Friday, May 14, 2010

My Latest Obsession......

So, what is my latest obsession? Well, it is something that I have had running around in my head for a loooong time. I have tried and tried to find a way to make this idea work and this week, SUCCESS!! I am talking about "FAUXPALS™". What are "Fauxpals™" you ask? They are what I am calling cabochons that I am making.....because they have so much firey color-play, that they look like opals! Heck, you could even mistake them for dichroic glass....they have the same type of color-shifting, shimmering quality. I have been working on getting them just right and have finally hit on a technique that gives me the results that I have been looking for; and I am SO happy!!! So....what do they look like? Here, I will show you a picture:

And here is another:


Ok, one more:



Now, aren't those pretty?? And the pictures don't come near to showing the richness of the colors, the depth of the translucency......these cabs are MUCH more vibrant in real life! I just added a dozen 30mm x 40mm ones to the website, you can check all of them out HERE!
I am offering them at an introductory price of only $5 each.....a STEAL!! So if you like them, be sure to snap them up while you can! :) And then tell me what you think of them; I would really love some feedback on these...please? :)
Thats it for now, I hope you all Have a Beady Good Day!


Monday, May 3, 2010

New Items, Yay!!

Just wanted to do a quick post and let folks know that we just added some cool new items to our hair findings page! A new, smaller barrette and some really great headbands! The smaller barrette is perfect for babies, kids or even us grown ups who just want a daintier size barrette....too cute!! The new headbands are made from white plastic and we have regular ones in three widths, foam covered ones in two widths and one size that is round....perfect for peyote!! A nice assortment sure to get the creative juices flowing! :) You can check them out HERE.

Coming soon: Copper bracelet blanks, aluminum barrette blanks for the ponytail clip and baby barrette, bracelet blank templates, a bracelet blank assortment.....the list goes on and on, so be sure to stayed tuned! :)
Thats it for now, Have a Beady Good Day!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Smaller Barrettes?

I have been thinking, (dangerous, I know) and I think that we need to add at least one more size of barrette finding to our website.....one that would work for kids as well as those of you who would like a smaller, daintier barrette. I for one have very thick hair and need a bigger barrette just to be able to hold my hair, but I know alot of women do have fine hair, and kids always seem to have such fine hair, too. And those folks just don't need to have a huge barrette, right? So, what do you think? Should we make smaller sizes of barrette blanks? What size(s) would you like to see? Here is a link so that you can see the sizes we have right now: SCROLL DOWN FOR THE BARRETTES! Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated....we want to give our customers what they want, not what we think that they want, lol! So feel free to chime in by commenting here on the blog or emailing me directly at: hlizzieb1@aol.com
Thats it for now, have a wonderfully restful and Beady Good Sunday!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

New Camera, Yippee!!

Yup, we just bought a new camera! Not exactly earth-shattering news I know, but we are just so happy to have a new, BETTER camera that I just can't contain myself! :)
This means we will have better, more accurate pictures on the website.....a very good thing indeed. Sometimes our pictures taken with our old camera just didn't do justice to the subject. But this new camera.....WoW does it do a good job! Here, let me show you an example of the difference between our old camera and the new:
 First, with the OLD camera:


And now, with the NEW:
 See what I mean?! The difference is staggering! Ok, ok.....those aren't really the same picture.....you caught me, LOL! But seriously, this new camera makes us feel that there is this much difference between the old pictures and the new, it is awesome! (as well it should be, considering what we paid for it) Here is a REAL picture that we just took with the camera:

Now, isn't that purdy? :) And that was taken as soon as we got the camera......which translates to "before we had a clue as to what the heck we were doing." Hubby takes all of the pictures for the website and for a guy with no training and, until now at least, sub-par equipment, I think he has done a darn good job! But I can't wait to see what he can do now that he finally has a decent camera! :) For anyone interested, the above picture is of one of our brand new items, just added to the website under "Druzy Cabochons", HERE!
Thats all for now, Have a Beady Good Day!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

More News & a Correction.....

