Moving Day! Click title to see new store

A good friend of mine discovered Artfire, and then I discovered all their awesome coupon features, so I'm leaving Etsy.

Here are some coupons you can use there (that Etsy doesn't allow you to do!):

For Free Shipping, enter "SHIPFREE".
For 20% off, this month's code is still "20OFFJANUARY".
The best: For $5 off of your purchase of $35 or more, enter "5FOR35".

Clearance!

I have a new Clearance section! This jewelry is marked down and ready to go to a good home! There are lots of great bargains for the jewelry lovers on your gift list! Plus, you can use any discount coupons you have up to 50% off. :) Don't have a coupon? No problem. Send me a message and I will give you one!

 C L E A R A N C E 

H O L I D A Y   C L E A R A N C E

 Please check them out, and spread the word! 

Hard work and no play keeps one busy!

Today I've uploaded lots of new jewelry. I'll post a few pictures below. I'm also trying a new thing with the store. At the bottom of each item's listing, I'm adding a "Why we love it" section, I guess to try to get across what I see in each piece. Maybe it'll work, maybe not, but I need to come up with some way to get my products selling. :/ By the way, you can use coupon code "BLOGDEC15" to have 15% taken off your total at checkout until the end of the month. Use the code as many times as you like! Store link is at the bottom of this entry if you need it.

Advice is welcome.

Now the new pieces!

All together now: Oooooh!

I'm super proud of this one. It took me ages to get all the links uniform in loop size, but it was great practice for me. I think it looks a lot more grown up. The downside is that it's kind of busy (I think) and I don't really like pieces that aren't outrageously simple, but I think it's still pretty to look at.

Snowman!

I was just kind of experimenting with shapes here, and I hit on something that I liked enough to try to sell. :) I think the way the beads sparkle just kind of makes it.

 Jingle bells, jingle bells~

This bell makes the cutest little sound. :3 I love it, and the crystal, and the lights of the tree behind my wife, who is modeling for me.

Look, it comes in green too!

I kind of like the green better, not just because I like it more than red, but for the differences between the shades of green of the flower and the crystal.

  What a shine!

This necklace is all pearl, all the time, except for that super-cute gift pendant. That's pewter with antiquated gold plating. This necklace was also an excuse to practice with simple loops.

  Ice cream, anyone?

Its name is "Neapolitan" because that's what it makes me think of. Sweet strawberry, golden vanilla, and sexy, sexy chocolate are represented by the colors of the pearls. I think I'm getting kind of hungry just looking at it. The toggle clasp is  an odd to "twist" flavored ice cream.

I'm nuts for this set.

Speaking of pearls, let's have a look at my favorite creation! I call it "Lady Like" because 1. it's lady-like and 2. I'm a lady, and I like it. It's so soft and feminine without being annoyingly girly and overly pink and frilly. It's simple, but it keeps your eyes busy, plus I've never seen another set of earrings like those. The clasp, for me, is what makes it. It's nice without it, sure, but I think it wouldn't look quite so awesome without it.

  So green~!

Glass butterflies and light blue cats eye go really well together. For me, the best thing is that you can wear it year-round and it won't look out of place. It's light enough for winter, green enough for Yule or Christmas, perfect for spring and summer, and works well with the traditional autumn color palate. Awesome!

You feel happy looking at this, don't you?

I don't think I've ever had a bracelet that made me happier to look at than this one. It's just glass hearts and dark blue cats eye beads, but the contrast and colors are so cheerful that I can't help but feel happy when I look at this. :-)

That's all for today. I injured my back rather badly at Kohl's last week, so I've been working hard on jewelry at home instead. 

Don't forget to to check out the shop! You can use coupon code "BLOGDEC15" to have 15% taken off your total at checkout until the end of the month. Use the code as many times as you like!

Two things!

1. SALE! I haven't had one in ages, so I guess there's no time like the present! Take 20% off Winter Holiday items and 15% off regular items! Sale lasts until October 31! Limit four discounts per order.

