Heart Felt Valentine Showcase

See handmade items from local Kansas City artists at Eclectics Gallery's Heart Felt Valentine Showcase. Friday, January 29, 2010, from 5-8 pm at 7015 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri. (Just off the corner of Oak and Gregory). Check out Eclectics' blog and join the mailing list there.

This gallery features only hand made artisan pieces, mostly from local artists. We have 12 members and a large bunch of consignors and you are sure to find something for your special someone here.

My display includes my signature peyote scalloped bead bracelet, including this triple-wide amber and teal lovely.

Also have a double hand-ful of peyote rings in various sizes. These mostly larger sizes, designed to be worn on your thumb or first finger. They are very sturdy - I have been wearing on on each hand continuously for weeks and they survive showers, washing dishes and much more.

Also for sale at Eclectics is an elaborate necklace of hammered steel wire, filled with jasper, crystals and pearls on a long mutli-strand seed bead necklace.

Soon to come - faerie doors, faerie garden gates and who know what else!

Eclectics Gallery in Kansas City

I've just joined a new gallery in Kansas City called Eclectics, which is so exciting. Eclectics is NOT a new gallery, but has been around for 19 years. But they graciously accepted me in via their jury process and we're getting ready for the new year re-opening on Monday, January 18 -- a great fresh new start for the new decade.

In 2009 I became a member of another KC gallery - Images Art Gallery - where I learned about the local art scene, met loads of talented people and made a bunch of friends. Painters are a breed apart ! They need vans just to carry their art around, while I can put my complete gallery jewelry display into a couple large shopping bags. Somehow I'm not at all drawn to painting myself for some reason - perhaps because my muse needs a more tactile medium....topic for another post sometime.

Anyway, I am very grateful to Images Gallery for accepting me into their midst and also for graciously saying goodbye.

More about Eclectics soon - I don't know much yet and am still retagging my stuff for Monday's opening.

My Copper Charm Necklace

Earlier, I posted a pic of all the great copper charms I received from our Kansas City PMC Guild copper charm exchange. When I went to put my charms onto a chain, my inner chaos broke out, and I just felt that a basic "charms on a chain" bracelet or necklace wasn't right for me. Here's what I did instead....

Read more about it on the KCPMC Guild blog here.

Customer Satisfaction

A customer called me this week - she had purchased one of my beaded bracelets from Arts on Grand gallery in Spencer, Iowa, as a gift for her mother. The bracelet broke. This is a disaster! But it is fixable.

One of my favorite bracelet color combination is Desert Sky. This one is in my Etsy shop.

Unfortunately, those shiny little aqua size 15/0 hex beads are brittle. They don't break the beadweaving thread (I like Fireline Extra Fine) but the beads themselves break with too much stress, causing the weaving to pull apart. The good news is I have another bead of the same size and color that I am substituting and I can replace her bracelet. This is the only bead I've used that seems flawed in this way.

SO, if you have purchased this combination and the beads break just by wearing, please contact me. This doesn't mean I can guarantee all other of my bracelets from ever breaking or from accidents caused by abusive wear, but they should not just fall apart. That would be bad business indeed.

Holiday Rushes

My big rush is over - getting those granddaughter gifts wrapped and mailed was a project that had to meet the shipping deadline. But wrapping packages is one of my very favorite Christmas activities. Set the iPod to my Christmas playlist, put on my warm boots (the basement floor is cold!) and spend a few hours in solitude, creating mini-works-of-art with paper, ribbons, tags and tape. Bliss.

I also had a flurry of Etsy Christmas shoppers - Hurrah! So I recently shipped off some bracelets and some bracelet kits.

I'm working to restock my faerie gate supply, so have made a couple new wire gates.One whimsical, (4.5" x 6")

And one traditional (4" x 5")

 

Find them in my Etsy shop