Luna's Baublebilities

What a whirlwind summer!  We had a great time on our road trip and have been busy on the house since our return.  I haven't had time (or a clean photo table) to get photos of my threads, embroidery, beadwork or beady souvenirs since I got home.  BUT!  Yesterday, I got the studio sink clean and the next 4 hours might see the dye/photo table reclaimed.

I've been thinking about jewelry photography because I have to re-do all of mine this fall.  Plus I have lots of new beadwork to shoot.

It isn't easy stuff - the lighting is tricky, important shapes don't always fit into a little square frame right, it's hard to capture key beadwork details without losing sight of what the item actually IS, backgrounds compete with beaded texture.  gah.

I went searching on ArtFire this morning to find examples of beaded jewelry that have been well photographed.  The results are in this collection.  The Holidays are coming!  Buy Handmade!





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Splendid Caterpillar bracelet in Turquoise Luster

(Coupon Info at the bottom of this post!)

We are leaving in 11 days for a cross-country road trip.  I'm both excited and terrified.  Financially, this trip make NO sense but it is Molly's last summer at home and Maxx is old enough now that he is excited about seeing new things (like Mt. Rushmore and the Grand Canyon) We've been putting it off for far too long and it is just time to GO.

large acanthus filigree motif

I'm nervous about a lot of things - you know, getting in a wreck, having our money run out too fast, one of the kids disappearing - but realistically, those things could happen here at home.  In fact, the money running out too fast happens all the time around here and I just deal with it!  :)


But one thing I am really concerned about is living without my beads for 4 weeks.  EEEK!   I'm having SO much fun with Right Angle Weave making Splendid Caterpillar Bracelets.

The Jeep is pretty big but I really can't justify taking everything I want to have.  Plus I'm not sure how much work time I will actually have.

Green Twisted Drop Beads

I am putting together a small batch of beads, threads, pre-pieced crazy quilt fabrics and hand dyed stuff to work with on the trip.  I'll post photos of my travel palette before I pack them in the Jeep.

I bought a beadalon tacky mat from Shipwreck beads.   It looks pretty nifty - they are made of the  same sticky stuff as those gum-dispenser toys that you throw against the window and watch them slowly "crawl" down.

They are tacky without being sticky and are supposed to hold a layer of beads in place without getting adhesive on them.  They are also supposed to be "rechargable" by washing with water.  We'll see how well it works on the trip!

beadalon tacky mat

lavender opal 4mm firepolished rounds

I've gotten a bit behind on listing new inventory in my shops.  Things got piled up this winter and I'm just now starting to get stuff sorted out.   I am planning to re-vamp GoblinsMarket over at ArtFire when we return to accommodate traffic from GoblinsMarket.org.  Yes - I plan to actually put that url to use in 2012 - finally!    

Anyway - what you're really looking for is coupon info, right?  (I hope so!  I want to send out a few more sparklies to be well loved this summer before I put them all away for a month.)




So here's the deal.  I will be closing all of my ArtFire and Etsy shops for the month of July starting Monday or Tuesday next week so the coupons are good for this weekend. 


Over at ArtFire, use the coupon code ROADTRIP for 20% off orders over $30.00.  (Don't forget to sign in and comment on items to get additional discounts!)


At Etsy, use the coupon code ROADTRIP2012 for a 10% discount on your total order, regardless of the amount spent.   


Neither of the shops is fully loaded so if you see something in one that isn't in the other that you would like to purchase, let me know and I will set it up for you.   But hurry!  After this weekend, My whole will be bent towards getting us out of the house and on the road on time.

Molly will be blogging the trip over at the Beorningstead blog and I will try to keep you updated about how creation on the road is going now and then.  Have a gorgeous summer!

I've been hibernating for a looong time.   Life is busy and changes are afoot for my online shops.  

More about all of that later.

Here's the thing - the Beornings are taking a road trip this summer.  (Yay!)

