Little Bear's Mom

Keeping up with LittleBearsMom

2011-12-17T23:03:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since my last post which is totally my fault...again. Part of the reason for that is that I was away for a significant amount of time before the holidays. During the month of November I took the little bear down to Michigan on an extended vacation to visit my parents and friends. Although I did have internet access during that time, I found myself so busy that I barely had time to check in, much less write a blog post.

My big news, though, is that while there I had my very first home jewelry party. And it was a great success! I'd ordered a bunch of display items and perused many other blogs on the web about how to go about it, yet I was still a bundle of nerves since it was my first time. Luckily the party was hosted by my very best friend who also happens to be a food rep. Not only did she provide all the food, but she's an old hand at setting up displays! And it also helps that her house is gorgeous and comes with two mini helpers. I was serious when I told her that they're coming with me to every craft fair and home show from here on!
The layout of the home is very much open concept so that people were able to walk easily from one room to the next, and then into the kitchen to sample a variety of yummy goodies. There were two large tables, and then some smaller end tables that I was able to make use of.

I displayed some of my earrings and necklaces on branches inspired by a design I came across online. I found some great branches in the woods near my mom's home, and I bought glass vases at Michael's and filled them with colored glass stones. However, there wasn't enough room for all my earrings on my homemade display so I ended up laying some flat on the table. They popped nicely against the black background. The rest I put onto earring cards that I made using my own printer and heavy cardstock, and placed them in jewelry boxes.

I had also purchased some wooden jewelry displays on Ebay in an effort to present a cohesive look. While the bracelet display was perfect for showcasing my charm bracelets, the ring display didn't work as well as I had planned. The dowels for placing the rings were all one size, and smaller than the majority of my bands. Along with the heavy cabochons on many of my rings this really wasn't an optimal situation as many of the rings drooped downwards, not allowing all the flowers and lovely stones to be easily seen.

Luckily, I'd also purchased one of those gorgeous printer's drawers as an earring display. I'd thought that I'd save some money and get one without hooks, since there was such a huge price difference. Now I know why! Putting hooks into that thing was a bear, and I eventually gave up since the tools my mom owns just weren't up to the task. In a way, though, this ended up being a good thing as I decided to use it to showcase some of my rings and clip on earrings. Since the printer's drawer is a lovely aqua color and my resin jewelry is mostly bright colors it created a really eyepopping display. Next time I do this I'm going to ditch the ring holder and place all my bright floral items in my beautiful aqua printer's drawer!

A fun time was had by all, and I learned a lot that I'll be able to apply towards future home and craft shows. Oh, wait, that's not a recent picture...old friends are the best ☻

Table runners are from WickedWalls
Fabric bins are from YKBags
Printer's Drawer is from sugarSCOUT

Packing small items to beat Canada Post's 2cm rule

2011-10-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

As a seller located in Canada I find it hard to be competitive with shipping costs. If your package exceeds 2cm in height you'll find yourself paying not $2.69 which is the light packet rate to the US, but rather $7.46 for small packet. That's a huge difference, especially when compared to what US sellers of similar items pay with USPS. In fact, it can often be more expensive to ship a package within Canada than it is to ship the same package to the US or overseas depending on which zones/cities you're shipping between. But there are ways to optimize your packaging in order to work the system a bit. Although this affects Canadian sellers of many different types of items, I would particularly like to address small, light items like jewelry since that is what I sell.

Most of my bracelets, necklaces and rings are too large to fit under 2cm, but it is possible to package earrings so that they can be safely mailed at a light packet rate. I started mailing my earrings by light packet last fall. I wrapped them securely in bubble wrap, being careful not to use too much, and placed them in padded mailers. This worked well for the most part until a customer contacted me about a broken earring. They were the resin flower type of clip on, which are thicker and more fragile than most of what I sell. I shipped her out a new pair immediately, and she was extremely happy with that.

But suddenly I had a moment of panic. How could I keep shipping my items this way when I knew that something had been broken? I searched the Etsy forums and talked to my Ohcanadateam teammates, and came up with another game plan. I started using small jewelry boxes - much smaller than those that I use for my bracelets - which are able to pass through Canada Post's slot of doom.

I put a bit of bubble wrap or tissue paper in the box along with cotton batting so that the earrings aren't jostled around too much and then I tape the sides shut.
The boxes measure approximately 18mm in height on their own. I now use small, unpadded manila envelopes that measure 23x15cm rather than a padded mailer, since the box alone is approaching the height limit. I place my Etsy receipt inside, folded in half, as well as my Little Bear's Mom thank you card. I then slip the taped jewelry box into an organza gift pouch along with my business card. All of that measures just under 2cm.

I used to tape the entire envelope in a grid pattern to keep the box from slipping out in case a hole was poked in the envelope, but recently I ordered some plastic address sleeves from Venture One, Canada Post's program for small businesses. It's free to join, and they have a variety of products, like address sleeves, that are free to members.

I always print my labels through paypal - it saves so much time waiting in line! And if you ever need to ship something Expedited Parcel you'll get a small business discount by doing so. This is especially useful if you ship within Canada as Expedited Parcel is actually less expensive than Regular Parcel.

I now just trim my pre-printed labels to fit in the plastic sleeve and affix the whole thing to the front of my manila envelopes. The plastic is slightly longer than the envelopes that I use so I fold it over on one end making sure the entire address label is visible on the front. I then seal the flap, and tape a 2x3 grid on the back of the envelope with packing tape. I stick an air mail sticker on both the front and the back (also free through Venture One), take a picture for my records, and pop it in a letterbox. This is so much quicker and more efficient than what I was doing before, and a lot more worry-free.

This would work well for anyone selling smaller items, whether they are jewelry, or something else. I've also received hand knit items from Canadian sellers that were mailed at the light packet rate because they were packaged inside vacuum pack bags inside manila envelopes.

Here's hoping that this post is helpful! How do you package your handmade items?

My Obsession with Pinterest

2011-09-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months I've noticed references here and there to the elusive Pinterest. I'm older, though I hate saying that, and don't take easily to new social media, though it is my job and I'm trained in Information Technology. I still don't quite *get* Twitter (OK, that's because I talk too much!) so I'm a little wary of a lot of social media sites.
My main Pinterest page

Finally, I caved and asked a fellow Ohcanada teammie for an invite. Wow, is it ever addictive! I've been on Kaboodle for awhile for my fashion cravings/urges, and obviously Facebook and Twitter, but this is the first time I've been so totally hooked that it's keeping me up at night. My first board, fall fashion in orange and neutrals

I'm one of those crazed people that obsessively turns down pages in magazines of stuff that catches my fancy. I've been doing this since the early 80's. With the dawning of bookmarks both my IE and Chrome were chock full of links. I had an account with Delicious, but they've been bought out and I can't remember my original password.

My point? I can now chuck all the magazines and various torn pages stashed around my house dating back to the decades of neon and big hair, and forget about religiously bookmarking each and every "good idea" I come across on the web. Pinterest allows me to create themed "boards" with my own comments, which link back to the original posting. This is huge for someone who lives in a super small urban walk up. Truly, this might save my family from being on an episode of Hoarders ☺ Ok, I'll be honest, I probably won't chuck the "style books" I've already made. What did you expect, I'm an archivist by training. But going forward...this is huge...HUGE!

If you're not on Pinterest, you should check it out. Or not. How's that for a glowing endorsement? If you're an addictive personality like me maybe it's best if you steer clear. Truly. Personally, I'm justifying my activity and membership there because it's "job-related" ie: my library/archivist personna. Though I have yet to share my info with any of my IRL librarian and archivist friends. I should get on that...

My board of boot possibilities allows me to do a side-by-side comparison, while linking directly to the retailer.

Of course, one of the dangers with creating wish lists and shopping lists if you live in Canada is that by the time you get around to buying the item the season may have changed. I'm hoping against hope that that isn't so, while trying to balance my wants with what could conceiveably be worn before the first snowfall. Notice that I have yet to mention a budget. That's part of the fun. Wish lists should be fun and fantasy :)

My favorite pinboard of all...my shopping and packing list for my upcoming girls' weekend in New York City!

Fall News 2011

2011-09-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Long time no see...which is obviously my fault since I haven't written anything in a while. I've finally got some news to share that's worthy to print. I'm back from our wonderful Michigan summer vacation and not only are we now fully unpacked, but I've got a ton of beach stones and Petoskey stones to turn into gorgeous jewelry for my shop ☺ I'm also refreshed and full of inspiration for the Fall season.

We ate well, partaking of delicious local offerings, caught up with friends and family, took lots of long walks on the beach, and spent a lot of time just enjoying our gorgeous natural surroundings.

We also foraged for beach stones and treasures!

Back in my shop this autumn are Petoskey stud/post style earrings, and beach stone and Petoskey stone rings, as well as Petoskey stone and beach stone braclets.

Over the summer I used some of my Etsy profits to buy a Dremel drill as well as a rock tumbler so expect to see new items in my shop. It's been frustrating to me when I have ideas that I'm unable to carry out because I don't have the proper tools. So, I'm incredibly excited to start using both of them.

It's been a bit of a learning experience including trying to keep the little bear away from both! For some reason he thinks that anything that arrives at this house in a box is his.

I thought this a fitting weekend to write this post as we're having gorgeous end-of-summer-like weather here in Montreal, yet we've also had our first taste of the cold winter to come. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope it's a good one ☺ I'm excited to share more of the responsibilities of preparing our special dinner with my little bear (broadly stated!), and to get out and enjoy the last vestiges of summer.

Check out the sale in my Etsy shop! In honor of Canadian Thanksgiving, everything has been temporarily marked down.

Interview: up close and personal with bstudio

2011-07-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

1) I know that some may be surprised to read this, but silk ribbon embroidery and selling on Etsy is actually a second career for you. What was your inspiration, and how did you start off in the business of handmade?
When I lived in Toronto I had a career in interior design, mostly commercial clients with office space.

My mother was the one that got me interested in silk ribbon embroidery in a serendipitous way. Back in the late 80’s she had requested that I find her a book on the subject. Since I was working in a creative field already, I wasn’t looking for or didn’t feel the need for any other outlet.

That all changed when I quit my job and we moved to the country. I found that the urge to design was still there and I always remembered how pretty the silk ribbon projects looked in my mother’s book. I read up on the subject and was fascinated with the way you could manipulate the ribbons and the range of colours available. I gave it a try and realized that I really enjoyed it.

I followed the usual route of making gifts for my Mum, relatives and friends. After a while I still wanted to make stuff but ran into the dilemma of what to do with what I made. Luckily I found Etsy and got up the nerve to start up my shop at the end of November in 2007.

2) Although I will admit that I love everything in your shop, my absolute favorite is your ruffled silk ring. So, what is your favorite item?
Now that is a very difficult question to answer! Each and every new idea I create gets me excited and I can’t wait to see what sort of reaction it will get when I list it in my shop. I guess right now my ‘French knot’ pieces are my favourite, it’s fun putting together the colours and then seeing the finished product.

3) You have a wide variety of items in your shop yet they are all remarkably cohesive when taken all at once. Is this deliberate, or happenstance?
Quite deliberate, I want all my items to be made in some way with silk and/or silk ribbon. I feel that a shop that has a cohesive look in terms of the type of medium used and a consistency in their style projects a better sense of an established design direction.

4) I find that many Canadian artisans tend to take their inspiration from our amazingly gorgeous natural surroundings. Is that true for you as well?
It’s certainly true when it applies to my pieces that feature flowers and insects. I have large perennial gardens that attract butterflies and we also have a few ponds on our property so there are lots of dragonflies flitting about.

5) You are very active in curating treasuries and have produced some really lovely - and successful - results. Do you have any advice to other Etsians about reaching the front page? I have been on the FP 39 times since 2009, 14 of those were made by my teammates on the Curation Nation team that I joined in July of 2010. If you’re in a team that makes a lot of treasuries all the time your chances of getting on the FP increase dramatically, but as others have said time and again on Etsy your photos have to be top notch.

6) Do you have any new products in the works for the coming year?
I’ve just ordered some fresh, new silk dupioni colours so I’ve got a few pillow designs in mind for those and I want to experiment with some other modern designs for my brooches and necklaces. Even though silk ribbon embroidery is a traditional needlecraft I want to show that it can be quite contemporary looking.

Many thanks to Brenda for giving of her time with this interview. ☺ You can see all these wonderful items, and more, in her Etsy shop: bstudio
Other links include:
Facebook
Bstudio's blog
Bstudio's website

Copyright 2011 Little Bear's Mom and bstudio.

New products at Little Bear's Mom Jewelry shops

2011-05-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

I've got some exciting news regarding new products in both my Etsy and Artfire shops! Finally, I am introducing some new product lines. In my Artfire shop these are primarily vintage look brooches and more hairpins, and my Etsy shop will see new styles of bracelets and earrings in the upcoming months.

