Jewelry Making Outside The Box

The Craft and Hobby Association Show

Being in LA this week for the first time has been a great midwinter experience.

Since I'm posting this from my Blackberry I'm not able to share pix just now....but will as soon as possible. Meantime it's so great to enjoy sunshine, clear skies and oranges fresh off the tree. The beaches are beautiful, each with its own distinct personality.

The biggest event has been attending CHA (the Craft and Hobby Association Show). They have it winter and summer and all the major companies in the Trade are represented along with some artisan booths and newcomers. For example i saw Susan Lenhart Kazmer and Jen Cushman in the ICE resin booth. We carry ICE and have, ever since I took a class with Susan.

Big companies like Ranger, Amaco, Plaid, Darice have huge booths. I saw Tim Holtz in the hallway...he's become quite a celebrity at these events. Speaking of Tim, there are some cool new additions to the Ideology line including small dolls that are virtually reproduction Frozen Charlottes.

Hmm...dunno how I feel about the repro's but I DO hate getting outbid at EBay. Will we carry them? Probably!

I'm going back tomorrow to finalize some businessn get more literature and see some demos. A little overwhelming.....we need to bring in just the right new complements to our line, at just the right time.

Decisions, decisions!

Why You Need Social Networking Sites

Why You Need Social Networking Sites.

Why You Need Social Networking Sites.....here's a good introductory read for those who are trying to figure out if they should get involved or not.    Check it out.....and then get busy!

I didn't understand Facebook or Twitter at all, and was afraid of getting involved with YouTube.  Now we have 29 YouTube instructional videos and when I get home from my trip to CHA, we'll have LOTS more.  Believe me....I've got a LIST of ideas that should play out well and be very helpful to those who like to follow and learn.

Since summer my B'sue Boutiques Facebook community has grown nicely.  Come on over to Facebook and check it out!   Friend me at Brenda Sue Lansdowne.  I'm always looking to expand that community.  It works.....and what great ideas we're bouncing off each other.

First to admit, I do Twitter but I don't really get it.  I do it, even though I DON'T get it....because I also see evidence of it helping our enterprise and growing our community.

Yeah....you need to get involved, too!

Five and Dime Style Brooch/Earring Round Two Winners

We even extended the deadline for uploads an extra day!

This time we had fewer participants and I think that was for a number of reasons.  It was on the heels of the holiday, so many were not quite ready or didn't remember.  The invite I send out through Facebook, failed and so many thought the challenge was cancelled!   Also, these days not so many people are making brooches with matching earrings, so it was outside of the way they think artistically....let alone it needed to be in the Five and Dime Style.

But that's okay....because as I peruse the album, I AM seeing Five and Dime Style POP.

Five and Dime Style Round Two Album

Especially if you look across the top row, there, you get a very good sense of where this is going:

Hand-painted brass

Flora and fauna

Vintage components and stones

Charming, novelty, sentimental vintage-style

Our gift certificate winners for each round are chosen by drawing, and here is who got the certificates this time:

LINZI ALFORD   50.00

TERRY MATUSYK   25.00

SHARON HEDGEPETH   25.00

Each is invited to come shopping at B'sue Boutiques and spend their certificate sometime in the next 30 days.

I will open a discussion at my B'sue Boutiques Facebook Fan Page soon so that we can discuss what we might like to do next round, so that the genre can grow.

You're invited, you know....even if you don't want to participate, your opinion is still important.  ;-)

My Cherie Amour

We still have a deep inventory of this wonderful 19mm flatbacked French charm:

Made from fifties tooling, it's nicely weighted, top hanging, and of course....Amour means LOVE in French.  http://www.bsueboutiques.com/item/Funky-Vintage-Design-French-AMOUR-Pendant-Charms-4372

Reg price was 1.25 but we are selling down on them at 85 cents each, since we are not carrying Copper Ox finish regularly.   It goes great with a mixed metals look!  Try them!  You'll like them.

We carry this piece in other finishes, too, along with LOTS of great French and Foreign Language charms at B'sue Boutiques.   Find them here

Want to Learn How to Make a Ring?

Harry Wood generously put this picture page up and gave me permission to share it with you:

Everything Harry has used is available at B'sue Boutiques

We have a large selection of ring bands/shanks in our Bases and Blanks Section

We have an even larger selection of bezels in our Bezels, Mounts and Frames section  and the pronged 25x18mm cup he used (one of my faves!  So easy to work with) is found here

The copper rivet is found right here   more styles also to be found in the Brads and Rivets section

If you like the large Bohemian doublet stone Harry used, we have a wide and expanding selection of them in our Czech and German Glass Focals Section

Have fun!   Let me know if you have any questions!   You can find Harry's rings and other creations at Oscar Crow at Etsy

It Just Makes My Day

 

You know how I feel about what I do.  

Your happiness and success is my happiness and success.

That's why all the Facebook posts, newsletters, YouTubes....and blogging, too.

