Spoons!

Last Beach Day

First Friday Art Walk Weekend

It's first Friday art walk time again for the BOCPAT members. Come check out our team website to see all of the fabulous bead artists with links to their stores. Beads of Clay Team

Many of us have coupon codes active through the weekend. Mine is BOCPAT for 15% off your order. Come see us!

Changes

Times are tough. What is usually my most busy season has been some what of a disappointment. I know I should not count my chickens before they hatch but I really was counting on my sales to make the holiday spending easier on us.

I was doing great this last spring and summer and It was exciting to see my shop really take off! Then October hit and my sales came to a grinding halt or a trickle.  Etsy made some changes to the categories that I think was a huge loss for us in the ceramic world. Then Google changed stuff and on top of that there was a new surge of ceramic bead artists that have come up.

I love to see new peoples work and our bead group encourages people too with all kinds of helpful info on the blog.  What I don't get is why they have to undercut our prices so drastically. It drives me crazy to see stuff going for practically nothing and it under values the hard work that it takes to do this.

I can not put that many hours into something and then sell it for nothing it is a waste of my time and makes me unhappy. I don't want to try and cut corners either because that is unfair to the customer.  So I have some thinking to do.

I know I am going to spend more time on my miniature sculptures. So I am looking forward to seeing where that takes me.

So keep a look out for new miniatures and hopefully some new designs in the component category.

Black Friday Cyber Monday Destash Event!

I have started my Black Friday/ Cyber Monday event  early by putting a lot of items into my destash/sale section of my shop.

I have also put up a coupon code for %25 off you order. ARTBEADS25

Here is a collage of some of my destash items I put up.

Most of these sets are going for around 10 buck.  Add your coupon and you have a dealio!

I have some new lovely bead and pendant sets that I am putting up.

Polymer Bead Adventures

A few weeks ago my kiln broke down.  While waiting on parts to fix it, I was perusing the isles of Michael s craft store and I saw a colorful set of Sculpty Clay and what do you know I happened to have a %50 coupon on me!

I had played with Fimo clay when it first came out and even took a cane class so I figured I could remember some of the techniques and google what I did not know.

I pulled out my pasta machine and some clay tools and went to work.  My first attempts at marbling were a disaster.  My clay turned a muddy grey color ..I guess I was overzealous with the pasta machine....opps!  I decided to work with it anyway and textured it and I could add paint later if I still didn't like.

I also made a lumpy rainbow cane, a super bright colored flower cane, and some bird and hedgehog beads.

I was delighted that it took such a short time to bake and that I could sand and paint them right away, which totally feeds my instant gratification part of me.

I have to say I love the results and the ugly grey beads are my favorite ones! I even made a new section in my store for them here Polymer Clay.

These are the beads I made with the ugly grey clay disaster. I used Vintaj Patina on them and I love them!

This is what I made from the "Lumpy Rainbow Cane" I love these too.

Some sweet little birds I made and then painted.

 I really like this set too.  I used white clay and cut it into geometric faceted beads.  I then used Vintaj patina on them. I used a low grit sand paper too scuff them up and applied a clear satin finish.

I think I will continue to experiment with this fun medium.  There is so much to learn and try.

New Bead Bundles

I have been using copper wire to string up my bead sets forever, but with the cost of copper wire going up it just seems like a frivolous expense. 

I also have been wanting to change the look of my shop to something maybe a bit warmer and inviting.

  I bought some lovely green hemp cord on etsy and started stringing up my beads into these sweet little bundles and I am very pleased with the outcome.