Here's a look at the antique style brooches made from vintage components coming to my Artfire shop. They are similar to some of my previously listed vintage style rings, some of which come in matching sets:

The new products in my Etsy shop are a bit more complicated as they are entirely new endeavors for me. First off, because of my mom's limited hand and wrist movement, I've been inspired to create some bracelets that don't involve clasps. Opening and closing fiddly clasps is difficult at the best of times, but if you have any sort of physical limitation like my mom, aunt, and several of my friends, it's near to impossible. So, I've started designing bracelets that are stretchy. Intended to be fitted right over the hand, these are much easier in terms of on and off. Right now I've only got two types in the works, but I am on the hunt for more ways to bring beautiful accessories to everyone.

Here are some photos of what LittleBearsMom's grandmother (aka: my mom) received for Mother's Day this year:

Bracelets similar to this one will be appearing in my shop soon.

I've also got sparkly, stretchy cha-cha style bracelets in the works, and they will appear in multiple colors. Here is an example of one that I'm presently working on made out of clear glass and iridescent crystal beads:

I'll admit that attaching all those beads is taking me a bit longer than I'd projected!

I had a bracelet like this back in highschool when vintage was the height of cool...or maybe that was just was at my geeky midwestern school!
In any case, I've been interested in replicating it ever since.
With everything from my coming-of-age years resurfacing as stylish and hip, I thought this might be the time to design, or redesign, a few of these bangles and other sparkly accessories. Especially since Etsy defines...redefines?..."vintage" as 20 years or older...ouch!

Oh, I still have, and wear, the original, which is shown above :)

And the other new groundbreaking product for my Etsy shop? OK, I'll be honest, it's not groundbreaking, it's just really, really interesting ☺ I have started creating hoop earrings for unpierced ears!
Adding to my collection of clip-on and screwback earrings for those with nonpierced ears, these wire wrapped gemstone hoops are comfortable and stylish. I know, I took a pair for a test drive for a day ☺
(Don't worry, I will not be selling that trial pair in my shop for hygenic reasons.) Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, the first pair I listed sold within a day of their listing, so the earrings in the included images are no longer available! But I am working hard to produce more, similiar pairs in both gold and silver plated styles and a variety of diameters.

My other exciting news is that one of my new spring rings was featured on this absolutely gorgeous blog by therikrakstudio If only my own blog could be so beautiful...I've got a ways to go, I think.

And my work has been featured in some absolutely stunning treasuries...here are a few:

Clockwise they are: "Dark Blueberry...Blueberry Blue!!!" by Suza, "Spring is Born - OCT Challenge" by TheSilverBobbin, "Morning Dew" by EcoShag, and "Vanilla Sighs" by Clonehardware. As always, thank you to all the creative and generous people who've included my work in their lovely treasuries!

And I have one more announcement...I've been able to slightly lower the shipping charges on some of my items! I've been experimenting with different packaging in order to see if I can safely get my items under Canada Post's prohibitive 2cm height allowance for Lettermail and Light Packet, and I think I've succeeded. After discovering that a pair of earrings shipped in a layer of bubble wrap and a padded mailer broke ☹ , I was able to find some super small boxes which, when inserted into an organza bag, carefully protect my items allowing them to arrive at the customer's home in perfect condition. This method doesn't allow me to use padded mailers as the box alone is 18mm, so thanks to my OhCanadaTeam colleague,Joannie, I've adopted a method of taping a grid pattern over a regular manilla envelope with packing tape which prevents the sharp corners of the box from poking a hole in the envelope and slipping out. Here are some pictures to illustrate:

Larger items that don't fit into the small boxes will still be shipped either Small Packet or Expedited Parcel in a square jewelry box, tied with a ribbon, inside a padded mailer.

Mother's Day Sale and Some Lovely Treasuries

2011-05-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

First off, I'd like to announce that in honor of Mother's Day I am going to have a sale in my Etsy shop from Sunday, May 8th, until Saturday, May 14th. Everything is 10% with coupon code: MOM10.

This is little old, but it's one of my favorite photographs of my mom and the little bear:

I don't really have much else to say, but my work has been included in so many bright and gorgeous treasuries that I thought I'd share a sampling of them with you.

"Sun, Sun, Sun" by Lachiffonniere & "Pink or Yellow" by ZehraDesign

"Fresh-Squeezed" by TheSilverBobbin & "Fresh and Fun" by GollyGeeGeorge

Thanks to everyone for including my work in such skillfully curated treasuries!

Interview: up close and personal with Joannie of Joanniel Creations

2011-02-24T18:42:00.000-08:00

1) You make such beautiful pieces, how did you get your start making jewelry? I got interested in making jewellery after losing an earring and trying to recreate it myself. It didn't really turn out to look anything like the earring I had lost but it was nice, and I had fun doing it. That's how it all started. I sold to family and friends at first and then it occurred to me that maybe jewellery making should become more than a hobby. That's when I started my very own business. At first it was named Jewellery Box but when I signed into Etsy to purchase something I chose Joanniel as my account name. When I realized I couldn't change it I decided to change my business name to Joanniel Creations instead. That's how Joanniel Creations came to be.

2) Do you have one particular style, or do your items represent a diversity of styles?
I don't think I have one particular style. My jewellery varies from bright, colorful, eclectic, hand painted pieces, to more simple and elegant classic looks. I also like to use vintage components in my pieces so I guess I have a pretty good variety of selections.
3) What are your favorite materials to work with and why?

My favorite thing to work with is anything that is going to require paint. The possibilities are endless and it results in really unique designs depending on what I am painting on. I have been painting for over 15 years and it just recently occurred to me to combine painting with my creating jewellery. I am so happy with the results I have gotten so far.

4) Where do you find the inspiration for your pieces?
Everything inspires me...movies, music, fashion. Sometimes I am inspired by a feeling or even a dream. When I have no fresh ideas I tend to search online. I look at paintings, photos, makeup combinations. Usually that helps me figure out what to make next.

5) You must be busy with a little guy at home, when do you find the time to create?
Usually late at night when my son is asleep or on weekends when my boyfriend can take care of him a little so I can work. Or during his naps. This usually results in all my other duties being neglected so it's sort of a challenge.

6) Do you have any plans to introduce new types of items to your store this year?
I've already introduced my hand painted jewellery and would really love to be able to stock more gemstones and real silver and gold materials. Beyond that I have no plans for anything new, but I tend to be impulsive so you never know.

7) You've been selling on Etsy for a year and 3 months...what are some of the lessons that you've learned, and do you have any advice to give to new sellers? Etsy is a friendly community of talented people who are all working equally as hard as I am. Success is something that takes time and is entirely dependent on hard work, patience, great presentation, kindness, and a bit of faith. I am a big believer in the law of attraction so success is only within your reach if you believe it is possible. Knowing that your art has value and giving it the worth it deserves is important. I've learned to not compare myself to others although at times it's hard not to do that.

8) Is there anything else you'd like to add?
It's easy to get discouraged. Believe me it happens to me even now.
Sales are low and it gets kind of depressing if you let it. So don't get discouraged. Keep moving forward and use slower times to revamp or renew your shop or products. Just be the best that you can be and don't worry about how much better or worse other shops are doing. Focus on your own thing and keep being positive.

Many thanks to Joannie for giving of her time with this interview ☺ You can see all these wonderful items, and more, in her Etsy shop: Joanniel Creations' Etsy shop
Other links include:
Joanniel.com website
Facebook
Twitter
Her Blog

Copyright 2011 Little Bear's Mom and joanniel.

Interview: up close and personal with Clonehardware

2011-01-14T17:38:00.000-08:00

In order to kick off my interview series for 2011, Alisa of Clonehardware has graciously agreed to answer a few questions about herself, her craft, and her inspiration.
I've admired her ingenuity and creativity since she first joined Etsy and the Oh Canada Team, and it's been very interesting for me to get to know a bit more about both the woman, and the process, that are behind the creation of what she terms, "upcycled computer electronics into wearable art jewelry".

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do...
After I received a degree in English and Art History (several thousand years ago) I decided to pursue a career in graphic & web design. But during the years of slaving / working in that field my creative energy was being slowly stifled.

Upcycling computer parts from both new surplus items or retrieved parts from computer and electronic waste, I create unique pieces of jewelry and accessories such as earrings, necklaces, bracelets, brooches, headbands and keychains. Clone Hardware specializes in kick ass industrial, ultra cool steampunk, super spiffy pretty and simply modern hardware.

By creating beautiful and unique pieces of wearable art out of what would otherwise end up in landfill, I hope to educate. Our landfills are still being overloaded with these products. It’s up to us to dispose of them properly and try to reverse some of the adverse effects on the environment created by this modern waste.

2) How did you become interested in creating with outmoded computer parts?
E-waste is a modern problem most businesses face. My husband’s IT business cluttered the house with computers that were discarded, surplus, obsolete, or broken.

One day I stumbled into the warehouse of a computer recycling business with boxes and shelves filled with beautiful and unique baubles, bits and pieces. I had a lightbulb moment. I had never really been interested in conventional, mainstream jewelry, and with all these lovely and interesting things within my grasp I became inspired and empowered to create.

3) Is this your only artistic or crafty endeavor, or have there been/are there others?
I’ve always been a creative person. I paint and sew too. My grandmother was a seamstress and artist, and though I never got to meet her I am sure that some of my passion for creating comes from her. Though admittedly with 2 kids under 5, I have little time to spend on all 3 creative endeavors. Since starting CLONE HARDWARE I have been astonished by my local following and how quickly my business has grown. My focus is on creating one of a kind (OOAK), unique pieces while furthering the cause of responsible e-waste recycling.

4) Where do you find your parts?
Initially I used whatever obsolete or discarded computers and electronic parts my husband brought home in the course of his IT business. Recently, I found a local E-Waste Recycling business, Pothast Technologies. They have become an incredible sister company to my own. They, like me, are committed to responsible electronic recycling within North America.

5) As a busy mom, when do you find time for your art and your shop?
I am lucky to be a stay-at-home-mom. I also am very blessed to have a supportive family. My son is in SK now and my daughter sleeps in the afternoons. That affords me MUCH more time than last year.

I have about 3 hours a day to spend creating, photographing and listing my items. As everyone on ETSY knows, that is not enough. I built up a considerable inventory before starting my etsy venture in October 2010, which has helped me maintain online interest in my pieces.

6) If you had to choose one favorite item out of everything that you make, what would that item be and why?
I love resistors. I love the variety of colours and sizes they come in.

Probably my favourite pieces are the resistor cluster necklaces and circle resistor necklaces. They go so wonderfully with the simple modern resistor dangle earrings or the resistor post earrings. Honestly, I started making this jewelry for me, so if I make something, I love it. Otherwise, I take it apart and start again until I do.

7) Are there any new directions that you see your shop taking in 2011? I got a new piece of machinery this fall and I’m THRILLED with the new cuts and styles I can make with circuit boards now.
I’m also very excited about the many new colours of circuit boards I have found recently. Also hoping to expand into more masculine line of accessories. Not a lot of IT guys I know wear jewelry so…wallets, business card holders and a variety of bookmarks are in the works for 2011.

Many thanks to Alisa for being so open and giving of her time ☺

Alisa's unique and original Clonehardware jewelry can be found:
in her Etsy shop
on her website, and
on her Facebook page.

Copyright 2011 Littlebearsmom and Clonehardware

Coming in 2011...

2010-12-07T19:12:00.001-08:00

Well, now that there are very few shopping - and shipping - days left until Christmas, I expect that my shop will slow down a bit. I'm looking forward to a little break, but I'm also planning ahead to 2011.

I'm always influenced by nature and the seasons, so most of my new creating will be white, crystal clear, or pale, icy blue. Greys will figure prominently as well.

Last winter I created this Ice Crystals bracelet. I plan to create similar bracelets and coordinating earrings, perhaps from these lovely crystal quartz and white agate beads.

These lovely pale blue beads of chalcedony, blue lace agate, and aquamarine remind me of the frozen waterfalls we see while skiing, and snow on a blindingly sunny day.

Grey has figured prominently in my fall creations as it was one of the "it" colors of the season, and I'll continue to create pieces in this lovely neutral hue, especially out of Petoskey stones.

These beads have been selected to be earrings and a necklace, respectively.

And of course who could forget paua shells? Grey, but also every color of the rainbow the paua shell is the perfect complement to the iridescence of snow and ice.
These gorgeous, wine colored pearls will be the perfect addition to my January creations which will feature garnets heavily.

And as February approaches, I'll begin to add more items featuring amethysts to my shop.

And in other news, I'm planning on re-starting my semi-regular interview feature, and I've got the next interviewee all lined up for January, so tune in to see who it is!

I'm also happy to announce that my Metallic Coral Rose Antique Brass Ring was featured as part of Handmade Highway's Craftjuice Tuesday today. Check out the post here.

Big announcements

2010-11-24T18:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a few weeks since my last post, but I've got big news this time so I wanted to wait until I was completely ready.

