I am very excited to finally have my studio set up with plenty of work space !! We were lucky enough to have our daughter in law  and grandkids stay with us for a couple of weeks and now they have moved out so we could put up my work table from the studio I had in the apartment we rented for a short time. My husband reminded me I will be sharing this table with  him when he gets his stain glass studio set up where the boxes are piled right now in the corner !! He will have a work bench but he likes to cut glass on this table ! So, for now it is all mine, but I will gladly share when he gets his side of the studio set up !! I cannot wait !!!

So, here is my studio, still some messes, don’t judge me, lol, I am still a work in progress, so do not look at the floor, although I am sure saying that, you will want to look , I would !!! Most things are put away, but I still have some stuff to deal with, but I am getting there !!

I asked my Master Mechanic husband to arrange my tools for me, he asked some questions and look how nice !! He works on large machinery at a paint plant so he knows about tools and always keeps his as organized as he can. Now I can find what I need , when I need it !!

He bought me this really cool item, it will come in  handy for small detail work !! The stand is heavy, made of metal and I can just set it on the table and  use it when I need it. I doubt I will hook stuff on it, but just having a magnifying glass I do not have to hold will be a bonus !!

I had to decorate the table, lol. I am sure once I start working most of this will move onto the black table and the big metal table will just be a work station, but they look nice for now !! I love the vintage tubes of seed beads and sequins in the jar !!!

I am hoping now that I have some spaces to work in that I can get much more creative now. I kind of lost my drive in the last six months as I had lost a dedicated place to work in the last house, but now that we are back home in our beautiful cottage, I can spread out and enjoy the space to work. I have three large custom orders to finally get done, so I will be posting on each one as I work the coming weeks. It is going to be fun to see these projects finished and go off to thier new homes !!

I have so many things I want to do !!!

So, I am excited to have a dedicated space and already have some projects on the table for tomorrow. My three current custom orders , I have been waiting on parts, and still am for the one pearl project, need to get beading string for it, but otherwise, I am good to go on my projects and one customer has a line up of great projects to do, we are waiting on a major item , well group of  items to get here to get started on the big projects but the small one, decorating the basket lid, we are starting now !!

Some pirate wine charms I am working on, finished the original order but she wanted more, so I just got all the charms and beads together to finish the 24 she requested !!

This next project will be a lot of small projects and large projects. First is a decorative ring and tassles for this cute basket lid. She sent it to me so I could carfeully fit it so the knob is fully usable . We decided to go with seed beads and then we will design some dangles for each end of the ring which will slightly overlap !! The dangle will be two on each loop and hang to the edge of hte basket lid. I am excited to get started on it !!

My Grace Kelly inpired bracelet. Not the one I  want to do, but the one I  feel we can do at this point. It is inspired by that popular bracelet and when I write about it I get more hits then anything else. One dayI hope to really copy that bracelet, but for now, I  hope to at least capture the spirit of it with this version !! I am taking apart another braclet and necklace and  using the pearls with pretty vintage looking spacers  and a lovely glass pearl clasp , and we will add some charms that my customer/ Cousin is picking out !!

I have another customer mailing me two bracelets she bought from me to remake into two more. She wants half the beads as the last one she ordered custom we did with half the beaded charms and she liked it better. So, she asked me to please take them apart and make the two into four, so once that comes I will add that. My cousin that ordered the Grace Kelly bracelet also wants some Moraccan themed beaded tasstles for her dining room cubboards.

I am excited to have all these projects lined up, and look forward to getting them all done in the next weeks and making all my customers very happy !!!

Thanks for stopping by !!

Stephie

I have been busy , busy , busy !! I have been playing still with my customer that has been designing so many pretty things. I shared her beautiful basket project and now I can share some more of our projects with you !!

She has two stuffed animals from when she was young, gifts from family that mean a lot to her , and she keeps them on her bed and she decided they needed a little sparkle too, so she asked me to help her design some cute jewelry for them and this is what we have come up with.

I take her ideas and add to them, but she is the creative genious here, I refuse to take credit for much more than helping her to come up with pieces. I do make suggestions but she picks out the materials and does an amazing job !!

This is a collar for the one cat, a more realistic type kitty. We are adding a dragonfly toggle to it, so that will be coming on Monday and I will take new pictures !!

The other cat is a build a bear cat, so she is dressed so we wanted to accent her outfit !!

