Melt

Argh!

2011-09-24T01:22:00.000-07:00

I have started listing on eBay again-their recent policy of letting people list up to 50 auctions a month with no insertion fee has made it an essentially risk free proposition.

Unfortunately I was storing the graphics for my auction template on my old website, which I did take down earlier this year, so my auctions are completely sad right now. Not to worry, I have a graphics designer helping but those probably won't be ready until next week at the earliest.

Please bear with me! They will be prettier soon!

Canada Post Strike

2011-06-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Canada Post is currently having rotating strikes, affecting different cities every few days. Unfortunately, if their demands aren't met, they are planning a country-wide strike. I am unwilling to ship at all during the strike, for fear that my packages would be stranded in a warehouse somewhere-that seems like the perfect time for items to get lost.

Unfortunately I am not close enough to the border to cross it and ship from the US, and all of the alternatives I've investigated (UPS, FedEx, etc) are prohibitively expensive. That being said, if you urgently need the beads and are willing to cover the extra costs involved, I could certainly send them via a different method.

My shop will remain open during the strike, and I will continue to list new items. I understand that people would most likely be unwilling to purchase items with no clear idea of when they will receive them, so if you see something you like I can reserve it for you, and you can purchase it when the strike is over.

New Shape!

2011-05-04T17:15:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with the smallest cavity of my crystal press, and realized that the beads would make fantastic spacer beads. I've only made a few colours so far, but expect more in the future-these are really cute, and sparkly!

2011-04-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

I noticed the other day that the pairs section of my Etsy shop was looking a little anemic, so I've been working on taking pictures and listing more pairs and trios. Here are a few from today:

2011-04-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

Wow! I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted to this blog!

The other day I really wanted to make some comfort beads, and I find scrolls incredibly comforting. I made a bunch of simple round beads with white scrolls, and because I've been thinking about spring recently, most of them are in springy colours.

I listed these ones today, and will be posting the rest of them in the days to come.

Treasuries

2010-08-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

I was in a few treasuries recently and wanted to post them for posterity.

Treasuries

2010-08-02T00:04:00.001-07:00

I was featured in a few treasuries recently, so I thought I'd put images of them here for posterity:

Big Mess o' Beads

2010-06-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

I was taking pictures of a big pile of beads and the visual of all these transparent textured beads was so appealing that I took a quick picture. I'll be listing these over the next few days (or weeks, if I get busy) so if one appeals, keep an eye out.

Treasuries

2010-05-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

I was excited to be featured in a few treasuries recently, so thought I'd post some screen caps here for posterity.

2010-05-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to list things on Etsy with more regularity, so I thought I'd put up some pictures of beads I've listed recently.

In a Pink Mood

2010-03-14T19:45:00.001-07:00

I just listed these on Etsy, and with the second set, that's the first time I've ever put the Cherry Blossom frit on transparent glass. It looks so pretty! I will definitely have to make some more.

Etsy beads

2010-02-04T18:54:00.001-08:00

My Etsy store has been sadly neglected recently, and it's not because I haven't been making beads. It's more that I've had little patience for the details of listing beads-cleaning them, taking pictures, and all the other small things. I've found my bead making time has been pretty severely curtailed recently so when I can squeeze it in I am less likely to want to sit there with a Dremel for an hour, cleaning.

That said, over the last few days I managed to put some beads up on Etsy! Yay! (I especially love the first set, Prism-that frit is so beautiful!)

New Years, Resolutions, and Beads

2010-01-07T16:10:00.001-08:00

I think I do this every year, but I resolve to be better at listing beads regularly, and posting on this blog. I have finally recovered from the craziness of the holidays (and our whirlwind trip to BC to visit my family) and am starting to get into some kind of routine with listing beads. To that end, I just put some beads up on Justbeads!

So, what are these resolutions? Well, I'm going to try to put beads on Justbeads every Thursday. (Why Thursday? I don't know! It's just what I arbitrarily picked when I first started listing beads, and it has become Bead Day at Casa de Erica.) And (more problematic) I'll be trying to put beads up at Etsy most days, like four days of the week. I am still pondering a return to eBay, but I'm not there yet. And unfortunately my website lies fallow-must work on that as well.

Breaking Up

2009-08-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

It's official-I'm breaking up with eBay. The fees have become too onerous, the rewards too few. I will be concentrating on Etsy, and will continue to list beads on Justbeads. I am also going to add a made to order segment on my own website, ericabeads.com, so keep an eye out for that.

Incidentally, I changed my username on Justbeads when they reopened a few months ago. If you had been looking for me as ericajpo, it's now just Erica. I had way too many people calling me Erica Jo. No, that is not my name. ericajpo just happens to be a convenient combination of my initials that is almost always available as a username.

