Oooooh, sparkles.......

I don't know why sparkly things are so attractive to many of us, well, many of us of the female persuasion, but there it is. That little bit of light that catches our eye, and when we spy the object that cast the spark, we pick it up, we smile, and then we say, "Ooooh, sparkles."

I think fellow Texan SparklyStrandz knows exactly what I'm talking about. In fact, here's what she says in her own words:

"I've had a love for crafts, especially crochet for over 25 years ever since my grandmother taught me at age 5. It was probably the best thing she could have done for my parents because it would keep me busy for hours. During college, i developed a love for beads--not just because they're sparkly, but because beads have such a rich history to them from around the world, and can be made from almost anything imaginable. Also, as an occupational therapist, I am able to use a variety of crafts and activities in my therapy to make it more fun!

I combined my love for crochet and beads and began making jewelry, baby onesies, hats, and all sorts of gift items about 10 years ago. "Sparkly Strandz" is an online store that you can visit and create your own jewelry by choosing the right color bead, wire, and length you want for that perfect piece!!"

But not only does she understand sparkly, she definitely has a handle on cute! What Texas baby should not have these? So much the better to start learning the two-step as soon as they're walking, don't you think?









And despite recent performances which will not be mentioned here, nor will comments be allowed that disparage my alma mater in any way.....Hook 'em!

Do check out all the fun and sparkly things at SparklyStrandz and find out about her views on the world at her blog. I know you'll be glad you did.

Relax. Smile. Be.

Simple words of wisdom from Etsy Glass Artist, Ginger Black. Her art definitely inspires that middle concept of joy.

In an e-chat with fellow Etsy Artist Patricia C. Vener, aka Silver Dragon, Ginger had this to say about her work:

"I am in love with colorful, melting, flowing glass. Soft Italian glass called Moretti is what I use to create all my lampwork beads. It’s called soft because it melts at a lower temperature than the hard glass (borosilicate) that Pyrex dishware is made of. My favorite thing about making beads is that there is always something new I can’t wait to try: dot formations, stripes, flowers, fish, adding metals, sculpting - the list is endless! My next adventure in glass is to try fusing where you melt layers of glass together to create an array of items from earrings to dishes."

Her joie de vivre is also apparent in her Bio on Etsy in that she finds "bliss in making glass beads and solace in running, pure yee-ha joy on a snowboard and otherworldliness in a kayak."




I think you can find all that and more in her beads, don't you? To find out more, check out her shop at Ginger Black Glass, and her blog.

Sumptin Special

Whenever I'm searching for favorites from Etsy to feature in the Etsy Treasury (user-chosen collections to share with others on Etsy here), I turn often to one of the most colorful and beautifully photographed jewelry artists on Etsy: ALilSumptinSumptin. Eva has the most fabulous eye for selecting unbelievable lampwork focal beads, and then she pulls them together to create adornments to treasure.

Her inspiration? In her own words: "Whimsy brings me great joy and touches that little girl within me. Most of my creations reflect this aesthetic and frequently incorporate two things I love and enjoy: flower gardens & dogs. All my pieces are one-of-a-kind, oftentimes containing handcrafted Artisan Lampwork glass beads - wonderful little works of Art in themselves."

An artist focused not just on beauty, but integrity as well, she chooses all of the Artisan Lampwork beads in her pieces that have been properly kiln annealed by each respective glass artist to ensure long-lasting durability. She is a member of the SRAJD, so you can be assured that you are dealing directly with the jewelry artist and not a reseller, and she gives back to causes that are important to her through her sales of Paws for a Good Cause items. Guilt-free shopping for bling - who knew?


Do check out her shop and her blog to find that "lilsumptinsumptin" special for yourself or a gift.

Sew much fun for you

Etsy Buy Handmade So and Sew Crafty

A delightful Esty crafter can be found in Karen Copeland who is the artist behind the Etsy shop So and Sew Crafty. Her love of home and family is so evident in the wonderful items available there. She has been sewing for over 30 years, and makes everything from dog costumes to baby quilts.