First off, in honor of American Thanksgiving, I'm having a sale in my Etsy shop! I've taken advantage of Etsy's new coupon code function and have created this code: THANKS10 which will give you 10% off anything in my shop, before shipping. The code is good through midnight on Nov. 29th, 2010. Here's a helpful article on how to redeem coupon codes on Etsy, but basically you just enter the code in the "shop coupon code" box upon checkout.

I've spent the past week creating, taking pictures, and writing descriptions like crazy so that my shop is as full as possible. As someone who is both American and Canadian I'm so very thankful to be able to celebrate this wonderful holiday twice each fall, and I'm happy to pass that feeling along to you with this sale. Here's a selection of Autumn-hued items presently in my shop:

Secondly, I'm happy to announce the Grand Opening of my Artfire shop!!! The focus of this shop will be slightly different than my shop on Etsy. Instead of wirewrapping and semi precious stones I'll be focusing instead on resin flowers, and vintage glass and metal findings. The idea is to produce modern pieces with a romantic, vintage vibe. I am, for the most part, inspired by Victorian culture, and the Romantic literature of the 19th century. Right now I mostly have rings and hairpins in my shop, but I plan to add more earrings and brooches, and I'll be creating coordinating bracelets and necklaces in the new year.

I'm also happy to announce that I've had the opportunity to do some guest blogging in the past few days. First, I was the guest finder for the Oh Canada! Team Friday Finds feature last week Friday. I filled in for new Friday Finds "finder", Leanne, of LeanneDesigns. And I was given the opportunity to do the Shotgun Shopping post this past Monday on the Handmade Highway. I had a lot of fun doing both, and am reinspired to write more frequently, here, on my own blog.

Preparing for the Holidays: Gift Giving

2010-11-05T17:48:00.001-07:00

Well, although we've only just finished celebrating Halloween, it's time to start thinking about the upcoming holidays. More and more I prefer to do my shopping online, and living in Canada the shipping can take quite a lot of time as the postal system gets clogged up with holiday deliveries. Also, not surprisingly, my favorite place to shop recently have become Etsy and Artfire, but with their growing popularity it's best to start early!

I've got a fairly extensive list of people to buy for, both male and female, with widely divergent tastes, ranging in age from 3 to 83. While some people are always incredibly easy to shop for - my mom, for one - some remain extremely difficult (no, I'm not naming names), and some have begun to pose more of a challenge recently - like my teenaged nephew. It seems that the older kids get, the harder it is to find something appropriately "cool".

I find that it's so much more fun to give unique gifts to my friends and family knowing that they're going to be the only ones in their circle to have them. Many of the items I've ordered in the past have been graciously customized in some way by the seller, and that just makes them all the more special.

I started to do a little preliminary shopping and research this past week, and in order to organize my thoughts, I've created a few treasuries on Etsy. Of course, I started my search close to home, focusing on the offerings of my own team - the Oh Canada! Etsy Street Team.

Since I have so many women to buy for, my first treasury focuses on shopping for the ladies, and is entitled: Canadian Holiday Gift Ideas - For the Ladies

My second treasury, Oh Canada Team Holiday Gift List - Quebec Artisans features some of the extremely talented artisans that live and create in my home province of Quebec.

I promise I won't overwhelm you with a barrage of gift lists, but I do intend to keep curating gift themed treasuries as we approach the holiday season. Because virtual shopping is fun!

And did you notice, I've learned how to make my embedded treasury pictures clickable? I'm pretty proud of that ☺

I was in the Etsy Finds!!!

2010-10-29T22:27:00.001-07:00

I'll apologize right off the bat, this is going to be me, shamelessly boasting as well as doing a post-and-run, but I couldn't let this day go by without marking it on my blog...today my earrings were featured in the Etsy Finds!!!

This is a first for me, and I've been riding a wave of excitement all day, well, since early this afternoon when I finally figured out why my shop was getting so many views.

Late last night I listed two pairs of fairly similar earrings on Etsy. I tweeted one pair, and also listed them on the Team Oh Canada! Facebook page (I'm the page admin). I left the other pair alone because I was, quite honestly, exhausted. Life ensued this morning, and when I finally got a look at my computer I was shocked to find that I already had 190 views!?! On the pair that hadn't been promoted in any way, shape, or form??? That's so many more views than I average per day, I wondered what the H was up? I checked around and found that my savvy teammates already knew what I did not: I was in the Etsy Finds!!!

Here's the pair of earrings that made it in:

And the scary thing? I totally agonized over the lead picture. Actually, I thought that the picture above looked a teensy bit overexposed and I almost chose one of the ones with the black background instead. (My husband assures me that I'm nuts about the overexposed bit...I guess I'll ask him the next time I list something!)

Here's what my Craftopolis page looked like earlier tonight:

The day ended with 1059 total views, 13 shop hearts, 209 on the featured earrings, with a number of hearts on other items as well. I also made three sales!

And I'm also happy to report that my Oh Canada! and Créateurs d'ici teammate, Caroline of KhalliahDesign was also featured in the Etsy Finds! Woot!!!

Yes, that's me, well, my earrings, next to the cute pumpkin hat.

So, thank you from the bottom of my heart, Mike, who was Etsy finder today. I've noticed that Mike often chooses Canadian shops or focuses on our great nation when he's the finder. I don't think he's Canadian??? But maybe he just has an affinity for us ☺ I'm actually an American transplant myself...

though I've been here for 16 years now, so if he's interested in Timmies, hockey, snow, and friendly people...I urge him to visit more frequently ☺ We're actually pretty good with the written word, comedy and ..., music ..., and art too! And, seriously, if he wants a tour...I'll be glad to give him one! This is a wonderful country, and I'm so very proud to be a citizen, and amazingly happy to be a part of it.

Beach stone treasures

2010-10-17T22:25:00.001-07:00

So, my last post was about driftwood. It seems fitting that this one should be about beach stones. While oceanside beach dwellers and vacationers are accustomed to collecting shells, those of us that frequent inland lakes - especially the Great Lakes - have a habit of picking up beach stones. Those smooth, flattened rocks that have been tumbled by nature's tumbler - the Lake.

I grew up just a stone's throw from Lake Michigan, and continue to return there each year. My great-grandfather captained a number of Lower Lakers, the slang term given to freighters that ply the Lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, and I spent my summers, and part of my falls, sailing and swimming in the Big Lake. In fact, I'm proud to say that I've gone swimming in ALL FIVE Great Lakes. Some in very chilly weather!

While I've been collecting beach stones, driftwood, glass, and other things from the beaches for years,I only recently started , to display them in old-fashioned blue-hued Mason Jars. I got the idea from an article in Martha Stewart Living way back in '03, of all places - I preserve sand as well and I label each jar with the origin of its contents - I find that it makes a nice display in our den.

I've also started to use beach stones in my Etsy creations. Some are sandstone, some are limestone, and some aren't identifiable past their main type: igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary. And that's with a geologist husband!

And some are Petoskey stones. That coral fossil rock peculiar to Michigan. The state stone. And the elusive beach treasure for countless children who comb Lake Michigan's northern beaches.

Some of my beach stones are stones that I found myself over the years. Some were found by my husband, son,
or mom and given to me. And some have been found by my super supportive Dad who lives lakeside, and who's been sent on a mission to find more! In any case, they're beautiful, unique, and certainly a statement for anyone who wears them.

Please check out my Flickr album and my Facebook page for photos of my many ring styles, as well as my Etsy shop. I'm more than happy to take custom orders ☺

The Beauty of Driftwood

2010-10-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

This is going to be kind of an odd, reflective post, but I promise, I am going somewhere with it. People have asked me about my pictures - which I find incredibly flattering -
and I do work really hard on them, but one of my "secret" ingredients is usually a simple piece of wood. Photography-wise, I find that it can help with the colors when you've got a mostly automatic camera as I do. But I also feel that it adds a personal touch, a piece of "me" in every photograph.

Because it's not just plain old wood that I use in my photos. It's driftwood. That gorgeous, wave-tossed and smoothed sun-dried
type of wood that can only be found on the beaches of lakes and oceans. And I've been collecting it since I was a little, tiny child. I've even made several mobiles out of driftwood with my Dad, one of which hangs even now in my office.

I grew up less than a 30 minute drive from the Big Lake - as we call it back home. From May to mid-October I spent as much time as I could there, in, or on, or walking next to, the water. My great-grandfather was Lower Laker ship captain, and I've either been in, or on, the water ever since I can remember.
Driftwood has always been a wonderful natural resource for climbing, sitting, dragging or writing in the sand...or providing people and bridges for elaborate sand castles. One of my greatest joys has been imparting my love of the lake to my son.

It's a wonderful thing to sit on during bonfires...or to roast marshmallows with ☺

A number of people in coastal regions use it as a kind of lawn art.

And it provides wonderful memories and incredibly gorgeous photo opps.

As Fall takes its place in the seasons, I feel more and more a bittersweet pull towards the sunny beaches and sparkling waters of the Great Lakes. Because I really do enjoy the truly gorgeous Autumn we have here in Canada and the Northern US, and I absolutely love winter, but in the back of my mind I'll always be hearing those waves, feeling that amazingly fine-grained sand against my skin, and waiting for it to be warm enough to go in the water again. And keeping all that souvenir driftwood around the house? It helps me get through the brutal Canadian winter ahead...

*all photo credits are mine, or belong to family members.

Where it all began

2010-10-01T00:11:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post on this subject for awhile, but just hadn't gotten around to it. But today seems like the perfect day. So, where and when did my jewelry obsession begin? Many, many years ago when I was a very little girl. One of my favorite pasttimes was to play in my mom's and grandma's jewelry drawers, and to dress up in their many sparkly treasures.

I also enjoyed trying on their clothes and shoes, and accessorizing with purses. I had some jewelry of my own too...though it looks like I swiped my Dad's school ID in the last one in this grouping!

It's fitting that I should talk about how influenced I was by my grandma's love of jewelry and all things fashion because today would have been her birthday. Although she passed away five years ago after a long and rich life, I still think of her frequently and I miss her tremendously. We were very similar in personality, and always extremely close.

I always knew her only as Babe, a nickname she'd been given in childhood by her older sisters. It was such fun calling out to her in a store and seeing the shocked looks of other shoppers when my sweet looking grandma answered.

Grandma Babe took care of me frequently, and we spent a lot of time together antiquing, going to auctions and estate sales, and eating out at her favorite restaurant, Fables. She taught me to do lots of different handicrafts and made dress up clothes and costumes for me to play in. She made me toy bears and dolls that I have to this day. I even had my very own bedroom at my grandparents' house with beautiful, thick pink shag carpeting. What can I say, it was the 70's.

Here she is looking quite elegant long before I was born, probably before or after a special evening out with my grandpa.

And here she is holding a very little me, and a slightly bigger me:

I also learned many of my cooking skills from her and always enjoyed helping out in the kitchen. When my cousin and I weren't trying to eat all the olives that is ☺
This is the Thanksgiving that I got all artsy with black and white film.

Here we are all decked out in some of the first pieces of jewelry that I made, though they're quite difficult to see in this picture:

And here is how I always think of her. Dressed in bright colors, nails and hair done, and wearing lots of jewelry. With a bow in her hair from whatever gift she'd opened. And there were always lots of gifts because she was so well loved. She was never one to draw much attention to herself in public, but among family and friends she was silly and the first to poke fun at herself. And always, without fail, any celebration with Babe included Manhattans, and wrapping paper bows as personal adornments.

Seasons change...

2010-09-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

Although as a Canadian, the weather is ever-present in my life, I was inspired to do a feature about our experience of autumn after reading today's Scoutie Girl post. Living in the Northeastern part of Canada, autumn comes early here...even earlier than many other spots on the North American continent. Days have been getting shorter for awhile now, it gets dark much more quickly, and frost is on the ground most mornings. Luckily, it hasn't snowed yet! Normally, it rains more and the light changes, it becomes flatter. This fall in particular since we're so close to the coast we've also been treated to the somewhat spent high winds from two hurricanes - so far...here's hoping we're done with that!

As an active, sporty family we spend time out-of-doors regardless of the season, yet note the changes, and dress accordingly.
*Some* of us like to dress in outgrown clothes from the previous season. I refuse to reveal the amount of boots and coats residing in the house along with the three of us. It's embarrassing. Did I mention we sometimes have to outfit the American grandparents when they visit? Yeah, that's my excuse...

And yet, though we bundle up in the mornings when it's a mere 7°C, we find that we strip off layer after layer in the afternoon as the sun breaks through and warms everything up.
A Canadian fall is changeable, and the people know to change with it. And we cling to our outdoor cafés like a lifeboat!

Although this unfortunately means that both summer and winter clothes are out at the same time - and in a small big-city dwelling, this is a big deal,
we just don't have the space - it also means that we get the best of both worlds. Cool temperatures for sleeping, and lovely warm, but not too warm weather for playing.

Although, I expect that my husband will begin to make noises about putting the snow tires on the cars in the next week or so, I doubt we'll be skiing before December, and that we'll have plenty of days
to get in lots of long bike rides as a family. Which are MUCH more pleasureable now that the 100% humidity and 30°C+ weather has ended. We may even get in an end-of-season visit to our favorite semi-local desitination, Tadoussac, QC.