A bracelet, I came up with the wire wrap so it would stay on her wrist , I love how it came out, the colors she chose are just lovely !!  I made a loop on each end and we decided on two dangles each, so cute !! Some charms around the ring too !!

I tried it out on my stuffed bear I keep in my studio, and I will tell you this, I loved it and plan to make her some jewelry when we are done with all the projects we have lined up. I think it is so cute and never would have thought to bling out my bear, but I am learning that beads are even more fun than I already thought and I will be beading a lot of stuff I never beaded before !! I am seeing everything differently !!!

On my bear  , how cute is that ? I love it !!!

Now for the cat necklace, again, we are going to add a dragonfly toggle, so I will re take pictures then, but it came out so pretty !!

We decided that when I add the toggle I will make another small chain, like the bracelet and hang it off the jump ring of the toggle with the accent bead on the chain at the end, it matches the two in the focal pendant. We both agree you just cannot have to many beads !!! So, the lobster claw will come off and a lovely silver dragon fly toggle will go on !!

I made all these loops by hand, but I had help, my absolutely wonderful hubby found me a tool, a new toy that made this necklace so mcuh fun to make !!

I promise to do a blog post on it and some other new tools I got recently !! It will blow your socks off, what a wonderful tool !!!

Our current project, the one that actually started everything we are doing. We have been waiting over two months for the connectors to get here from Turkey, the seller finally had to resend them UPS and we finally got them, big lovely dragonfly connectors !!

We are making beaded tasstles, but not your mommas beaded tasstles, these are amazing !! I cannot wait to get the first one done and we are almost there !!

here are our trays, she picked out the beads from the purple bead stash. I numbered all the beads on a tray so she could see what we had to work with, she picked out the ones she wanted to use for this project and then I got started !! This has all been done via emails and we live several states apart !!

Here are the dangles for now, we still have some changes to do , but here is the current stage of design,

four dangles, four different lengths, will hang on the big dragon fly connector , which will hang on a loop on a door knob of a closet. A lovely purple glass doorknob. My wine charms inspired this project which at first was small but got bigger as we talked back and forth and as she found so many pretty things for us to play with, I cannot tell you how pretty this is in person and I am so excited to put it together once we are done tweaking !! My new tool will help me loop all those wires, and then I will add a jump ring to the connector on both ends, add the dangles to the bottom and a large wine type hoop to the top.

look at how beautiful these beads are my customer ordered and sent me for the project !! She has the most amazing taste. I have never seen such lovely beads in my life. The long purple ceramic one  was hand made for her and the black is hand painted onyx, just stunning. Pictures do neither one any justice at all !!

I will post the name and website of the ceramic artist when I post the pictures of the finished tasstle, I have to find it where I keep all the reciepts and business cards . She has ordered so many amazing things to come to me for her projects and it has been so fun to see them all and now to be playing with them !!

The four dangles hanging on the lovely dragonfly connector will be stunning. She has a true vision and I am doing my best to make it come to life !!

I have not had this much fun in a long time and I am excited at how many projects we still have to work on !! I will share here as we go !! We are making a lot of stuff, first in purples for her bedroom and then in blues for her bathroom. Lovely rich colors !!

I am still trying to convince her how creative she is. I have been beading for 25 years and have never thought of the  amazing things she has. I want to bead everything now, lol !! I feel so inspired now !!

So, I am keeping very busy and having the time of my life !!

Thanks for stopping by !!

Stephie

I posted recently about a new tool and I have been so busy working with my customer on her big custom order I have not had a chance to get back on and post but I wanted to do this post before we start working on the next project !!

Here is what we just finished up, the first of three  beautiful beaded tassels my customer ordered for closet doors in her room. She picked out and ordered and sent to me all the charms used in these projects and they are stunning.  I supplied most of the regular beads, but she has sent some special ones and a string or two to me as well.

Because we are working long distance I trayed the beads we had to work with and numbered them, so she lets me know which ones to pull for each project and which special beads to put in each and actually lets me know per dangle what she wants and then I fill it in with the pool of beads she has selected. It is a huge help and  it does  takes time to set up, but it is so worth  it to have it all planned out for each project. It makes my job so much easier as I know the beads I am using are what she wants. I still decide where to put what, but she lets me know for each dangle what she wants for sure and then I fill it in with other beads from her list. Then we go back and forth in emails fine tuning it until we have the finished piece !!

