Flashback Friday-Bag Charm

Bag Charm

Supplies Needed:

• 1 Ceramic Pendant with Three Bottom Loops
• 3 Coordinating Glass Beads
• 5 Black 6mm Faceted Round Czech Beads
• 3 silver 2 inch headpins
• 2 inches 20 gauge sterling silver wire
• 1 Key chain finding

Instructions:

1. Begin by stringing one of the headpins with a Czech bead and a glass bead. Make a simple wire loop and attach to the first wire loop at the bottom of the pendant.
2. Repeat step one and attach it to the last wire loop.
3. The second wire loop has a Czech bead, a glass bead, and another Czech bead. After stringing, attach it to the wire loop.
4. With your silver wire, make a wire loop and string through the pendant hole before closing.
5. String the last Czech bead in the wire and just above it make a wire loop again. This time attach the key chain finding on the loop before closing.
6. Trim any excess wire.

Pendants at the Emporium

Just added to the Jangles Emporium! I am slowly but surely adding new work to the Emporium. Today it is pendants, who knows what tomorrow will bring....

Cleaning

Morning...

I didn't blog yesterday because I was cleaning. Over the past month my studio has become a bit of a disaster. I was having to step over things to get around. I couldn't take it any more. This clean spurt I am going through also coincides with Halloween being over. I am not a huge fan of the holiday, if I had my way we would skip right over it and move to Christmas, but I realize I have to deal with it. I think yesterday was kind of the kick off to the holidays. Can't really say it was a kick off, it was more of a oh @%* in four weeks my tree will be up and I should be shopping, and making, and planning. With any of those moments, I usually have to have a good cleaning and list making session to prevent me from going crazy. That's what I did yesterday and will most likely be doing today, and maybe even tomorrow.

Anybody else out there coming to the realization that the holidays are coming?

Have a good day,

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Etsy Buy Handmade janglesemporium

Free Shipping! Free shipping at the Jangles website and the Jangles Etsy Shops until Sunday. If you place your order at one of the Etsy shops, I will credit your Paypal account and if you place it at the website. I will take the shipping charges off before I ship.
Happy Shopping!
Jennifer

Mad Color

Kaffe Fassett told me I had mad color skills, ah, I am still smiling today about that. I took a color/quilt workshop from the world famous Kaffe Fasset and Brandon Mably on Thursday. It was a ton of fun. The first quilt book I ever bought was Glorious Patchwork by Kaffe Fassett and it was when I was in college. When I heard that my local quilt shop, Dragonfly Quilts was hosting a workshop, I jumped at the chance to join the fun.

We were working on a quilt layout from his book called "Diagonal Madness" It's a bunch of 4 inch and two inch squares that are laid out in diagonals to create fun patchworky color. It's harder than it looks to get all those fabrics to work together.

So if you're thinking by now, "Jennifer this blog is supposed to be about beads..." well here you go. The first thing out of Kaffe's mouth at the workshop was this. He is a painter, a needle worker, a knitter, a designer, and a quilter. They are all ways of getting his passion out. It's color. That's what most artists are about is the color. We all choose one or two or more mediums to convey those colors we have in our head. That hit home for me, because that's exactly how I feel too. So even though I was laying out quilt blocks on Thursday, it could have just as easily been a piece of jewelry or a painting.


Here's Kaffe talking about some of the other layout's in class.

Here's is Brandon talking about the class too. Look there's my quilt layout behind them.

I love this quilt with all the pinks, blues, and greens.

I think this was my favorite layout in the class. I am in love with her colors.

Check out the cookies! Jessica Brynn Howard at Numero Uno made these. Don't they look just like Brandon's shirt? They were really yummy too.

Now comes the not as much fun part of the process, I have to sew all of those squares together. I will show you when I have some of it assembled.

Have a great weekend,

Flashback Friday-Holly Earrings

Holly Earrings

What you'll need:

• 1 Pair Red Dot Balls
• 2 Holly Leaf Charms
• 6 inches of 20 gauge sterling silver wire
• 2 Ear Hooks

Instructions:

1. Begin by making a simple wire loop on one end of the sterling silver wire. Before closing it, slide on one of the holly leaf charms, then close the loop.
2. String a red ball onto the wire.
3. Make a simple wire loop just above the ball. Trim the excess wire.
4. Add the ear hook to the top loop.
5. Repeat steps one through four to make the matching earring.

Free Shipping!

Etsy Buy Handmade Jangles

Etsy Buy Handmade janglesemporium

Free Shipping! Free shipping at the Jangles website and the Jangles Etsy Shops until Sunday. If you place your order at one of the Etsy shops, I will credit your Paypal account and if you place it at the website. I will take the shipping charges off before I ship.
Happy Shopping!
Jennifer

Wednesday?

How did it get to be Wednesday? This week is flying by for me. My newsletter is just about to go out and I feel like I was just sending one out a few days ago.

