Fun with Ndebele

I am having a lot of fun with the Herringbone stitch, or Ndebele as it is sometimes referred to. Here are a couple of necklaces I have done so far. The "chain" part feels so good on the skin…very silky and the drape is fabulous! I do the embellishments the same way I do on my gemstone weaves so it is pretty quick once I get to that part. I don’t know how many of these I will make, mainly because they take so much time. I will just have to wait and see how well they sell. You can see these and more of my creations at Divella Delights
I am very excited about my order from Art Beads arriving soon; I just received an e-mail telling me it has shipped. They are sending me some Swarovski crystals to try out so you will be reading about them here as well as seeing some photos and design ideas. I have a few rambling around in my head now so I am anxious to get them!

I am also looking forward to working more with the Ndebele stitch. I figure I will get faster with more practice.

WOUND AND WIRED

Judy, a Portland, Maine artisan by night and a librarian by day has a true knack for twisting things up in a fabulous way. Pictured here are 3 of the items from her Etsy shop located at http://www.judyb.etsy.com/. She works primarily in sterling silver and occasionally incorporates semi precious stones such as the blue one pictured here with turquoise. Pounding the evenings away she creates beautiful and truly unique pieces of jewelry including earrings, bracelets, rings and necklaces. Hers is a style I have not seen anywhere else which makes me love it all the more. You can check out her profile but she does not have much to say about herself, with talent like this I guess not much is needed!

Tournalinated Quartz Earrings

This pair of earrings is exquisite and just the thing for that little black dress. Made of faceted Toumalinated Quartz and Sterling, these are simple and elegant. Each earrings is hand wrapped with 8 inches sterling silver and placed on handmade sterling ear wires. As with all my jewelry this will come in a gift box suitable for gift giving.

Tourmalinated Quartz a is Milky white quartz with striking black needle-like inclusions of black tourmaline. Classic combination of colors, direct from nature.

I am going back into the work force after having 9 months off and no, I did not have a baby, but I did get married in that time! I was working 40 hours a week then spending long nights in my studio developing my passion. It got to be a little much so I decided to take a chance and see if I could actually survive on making jewelry if I had the proper time to devote to all the business aspects such as marketing. Although I am doing OK with a few wholesale accounts, I find it necessary in this economy to return to the desk at least part time. The marketing is the hard part. I have to confess that I am not very good at "talking myself up". So back to the grind. If any of you have ideas, suggestions or helpful hints on how to sell my wares, I would appreciate the feedback!

French beading beginings

My daughter wanted my to bead some flowers for her so I began small and just did some leaves for this necklace. It's kind of fun. I think I will enjoy it in between my "real work". I did find some very useful tips and instructions, here are a couple of links : http://kimberlychapman.com/crafts/bfbasic.html
http://www.crafts4everyone.com/crafts/needlecrafts/french_beaded_flowers/.
And of course because I love the folks on Etsy, here is a link to a shop I found that specializes in this technique http://www.foreverflowers.etsy.com/. She does gorgeous work, check it out!
I think this little center made this necklace really cute. When I put the clasp on it just looked to plain in the front so I added another flower and the leaves, just a little touch of something...what do you think? Does it work? I am off now to a new design, new adventure...I sure do love this work! I have a great set on sale in my Etsy shop at http://www.divelladelights.etsy.com/
Have a GREAT day!