April Promotion of Earrings

I have been absent from this page for the month of March working on life, photos of my entire inventory and art fair applications. Since I am stalled on photographing my entire inventory (photo editing hurts my eyes), I've decided to focus on those items I haven't taken pictures of which is most of my earrings and combine it with a promotion in my etsy shop http://www.KRDesigns11.etsy.com/

Each day in April I will list at least one pair of earrings which will be featured that day. Since the styles are not in the Illinois Artisan Shops, I won't be undercutting their prices and you can get a good deal (not a KMart blue light special though). Earrings ship for $2.00 or free (US only) with the purchase of another item and are not returnable (for sanitary reasons).

The Illinois Artisans hold Art Sprees in the atrium lobby of the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago every month except January. I will be participating in the July, September and December Art Sprees. I have new items in both the Chicago shop and the Southern Illinois Artisan Shop, Whittington (Rend Lake). My Waterlilies bracelet (photo on 2/23/10 post) and a couple of my better creations plus more are in the Chicago shop on the 2nd floor of the Thompson Center. Tammy Deck of www.tlddesigns.com/ will be the featured artist in April. The Southern Illinois Shop has blue (Swarovski light sapphire crystals) and white pearl and lavender items. It is right off 57 and would make a good break if you are driving through the area.

The results of art fair applications include being on the wait list for two late summer fairs with several more with the jury still out. The art fairs I applied for are highly competitive, especially in jewelry due to the number of artists applying; the preference in the past has been for silver/gold/precious stone type jewelers.

I have done a little beading. Some luscious beads arrived last weekend including some white iris charlottes size 11 whose sparkle will be featured in a necklace.

The photo I will share is a sneak peak of my Use the Muse IV entry which is sponsored by http://www.artbeads.com/. I am supposed to tell how I feel about the "muse" which is less than positive emotionally at this point (out of sync with the seasons), but if I'm successful, the beautiful agate stone will adorn the muse and the chain embellishments will create something that is truly a new style for me. I have until mid April to complete it, and the big reveal will be in May or ???? see http://www.usethemuse.com/ for more details. This qualifies me to be entered into a random drawing; FREE BEADS!!!! if I win.

Use the Muse IV Contest

The challenge was to write an entry in your blog and post it by 2/24/10 linked to the use the muse website blog. Also I would be entered into a drawing for the coveted free beads if I wrote about my main motivation for entering Use the Muse IV.

The Use the Muse IV contest is officially starting. February 24 is the last day to sign up for a kit and receive the preorder price. http://usethemuse.com/ I ordered mine after Christmas, hoping it would make it start sooner, but patience is one of my life lessons.

My main motivation for entering Use the Muse IV is to set deadlines for me. This blog may not have existed if it were not for this contest. On Use the Muse III, I entered because I thought I wanted to see my beaded jewelry on an international site--it is there. I needed to purchase a camera and lighting equipment to photograph my entry by the November deadline, so I also added that skill. I used it to set up my etsy shop.
http://www.krdesigns11.etsy.com/

I felt I won, even though officially I didn't get any of the prizes--those gorgeous beads. Using the discount from
http://www.artbeads.com/
I purchased a jet black Swarovski cabochon for my bead stash. My personal treat for following through on something I wanted to do for me!

The entry purchases an attractively packaged group of beads the entrants work from plus the "MUSE" which is a secret component each entrant must use. The collections always challenge me to do something I haven't done before, new items, techniques, color palates. I haven't seen the MUSE IV yet, but the kit has wooden pieces and colors I have not created with previously. But I'm waiting to see the Muse which will be mailed out to me the end of this week before I decide what to create. After all, it is the Muse!