We've never brought the little bear there, but I think that he might be ready this year. Now that he's 3 he's listening much better, holding hands, and much less inclined to go running off a rock cliff into the 150 ft. deep water of the St. Lawrence. We're also planning on taking him apple-picking this year for the first time.

Honestly, fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I hate to sweat and I hate to be cold. I like wearing cute coats and fun accessories, rather than the functional keep-out-the-subzero-temps fashion that I sport during a Quebec winter. And it's a much happier time than spring as everything is melting then.

So, we're all looking forward to fall, now that it's officially here. Our local farmer's market changes its wares to reflect the season and we're now leaving watermelons and corn behind for squash and pumpkins. It's time for lovely, spicy soups and warm comfort food. Our freezer is ready for Pumpkin Spice Soup, Shepherd's Pie, and Tourtière. And I've promised my husband to learn to make Tarte au Sucre this year, so that will be joining the peach, cherry, and blueberry pies in our stash. With our weather, it's best to be prepared!

So, goodbye to summer, and Bon automne!!!

A New Beginning...

2010-09-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

I've been so absent from blogging over the summer that I might as well say that I'm starting over, rather than just getting back at it. Although I enjoy writing immensely, so much so that it informs a good part of my off-Etsy life, I find the task of blogging to be, well, a task. Not a form of enjoyment. I always feel slightly self-conscious and sometimes struggle for a topic. I promise, I'll try to do better and post at least weekly from here on out and try harder to make it an enjoyable pasttime, rather than just another tick on my to-do list.

So, what have I been up to over the summer? Well, I've redone nearly all the pictures in my Etsy shop on a new, white background and have slowly been tweaking and relisting all my items. I've also been busy creating, and I'm happy to announce the appearance of rings in my shop (more on that in a later post), as well as some new styles of bracelets and necklaces to come. And I've embarked upon a major reorganization of our living space.

Now, I live in a typical Montreal walk-up. Big on charm, not on space. I am normally very good at keeping things organized, and knowing when to "let go" of stuff, but I've been so busy lately that things have just gotten out of control. And I live with a messie (i.e. my husband) So I finally decided that something had to give. That we need to begin purging, and to do better with organizing what's left. I began with my office space.

My office began as just that, an office. A place for me to do my "real" (paid) work, as well as my own academic research. Then we had a child. So it became a place for him to nap while I worked, and for me to stash stuff away that I didn't want him to get at. (See that background? That's my "real" work)
The pack-n-play for naps is gone as he's much to old to stay in one now, but I was being overrun by presents I was storing and books in need of repair. Warning: being a trained librarian does not mean that your child will not try to eat or destroy books.

I've always been crafty, and our closets and basement are full of my unfinished, boxed up efforts on that front. But when I decided to take my jewelrymaking public on Etsy in Sept. 2010 my office space went from being a single subject work zone with some toy issues, to a true, shared workspace - granted, between my two "selfs". And I couldn't find a darned thing.

I've long used the pile method as many academics do, but books and documents don't pile so well with boxes of beads and tools. I lost my mandrel for 2 whole weeks! Occasionally I couldn't find my purse. Business receipts? One large pile mixed in with normal bills and photocopies of 18c. French notarial documents. Not good at all.

So, I took some time, bought a lot of organizational items like drawers, accordian folders, and notebooks. Repurposed some of the carp that's just been kicking around here but was not being used. And, voilà. I now have a space where everything has a place. And I can switch happily between my two work selves. And when my son breaks in in search of "fun" things to play with - this is usually either beads or rings, he doesn't find my stash of presents anymore.

I've also managed to move some of his toys/books/miscellanea out into our very wide hallway so it's not cluttering things up as much, and is more easily accessible for both him and us. (See above photographs)

(Note to self: do not take pictures directly into sunlight) I've put all my beads in plastic cases, replacing their previous - somewhat haphazard - home in a deep Rubbermaid tub. And they now all reside in plastic drawers, sorted by color. I would have liked to have gotten something wooden, or at least prettier looking, but it just wasn't in the budget, so plastic it is for now. A third set of drawers on wheels holds mailing supplies, empty bead containers, and all the silly little plastic bags that beads come in, and that I'm determined to reuse rather than litter some landfill!

I keep magazines, books, and pages I've pulled out as inspiration on top, as well as my driftwood photo props, my works in progress, and any boxes of materials that I'm presently working on. Later in the fall I'll bring some of the flowers in from the balcony and place them in the window that sits just behind this section of storage.

On the opposite wall I have two more plastic sets of drawers which are on wheels so that they can be rolled out of the way in case I need to access my filing cabinet. Although it mostly houses articles from my comps and early work on my dissertation, I still need to get at it from time to time, so the rolling option seemed to be best. In these drawers I keep my kraft boxes, tissue paper, mailing envelopes, and supplies like glue.
On top, I've stacked my accordian folders where I keep business related receipts, and my records related to how each piece of jewelry was created. Yes, it's all in paper form in addition to being in spreadsheets. I'm old, um, old school. Some of my present research and reading (for my other life) is stacked on top for easy access. I do still need to find a home for my various bags and purses however...
(far wall, minus the purses) The final two walls, which I haven't included pictures of, house my desk with my computer, scanner, and printer and my books. Nothing too exciting, and no big changes so I didn't take any pictures. Next room on my list? Our den, my husband's "room". Watch out!

I cannot believe how much room was in this small space! I can now turn around in here without knocking anything over. It does take a little more effort to sort things immediately as they enter our home rather than just throwing them into a pile for "later", but it's been worth it so far.

Brief post and some stunning treasuries

2010-06-10T20:27:00.001-07:00

First things first, I'm in Cafe Handmade's Virtual Craft Show this week. It's a great site with all sorts of amazing handmade things that you should really check out if you haven't before. And if, while you're there, you should feel the desire to vote for me, I'd certainly be happy :)

Now for some beautiful treasuries...

First up is "Cool Blue" by my OhCanada! teammate Dalim:

Next is this lovely, warm treasury entitled, "A Perfect World" curated by another teammie, Aosta.

Here's the lovely "Green Day" treasury by KhalliahDesign:

We're a team that must like blue, here's another beautiful treasury, "Canadian Blues" by TanteCaroline:

There are some striking colors in this treasury, "Sunset Divine" by Chrisssmith22 of The Art of Zen...Crochet:

and yet another treasury by Aosta, "This Team is Golden"

and last but not least, here's a fun, summer treasury entitled "Summer Brights" by SydneyRoseDesigns:

Great job guys! These are all absolutely stunning!!!

I've listed some new things in the past few days including a matching earring and necklace combo, though I have not listed them together as a set.

However, most of my time has been devoted to retaking pictures of all my items, editing them, and then replacing some of the older pictures in my listings. This is much more time consuming that it sounds, and than I originally thought it would be, but I've gotten lots of good feedback about it so I'll continue to forge ahead. It'll probably take me until next week to finish with all of them.

And finally, my team is having its first ever team contest. A picture of the winning items will be used to create the new team banner. It's very exciting and slightly nervewracking, but I've finally gotten started on my creation. The deadline is June 15th, so I'll post pictures here soon.

How does your garden grow?

2010-06-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

Gardening is one of my absolute favorite pasttimes. This is a love I've inherited from my dad, and I've been gardening for almost my entire life. I used to follow my dad around, "helping", and before long he got me my own tools, and began to include me in the planning.

When I finally moved into a place that was gardening-friendly, I cannot tell you how excited I was. I must have started planning that first garden way back in December! Now, I should explain. I live in a big city, and one of the wonderfully unique architectural features here is that many homes have balconies. Not only are we lucky enough to have one both front and back, but they both have sun exposure for part of the day. None of my previous balcony gardens were nearly as nice as what I'm able to do here because they were all so shady. Here's some pictures of past years:

I usually combine store bought plants and seed packets with seedlings that I've grown indoors. I also harvest and save seeds from previous years in jars and envelopes. Usually, I grow herbs, strawberries, and veggies on the back since it's off the kitchen, and flowers in the front. This year I went with mainly red geraniums for the front for ease of care, and to harmonize with our neighbors - who were quicker to get their gardens going than I was this year! And I also chose a variety of ornamental grasses because they're so lovely, and make such soothing noises when they blow in the breeze. And being on the water we get a lot of breeze!

I've got a little helper this year (my son), and I let him choose the plants for the back. His favorite color is orange, so it wasn't surprising that he went for bright yellow and orange pansies. He even helped me plant them. Sort of. I will fully admit that our planting was done in two stages, with toddler helping, and without. Here's a picture of our back balcony, still in progress: The pansies that I'm hoping will root, yanked too quickly by eager little hands:
And our weapons - um - tools, of choice:

And a few pictures of our front balcony, also still a work in progress:

As you can see, this year's creation is much less extensive than previous years, but with an active little guy I just don't have enough time to devote to both, so I had to scale back a bit. We did, however, invest in some new lawn furniture since there are more of us to enjoy my garden this year!

In celebration of the beautiful warm weather and the joy of gardening, I've made a gardening treasury. Now, this isn't like some of the gardening-themed treasuries that have been curated on Etsy. This is a team treasury of items that I might use in my own gardening process, or in the wonderful summer of enjoyment afterwards.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Row 1:
Janson Pottery, Dalim, The Art of Zen...Crochet, Soapstarcanada
Row 2:
WooldeBeast,El Emporio, Khalliah Design, Collectique
Row 3:
Farren.Square, The Sage's Cupboard, Refind Vintage, pondhopper studio
Row 4:
willowblacklab, HeatherLairDesigns, Maple Creek Soapworks, knotted nest

So, you're probably wondering what made me think "gardening" when you gaze at this disparate group of items. I promise, there's a thread linking all these beautiful finds together.

First off, what gardener doesn't need a beautiful vase like this one from Janson Pottery to display the fruits of their labor? Next, what lover of flowers wouldn't like to wear such lovely flower-inspired jewelry such as that made by Dalim and Khalliah Design? And I'll have to say, my very next Etsy purchase is going to be this great head scarf from The Art of Zen...Crochet. My hair is so flyaway, and it's forever in my face when I'm doing something like gardening or cleaning. And this scarf is both functional AND attractive!

And what garden treasury would be complete without some bath and body items. I had to include Soapstarcanada's "Lawn and Order", how could I resist? And Maple Creek Soapwork's newly listed "Midnight Rain Bathing Bubbles" look like the perfect way to soothe sore gardening muscles.

I included this cute little wool pouch by WooldeBeast and these gorgeous blue Belgian cannisters from El Emporio because they'd be perfect for storing my harvested seeds and seed packets. I often use rocks and beach glass to decorate my pots and these beautiful blue shards of sea glass from willowblacklab would be perfect. I love blue!

The highball glasses from Collectique and the coasters from KnottedNest are, of course, a nod to my preferred method of relaxation and enjoyment of my garden. I like nothing more than to sit out on the balcony at the end of the day and have a nice drink. I also enjoy keeping a journal and this eggplant design one from Farren Square would be perfect to use in one's garden! Our neighborhood can get noisy in the summertime, so from time to time I like to drown the noise out with my ipod, and of course every ipod needs a great cover. I can also see myself as I sit and journal or sipping on a cold drink dressed in this tank top from Refind Vintage and this stunning upcycled skirt by Pondhopper.

And finally, not only would I like to wear this beautiful ladybug necklace by The Sage's Cupboard, but what gardener doesn't welcome the cute and extremely useful ladybug into their garden?

The creative process

2010-05-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

This post will be primarily about my creative journey when designing jewelry. I find that it's interesting to read about others' processes, so I thought I'd share a bit about what I've been working on as well as a few quandry-like situations.

I love bright colors. LOVE them. And I've always liked to wear things that are a little different than the mass-produced commercialized trends. So, whenever I see beads in an unusual color, or that exhibit unusual qualities, I buy them. Even if it's not me that's going to be wearing them. Several months ago now I bought these amazing magenta colored agate beads. Some were striped, and some were more uniform in color, but they all exhibited that gorgeous banding that agates are known for. I just needed these beads, though I had absolutely no idea what for.

Now, to be clear, I am not a pink kind of a girl. Never have been. But I do like bright colors, as I said, and I don't really consider fuchsia, or magenta, pink per se. In fact, over the years, it's become one of my favorite colors. I have three pairs of fuchsia shoes, one tweed coat, two blazers, and two purses. No, I'm still not disclosing how many pairs of shoes I own. So, I already had a variety of beads that fell into this color category. Yet my agates seemed too important and I didn't want to pair them with just any old thing.

I eventually decided that I would only use them in an all stone piece. No pearls, metal beads, or crystals to distract from their natural beauty. So, which other stones to use? I searched my fuchsia-red stone box, and my mauve-hot pink stone box...my beads are organized by color, then type; and labelled. I know, I can be a little overly organized. It's a leftover trait from all those years of Montessori school. I pulled a few potential candidates and placed them in my metal lids (I like to use the metal cannisters from Lee Valley - very Canadian!) They're great for storage, and great for sorting as well. Some of the beads I'd pulled were gorgeous, but didn't quite *go* with my agates.

