My CrAzY earring creating binge today

Today was TJ's last day of school before summer vacation.  After dropping him off for a half day, I managed to create 25 pair of earrings.

 I was into trade beads and crosses today.  I will need to be placing another Fire Mountain Gems order soon!

Hopefully I will get these listed in my shop by the end of the week.
Check out earrings in my shop here.

My designs vary depending on the day's mood.
Sometimes I go with kitschy vintage plastic gumball charms and other times it Swarvoski crystal or genuine gemstones. Here are a few of my recent color mixes.
Check out my etsy shop to see what I created with these beads!

Making mosaic stepping stones for the garden with kids

My grand plan is to make an entire pathway on the side of our house to meander through a yet to be created flower garden on the side of our house.  I will post before and progress pictures soon.
I love this Flip flop shaped stepping stone kit.  I just ordered one of these for my 6 year old, T.J. and myself to use as soon as we have created our square ones (previous post).  We opened out first kit tonight to get ready for casting tomorrow. You will need a small bucket or large plastic bowl from the dollar store to mix the cement in.
While you are at the dollar store, pick up some extra glass gems for making more stones with the re-usable mold in the kit.  When you have used the cement that comes in the kit, you can purchase a bag of regular old cement (not concrete) to use the mold again and again.
When I taught fourth grade, I made stepping stones with my entire class using donated un-used pizza boxes lined with clear Contact paper.
We used it sticky side up, placing our decorations on the Contact paper and then pouring the cement it over the glass gems.  The kit has you decorate the top of the stepping stone.  I think this will work better than pouring the cement over the top; the cement ended up oozing around the gems and covering them up a little.
Check back tomorrow for pictures of our stepping stone project.

Non-stop creating...

Ahhhh, summer is finally here. The garden is in and school is out; it is time for some creating. I recently went on a creating binge that resulted in an eclectic mix of new necklaces foe my etsy shop.

I finally got around to breaking out my huge stash of vintage celluloid bubblegum charms from the 1940's. It is hard parting with them, as I know that they are hard to find, but I am thrilled with the resulting necklaces on antiqued brass chain.

I creating a few more chunky turquoise creations and started to experiment with some vintaj brass. I am really happy with the results.

Now, I will have to sit back and wait to see how sales will be. I recently looked at some Paypal statements and realized that my etsy sales for the year were about one sixth of my sales for the previous summer on ebay. I am still happy to trade the sales in for the relaxed pace and friendly atmosphere of etsy! Money isn't everything.

JunQue Jules ended up being featured in three etsy treasuries last week! What a great way to kick off the beading season!

Ocean Potion Treasury with mermaid treasure bracelet

Celebration Treasury with sparkling Pink and Purple Necklace

Fun Red, White, and Blue Cowgirl Treasury with my Vintage Gumball Charm Cowgirl Bracelet

Beading Contests

With all of my excitement last month you would think that I would have gotten my various submissions for upcoming deadlines together, but I haven't. Beyond my original couple of days of planning and creating a few things, I haven't given my Bead Star submissions much thought. I sent an email to Bead Trends with a few submissions for the August 2010 issue only to find that their in-box was full! I guess that is what I get for waiting until the last minute. I am still not sure if they received my submissions, but I would have heard something by now. I managed to sell one of those bracelets on etsy already anyhow.
I have had a very productive month both creation and sales wise. My etsy sales seem to be growing exponentially and I have continued to find more time to create. I have been making more strung and memory wire creations as opposed to my usual charm bracelets. The charm bracelets take much more time, so obviously I am able to produce more product than if I was doing all charm bracelets. A typical JunQue Jules charm bracelet takes at least three hours from starting to select the beads to creating and placing the charms.
I am happy about my recent etsy success because it is sometimes too easy to yearn for my former eBay days when I could easily sell 25 bracelets in one weekend; some going for close to $200, if bidding got intense. I also miss the excitement of watching the bids climb from minute to minute. I am still happier with the pace and community I find at etsy.
Another positive this month has been the creations done by my (almost) three year old son. He has gotten really good at stringing plastic pony beads on leather cord. I am wearing one of his necklaces today. He sits on my lap and beads while I bead. I am loving this, but I am forgetting the beads awaiting me to pick up under my design table right now.

To do list

I have a running list floating in my head of projects I would like to pursue. I have the ideas, inspiration, and many of the materials, but lack the time to actually follow through. It seems that even when I do have a block of time to pursue one of my new project ideas I don't. I think it is somehow safer to stick to the charm bracelet work I am most known for and that I know will sell. I have recently moved a little further outside of my comfort zone and done more stringing projects, earrings, and even some kilt pins.
I decided today that maybe I will be more apt to get out of my comfort zone if I post my intended "to do" list here.
Here it is:
stained glass sandwich pendants (Nautical Charts, Antique Photos)
Scrabble tile pendants
tumble antique blue and green glass in my rock tumbler (experiment)
get back into tile and found object mosaic furniture
paint antique chairs in funky colors for my new dining room
create a found object collage/mosaic for my bulletin board frame
pewter frame altered art pendants with printed clip art (Frida Kahlo)
finish Fimo skull beads I started 2 years ago
get back into wire wrapping with copper wire
create more chunky necklaces with vintage Lucite or turquoise
create more floating necklaces
create more memory wire bracelets and necklaces
work with antiqued brass chain and findings

Wow, I guess the list isn't quite as long as I thought it would be. I will be reporting back here as I make progress. I must remind myself that we will be moving, if all goes well, in a few months. Maybe organizing my new studio will inspire me to add to the list.