Turquoise for the Birthday Girl

Ok - Personal Fact - I am Adopted. There you go! My birth mother Marion was young when she had me and I was adopted by my parents who are now in their 70's when I was 2weeks old or thereabouts. Fairly common in the 1960's and 1970's. Interestingly my husband Craig is also adopted - so it was kind of neat when we both had our own children. (although for a while there we thought we would be venturing down the adoption track)

Anyway, Marion turned 60 on Sunday and decided to celebrate at the Langham Hotel in central Auckland with their High Tea. It was a dilema - do I make something or do I buy something? Obviously the universe was pulling me to make something, since crafting with beads is my thing, and I was fast running out of time.

I loved the blue in this pendant that I had made a while ago but had never really liked the ribbon and rattail it was hanging from. Obviously neither did my customers as it had been for sale in my shop for a wee while. Got to thinking with 3 days left and decided to bead a Russian Spiral Rope to go with it.

Before the new reconstructed necklace is revealed here is the way I decorated the box it was gifted in. Plain kraft box an lid then shoozzed it up a bit with the silver paper, ribbon and paper flowers. The blue is the envelope with the card. Yes I made that too but forgot to take a photo - sorry.

The final reconstructed Russian Spiral Rope to go with the necklace. Sorry the photo isn't a closeup. It definitely looks so much better this way and the rope is Turquoise, Black and Silver. Made with size 11 and size 15 Japanese Seed Beads.

Marion loves it and I was so relieved to hear that her current favourite colour is turquoise as I really had no idea. The only recent photos I had seen she was wearing red so it was a bit of a gamble.

High Tea was lovely and it was great to finally taste some macaroons. - Pistashio - Yumm!

Lesson Learned!

Today I learned a very valuable lesson regarding keeping your website totally up to date. I thought I was pretty good at making sure my website had all of the current information up - but alas it seems not, and it has probably cost me some business.

I sell the flip top seed bead storage cases on my website and after a large order back in February had sold out of everything I had. I then received a large order from the same people (an embroidery guild here in NZ) which I had to import in from the US. At the time I put "Out of Stock" on my website with a notation mentioning they would be back in stock in March.

In the mean time I had also taken out an ad in the Embroidery Guilds (ANZEG) bi-annual publication specifically with a reference to these storage boxes. As  result of my large previous sale to just one of the many guilds in NZ I had anticipated getting a few orders. It was getting frustrating that I wasn't and I wasn't sure what I had done wrong. I FORGOT TO CHECK THE WEBSITE.

Today a new customer contacted me through Facebook asking if I still sold the storage boxes - so I went to check the website just to make sure they were showing properly and I found my MISTAKE. How embarrassed am I and how many sales and potentially good will have I lost as a result. I hate to think.

I tell you I have learned this lesson and it will never happen again. I will be religious with how I check the details on my website from now on.

Yes they are all now back in Stock (and have been since March) in limited quantities - but I can purchase more if need be. :)

Because I Can ...

Do you have any project that you do just because you can? Be it beading, artwork, sewing, whatever -you did it just because you had an idea and you wanted to try it for yourself. Well this is what I did. It took me longer than I thought it would but for me - I LOVE IT! Craig looked at me when I was nearly finished with that Why? look and I answered "Because I can".

I knew I wanted to make something using Right Angle Weave and multiple rows and bag-like.(Beaded bags is something I would love to do more of in the future) Although I had made loads of plain single row RAW pieces I hadn't actually played with more rows even though I knew how. I selected my colours (excuse rubbish photo) from what I had in stock and the pencils to match.

I got out my Right Angle Weave graph paper (Courtesy of Firemountain Gems) and sketched using my coloured pencils the basic idea of colours and where the beads should go. As you can see I wasn't aiming my sights at anything too complicated. Just something bright for me.

This is the fabric starting to take shape - see very basic.

Scunched up beaded fabric - it really does take on an amazing material like quality and is great to pick up and manipulate, all squishy and fun to play with. My girls were loving watching the progress.

Finished Cellphone pouch with button and loop clasp. I love it, it is so me and feels so nice to hold.

No losing my cellphone in my handbag now with these bright colours.

What do you think?

If you wish to buy any of these size 8 Toho beads from by Bead Store then Click Here to go to my website