So, here is our first finished tassel, and then on to my tools !!

this was the finished dangles,

Here is the put together piece !!

here is the door knob they will go on , she said the color is a bit different from the picture, but just lovely no matter what !!

So, we have two more purple dangle sets to do and I am excited to see how they each come out !!  We still have another purple project after that last tassel is done and then we are done with her bedroom and move on to her bathroom and we get to work in gorgeous blues !!

So, on to my tools !!

I went to buy some more beads for this project and needed some wire cutters as mine were 24 years old and it was horrible trying to use them and I wanted an addtional needle nose plyier.

My wonderful husband came up to me with this tool and asked if I wanted it !! It was 32  bucks but we had a 40 percent off coupon each. So, I said yes, lets get it !!
I LOVE this tool !!

Here it is !!

Here is what it can do , I have a head pin and a piece of unfinished wire

first the head pin, I placed a bead on, and put the wire through the tool

THey usually come out better than this next one, but it is hard to use the tool and take pictures at the same time !!

I got out my favorate looping tool, that also makes amazing loops, they are hard to find, I have a vintage one I used for 20 odd years, so when I found them online, I bought two , lol !!! I have never seen these in a store !! One side flat, one side round. I LOVE this tool too !!

Now for the unfinished wire

It cuts it and rolls it up into the loop !! You can see this one is much better and how they usually come out !!

the fact it looped was great, being able to close a loop with a bead on the wire, that makes this tool amazing !!

A great tool and one I used a lot already !! Sure made this project easy !!!

I used my looper tool, the one I used to make the loops with, just to close it and round it out a bit more and my pliers to hold it tight and  maybe on some to close the loops a bit more. But the new tool does most of it and keeps the loops more uniform !!

This is a great tool and one I highly recommend for anyone who loops a lot of wire for jewelry !! You will love it !!

Now I am off to set up my bead trays for our next beautiful tassel , I will share when I am done.

I also have 7  grandkids today, soon to be eight when our oldest grandaughters best friend joins us for the afternoon !! A busy day for sure !!

Thanks for stopping by !!

Stephie

My wonderful and creative customer and I have been beading away our days. She has been giving me the best designs and then I get to play a bit as I make what she invisioned !! It is a great partnership and I am having a blast and I think she is as well !!

We have been so busy I have not had a chance to share, but the pretties we have been making need to be shared, they are just too pretty !!

Here are the closet door tassels she designed for her room, so pretty !! You better believe when we are done with all her pretties, I will be making some beaded accents for my house too !! I know I  shared them already, but they are just so pretty I have to share them again !!

for a basket, also shared but want to show you all the pretties so far in this email

some jewelry for a basket and a couple of childhood stuffed animals on her bed, we were having so much fun blinging our her room, they needed some too !! I love it, I have a few stuffed animals I keep around for fun, I plan on making them some pretty collars and stuff too !! What fun !!

Now for all the new goodies, we have been having so much fun !!

A dark set and a light set for each side of two windows , the first is the dark, it is finished and ready to go  five inch dangles

the light set will be almost done tomorrow, i will have them all assembled and just be missing two charms for the bottom which are on order at this time !!

This is what we have so far,  I have not added the charms on the bottom yet, once the ones she orders gets here we can figure out which charm goes where !!  two of them per set, one set on each side of the window

she picked this awesome charm for two of the dangles, once for each set , wow, so pretty, cannot wait until they get here !!

this is what the two beaded rings and connectors look l ike two dangles per, two sets. One to frame each side of the window. So pretty !!

next set is ombre style, one dangle each direction, so a set for each side of a window. We had to do a few alterations, so I will share the finished set later, but I have time tonight and wanted to share what we had been up to !!

Here are all our purple beads, we still have another window to do after the other ombre set and then four other sets for her room bigger sets, that she is still designing.

Here are all our purple beads, she was getting worried we were getting low, but I reassured her we should be fine and I have ordered a few from Ebay and friday is BEAD MARKET !! I have not gotten to tell her yet that my wonderful hubby is taking me, and the two grandaughters we baby sit to the bead market this weekend !! What fun , a room of  beads. I am going with a much stricter budget than the last time, but some purple beads are on the list and blue for her bathroom project !! some of the trays have only one or two of an item, some we have more for in bags or in my boxes.

out of all those trays, she picks for each project and then I start putting together the pieces. She gives me some direction on what specific beads she wants and then I pick the rest. this is the tray for the light tassels. These are what she asked me to use for this design along with some specialy beads she had me pull for the pieces she ordered and had mailed to me !!

