Tickled Blue

The artist behind Bluebaby, known only as Amanda creates primarily crocheted amigarumi dolls which remind me a lot of Anime characters, and other crocheted things. She also carries a few pieces of jewelry.

“My usual screen name is briensbaby” says Amanda, “(Brien being my hubby's name) but I wanted to do something different for my Etsy shop. Blue is my favorite color, so i just stuck that in place of 'brien' and voila! bluebaby was born!”

Amanda at first wanted to make a whole body for her stuffed dolls, but one night, before attaching the limbs, she thought that the little guy she was holding looked cute just how he was...with no arms or legs, so she decided to leave him that way, and apparently her customers agreed, as they have now started to sell!

Her creatures have attitude with names like, Evil Elmer

Crochet Dude,

Stanley Stoner,

and Pooping Pete.

Some of them have zany, or mischievous-looking eyes made from felt. These are sure to tickle your funnybone.

She makes a variety of styles of hats that are both stylish and comfortable.

Etsy is the first venue where she has ever tried to sell her work. In the past she has given her items away to family members as presents, but now that her husband is the only one working outside the home she is using her talents to make some money on the side.

Amanda makes her items the best way she knows how, and devotes lots of hard work, concentration, and faith to each one in hopes her work will pay off.

Watch her Etsy store for more winterwear and afghans this holiday season.
Find more at:
http://bluebaby.etsy.com
To learn more about the artist read her blog at:http://bluebabyhomemadegifts.blogspot.com

Creative Gifts from Salt Lake City

Becki Rasmussen of Entyqua (Becki’s Designs) located in Salt Lake City, Utah offers unique jewelry, hand-painted jewelry boxes, greeting cards, and various paper crafts.

Entyqua is the name of the main charactor in a story Becki wrote in High School. She uses the name for alot of things!

She started making jewelry 5 years ago, when she first decided to be a stay at home mom looking for something to do, she purchased an earring kit, and started turning them out studiously over a period of several weeks. This spurred her to explore jewelry-making further and after visiting a bead shop she was completely smitten. She expanded her collection to include bracelets and necklaces as well, and then ended up on Etsy to sell her wares.

Becki spends at least 20 hours a week working on her business, and although she’s self-taught plans to take some silversmithing classes next year, and will also take up sewing again.

Becki’s favorite materials are wood and gemstones, and she also loves the look of pearls and uses both genuine freshwater pearls and faux pearls in her one of a kind jewelry. She becomes very attached to her creations, saying a little goodbye to each as it sells; to her each one is like a child that grows up and leaves the nest.

Becki says that her jewelry seems to sell best in-person but the cards and jewely boxes sell best on Etsy. In the past she has had her work in a local store, and the most expensive piece she has sold was for $50.00.

Her husband has been very supportive of her doing this work, and so has her extended family, many of whom also have Etsy shops themselves.

In preparation for the holidays she is going to offer Holiday tags, holiday cards, clothing, hair accessories, original art work. She is going to open up another Etsy shop to separate her hobbies. Keep an eye out for Becki’s line of clothing coming soon.

Becki enjoys creating custom orders, ships internationally, and accepts PayPal, checks, and money orders.

Check out all her gift items this holiday season at: http://entyqua.etsy.com/

Blog: http://beckisdesigns.blogspot.com/ My space: http://www.myspace.com/beckisdesigns

Diamond Hidden Among Quartz

Anyone in the lapidary field knows how easy it is to miss a diamond among hundreds or thousands of similar-looking pebbles. Camouflaged in beds of quartz, to the untrained eye it is likely to get thrown out as extraneous common stone in its rough unassuming form picked up in hand-fulls of what looks like the same stuff, appearing to have no market value. As humble and unassuming as it may seem, its chemical composition sets it apart. Only after picking it up and examining it closely does one become aware of its intrinsic value and what crystal clarity and brilliance lies beneath its obscure, gravely surface.

Such is the case with that rare artist you find, tossed into the bin with a host of others working in the same general medium, often overlooked and undervalued, when in fact just beneath the surface, unbeknown to those around them is something so revolutionary it threatens to set the medium as we know it on its ear.

At first glance, Michelle Strade, the artist behind Shoozles appears to be just a mother from Illinois who makes fused glass jewelry in a small town and sells it to her friends in order to be home with her triplet boys, but when you look deeper you see she has been incubating a wonderful discovery which could bring her national recognition. It is as if one went out to the henhouse and lifted up one of the hens, to find a Faberge egg nestled amongst all the white ones you’d expected to find.

