Beadweaving

I spent the weekend watching the Olympics, celebrating my 7 year olds birthday and BEADWEAVING. Sound like fun? It is! I originally thought I'd stick to bead stringing and bead crochet but I've had a lot of fun experimenting with some new beadweaving patterns like Right Angle Weave, which I learned first:

This one uses black onyx beads and a magnetic clasp, I like these for ease of putting on and taking off.
 

These beads are crazy horse stone. I love the color variations as well as how cool the stones feel on my skin. 

I also played around a bit with Saint Petersburg stitch

 

oops, that middle one is right angle weave with fire polish beads. This is a closer view:

 

I really need to learn Peyote as it's used in a lot of gorgeous work that I've seen. Beads are addictive, there are so many ways to use them. I made a right angle weave bracelet with jade beads and my daughter gave it to her friend for her Sweet 16, I wish I took a picture... More later.

What? WHY?

Why do people like to belittle people and when they do it seems like they are doing it for no reason other than to just to be mean? In addition to selling diaper bags at mamasandmunchkins.com and my new jewelry line in the etsy Bellaurbane shop I occasionally sell things on ebay to clear out older inventory or to sell things I've bought that are just cluttering up around here (meaning I should never have bought it in the first place).

Last week I sold an item right before the long weekend, last Monday was Presidents day. The person paid on Thursday night and sent a message on Friday asking how quickly I could ship. I mentioned that I woudln't be able to ship until Tuesday because my kids were home from school and the post office would be closed on Monday, I hoped that would be ok. So, I shipped Tuesday as promised and the item arrived on Friday so basically 5 business days after payment (it was a first class, 4 oz lunch box item). The person immediately left negative feedback and made a comment that said "buyer beware". Why? I sent a message immediately saying it was unfair and would they please revisit their comment. They then left me  a message that it was their duty to inform the public that there are sellers out there who are unethical. WHAT? Who does this. It's mean, it's random, it damages someone elses reputation. The onlyt reason you do something like that is to hurt someone's reputation intentionally. On ebay there is no seller recourse, you can't leave negative feedback for the buyer. It delivered one week after payment, could it have delivered faster? Sure but it was a first class item and I state in my auctions that I normally ship one to two business days after payment. Gah! Frustrating and now my feedback percentage looks awful.

oh well, for fun here's another new piece:

 

 

How to go about getting good feedback?

Wondering how to get real feedback, so many times I worry people are just trying to be nice and they say they like something. So... how to really find out??? Hmmm.

Latest pics from BellaUrbane etsy shop

Bella Urbane is up! Sort of...

I have unofficially opened Bella Urbane at Etsy. I loaded my first necklace, I really need to become a better photographer! The necklace is gorgeous and the photo doesn't do it justice. I have a ton more made and ready to go. I'm shooting for a March 1st solid open, I'd like to get a 100 or so items ready by them. I better get cracking, I have a lot of ideas! I'm really enjoying working with beads and crocheting them into wire, it gives a nice look. Off to play around with Etsy some more!

Bracelets! Bracelets!

As a self taught artist I'm struggling to stick with one "thing", I have so many ideas in my head and I want to try every technique I find. Today I'm going to work on some chain maille weaves. Here are some of my favorite bracelets so far. I really love working with gemstones, glass and silver.

 

I really need to spend some time uploading these into my new etsy shop and into my shop at www.mamasandmunchkins.com

Ravelympics

Ravelympics started last night. I had a migraine so I really couldn't do much other than frog a sweater last night but I crocheted a few necklaces this morning. The first is gold wire and citrine chips, the second is freshwater pearls, hematite, gemstone chips, glass pearls and beads with black wire, the third is turquoise, silver beads, glass beads and onyx pearls.

 

Here are a few of my favorites I made last week playing with glass foil beads and silver:

 

And another with Labradorite, snowflake obsidian, carnelian, silver

 

I really need to get better at photography so that I can get these into the shop!