How I shop for supplies for the best results.

Oh, you know what I mean.??? How many times do we love and buy supplies that we find and then we have them stuck in our storage boxes for months and even for years? So finally I have developed kind of technique with my supplies' shopping. Being an impulsive buyer in general I trained myself to buy beads and stone only if I definitely imagine where and how I am going to use it. Also reading description and check sizing help a lot too.
So last time when I shopped for lampwork glass beads which I love the most, I saw a set of lampwork glass on ArtBeads website which surprisingly works so good for both copper and silver. Black metallic side of these beads complement my sterling silver pieces while yellow amber works so perfect in my oxidized copper jewelry. That was a good buy and had my new jewelry pieces finished on the next day.


Disclosure: I received the products from http://artbeads.com/ free of charge and I have not been paid for my endorsement of the products and I have honestly reviewed their products .

Another brilliant design idea

I was in the middle of new necklace design when I found out that one of link of my new chunky chain was totally defective and I had to cut that off which left me with one useless piece of chain.
I hate it when I need to waste my materials and I was looking for how to make something interesting our of this short piece of chain.
Likely, I had my new Charms I got from ArtBeads and other nice mini lampwork beads. By adding wrapped lampwork beads and chain extender I made it for the average size bracelet with adjustable length. The rest was done by adding gorgeous sterling silver charms from Artbeads.
What a surprise? I fell in love with this bracelet and next day it was listed in my Etsy shop. Now it is looking for a new owner.
Disclosure: I received the products from http://artbeads.com/ free of charge and I have not been paid for my endorsement of the products and I have honestly reviewed their products .

What's in your scrap?

With current prices on sterling silver I decided finally to send my scrap for credit and buy sterling silver wire instead. But before that I had once again to go through and evaluate my scrap pieces again. I found a lot of pieces of wire that I can re-use again.

I have collected 87 gr of sterling silver scrap and I think that being a self taught artist for 2.5 years this is not that bad.

By nature I am a person who likes to make something out of nothing. So, once in awhile I grab all my leftovers and make it into a new piece of jewelry. For that all you need is

1. Nylon jaw pliers for fine gauges.

2. Rawhide mallet for heavier gauges.

3. To be in creative mood.

With 20 gauge leftovers I made once those earrings and will all 22, 24 and even 26 gauges I made this beautiful necklaces. Even length of 12-13mm in length might work in design like that.

What your scrap looks like? Can you re work your wires? Try once it's a lot of fun too.

Creative packaging for Canadian Shop

This easy to make packaging looks neat and well presented and the most important fits 2cm rule of doom of Canada Post. Use this package for jewelry or any other small accessories.

You will need the following tools and materials:

1. Regular succors

2. Ruler

3. Pencil

4. Knitting needle or anything else that you can mark for a folding line

5. Figure scissors - optional

6. Hole puncher

7. Designed patterned paper

8. Ribbon

10. Plastic bag preferably with hole.

11. One of you gorgeous product
12. One of your valuable customers

How to make it.

1. Cut a rectangular shape strip of paper accordingly to your plastic bag size.

2. Mark with the knitting needle your folding lines.

3. Using the figure succors cut off excess outer end.

4. Place your plastic bag on the top of the folded envelope and mark the hole position with pencil.

5. Using a whole puncher make a hole in all three layers of folded paper envelope at once.

6. Insert your plastic bag with your product in it and tie the envelope with a decorated ribbon.

7. Be creative and think about other shapes of the envelope. Like shown on below images.

When you have good supplies....

Well, no surprise I like beads and I think everyone agree there is no such a thing too much supplies and too many beads.
When I browse for new supplies I evaluate each strand and think what I can do with it.
When I ordered my new Baroque Swarovski pendants from ArtBeads I was thinking about wrapping them inside oval or round shape.
However, I changed my mind right after I received them. They were so beautiful and crystal shiny with tons of sparkles that I decided not to overwhelm them with my old idea. All I did was adding a few dangles to complement it and that was it.
I am pretty sure that necklace like that will be a nice addition to any taste and occasion.


Besides that I received amazing Swarovski Pendants beads from ArtBeads, I have also enjoyed their customer service and really responsive replies to all my questions. Special thanks to Duchess Erickson.
Disclosure: I received the products from http://artbeads.com/ free of charge and I have not been paid for my endorsement of the products and I have honestly reviewed their products .