For the ombre I am choosing from all as I have to find enough beads to do that graduated color and my customer helps me to figure out what works and I move things around at her direction and together we get them right !! IT sure makes it easy.

This next tray is just a hot mess, extra beads from the trays that have not been put in the boxes as they were bought for these projects so they are bagged  up and then some project beads for the smaller pieces like the bracelets. I am slowly putting it all away as this tray is just  a mess pure and simple !! !

I still have plenty in my two bead boxes as well !!

So, that is why I have not been around too much, that and our son being here from way out of town for two weeks and the fact I watch a bunch of our grandkids each day !!

I will share as I finish up these items and I have a couple of jewelry pieces to show as well, that I cannot take credit for, my talented customer deserves all the credit !!

So a lot more to share in the next few days !!!

Thanks for stopping by !!

Stephie

I have worked on the ornament hooks for a few days and then yesterday was not feeling very good but had promised our oldest grandaughter I would bead after school and so we sat and made up some earrings for ourselves and she made some for her mom and some to just make them !!

I decided I did not have enough colors in my jewelry box, I have spent too much time over the years making to sell, so I was overdue making for me !! No reason to not have a pair for any outfit I might want to wear !!!

So, here is what we came up with. I have not looped them, except for one and they did not come out good, due to not feeling good, so I figured until I feel like myself again, I will design and then loop them all at one in a day or two when I am feeling much more myself !!

I love both these beads, the blue are 14 mm lapis lazuli and the red are sponge coral 10 mm beads. I had the pretty silver spacer beads from on old piece I took apart years ago. I am excited to wear this set !!! I just got these beads on sale from Fire Mountain Gems. They are another amazing store I shop at, and usually get a lot of stuff each time ,  as I buy when they have thier big sales !! Not as good of quality as the items I got from Aunties beads, those are still among  the best I have found, but they are not bad at all  and great prices, so I pick carefully and have been pretty thrilled with my items each time.

I love these soft gray glass cats eye beads combined with a soft pink faceted glass bead. So pretty !!

another glass cat eye type bead, they are one of my favorite type of beads, but in a pretty green with black faceted glass beads !!I need to put them on a shorter head pin, but I am still in the designing stage !!

I am on the fence with this set. Really interesting glass beads with a swirl finish  and no two the same, and I combined them with white glass faceted on the bottom and a black faceted glass twist on top. Just not sure if I like them yet , my grand daughter did !! I will decide thier fate in a few days !!

On thing I take pride in is my looping skills, and this pair is horrible. I was not feeling good, and should not have even tried. They are not the same size loop and my wire wrapping was the worst I have done !!  They are a total redo , should know better than to do that when I am not feeling good !!

They are all glass faceted and the  bottom beads have an AB shimmer to them, really pretty with large facets. The middle bead is a glass faceted twist and the top is a simple bicone crystal.

these are cute plastic vintage beads I combined with small fire polished emerald green glass beads.

another soft pink with smaller versions of the pink faceted and some intersting pink free form beads from an old piece of jewelry taken apart and more pretty metal spacers from an old piece I took apart.

I really love the beads in the next pair. the pretty glass beads with the large facets and AB finish and a soft pink opaque glass bead and a vintage white bead with texture !! Love, love , love this pair !!

Some sets for Christmas !!! A twisted faceted glass clear bead on the bottom, can you tell I love those twisted glass and have them in almost every color !! A red lampwork bead that looks like a candy cane with red and white swirled inside the clear glass bead, and then a simple red faceted glass bead on top.

bicone clear crystal on top, faceted green glass center and a lovely oval red glass faceted bead at the bottom , very pretty beads !! Love them together !!

some vintage green glass faceted beads taken off of an old necklace a few years ago !! Twisted faceted glass beads on top

Here is what our fourteen year old grandaughter came up with, she is so talented. I forgot to get a picture of the set she made her mom, our daughter, they are really nice !!

She has a good eye for color and we are going to work more next week too !!

