Woven Bead Art Necklace Give Away- Here's How to Enter

Hey gang,
I'm still waiting for one of my readers to win the weekly give away. Please visi the Artisan Beaders' blog to get the very EASY rules to enter.

This lovely necklace can be worn by guys or gals, (hey, a different idea for that hard to shop for guy on your list!), and features a glass bead with silver foil with light lavender, dark turquoise and ruby accent glass.

It's made in a Dutch spiral weave with 11/0 Czech seed beads. It's 22.5" long.

Artist Nicole Campanella of Beadwright offers kits, jewelry, supplies and all kinds of great stuff. Visit her and tell her I said hi.

See you tomorrow!

Weekly Artisan Beaders Giveaway-

Here's this week's giveaway from the Artisan Beaders Street Team.  Featured is Cheery Daisy Pendant from JaelsJewels on Etsy.

Jael is a very talented polymer clay artist.  It's fun to visit her shop and see how much her canes and artwork are similar to glass.  I think both art disciplines could learn a bit from each other.  This pendant is made form polymer clay and has a dichroic glass cab in the center of the flower.  Love the combination of mediums.

Visit the Artisan Beaders blog to get the very quick and easy details on how to enter.

Good luck and check back if you win!

Two For Tuesday ~ Artisan Beaders Give Away & Silver Glass

I've bitten the bullet and finally have tried silver glass. Our local glass chapter has a new member who makes it and he brought some to sell at our last meeting and to show us how he uses it.

To be honest, I had been kind of avoiding it. The cost of $100/lb of glass, seems so expensive to me, and yet, as a true glass-aholic, I finally stopped resisting and gave in.

Here's just one photo of my results on this seashell. (I have more views in my listing here.) I got a pretty wide spectrum of colors and it seemed like treating it more like raku, got me the best results. I've seen different results from just about everyone who bought that evening. I know flame chemistry makes a difference, as well as striking it over and over, chilling it and probably singing love songs might change your results too.

Bottom line is that I'm really glad to try it and I'll continue to use it, but in small amounts. It gives a pretty variation of colors and is a lot of fun. If you want to find my new acquaintance, he sells on etsy as Striking Color.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
And now for the FREE Giveaway from Artisan Beaders Street Team! Aren't these earrings lovely? They are classically elegant and perfect for just about anything that I wear.
(Including my usual casual jeans and a sweater)

This week, these black faceted glass and sterling earrings are from Kristy of Shiny Adornments. To find out how to win them, you need to visit the Artisan Beaders' blog and get the full directions. Just click HERE.

And if you ever want to read a fabulous blog full of selling and business tips as well as pretty jewelry, Kristy's is one of my faves.
I always learn great information from it.

So because of the multi-faceted post today, I have a few questions for you to answer...
Do you have a favorite silver glass- which one and where do you buy it? Do you have a favorite blog for selling and jewelry/lampwork business tips? What is the url? Oh so much to think about and it's just Tuesday. See you tomorrow... (oh, and p.s.- don't forget my BIG SALE in my etsy shop through this Saturday.)

Artisan Beaders Weekly Give Away- Catie's Blue

Oh baby, I love this!

Brandi from Catie's Blue is the etsy shop and street team member who made this week's giveaway.

It's simple to enter the drawing, which ends on Friday. Go to the Artisan Beader's blog, and follow the simple directions from there.

I think it's the aqua apatite combined with the lemon quartz, sparkle and the boro bead that just sends me over the edge. Aqua is my favorite color.

I know I can solve my problem by just contacting Brandi to request a similar one of my own.

Artisan Beaders Street Team Has Another Give Away

Artisan Beaders Street Team has posted this week's give away. Just click here for all the details. Don't forget, you need to enter before the end of the day on Friday to be eligible.

This week, we have a charming (pardon the pun) cell phone charm from Ainsley of Kaskaad Handmade Jewellery! Bright and sunny, this cell phone charm features a glass bead and Swarovski crystals, and is sure to make your phone cheery. Please note: this giveaway is for one charm; the photo above shows two different views.

A freebie? No strings attached? Why Not?

Hurry! Fabulous Giveaway from Orion Designs

Hurry. Don't miss this one. You have until 5 pm EST TODAY!

Vicki of Orion Designs is giving away this cutie pie pair of earrings. (I love her jewelry) They go with everything and are made from glass and brass. Vicki is a member of Artisan Beaders Street Team on etsy, and this is part of our preholiday promotion.

Here's how you do it. Go to Vicki's etsy shop, (click here) and choose your favorite item. Then go to the Artisan Beaders' blog and leave a comment. (here's the link) Visit the blog first if you want all the links coming from one page. If you hunt around, you might just find a little of my lampwork incorporated in her jewelry, which of course is a wonderful option for your favorite item!

I know you want to win. And besides, you'll be the coolest person on the postal route receiving a package from Chugiak, Alaska. Not everyone can claim that one!

Happy Friday to you, unless you're in the Antarctic like my daughter, who is a day ahead. Anyone else here celebrating the weekend already?