Michelle has made jewelry for 18 years, and has done glass fusing for 8. She has worked over the years with a variety of different materials, but says that nothing compares to glass. Michelle has found her calling with this medium. Some days she turns out as many as 60 of these glass pieces, firing them in her kiln in batches. Some look like miniature parallel universes.

To create her jewelry, Michelle uses all brands of stained glass, some types of lampwork glass, float, bullseye, and system 96 glasses. She explains that you can't melt these brands/glasses together within the same piece or the glass will fracture because they heat and cool at different rates.

The pieces she wire-wraps and those not from standard commercial molds are the ones that appeal to me the most like, Molecular Fusion. I’ve always loved the look of cells dividing, hence my attraction to the lovely bullseye-shaped orbs found in Ocean Jasper. Its similarity to the natural stone immediately drew me to this pendant.

To make pendants like this one the artist uses a technique she quietly developed called Magic Mistake, a process whereby she starts with a solid color piece of glass, then uses a frit process (glass powder), fires it once, and then uses a fusible type of enamel to paint designs or scenes on the surface before firing the piece again. The manufacturer of the frit she uses confirms that they have never heard of frit being used in quite this way. It is clear to see from the unusual effects which don’t look like typical fused glass that she is really onto something!

Wild Mushroom Cap also has those bubbly spots of color found in Molecular Fusion but is made as an elongated bead skewered through the short side for a cord to go through.

Magic Doorway, (using dichroic glass) is very unique, and its iridescence gives it a definite air of mystery and enchantment. It packs quite a punch for such a small pendant!

The most difficult piece she has ever made was called Van Gogh's Starry Night. That piece sold, but it is one she wishes she could keep.

Michelle does a variety of home shows and jewelry parties and several indoor shows, totaling approximately 30 a year. The income generated from local sources, (combined with sales from her Etsy store which make up 1/3 of her earnings), allows her to make a secure living from her art, and is much more lucrative than the teacher’s aid job paying $7.80/hr. that was her other career option during a transitional period of her life.

The artist is trying a new way to sell her jewelry called Online Hostess which works like a jewelry party but set up online rather than in someone’s home.

In the future, Michelle would like to learn how to create soldered bezels for her glass pieces, and to explore lampwork again, but says she would die happy even if she never did anything but fuse.

Keep your eyes peeled for Holiday painted charms and snow scenes coming out this season (and maybe some surprises).

Michelle belongs to EGA (Etsy Glass Artists) and Worldwide Women Artists.

What I’ve shown here are just a few of her glass pieces, so If you’d like to see what else she’s got available, be sure to go to:
http://shoozles.etsy.com

and to learn more about the artist go to her blog at:
http://shoozles.wordpress.com/

Offerings to the Gods

Dina Cuomo of Elektrajewelry has worked with stones for over 10 years and loves working with 18 or 24 Kt. gold vermeil because of her Greek heritage and her travels to that country which have made a strong impression upon her. She also works with sterling silver, and recently brought back some Murano glass beads from Greece over the summer. She will be making more of these designs available in the near future.

One of my favorites of hers is Multicolored Tourmaline Bracelet with colors ranging from a rootbeer brown to a yellow-green, bali sterling silver clasp, and nugget spacer beads with facets that reflect the light and mimic the faceting on the gemstones used.

Her Sunstone and Turquoise necklace similarly gives off a warm glow, but in this one, the Turquoise adds contrast between cool and warm, lending another layer of interest.

Purple Passion has big, smooth organic chunks of tumbled Amethyst, a bali focal bead, and lemon opalite. This piece reminds me of fruit juice with its rich, velvety colors.

Pictured at top is Dina’s Carnelian Candy necklace. I first thought the metal was vermeil but then read in the description that it uses brass chain. It has a very elegant design, and the Carnelian rectangles have such a glow from inside. Note the luxurious length!

Until recently, being a fulltime teacher and mother prevented her from pursuing this full-time, but Dina has now launched her business full-force. She currently lives in Goldens Bridge, New York. To see her whole collection go to her Etsy store at:
http://Elektrajewelry.etsy.com

and to learn more about the artist, read her blog at:
http://elektrajewelry.blogspot.com/

Long Ago

These remind me of cracked earth, and unlike most of Anne's other beads have a matte surface. I love the combination of brown and yellow with a touch of pink.