I was working on a pair of seed bead Christmas tree earrings, again, not a good idea on a day I do not feel good and I ended up with a knot I have to deal with, so I put it aside until I am feeling good.

Here is our mess on the table, but a creative mess !!! Excuse the table leaned up on the back of the table, the studio is a mess as we go through and get stuff out to our storage barn. I hope to have it looking much better in the next week.

some of  my order from Fire Mountain Gems

Our grandaughters picks, I let her order a couple of things , two sets at a buck each to make earrings out of , she is in band and she was thrilled with these and for two bucks, she can make four sets of earrings, not a bad deal !! I cannot wait to see what she does with them !!

she picked out these pretty hearts , 54 cents for both !!! They are bigger and much prettier than we expected !! She is excited to use them in a project !!! They are an enameled metal charm

So, we are busy in the studio having fun !! I will finish up those earrings during the week, but plan to make a few more up in purple, brown, golden and tans, some orange and pink and a few more blue. I want a nice drawer of earrings for myself , along with the Christmas sets and the trees !! I have another project but I will do a seperate post on that one !!

Thanks for stopping by !!!

Your bead loving friend,

Stephie

I added a few new pieces in my new Zibbet shop today !!! They are all different and I stil have a few more to list but wanted to get the first few in the store and share them with you !! I had so much fun making them !!!

This first one is a very steampunk inspired piece. I romanced it up with the cobalt beads, but I used watch parts and keys and all kinds of brass pretties to make this unique and interesting piece !!

I found some wonderful glass tags online and used a lovely blue one for this next one of a kind , Paris inpired piece !!

I love reds so I had to make one with these pretty red beads and my fellow blogger friend, The dancing professor should recognize one of these pretty red beads !!! Thanks again, I love my new pretties !! there is a lot of shadows, but the long thin connector is antique brass and I got it recently from Turkey !!

It is not black, it is antique brass, I will have to retake these !!!

I have a bunch more to list, and will add them in a post as I do  !!

My store address is below and to the side, if you wish to look at the listings, there are a lot more pictures and close ups and a full description of each item !!

https://www.zibbet.com/treasures-found-glass-art-jewelry

Thanks so much for stopping by !! I cannot wait to share my other new pretties tomorrow !!!

Stephie

I have my work table loaded down again, despite my best efforts to keep it neat !! I am trying to keep the out of control from coming back so it is not as bad as I can be !! It is very hard to create with beads unless you have them out around you and I have too many boxes to do that, so I have to pick a few of the colors I want , in the sizes I want and put them on a tray. Makes creating a lot easier.

I have so many charms and beads I wanted to create some  new wine glass charm sets and I have a bunch designed and will put them together while I talk on the phone. I have some pirate wine charms to finish up so I can get them mailed out next week and a couple of projects for friends I am working on as well. Missing some parts for one, so I have to improvise. They disapeared moving the studio to the room next door, pretty frustrating !!

So, this is what I am up to right now !! I am designing at the moment and once I get a bunch of sets done, I will do the cutting and looping and adding the hoop that hooks each one on the wine glass. I like to design a lot up, and then go back and change anything I do not like and then put them all together !!

Love anything Paris, have a ton of these and fluer de lis charms too , in two sizes !!!

baseball, fun !!! Red, white, blue !!

my halloween charms and some fun elephants with colorful beads !!

I got these gorgeous metal beads in a jar with a bag of other beads and I have no idea where they came from, but they are long , about an inch and a quarter and so very pretty !!

these were in the same jar, and I am going to use them too , I love them !!

want to make some kind of Halloween project out of these lovely glass swirl beads, wanted to pair them with the Halloween charms above, in the picture with the elephant charms, but they did not look right, so I used plain black glass beads.

I love these fun  turquoise skulls. I have to do something with them as well !!

I have some old items I plan to use for some  necklaces , big earrings, will each be a pendant

other pretty pieces that are not so pretty as earrings. I will take them apart and it gives me four pieces to play with !!

this little guy was a key chain, see next picture, and he will be a pendant on a  whimsical steam punk necklace I think !!

I love the little rhinestone eyes he has !!

same day I got him, I picked up these pretties too at the same thrift store, pretty glass beads with spacers and chain, only a buck !!!

plastic, but nice quality, so I can find something to use them for !!

I bought this to both reuse the charm in another piece and as an example of more I can make, not the picture, but overall idea !!

