Shark Teeth

Sharks teeth, or are they? Jason made some crazy cool faux sharks teeth using glass and baking soda. We have wire wrapped some with reycled copper wire, and some with silver wire. They look totally real! Check 'em out! (They'll be listed in our Etsy shop soon!)

More Skeleton Key Pendants

Last night, I took a shot at making some skeleton keys to give Jason a break from the torch. It's hard to get used to, but really fun! Since these are made off mandrel (which I never do!), it was a bit tricky for me to get them into the kiln - and also really hot!

I of course had to experiment with some baking soda on these to get a type of "lost treasure" feel to the keys. Here are three shipwrecked style pendants, and tomorrow I will definitely be making more.

If anyone has any ideas for some skeleton key pendants, we would love to hear them! Just leave a comment :)
Andrea

Skeleton Key Pendants

Jason has been working on some skeleton key pendants-which rock! It took some time to hunt down skeleton keys that will work (they must be magnetic or else they melt in the flame). We've got a bunch that we still need to make, but I thought I'd show one that we just listed in our Etsy Shop

This skeleton key pendant features a beautiful celadon colored bead with translucent green accents. The bead slides/spins which is always fun! They also look great worn on one of our hand dyed silk cords.

"Lagoon"

I'll be sure to post more photos once we have more keys completed. Also, if you have a skeleton key (to test if it will work just see if a magnet will stick to it) and you'd like a pendant made with it just leave us a comment or email us.

Andrea

Baking Soda Beads!

The baking soda beads I made yesterday came out really cool! I'm pleased with the results and will probably make some more this weekend. :) I love the texture it makes on the surface of the beads. The first set is already listed, and the rest will be soon.

"Volcanic Rock"


















I've gotta run to the Amherst Farmer's Market - It's from 2:30-6:30 on the village green so be sure stop by if you're around! :)
Andrea

Some New Beads From Andrea

I've been torching like crazy lately, and have some sets to show today. Most are on Etsy already, some will be listed today/tomorrow. :)


Transparent dark green discs with white glass powder



Black rounds with Double Helix Triton designs



Black rounds with Double Helix Ecko designs


Jade green pressed discs


Transparent blue rounds with scrolls


Transparent blue rounds with transparent scrolls


Transparent blue discs with green glass powder



This morning I made about 30 beads with baking soda on the surface. They came out so cool looking - very natural/rock like. I'll post tomorrow once they're out of the kiln. The Peterborough Farmer's Market is today from 3-6 at the Depot Square Park, stop by if you're in town!
Andrea

Farmer's Markets

I was reading another bead artists post about how summer sales were going and thought of talking about how the farmer's markets do good for us.

We are currently doing four farmer's markets in closeby towns (same four as last year) and we are a guest in a further town twice for the season. The sign up price was really affordable, between $50-100 for either may-oct or june-oct depending on the market location and they are all weekly rain or shine. The sales were a little slow at the beginning of this year but they have picked up quite a bit. We mostly sell beads and pendants on handdyed silk cords and solid copper chains. We have earrings and rings available but they are slower selling items, we don't have an earring display which would probably help. Soon we will be adding sterling silver chains as an option for necklaces. The sales for each market can range from $0-$275. Somedays it will seem like the sales won't be great because of weather but one or two sales can boost the numbers significantly.

A few people also want beads/pendants that we don't have so sometimes that gives us ideas for new styles or just fun projects. When we sold on eBay there were a lot of requests for different beads but since we no longer sell on eBay we haven't gotten much requests for something different, usually now it's something similar to what we already have which isn't a bad thing but nice to get new ideas :)

There are often owner's of stores that come to a market and invite us to a consignment shop/gallery. Sometimes it isn't what we are making at the time, last year someone wanted ornaments in their shop towards the end of the market season. Often it is a store that we don't know about or been to but many others have heard about it or been there.

This year with us moving the studio we are creating a mailing list that we have at our booth for people interested in classes. There is a lot of interest and this way we are advertising to four local towns for free. Even if they aren't interested in the classes they can be informed when the gallery/retail section is open so when the markets close they can still see our work offline.

Our online sales are still going as well, last year we stopped listing on Etsy while we did the markets.

I think I covered most of the info about the markets :) If you got any questions let us know!

Jason

New Style - "Mini Focals"

Hey everyone!

Jason has started a new style of bead that we're calling "mini focals". They are perfect for those on a budget, or any jewelry designer looking for an eye catching bead that is petite. Here are some photos of what came out of the kiln today. Be sure to let us know what you think!


This bead has a super cool effect with all of the swirls.



This bead has copper mesh underneath the clear surface. I love how it turned red!



Shimmery dichroic in this one!



This one is simple, but has a great southwest feel!


Andrea

Beach-y Stuff!

Jason has been working on some great stuff lately! Tonight I'll be showing an amazing crab (which I have since made into a really cute necklace using hemp twine and an upcycled copper clasp). Also a tiny clear vessel pendant that we filled with seashells we collected from the NH coast. Today, Larry The Lobster went to a new home, always exciting! :)


The bead holes in the crab go right through the claws so he hangs down from the necklace :)


This vessel is so adorable! It looks even better in person.


I couldn't resist adding this cool seashell pendant! Jason starts out making it like a vessel but then blows out one side and sculpts it into a seashell. :)


Andrea

New Pendant Style

I've been working on a new style of pendant yesterday, I like the idea of these pendants but they don't seem to be coming out 100% like I want. I've kept them plain for the most part and maybe that's what I'm not liking about them but I do like this one. This weekend I'll probably work on the design a bit more.



Here's another bracelet from Phyllis Martin (Goldbracelets.etsy.com) using Andrea's flower beads :)



Jason

Goldbracelets

We added a few ways to get a discount on our Etsy shop and one was to post pictures of finished jewelry using our beads. Phyllis Martin from Goldbracelets.etsy.com posted a few gorgeous gold bracelets using some of our beads :) Her descriptions can be read here. I love the look of them all, the second one is my favorite and love how the opal yellow goes nice with the gold.





Jason

Coffee Beans and Some Off Mandrel Work

Here's a cute Mini Dachshund and a Dragonfly. Jason made these yesterday. It was his first time trying some soft glass off mandrel figurines. Aren't they cool!?





Don't these look delicious?! Clayton's Way Farm (they make AMAZING soap) had these on the table as a palette cleanser. :)




Now, time to edit a bazillion photos for the sale going on in our Etsy shop. We're trying to raise some extra funds for the new studio, which by the way is awesome!

Andrea

Farmer's Market Photos

Here are some photos (mostly macro) I took at the Nashua Farmer's Market last Sunday. The produce is from Barrett Hill Farm and Country Dreams Farm. I also threw in a couple of fun photos at the end as well.







Here's some random ones :)


This guy was totally not scared of the "DANGER:DAM AHEAD" sign...


Here's one of Jason's crazy eye pendants


A gorgeous shimmery dichro pendant


And no photo shoot would be complete without Larry the Lobstah ;)



Alright, I'm off to get some torching done with Jason! Wish us luck, it's toasty in the studio!

Andrea

Some Garden Photography

It's such a lovely day today! :) It was nice and cool at the New Boston Farmer's Market this morning and in the afternoon I decided to have some fun taking some photos of the garden. I've always been drawn to macro photography, so that's mostly what I'll be showing. I took these photos using a canon g10 powershot. It's not as bulky as my Nikon D70s and has a ton of manual modes which I love.


























































The last shot is pretty cheesy, but I still love it. I set the self timer on the camera, tossed it in a flower pot and ran across the yard, haha :)











Andrea