Ok, first things first....the correction! I had posted that we were going to be selling our new brass cuffs individually or by the dozen.....I lied. ;) We are actually only selling the brass cuff bracelet blanks individually, at least for right now. The reason is that our prices by the piece are already lower than our competitors by the dozen price.....and we just can't do a larger discount than that just yet. Sorry about the (my) confusion about that!
Now, on to the NEWS! We are pleased to announce that starting next week, we will also be offering not only aluminum cuff bracelet blanks and brass cuff bracelet blanks, we will be offering COPPER cuff bracelet blanks! YAY!!! Copper is a wonderful medium to work with and while we do not claim in any way that copper has any medicinal benefits, many people feel that it does, and besides....having more options to choose from is always a good thing, right? :)
The copper cuffs will be offered in all our regular widths, 6 inches in length and, as with our aluminum and brass bracelet blanks, with a choice of either square corners or rounded corners. All with prices that just can't be beat....how awesome is that?! :)

In other news, we (meaning me) have added a vast amount of new cabochons to the website in the last week or so; all different kinds such as turquoise, vintage, resin, stone, shell, dichroic glass....super gorgeous cabs in all sorts of shapes, sizes and price ranges including a totally new section of gorgeous Druzy cabochons; Be sure to check them out!
Until next time,
Have a Beady Good Day!~

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Yay, Yippee, Yee-hah....at long last, BRASS!!!!

The day is finally here.....after months of research and testing of material we at long last are happy happy happy to announce that our BRASS production is up and running!! We are very pleased with the type of brass we decided on, it is strong and springy but also a bit lighter weight than traditional brass cuffs on the market. And even I have to admit, they ARE prettier than the aluminum cuffs, LOL! (not that that matters once you cover them up with leather or fabric or beads or whatever.....but they really are shiny and pretty) To celebrate, we have put almost all of our brass cuffs on sale! You will find them on the "on sale" page, located HERE.
We will be offering the brass individually and by the dozen to start, but if you need a gross quantity (144) email me at hlizzieb1@aol.com and let me know what you need and I can get you a price quote. We are not doing the brass cuffs wholesale as of yet (orders of 4 gross or more).....mainly because we just haven't had time to crunch those numbers yet, but we will get to that as soon as we can. We are also not doing custom sizes of brass yet; doing custom sizes always results in lots of scrap or unusable material, and when you are talking about brass, that means alot of money, lol! But if you really need a custom size, email me and I will see what we can do! :) Don't get me wrong, we will be doing custom sizes in brass, we just need to figure out a fair way to charge for it. :)
 Thats it for now; be sure to check out our SALE PAGE and as always,
Have a Beady Good Day!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

NEWS NEWS NEWS!

I know it has been awhile since I have been on here...we have been uber-busy around the shop and studio! First of all, we purchased a new shear! Whats a shear you ask? Whats it do? Well, a shear is a machine that cuts sheet metal. I already had one of course, but that was a BABY machine compared to my new one! My old machine had a 12 inch cutting capacity. My new one? A 37 Inch cutting capacity!! This shear is big enough that we had to hire professionals to move it into the shop, lol.  And it will cut through not only thicker material, but tougher material as well. It also cuts VERY square.....which is AWESOME because it is way easier for me to round corners on a square piece of material than on one that isn't perfectly square. So.....what does all this mean to you my friend? It means faster production, more options and, best of all, a much higher quality cuff. Which is always a good thing!

Another good thing is that with the new shear in place, we are now ready to branch out into BRASS. The brass production will be up and running in a week or so.....maybe less. I will post again when it is, as well as send out a newsletter. If you haven't already done so, you can sign up for the newsletter by following this LINK.

One more announcement, and it is a good one!! With the popularity of custom sizes in our aluminum cuffs going crazy, we have decided to put the two most often asked for sizes into regular production. Yay!  2 1/2 inch bracelet blanks as well as 3 inch bracelet blanks are now available all the time, so come n' get em! :) click here and scroll to the bottom of the page!

I think that is it for now, I'll be back soon to gab some more....until then, 
Have a Beady Good Day!