I've got about 5 weeks to get us ready, including packing up my studio.  We have a family coming to stay in our home and keep Zig-wiggy and Grainne company while we are gone and they have some extra-small people who might like to eat beads.   So, all the beads and sparklies will get packed during the last week of June and stored in a secure location.

I'd love to have some mad money to buy new beads while I'm away (we might - if we're lucky & frugal) make it all the way to Shipwreck Beads' showroom in Washington!  So, I'm offering everyone a coupon code to my ArtFire Baublebilities shop.  Starting Friday you get 20% of all orders over $30.00 shipping anywhere in the world.  Use the code ROADTRIP at checkout.

Sadly, I am still out of dragonflies.  The lag time on getting those buggers in is maddening.

But I did get new beads and findings recently as you can see and you will start seeing those appear there in the next few days.  (Though I may have to re-photograph them - this background is just not working any magic for me now that I see them loaded up here.)


(And I may have to steal my other daylight lamp back from the chicks - The light isn't quite right with just three.)

:)

It is a wild and crazy time for me right now.  Molly's High School production of Pirates of Penzance opens next Friday and I have to have all the costumes ready by Saturday.  (It will be O.K.  I just have to pace myself well.  No long hot baths in the afternoon or eating bon-bons while watching Downton Abbey re-runs.)  Watch for Ruth in act two in a fabby steampunk brocade vest with tails - or maybe just visit me in the asylum opening night.  I just laid out all the pattern pieces last night and am ever so slightly intimidated.

Today I had a lovely customer inquire about my floral bead caps - how many can he get in which colors - that sort of thing.

Oh my dears!  There are so many colors!

I haven't had time to update all of my listings in all of my shops nor have I opened GoblinsMarket.org but that is coming soon.  When it does, you will see that all of my enameled brass findings are available in all of these wonderful colors.

Except that I left out Shimmering Denim.  I don;t have a photo for that yet but it is just what it sounds like, a medium dark denim blue with a subtle shimmer much like shimmery Fuchsia.  Very lovely, don't you know.

Here are ALL The Colors!  (The dark green not labeled in the large rainbow photo is Mossy - it is a wonderful woodsy color.)  Smaller photos for better viewing below.

Sadly, I am fresh out of rose links and large dragonflies right now and will probably be out of floral caps soon.  BUT I will be placing a couple of supply orders very soon and guess what?  Angel  wings are coming back!  (Yaaaay!)























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We got snowed in this week.


It was wonderful.   Freezing rain started about 4:00 Thursday morning. Bry and the kids got snow days Thursday and Friday on top of this week's MLK day off from school.  A 5 day weekend!



I worked on this week's TAST stitch.

I'm having trouble getting good photos without setting up ALL my lights, which I am too lazy to do today as it would involve cleaning off more of my dye table which would involve confronting more of my bad habits and unfinished projects than I want to admit to today.



In short - this is simply on asymmetrical concentric circles worked in button hole stitch and filled with seed stitch.

I really like seed stitch.

I'm learning to like buttonhole stitch, too.  I've never really felt happy with it before because I didn't know what on earth to do with it.  Sharon always manages to make hers so tidy and nice.

I guess I'm happier with the stitch if I don't feel that I need geometric precision from it.  Once I loosened up my expectations, it was really nice to work with.

I'm trying to get back into some semblance of productivity.  Last week was so weird.

I did manage to get a few things done.

Some beautiful earrings.  (I really need to find a reliable source for onion cut brios.  I LOVE those litlle droplet beads they are so.... droplety.)  (And those titanium druzys.  Wow.  More, please!)

Experimenting with some more "rugged" designs for Goblin Men.  Tie tacks and cuff links coming sometime soon.  I LOVE that picture Jasper.  And I like the messy look of the heated copper.





And some playing with last week's TAST stitch - Fly stitch.  Simple fly stitch along the border with ribbon rosebuds.

Fly stitch around ribbon rosebuds incorporated into a ribbon stem stitch.  (Which I'm not sure that I like.  I'm not a stem stitch expert yet.)











But I do like the flopsy roses and the stitch supporting the little french knot Lupines is a variation on Fly Stitch.

















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