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Beads of Wonder from Down Under

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Anne Dundas is from Sydney, Australia and has been making jewelry since 2004. She started as a way to fill her time while caring for her mother with MS and then developed an interest in lampwork bead-making. She loves working with glass and playing with the colors, watching it melt before her very eyes, then shaping it into solid objects of beauty, and value to others.

Anne also designs business cards for other artist, something she started when somebody asked her opinion on their design. She played around with the graphics and found that she had talent in that area as well as in bead and jewelry design.
See her graphics at: www.annedundas.com/graphics

The bracelet pictured at top, Royal Desire won first place in the metalwork category of the Arts Competition at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. It is an unusual mix of chainmaille and Austrian crystal bicone beads. This particular weave looks almost like knitting.

Tien Hou-Queen of Heaven is a set of 8 lampwork beads with swirls of salmon pink, white, black, blue and gray. Along with it are some facetted pink transparent beads as accents. These are among my favorites of all her current collection.

Next are the pink and green equivalent; Inanna…Sumarian Queen of Heaven. Like Tien Hou, these beauties have central vortexes that spins out to spread pinwheels of color (in this case pink and green) widening out as the reach the outer edges, someone flat on two sides but edged with tiny dots of glass making them resemble a sea cucumber. They are somewhere between round, oval, and rectangular. These also have pink accent beads that come with the set, but they have 10 of her lampwork beads.

Better snap up these gorgeous things fast...before I do! I'm surprised they've been sitting there as long as they have. With any luck I will make some sales of my own so that I can buy some of my favorites before they're all gone.

If you would like quality and unusual glass beads and/or jewelry you should really keep an eye on her whole collection at http://annedundas.etsy.com/

To learn more about what’s new with the artist be sure to read her blog and sign up for her newsletter at www.annedundas.com/blog/

Natural Beauty

BJ Rounds of Adornmemtsbybj started out working in Stained Glass but began making jewelry about a year and a half ago when she moved to Franklin Tennessee. She has a very unusual style, combining such materials as stones with wood, and shells with vintage jewelry components, pearls with large facetted crystal.

Most of her pieces are made in sets of necklace and earrings together, but some include matching bracelets. She offers to make matching bracelets for those sets that do not already include them if a customer requests.

Larimar Reflection of the Caribbean combines large tumbled chunks of Larimar with Vintage oxidized brass, creating a lovely elegant filigreed look. This piece is quite substantial, and with the market value if Larimar having gone way up in recent years you should buy this right away! The price at $160 is quite good for what you’re getting. Larimar is a collectible stone because it is found in only one place in the world, unlike most other stones. Beads like the ones pictured here are getting increasingly rare because so much material is lost in the cutting process for beads that those who work with the rough stone would rather turn it into cabochons to set in bezels. I bought a cab at a supply show recently that is probably about the same weight as just one of those beads and it cost me $68.00 wholesale!
In this next one, Chinese Knot Poppy Jasper BJ has used silk “Mousetail Cord” to create a Chinese knotted necklace. There is a very nice Poppy Jasper bead used as the focal.

Nature’s Best is made of carved bone pipes, Golden Jasper, and Tibetan Turquoise beads, and is triple-strand. It has a distinctly Native American feel to it. The necklace has all sterling silver findings.

A Rose is A Rose (pictured at top) is beautifully wrapped with sterling silver wire and uses tumbled nuggets of Rose Quartz, iridescent glass accent beads, and sterling silver lacy bead caps and clasp. She has really hit the nail on the head with this one!

BJ’s belief is that jewelry is chosen subconsciously and reflects one’s personality or even one’s soul.
Be sure Adornmentsbybj is on your list of sites to shop at this holiday season
http://Adornmentsbybj.etsy.com

and see her blog at: http://bjadornments.blogspot.com

A Tale of Beaded Tapestries

The artist behind A Rose By Name has been creating beadwork for 10 years and started experimenting with beads with her children, creating beaded animals. Over time she progressed to more and more refined designs of greater complexity.

Her tapestry-like style uses mostly flat Peyote and some Circular Peyote Stitch and she graphs intricate designs in tiny Delica seedbeads. Among the items she has made are votive candle covers, lip balm-case-covers, business card cases, and a variety of jewelry.

This Watermelon Plaid Cuff bracelet is so neat and precise, and the button used as a closure really tops it off and gives it an elegant look. These colors are beautiful and perfect for Christmas. They remind me a lot of that ribbon candy I used to eat as a child. The width of this cuff makes it all the more impressive!