Talking with Karen, she had the following to say:

How did you get into your craft? My great grandmother taught me to sew when I was about 4 or 5 and I was hooked. My mother and her mother were talented seamstresses, painters....just plain "crafty" people, and I suppose I inherited that from them. And believe me I am thankful to them for that!

What inspires you? Fabric! Sewing is my salvation! When I get in my sewing room I can forget about just about everything else. I love to take a flat piece of cloth and turn it into something great for people to wear or just enjoy looking at.

What challenges you in your art? I love doing custom work, especially work with no set pattern, like designing, sewing, and fitting 11 majorette costumes for the local high school band!

How long have you had your shop? Just over a month.

Do you consider your shop a job or a hobby? Neither! I don't consider sewing a "job" but it takes a great deal more time than a hobby!

Do you have any advice for fellow Etsy shop owners? Don't give up! Just keep promoting both on and off Etsy!


To find out more about this crafty sewer, check out her blog, or MySpace page.

Visions of Paradise

Etsy Buy Handmade KbyKareen

Let me introduce you to Kareen Kjelstrom, an Etsy glass artist who decribes herself as a simple girl with dreams of being a jewelry designer in Paris. She has her life there, now, making jewelry and trying to break into the scene. Inspired by life experiences and daily beauty in Paris, she loves travel and adventure which create for her a wide canvas from which to dream and imagine new designs.

Handcrafted jewelry designs are her specialty. Kareen uses a high temperature propane/oxygen torch and fine Italian (Effetre) glass to make unique beads, then uses those beads in hand created sterling silver pieces. All her beads are made free-hand, without a mold, and all beads are kiln fired for strength and durability. Oh, and all her beads are unbelievable gorgeous!

Previous to Paris, Kareen lived in Santa Monica, and her jewelry and she were featured on HGTV's Crafters Coast to Coast. A TV star!


Her mother is from Tahiti, so you will find that many of her pieces include blues and greens....which she describes as coming nowhere close to the intensity of the colors in paradise. I would disagree, but then I've never been to Tahiti. If her beads are any indication as to its beauty, then it truly must be paradise.

I asked her "What do you love about your creations?"....."I love to wear my jewelry. And, I love that each piece is unique and made by my two hands. I love that it is impossible to duplicate any of my beads, even if I tried."

I'll bet you'll love her creations, too, so check them out at her Etsy shop or website, and take a visit to her blog to learn more about her.

Everything Fabulous to Make Your Eyes Pop

Meet PopKo, one of the most colorful, fun, and successful artists on Etsy. A sculptor by degree, she lately has been playing with glass, and can mosaic anything, paint, cut, grind, weld, stencil, glue, print, stitch, create or assemble anything that she think needs it. And she can tapdance, too! Better yet, she studied with Robin Hood at the University in Nottingham, or so she claims. Maybe she has some pictures to back that up? You'll have to check out her blog to look into that!

I especially love the way she takes her appreciation of the simple beauty of mosaic glass tiles and transforms them into elegant adornments. She has so many beautiful tiles on hand, you can even design your own custom! What could be more fun than that?

She's a member of Etsy Glass Artists (EGA), and you can check out their website to find even more cool glass artists from Etsy.

Smellin' Sweet

Etsy Buy Handmade A Rose by Name

Today I'd like to introduce you to the Etsy shop A Rose by Name. Beautiful, awesome beadwork is the name of the game for this Etsy seller.

She was kind enough to e-chat with me and offered these insights into her art and craft:

How did you get into your craft? I started beading with my daughters well over ten years ago when the bead critters were popular among the elementary kids. I became addicted and the beads just got smaller and the designs and concepts more refined.

What inspires you? Just about everything...patterns, colors, books, music, time periods, anything.

What challenges you in your art? I've had so many ideas running around in my head at one time that I often have trouble getting a single one to form coherently and it can get frustrating.

How long have you had your shop? Since January of 2007.

Do you consider your shop a job or a hobby? Though beading started as a hobby, I would prefer it were my career since it's already my passion!

Do you have any advice for fellow Etsy shop owners? Stick with it and promote whenever and wherever you can. It's still slow for me, but I won't lose hope that it'll pick up!

