Artbeads Product Review

School's out well, until tomorrow, the bees are buzzing, the leaves are back on the trees, and the cardinal that likes to sit outside my bedroom window and tweet loudly at 6am is back: summer must be close!  This time around I'm all about earthy tones and using materials and colors that reflect my mood for the season. Example:

 Exhibit A

This bracelet was made using copper chain and jump rings from a local store, and the beautiful copper-plated pewter charms. When I think of summer, I think of earth tones, animals, and all the irritating insects nature can throw at you (as you can probably tell, I'm not really an "outdoor person"). I also used Artbeads.com's swarovski crystal pendants. 

A lot of time went into making the necklace, and I think it ended up with kind of an awesome steampunk feel to it. I twisted the chain a lot, and left some loops at the end to add more texture and character, and I think it worked out really well. I like it a lot better than the chain I was originally going to use. The smaller chain added without overshadowing the charms and crystals like the textured chain would have done. 

As for the Artbeads products themselves, I am especially impressed with the charms. I don't usually like copper (I associate it with dirty pennies) but these charms are very cute, very shiny, and very sturdy. The plating seems to be staying on rather well, despite the fact that I wear this thing every chance I get. I'm pretty hard on my jewelry too, so it's important to me to have sturdy, well-made charms like this. I am also head-over-heels in love with the crystal flower pendants. They're so cute, so fashionable, so hard to break, and they just work so nicely with the copper. The only problem I had was getting a small-size ring onto them to attach the charms to the chain. 

One last photo (because I want to show off my raku vase):

Isn't it beautiful?

(Let's go ahead and put the legal stuff here, shall we? I am not being paid by Artbeads.com for my opinion on their items. I have received the above pictured items free of charge and am reviewing them honestly. Anything else in these photos was bought and paid for by me from other locations.)

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. :/

A Few Changes

You may have noticed that I've taken the word "Jewelry" out of the title, and the reason for this is that when I blog about my jewelry during the school year, there's just too much going on for me to actually post. However, if I have a place where I can write about my life as well, then that means I'll likely update a little more often.

Likely.

We'll see, right?

This weekend has been a crafty one, thus far. Earlier in the week I got my latest order of beads from Artbeads.com, and I'm working on putting together my blogging for beads project. Then Friday, my darling future wife and I went over to my parent's house for dinner, a trip to Crafts 2000, and then my mom taught me how to make these cute hair bows she knows how to do. So now I have a bunch of ribbon and cutting to do to get these bows ready for summer conventions.

But first, I suppose I should buckle down and get through my school work. I've got a ten page research paper on the morality and ethics of stem-cell research to do, and then I need to pick a Latino woman who works in entertainment and prepare a 400 word paper and presentation on her for my Spanish class.

Thankfully, this batch of classes will end in about three weeks. Of course, once that's out, summer quarter will start three days later. Oh joy, right?

Hurray!

Yesterday while I was out with my future wife, we stopped in at Jo-Ann Fabrics because there is a super store conveniently placed behind our favorite restaurant. Since we're going to Otakon this summer, I was really excited to find some Asian-style charms and findings on clearance. Today I made a mountain of cell phone charms out of them.

It totally made my day. :D

Blog death?

Not so much. The blog isn't dead; its owner is just buried under a pile of schoolwork.

We'll return you to your regularly scheduled jewelry postings after this degree is earned.

@_@

Yeah, school's killing me. I did make a couple new items, and I want to post them, but my brain keeps trying to revert into Spanish or into business terminology when I write. It's killing my creativity, ladies.

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.

Busy, busy!

Later today I'll be putting up the new Blogging for Beads photos. Right now I'm busy dealing with my partner's now-ex employer.

Been awhile, huh?

With finals just around the corner and all of these last minute projects, papers, and speeches due, I'll admit that I just haven't really had the time to photograph any of the jewelry I've got made, much less make a ton of new stuff.

No, my friends, that will happen during Spring Break. I have all the Artbeads stuff done and ready to post, I just fail at having free time.

But you can expect to see a preview of the stuff for the summer conventions at which I'll be selling.

I am proud to announce that Eclipsical Jewelry, in conjunction with Espirit Studios, will be going to Otakon in Baltimore, Maryland and Matsuri Con in Worthington, Ohio! Otakon is the last weekend of July, Matsuri Con is August 13-15. There are a couple summer festivals I'd like to sell at, but I think I may have my hands full just prepping for these two big events.

So if you don't here from me for awhile, it's alright. I'm just up to my ears in work.


One last thing, and that is that I am currently having a 30% off sale until March 20th. Order and get 30% off your total!

Well, I picked my specialization, which I guess means I'm settled on my major.

It's Human Resources Management.

I must hate myself. Starting next quarter I'll have practically no time for jewelry, so I'm trying to get a ton of stuff made by spring break that I can just release on a weekly schedule or something.

I'm doomed.

Big sale time!!!

BUY ONE GET ONE HALF OFF, ALL WEEK!!! Purchase any item in the store, get the second item (of lesser or equal value) half off! Gift certificates may be used as the first item, but not the half-off item. This sale also applies to commissioned items. Limit 3 half-off items per customer. Sale ends Sunday, Feb 28th, at 11:59pm EST.

Just click on the title of this post to go to the store!

3 New Items!

It's been awhile since the last time I added any new items to my shop. We're having lots of snow though, so that makes it a lot easier to find the time to work though the cat on my lap makes it harder to use the keyboard. All of these items are eligible for the current sale which is 15% off of your order. This sale lasts until the 13th.

Without any further ado, here are the new items!


"Old Fashioned Lady"

This bracelet is made from cherry quartz puffed coins, glass pearls, and lots and lots of love. I think I'm getting really fond of using jump rings and seed beads as extenders on pieces now, and it's terribly fun to do.




Above: Gay pride earrings

I love making pride pieces. I think it's important to have a way to express who you are and do it as colorfully and tastefully as possibly. These earrings are subtly and not at all "in your face" just in your ear, hahaha!. They're very beautiful and I love the way they reflect the light. At the right angle these earrings look like they glow!


Flower Cameo Bracelet

Finally, we have this stunning new cameo bracelet. The cameo is from Artbeads.com and the bracelet setting was purchased on Etsy. This is the first time I've really played around with settings, but I found it really fun - except for the several times I got glue on my fingers and got them stuck to other things. That part was not enjoyable. This will definitely be an item for art shows and displays because I can customize something quickly for a customer with it. It's also my new favorite bracelet.

As always, you can find sale information and all these listings at my Etsy store. Please take a look and don't forget to tell your friends and family about the sale! Thanks for reading. :)

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?

Earthquake Relief

Just a quick post to say that I will donate $1.00 of every item sold this week to the Red Cross to help provide disaster relief to those in need. Please stop by the store and take a look!

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.