Then there is this Rolling Waves Cuff that is equally beautiful but made of circular cylinders or beaded mesh attached at either end with a thin strip of bead-weaving that holds all parts together. The colors graduate from blue to green, and the button is a lovely translucent pink which creates a nice contrast against the blue and green. I just had to show two views of this one so readers could get the full impact of it, as it looks very different when open from closed.

Another ocean-inspired piece is Linked By The Sea. This necklace is actually a chain made of flat Peyote Stitch in short segments linked together to look like rolo chain. It is a shimmering blue-green with a sort of iridescent surface.

This artist belongs to Etsy Beadweaver, The Cleveland Rocks Etsy and BBEST-Boomers & Beyond Street Teams. For something truly lovely and high quality, go to her Etsy online store at: http://arosebyname.etsy.com

and to learn more about the artist go to:

http://arosebyname.blogspot.com

Dream-weaver

Impressive and intricate are the words that come to mind when looking at the works of jewelry artist and author Linda Chandler. Her style is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian adornment, much of it, museum-quality with its fine detail, high karat gold, sterling and fine silver, with some pieces encrusted with jewels.

Linda has been making jewelry for over 20 years and has studied at Arrowmount, the Midwest Federation, Metalsmithing Society in Illinois, the Gemological Institute (GIA), Indianapolis Art Center, The William Holland School of Lapidary Arts and, has taught and taken classes at (SFMS) Wildacres Retreat in North Carolina.

She has taught classes both locally and nationally in a variety of jewelry-making techniques, including wire-wrapping and weaving, metalsmithing, and glass fusing. Linda is certified as a PMC (Precious Metal Clay) and Art Clay teacher.

She has developed and refined a number of original wire-weaving techniques of which she sells tutorials on her free-standing website, which is also where you can see much of her best work. She also has an online store on Etsy.

Her work appears in several publications, including The Wire Artist Jeweller Magazine, in which she was the featured artist of the month (November, 1999). Her work has also been included in the published book, All Wire Up by Mark Lareau. Linda co-authored books Woven Wire Jewelry and Getting Started Making Jewelry, and created the jewelry used for display and instruction. She also holds a degree in computer graphics.

As we speak, the artist is currently teaching Intermediate to Advanced Metalsmithing at William Holland (in October 2007).

In 2008 Linda will be publishing her third book on wire jewelry through Interweave Press which will include approximately 10 beginning to intermediate projects; bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and a pendant, made with silver and gold-filled wire, some with a variety of findings and semi-precious gemstones.

Linda also belongs to The Art Jewelry Collective.

To purchase exquisite hand-woven wire and fabricated jewelry, check out both of her online stores at:
http://lchandler.etsy.com/
http://jewelrybylinda.com/index.html
and to learn more about the artist, see her blog below:
http://lchandler.blogspot.com/

Hand-sewn and Home-grown

Soandsewcrafty is a small craft business whose owner, Opp, Alabama native Karen Copeland, stitches a variety of interesting homespun items, with a sense of humor and playfulness. Among the many items she makes are costumes for pets (like this pumpkin outfit from which her orange tabby peaks out from over its shoulder to see who might be staring),

The lovely blue, green and yellow paisley handbag (shown at top),

these adorable cat silhouette pillows,

scrubs with Christmas trees and other unusual patterns on them, cloth sanitary pads, throws, and a mix of other fabric items.

Karen describes how she was introduced to needle and thread. “I have been sewing for almost as long as I can remember. My mother and her mother were talented seamstresses, painters....just plain "crafty" people, and I suppose I inherited that from them! And believe me I am thankful to them for that!”

Four years ago a car accident left Karen permanently disabled with a broken leg that never quite healed. In constant pain, she is unable to sit or stand for lengths of time, so opening an online store on Etsy gave her the venue she needed to make some extra money to supplement her monthly disability check, and the impetus to clear out a lot of the fabric she’d been hoarding for years. Like most artists, she loves her supplies and relishes going out to buy more whenever she can.

Her sewing gives her a sense of purpose and accomplishment, and when she’s immersed in transforming fabric into something useful or fun, she can forget about the stresses of life for awhile and enjoy the process.