2. After a long week (I had five tests this week. FIVE. What the hell, college?!) I finally got a paycheck worth celebrating (in that it was more than $7, for the first time since June) and so I had to go to the bank to deposit it. Which is in Walmart.

Is it just me, or did America take a stupid pill this morning? I nearly got hit four times: once in the garage at school, once turning onto Ludlow, once in Walmart's parking lot, and once turning into my neighborhood. I can't count the number of kids who were screaming and running out of control while their parents looked on with bored faces or just ignored them. I heard a million stupid questions asked ("Hey there, guy in Walmart uniform wearing a Walmart nametag, putting away a cart full of merchandise. Do you work here?" /facepalm).

I witnessed one child hiding in a display of boxed (very large) TVs on the floor, fiddling with the security devices and trying to push the 72" TVs over. I told an employee, but the brat got away with it.

The screaming and yelling gave me a headache.

My request? It's this: Parents, control your damn kids and take responsibility for them or do us all a favor and keep your legs closed and don't reproduce. If you don't have the brain power to discipline your kids and force them to behave in public, then FFS, DO NOT HAVE THEM WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU AMERICA?!?!?!

/deep breath

Wooo. Just needed to get that out.

A Haiku

The sale is ending
Have you gotten your good deal?
I hope you will buy


It ends tomorrow, ladies and gents! You'll save a lot with this one, especially because I marked down a lot of the stuff in the Lucky 13 category.

Photos will happen probably next Friday. I had planned for this Friday but it turns out I have to do grocery shopping after work then run all the way to my mom's house and then run to Fairborn and then go to the Zombie Walk. It will be a terribly busy weekend and I still have to find time for homework. :/

Product Review

Hello, readers! I hope everybody enjoyed their weekend. I have some new items to show off today, though none of them are as of yet available in the store. These items were all created as part of a challenge to show my interpretation of Spring.



This item was created using swarovski crystal beads in the shape of butterflies. I absolutely adore these beads. They are only 6mm, so the charm is kept thin, and the crystal is very durable. I also used a cell phone strap from Artbeads.com. I like the jump ring straps, and purchased them in gold and silver. I'm only going to show the silver here.

The jump rings are easier to open and close than the ones with split rings, and they're very durable. The strap is very thin which made it easy to add onto my cell phone charm collection.

The other type of bead I used are 4mm twisted sterling silver beads. I love, love, LOVE these beads. They are durable, cute, and add a fun element to the charms.



I've had a thing for cameos lately, and I'm slowly falling in love with copper. This piece uses a cameo from Artbeads.com as well as copper-plated chain and copper leaf bails. The setting came from Cathy's Jewels on Etsy.

The bails look great, but I have some doubts as to their durability. One of them broke in the mail on the way to me and I had to have it replaced. The replacement broke a little as I was very gently putting it on my other cameo set and had to be epoxied into submission.

Aside from that, I really, really love the bails. And the chain. And that cameo, oh my goodness! The chain is slightly textured, which is pleasing to me, because I think it adds to the beauty without taking away from that gorgeous cameo.


That's all I've got for now. There's a big gray cat on my lap who keeps looking at me as though she's wondering why I'm typing when I could be petting her instead.

Since it's spring break, there should be more photos coming soon. I have two more bracelets and a necklace set to show off, and my wife and I just went to Trader's World where I bought necklaces to take apart and recycle into other, cuter jewelry.


Legal stuff: I am not being paid by Artbeads.com for my opinion on their items. I have received the above pictured items which I am far too lazy to list at the moment free of charge and am reviewing them honestly. Anything else in these photos was bought and paid for by me from other sites.

I need to take my cats to the vet, so...

I have two cats that need shots. The store usually pays for that kind of stuff, but I must be made of some kind of fail since that plan isn't working. Therefore it's time for some shameless self-promotion


Exhibit A: Saiga


Exhibit B: Kakei

There is a 15% sale going on until 2/13. Details at the link below to this special offer:

If you order $10 or more worth of jewelry by 11:59pm EST tomorrow night (2/4), I'll throw in discount coupon for 40% off one item on your next purchase.

