Autumn Arrives at KRDesigns

It seems fall has arrived early this year. My neighbors have a beautiful maple tree which has been decked out in Christmas colors of red and green for some time now. Perhaps it is suffering the effects of last years heat and drought; I'm hoping it recovers to continue decorating the neighborhood. Things in my life have made me feel my years as I am undoubtedly in the autumn of my life.

I have been creating with shades of brown, even khaki which is a brownish olivine green color, as well as bronze and rose gold. The color choices are beautiful and striking in that I rarely use these colors and do not wear them myself.

I returned to my Noreena Jasper palate, which I shared at my Art Fairs late last year, to make a couple bracelets with the 4mm stones and some maroon Swarovski crystal pearls. I made these too large for the women who were interested in them; they are larger than average size and will be in my Etsy shop after I photograph them.

Noreena Jasper is a semi precious stone which comes from Australia. I ordered seed beads for a dutch spiral necklace emphasizing either red or golden brown in the spiral part; the one I made last year with variegated beads sold immediately and before I had taken a picture of it. This year's version with red delica beads in the spiral sold when it was less than a six inch piece of beadwork. These are perfect autumn colors.

Lapis Blue

The change from daylight savings time in the fall always makes me a little blue which inspired me to list this cuff bracelet and earrings in my etsy shop and to share them here. I will be adding more blue items in my shop.

I love lapis blue, cobalt blue, sapphire blue, any shade of blue. I think it is the favorite color of most people. These items are bead woven in right angle weave, with the earrings in circular right angle weave. It was quite a trick to get the beads on both sides of the base; I bent and broke more than a few needles. I just needed to make the base a little larger and then fill in with tiny seed beads to hide the spaces between the beads. The cuff has size 15 charlotte lacy edging on it, my favorite part to do. I wish I made it smaller -- it fits a 7.5 inch wrist, not mine! Somewhere there is a woman who is the perfect fit for this cuff bracelet. Are you that person?

Swarovski Fire Opal - Jonquil Beaded Bead Bracelet

This is the item I listed in my shop today. Except for the use of gold filled accents it matches a pair of earrings in my shop. I could probably change the sterling silver for gold filled and then it would be a set. It will bother me, so consider it changed.

Tonight I took pictures of moderate priced bracelets. The peridot earrings have not been photographed, but I was able to locate the bracelet in yesterday's post so my excel spreadsheet is working for me. I have too many pairs of earrings left to photograph. Hoping to sell them at my Art Fair on May 15 & 16.

I have been looking for the perfect button for my EBW challenge entry. I have been cleaning in the vicinity of where it should be and where I think I may have put it. I have the bracelet base finished and need to create the embellishment. I've seen some of the entries already and mine will not be the most spectacular entry in the competition. I prefer to capture the feeling and colors of the damselfly not create a replica of a damselfly attached to a necklace. Some day I may want to bead miniature items, but not at this point in my life.

The next month's challenge topic is phenomenon. I've been thinking of a black iris colored creation to look like an oil slick for the unnatural disaster in the gulf. The creator of the topic was thinking of the volcano eruption, so I'm not alone in thinking disaster phenomenon. Any ideas for a positive phenomenon?

Earrings and Art Fairs

These are my latest earrings in my special promotion. They have Swarovski hematite crystal bicones and black pearls, sterling silver 8 mm round beads and Bali silver roundel beads. Great for a grey suit or dress--business, too. Maybe even a teacher gift.

This morning I learned that I have been invited to participate in the inaugural spring art and crafte fair at an upscale shopping center in Burr Ridge, Illinois on May 15 and 16. There will be approximately 75 artists, a nice number for variety but not so many that visitors are tempted to walk by because the show has 175 tents and is four blocks long.

The mail this afternoon informed me that another show a friend had suggested I apply for, despite cashing my separate check for the booth fee, decided not to invite me. It's unusual for a venue to cash a booth fee check and not invite the artist--more work for them to write a check back to the artist. I have been to this show a number of years ago and did not think my customer would shop there, but it's always fun to do a show with a friend.

I'm back to beading choosing one of my favorite Swarovski colors (oh, all right, they are all my favorite colors!) pacific blue opal. I tried to design with some amazonite but the style bracelet had too many times through the stone bead to work, so it is two sizes of crystal bicones. I've made this style before, but with smaller beads. I have some lovely mixed greens and turquoise charlottes and a green turquoise seed bead to connect the bicones. Proofreading this I realized I could make dangles from a choker with the amazonite.

The stitch I am using is a flat spiral where there is a core bead and many smaller beads loop around to connect the beads with a loop on each side of the core bead. I enjoy creating different combinations in this stitch. A spiralling version is the first stitch I learned. There is a Swarovski lavender pearl bracelet in my shop in flat spiral stitch. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=43270725

Taxes and Earrings

Today is the last day to vote for the April challenge. http://www.etsy_beadweavers.blogspot.com/ My entry was Dancing with the Sky. Please vote for your choice; it's hard to pick just one entry!

