Island shopping

Hello! I have been in Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, the last three days and I have visited the same number of bead shops. I am excited to report that I will be bringing home lots of goodies including spessartites, rhodonite garnets, peach moonstones, lemon quartzes, and more! My favourite finds of the trip were some giant rubies and I cannot wait to make something with them. What kind of necklace will they be used for? Only time will tell...

Hello yellow!

I've been thinking of this lemon quartz teardrop combination for a while and can't decide whether to go with it or not. I have a necklace in mind and the design would be simple in order to show off the giant stone.

Big, bold, and beautiful

It's been a while since I've posted any pictures of my recent acquisitions, hasn't it? I picked up these beauties on a recent trip to my favourite local bead store and can't wait to pair up the large white agate briolettes and the aqua chalcedony coins. I think they would look fabulous with some small beads with punchy colour, like amber!

Odd ones out

I love making new pieces and picking the exact stones for them, but sometimes this means there are stones left behind. These lonely beauties were the last of their kind and are waiting for their turn:

Escape to New York, Part 2: Whole Bead Show

In case you missed my previous post, I am in the Big Apple! My first stop after dropping my things off? Checking out the Whole Bead Show, which was in town for its semi annual extravaganza. I had been to the one in Vancouver for the past several years and was curious about the different vendors.

There were many more vendors and lots of pretty gemstones to gawk over. I stocked up on a few strands of pyrites, citrines, and London blue topazes as well as picked up some beautiful pairs of pink chalcedonies, Swiss blue topazes, and green amethysts. Here is a shot of a stranger checking out the show:

Sparkle and shine

I couldn't resist stopping by my favourite local bead store today and look what I came out with... Rubies, turquoises, pyrites, and more!

Jetset beads

I zipped over to Ottawa for a few days and couldn't stop myself from checking out the bead store closest to my hotel. Twice! The first night, I picked up some quartz, moukite, and pink opal, and the night after, I returned to pick up a large rose quartz and some tiger eye. The pink opals and quartzes have already been turned into earrings and here is a snapshot of the stones that have yet to be used:

Another way to work with silver

The Steveston Christmas Craft Fair is coming up quickly (Saturday, November 27th) and I will have to start preparing for it soon. For now, my mind is elsewhere because I worked with precious metal clay (PMC) for the first time yesterday and fell in love with it. Although it doesn't require any experience, my knowledge of pottery and silversmithing came in handy! Here are some of the pieces I made:

Earrings in development

Since the last post, I have attended another bead sale and picked up a ton of beads: some green tourmaline (new to my stock), melanite (also new to my stock and super duper shiny), andalusite (one of my all time favourites), blue topaz (hands down the jaw dropper of the bunch), several strands of labradorite, lemon quartz, and more! I am incredibly excited about the new items and they should start showing up when I post new pieces to the shop.

There are currently three pairs of earrings in the works and the first pair to be completed will be short and delicate. Named Portia, they will have only white materials - moonstone, pearl, and white topaz. Then there are the Lalani earrings, which are grander and more intricate. These were inspired by something I saw on the show Spartacus: Blood and Sand, but the design ended up completely different from what Lucy Lawless' character was wearing. The main stones will be smoky quartz, garnet, and amethyst. Lastly, there is another pair of earrings that are just itching to be made and they will also be chandeliers like the Lalani. The Yara earrings will incorporate one of the sterling silver findings pictured in my previous post and the stones will be mystic blue topaz, prehnite, peridot, and pyrite. The colours remind me of water, which is perfect because the name means "water lady" to the Tupi people in Brazil.

New stock

The Whole Bead Show is in town for it's annual Vancouver event and I stocked up on supplies! Here is a peek at some of the stones I got:


I also bought some sterling silver findings such as these:


I wonder what kind of earrings I can make with these goodies! I should add that I have been busy with a cake decorating class, but the last class (for now) is tomorrow morning and I expect to have some more time to make jewellery soon.

New inspiration

I stopped by Country Beads, my favourite Vancouver bead store, on my way to seeing Macbeth last night and left with some beauties. There are smoky quartzes, chalcedonies, iolites, pearls, and a sugilite. There is also a pair of ruby zoisite, which has grey instead of the typical green mottled background. And a pair of freeform black garnets. I can't wait to turn them into earrings!