My table is a creative mess !!! You can see my protein smoothy and drinks too, crystal light !! I always have my cup with ice and a refill bottle to keep filling my bottle so I do not have to keep getting up !! My poor little plants are being encroached upon !!!

My friends project. I am figuring out alternatives to the items I misplaced, so frustrating !!

I have so many charms, pendants,  and beads, and I want to see what I can come up with !!! Just so many pretty things to work with !! What I showed in this post are just a fraction of what I have. My bead and charm hoard is enormous !!

Well, off to bead more pretties, will be posting some of these in the next week  as I get them done and photographed , I will post some pictures of the finished products when I get them done !!!

Thanks so much for stopping by !!

Stephie

I had no idea I had been away for so long !! I have not been doing too much in the studio lately, but I am starting to get back into some creating again !

A new puppy and kids home from school have kept me busy the last couple of weeks. I am getting into the swing of summer and five days into puppy ownership we are getting a schedule. Such an easy puppy , we are so lucky.

I have been working on some bead work again. My beaded angels. I made up two so far and I plan to make up a few for my mother in law and a beaded crown for a friends baby due later this summer.

I thought it would be fun to show the same angel done two different ways. One with opague, pearl style seed beads and sequins, and another with clear iredescent seed beads and sequins over the color felt I wanted the piece to be.

I love the pink sparkly one the best, I made that for me. The other I made on request for someone. I really like it, thought it tuned out nice, but just love the subtle pink with the very sparkly feel to it. I used vintage seed beads on the edge of the pink one, taken off of a very old beaded purse . They are silver lined clear 11/0 seed beads, as are all the seed beads on both projects. I rarely use any other size.

You can see the sequins are clear, but very sparkly. They look almost like bubbles a child would blow into the air. Sparkly and so colorful. They enhance the color that is below it. They are the first sequins I had. Literally, these are the first sequins I had. I bought about eight large bags at the time , which was 25 years ago, and I still have four or five bags of them. I think they are 3000 count per bag. The beads are clear glass and have the same iredescent coating the sequins have .  The silver sead beads  are new but the silver sequins are vintage metal sequins I combined with glass seed beads that have a silver finish on them. Great for this type of application as they should not be washed or handled a lot to keep the finish nice. It can wear from being touched a lot, say putting on earrings or a bracelet rubbing on your skin as you wear it , but these angels being decorative will look nice for a long time.

The pearl angel is white felt, pearl white sequins, pearl white sead beads, and the same silver halo as the pink one. I added a clasp to this one for hooking on a car mirror as requested. Some I make with loops, some with clasps. I added a couple of pretty clear cyrstals for decoration mid way up the loop on both sides.

I have all the stuff together to make the crown. I plan to get started on that one right away. I will take pictures to share here when it is done !!

I have three more angels like the ones above to make, a turquoise blue, a lavender, and a leaf green. An order that I am excited to make up, as a gift for the person who requested them !!

I will s hare those when done as well !!!

Thanks for stopping by. I will not take so long to post again, I was really shocked to see how long it had been !!!

I am shocked that we are down to the last day of another month tomorrow , and starting our third month of 2018. This  year is going by way too fast !!

I have been busy in my Etsy shop, I got my shop back up to 140 items, have 58 ready to list, or just have to take pictures. I have to go through my sequins tomorrow and make sure everything is still current and if not renew it. Then I want to look at my sold sets and see if I can recreate them, if not, make others as close as possible.

I thought I would share some of the new things in my shop with you . This is just 13 of the items I put up, out of 60 in the last two days. Not all were hand made items. A good amount were though.

a red hat key chain and purse hook

My favorite elephant charms, I made them a bit more special with a pretty textured bead. I had sold some before so I thought I would make a few more sets to list !!

Back to making wine charms again. I love these turquoise ones, such pretty beads.

The pearl knots are from a vintage necklace I took apart maybe 16 or more years ago. Love them. Down to my last few. As usual I added some pretty glass beads to make them sparkle.

NOT listed yet, but will be in a day or two. I thought it would be fun to make some brown earrings. Love how these came out. Ceramic flowers, candy jade round beads, and lovely goldish brown glass drop beads.

All three of the beads I used in this set came from my more expensive Czech box. These beads are ones I buy on sale and sparingly as they are pricey , but so pretty !!! The middle is actually a rich copper, not so red as it looks, so I will have to retake those pictures.