I just want to take my kitties to the vet. :)

Why yes, I am feeling rather silly today.

We interrupt this regularly scheduled homework time to announce a new sale! Yes, folks, that's right; Eclipsical Jewelry is having a 15% off sale on all bracelets! Most customers will save $1 or more per bracelet! Buy as many as you like, use any coupons you may have!

Sale ends January 31 at 11:59pm EST.

Actual jewelry update will come later. I have new items to post but I'm so tired from school that I can't get myself to do it. Maybe Friday or Saturday. I have a new jewelry set, a new bracelet, and a new pair of earrings.

I am having way too much fun with jump rings.

Back to learning!

PS. I was wondering if anybody knows when the time is each month that we get to pick out products for Blogging for Beads?

Product Review, part two

It's been a while since part one, but I've been pretty busy with school and work. Finding time to take photos has been difficult. There are still a couple items I have not been able to use yet. I'm not sure why, but ideas for them aren't coming and when they do, they don't work out. I need find ideas for these sterling silver beads. The ones in particular that I'm having trouble with are these sterling silver square twist tube beads. With the glass beads, I am having trouble with the 5000 6mm faceted rounds in peridot and indicolite. I'm trying to work these in somewhere, but right now they just aren't working for me like I thought they would.

From what I have tried, I can tell you that these beads are beautiful and they seem pretty durable (I drop stuff on a regular basis, and they've held up fine). I think if I had them in larger quantities I would have an easier time using them.

I did manage to get through everything else, and I have a few new pieces to introduce.



This is a beautiful necklace made from more of the glass cube beads. I really love the way the montana blue and the amethyst look together! The gold does a great job of tying all the colors together, and the faceted focal beads were well worth the money I spent on them. I wish I had a fancier clasp for it, but I'm completely out of gold clasps, so I had to make do with a spring clasp and jump ring. I almost prefer them though; spring clasps just seem to stay in place better than toggle clasps.

Having a chance to practice with simple loops is nice. Once I have this mastered, I can move on to more complex techniques. I feel like I'm getting pretty good at it, but only if the eye pins are thick enough. If I'm using anything smaller than a 20 gauge I feel like the pins are brittle and break or slip out of my pliers too often.

Let's move on.

I like making gay pride jewelry and once I find a group I'd like to donate to, I'll be giving a portion of my profits from those jewelry sales to help them out. Here are the two new designs. They're very simple and they catch the eye very well. I made them using crystal glass cube beads and jet glass cube beads. I really like the way they came out. I think that the cubes do a great job of highlighting the color of the seed beads.





Legal stuff: I am not being paid by Artbeads.com for my opinion on their items. I have received these items (GC-CRYS5, GC-JET5, GC-LTAMY5, GC-MON5, 5000-PER6, 5000-IND6, SS-LX72) free of charge and am reviewing them honestly. Anything else in the photo from Artbeads was bought and paid for by me months ago.

You may find all these pieces and more photos at my Etsy shop.

New Items!

I hope everybody recovered alright from their New Year celebrations. This is the first year since I moved out of my parent's house that I haven't had a drink to toast the new year, so that was rather strange. Instead I spent a good amount of time making jewelry. I've been trying to get ahead on producing more items because classes start tomorrow and I'm sure the course load will be mind-boggling awful.

Before I show off the pictures, I wanted to point out that I have added gift certificates to my store on Etsy in amounts of $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100. They are good for my store only.

This new line is called "Aurora Borealis" because of the brilliance of the colors (and in keeping with an astronomy theme). A friend of mine in Iowa sent me these beads, and I'm hooked on them now. I hope you enjoy the photos! All are for sale in the store.




I have plans to copy this design with different colors though I think I'll like this one more. It's just head pins, seed beads, and chain on an earring wire. It was a tad time-consuming, but well worth the effort.



I had a dream about this bracelet last night, so I woke up and made it. It was great how it just flowed out of me, and I love it a lot.




