copper doodle angel wing

copper doodle angel wing, originally uploaded by winged photography.

Really happy with how this turned out. This one's just the right size to hang from my rearview mirror. I made a few pendant-sized wings, too, and tumbled them.

I was worried that tumbling colored copper wire would take the color coating off, but it didn't touch it! Now I can make doodles like this in lots of pretty colors and still be able to tumble them for strength.

Assuming I don't want to shoot myself after turning out a few more, these (in the pendant size) will probably get added to our 2010 jewelry lines.

work in progress: keyhole necklace

So far: gold keyhole focal, black velvet ribbon. Needs a little something else.

work in progress: kyanite and pearls

1. Choosing matching kyanite from strand.



2. Stringing with pearls, deciding which complementing seed beads to use.



3. Finished stringing, figuring out which chain to use for extender.



4. Attaching kyanite drop to extender chain.



5. Adding finishing parts to necklace.



6. Attaching extender chain to necklace. Done!

Shiny at Migem

Migem has these gorgeous stalactite drusy quartz slices on sale right now:



Also, I think I'll be putting Anapurna stuff on my main Flickr account again. Having a separate Flickr account is nice, but signing out and in and out and in is a hassle and makes me less likely to actually post.

Miss me?

Back from various family-related trips and drama and ready to roll. New stuff very soon!

belated balticon report

The Anapurna girls are walking disasters these days. Poor Lindley has an RSI that makes doing virtually anything computer-related horribly painful, and I’ve been diagnosed with gallstones, which will eventually require surgery to remove my gallbladder. I know! More than you wanted to know. But those medical problems, plus both of us being crazy busy at work, have really curtailed our blogging. I’m finally getting around to a Balticon report – only almost a month after the con! Argh. I’ll try to do better.

So. Balticon. The dealers room organizers made a valiant effort this year to drive buyers into the ‘annex’ – the hallway outside the ballroom, which has historically suffered because a lot of people didn’t even know it was there. The solution was to close off the entrances into the ballroom proper from the lobby area and only allow access through the annex hallway itself. I suppose it worked as well as anything might, but people still seemed to view it as only a hallway, and made their way into the main room immediately. Our table, unfortunately, was at the very back of the hallway – behind the very last of the entrances to the main room. A lot of people didn’t even glance at us as they turned into the doorway eight feet before they would have reached our table. It was, to say the least, frustrating. Adding to the frustration was the fact that the table immediately before us – the one people DID look at before they turned into the main room – was another jewelry vendor. The only jewelry vendor, in fact, that had anything like our stuff. A well-known jewelry vendor, who’s been attending the con for years and has a loyal audience and a vast array of shiny things – and who didn’t scruple to place the items which were the most intriguing to her customers directly next to our table. I don’t blame her – frankly I’d do the same thing – but it was incredibly frustrating to watch people make a slow, fascinated progression down her table and then ignore us as they headed on in to the main room.

All that said, and our concerns for the first two very slow days of the con aside, it wasn’t exactly a wash. We weren’t as wildly successful as we were at Farpoint earlier this year, but we’re developing our own loyal customer base (thank you!) and our jewelry does speak for itself. We made enough to restock at the next bead show and to place a few necessary orders, beyond making back the booth fee. And of course we had a good time; we got to see lots of friends, hang out with each other, meet awesome new people (including some new Twitter friends), and work on some business development stuff that I’ll be discussing in future posts.

So we had a great time, and barring disaster, we’ll be back next year. We’re certainly not eliminating Balticon from our roster of conventions based on one iffy year. And besides, I already talked to the dealers room coordinator and extracted a promise of better placement! So if Balticon’s your con to see us at, never fear, we’ll be there! And thanks again to everybody who came by the table to say hi, and everybody who bought jewelry from us. We love you all.

So I officially have an RSI

That's "repetitive strain injury", also known as "geeks who spend too much time on the computer and are also totally Type A and stressed out." I've been a total fail at blogging lately because I'm trying to stay off the computer at home. I should be blogging more regularly soon, but right now I'm depending on Jamaila to carry the flame. She has some fantastic entries in the works about recent shows and the business end of things.

Working on some fabulous headwear

Been really inspired by costumes, tiaras, headpieces lately, like this incredible photo of actress Zhang Ziyi. Some of the things flowing off the workbench lately:



Copper forehead piece with faceted amazonite teardrops, held invisibly with bobby pins on illusion cord.



Sterling hand-twisted hairpins with vintage crystal dangles.



Spiral copper hairpins.

All available on Etsy.

Check it out, clip-on earrings that aren't ugly!

These things are awesome. Regular clip-on earrings are pretty ugly and uncomfortable, and the sterling ones are seriously expensive. These silver plated hoop clip-ons are perfect for non-pierced ears, or ears like mine that used to be pierced and never really healed and sorta grew back together and haven't been repierced. To wear them, you just gently pull your earlobe down a bit to make the edge of your ear thinner, then slide it on. If it's too loose or tight, they can be adjusted by pulling or squeezing just like an adjustable ring.

I tested a pair of these for two days and had no problems with them staying on, except once when I scratched my ear and knocked it off. I wouldn't wear them to go swimming or on a roller coaster, but they're great "wear them to the office" earrings. Here's another shot:



This pair, with faceted amethyst teardrop accents, will be available on Etsy soon. You can also leave us a comment for more info.

Keeping a promise

Years ago, I made a choker I called the Ice Princess. Two strands of memory wire with white and translucent beads, Swarovski crystal and silver components, and dramatic strands of beads dangling from the back and ending in teardrops.

I thought it would never sell. Jamaila thought it would. I told her that if it sold, I'd make a whole line of them. It sold at our very first joint show!

I'm finally inspired to make some more of them. Here's some of the planning for one.



The leaf idea didn't work out; the leaves were just barely too big to go on the wire and allow the second strand of wire to have any beads on it. I compromised by just putting leaves on the trailing ends. Here's the finished version:



The warm tones with the olive-y green leaves were really doing it for me, so I used gold-colored flexible beading wire for the trailing ends.

Here's another one I made the same night, in lavender and gold:



These two will be up on Etsy soon, or you can leave a comment here for purchasing information.