To find out more about this fabulous artist, check out her blog, too. You'll find some amazing work. Buy Handmade!

Jewelry Artist and Author Linda Chandler

Etsy Buy Handmade Jewelry by Linda

Okay, so I'm in Michael's this afternoon picking up some generic supplies, when perusing the books over in the beads aisle I come across Getting Started Making Wire Jewelry. Now the amazing thing is I intended to feature Linda Chandler this very day for this site as one of the wonderful Etsy artists I've come across. Are Etsy artists cool, or what?!!

Linda began making jewelry even as a child and grew up designing and handcrafting one of a kind pieces. She is inspired from designs of nature to basic functional pieces and combines the two into literal works of art. Linda is a master craftsman in many facets of jewelry making. Whether it be silversmithing intricate filigree designs, weaving wire into almost impossible patterns or stone setting, her foremost enjoyment comes from the design to finish of her amazing pieces.

Linda has been a vendor on Etsy for well over a year and finds it a welcome change from the traditional Art Show scene that she spent many years taking part in. She feels that Etsy is a wonderful and lucrative avenue in which to share your designs, meet fellow artisans, and share tips and techniques. Watch for her latest designs on Etsy as she is continually adding them to share with her following of buyers that enjoy her amazing work. You can visit her on her own website and her Flickr site. And look for her wonderful teaching expertise in a bookstore near you!

Etsy Artist My Fairy Babies

There are so many wonderful things to find on Etsy, with its literally thousands of artists of handmade goods. My Fairy Babies makes so very cute fantasy art items for kids and babies. This is "Lolly". Isn't she adorable? What a fun lovey this would make for a little girl who loves fairies.

The shop is the creation of Hyla Waldron, who also sells at Faewood Creations

I interviewed Hyla, and here's what she had to say about being an Etsy artist:

What inspires you? My children inspire me, artists that can draw fairies inspire me, and nature is a also a huge inspiration!

How long have you had your shop? Since June 2007

Is this a job for you or a hobby? A hobby, it is something that makes me feel like I am my own person outside of being a mom. What I wouldn't give to turn this into a successful business though and be able to have my husband stay home with me and our children.

How did you get into your craft? When I was pregnant with my third child, Guinevere-who is now 9 weeks old, I was looking for fairy items to buy for her and came up empty handed every where I looked. So I decided to make my own fairy items for her.

Do you have any advice for fellow Etsy Shop owners? Don't count on Etsy to make you successful, you really have to market your work everywhere and tell everyone. Make sure you always have business cards on hand.

Anything you would like to add? I will keep making my fantasy items for kids and one day this will be huge!

You can find out more about Hyla by visiting her blog, too.

I participate in a variety of promotional activities with a fabulous group of jewelry artists from Etsy known as the Art Jewelry Collective. Our next big joint venture is a full page ad in Ornament. This wonderful magazine has been around for more than 30 years, and "supports the richness and diversity of the art and craft of wearable art in a stunning visual display of creative work. The only international magazine covering all aspects of personal adornment, Ornament provides a wealth of information on contemporary, ethnographic and ancient jewelry, clothing, beads, and costume.

Each issue features profiles of prominent and emerging artists, reviews of important museum and gallery exhibitions, marketplace venues, and other insightful, multifaceted coverage.

Ornament is read by artists, collectors, craftspeople, designers, gallery owners, retailers, students, teachers, researchers, and museum staff in the United States and more than seventy foreign countries. Ornament is circulated to paid subscribers and distributed in the United States at newsstands and bookstores through CMG Distributors, and through Disticor Direct in Canada." (Ornament Media Kit information).

Here's a sneak preview of the ad:So many pretties from some very talented artists, I can't believe that I'm part of this wonderful group. The ad will be in three issues (October 2007, December 2007, and March 2008), and I could not be more excited about this opportunity for exposure. Let's see where we go from here!

Sorry to be away for so long, but we've been moving from Illinois to Texas.....and we're finally here, with all our boxes, in San Antonio. Yea!!

