Tuesday, May 26, 2009

New Listings On Etsy!

This is just a sampling of the new listings currently in my Etsy shop.The beautiful artisan made lampwork beads featured in this bracelet come from Blissful Garden Beads, on Etsy.



I don't know what it is about a cupcake, but I am rendered powerless around them. This one happens to be glass, but I will take all types! I love to eat them, love to make jewelry out of them and hopefully someday, I can even make my own lampwork cupcakes! For now I will have to rely on the talent of others since I can only successfully produce a round bead, and that isn't all the time! This adorable set of beads was created by Crazy Lady Beads, on Etsy.


These have become some of my favorite beads. They are created by Susan Sheehan, on Etsy. She makes a wonderful selection in an array of colors as well as other beautiful beads in other styles. These are great beads for bracelets since they lay nice and flat on your wrist and don't flip around while your wearing your piece. I have made several bracelets with this style bead with more to come. If they don't sell in my shop, they will all just become part of my collection, which won't hurt my feelings!


I can't say enough about owning classic pieces. I love them and reach for them time and time again. Some days you just don't know what to wear and it is so nice to have a few things that go with anything.

I have lots more pieces planned for summer, since we are just getting started, but I am well into my mental plans for fall. I am truly enjoying this business and appreciate all who have supported me. I am thrilled to be home full time now and will endeavor to make more and better blog post, keep the Etsy shop filled with new and interesting things and keep working away at my skills to learn making lampwork beads. Hopefully someday my creations will feature some of my own hand torched beads! I will likely continue to buy beads from the many incredibly talented artist out there. There is so much diversity in this art form which I will likely never cover all of on my own, but I will want to feature in my jewelry designs.

I am very careful to only use artisan made lampwork beads, made by self representing artist. What does this mean? These beads are not mass produced over seas, by underpaid factory worker in less than ideal conditions. The beads have been made one at a time here in the US, although I have some sources in Canada and a few other foreign countries, they all meet this same criteria. The beads are properly annealed in a kiln. This is a process similar to tempering glass, which cools that glass at a controlled rate, which insures it's safety to be used in jewelry and gives it a long life. Mass produced foreign beads, while they often times may look just as pretty, are usually not annealed, making them unsafe for long term jewelry use, since they can easily break at anytime. You will frequently find these beads for sale for a fraction of the cost of beads made by a self representing artist.

How do you know what to buy and who to buy from??? Well, it's a bit of a trial and error process, but you are going a long way to assuring yourself the best product by purchasing from someone who has acquired a self representing artist designation, which has a number assigned to it, they will tell you in their listings, or if you ask, what types of glass they used in their creation, and how they annealed them. There are still varying levels of quality and service out there. I have found some incredibly talented artist that offer very poor customer service. This is unfortunate since they make wonderful, beautiful beads, but they must count on a lot of new business, or have a lot of REALLY tolerant customers.

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Until next time....

 
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