Donations Well Received by the Birmingham Group

I'm a bit late in posting about this, but now is better than never. As a part of the Manifest Beading Buddies, a club to support and encourage the art of beading, I donated a piece of jewelry to a charity event. The event was hosted by the Birmingham Group and the Rape Crisis Center of Milford, Ct. They put together a special evening gala called the "Bridesmaids's Ball: Men and Women Partnering to End Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault" on September 26th. Tickets were $75, and women were encouraged to wear their old bridesmaid's dresses, and men - their tuxes. Besides the dinner and dancing there was also a silent auction. The Manifest Beading Buddies donated several pieces of jewelry, and at the end of October were given thank you letters and this one anecdote:

One of our pieces was so popular, that there were two women who were actually fighting over it during the bidding!

All of our items sold, and the event as whole was very successful.

Here is the necklace that I donated: It is one of my eternal swirl series, made with sterling silver and rose quartz, at a retail value of $65.

Show this weekend!

I have been busy getting ready for a big craft fair this coming weekend. On Saturday, Nov 14th, my jewelry will be at St. Marys, in Milford Ct (on Gulf Street). I'll be sharing a table with my fellow jewelry artisan Sam Rawls.

ALSO on Saturday, a couple of my other fellow artisans will be at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Wallingford, Ct, 382 Hope Hill Road. Jewelry by Renee and Rosaries by Fal will be there together!

Here is a chance to see our work in person!

Since all of us from Beadworkartists.etsy.com are taking our things to these shows, our online shops are going to be put on "vacation mode". After the weekend, the shops will be back up!

Thanks to my Fellow Bloggers

Just wanted to say thank you to my fellow bloggers and artisans who have been kind enough to mention my work in their blog!

Recently, my work was featured in Regina's Writings
http://reginaswritings.blogspot.com/2009/11/original-wire-components-for-my-jewelry.html#comment-form
(www.reginaswritings.blogspot.com)

She reminded me of another blog I was in earlier this year, The Beading Gem's Journal
http://www.beadinggem.com/2009/03/handmade-earring-supplies.html

Then there was this, from last year, on craftstylish.com
http://www.craftstylish.com/item/8264/beautiful-handmade-findings-for-sale-on-etsy

I love it!

Photography Presentation for the Manifest Beading Buddies

This afternoon I did a demo/presentation for the Manifest Beading Buddies, a bead club based at Manifest Beads, of which I am a member. Kristen LaViola, owner of the store, first presented how she uses a professional light box and manual settings on her camera to take pictures of jewelry. Very different from how I take MY pictures!

Now, I am in no way a professional photographer. But I have learned some tips and tricks along the way, and have seen my photography improve greatly since last year! I shared my tips and tricks and techniques with my fellow club members, and it went really well!

I set up my amateur jewelry photography "set" and club members took turns taking pictures of their jewelry with different backgrounds, and props, and from diffferent angles etc. One of the main things is figuring out how to adjust a couple simple settings on your camera!

Valerie Johnson joins me on BeadworkArtists.etsy.com

I am very excited to have Valerie Johnson joining my cooperative etsy store! Her work is absolutely gorgeous. Valerie loves to work with seed beads, and stitches up the most amazing intricate pieces. Find her work on http://www.beadworkartists.etsy.com/ soon (hopefully next week???). In the meantime, here are some pictures of what is coming:

Introducing WillOWispWire.etsy.com

Months ago, I snagged up the etsy account, "WillOWispWire.etsy.com". Now, I already have two etsy stores. I have my handmade wire findings store, which continues to do well, with repeat customers. I also have my cooperative store that I started, featuring jewelry by ladies that I know that have wanted to sell online.



I currently have so much inventory, that I have decided to open my new etsy store! This shop will feature my one of kind, Will-O-Wisp Wire designs. I have dozens, if not a hundred plus items to list. Will be filling the shop throughout the next couple weeks. I had a great photo shoot today, the light conditions were perfect! Here is a hint of what's to come...

Santa Fe

I just spent a week in Santa Fe. I'm pretty exhausted right now. I was looking forward to seeing some jewelry and making some connections out there, but barely succeeded.

The jewelry I saw was all the typical turquoise and silver work. Unfortunately, very little of that interested me. I was looking for new/inspired/ingenious designs that might be found in a very artistic and creative community. Almost everything I saw was homogenous. The same thing over and over again. I was a little depressed at the sight of the Native American market in the Santa Fe plaza. I did get one smile from a Native woman whom I complemented on her wire work with her earrings. I attempted to share with her that I do wire work as well, but didn't really get a response.

At the ancient Pueblo, in Taos, we did find one friendly jewelry artisan who talked a little bit about his work. It was only after we left that I thought of a dozen questions I would have liked to ask him. "How long have your people been working with silver and turquoise?" would have been one of them.

I manged to make almost a connection with a Santa Fean. She does glass bead making, and combines her glass pendants with tiny little porcelain bottles for display/storage. We were going to try to network with a sharing of beads/jewelry/porcelain bottles, but on my last day in town, she was not around. Sadness. Perhaps I'll be able to get in touch her.