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!

Time for designers and crafters  to think about autumn colors!

I ask myself that a lot.  This month's blog carnival for BlogFire has an open-ended "introduce you blog" sort of theme that has had me thinking about what this blog is all about.

Presumably, this blog is about the running of my business - though relatively few posts actually deal with businessy stuff.  It has really become more of a mish-mash of stuff from my life.

There's stuff about my family, including some interesting posts about adoption, toddler adoption and infertility.

I have a few tutorials, a little information about tools and helps for managing books, some blathering about storage and studio issues, a few tidbits about the new house which I mostly stopped posting about here because we (I) started up the Beorningstead blog (which NO ONE else has bothered to post about in spite of giving the two other literate persons in the household administrative rights to the blog.) 

I also like to post about projects I'm working on and new supplies.  (I'm getting a BIG shipment of more beads next week!!!)

If you spend some time fumbling through my tag index, (right down there -the the left), you might find something interesting.  Or you might just notice that this is the blog of a highly disorganized,  easily distracted artist/mom with at least a touch of ADHD who hops from project to project & topic to topic and hasn't learned how to impose order or consistency upon any aspect of her life.  (boy - do I need to clean up my tags!)

Yup.  That pretty much sums it up.  Thanks for visiting!

O.K.  Time to get moving with this whole new, productive studio dream! 

Today is the last day of YM camp.  Tomorrow I am going to put my husband in the car and we are going to go see what we can do about getting our kitchen finished so that I don't have to share my studio sink with the family anymore.  I am determined to have at least a dishwasher next week!!!  (cross your fingers for me!)

ArtFire is running a big Christmas in July thing this year and I've decided to participate with both of my shops:

Over at LunasBaublebilities (my supply shop)  there is a coupon code available for 15% off everything in my shop.  Use it as often as you like during the month of July.  Molly and I will move dragonflies over there this week so that you can get the 15% off coupon on those easily.  (Right now they are still at GoblinsMarket.)

Visit LunasBaublebilities's Studio

SAVE 15.00 % On 
All Items

Use Coupon Code:

CHRISTMASINJULY

during checkout.

Woodwork

At GoblinsMarket there are two coupon codes available.  There's free shipping on all ready to ship items all month long.


 

And here's the really exciting one!  All custom order scarves are 20% off all month.  If you know that you want to give a scarf or two (or three or four) for Christmas or a fall birthday - pick them up now at a discount and I will dye them up this summer and have them shipped to you in August.  This sale brings the price of Alchemy scarves and satin devore down to $32.00 and you can get a gorgeous, heirloon quality hand dyed and beaded silk velvet scarf for $120.00   That's practically criminal!!


 

I'll post more about these offers through July but really - do take advantage of the custom order sale.  I can't offer this sort of deal during the fall because I'm too busy keeping local galleries stocked to do  lot of custom order work.

Have a shiny day!

I woke up this morning to two beautiful collections featuring my earrings.  I love it when that happens!