New Beads Tonight

2009-07-02T17:59:00.000-07:00

I realized that I hadn't updates my Justbeads link-when they crashed back in December, they apparently lost all their information. When they came back up a few weeks ago, I took my chance and changed my username to Erica, but I forgot to change my link here. So I have beads going up tonight on eBay AND Justbeads tonight. Yay!

New Beads Tonight

2009-06-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

I should have new beads up tonight, around 10pm EST. I've been having some fun with Zooziis texture tools (the spiral is my favourite.)

New Beads Tonight

2009-05-21T15:10:00.001-07:00

I should have some new beads on eBay tonight. I was drawn to pale, transparent colours this week, with, of course, scrolls.

Vacation

2009-04-09T23:54:00.000-07:00

I am taking a vacation! My husband and I are taking a two week trip out west, to Vancouver. I decided to really give myself a break and close up my Etsy and eBay shops for the duration. I'll have things listed again on eBay on Thursday the 23th, and Etsy should be re-activated shortly thereafter, probably the 24th or 25th.

New Beads on eBay tonight.

2009-02-26T13:17:00.001-08:00

These should be up tonight on eBay around 10pm EST. I love these. I'm getting so tired of the snow and cold-I tried to make some fun, summery beads to cheer me up a litte.

A Few New Beads on eBay

2009-01-22T22:38:00.001-08:00

I listed these tonight on eBay, for a week. They'll end next Thursday.

A few pictures I found

2009-01-14T19:19:00.001-08:00

I found these on my computer and thought I'd post them here:

I'll have more beads up on eBay tomorrow, will post some pics then.

New Beads on eBay today

2009-01-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

These should be going up around 10PM EST:

And keep an eye out for a few more 99 cent auctions. These are probably the last for a while, so scoop them up while you can!

More 99 cent listings on eBay

2009-01-01T22:54:00.001-08:00

I'm trying to start fresh this New Year, so today I relisted some older beads sets starting at 99 cents. Keep an eye out for more in the coming weeks too.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Merry Everything!

2008-12-25T14:08:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! And happy holidays to those who don't celebrate Christmas!

I listed some Christmas beads on eBay at $0.99 today, they should be up around 10 PM Eastern time.

And on that note (and apologies for my spotty posting) I bid you adieu. I have to go and eat a lot of turkey and pie.

2008-10-01T09:13:00.001-07:00

Hmmm, I'm already behind on my blog. Not that I've set a schedule for myself or anything, but I had hoped to post these pictures while the beads were still on eBay. That ship has long since sailed!

At any rate, I wanted to talk about coral. Coral coloured glass, though, not the sea creatures. Apparently, every time they make coral glass at the factory in Italy, it turns out a slightly different colour. As you can see from the picture: yes, those are all coral. Thankfully the glass distributors seem to have caught on and have been giving them different names to differentiate. So if you seem someone talking about peach persimmon coral as opposed to sunny mango coral, they're not on drugs. It's all the Italian's fault.

Autumn Colours

2008-09-02T12:18:00.001-07:00

As the weather turns cooler, my thoughts turn more to autumn colours. I tend to make beads in neutral tones, like ivory, greys and browns, and black. I also like to use colours that I think of as "autumn jewels," like apple green, amber, and amethyst purple.

On a clothing front, autumn is time to break out the sweaters and corduroy pants, which inevitably makes me think of textured beads. So I've been making a bunch of those too.

The lozenges above were listed on eBay, ending this Thursday. The textured beads will be slowly added to my Etsy store.

Erica Cane

2008-08-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

What the heck is Erica Cane? Well, it's my attempt to use my (very large) stash of frit to make handmade Gaffer Cane. I don't have a glass furnace, so what I did was melt a gather of glass, dip it in frit, melt it in, and then wind it into a bead. I'd played with this technique before, but I was checking out Val Cox's website. She was doing something similar, but she had the idea of layering transparent frits over opaque ones. The end result is pretty close to Gaffer cane, but with not quite as many layers.

Gaffer Glass

2008-08-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

I've been having a lot of fun the last few days, playing with my small stash of Gaffer cane. My understanding of how this cane is made is that a gather of glass is melted in a furnace, and then rolled in intense colour, and then coated in clear glass. The gather is then pulled into rods that lampworkers can use. (You can also do multiple layers of colours, or have layers of opaque and transparent glass.) When you make these into beads, the result are fabulous: threads and layers of colour combine into a lovely swirly bead that never fails to fascinate my eye.

I will slowly be listing these on Etsy, a few a day as time allows.

First post

2008-07-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

Woo!

This is my first post, but my intention with this blog is to keep track of my bead and jewelry making.

So please check back, I'm sure I'll have lots of bead porn to look at in the coming weeks.