Bridesmaid colours

Here are some of the beads I picked up last weekend:



I was really happy with my finds so it's no wonder I used the rose quartz and vesuvianite to make the Carissa earrings last night... The pink topaz and smoky quartz were also recent purchases (from the Whole Bead Show in May).

New supplies and Arleigh mock-up

I spent a good portion of the weekend shopping in the Seattle area and naturally, one of my stops was at a bead store. Located just minutes from the I-5, Alexander's Bead Bazaar has a large selection of beads including some of the nicest high end semiprecious stones available. I was only in the store for half an hour, but I left with strands of amethyst, smoky quartz, prehnite, rose quartz, white topaz, amazonite, and vesuvianite. Pretty mint green prehnite is new to my inventory and I can't wait to make some cluster earrings with them!

A recent customer in California liked the Arleigh bracelet but found that at 7.25", it was not long enough. Several convos later, we had agreed on a sale whereupon I modified it to her desired length. Below is a mock-up I created to show her the lengthening options:

New stock

The Whole Bead Show was in town this past weekend and I stocked up on gemstones and sterling silver findings on the first day. Some of my favourite purchases include peridot briolettes, tanzanite rondelles, large ruby briolettes, even larger citrine briolettes, ultra-saturated green amethyst onions, teeny tiny aquamarine briolettes, and rosy pink topaz rondelles. I have already made earrings using the peridots (Dallas) and pink topazes (Cherie), and plan to work on the citrines next. They are a rich orange colour and will definitely turn heads!

On a side note, the Dallas earrings are a special gift for a very sweet lady by the same name. She is my good friend Jessie's mother and has been very supportive of my jewellery. I know she loves the colour green and I have been looking for some pretty peridots for her for a long time. On another side note, Jessie loves hot pink and these raspberry quartz and pink tourmaline earrings were named after her:

Upcoming craft fair!

I am very excited to report that I will be at the Steveston Salmon Festival again this year with my jewellery! It will take place on Wednesday, July 1st inside the gymnasium at Steveston Community Centre in Richmond, BC. More information will be announced soon!

Meanwhile, below is a picture of some of the items I bought recently. The large garnet briolette will be used for my friend Elisse's wedding jewellery, but the blue topaz, amethyst, and golden tourmaline are not reserved. The colours are a lot of fun and I can't wait to turn them into something wearable!

Bead show shopping

The Whole Bead Show is returning to Vancouver during the first weekend in May and it is only two weeks away. I went for the first time a year ago with my good friend Margaret and left with some gorgeous step-cut grey topazes, which can be seen in the Christine necklace/bracelet and the Trista earrings. My favourite thing about going to the show is that while local vendors like Country Beads (love love love) and Kimdoly attend, there are also many vendors from far away places. Of the travelling ones, my favourites were Bedrock Supply from Edmonton, Stones and Findings from Toronto, and Rocky's Design from New York. Hopefully I will be able to find some more beautiful things this year!

New supplies

I am super excited to report that a new shipment of beads will be arriving at my doorstep in the next few weeks. Among my purchases include some faceted blue topaz coins, a long narrow chrysoprase briolette, and a marquise beer quartz bead. I already have plans to use the beer quartz with garnet and smoky quartz marquises in a simple drop necklace and can't wait to put it together!

There has finally been progress with the Vanessa earrings - one of them is finished, in fact. Hopefully there will be a little time to work on the other one over the next two days since there aren't going to be new episodes of Ugly Betty or Grey's Anatomy this week =)

Red, white, and pink

My box of supplies is a little fuller courtesy of a mini shopping stop on Sunday. I picked up some gorgeous giant crystal quartz briolettes because I might be able to use them in a custom necklace. My dear friend Elisse is getting married in September and I'm making the jewellery for her special day (except for THE piece of course!).

She has asked for something clear and burgundy and cut out photos to show me the necklace styles she likes. We have settled on having it very simple in the front with a single clear briolette, while the back would have three hanging briolettes similar to the way an extender chain dangles. I'm in love with the idea already and just had to find the right stones!

Although I already had some long skinny deep red cubic zirconias (as seen in the Lavinia earrings) and some teeny tiny rhodolite garnet briolettes, I suspected they would not be the right size or shape. My shopping trip did not yield any burgundy stones, but I did find the crystal quartzes, which would look wonderful with my pink mystic quartzes:


I also spotted some solar quartz beads and got one, which I turned into a necklace called Kylie as soon as I got home! Here it is with morganite, vesuvianite, and golden rutile quartz: