But it will also let you search for a specific color — I use the sliders to match up with beads:

And it’ll offer up a palette that matches your chosen color!

Your palette also has a Pin It button that’ll let you pin some pretty color in the hopes that we can drive out the usual denizens of Pinterest…pictures of impossibly fit/skinny people tagged “inspiration” and pictures of poor newborns smushed into unnatural positions or shoved into cowboy boots.

For these, I felt like experimenting with hoops and drops instead of the usual “tight” earrings I come up with.

These earrings have a 70′s color vibe to them.

So what I’ve been doing is saving Tazo tea tins and using them to hold all of the beads, wire, and findings I need for each project.

The tins are even big enough to hold my wire cutters and pliers if I decide to take my projects with me. To keep them organized as I collect more tins, I just tape the name of the project on the outside.

Here is a sampling of my craftiness. It’s neat to see the evolution through the years. Now all I need to do is bring some to work with me and open the darn Etsy shop already!!!

Blah. Enough about that.

I don’t make enough money to pay for hosting the blog. I’m not in it for the money else I’d have quit this years ago. But the checks are a nice little gift, and I use them to buy beads.

Behold!

Christmas vomited on my desk.

I ordered a bunch of Swarovski crystals — it’s much cheaper to do this online than in person at Michael’s — and some sterling silver snowflake charms and oval jump rings. The wire swirls were created by me using some Parawire and some red, green and gold colored seed beads. My plan is to combine all of this sparkle into some holiday earrings.

Anyway, back to jewelry….

Spirals and loops!

What prompted this two-day jewelry-making binge was a spin through YouTube. I came across a video that explained how to use a wire jig that I never managed to be able to deal with properly. Summary: Hold the wire steady and move the jig!! I was trying to hold the jig down and twist the wire.

Oho!

So I created a bunch of four-leaf “clover” connectors. The wire that I trimmed off became spiral charms for future use.

I couldn’t dare pawn off my sub-optimal connectors on someone else, so I *had* to make something for myself. I grabbed these beads from my stash and created a bracelet I lovingly named “Mountain Dew.”

All the green, none of the toxicity.

I also created some copper findings that will eventually be part of some beaded ID lanyards. And more spirals.

Wirework is hard.

Then I was hit by a surge of bona fide creativity and made some cherry earrings:

Two pair in copper, two in sterling silver.

I was so stinking proud, I actually wrote the specs down so I could recreate them once I come across more red beads.

She got the way to move me earrings

And I’ve been singing this since last night so you should too:

Although I made these earrings a few weeks ago, they were cool enough to photograph. I created them in honor of the lovely Atlantic City Gaming site I launched and currently oversee for the C-P.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

So what’s next? The coworkers have been pestering me to sell my wares, so I may test the entrepreneurial waters with cherry earrings, autumn lanyards, and some holiday items I haven’t thought of yet. I can’t live off of my $25/year BlogHer ads forever, after all. I have ideas for creating stamped jewelry but those supplies cost money and I am cheap.

I haven’t stuck with a hobby this long since I bowled in school.

So what about earrings?

I made ‘em! I wanted to have green earrings to match the shoes and the hair clip. Each earring uses 8 4mm Swarovski bicones (I used the Green Mix), one 6mm black Swarovski bicone, 4 jump rings and 9 head pins – one for each bead. I did a bunch of wrapped loops, put the bead on the rings, linked the rings together and here we go!

If my bamboo plant ever dies, my jewelry photography is up the creek without a paddle.

Because they’re for me, I cheaped out on the metal findings.

So here’s what’s left for me to do: Brow wax, glue on the fake nails, buy a shaper to get me into the dress (I should have ordered a 12 and had it taken in), get the gift and I think that’s it. Oh, and sell some plasma to pay for it.

***
Work. Stress. Nonbloggable. Happy? Monday.

The LinkWithin widget has Misty’s picture when I preview this post. I miss my little black raincloud.

Those drastic measures included buying a lime green binder and a bunch of plastic page protectors.

Now after I’ve read the magazines cover to cover and back again, I tear out the projects that I like the best and put them into my binder!

I also keep a notebook for the inspirations I get from everywhere else. If I see a pretty necklace or bracelet in a magazine, I cut it out and paste it into my notebook. I also sketch ideas in there. Some of my best (and worst) ideas come from my own doodling.

So now when I sit in front of my beads on Friday nights (a time I set aside for my crafty endeavors) and I’m drawing a blank, I have some pretty pictures to jump-start my brain!

So I pulled out a beading magazine and my stash’o'beads. I altered a pair of earrings for a friend and, inspired by a coil of copper wire and a ceramic focal bead (bought from Michael’s clearance rack), got to work.

Unfortunately the green pearls' holes were too small for my wire to fit through.

And here’s what I ended up with. It matches Ollie, so we’ll call it the Spaniel.

Ceramic focal bead, Swarovski crystals, brown shell beads and cream colored beads salvaged from an old garage sale necklace. With copper wire.

Dig the thoroughly unimpressed canine model.

Bag, dumped out

I mean, isn’t that glorious? (shudder)

I spent a good hour separating out beads that were similar, and I pulled out a bunch of orange beads.

And thus, the Orange Creamsicle necklace was born. It’s made with silver-plated wire and all of those delicious orange beads. I made the clasp, too.

Orange Creamsicle!

This’ll go to Mom, who was kind enough to remind me that she didn’t have an orange necklace yet.

(Any tips on photographing jewelry? This is my worst yet. The towel is in great focus. The beads are not. Even if I manually focused the camera, the front bead would be in focus but the back beads are blurry. Photography isn’t my strong suit. )

In order to not have the beads overwhelm, I made the necklace longer than usual — 25″ — to hang lower on the chest.

I had enough left for a pair of matching earrings. Because I’m tired and couldn’t find something nice to put them on to show you, I found a coffee cup that Vampire Bill left behind on one of his visits.

These earrings are not affiliated with Starbucks coffee.

The brown wire is from Parawire, the wee brown beads were left over from my Smiley Virus necklace two years ago, the green round beads, green oval beads, jade rectangular bead, and copper findings are all from Michael’s. The tiny diamond shape beads came from a necklace I bought at a yard sale and chopped up.

More and more people are telling me I should start selling my stuff. I’m worried that:

1) My stuff isn’t the best quality. I use craft store supplies instead of real silver and real gold.

2) If I start selling, I’ll lose my passion for making the jewelry in the first place.

3) I have no idea how to price things because I never kept track of how much I spent in the first place on my materials

4) I’ll start taking myself WAY too seriously and end up on Regretsy.

Upcoming beading projects include summery lanyards for my work ID tag and a necklace/earring set to wear to John & Kristen’s wedding. I already bought Swarovski crystals in the wedding colors. I even have a rudimentary sketch! Now I need the technique!

How was your weekend?