Trying Out Aluminum

One of my biggest loves is making chainmaille. I had been coiling, sawing and tumbling my own rings. It takes time, but I loved being able to do whatever weave I wanted without having to order rings and wait for them to ship. (Different weaves require different ring sizes.)

Fast forward to today. I am back to work full time, my youngest son is involved in sports year round and I have a very old home that I am trying to maintain. The thing that fell by the wayside, besides cleaning, was chainmaille making. And I really miss it! So, I decided to try purchasing my rings. With the price of silver sky high, I tried to give aluminum a try.

My precut rings just arrived and they are beautiful!!! Keep an eye on my Zibbet shop shop to see what they become.

Inspiration

Hopefully it is not hard to see where the inspiration for this bracelet came from, but there is a little bit of a story behind it. I work at a card and gift shop and we have a very large container of candy canes on the counter. I guess that from looking at them day after day they made their way into my subconscious. The other night I had a dream that I made a candy cane bracelet. After work I dug through my bead stash and came across some matte red and white beads. That didn't seem quite right. So I kept digging. I then came across some clear beads with an AB finish and some translucent red beads - perfect! Sometimes dreams do come true.

Sale! Sale! Sale!

I will be offering 15% of your entire purchase in both my shops from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. The sale will start at 12:01 AM EST on 11/27 and end at 11:59 PM EST on 11/30.
I will refund the 15% through PayPal.

Here is just some of what you will find at Morning Sky Jewelry.





Morning Sky Creations offers crocheted items for the home such as washcloths, scrubbies and makeup removal pads.




Mention that you found out about this sale on my blog in the notes to seller upon checkout and I will also ship your order for free!

My Workspace...

...or lack thereof.

I know that a lot of artists and craftspeople out there have beautiful studios and work spaces. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. Our house just doesn't have the room for me to take over some space for my crafts. So for now, I just have to make do with what I have.

When I am working on my Morning Sky Creations shop this is where I work - the sofa in the family room.




When I am working on jewelry for Morning Sky Jewelry I either work at the dining room table or on the same sofa with a lap desk.

My husband called from work a few weeks ago and said that there was a cabinet with lots of drawers outside the dumpster at his office and asked if I was interested. I was interested, but skeptical. Boy, was I thrilled when he got home.



A little scrubbing and I now have great storage for all my jewelry making supplies plus enough room for my general crafting supplies. I guess the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure" is very true in this case.

My dream space is my son's bedroom. It has windows on 3 sides and gets the sunlight from first thing in the morning until the late afternoon. It also has built in shelves on both sides of the closet. Well, a girl can dream, can't she.

Christmas In July Sale

Morning Sky Jewelry will be participating in the Christmas In July sale on Etsy from July 8th through July 23rd. I will be offering free shipping on any purchase. I will also offer an additional 10% off any purchase if you read about my sale on this blog. Simply enter BLOG10 in the message to seller and the 10% will be refunded through PayPal or, if you prefer, send me a convo before you pay and I will send you a revised invoice through PayPal.

A New Selling Venue

I just started listing my items on a new handmade website that I found called Zibbet. I know that there are a lot of them out there, but I really liked the look of this one and the ease of listing. It is new so it doesn't have a lot of features yet, but they are sure to follow. You are allowed to sell handmade, vintage and supplies.

Click here to check out what my Zibbet shop looks like.

If you decide that you would like to become a seller on Zibbet I would really appreciate if you would click on the banner below and sign up from there. Zibbet offers a great referral program for its users.

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One of my favorite features in the shop performance stats. They show you how many visits you had to your shop during the month, how many times your item was shown on Zibbet, either on the home page, search page, someone's favorites or somewhere else around Zibbet. Some of my items have been displayed around Zibbet over 200 times.

While I don't have any sales yet I am being patient since this is a very new site and I have just started listing.

Lucite or Plastic?

I bought some necklaces at a flea market a few years ago. They came with a tag on them that said "Original Lucite by Dupont". I recently took them apart and started to make some jewelry pieces with them. Shown below is a bracelet I made using some dark teal marbled beads and copper oxidized wire.



I decided that before I listed them for sale I wanted to do a little research to make sure what I had was genuine Lucitie even though the tag said it was. Almost everything I found indicated that Lucite is heavier then plastic and doesn't have seams. Well, the beads I have are light and do have seams. I did find one source that said that newer Lucite beads were lighter and could have seams. Since I only found that piece of information in one place I don't feel comfortable listing these for sale as Lucite.So, I guess I will be wearing the pieces I made myself. If I can find a definitive answer in the future I have plenty more beads to make many more pieces.

If anyone has any information about Lucite beads that they can share, I would love to hear your comments.

More Black and White

I liked the black and white bangle that I posted last week that I had to make another. Instead of a bangle this one has a sterling silver clasp. It is available for purchase in my Artistry Arts store.