Finally, I settled on a mix of fuchsia chalcedony, and fuchsia jade. They provided a wider range of color, but all within the same family, so a range of shades really.
They also differed in size and shape, being slightly larger and teardrop shaped, and were faceted as opposed to the smooth, round agate beads. Once I got going, I knew this was the right choice. I finished the bracelet off with my newly acquired leaf and twig toggle and I'm extremely pleased with the result.

In the works
As for what's next...well, I've got these fluorite beads. That I've been saving. Fluorite is interesting in that the naturallly occuring stone can be clear, yellow, greenish, bluish, and both lavender and dark purple. Some pieces are more opaque than others, and some have both milky as well as transparent characteristics. Quite an inspiring stone to work with.

I've started to wire wrap them along with some peridot and both light and dark amethyst, but the bracelet looks a bit sparse. I'm going to have to add something else, but I'm not quite sure what. Pearls maybe? I have some light green Swarovski pearls that I have yet to use. I've also got quite a few "purplish" pearls (as my husband calls them). Those pictured here are respectively, iris, oil slick, and peacock. As sometimes happens, I'm just not quite sure what to do. Sometimes the beads "speak" to me, as they did with my fuchsia agates, and once my decision is made, there's no turning back. This time I'm feeling a bit more cautious and uncertain. I think I'll take the weekend and look for some inspiration, and then return to the project

A selection of treasuries

My Oh Canada! teammates have been busy with the treasuries again, in all three Etsy venues: Main, West, and East. I'm honored to have been included in the following and would like to share them here:

"Amour, Love, Liebe" by Khalliahdesign Unfortunately, I'm late in posting, and it's no longer active.

The following tresuries are still active, with clickable links:

"Chocolate and Lavender" by Aosta

"From the Sea" by Soapstarcanada

and "Treasures in Turquoise" by LeanneDesigns.

As always, I'm in awe of the talent of my remarkable teammates! And watch this space for my next post...shopping! I'm planning on doing a feature on birthday gift shopping...the Etsy way!!! And, as a final thought, my Fuchsia chalcedony pendant necklace was chosen as the Friday Find for the Oh Canada! Team blog. Very exciting!

Interview of the month...

2010-05-12T18:25:00.000-07:00

This post is entitled "interview of the month" because, despite my good intentions, I'm not a terribly faithful or consistent blogger. But I'd like to move towards doing certain types of posts in a more regular fashion, so I thought I'd set the bar at an attainable monthly cycle for now ☺ Not only will I regularly interview artisans and crafters, I'm also looking to start a feature on shopping.

For my very first interview I decided to ask my OhCanada! teammmate, Vicky of Soapst★rcanada and she graciously consented. Even before she'd seen my rather lenthy list of questions! I will admit, I chose her because she's such a friendly and interesting person, but also because I have an absolute addiction to bath and beauty products. And as a soapmaker, that's something she knows a lot about. All of the beautiful soaps, scrubs, and bath bombs pictured here are available at her Etsy shop, Soapst★rcanada

A brief introduction
Hi! My name is Vicky- I moved to Canada with my family, from England in 2008. We were looking for new horizons and a more balanced, healthier way of life. We settled in the "feel good" town of Cobourg on the breathtaking shores of Lake Ontario.
I find wherever I travel, I'm uplifted by the most wonderful sights, scents and sounds.
These inspired me to create something special that would evoke all the feel good senses and bring a smile to the face. So welcome to "Soapstar" - gorgeous handmade soaps, bath luxuries & beauty treats inspired by feel good neighbourhoods!
So, your craft is soapmaking...how did you become interested in that?
I've always been a bit of a natural bath & beauty product junkie, I love the idea of harnessing mother nature's finest instead of using harsh chemicals - but it was only after watching a reality TV show in England (of all things!), that involved a team challenge where they had to create soap products along with all the packaging, marketing etc, that inspired me to do it myself!
Do you have any plans to branch out into scrubs, lotions, or other beauty products?
Oh yes!... I have been busy experimenting in my kitchen (which the family have cheekily re-named the Research & Development dept). I have just introduced the rich, aromatic Coffeenation Street coffee sugar scrub and deliciously, dreamy Mint Choc Queen Vic mint chocolate mousse body wash to my shop. There's also some fabulous bath bombs, body butters and lip balms in the pipeline... (currently being tested by my teenage daughter & her friends - eager volunteers!)

I was wondering if you could give us a brief explaination on the different ways in which soap is made.
Cold Process (CP) is the type of soap your 'Grandma' may have made, but maybe with a little more artistry these days! It's made by combining fatty acids (oils) and sodium hydroxide (lye) together. Fatty acids can be almost any oil – from coconut oil, olive oil, hemp oil - even beef tallow. Ingredients such as essential oils, pigments and herbs can be added for their scent, colour and natural properties.

Adding quite precise amounts of water & lye to the heated oils causes a chemical reaction called "saponification", during which soap is formed . The initial phase of saponification usually takes around 24-48 hours, it's at this point the newly formed soap has "set" enough to remove from the mold, but is still soft enough, if required, to cut into individual bars.
The soap is them left somewhere for the saponification process to complete, sometimes for as long as 6-8 weeks! This is "curing", it's a bit like aging wine or cheese - it improves the quality of the soap. The longer the soap "cures", the more of the original water used will evaporate, creating a milder, harder, longer lasting bar with a very rich lather.

Obviously handling substances such as lye (caustic soda)
requires the use of safety equipment, such as goggles and gloves. Cold Process soapmaking should not be attempted without researching the method thoroughly & appropriate precautions taken.

Hot Process (HP) soap is made with a basic cold process soap recipe (including lye) but then is cooked at the end to speed up the curing time. The simple explanation is that you take all your ingredients, and add them to a pot (that is then placed over a heat source, such as a stove or crock pot) and stir frequently until the soap goes through various stages. The excess water is evaporated off and the soap is ready to use once cooled. Although the whole process is much quicker, it is NOT a method recommended for a novice soap-maker!

The Melt & Pour method is using a soap base (often a clear base) which can be purchased in large ready made blocks, which is melted down, coloured and fragranced, and then poured into molds. It's very popular because of its ease of use - there are no significant safety measures (other than basic common sense dealing with hot liquids) so children can give it a go too.
You do cold process soaps only, why that choice?
I chose the "cold process" method because it really is from scratch, and I find the chemistry bit fascinating & exciting. The recipe variations and possibilties are only limited by my imagination!
As someone who's interested in natural living and has a lot of allergies, I'm extremely interested in the ingredients that go into the products that I buy, and I do a lot of label-reading.
Your products get 5 stars from me for what they do, and don't, contain. Can you explain a bit about why your soaps don't have parabens, SLS, or petroleum or other synthetics?
Soapstar's mantra is "Act natural, feel good" - apart from the obvious appeal of something which is made from all natural ingredients, I am concerned about the effects of chemicals used in everyday products, sometimes it seems, quite unnecessarily.
In many cases these chemicals are absorbed into the body through skin application but the long term, and possibly quite damaging, effects are not yet fully understood.

For instance - parabans are chemical preservatives which have been linked to breast cancer, amongst other conditions. While there is no definitive scientific conclusion that parabans are a direct cause of such cancers, there is enough concern that research continues and even the large, successful manufacturers are looking into alternatives...

SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) is a surfactant, a foaming agent. It is often used in soaps, shampoos & even toothpaste just to get that frothiness we expect from those products.
The SLS found in these products is exactly the same as you would find in a car wash or even a garage, where it is used to degrease car engines, that alone should send alarm bells ringing - it is actually an irritant and can cause skin corrosion!

I'm committed to using & making products that are as skin & eco friendly as possible - I believe the amazing properties of natural ingredients,
with long established benefits outweigh the downsides such as a shorter shelf-life. In fact, there is an extra special, indulgent feel about using a freshly made beauty product, which is best stored in your refrigerator!
Where do you do your creating? Do you have a special area or studio?
At the moment, I'm managing the different aspects of Soapstar from various rooms in my home. All the computer stuff like my online Etsy shop, email and the graphic design involved, happens in our office (well, spare bedroom!), I create the soaps etc in my kitchen and the 'curing' rack & storage is in the basement.

I am lucky enough to have an original 'cold store' in the basement too, which is ideal for storing all my bulk ingredients such as base oils etc, which keeps them nice & fresh.

I do dream about having a studio one day ...one, perfectly organised space for the whole process... that would be bliss!
I've found that crafty people are generally interested in many artistic endeavors. Have you tried any other artsy things, and if so, what are they?
I've dabbled here & there... but only on a much more personal level really. As a teenager I designed, made & customized my own clothes & accessories (something I still try to do!) and co-produced a music fanzine. Later on I loved model making projects like doll's house furniture for my daughter and building space rockets with my son. Like many, I periodically get a strong desire for doing the interior design thing and I always have camera with me, but photography is definitely more of my husband's forte!
Based on what I've read on your blog, you seem to be quite involved in your local ecology garden and other nature conservancy groups. How did that come about?
My late Mum was an avid gardener with amazing green fingers and a font of all knowledge when it came to wild flowers, and the vibrant array of birds, bees & butterflies that call such habitats home. She was also a scientist, immensely interested in natural, holistic approaches to well-being. Her father (my grandad) was a vet specialising in horses & farm stock, so I grew up surrounded by animals & a healthy respect for mother nature.

After moving to Canada a few years ago with my family, I discovered my local (Cobourg) Ecology Garden which is full of the flora, fauna & spirit my Mum adored.
When I learnt the Garden was under threat due to lack of funding, I felt compelled to get involved. So, to support this gorgeous little area of natural beauty, I created Butterfly Island ~ a heavenly lavender & lilac scented handmade soap bar, followed by aromatic bath salts. Profits from the sale of Butterfly Island products are donated to the Garden.
Whenever I feel melancholy, full of excitement or just happy to be, I cycle there and breathe in the joyous aroma. It never fails to make me smile.
Now, because of your shop name, I have to ask, are you a fan of any particular soap opera? And where did you get your idea for the great, catchy titles of your soaps?
lol! These days I don't have time to follow any soap opera avidly - although I do have a soft spot for the long running British soap Coronation Street. While they're not strictly soap operas I love series like House, 24 and Sex & The City. Comedy-wise you can't beat The Office (both the original UK & the brilliantly 'transatlantic translated' US version). However, I will happily admit there isn't much I wouldn't watch given the chance - from serious, informative documentories, to over-the-top melodramatic Latin American 'telenovelas' to the downright, ridiculous reality shows. I guess I'm an observer of life - a people watcher!

The name Soapstar actually came first though, I wanted a name that was a simple, easily remembered and clearly descriptive of what I was doing. The concept kinda evolved from there - I already had a few
ideas for soap recipes in my mind, inspired by local places - then it just hit me as I was cycling down Cobourg's main street, after having a coffee with a friend at one of the many wonderful cafes there. She had been asking me about Coronation Street which is so popular around the world, and especially Ontario it seems. Coffeenation Street was born! So now naming new products involves the whole family 'brainstorming' wordplay / puns based on TV shows from around the globe... the rest is history!

Many thanks to Vicky, otherwise known as Soapstarcanada, for her time and patience in answering questions for this post.

Kreativ Blogger Award

2010-05-07T18:55:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to announce that this blog has been awarded the Kreative Blogger Award! This award was given to me by my OhCanada! teammate, Vicky, of Soapst★rcanada, which was incrediby thoughtful and kind of her.
Her own blog is beautiful, witty, and thought-provoking, and I really enjoy reading it. The writing is clear, but always entertaining, and the topics are always interesting. Thank you so much - it means a lot coming from someone with such an amazing blog!

I am also a big fan of Soapst★rcanada's Etsy shop, stocked with lovely natural soaps, scrubs, and bath bombs with such enticing names as "Lawn and Order" and "Coffeenation Street". It's no surprise that the shop motto is "act natural ★ feel good".

Here are some of the beautiful things to be found there:

Now, this award also involves performing several acts, and they are:
1. Post the award on my blogspot.
2. Thank the person who gave it to me.
3. Link to the person who gave this to me. See above!
4. Share a list of 7 things that you probably don't know about me...
5. Choose 7 great bloggers to give the award to.
6. Share a link to their blogs.
7. Leave a comment on their blog.

So, here goes...

Seven things you *might* not know about me:
1. I am lefthanded.
2. I have a complete and utter obsession with shoes. No, I'm not going to admit how many pairs I own, but I will say that several pairs still in circulation date from the 7th grade. Yes, that was during the 80's. ☺
3. I am a dual citizen, both American and Canadian.
4. I used to own a 1965 limited edition Ford Thunderbird.
5. At one time I could speak 4 languages. Sadly, now I can only realistically speak 2.
6. I enjoy playing the piano as a form of relaxation. It's something I've come back to since my pregnancy.
7. I am a graduate of Moo U. ☺ Go Green! Go White!

