Shipping Sale Saturday!

All day today I'm offering free shipping on any item in the store! I also knocked down the prices on all of my prints from $25 to $20! Meaning you would now pay $10 less on them than you normally would! What a deal! Don't miss out!

My Etsy Store

Meet Jocelyn

As I promised in the last post (I'm a woman of my word!) the next hair stick to come off the line is finished and listed in my Etsy shop!

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Jocelyn!

She's hand carved and features a purple lucite flower accented by an AB Antique Rose Swarovski bicone, a Moonlight bicone and a purple crystal rondelle. More details on the Etsy listing. She really is a beauty, the pictures simply don't capture how delicate and sparkly these beads are, especially the Antique Rose center bead. It has several different colors in it: oranges, purples, blues, pinks, greens... all depending on how the light is hitting it. Jocelyn really is a sight to behold. Here are some more photos.

Next Hair Stick, and other stuff

As promised, here is the next hair stick, the one I showed in progress in the last post. Meet Charlotte (I'll explain the name thing in a minute). I had some time to myself yesterday, so after posting the photos of my toolbox and trimmings, I sat down and got to work. And this is the result. =) The stick itself is made from one of the pieces of wood my grandfather sent me. Unfortunately he didn't tell me what the woods were so I'm at a loss as to what it is.. =S But it's so gorgeous. The crosshatch design is something I figured I'd try and it ended up coming out very nicely. As for the topper, they're beads I've had in my collection for a while but haven't had time to do anything with. But now that school's over... that changed fast. Lol. The focal bead is Venetian glass, Light Aqua with gold foil (if I remember correctly). The center bead is a Lt. Sapphire Swarovski round. Here's a close up.

Unfortunately, Charlotte isn't on the 'for sale' list. When I ordered this particular batch of beads, I fell in love with the Venetian glass focal bead.. I just can't bring myself to part with it. Lol. The next one will be for sale, I swear. And there will be more designs featuring Venetian glass in the future. =)

As for the name thing. My previous naming system for my sticks was... unusual to say the least. Lol. And the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like it. So I figured.. since every stick (or pair of sticks) will be unique and special... they should each have their own special names. So that's exactly what I'm doing.

I also made up my own background image for the blog. Yarn, hair sticks and beads! =D Ya can't beat that fun mix! They're all photos taken by me of my actual yarn, beads, and hair stick's I have finished (including Charlotte!). The drawing portion of the layout will go in the header/nameplate. But I'll save that for another time. No time to do it tonight. Gotta be at work tomorrow, which means I gotta be asleep soon.

Speaking of which, I had my first day at my internship today!! Yay!!!! It was great! (well for the part of it I was actually at the museum) Most of the day I was working from home (on supervisor's orders!) and looking for stuff she'd told me to do some research on. Then after getting lunch with my wonderful boyfriend (^_^) I went to the museum to get the quick run down of the tour of the house. It's an old historical home, which I *love*. Historical homes are the best kind! I could walk through them all day. The lady that showed me around was really nice. And very helpful. I can't wait to go back tomorrow!

Well anyway, guess it's bed time for moi.

Behind the Scenes

Well I thought I'd give a peek into my hair stick"workshop." (Nevermind the fact that I don't actually have a shop and I pretty much work wherever there's good light and ventilation. =P)

Here we have my toolbox/traveling workshop. Bought this beauty for this purpose specifically. It has a compartment up top for things like my drill bits, sanding sponge, super glue, and of coarse... my beloved Dremel rotary tool without which none of this would be happening.

The bottom compartment houses four slide out containers with lots of little cubby holes for beads and stuff. =D I love cubby holes. As my bead collection grows, this may change but as of right now, each drawer is designated for either tools or certain kinds of beads.



First thing's first though. Meet my Dremel. No it doesn't have a name...
And here we have Drawer #1

This is the "tool" section. Here I have sanders, buffers and saws galore for my Dremel. Plus an X-Acto knife that doesn't get much use.

My grandfather was kind enough to send me some of his wood (which he also shaped into dowel rods for me!). As you can see one of them was underway when the photo was taken. It's finished now. I'll take pictures of it tomorrow, once it's done drying and setting. Unfortunately I don't know what kind of woods they are... I know one of them is cedar... but I'm not sure which. =/ I think it's the one I've already started working on. If there's anyone out there who knows their woods, I'd love to know what they are. Aside from these I have some simple dowel rods from Walmart. Once coated with enamel they turn some beautiful colors and the grain really pops. =)

Drawer #2This is the metal section. Headpins, beadcaps, rondells, small rounds... And yeah, I know there's no yellow metal. I can't help it. I like silver.

Drawer #3
Mm... I love this drawer. Here I keep all of my crystal beads. Round, bicone, rondells and teardrops. Plus a lucite flower that I'm not sure what I'll do with and two topper designs that were in the works. Yay, sparkly!!

Drawer #4And last but not least, the glass and gemstone drawer. They had to share. =( Here we have two turquoise beads, a few Kyanite beads, lots of Hematite, some Onyx rondells and a few other rounds of Rose Quartz, Malachite and a Snowflake Obsidian. The huge thing down at the bottom is a necklace in the making. It's a large piece of some special kind of Hematite. An absolutely beautiful stone and I want to make sure I come up with a design that'll do it justice. On the left are czech glass, crackle glass, and faceted glass beads. Nothing too fancy, but they're still pretty. =)

So here's everything displayed in a group shot.


And here're some hair stick topper designs in the works. A modified version of one of these got used on the stick that's shown in the middle of its carving stage. Not telling which though. ;) That'll be in the next post.


I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my technique and preview of things to come. =D

First Blog, First Post

This is my first real effort at a blog... we'll see how this goes. =) I'll post photos of in-progress works (drawings, hairsticks, crochet, etc) as well as of new materials when I get them. ;) To give you an idea of what may be in the works. I'll get what I have up soon.

As for non-shop related stuff. I'm looking for a job. I *need* a job. I'm staying on campus over the summer and working an unpaid internship at a local museum. Which is great! I'm super excited about starting (on Wednesday!! Yay!!) but.. no money means no food. And that just won't do, now will it? So I'm filling out job applications and calling places every which way. Praying someone will call back or take me... I don't care what it is (as long as it's not in the food industry). I'll do whatever as long as I get paid for it. -sigh- But I've never gotten a legit job before so I'm flying blind. I have no idea what I'm doing...

And I have one thing to check off my list before I can call this horrendous semester over and done: my final paper for my military history class. Geez, this thing's a pain. This class has given me more emotional breakdowns than my senior thesis. Thankfully the final paper is somewhat easy and he only wants us to use our textbooks as sources (we only have ... what 5 for the class?) so I don't have to go camp out in the library. A small blessing. But I'm almost done with it! I have a little over a page to go before I hit the minimum 7pg requirement and I still have to finish the War of 1812 and Vietnam. Minimum limit's not a problem. It's just making myself focus on it long enough to finish. But then.. I just wrote a page and a half in under an hour. Not a bad pace. =) Let's hope that keeps up so I can do fun things for the rest of the night and let my brain take a break.