celtic Cross pendant for the ArtFire Beadweaver's Guild Challenge.  I only have four more days to complete it.  If another idea doesn't present itself with too much force, I'll make it.

My daughter's visit from Turkey didn't help.  She brought me beads, beads, beads and more beads.  The seed beads are a little irregular but the colors are so beautiful I just have to find a way to use them.  She also brought me some more traditional Middle Eastern beads and I have some half formed plans in my mind for them.

Simply Unique

  Curated By: TheBeadDoodler

ArtFire.com

Unique Gifts

ArtFire

Did you know you can sell your handmade items on ArtFire.com with no listing fees and no commissions? ArtFire offers a basic seller package that is completely free!

Of course the pro members have many more promotional tools at their disposal for a small fee per month. Paying a monthly fee instead of listing fees and commissions allows you to build your shop inventory over time without having to pay relisting fees when items expire.

Experts say shops with 100 or more items do much better than those with just a few items, but sometimes getting that much inventory done can take several months, and the relisting fees can exceed the pro membership monthly fee at Artfire.

ArtFire has excellent support forums to help you build your shop exposure, and a special forum link to help you get started. If you sell on Etsy, you can import your entire Etsy shop into Artfire and with just a few key strokes have your ArtFire shop set up.

We all know exposure is the key to sales. I was a little hesitant about opening an ArtFire studio with the same inventory I had on Etsy, but it wasn't a problem.

Get your pro membership at ArtFire now and lock in the $9.95 per month rate. Hurry. Rates are going up soon.

Christmas Ornaments and ArtFire

I'm almost finished with the family Christmas ornaments. I only have two more of these cute drums to bead, and I'll be finished. I'm not very disciplined, as you can probably tell. When I have a "deadline" for finishing beading, I can think of all kinds of things that I want to tell you, my readers. I spend more time blogging and writing articles than I do beading. I guess I just love working under pressure. You can find the pattern for this drum ornament at Bead Patterns Boutique .

I've been working steadily on my ArtFire Shop and have added quite a few new items.  I've added a pattern section and it's growing.  Today I added these beautiful, sparkly, red and crystal Elegance Squared earrings and an All Occasion Earring pattern collection.  My shop has a wide range of jewelry with an equally wide range of prices.  Something for all budgets.

Be sure to drop by my ArtFire shop on Cyber Monday, November 29, 2010. I will be running a sale for 12 hours only from 7 am to 7 pm central daylight savings time US.  Everything will be marked down 50% for these 12 hours.  In the meantime I'll be working hard to get many more items listed.

I'd like your feed back on my shop.  What would you like to see in it?  More ready made jewelry?  More patterns?  If patterns, what stitch do you prefer?  

Happy beading all. 

New Discoveries and Such

 I learned something today.  I try to learn something every day, but this was by chance. Since I've had cataract and glaucoma surgery on my left eye, it gets very tired very easily.  I've blamed this on the fact that about 40% of the vision in that eye is gone and it just really gets tired trying to focus when I do close work.

This morning I've spent most of the time on the computer updating Squidoo lens, reading e mail, checking my FaceBook and FaceBook fan page, looking at new additions to BeadPatternsBoutique and The BeadCoop, and trying to get some pictures etc. ready to upload to my ArtFire shop.  I've only beaded about 30 minutes.  My left eye is so tired it wants me to just shut it and not make it work any more.

I've come to the conclusion that it's something about the computer and/or TV screens that make it so tired, so I'm going to go rest my eyes for an hour or so, then try to get some beading done. I only have 13 of the 23 ornaments I need for my grand and great grand kids and 7 or the remaining ones are brick stitch, which takes me longer to do than the herringbone stars and snowflakes.

The patterns for my Christmas ornaments are available at BeadPatternsBoutique, and The BeadCoop.

Featured in a New ArtFire Collection

Beadwoven Autumn ...

Curated By: beadsforever

ArtFire.com

Indie Design

I've been busy trying to clean up a few websites, write a few articles and clear my beading table today.
I was trying to compose a blog post in my head and was coming up blank until checked in at ArtFire to find that my Crystal Apache Leaf bracelet was featured in a collection! Thanks beadsforever!

All the Colors of Autumn

All the Colors of...

Curated By: TheBeadDoodler

ArtFire.com

Unique Gifts



I've spent the afternoon learning my way around ArtFire and in the process, found many artists working with the wonderful colors of fall that I so love.  I created this collection from the most impressive of them.  Take a look.  These artisans are wonderful.

Now I just have to figure out which size "widget" will fit well on my blog. LOL

ArtFire Studio

It's been a busy week. My muse deserted me, so I've been working at the computer all week.

I've opened an ArtFire Studio to showcase my goodies. While ArtFire is easy enough to navigate it's still a new site to me and I'm easily confused. I added a few things the hard way, then found an easier way by browsing around, taking time to read the many, many guides they provide. There are a few tweaks I still need to make, but I've got quite a few items uploaded for sale. The hardest part for me is writing the descriptions for SEO. I finally gave up and just made sure my keywords were somewhere in the description, or vise versa.

I'll keep my Etsy shop for a while. Both sites have pros and cons. I like that Artfire doesn't require listing fees or commissions. I've heard you really need to be a Pro studio and pay a monthly fee to do well there. The monthly fee is reasonable considering I'd probably pay that amount in listing fees and commissions if I kept my Etsy shop stocked the way I'd like.  I'm not great at writing SEO and it takes a while for me to get a site up and running, so I'm going to give it a six months try.

I also joined the ArtFire Beadweavers Guild. Lots of friendly, helpful people in that guild and I think it will be a big boost to my confidence and my studio.

I've had many request for pattern coming from my jewelry galleries at Fotki, so I created a seperate album for jewelry patterns and linked them to BeadPatternsBoutique and The Bead Coop. Now I'm thinking of creating an album for jewelry for sale and linking the pictures to Etsy and ArtFire.

For right now I think I'd better find my beads and patterns I've created for this year and get started beading those two dozen ornaments I'll need for grandkids and great-grandkids