Trying Ebay Again

I've had an ebay store, Studio G for about three years now, and much of the time I've run a few auctions since store items don't come up in the normal search results. However, I'm about to give up on Ebay. It's a grand idea, and works I suppose for many things, but Ebay continues to raise fees everytime you turn around, and changes things constantly it seems to make it more difficult to sell so that I don't think I've had anything up for auction for at least a month -maybe a bit more - and probably not the month before that. That said, I do have 5 bracelets up for auction this week although one does end tomorrow night I believe - the others on Wednesday. They all have starting bids substantially lower than what they would sell for in my store or on my Cluny Grey Jewelry website. So I'm going to see what happens.
The labradorite bracelet that you see above is up for auction. I love this bracelet and every gemstone was chosen for its flash. It also has some great beads in sterling silver. The bracelet below is all Swarovski crystals in the colours of silk and morion, an unbelievably great combination - I couldn't believe it (the bracelet is much prettier in person). I'm auctioning the earrings with the bracelet so that could sell for about half of what they would be on the website. I'm really taken with Swarovski lately because I love the new larger beads and the wonderful new colours (rose water opal -yum!).




Finally, a great blue chalcedony bracelet that has matching lampwork bead earrings to go with it; again, I'm auctioning both together. The great lampwork beads are a sort of periwinkle blue with a dash of metallic silver encased in clear -very pretty, very hard to describe. They are the work of lampwork artist Irene Collier.
So, if you get a chance and you're in the market for some graduation or Mother's Day gifts or maybe something to wear to the prom, check my Ebay auctions this week: my user id is: chloemarie99 or you can do a search for Cluny Grey - or simply click on the link in the first paragraph here. Hyvästi! Tchau!

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Back to beading

I've had this bracelet unfinished on the tray for over two months now, before getting into wirework, so today I decided to finally finish it before I tip the tray over and lose all my beads, lol.
Simple cellini spiral from the big white Russian book.

Hm, when I posted the pic at the Australian beading forum, I've been told to head over to the seedbead challenge topic, and enter my bracelet as it qualifies. Oh well, looking at the other gorgeous pieces there, mine pales in comparison, but I entered, nevertheless. Even if just to keep track with what goodies other post there as well.


And this is my latest mail creation, a full persian with beaded units sticking out.
Got the idea from Plumlee's book, which I bought a few days ago. His full book is based on the Byzantine, but what an eye candy there is in the book!

Full persian with cross

This bracelet is done in full persian weave. It took a while to get the hang of it, as it's not as easy as the previous ones shown. In honour of finishing the bracelet, I also made a cross in the same weave, with the tutorial taken from the Dreamseeker's page. Once I understood the weave, the cross went very smoothly. I need to get some smaller rings to make another cross, and use this one for a necklace. Although I like it, for the bracelet it could be a little smaller.

Cyprus is a very religious country, so I figure once I start making silver jewelry, these will sell quite well. Now if I could just find a cheap local supplier of silver rings, or even silver wire and I'd learn to cut the rings myself...

Fire and Ice, Sea and Sun

I like so many different gemstones and styles that if left to my own devices, in the course of a week I can come up with some very disparate looks. Fire agate is a current favorite of mine, and I like it so much that I've created a new page on the Cluny Grey website for Fire Agate Jewelry and I predict that it will be fairly full before long. I love large faceted nuggets, like those in this fire agate bracelet - and I love to mix a bit of sunstone with my fire agate creations, too. The other element (besides the lampwork beads I love) that I like to incorporate are Swarovski crystals. Talk about sparkle! The bracelet below has all three of my favorites.I am a bracelet person; I love bracelets, love to make them, love to wear them, oftentimes as many as I can get on at one time and still lift my arms (well, not quite). But I've been trying to make more necklaces since so many of my customers like matching sets - earrings, bracelets, necklaces, all that work together. I made the lariat necklace that you see below from grey Biwa pearls with an iridescent nacre and from faceted rock or quartz crystal that is huge and chunky. I really like lariat necklaces because they are very easy to wear and usually quite versatile.

The turquoise necklace that you see here is quite long and mixes lampwork beads by master lampworker James Derrick Reeves with turquoise and amethyst. I made matching earrings from the same turquoise and amethyst. I love those faceted amethyst nuggets. Below, I made a double strand necklace with some smooth amethyst nuggets, faceted peridot, garnet, and a lot of smokey quartz to show off a large drusy (druzy) pendant set in sterling silver with faceted gemstones in peridot, quartz, and garnet and an amethyst teardrop hanging from it. The clasp has a garnet cabochon set in it. When I make a necklace like this, I love to find gemstone clasps to use even though I know that it probably won't show most of the time. I still think it's a nice touch though. This necklace will be on the Drusy Jewelry page. This is also the first brown drusy that I've ever had.

Finally, another bracelet that I had to put on here today because I like it quite a bit. The huge faceted nugget is of amazonite and is slightly twisted. The lampwork beads are by James Derrick Reeves, and of course, the design is by me. I'm seriously thinking about keeping this one although I do have a couple of these huge nuggets still and I'm just wondering what I could do with them.



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Shaggy Loops set

The earrings and bracelet are a few posts below, however I wanted to have a full set for this, as I like it that much :)
So I finished today the necklace, and took a picture of all pieces together.
Hope you like the set :)

What I'm currently reading

With all my excitement about my latest hobby, chainmail, I neglected my other hobby: reading.
So what am I reading right now?
A vampire book from the late 1980s called Vampire Nights by Timothy Moriarty.
It is a horror novel, not one of those cheesy paranormal romances (which I like btw, lol) of the last few years, where the vampires are romanticized. Here the vampires are the bad guys.

Funny trivia: one of the leading protagonists, Libby, is a jewelry maker, and several times she's wearing her own jewelry.
Quote from the book: "Around her neck she wore an amber pendant that matched her rust-stained oval sunglasses and silver chains; all the jewelry was of her own design." Yayy, I like Libby already!

For anyone interested in a list of vampire novels that have appeared from the 80's onwards, here is a pretty good list by year and short book description.

And speaking of descriptions, for some great book reviews, check out Janelle's blog, she is an Armchair reviewer. Sometimes I put new books on my wishlist based on her reviews alone!

Another European...this time 6 in 1

Following Spider's DVD, the next pattern is the Euro 6 in 1. I thought it would be more difficult than the Euro 4 in 1, but somehow I found this pattern easier, more intuitive to follow.
Hubby doesn't like it that much, it's too wide for his taste, but I quite like it :)
And I bet my brother will love it too, as his favourite so far was the Euro 4 in 1.
I wonder if I can make any earrings out of this weave...