Artisan Beadmakers Have Another Great Item To Win

This week, our Artisan Beaders' Street Team has a lovely pair of green aventurine wavy ovals, faceted jasper briolettes and sterling findings made into earrings to give away.  They were made by Brenda of Etsy's The Jewelry Box.

To enter this giveaway, visit our blog, http://www.artisanbeaders.blogspot.com to get the easy directions.

And don't forget to visit our Artisan Beaders Holiday Gift Guide, which features jewelry, beads and other fun treasures.

Please, please, if you win, let me know.  I'd love to have winners because they read about it here.

And if you really have some spare time, please feel free to visit my Studio Marcy etsy shop.  I'm busy making beads to stock it up for the holidays.

A Sad Good Bye to Cori

It is with great sadness that I'm saying good bye to Cori, my fellow Etsy Artisan Beader Street Team member and friend.  

Corinne Portalatin passed away Monday morning, October 27th. 

Perhaps you knew her Etsy shop, ccdesigns 

or followed her blog.

Please keep her family and friends in your thoughts.

Cori, we'll miss you.

"Many people walk in and out of our life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart"-- Eleanor Roosevelt

___________________________________

Lost In Translation? Alien Drinking Coffee

You might have read that I'm in an online glass creativity workshop that I love by Sylvie Lansdowne. This past week's assignment was to choose a picture from those offered and translate it into a bead.

I chose the one on the left, which is angular and complex. It was a very tough choice. I was amused by her coffee with the swirling steam, the bacon and eggs on her left, the clouds in her coffee, (think of the song, "You're So Vain"), the Starbucks logo and most of all, the angular lines and the off kilter shape and size of the face.

You can see two of my beady attempts of the art.
The top one was my first and the bottom two are the front and back side of my second bead.

As I want to teach you what NOT to do, as well as what TO do, here are some of my findings.

1. Don't worry if it doesn't turn out beautifully. If you don't stretch yourself and try, you'll never know. I think these are two of the funkiest looking beads I've made, but I'm so happy to have tried them.

2. Simplify as much as possible- patterns, designs and colors. If you have something that needs to be the focal of your focal bead, you need to give it a background so it shows up well. See my second bead to exemplify that.

3. What are the medium's traits?- glass likes to be round, so it's a great exercise in patience and heat control to get the angular lines.

4 .On my second attempt at the bead, I took some of the details and placed them on the backside of the bead to make it interesting and to carry out the interpretation of the original artwork .

5. Don't give up. Try it again to see whether your analysis improves your interpretation a second time around. I much prefer my second bead which is pictured in the bottom two photos.

6. Most importantly, learn from what you did. I know now what I would do differently in that kind of interpretive situation. But these concepts work more than on just Modern Art. If you are making a bead that will remind you of a favorite family photo, or a landscape or whatever you choose. Distill the important parts out and focus on them. Choose your colors wisely and because of size and glass characteristics simplify all of it.

Now I'm going to put both beads up in my Etsy shop. Because one other thing that I've learned over the years is that a bead might not be my favorite, but often times, it appeals to someone else. This will be one more experiment that I'm trying.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Inspiration Monday Part Deux

You saw Monday's frog costume for inspiration, now here is the bead.

Meet baby Abby who is wearing it. She is currently living in my etsy shop and if you'd like more views of this little cutie, just click here.
Of course she would be perfectly happy to hop over to your house too.

I thought if I wrote about inspiration, perhaps it would be a good idea to show you my final translation too. And if you missed Monday's blog, just scroll down to see the original photo.

Catch you tomorrow!

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Don't Miss This!

Don't Miss This One ~ Weekly Give Away from Artisan Beaders Street Team
Featuring BrokenTeepeeDesigns This Week

Our Artisan Beaders Street Team is sponsoring a weekly drawing for one of our members' shop items up to Christmas. Woohoo, who doesn't love something that is FREE? And it's easy to enter. The blog will explain it. Of course I'll donate a prize too, but I'm not sure which week it will be. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know.

Each Monday, the blog will feature that week's prize and winners will be announced the following Friday. I'd love it if one of my readers won this pair of prasiolite (green amethyst), mystic blue topaz, and gold filled findings earrings.

So get over there quickly and win a prize. Click here !

Pumpkin Cupcake ~ Bead on a Bead

Sometimes I make beads just because I want a challenge or the concept amuses me. This one encompasses both.

I was discussing pumpkin bread with someone and wondered if there are pumpkin flavored cupcakes. I thought it would be fun to make a Halloween cupcake that showed that.

For a long time, I've been messing around with stacking objects on top of each other in my beadmaking, so it was natural to add a pumpkin on top of the cupcake. I needed to watch my heat control to keep it nice and distinct between the two and yet make sure that it is totally fused on, so that it doesn't crack off. That sometimes happens if they aren't heated enough together. But I didn't want the pumpkin to look like it was melting into the frosting.

I solved this problem by melting a smaller first wrap into the frosting pretty well, before adding the rest of the pumpkin. This is just one of a couple of methods that I use when attaching a section that needs to look separate.

This delicious pumpkin cupcake is available in my Etsy shop - here. And I've also recently added some other food items to make sure my specialty food shop has plenty of delicacies.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Online Coaching Follow Up with Pam's Witch

Pam sent me these photos of her second attempt at a witch's face, which I think turned out really well.