I am a great procrastinator and always owe money on my tax return, so I file late. I under estimated the amount of time it would take for me to prepare my records from my business, so I skipped a listing and an entry here. So I have listed two very bright earrings today--orange in carnelian and indigo dark blue plus a pair with fire opal and jonquil. Wonder if subconsciously I wanted to light a fire under the Chicago Bears. Not a sports watching fan, so I doubt it. Lots of high schools have blue and orange for their school colors, so if there is a graduation or birthday gift on your list these earrings may be the solution. I'm really fond of the fire opal color and today I was the one who needed the fire lit under me as I'm tired from little sleep and all that number crunching yesterday into today. And I used to be a CPA!

I forgot to mention that I received a check in the mail from the Illinois Museum Society for the sale of a pair of earrings at the Illinois Artisan Shop in southern Illinois. They were Swarovski white pearl with light blue sapphire crystals. I sent them a collection of blue and white items plus a lavender set for spring. I thought of setting up a bridal section in my shop after I sent them.

Swarovski Peridot Green Earrings

I listed these earrings mid afternoon today trying to make up for my late late night post yesterday. Curious about etsy searches, under handmade I searched for Swarovski crystals and found more than a hundred thousand entries. So I tried peridot earrings and found my earrings at the bottom of the first page..this was a few hours after they were listed. Tonight I tried green earrings and found mine at the bottom of page 19, there were 627 green earrings listed since mid afternoon, say in 9 hours. Wonder how many of them sell? They were all different, too. Some looked like red, blue and necklaces, but for some reason were in green earrings.

My conclusion is that you do need to list often in order to have people see your items. You also need to use appropriate descriptions but more creative--not far out though or no one will see them. So are my earrings asparagus green? and would you search for asparagus when you wanted earrings? Peridot was not in my vocabulary before Swarovski and my jewelry making.
Asparagus search yielded 317 listings, including super hero capes made by wildasparagus. I didn't know people sold vegetable seeds on etsy. Have you ever seen an asparagus pebble? It's on etsy.

Think I could use my time better? Valid research to me. But honestly I'm still procrastinating doing my business schedule C for my 1040. I've been using my credit card--got a strange look for a $2.19 expenditure at the post office today; if I paid cash, I would not get the deduction as the receipt would probably get lost. So I've categorized my expenses from the credit card bills. Sales I've worked on as they were made, plus I have my checkbook. It's the mileage calculation and those little receipts I have yet to do.

I am glad I procrastinated. We always seem to owe, but this year my quick and dirty calculation was close to $1,000 more and on lower income due to furlough days and pay cuts. There is a new deduction I would have overlooked; file Schedule M and get a tax credit of $800 for a married couple. I can sleep better knowing I don't owe as much as I've thought since last January. Sorry I was blaming my husband's employer for withholding a lot less this year; it was the President who had the withholding adjusted so we would spend it...I guess it helped make up for the loss of income this year.

Earrings

I need your help. Please tell me how long you like your earrings to dangle from the loop on the ear wire? Please comment on my blog.

What length do you think is appropriate for your mother?

I will be in the Mother's Day showcase on etsy and want to be sure I'm listing the length of earring you would want.

Any special colors for mom?

I don't have pierced ears, so I'm at a disadvantage. I really need your help. So please comment on this blog.

I just had my first customer for my earrings promotion. The earrings I listed late last night were sold to a bride for her mother to wear for her wedding. Actually she wanted the colors of jet black and black diamond ab but wanted only 1 inch earrings. It was easier for her to purchase the listed earrings with a note to seller than to wait until I made her earrings, photographed them, and listed them. So if you had your heart set on those earrings, I will relist them later. I will also list a bead woven in dutch spiral weave necklace with those colors. Now you know why I need your comments.

The earrings at the top of this post are today's entry in the special promotion in my shop.

Earrings

I see by the clock I'm on 4/8 not 4/7 so this will be short. These Swarovski crystal earrings are dark blue indigo and crystal silver shade with a sterling silver daisy spacer between the two blue beads. I just realized the largest bead is 8 mm and I need to make sure that is what I wrote in my description on etsy.

I am making progress on my goal of photographing my items; tonight I did only earrings. Only one was in a spring color, so I need to do more photos for this promotion. I still cannot see the end on this project.

I need a topic other than earring promotion. Use the comments if you have one for me.

Another Earring Promotion

This photo is of a petite and dainty pair of earrings I call Purples. It has alexandrite (looks blue or purple depending on the light)Swarovski crystal, a purple shade of Czech blue iris round beads, and a round Swarovski violet opal bead. It also has a petite special price during my April promotion, so click on this item under my banner to go to my etsy shop.

Today is Easter which I spent time with my family. I have a beadwoven bracelet which looks close to completion if I spend a lot of time beading tomorrow. It is light blues and green with a silvery accent--typical of my style design.

Feel free to comment on my blog. I really don't feel like writing tonight.