And here are the bloggers I'm passing this award on to:
Marzipan Road
Blue Jeans Jewelry
Fosten Designs
Ojibwe Aboriginal Art
bstudio designs
Little Village Naturals
Exploring Southwest Montreal

Mother's Day ideas and more treasuries

2010-04-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

Well, Mother's Day is fast approaching. It's May 9th this year, which means that procrastinators like me need to start thinking hard about what we're going to get for that most special of women - mom. In my family, the month of May is especially full of gifting as all three mothers - me, my mom, and my mother-in-law - all have birthdays in that month as well. And who do you think provides the shopping list for all that gifting? Well it's certainly not my husband!

So, in anticipation of all those events I've put together this Mother's Day wish list in Etsy's Treasury East. And because I wanted to also highlight some of the beautiful work by my amazing teammates, it's composed entirely of OhCanada team members.

Usually when I create a treasury I pick items based on their color, or around a particular theme like flowers or bears or something. This means that I may include teammates, but also other shops that fit my theme. But when you limit yourself to specific shops it forces you to think outside the box, in terms of how items might flow with one another based on the properties of what each shop owner has listed, and what organizational models will and won't work.

Because I was thinking mainly of my own mother when I created this particular wish list, I picked things that fit her style. Though she can be artsy and flamboyant at times, this contrasts starkly with the fact that her favorite color is beige.

So I decided to pick one inspirational piece, and went with something that is both beige, and incredibly unique. The entire treasury is formed around this beautiful Asian-style vintage coat from The House of Hearts vintage. To counterbalance the neutral tones of the coat, I chose items in her favorite shades of blues and greens, and then added some bright fuchsia for a bit of extra pop.

I included lots of accessories because that's my mom's favorite way to dress up her predominantly black and beige wardrobe. She loves it all, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, brooches. And of course, what woman doesn't like a little pampering? So, some handmade soap was included. A pair of slippers for chilly nights harmonized well, colorwise, with the hobo bag and fingerless gloves I'd already chosen.

Then, I went heavy on the notecards because my mom is one of those rare people that does not have email, let alone access to social networking tools, and she still sends frequent handwritten cards and letters to friends and family. I have to admit, as dependent on my computer as I am, I still love opening one of her bright, cheerful notes. It just seems to mean a bit more when someone takes the time to write it out by hand.

Links to the shops included in this treasury follow, where there are many more beautiful things to be found!

By row, L-R
row 1:
dollface deville, The House of Hearts , Tres Belle Knits and Crochet, Fosten Greetings
row 2:
Splurge , Liz-Anna's Lakeside Studio, Dee's Adornments, The Art of Zen...Crochet
row 3:
Boomerville, Simple Sundries, Maple Creek Soapworks, The Sage's Cupboard
row 4:
Ocean Pearl Beaded Jewelry, bstudio, 2 much yarn, Teacup Designs

Some announcements
First off, I'm happy to announce that my team member, Brenda, of bstudio has published a book on ribbon art. You can read her blog post about the process here. It can be ordered in Canada at Chapters/Indigo, and in the US through Amazon.com. I just may have to take up a new craft!

I'd also like to link here to my guest post on our team blog on the subject of Canadian landmarks. My post highlights the Lachine rapids of Montreal, Quebec; their beauty, and historical importance. You can read it here.

and finally...more treasuries!

The competition to secure that promised front page spot has been fierce, and my work has been featured in a number of gorgeous treasuries. Please take a look and enjoy the beautiful pieces and excellent curatorial skills.

Fosten Greetings' "Treats for Mom"

Liz-Anna's Lakeside Studio's "Over the Rainbow"

Painting from the Heart's "Blue me Away"

"Brownie points" by bstudio

and "Canadian Metal Artists" by Splurge

Treasury East: review and How-to

2010-04-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday and today I created my first two treasuries using the new Treasury East. Although it doesn't work quite the same as the Main or West, it's very easy to use and gives a much more immediate satisfaction since you can create a treasury there whenever the muse inspires you. Not when the clock needle hits the red zone. Now, I know it might not get as much exposure as the other two since they are capped at a certain number, but Etsy will be pulling FP features from the East treasury as well, so the potential is still there.

My first treasury, "For the Guys," was inspired by my husband's birthday, and the difficulties I have in buying for him. I read a community survey awhile back which stated that both sellers and buyers on Etsy are overwhelmingly women - no surprise there - but that's no reason not to include items for men. Women shop for men as well as for other women.

Treasuries and choices
When choosing the items to include I used a number of methods. First, I pored through my favorites looking for the lovely cedar strip canoe by millydilly that appeared in the Storque awhile back. My husband built his own 15 ft. cedar strip many years ago and it's what we always use when canoing. I knew he'd appreciate the craftsmanship of this one. I also picked this plant stand made from a maple log by bearpawrustics.

I chose this great blue cycling t-shirt by Vital Industries next. My husband is also an avid cyclist, and I had ordered this shirt for our nephew for Christmas, so I knew it was quite a hit among the guys.

From there, I started entering search terms. Wow! Talk about a lot of work combing through results. From what I could tell, the basic search box can only perform a search on two terms at a time. This wasn't super helpful when I wanted to search for things like "native quebec art". I tried to confine myself to two- and one-word searches using words like "Dave" (my husband's name), "canoe lake", "canoe", and "Algonquin Park". Searching on baja produced this great vintage find by smalltownvintage...am I dating myself here? And searching "wolf" under the jewelry category produced this cool wolf ring by Evesart.

I would never normally recommend searching under a personal name, but I thought it'd be fun just to see what popped up. And it produced this great wallet named "the Dave" by RobbieMoto, this lovely photograph taken in Ontario's Algonquin Park by inthepaint, and the motherlode of Dave-ness, canoes plus Banff, this photograph by ljangphotography of what my husband always refers to as the "20 dollar bill". It's even tagged that way!

I then turned to my team, the Oh Canada! street team, to see what I could add to this great list. This classic men's shaving soap comes from soapstarcanada, and this beautiful wall hanging by taibossigai features a polar bear under the Northern Lights - bears and Northern Lights together, I was so happy! I knew I'd find something at thebackyardbear which is located in Muskoka, and was not disappointed. I chose this cute bear cub on driftwood.

Turning to one of the photography shops on our team, I found this amazing photograph of Okanagen Lake in BC by theeye. As a geologist, my husband has worked in both "ends" of the country (as well as many other spots in between), so I was motivated to find something from Newfoundland & Labrador to match my BC finding.

DO NOT enter "newfoundland" or "labrador" into a search engine and expect to get something geographic in nature! My goodness, the dog photos and dog themed items I found. Now, I am a dog lover, but this was NOT what I wanted in this instance. Whoops! Time for a new search tactic, so I went back to Etsy's front page where I selected "shop local" from the buttons on the left hand side. This produced a number of shops located *in* Newfoundland, but not necessarily about it. So I went back to combing through dogs to find Celticatphotos' photograph of Cape Spear, Nfld., the easternmost point in the country. It seems to have sold since I created the treasury, so I slotted in this beautiful black and white photograph of a wharf in Sandy Cove, Nfld. by sweetapplestudios. Here's a screenshot of the updated version of my treasury:

Ah, 3 spaces to go! I fully intended to use all my 16 slots. I went back to my team page and found this juggler hat by yoyohats. Every Canadian guy could use a new toque from time to time ☺.

I went vintage when looking for a camera, and found this cool old argus number like the ones my grandpa used to use when I was a kid at kissavintagedesign. It's even from my home state!

Finally, my favorite piece in the group. I had a hard time properly articulating what I wanted to Etsy's search engine, but by scrolling through a number of search results I found the beautiful work of SalmonberryThoughts. I chose to include the piece entitled "Polar bear sits" but it was a hard decision, choosing from so many beautiful things!

Of course, it's always a hard decision; the choice, the searching, the limits of the medium. But it sure is fun! And I have my husband's permission to add that he totally and completely approves this list! So get out there and try some themed searches. In addition to all the great pieces highlighted here, I uncovered all sorts of neat stuff that I didn't use for one reason or another, and I also met some nice people. ☺

Advanced search feature
On a related note, there's been a lot of discussion about searching on Etsy lately. I often return to the same sellers, or search for team members, so I had not recently tested Etsy's search features. As a seller, but also as someone trained in information retrieval and a professional researcher, it's certainly of interest to me, so I poked around a bit.

If you click "buy" from the front page it brings you here where you will find the option Advanced Search as the second of the buttons. That takes you to a page containing a search which will be familiar to many library users. It allows you to use quotations for searching, has a Boolean "not" function with its "- sign" feature, allows searching within categories (handmade, vintage, art and crafting supplies, and all items) and secondary refinement with categories like bags and purses, and housewares. As in, the categories that are "suggested" to sellers when listing items. There's an option to include tags, titles, descriptions and materials. You can filter by price, and by shipping destination. Finally, you can sort a variety of ways - and "most relevant" is the default (yay!), and have your results displayed in gallery or list mode.

Fantastic! It does my library school-trained heart proud ♥ Mind you, I don't know how many buyers are going to search this way, but I am super happy to see these sorts of options and controls offered in terms of a search engine.

Oh, I'll talk about my second T-east, regarding shopping for Mother's Day, tomorrow.

Busy teammates equals more lovely treasuries!

2010-04-23T20:17:00.001-07:00

Well, my OhCanada teammates have been super-busy this week creating treasuries in the new T-East, as well as in the Main and T-West venues. Here's a sampling...as an added bonus, they are all Canadian and all-team OhCanada!

"With Mom in Mind," by Chrisssmith22

"Everyday treasures," by sagescupboard

and "For Mom," by SimpleSundries

There's something vaguely thrilling about the whole virtual shopping aspect of creating treasuries, and the whole windowshopping experience of clicking through those made by others. If you haven't made one yet, you should try it, it's easier than you think. And if you're a shopper not a seller, you should check out the tresury lists. I never knew about them before I became a seller, but they're an amazing way to find new shops and get ideas for unique gifts.

Check out the Main Treasury
Treasury West, and Treasury East today!

And as an addendum to my original post, here are two more team treasuries that I forgot to include. That's how busy the OhCanada! Team has been lately!

"Art to go", by LizAnnasOnTheLake

and
"What I would like for Mother's Day", by OcealPearlJewellery

Treasury East!!!

2010-04-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

This going to be short and sweet, but I wanted to post on the new treasury option that's available on Etsy...the beta rollout of Treasury East. It's been in the works for awhile now, and was finally lauched to the community last week.

I have not personally curated a treasury on there - yet - but many of my Oh Canada! teammates have, and it looks like a lot of fun, and a great way to get some more exposure. Here are a few examples of the forerunners in this new medium...

"Wildly Violet", by ShopReinvintage

and "Oh Canada Team Treasury!" by 2MuchYarn

There are a few differences between this new treasury venue and the Main and West treasuries. For example, it's 4 across, not 3 across. Might not seem like much to some people, but on my small laptop screen that's the difference between scrolling and not scrolling to see the entire thing, so I give that a thumbs-up!!! Note as well the social networking features on the right-hand side of the screen.

A potential drawback (timewise) to this new treasury option is that if you want to "click" to add "hotness" is that you have to use your browser's backspace button as the items featured do not open in a new window like they do with the other treasuries. But you are able to see the view and clicks on the same page as the treasury itself, rather than navigating back to the main treasury list as with the other two.

I'm gathering my sources together and will be curating a T-East soon. Look for it to be featured here, as well as a step-by-step how-to explanation.

Photos again, or What to do when you're unexpectedly given a beautiful blue hydrangea

2010-04-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

My family and I went off to church last Sunday for Easter and were rather unexpectedly and generously given a beautiful blue hydrangea plant. I happily placed it on our kitchen table where my son refers to it as a "blue tree." But as I started taking photographs for my new earring creations over the week I realized that it would make a great photographic background! Here are a few of the pictures that I took...
I'm not sure that I'll use these as the main thumbnail photo for any of my listings, but I think they provide a little variety and a nice pop of color as one of the five that Etsy allows. As you can see, I got a little carried away with photoediting of the last one. It's a delicate balance for creative types between choosing clear, representative photos, or trying for something artistic in your photos as well as your wares.

And on that note, I also took a number of new shots for some of my older items and slogged through the editing and uploading process in an effort to freshen up listings, but also to provide as clear as possible an image for people to look at.

I think that these three photos are a marked improvement over the previous thumbnail images both in their representativeness of the item, and in their ability to draw people in. I hope ☺
[Yellow quartz ovals, Garnet drops, Rutilated quartz earrings]

Other than that, things have been somewhat quiet around here creatively speaking. I just finished up a lovely custom order and am in the planning stages of making wedding jewelry. I am also looking forward to adding an artisan biography installment to my blog, perhaps bi-weekly to begin with. So check back here if you want to get to know more about the people, and the process, behind all the lovely creations in the handmade world!