I see all kinds of improvements that she was aiming for from her first one.

Although I really liked it too!

Pam had said that she wanted to make the black dots on her eyes, and give the witch a pointier and more pronounced chin.  Her hair looks exactly like what I try really hard to keep mine from looking like.  Perfect for a witch.  And Pam added decorations on this witch's hat which wa another goal.

Well done Pam!  I know it's harder to make a second round of a bead after it's been discussed so thoroughly, but it just goes to show how quickly we can make changes and see a big difference.  You can find these witches in Pam's etsy shop.

Next week I'll write a mini tutorial for you and then the following week we'll have an online coaching session.  If you're interested in being a student, please contact me.  

Happy Saturday to you.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Adding A "Twist" To Your Beadmaking Voice & A 48 Hour Quick Contest

I'm just going to admit it and get it over with... I like quirky things. I don't like violence or scary, but I like a touch of "off beat" if it has humor or makes you think.

I found this Tarot deck. At the time, I had never had my cards read, but I was amused and interested in the illustrations. They fit my criteria....they look like inspiration for beads, so I bought the deck. I like the contrast of the bright colors with Graham Cameron's
oddball group of characters. So here is one bead I made using this tarot deck.

Often I give them names and stories. Let me introduce to you Heyward the Musician who travels with Cirque de Soleil. He plays the banjo and mandolin. His pet crow is Rasmussen. Needless to say, Rasmussen is always whispering in his ear and telling him what to do.

I have one other bead in my shop that is directly inspired from this tarot deck. I know, others may fool you, but there's just officially one of them. For the next 48 hours, anyone who comments and posts the bead's name, will have their name put in a drawing for one of my beads. (if you are an "anonymous" person, please be sure to let me know how to reach you, or check back on Friday) And if it is too hard commenting in public, I'll count an email sent to me, at StudioMarcy@gmail.com

Start looking for it...http://www.StudioMarcy.etsy.com and good luck!
**************************************

A Bead Lover's Breakfast

I am honored to announce that some of my bacon lampwork beads have been featured on "The Royal Bacon Society's" blog.

This blog, which totally cracks me up, includes bacon Halloween costumes, bacon recipes, quotes about bacon and even bacon porn.

I am a bacon fan too, and so is my family. One year, my daughter requested bacon band aids for Christmas. If you have similar tastes, you can find them here.

When my son was home on vacation from college, and sleeping really late, I knew that the odor of cooking bacon would wake him up. I admit to frying a little up on more than one occasion.

And here's one of his cooking tips... for pepper bacon, just grind some pepper onto regular bacon before or during cooking. It tastes great!

If you like this bead, check out my Etsy shop for additional delicious breakfast items to go with it. I currently have a fried egg and a little later this morning, will be adding a short stack of pancakes with maple syrup.

Now if they would just come up with a realistic room scent of bacon. I'm sure sales would be huge.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Artistry In Glass Contest & Fun Website

I've been told by family members that I don't toot my horn often enough, so today I'm practicing.

Hooray, I won first place in the Advanced Category of http://artistryinglass.on.ca/newsletter/contests.html's most recent contest. My little vampire was my entry.

Because he's rather dashing, I combined his photo with this fun website, www.magmypic.com, where you upload a photo of yourself or others, and they have some ready made "magazine covers" that go over your photo.
I made some with my own photo too, but those will have to wait for another time.

So beadmakers, check out http://artistryinglass.on.ca/newsletter/contests.html, for their next bead photo contest. I think it's an every other month type thing, with gift certificates from their online store as prizes.

And I'd like to mention that some of my friends also won prizes. I am so happy for you.
Deronda, Paula & Louise, you all sure deserved winning a prize. Hopefully more of my blog readers will enter and win next time too. (I'd love to hear from you about it.) See the winning beads here... http://artistryinglass.on.ca/newsletter/contestwinners.html

So, now that you're almost famous, stop by www.magmypic.com. It only takes a minute or two and sure makes you and your beads look almost famous.

*******************************************************

Meet Artisan Beaders Street Team on Etsy

People who sell on Etsy.com, often belong to groups who band together for similar reasons. These are called Street Teams. I belong to a few of them and thought that over the next few weeks, I'd mention each one, so you could see some of the lovely items that they offer.

My Artisan Beaders Street Team, also known as abst, is made up of 19 members. We all work with beads in some way, whether it is jewelry design, bead supplies sales, or as bead makers.

Some of our team members have put together a Holiday Gift Guide, http://abstgiftguide.blogspot.com/ so you can see a few items in each of our shops, read a little bit about us, as well as have direct links to each members' etsy store. If you'd like to search by type of item, look under the top banner, and you'll find jewelry and bead categories.

If you have more time, visit our Artisan Beaders' blog, http://artisanbeaders.blogspot.com/
which features informative "color of the week" articles and shows items from our shops.

And you can always search for the street team members by typing in "absteam" when visiting Etsy.com.

Stop by and visit my friends. Tell them Marcy tipped you off. See you tomorrow!