In the meantime, (cue trumpet fanfare), I am honored to announce that the bracelet I created for the Spring Beads4You Challenge won the Anything Goes Category. This challenge is twice a year on Etsy, and a given set of beads is used by entrants to create whatever, and the resulting creations are judged by an outside judge. For this challenge, the judge was jewelry artist/author Tammy Powley. The Anything Goes Category is for entries that use either items in addition to the bead set supplied, or multiple sets of beads. I used two sets for this bracelet, hence its category. The other category is Only the Beads. Self explanantory, I would say.

Winner for the Only the Beads Category is an especially lovely three-tiered necklace by LavaJewelry

All the entries can be seen on Flickr

I'm very proud of this bracelet as it really stretched my technical and design abilities, and I'm very honored to have it win the competition. You can read more about the bracelet and see more pictures in my Etsy shop

What an amazing day for me on
Etsy! I am in four - count 'em - four Treasuries! For those unfamiliar with the concept, "treasuries" on Etsy are user-selected lists of 12 items they found especially beautiful. Sometimes they follow a theme, or a specific color scheme, and they last for about two days, with only 150-170 lists available to view at any one time. To make it into four at once is just unbelievable. Also, the front page of Etsy shows items for sale, and is most often taken from one of the Treasury lists - it all adds up to a lot of free advertising and exposure. Sweet. We'll see if one of these actually makes it to the front page.

Thanks to PearsonMaron, jenniestephensart, giftbearer, and sakurakittycreatives for liking something of mine enough to take the time to include it in their beautiful lists.

Berrysprite on Etsy

This week's special is all about a wonderful seller on Etsy that my daughter just loves - berrysprite. She makes just about the cutest amigurumi creatures you have ever seen. I think if I were to let her, Mackenzie would buy out the store. Check out some of Mackenzie's favorites in the sidebar. Too cute!

I feel like a real artist - three of my pieces are currently on exhibit at the Springfield Art Association's Emerging Artists show. There is a lot of wonderful art on display there from students who attend their classes (see here for their summer schedule - boo hoo, I'll be moved to Texas by the time these classes start up again.)

Two of the pieces are currently for sale on Etsy (Gaia and Sedona), and one (Shopgirl) I'll list when the show is over June 9.

There are so many fabulous artists on Etsy. Beginning this week, I'd like to introduce you to the ones I call my favorites. I'll post their shops, their blogs, if they've got one, and some of the wonderful creations in the margins as a mini display. Let me know if you like them too. Better yet, give them a visit and your patronage. Buy Handmade!!

My first is Enthral, who makes absolutely fabulous jewelry. She's a kindred spirit with me in her love of vintage buttons and beautiful wire work in her pieces. She's all about eco-considerate art, recycling and re-using materials to make beautiful new creations - how fabulous!

You can see her Etsy shop at Enthral, and her blog at Enthral's blog. Check it out!

Found a fun little sign generator via my Flickr Group - One of a Kind -

check it out:



Isn't it cute? Make your own at www.tankmiche.com

Mother's Day is almost upon us. How about something fresh and a bit unusual? This delicate Mama Peapod should do the trick. The "pod" can have up to six "peas" of any mix of boy/girl - blue/pink in any order. Need more peas? Just add more pods! Happy Mom's Day!

There is something so enduring about the classics....well, duh, that's why they're "classics"!! This time around I'm talking about the combo of turquoise, red coral, and sterling silver - a Southwestern classic for jewelry. I fell in love with these absolutely bold and beautiful "vertebrae" beads of red bamboo coral. Combined with genuine turquoise and sterling silver, they make for a necklace of timeless beauty, but definitely not for the faint of heart. Luscious!

I am so loving this necklace, I had to share. Cherries are so fun and trendy now, but most of what is out there is plastic or base metal. Not my cup-o-tea. So I did some up in quartz and sterling. Now there's a bowl of cherries!

I call this piece my Gaia Necklace, because the ryolite stones are so primordial looking. Wonderful swirls of green and tawny tan. I set the cabochon on a disc of sterling, swirled wire around it to form the bail, and decorated with fun little pops of sterling granules. Rich and earthy, don't you think?