You can find heartwarming gifts for everyone in the family and friends too at
http://soandsewcrafty.etsy.com/
and to learn more about the artist behind Soandsewcrafty, take a look at her blogs:
http://www.soandsewcrafty.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/soandsewcrafty

A Little Piece of Paradise

Kareen Kjelstrom currently living in Paris, France, spent summers in Tahiti (where her mother is from) while growing up in LA. Many of her pieces of jewelry include blues and greens, influenced by the intensity of the ocean colors in that tropical paradise.

She creates her own beads with a high temperature propane/oxygen torch and fine Italian (Effetre) glass, then uses them in hand created sterling silver pieces. All her beads are made free-hand, without a mold and are kiln fired for strength and durability.

Kareen’s triangular SeaSide Swankier Earrings with rounded corners include hand-formed and hammered sterling wire, with chain dangling glass beads, Labradorite and Aquamarine accents, and a special by Kareen hallmark tag. They have a lovely modern shape.

Her Purple Haze Bracelet looks almost like hard candy; flat oval lentil beads with swirls of purple and creamy white streaks giving the piece depth and dimension.

Many of the bands of color used in her handmade beads swirl around and around, creating the effect of movement almost like the winding of cotton candy around the center in one direction, or like a subtle cyclone, soft and billowy, sometimes breaking up in wisps which stop and start, at other times in wide continuous patches.

Prior to leaving Santa Monica, Kareen’s jewelry was featured on HGTV's Crafters Coast to Coast.

Since moving to Paris she has also exhibited her work at the Louvre and is trying to break into the scene and make a name for herself there.

You will find these a delight to the senses. To see her full collection go to
http://kbykareen.etsy.com/
and if you’d like to know more check out her blog at:
http://kbykareen.blogspot.com/

Time To Check The Maille

Abbi Caricco of Lunachick Designs specializes in chainmaille and sterling silver wirework designs with gemstone accents. She puts the power of intention into each piece she makes to enhance the mood of the wearer, and seeks out the most unusual gemstones she can find.

These features combined make for many aesthetically pleasing designs. I have always loved Chainmaille; it’s amazing how wire jump rings can create such a strong yet flexible mesh when linked and intertwined, perfectly structurally sound, like the architecture of a bridge when you look up from underneath. The numerous patterns, using both positive and negative space to accentuate their juxtaposition keeps her work fresh and intriguing, and her choice of stones really compliments the metalwork.

The weaves the artist uses range from Byzantine,

to European 4-in-1, (as shown in the first picture at top),

to Japanese Honeycomb (love this one),

to Full Persian (another one of my favorite weaves).

These Athena Earrings have a large round bloodstone bead dangling from the bottom of a strip of Full Persian weave.

Abbi uses a wide range of materials for jump rings including rubber, titanium, stainless steel, Aluminum, and Sterling Silver.

Her style is a cross between, Pagan, New Age, Goth, and Industrial, and the results; absolutely mesmerizing!

To see more of the artist’s work and treat yourself or a loved-one to something really special he or she will treasure for years to come, go to: http://lunachick.etsy.com/ and her supply shop,
http://www.lunachickfindings.com/ . Also, check out her blog at:
http://lunachickdesigns.blogspot.com/

That’s One-Of-A-Kind- That’s Headley!

A look around Ginny Headley-Maserang’s Etsy store will tell you that each piece she makes is a new beginning. Although the San Antonio, Texas native does have a discernable Southwestern flavor to her designs it is not the clichéd Southwestern style jewelry you see so much of around the web and in stores. Rather than the predominant traditional Turquoise and Coral often used in this style of jewelry, Ginny uses a lot of green, pale blue, and earth toned natural stones, particularly Serpentine, Amazonite, and Aventurine. Some of her pieces also use metal buttons as toggles, and a variety of glass beads, and in addition to the gemstone beads she also likes big, funky beads from Africa.

Most notable are her wire-woven pieces using sterling silver wire to create a bail as in this piece, Nereid Sacred Heart Necklace, which uses Abalone, Mother of Pearl, Aventurine, Seaweed Quartz, and Glass in its multiple strands and sterling silver cones and toggle.

Another very lovely necklace is a cross with interwoven garnet chips and Hill Tribes silver (which is at least 97% pure).

Ginny’s jewelry business is stress relief from her “day job” as a public health consultant in infectious disease and emergency preparedness. If you love to shop online for refreshing new and original jewelry, skip the stress of the mall this holiday season and go to http://thatsheadley.etsy.com/ and don’t forget to see her blog at http://thatsheadley.blogspot.com/