Market this weekend

Just a quick post to say I’ll be at Bend and Snap Market in the Melbourne CBD this Sunday from 11am-4pm. It’s a quirky little market in a big gallery space behind the 1000£ Bend Café on Little Lonsdale St. If you’re a Melbourne local, I hope you can come along to see me, and get a bit of Christmas shopping done too.

I’ve only got two more markets left this year after Sunday. I’ll be at the Carnegie Primary School Xmas Craft Market on Friday 6 Dec from 3:30-6:30 and at the last date for The Handmade Show on Saturday 14 December from 10:30-3:30.

Here’s a new necklace and earrings I’ll be selling on Sunday. The pendant is from one of my favourite bead makers:  Natalie Fletcher-Jones of Peruzi, combined with lovely aqua-blue Czech glass and antique silver-plated chain.

The Red and the Blue—the Lampwork and Clay Blog Hop

Today is the reveal date for Lisa Lodge ‘s Lampwork and Clay Blog Hop. Lisa’s challenges always start with a kit, carefully put together by her to reflect the theme of the hop. And for this one, Lisa sent me some beautiful lampwork beads made by Marcia Seever of ShaZazz Creations of Glass, in shades of red and orange with a subtle swirl of dark teal through the largest bead. A challenge indeed—I rarely work with these colours, perhaps because I rarely wear them myself! I have to admit that I did need to purchase a few glass beads in coordinating shades of red, to augment my stash for this challenge.

The second challenging part of this hop lay in the shape of the beads—one of Marcia’s beautiful focal beads is an unusual “vase” shape. The obvious thing would be to use it as a dangling pendant, stacked with the other beads, but I didn’t necessarily want to do the obvious thing. I played around with various layouts until I came up with one I thought would work, using some translucent teal Czech glass beads to pull out the teal in the focal, as well as Czech beads in various shades of red and orange with a golden lustre and brass beads and findings. The only bead from the set that I couldn’t work into the design was the spiky one, but I’m sure it will be used in another design down the road.

Thank you for setting up such a fun challenge Lisa! I enjoyed working with Marcia’s beads immensely.

Please take some time to visit the other participants in this blog hop:

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes <– YOU ARE HERE!!

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Laurie Vyselaar, Lefthand Jewelry

Annette Rivers, MamaOwl’s Mess

Karin King, The Sparkle Things Blog

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha’s Ramblings

Mimi Gardner, Baubles, Beads and Other Curiosities

Dee Alcalde, Agape Creations Jewelry

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Lori Jean Poppe, Lorillijean Creative Corner

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Leah Mifflin Tees, My Beady Little Eyes

Terri Wlaschin, Dances in Fog

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson, Sharyl’s Jewelry

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It’s a Beadiful Creation

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Linda Aspenson Bergstrom, TBD

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Judy Turner, Silver Rains

Gloria Allen, Gloria Allen Designs

Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat’s

Connie Tipton, TBD

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Andrea Glick-Zenith, ZenithJade Creations

Michele Dotson, Star Jewels

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Jennifer Clifford, TBD

Kathleen Breeding, 99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Loretta, Loretta’s Boutique

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyns Creations

Shirley Moore, Beads and Bread

Bonnie Coursolle, Jasper’s Gems

Alice Craddick, Alice’s Beads and Baubles

Open for Business!

Last night I took a big step into the unknown and pressed Publish on my Etsy shop, Boho Bird Jewellery. It’s something that, to be honest, I have been procrastinating about for months. So it was kind of a relief to put it all out there! At the same time, I am really really nervous—will people like my creations enough to actually buy them?

Currently I only have 12 items listed, I’ll be adding to that over the next couple of weeks—I just need to take some more photos. I’ll try to upload new items every week, Please come and visit—after all, there are only 7 weeks left until Christmas!

If you would like to see my work in person, and you live in or around Melbourne, I will be doing several more craft markets between now and mid-December. You can see the list here.