Nice Things Come In Small Packages

I added these tiny earrings to my Artistry Arts shop last week. Earrings are my must wear piece of jewelry. I don't know about you, but there are times when I want an earring that I even feel in my ear. I want a small, very light earrings on days when I don't feel good, it's very hot, my allergies are bothering me, etc. It might seem strange, but that is how I feel.



Do you have days that you want a small earring? These look large in the photo, but they are less then an inch long.

Think Pink

I just added this to my Artistry Arts shop. It was made by crocheting bright pink lined and pale pink lined glass seed beads into a bangle bracelet. Perfect for Spring!

A Valentine's Day Memory

Many years ago when my husband and I were in high school and just dating he gave me a heart shaped box of chocolates.


A friend and I were sitting on my platform bed (it was the late 70's) eating some chocolate and talking. We decided to go out for a while. I returned to find the box of chocolates open and eaten and wrappers all over the place! Who would do such a thing? Well, the chocolate footprints all over the white comforter were a clue.


Peanut, my adorable dachshund, sure had himself a chocolate fest while I was out. They say that too much chocolate can kill a dog, but fortunately, he was just fine.

What I'm Working On

The Etsy Bloggers are blogging about what they are working on. I usually don't do holiday themed jewelry, but when I saw this Santa Claus button I just had to have it. I rummaged through my seed bead stash and found the perfect candy cane colors. I first thought of using the Santa as the toggle part of a toggle and loop closure, but I'm now thinking that he may make a better focal. This bracelet most likely won’t end up in my shop. The beads I used are very varied in size so there are places where they do not lie properly. I think I’ll just keep it for myself and wear it to get in the Christmas spirit.

I've Been Tagged

So I joined the Etsy Bloggers Street Team and my very first day I was tagged by 2 different members. First by Manderlyrose and an hour later by HumanTouchDesigns.

I was hoping that joining the team would encourage me to be more active with my blog and it sure is.

Since I've been tagged I'm supposed to tell you 6 things about myself that most people don't know and then tag 5 other people. So, here we go:

1. I can write in script so it looks like you're looking in a mirror without even trying.

2. I love looking at office supplies and storage bins and such.

3. I can play classical guitar, but haven't had time to really do it since I had my kids.

4. When I was growing up my family used to make fun of me and call me a miser. It's a joke in my family that I would come back from vacation with more money then I went with.

5. It's very, very hard for me to buy things that aren't on sale or without a coupon even if I have the money for it. (see #4)

6. I hate calling people on the telephone, but if you call me I'd have no problem yakking away with you for hour.

Now I would like to tag:
TiLTcreations
Leakymouth
Molly S
Littlepaperdog
Felt Artistic

Wonderful Wednesday

Here is my cutie pie Stormy.

Here is my Wonderful Wednesday pick from fing. Need I say more?

Beading Daily Reader' Gallery

Beading Daily is a great website for beaders and all jewelry makers. They have free patterns and projcets along with ones that you can purchase. They have great, informative articles, polls and a readers gallery.

The call went out a few weeks ago for submissions for a readers gallery that would showcase combined techniques. I submitted my bead crochet bracelet with copper end caps and clasp and it made it into the gallery along with a lot of other great pieces of jewelry.




Click here to view the entire gallery.

Simplicity

Sometimes I like the simple things the best. I made 2 pairs of these earrings - one pair for my shop and one pair for me to wear. I wear mine all the time.

Square Stitch

I am out of wire at the moment so that means no chainmaille making for now. I have been doing some bead crochet and some beadweaving. I had never tried doing square stitch. I don't know why since it isn't difficult at all. I looked through my bead stash and found some glass cube beads that I forgot I had. I also came across a great pewter button and this blue bracelet is what I came up with.

Copper - Shiny or Oxidized - You Choose

Whenever I make a new piece of copper jewelry I love how bright and shiny it looks when I take it out of the tumbler. I admire it for awhile and then decide if I am going to add a patina or not. Here are a few pairs of earrings that I made both ways so you, the buyer, can decide which they prefer.

All are available in my shop.

Competition For The Sunny Window

I like to photograph my jewelry in natural light. After a lot of hit and miss with the lighting and the time of day, I finally found what works the best for me. I use the window in our family room in the mid-morning for the best photographs with the least amount of photo editing needed. Well, as you can see from the photo to the right, that is also Emma's favorite morning sunny spot. It's not so bad sharing when I'm trying to get a good shot of a bracelet or a necklace, but it can be quite the pain when she joins me when I am shooting earrings. I use a picture frame without glass to dangle my earrings from. Some days it seems that they take forever to stop swaying. And most days it seems that the moment they are done swaying is the exact moment that Emma decides she needs to be in the window. I guess it could be worse - she could be in the box with the earrings.

In A Crocheting Mood

It seems like I go through phases. For a while all I want to do is chainmaille and then all I want to do is beaded crochet. Right now I am in a beaded crochet mood. I have added these 2 bracelets to my shop, I'm working on another and I have an idea in my head for one more.