shiny_omg

New stuff up on the Stellar Parallax Designs shop on Etsy. I'm still working on listing my back inventory, but new and nerdier things will start going up within a month. My workroom has to be turned back into the guest bedroom for my mom's visit this weekend, so actual beading time has been scarce. But I've got prep work done on some things for the pirate princess, chic gamer, and bad sci-fi movie fan in everyone.


I love Czech glass beads. They're versatile - coming in tons of varieties - and affordable, and are pretty much the main staple of my stash. And lately I've become obsessed with the Picasso finish Czech glass. It's a mottling effect that gives the glass the look of stone, in many cases, with beautiful variation and dept and effect of color.

I recently snagged these from another Etsy seller, destined for a mermaid or another octopus necklace, and spent a ridiculous amount of time drooling over others.

Not much. Lazing about, writing, a bit of vacationing. Buying way too many beads. But I did just recently do this:

Pink Lemonade: Large pink crackle glass rounds, yellow and pink lampwork squares, sterling silver square spacers on heavy jewelry wire. Silver-plate hook and eye clasp.

Pink Lemonade detail view.

I also finished up the bulk of The Dryad is In. Just need to get a big gold heavy gauge jump ring to hang the pendant. It looks pretty different from my original envisioning (I ended up not using the bark-like pearls, and I did end up adding some green shell beads), but I quite like the final version. Pictures to come when I get it completed.

And, I finally got a handle on the stash, which was taking over half the living room floor. After I bought a pink travel case (to the left in the first picture) for storage, and still had crap spread all over the floor, D said, "We should get you a cabinet." An excellent idea.

The shiny stash in its new home. Box and bin on top for miscellaneous/extraneous bits, and everything else tucked neatly inside.

Closeup of the cabinet: Top shelf has bead boards, second shelf has books, box of pendants, box of finished pieces, and stringing supplies. Shelf three has all my beads.

My nicely organized and labeled boxes.

Man, does this set up make a huge difference in working. I'm able to pull out enough that I can work easily, the labeling makes it simple to find what I need, and it takes just a few minutes to pack it all away when I'm done - having the shelf on top for the bead boards makes me feel so much more secure about leaving half-finished projects about. Before the board just sat on top of the rolling file box I was using, covered by a bead cloth, and I just hoped the cat wouldn't decide to investigate too closely.

So I went to an SF con over the weekend. Where I bought... beads. A cice little haul of semi-precious stones from a seller who's getting rid of their bead stock, including some gorgeous black and grey agate rounds (I'll post pictures of the haul later).


( New shiny things here )