Sale, sale, sale!!!

2010-03-28T20:42:00.001-07:00

Warning, sales pitch to follow...

Well, the Oh Canada! Etsy team's Easter egg hunt promotion is well underway. A number of shops are participating, offering a variety of different deals: BOGO, buy 3 get 1 free, or a certain percentage off. Eggs are hidden all over the place.

So, OK, there's a sale. We've tweeted the heck out of it, so I'm sure you've heard about it. But do you know what sorts of items the talented Oh Canada! team has to offer? Here are two team treasuries to give you a little peek.

This first treasury, entitled "Easter Egg Hunt Sale: just in time for Easter," was created by Joanniel and can be found here in the Treasury West.

The second treasury is entitled "Beautiful Blues" and was created by SimpleSundries. It is also a currently active treasury found here.

And if those lovely images aren't enough to get you to check out some of our shops, here is a clickable list of participating shops. Please refer to each shop's announcement as sale policies differ.

soapstarcanada
joanniel creations
Leah Jane Designs
Teacup Designs
Poocheze
Little Bear's Mom
Fosten Greetings
The Art of Zen...Crochet
Tres Belle Knits and Crochet
The Sage's Cupboard, Unique Beaded Jewelry
Ocean Pearl Beaded Jewelry
Boomerville
Simple Sundries
Annabelle Art
Les tricots du coeur
Golly Gee George
Leanne Designs
2MuchYarn

Phew! That's a long list of shops with some pretty amazing things for sale. Check them out...look for the egg...and see if something strikes your fancy.

I heartily apologize if I've missed including any Oh Canada! shops that are participating in the Easter egg hunt. Please add a comment with the link to your shop and I'll edit the post to reflect the updated list.

Happy hunting everyone!!!

Team sale event

2010-03-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

Just popping in to announce that the OhCanada! Etsy team is having an Easter egg hunt promo event starting on Sun. the 28th of March and ending the 5th of April. You can find a list of team shops here. Each shop is free to decide how, and when, they are participating, so check the shop announcement for specific details. Official announcement on the team blog page here.

Little Bear's Mom's shop will be offering a 20% off coupon code to be used on any item listed in the shop as our part of the promo. But there's a catch! Since this is an "egg hunt", I will be hiding a picture of an egg in my shop listings. You must find the egg, and convo me with the listing that it's hidden in. I will then send you a coupon code that you can redeem in your "notes to seller" on any item purchased from my listings between 12:01 a.m. EST March 28, 2010 and 11:59 p.m. EST April 3rd, 2010. I will not be honoring coupon discounts after April 3rd, so if you find the egg, remember to make your purchase before then! Sale does not apply to custom work. The 20% will be taken off the item price only, not the item and shipping together. Once you make your purchase sending me the coupon code in the "notes to seller" I will refund you that 20% via Paypal, within 24 hours of your payment clearing.

Please note that although the team event as a whole runs until the 5th, my shop will not be participating after April 3rd so that my family and I can celebrate the holiday together. While my participation in this event ends April 3rd, don't worry, you can expect to see more sales and promotions at Little Bear's Mom in the future. As a little incentive, here's a sneak peek at the egg (above).

And here are some recent treasuries showcasing what the Oh Canada! Etsy team has to offer:
"Great White: Beautiful White from the OhCanada Etsy Team" by Fosten Designs

and
"Inspiring Spring Buttons: and some button-reminiscent items" by Buttonboxdesigns

And just a hint...the egg will be on the move throughout my shop all week long. So keep searching, and good luck!

Well, I've got to get this posted before Earth Hour, and then I'm off to work on a custom order. How fun!

New treasuries and some creations in the works

2010-03-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a very image-heavy post. Not only do I have my own treasury to present, I also have two beautiful treasuries curated by two of my Oh Canada! teammates. There are actually more than two, but I feel I can only bombard you with so many treasuries at one time! I am so lucky to be a part of a very active team.

Treasuries
First off, my own soap-based treasury: "Kaleidoscope soap". If you want to know what inspired me, well, there are quite a few soapmakers on my Etsy team and they do beautiful work. But honestly, what girl doesn't like to be pampered every now and again? And I will confess, while I've never been big on make-up, I'm huge on soaps, shower gels, scrubs...if it's for the shower or bath, or if it requires a lovely terry robe and a timer...I'm in!

When I first started taking "notes" for this treasury I was astounded at how many soapmakers, and how many categories of soap, there are on Etsy. My goal here was to highlight items that are more natural and less chemical in nature, since that's the sort of thing I'd actually buy for myself. As well as to balance color, and to choose clear pictures.

I hope I succeeded, please take a look at my original poster sketch showing the 12 + 4 alternates:

I include the Poster Sketch because it's always so hard for me to choose who's going to be an alternate, and who's going to be in the main, 12-item, treasury. Also, maybe my math roots are showing, but the concept of 4x4 appeals to my senses much more than 3x4. I don't know, maybe I'm just nuts...it's been said before ☺ But if you're interested in some really lovely soaps, please check out these Etsy sellers:

The Sitting Tree
Anderson Soap Company
soapst★r
Bazil Essentials
paintbox soapworks
Bovine Bubbles and Hogwash Ltd.
Bubble Tub
Juicybath
Homestead Herbals
Your Time Body Treats
wee essentials
Dress Green
Pyur
Maple Creek Soapworks
jabonbon
Clover Hollow

In any case, here is the final product, it still has a few hours left in Etsy's Treasury West:

Now, on to bigger things. One of my teammates, Splurge curated a beautiful treasury - all beiges, honeys, and creams - that made it TO THE FRONT PAGE!!! This was an amazingly exciting event for her, the team, and everyone in the treasury. You can see a screenshot of it here from Craftcult:

Finally, I'd like to include this treasury by my friend chrisssmith22 from The Art of Zen...Crochet. Not only because she was kind enough to feature one of my bracelets, but because she's been waiting and waiting to get a treasury and it's her first one! Also, I'm maybe a little nostalgic since "Purple Rain" was the first R-rated movie I snuck into way back in 8th grade...I *think* I might be dating myself with that reference just a teensy bit, but those are happy memories.
Here it is:

And since it was just created, you can view it live here.

Creative juices
I've got a lot of packages set to arrive any day now, and a number of designs in the works, but I do have one that I've already started on to preview here. I've been interested in doing matching sets more and more lately, and also in working with bolder chain types and ribbon ties. So, this design combines all three of those. I'm not quite certain how it's going to end up, and I've been sitting here staring at four different types of ribbon for several hours now, but it's exciting to be doing something a little different. Here are two pictures of the necklace in progress.
You may wonder what type of rock this is...it isn't, well, it is now, but it wasn't originally. It's fossilized sea creatures now in rock form. Most people call this "Fossil Coral", but I grew up calling it "Petoskey Stone". I'm outing myself here...even though I am a Canadian citizen and have lived here for many years now, I was born and raised in Michigan, and the petoskey stone is Michigan's state stone. It's a remnant, leftover from the last Ice Age. If you're interested, a short but informative Wiki article is located here.

As a child, summering on Lake Michigan's pristine beaches, I would search and search for an elusive petoskey stone - a veritable treasure in the eyes of a child. So this set is a nod to my Michigan heritage, my memories of the Big Lake, and my general love of rocks.

So, enjoy those treasuries, and happy rock hunting!

Sunshine nomination

2010-03-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry to say that my poor blog has been terribly neglected lately, so this is going to be a long and somewhat varied post.

Sunshine Award
This blog was nominated for a Sunshine Award by one of my wonderful Oh Canada! Etsy teammates, Mortira, of Inspirational Beading and The Sage's Cupboard on Etsy.

There are some rules for accepting this award, which are:
- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
- Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

It's been a tough decision, and these are a bit of a mish-mash in terms of content and audience, but I felt it important to only nominate blogs that I read and find personally inspirational. It wasn't easy, but I've settled on 12 blogs/bloggers. Here they are in no particular order:
1) Mahar Dry Goods blog
2) A Year of Slow Cooking
3) a hippie with a minivan
4) Maggie's Raggedy Inn
5) Dee's Adornments
6) Safe mama
7) Etsy Kids
8) Sawasdee Buikema
9) Keiara's Keep
10) Glass circus
11) Green Cottage Gallery's Blog
12) Only dead fish go with the flow
In addition, in honor of the award, I've followed Mortira's example and created this poster sketch, which is a celebration of sunshine, happiness, and all things yellow.

Shops were randomly chosen by using the search term "sunshine", and are as follows:
(L-R, top-bottom)

Jealousy Design, Afiori, SillyBeanz, Karisma's Jewelry and Gift Shop.
Kissing Kumquats, StoneLink Designs, Blushing Ewe, Andromedii Designs.
Linda Woods, Memory Bean Designs, Moxie Photos, Nadinoo.
Tara M. Photography, crafts cafe, The Greenhouse Soaps, Knecht Ruprecht.

Have yourselves a bright, sunshine-y day ☺

New section in my shop
I've added a new shop section to reflect the jewelry sets that I've begun to make. I don't know why I didn't do these from the beginning, but I've had several people ask if I do sets, or if I have something that "goes" with this or that piece, so I've decided to make necklace/bracelet/earring combinations that coordinate with one another, list them together at a somewhat reduced price (vs. what they would cost if each piece were purchased separately), and place them in this new section of my shop. I'm still creating more with the intention to do necklaces combos as well, but here are the first two, listed this afternoon.

(above left) Turquoise crazy lace agate set (right) Striped carnelian set
Both available in my Etsy shop

New team treasuries
The team members of the Oh Canada! Etsy team are still going strong producing beautiful and creative treasuries. Here are two of the latest that I am honored to be part of:

Love is like a butterfly: a soft purple haze, by soapstarcanada

and Made in Canada: A few of my favorites, by somethingbunny

2010-03-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

Spring has sprung
...or at least it's trying to. We have such a small little patch of dirty snow in our yard surrounded by yellowish grass and mud. It's coming, slowly but surely!

I've finally started creating in more springlike colors. Over the weekend I listed my peach-themed bracelet made out of moonstone, pearls, and Swarovski crystals. And today I listed an aquamarine bracelet in honor of March's birthstone. I will readily admit that my inspiration to finally begin creating "in color" may have a teensy bit to do with the appearance of Cadbury Mini Eggs. Though I also have a variety of pastel beads on order which are also very inspiring.

Exciting new Swarovski crystal colors
Perhaps this isn't the biggest news for everyone, but each season Swarovski introduces a few new colors and bead shapes. This year I'm especially excited about the new "Provence lavender" and "Fern green" crystal colors. I anticipate using both of these colors frequently in future creations. You can see both of them, as well as all the other new for 2011 items, at Artbeads' Blog for Beaders.

Assorted treasuries
The OhCanada! Team continues to produce treasuries featuring beautiful items by team members at an alarming rate, and here are two of the latest:
"Canada Eh?" by LeanneDesigns

and "Girly, Gorgeous" by SoapstarCanada

My industrious teammates are working hard at curating beautiful treasuries, and I very much enjoy seeing each and every one. I've been a bit lax about getting together items for another one, but am planning on trying to snag a treasury spot towards the weekend.

Treasury Tutorial
And finally, I thought I'd include a link to this excellent tutorial on how to do a screen capture of a treasury, edit it, and insert it into a blog. It's amazingly clear and helpful, and was created by Mortira from the OhCanada! Team, of The Sage's Cupboard.

That's all for now! Hope we see some crocuses soon!!!

My photography tutorial - for myself!

2010-02-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

This post is inspired by what I've learned about photography, and related matters, over the course of running my Etsy shop this past year. While I have access to a lot of computer programs and technical training due to my Library Science background and my husband's connections (he's a computer guy), I have absolutely no photography training whatsoever. *I* like to think I have a good eye. But who knows? Please, don't enlighten me...

When I first ventured onto Etsy as a seller, I took photos willy-nilly. It wasn't good.
Obviously, I needed a little help! Outdoors, in the direct sunlight was a no-go, and indoors under incandescent lights, while artfully arranged, skewed the colors too much.
I did a little digging - something I do have some background in! - and found this forum post and these instructions for how to build a photo light box. Now, I will readily admit, I can be lazy. I never got around to making the photo light box. But I took the forum thread to heart, set my camera on macro, turned off the flash, and got some white poster board as a background.

Here is one of my earlier attempts taken indoors, near a window, but not directly in the sunlight.

It's actually not that bad in terms of sharpness. The blues seem pretty true to their actual color, and the cat eye beads are captured especially well, but the white background seemed a bit stark to me, so I started experimenting.

I dug out the reams of scrapbook paper - yes reams, I kid you not. I am the queen of not finishing projects. These were purchased for my son's baby book. He's now 2 1/2, and I've finished chronicling approximately the first 6 months of his life so far [ack!].

Some of the paper was too flashy, but I did find lots of different greys, some black, and cream. These proved to be much better backgrounds for shooting photos of jewelry, when so many different colors - or tones - are present in one particular piece. As an illustration, here is the same bracelet which is mostly minty greens and silver on both a white, and a darker grey background. Now, the white isn't bad, but it just seems a bit washed out when compared to the grey.