:) These are the same design, of course, just in different metals. I went with a color contrasting theme for these.



This picture really doesn't do the set justice. It's a bracelet and earring set, and there are much better pictures on Etsy.




I will admit to taking a bit of inspiration from Harry Potter for these. The themes are Ravenclaw and Slytherin. These two gave me the most trouble, to be honest. I was dropping beads and jump rings all over the place. These two are also my favorites. I love the way gold and blue work together, and silver and green are just such a nice combination. They look far more elegant than I could have ever hoped.

For more photos of these items, head over Eclipsical Jewelry on Etsy and take a look around!

Best of the Year

Since I have some time now while I wait for Team Fortress 2 to finish installing on my computer, I thought I would go back and post some of my favorite pieces from this year. I've been into beading/jewelry making for about three years, but it's just during the last few months (since August) that I've really started to devote myself to it and earn a decent amount of money. My wonderful friends have been very supportive and I'm glad they have my back and are willing to boost my ego from time to time. I see many other artists who are way better than I am; sometimes it's an inspiration, sometimes it's disheartening. But my friends have been there for me to tell me when I suck and when I don't suck, to become addicted to my jewelry, and general just to be amazing. One friend went so far as to pierce his ears just to wear a pair of me earrings; that was quite the ego boost!

So here are some of my favorite pieces from the last year. Many of these are still for sale in my shop, Eclipsical Jewelry.



Luckily for my absolutely terrible wire-wrapping skills, these beads came the way they are. This was a pretty easy piece to make, but it's one of my favorites to look at. The beads are connected via small silver jump rings.



My loop-making skills got a lot of practice during the three or so hours I spent on this bracelet. The beads are just glass pearls I got from Walmart a few months ago after hunting for them for almost a year before and not being able to find any simple black beads I really liked. The charm is gold-plated pewter, and I bought from a site I can't seem to find again. My hands were aching and locked up after working on this piece, but it's really one of my favorites.



This is a more recent piece. I have fallen in love with gunmetal lately, and when my friends in Scotland sent over that beautiful bead mix featured in the picture, I just new the two would go well together. It was fun to make, and I really love the box clasp and the chain.



These stars are hands-down my favorite beads ever. Unfortunately for me, they are near impossible to find in Ohio, so my friend in Canada has to send them to me, or I have to order them via Ebay. If I could have anything in the new year, it would be a steady supply of these in colors other than white/gray, white/red, and white/purple. I love how colorful this bracelet is! The colors are eye-catching and it gets a lot of compliments when I wear it. I intended it to be a gay pride bracelet, but anybody could wear it. It's a very comfortable bracelet, and I love anything to do with stars, so of course this is one of my favorites!



While bracelets are my favorite thing to make, I do love a good pair of earrings! These recently sold, but that won't diminish my love for them. I used simple loops connect the beads together and dangled a pewter snowflake charm off the end. There was not a lot too them, I'll admit, but I think this is the single prettiest item I have ever put up for sale.

You can see many more items at my shop, and take advantage of the 30% off sale going on now! Many people are saving at least $5 off their orders and if you're in the US, shipping is free! Check it out now!

Hello!

This is the new blog for Eclipsical Jewelry, a jewelry store on Etsy (just click on the title to check it out). I specialize in making handmade jewelry, and I prefer astronomy-themed designs. The study of Astronomy is one of my favorite things, and something I have always been passionate about.

I will be using this blog to post about new items, new sales, and posting product reviews (and likely comparisons). If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Generally, I am an approachable and friendly person and don't mind helping anybody out.

Right now there is a sale happening! Until December 31 at 11:59pm (EST) all orders will receive an additional 30% off! Frequent Buyers (anybody who has spent over $75) will receive an extra 10% off instead of the usual 5%! You may use any coupons you have at this time, however, I must limit this to no more than one coupon per order please!

I will not be shipping any orders until Wednesday, December 30, as it is a bit dangerous to walking around in the snow and ice and wind right now.