The First Featured Artist, as well as "An Ode To Gerda & Juergen"

I am a truly fortunate person; I get to do a job that I love (and sometimes do it in my jammies!!) and, because of that job, I get to "meet" talented artists from all over the world. I LOVE getting to know them and I ADORE getting to see pictures of their work! I am sent pictures of drool-worthy beadwork nearly every day....so often in fact that I have decided to begin doing a post each week or so where I showcase a "Featured Artist"....doesn't that sound awesome? :) I feel truly honored to begin this new feature with an amazing artist; Gerda Petersen!
Gerda is a customer from Germany; yes, a customer.....whom I am proud to now call my Friend. My relationship with Gerda and her husband Juergen began when she placed an order with us at beadwork-supplies.com. Unfortunately, that package became lost......and in emailing back and forth to each other about it, we all got to know each-other and became friends. It would be almost impossible not to like both Gerda and Juergen; they are both amazingly friendly, funny and nice in additon to being patient and understanding, LOL! (that package did finally show up in Germany....guess it took the scenic route to get there, grrrr!!) And best of all, Gerda is a fantastically talented artist! She has only been working with bead embroidery for a few months, which makes the complexity and stellar quality of her work even more amazing. She has "IT"....that true, honest to goodness, genious-talent that produces not only gorgeous pieces but celebrated bead artists. Want to see what I mean? Well, here we go....our first "Feautured  Artist":
                                                          GERDA PETERSEN!
First, a picture of Gerda. How gorgeous and cool is she??!!

Now, for her work! Here is a photo line up of a piece from start to finish:

See? How awesome is That?? Can you believe she is a Newbie?? Here are some more:

What did I tell you....Great Gorgeous Gerda!! Our first Featured Artist and my new friend! :)

If you would like to be considered for our "Featured Artist", you may send pictures and your information (such as website links!!) to:

hlizzieb1@aol.com

Bring on the eye candy.....and Have a Beady Good Day! :)

                                                          

Copper and Fauxpals™ and Video, Oh My!

Happy Sunday to you all!
I am so dig-darn-diddly excited today! (what...thats a phrase, right? Dig-darn-diddly.....pretty sure its a real phrase)
First of all......due to popular demand, we have added copper cuff bracelet blanks to the website! They are so pretty and shiny, but boy do they take fingerprints! Take a peek HERE and you will see what I mean, the copper cuff bracelet blanks are all the way at the bottom. Look at those pictures! Fingerprints galore! Sorry about that, hubby takes all the pictures so lets just blame him, shall we? :)
Also, we have added a bunch of new Fauxpals™ to the website; these are 13mm x 18mm in size and oh so pretty!! And because the pictures don't even come close to showing the true gorgeousness (also a word, right?) of the Fauxpals™, hubby and I shot a quick video of them in the sun. You can check that out HERE!  Yup, that is my hand you see there, trying to move the Fauxpals™ around a bit so you can see the color flash. They are still prettier in person, but the video does show them a bit better than the still pictures do. All my Fauxpals™ are introductory priced right now and are selling fast, so be sure to check them out and get em while you can! :)
I think that is everything for now, Have a Beady Good Sunday y'all!

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!

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!

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!

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:

N

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!

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!~