Sometimes, though, you wonder if anyone is reading or cares beyond your core group.  Then you get an email like this:

just wanted to say a big thanks to brenda and her great staff, i go to your site everyday and you tube, i feel like i know you guys and i am always learning. just feels good to connect with other jewelry folks especially since i live in a very rural area. keep up the good work and again, thanks for being in my life!

This customer happens to live in a remote part of Hawaii.

I am so glad she feels that what we do here is part of her life!   She gets it!  What we do is very personal, and it's that way on purpose.   We WANT to be part of your creative life, and we do want you to feel like you know us.   A cute ad in a magazine is great....but reaching out via video, newsletters, personal emails is the real bottom line.

It's a priviledge to cultivate those relationships and keep those creative fires burning!

Thanks for letting me be part of the process.

Another Great Ring From Harry Wood--You Can Make Rings, Too!

Harry Wood has shared so many great rings with us at the B'sue Boutiques Facebook Fan Page!   I could probably make an album full of JUST Harry's great rings!

But you can find them at his Etsy shop, Oscar Crow.

Here is a gorgeous vintage style ring he shared with us just yesterday, made with our signet ring base, an oval Czech doublet stone (25x18) from our site and a modified cushion octagon mount, again from the B'sue Boutiques website.

Harry says:  I made another of these big stone rings with a B'sue signet ring and the brass ox crown mount but put in an oval 25x18 Czech doublet. It fit just fine with a little hammer work on the corners. I love the way these prong mounts set. I had this done in 10 minutes compared to setting two 3mm diamonds that took an hour this afternoon.

signet ring base:  http://www.bsueboutiques.com/item/Brass-Ox-Signet-Ring-Base-1317

stone: http://www.bsueboutiques.com/item/Simulated-Imitation-Lite-Sapphire-Stone-5987

cushion octagon mount:  http://www.bsueboutiques.com/item/25x18-Brass-ox-Crown-Mount-Pronged-3044

Rings are really hot these days, sell well, and not that expensive to make.   Give ring making a try!  With spring and summer soon to arrive,  be ready and your sales will SOAR!   We carry a great selection of adjustable ring shanks in the vintage style with our quality finishes on them at http://www.bsueboutiques. com in the  Bases and Blanks Section

 

How a Pendant Can Also Become A Brooch

 

Andrea Dalen is a designer who lives in the Netherlands....she really enjoys sharing her work with us at the B'sue Boutiques Facebook Fan Page.

You can find that fan page here:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bsue-Boutiques/123052674404364

Below is a pendant and earrings set she has made.  I hope she will return and show us the chain she is going to use with the pendant, and how long it will hang.  I'm thinking she MIGHT want to glue a small pinback pendant with a bail to the back....this way it could be a brooch OR pendant.  

Speaking of which....I think we just ran out of them!   In the interim, what a person can do is use a BROOCH CONVERTER.     In this case, it would require Andrea to take the bail off, and just glue on a small pinback.  Then, the converter could serve with a chain, if she wanted it to be a pendant---but she or her customer would have more options.

What's a brooch converter?

It's a tube with a bail.  The tube fits over the pinstem, which you then lock into place.   Then you can use the bail to hang the brooch as a pendant, instead of using it as a brooch.  ;-)

Here is a photo:

You can find them on our website under Accessories, Earring Keys

 

I Never Thought Of Using This Pendant As A Brooch

Debbie Beechy sent this pretty brooch and earrings set for our Five and Dime Style Brooch and Earrings Challenge, Round Two.

I truly never thought of using one of our large 50's style pendants in quite this way:

Isn't it just lovely?   She copied an earring design I presented not long ago, which is FINE with me---she wanted to learn the technique.  That's why we're here!    But then she repeated it by attaching it to the large flat 50's style pendant charm, and made that part into a brooch.

We used this charm in most of our print advertising over the last year and a half, you may have seen it.

I like it so much I currently have it listed in my 'Favorite Things' section on the front of the website!

It's SKU brox0632, and you will find it right here:

http://www.bsueboutiques.com/item/I-Lock-My-Heart-To-All-But-You-6863  

You Know What....This Looks Like FUN!

Lori Anderson of Pretty Things is sponsoring a bead soup party.

Evidently it's her third and you can read more about it here: Bead Soup Party

If my trip to CHA and all the stuff that leads up to it wasn't looming, I'd do this in a heartbeat.  I'll be watching for next time, for sure.

Meantime, why don't YOU participate?  Sounds like a boatload of fun.   And at B'sue Boutiques, we carry some of the most BEAUTAMOUS filigree and vintage lucite beads....you might even want to use some.

And.....

Here's her FLICKR group, so you can go and see how it went on the last two parties:

Bead Soup Party Album

BTW....no we don't carry beads like you see in this photo....but if you want to see what we carry, here are links:

Flower, Fruit Beads

US Made Vintage Style Filigree Beads

Vintage Plastic, Mostly Beads

and there are more, too......grab a cuppa joe and come have a look-see at B'sue Boutiques