I love the white beads in the next set of earrings. Big regret when I found a string , actually circle, of these interesting beads, I only bought one of the two. They look like bone, but not sure what they are. Very pretty and could be older. I used a deep raspberry red stone and a clear glass drop for these beauties.

Another gorgeous czech bead paired with a brown candy jade bead. Love how they look together. 

Candy jade white, and a pink stone on the bottom, not sure what, and then some pink glass faceted with one side AB, which I showed here. The other side is not sparkly but the bead is still pretty.

Another wine charm, my zebra stripes are always popular and sell pretty quickly. The colors all look great with the black and white.

Heavy , smooth, pretty glass or stone beads. i bought them at the bead market a few years ago, I am not sure which they are. But they are so pretty with the colorful glass beads and I used a small bicone black glass bead on the bottom.

Like the copper Czech bead above, these are a gold version. Really pretty with the glass beads .

the non sparkly side of the pink beads from the pair up above.

large pearl wine charms with glass beads, could be good for a wedding.

pink and white stone, with a pretty rhinestone spacer that has AB stones so it give off a pretty and colorful sparkle. Different then the usually clear rhinestone spacers I use most.

Got a lot listed I did not make . Some embroidery kits, some vintage jewelry, some odd ball stuff, charms and pendants.

So much to list over the next few days. I have been having a blast !!

So, that is what I have been up to !!

So, goodbye February and Welcome to March !!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Stephie

I have finally accepted the fact that I will always have to create a mess to be creative. I can work for days, get this studio sparkly and clean, everything put away, but then the ideas come and the mess comes back . People tell me all the time, just work on one thing at a time, put away one project before you get out another. I know this is supposed to be the way you do it, but that is just not how I can create. I get bored. No matter how much I love to do any one thing, I do one , or maybe ten, and I need to do something else for a while and then I want to go back to the other thing. Sometimes I do not want to go back for a while. But I have always ended up with two to five projects out at a time , well, now that I have the room to do so. When I did not have a room for working in, I did not have many craft supplies. As I gained this room my supplies grew. I finally had to forbid myself to buy anything . Yeah, that will work. I have a desk covered in jewelry to take apart, not this desk I am working on, but my other desk that my old computer is on, the one the grandkids are allowed to play on.

Here is my creative mess, after I did put away a few things and threw away trash and did a bit of housecleaning, lol !! It was too much for even me, but only too about ten minutes so it was not that bad. I would have had that done but took a two day break from the studio to catch up on laundry and some other housework and do a bunch of cooking . Today I did a quick put away and clean up, but left what I will be working on in the next weeks. I actually set up another small work table, that is how bad I am with space !!!

The main table behind it has a bunch of projects in different stages of completion. this first picture is some vintage ribbons and lace I am currently working on listing in my Etsy shop. Already had one sale of a pretty roll  of lace.

the next is a tray with some beautiful beads, a friend sent me the dyed stones and I got out some black stones I want to try using with some of them. Still in the planning phase, but cannot wait to play with them. I have never had such wonderful big stones to work with before !!! I am very excited !!

The two trays are beads,well, and some other crafty things, I  will probably combine onto one tray, I used these loose beads to make a lot of different beaded charms. Next to that is my pile of wire, some of it sterling. I want to make some handmade findings.

The next is some pendants I  need to finish. They are altered art type. I will be sure and post them when I finish them. Some  flat marble pendants are also in the picture, those are finished. I did those marble ones months ago.

Just a bit of my wire stash. I have a lot more than that.

Misc mess. A tray of stuff I need to go through, a papter plate with more stuff, and then a pile of felt cut outs, seed beads and sequins for a lot of projects.

an overview of the table,

Than my old desk, tons of jewelry I purchased pretty inexpensively at yard sales to take apart for charms and beads. This is not all of it, but a good amount  of it. Hard to see with the light coming in, I could not get it down even by closing the mini  blinds.

My sofa is stuff for our ebay shop I am going to open back up. Some great clothes, some house hold, and also some satin balls for my huge collection. I will be making ornament kits to list in my Etsy shop. I have sold a few already, and come July will start listing ornament kits for the holidays. Christmas in July.

