Local vs. international

Preparations for next week's Salmon Festival Craft Fair are well under way. All of the earring display cards have been cut, scored, pierced, and labeled - they only need to be folded before earrings are inserted and displayed properly. All of the bracelets and necklaces have also been tagged, which means I am almost ready for July 1st! Here is an in-progress picture of the earring display cards, two of the free-gift-with-purchase items for the first ten customers, bracelet and necklace tags, and bagged earnuts, along with three pairs of earrings that will make their debut at the craft fair (L-R: Carissa, Charla, Jill):


I also wanted to mention how wonderful Google Analytics is at tracking website traffic. I added it to the shop in February and it tracked visits from as far away as Tehran, Iran! As for this very blog, there have been visits from 39 countries and here is a map of the visitors' locations:

Warm hearts, warm bellies

My workplace held a fundraiser for the local food bank last week and I donated these smoky quartz and iolite earrings to be sold:


The Orleya proved so popular that I had to make second pair, which was fantastic because it meant the food bank got even more than expected!

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:

Mary Mary quite unordinary

Seven new items have been posted to the shop at aileen.etsy.com including the previously mentioned Esme and Shandra. One of the new pieces is the Mary, although its work-in-progress name was initially Eliza and then Sybilla. It has unusual amethyst octagons plus clusters of pretty pink topazes and mauve pearls:

Blushing bridal jewellery

Here is a look at the custom Lila earrings I have been working on since yesterday. Leverbacks have been chosen over regular shepherds hooks for security.

A little bit of sparkle and shine for the big day

Etsy has a "convo" feature to enable buyers and sellers to contact each other and my favourite type of message is the kind where a completely stranger asks whether something can be custom made for them. I got one just tonight and although it is too early to know if anything will come of it, I am excited all the same.

This potential client is looking for earrings for her wedding and wanted something like the Paige earrings, only in light pink. I wrote back and included a photo of my rose quartzes and morganites, as well as crystal quartzes, snow quartzes, and smoky quartzes. I hope this works out because I would love to turn the rose quartz onions I bought two months ago into something worthy of a bride.

A green wedding

The lovely Rhonwyn earrings, as seen below, sold two days ago and will be worn by the maid-of-honour at a California wedding:


Prasiolite, also known as green amethyst, is one of my favourite stones to work with and can also be seen in the Ophelie earrings, Tiffany bracelet, and Mikaella necklace.

I have finished the earrings from last time and they are now a little shorter because I took away the two larger links at the top of the chain. They are super cute and pretty and I expect to post them to the shop some time in June!

In the tropics

Here's a quick peak at something I am currently working on... It's got a blue mystic topaz briolette topped by labradorites, apatites, peridots, and aquamarines. The little beads are connected to the large links of a short figure eight chain and I have yet to decide whether I will fill the top two links with beads, leave them the way they are, or even remove them.

In any case, the pastel blues and greens remind me of the tropics and make me want travel somewhere with a white sand beach:

Design evolution: Shandra

My newest design took a while to nail down, but I am quite happy with the final look. I knew as soon as I got the clover-like findings that I had to link them up somehow, but I faced the challenge of them collapsing downward until I added the horizontal bead to space out the upper clovers. From there, it was just a matter of using the right number of jumprings to connect all the parts together. However, my original design also had a large crystal quartz briolette hanging from the bottom (as pictured) but the proportions didn't look right so I went without. The Shandra earrings therefore have only three beads and three clovers.