Granted, a lot of my growth as a photographer is due to my willingness to experiment, and to simply reject photos and take them over again. And living here in the north with at least six months of winter and a "nighttime" that begins at 4:30 for a portion of the year, experiment I have. Above is an example of what I call my "maglite" technique ☺ Obviously, that's not the only photo I'd include for that piece, but it does the trick of catching someone's eye and hopefully causing them to click to see more.

What's especially difficult for me is to resist the urge to take photos at night. As a mom, who has a "real" job during the day, I often complete my jewelry pieces at night. And then I really want to take pictures of them and get to the listing process because everyone knows that Etsy is most active between about 7pm-12pm EST.

Also, because I have photoshop, I can get fairly good photos at night, with editing - in terms of clarity and sharpness - and I'm fooled into thinking that they might be good enough to list. OK, that glass of wine doesn't help the judgement either! But I was reminded yet again this week of why that's a bad idea.

Witness my nighttime and daytime photos of the same piece, a mostly white, clear, and crystal bracelet. Photo #1 (above) is taken on our kitchen table, at night...being very careful not to cast shadows onto the subject! It was then photoshopped to look its best. Photo #2 (right) is taken mid-morning, in front of a SE facing window, but not in direct sunlight, and is the original, unedited, unphotoshopped version. Which do you like better for best representing the item "how it is?" [monitor issues aside]

The difference - as pointed out to me by my husband who has won photography awards and also posesses a science degree - is that natural light, and incandescent light, have different wavelengths. So, the nighttime photos are always going to appear a bit "yellowish". Of course, I repeatedly forget this until I see the evidence in front of me the next morning of new, natural light photos. So this post is a reminder to myself that I should not get too over-excited upon completion of a new piece - no matter how fabulous it is!

And my final point? If you're the model - in my case - the hand model (why can't I get George and Seinfeld out of my head on that one?). Remember to apply lotion before taking pictures!!! This is partly motivated by my own vanity, I readily admit that, but also...don't you want your items to look their best? The above photo? Really not showing the bracelet to its best advantage.

My tips?
• Play around and don't be afraid to discard shots. Play with light, perspective, backgrounds, and props.
• Try to put yourself in the mind of your buyer. What grabs your interest about a photo?
• If you can, get yourself a good photo-editing program. It's not entirely necessary, but it's certainly helpful.

Inspiration...where do you find it?

2010-02-24T20:57:00.000-08:00

Today's post represents a bit of self-reflection on my part. Here in Montreal, and in most of Canada, it's still quite definitely winter. Today we got some gorgeous, fat, fluffy flakes that turned to heavy, wet snow on cars, stairs and sidewalks. It was so heavy I had to resort to brushing my car off with my hands, not the brush. And to top it off, while my son romped about in each and every snow bank and puddle between the daycare, the car, and the house and remained completely dry, I was soaked and had to change before any dinner could be thought of. That may have been due to some wishful thinking and poor clothing choices on my part, but really, when is spring going to come?

I read all the news and Storque articles on Etsy, and they're announcing that the spotlight for March will be on spring-like items, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and March's birthstone - aquamarine. Those colors...they're happy colors. Me, I'm still thinking grey, grey and more grey...with a bit of winter white and the occasional muddy brown. Now, grey is a gorgeous color, as evidenced by the beautiful, soft notes of the treasury "Grey Skies" curated by my OhCanada teammate, SimplySundries. And it's one of my favorite colors...I have two boxes of grey beads for my jewelrymaking. But I don't think people see it as springlike, however close to reality it is for those of us in the north; so what to do?

My own past three pieces have been largely grey, and black and white, because I simply can't get past the influence that the weather has on me. How am I supposed to create in happy pastels and vibrant springtime hues? Last night I was determined to be more cheerful, and I forced myself to create something in color. What I came up with...something inspired by vacation, spring break, anywhere south of here...preferably the Carribbean, and the idea of relaxation and pampering. The colors? Blues, greens, and the iridescence of sparkling, sun-drenched water. I think my "Ocean Blue bracelet" accomplishes all of that, but I worry that I'm not going to be able to keep up this show of spring-i-ness amidst all the shovelling.

Where do you find your inspiration? What keeps you going?

On a happier note, many more treasuries have been curated by my team in the past few days, and I cannot be happier to be amongst such a friendly, supportive, and vibrant group. We should make the front page for our team spirit alone! Here's another beautiful treasury, "Canadians Love Etsy", curated by teammate Joanniel.

Spring is coming!

2010-02-22T18:49:00.001-08:00

Well, I can now say that I've finally gotten around to starting my "spring line". I call it that with the intention that you should start as you mean to go on. As in, I aspire to be a "real" designer (self supporting), and "real" designers have seasonal collections. Mine is going to feature spring colors, with a bit of a proviso (see below) as well as the butterflies that are in this bracelet:

that I just listed on Etsy this evening.

I find myself continually influenced by the weather, it affects not just my mood, but what I am inspired to create. I guess that's typical of those of us that live in the north. Although magazines and stores are featuring sunny brights and creamy pastels, I can't stop thinking of greys, muted blacks, and ice-like crystals. Which are all the colors that presently surround me in nature. (I'm trying to ignore the yellowish grass and dismal mud of last week!)

So, I suppose my "spring line" is going to be composed of two types of jewelry. A transitional period, marked by somewhat muted colors, and a more definite springlike period which will feature more traditional happy colors. I'm presently still in that transitional period, as evidinced by my recent creations.

(above) Labradorite and paua shell &(right) Petoskey & quartz.

Stay tuned for more butterflies, and a more cheerful color palette!

The power of treasuries

2010-02-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

I have been lucky enough since joining the OhCanada! Etsy team to have my work featured in two treasuries, but until today, had not been able to grab a spot for creating my own treasury. But this morning I was lucky! I had been preparing over the weekend with a Word doc. and links, so I was ready to go. Here's my first attempt at being a curator:

I have no idea how these things normally go, but my treasury has gotten lots of comments, my shop has more hearts, and I sold another bracelet. So, all in all, a good thing!

As I mentioned, one of my pieces was also featured in a treasury curated by a fellow team member, soapstarcanada. It combines beautiful caramels and warm peachy apricots, and makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside. Here it is:

With this post, I am also adding the widget which will link this blog with the team's main blog page. I am planning to step up the level of my blogging (soon!) to be deserving of potentially higher traffic!

Quiet day and some reflections...

2010-02-16T20:53:00.000-08:00

Just a short post today, a few reflections, and no pictures.

I listed my Smoky quartz earrings and Tartan bracelet last night. They were featured in my previous blog post. They've gotten a few hearts and some views, so I hope they do well.

My husband is on a business trip this week leaving me alone with the little bear, who is sick, so I'm not getting as much done as I thought I would, but I did manage to create another bracelet today which I hope to list soon. I haven't quite decided if it's "done" or not.

Also, I was featured in another treasury again today, curated by one of my team members, Soapstarcanada. You can see it here: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=87464

Curating my own treasury remains an elusive goal, even though I have a Word doc and Etsy poster tool full of beautiful pieces all ready to go. Hopefully, I'll be able to snag one sometime this week. Which brings me to my final point.

Although I took the plunge and set up this blog and a rather sorry-looking Facebook page, it's really only my team members - from the wonderful OhCanada! team - that have been looking at either one. I don't mind, as I needed the practice and skill development, but I have to say that joining a team is the single most influential thing so far in the life of my shop. I joined Etsy (as a seller) in March of 2009, though I didn't set up my shop until the following fall. Between Sept. and Dec. I sold four things. I figured, well, I'm new, it's a learning process...since joining the OhCanada! team I've sold 4 more things! When they say you should join a team, they're right. Also, I've met an amazing group of artisans, and am really enjoying the sense of community that comes from being part of a team. So, thanks guys!

New bracelet style

2010-02-14T17:24:00.001-08:00

This past weekend was relatively quiet creatively speaking, as we usually spend most of our weekend time skiing as a family, but I did produce two new pieces and make another sale. Sales seem to be picking up lately - 1 sale per week for the past 3 weeks - but the shop is still an endeavor of love at this point.

Tomorrow I'll be listing a pair of dangle earrings of smoky quartz and sterling, similar to others I've made before,
except these stones aren't faceted, and are amazingly smooth and clear.

I've also been working on a new bracelet style for awhile now. I've been thinking and planning for a few weeks, and I finally bit the bullet and started wire wrapping it this weekend. All the beads are affixed, but I can't decide if I'll close it with a toggle and cut off the excess chain, or use a lobster clasp and put a nice sparkly charm on the end.

I call this my "Tartan Bracelet", and my inspiration is the beautiful mohair Nova Scotia tartan throw that we received from my husband's godmother for our wedding.

The blanket sits on our bed in the wintertime, and is dominated by a beautiful, vibrant cobalt blue that is a perfect match for the Swarovski capri blue color. The pattern of the beads mimics the pattern of the weave and I was able to get a pretty good match for all the colors. If it generates interest, I'll probably do a red-based tartan next. Today was horrible for taking pictures, so tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to finish off the clasp, take better pictures, and list both the earrings and the bracelet.

I've also spent the past several days picking and arranging items for a treasury. I finalized my picks last night and was hoping to snag a spot today, but no such luck. Hopefully I'll be able to watch the clock a bit better tomorrow and be able to post it in time since the treasuries seem to generate alot of interest for the team and for the shops.

Another sale!

2010-02-11T18:59:00.000-08:00

This will just be a short post, but I am still so excited about selling a pair of my earrings that I had to write about it.

Last night I was working online when suddenly an email popped into my inbox stating that I had received a payment. I'm new to this selling biz, so I thought "what for?" It took a little clicking around before I realized that I'd sold the very same pair of earrings, my "Sunkissed orange drop earrings", that I'd featured in my first post. And that I'd just created over the past weekend. So, my sales seem to be picking up slowly but surely.

I'd also like to announce that I've become a member of Etsy's Oh Canada! team, a team of crafters and artisans all based in Canada. I've been warmly welcomed and am very pleased to be part of such a diverse and talented group.

A pair of my earrings were also featured in a Treasury starting today, created by one of my fellow group members, Deb, of FostenDesigns, also on Etsy.
You can see the Treasury there for the next few days...unfortunately I cannot for the life of me figure out how to embed a clickable link.
I promise I'll learn before I post again ☺

Sales and treasuries are spurring me to get creating again, so I'm off to work on a pair of earrings and a new charm-style bracelet.

First post

2010-02-09T21:54:00.000-08:00

This post marks my first foray into the world of blogs. You'd think that after doing a degree in Information Studies I'd have more experience in this realm, but sadly, I don't. (Note: those of you who took Web Design with me, you can stop snickering) Although I set this blog up over a week ago, a certain amount of shyness, and writer's block, have kept me from posting until now. So, musing to myself, what should my first post be about?

I've been taking photos for the past couple of weeks, and I've decided that I'm going to write a bit about my process as a jewelry designer. How I decide to create things, and what affects me.

About a month ago I ordered a strand of absolutely beautiful tangerine orange chalcedony briolettes from a fellow Etsy seller. I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I've had a bit of an obsession with the color orange for awhile now, OK, since junior high, and I just had to have them. Also, winter is bleak in Quebec. And long. And cold. Did I mention that it lasts a long time? From freakin' Nov. to May sometimes...

Orange reminds me of Florida and all the many spring break trips I took as a child to visit my great-aunt and grandma. It conjures up images of the beach, joyful music, the hot sun, the warm sand, and a nice umbrella drink. It's just such a happy, cheerful color, and those of us that live in the north really need a little cheer right about now!

I don't like to rush my jewelry because it either comes out sloppy, or isn't very creative. So, in the meantime, I made several other pairs of earrings and a few bracelets...but those orange chalcedony brios were in one of my many plastic storage boxes of beads...just calling my name. I used some - along with some similar brios in fuchsia - to create my Tequila sunrise necklace:

...but I still had lots left.

Finally, over this past weekend, I took them out and started creating earrings.

While I'm satisfied with my first pair (below), which I've recently listed on Etsy:

I'm just not quite certain about the second (below) . Although they also have 6 beads per earwire, they just don't seem to hang right. Maybe it's the combo of round beads with brios that makes them fall differently? I don't know. Here's a pic:

I'm not quite sure if I should add more beads at the bottom or not. What do you think? The only opinions around here are those of my husband and my 2-year-old!

The contents of this box also arrived recently:

(though not actually *in* this box - that's for the pictures!) and I'm mulling over how best to use them. I'm obviously a little behind with the amethyst since it's already February, but stay tuned for pieces in aquamarine coming soon (it's March's birthstone), as well as pieces in turquoise and labradorite. Not together. Pieces featuring turquoise, and pieces featuring labradorite. The latter is especially close to my heart as my husband, who is a trained geologist, worked in Labrador many years ago.