I have so many materials for the fun pendants I mentioned and showed earlier, vintage , dominos in white , black , green and red, scrabble tiles, vintage counting cubes, poker chips, all piled on my dresser, except for my big thing of thicker pocker chips, it is a big case on the floor.  I will probably get back to all those pretty soon, just want to get the shops loaded up on Etsy and Ebay first. I will also make up kits from those things too for people who want to create but do not want to buy a bunch of materials, I can put together small amounts for a pendant or two at a time.

Just scored a big heavy metal case of poker chips, the thick kind, with nice red dice and a some cards in it. Looking forward to playing with all those things soon.

So, I have learned, I will never , ever, just get out one project at a time. That is not how I can create. I need to see several things going at once. I know it would drive a lot of people crazy, but look at my shelf, most of those trays area also loaded with beads, sequins, seed beads, charms and so on. Most of them a project that I started and never finished, or finished and never got it put up because I was going to do something else. The bottom two racks are a project for a friend/ customer. The rest is my crazy mess !!! the plastic box in front on top is all seed beads, the patterned box next to it is all sequins, the bag on top of the seed beads is sequins, the white platic box is all made sequin projects, and the bottom shelf is all sequins in those boxes. Along with the left side of the second from the bottom. The colorful box is all my little baggies for jewelry and beads and stuff. There are two shelves above the seed beads and sequins, they are other crafts and projects and some display stuff and mailing stuff.

So, if , like me, you have to have a mess to be creative, it is okay !! Not all of us are able to be organized and neat. That said, I could get this room together and neat in a half hour if needed. NOT counting the trays on the big shelf mind you. We use this room for grandkids sometimes and I can get it clean pretty quickly when I need to. And cleaned right , not just thrown somewhere. I do have the trays, but most of that stuff will come out as I list stuff on Etsy, and as I make stuff. Some will get put into the boxes on my shelf, a bit over time. I am so grateful for my wonderful hubby who made this wonderful tray storage for me. I have wanted something like that for almost 30 years but did not have a space to do it. Of course back than my collection was much, much smaller too , but I still have a large amount of seed beads and sequins from way back then !!! This shelf is where I keep most of my beads, charms, and findings. The top shelf is more office supply stuff because I have to climb on a step stool to reach it.

I have two absolutely HUGE filing cabinets, this one is felt in the top drawer, sheets of felt, cuts outs I have done and felt scraps plus my embroidery floss and hoops. Second and third drawer and misc craft supplies. Cardboard, plastic , and so one. I might at some point combine them into one drawer. These are very deep drawers, so lots of great storage.

The other one is mostly vintage, with some new pipe cleaners. Yes, I have a ton of pipe cleaners. I absolutely love the things. Not sure why, but I got a great deal on a ton of vintage ones and grabbed them, but already had some. So, the top drawer is full of them, except for a few strings of garland I picked up at 90 percent off after Christmas to make some of those cone / garland Christmas trees.

The middle drawer is full of all my cookie cutters, I have  life long collection, some dating back to childhood, and even a couple my grandpa made my grandma so  many years ago,  and mind you, I have given my married kids a bunch of cookie cutters each. But I add all the time. I use them not just for baking, but for crafts and until my wonderful husband brought my this amazing file cabinet  home from work when they were tossing it last summer, I had no place to store them.

The bottom drawer is our grands kids art supplies , but that is coming out so I can store the ebay clothes and other items for sale in our shop. The water bottles are for my plants, I try to keep water in there to water them, need to fill them again !!!

I have shelves above that file cabinet and  next to the other one. So, storage is not my issue.

I really think as a creative person, like a gold fish grows to fit its bowl, a crafters art supplies will grow to fit the space they have, lol. I still have space, but I have got to start being more careful when purchasing stuff. I have so much stuff now, and I tell myself, you can make so many things, you do not need any more supplies. I am not going to go to Hobby Lobby, and then someone says, hey, I am going Hobby Lobby, want to go with me….. and I go…. and there are clearance items, or things on 50 percent off…… and so it goes. Mind you , my husband has no issues with this and often helps me pick out cool stuff to work with. He has his own studio too. Stained glass.

So, just create, store what you can, leave out what you will. Be  happy you are creative, it is a blessing to create things, and not worth stressing over the mess . Just enjoy making art, jewelry, whatever you enjoy, make the mess so you can create in it !!!

Thanks for stopping by, I would love to hear your views on this subject and how you create, neatly, or in a creative mess like me !!!

Stephie