Speaking of newsletters. I just found 50 newsletter submission requests in my spam file! I want to apologize to those people for not getting all of the newsletters. I added you to my list today and you will get a letter today. It's funny because I get the requests in my inbox also, so I guess my computer was messing with me. Now I know to check my spam for them so it shouldn't happen again.
Isn't my fabric pretty? I am super excited to be taking a Kaffe Fassett workshop tomorrow. He's a well know knitter/quilter that lives in London. He's in the states for a few weeks doing workshops and he just happened to be coming to my town. I had to sign up. I have made several Kaffe Fassett quilts over the years so I am super excited to meet him. He loves color and that is mostly what he will be talking about. Yippee, just like me. We are making a quilt and we had to choose three different color ways for it. Of course, I chose red, lime green, and turquoise. I will show you when it's finished.
Happy Birthday Otis! He's two years old...wow time flies. I got him a tube of tennis balls for his birthday. That's his favorite toy.

Alrighty, I am out to the studio to make some beads. Everyone have a great day!

Ready For Halloween

Morning...y'all

We've got our Halloween costumes assembled and parts made. This year I will have a vampire and a Team Galactic guy. It's an evil Pokemon team leader for those of you who are wondering.

My mom was here and she decorated the porch. I am not a huge fan of Halloween, you should know that by now. I would rather jump straight to Christmas. But the other houses in the neighborhood were not going to be better than her grankids house. You know how that goes....so now our porch is all decked out and ready for next weekend. Thanks Grandma.

Happy Monday,

Etsy Buy Handmade Jangles

Flashback Friday-House Key Necklace

Supplies:

• 1 set of Home Sweet Home Beads
• 1 small purple ceramic flower
• 1 small ceramic sun
• 1 small ceramic house
• 1 Tropical bead mix
• 12 4mm silver balls
• 1 key ring approx. 3/4 inch
• 1 silver clasp
• 3 silver 1mm crimps
• 30 inches beading wire

Instructions:

1. String the key ring onto the beading wire. Slide one of the crimps over both strands of the beading wire. Crimp the key ring to the center of the beading wire, with the crimp you just strung on.
2. On one side of the beading wire string a glass bead and follow it by a silver bead, a "home" bead, another silver ball, and a glass bead. Continue stringing another silver ball, the "sweet" bead, a silver ball, a glass, a silver ball, the last "home" bead and a silver ball.
3. Before stringing any more beads on make sure you have the "Home Sweet Home going the correct direction to be read. Next string approximately 11 inches of the glass bead mix.
4. Crimp one end of the silver clasp to the beading wire.
5. Now begin stringing the second side of the necklace with a glass bead, a silver ball, the flower bead, a silver bead, and another glass bead.
6. String a silver ball, the house bead, a silver ball, a glass bead, a silver bead, the sun, and another silver ball.
7. Start stringing beads until you have the same length of beads as you did on the first half of the necklace. This should be approximately 11 inches.
8. Add the second half of the clasp to the necklace and crimp.
9. You are now ready to add you keys and get walking!

Holiday Beads

Good morning...
I woke up in a really Christmas-sy mood this morning. I am not sure what did this to me, but maybe it was all the photographing of Holiday beads that I did yesterday. Anyway, I am feeling the Holiday's now. I even put peppermint in my mocha this morning. I am ready to decorate and play the music, but I have to dig it all out and so that will have to wait until Halloween is over. But I am excited it's coming soon.

I added a whole bunch of new beads to the Etsy shop last night and this morning. I still need to take more photographs today and then I will be adding more listings, probably tonight. It's not just Christmas beads, there's found object mixes, pendants, etc. I know the holiday mood might not have hit you yet..... but hang around this blog and it will sooner or later, I promise.

Have a great day,

My Weekend

Happy Monday...right? Believe it or not, it's my husbands favorite day of the week. We like to give him a hard time for that, because who else likes Monday's the best?

Now that I have a phone with a camera, yes, it took me awhile...I snapped some pictures of my weekend and I thought I would share them with you. We had a really fun day of fall activities planned on Saturday and then they all got washed away by the rain. It pretty much rains all of the time in Georgia these days. We went to the pumpkin patch and picked our pumpkins in the rain, but then we had to skip the corn maze, hay rides, and fall festival that was going on. We went home instead, maybe next weekend we will get to go to the corn maze.

That evening, I got to go to my friend Amy's house for a Diwali celebration (Indian Holiday). We all have been asking for awhile for Indian cooking lessons and she had the idea top celebrate and cook together all afternoon. It was super fun and I am anxious to try the recipes out in my kitchen. We made paneer, which is the cheese in a lot of Indian dishes, a bread, rice, and three main dishes. Mmmm, I want to eat it all again looking at this picture.


Anyone who has been to my house in the past three years has seen paint swatches stuck to the wall in my kitchen. It's has been an ongoing debate on what color to paint it. Finally Nik got tired and gave me entire control. He was sick of the brown walls and sick of talking about colors. So I painted! Of course I had to throw in a little lime green, but three of the walls are the darker green. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I still need to build some shelves and paint the cabinet knobs, and hang things but it's coming along nicely. I can now start hanging paint swatches in the bathrooms...hee hee
It was a busy weekend, but fun. Now it's time to get out in the studio and get glazing some Holiday beads.....Have a great day,

Flashback Friday-Holiday Inspiration

This weeks Flashback to last years Holiday project, really wasn't a project. The newsletter was jam packed full of inspiration, just not instructions. I think you can look at all of these and see how they are put together. Most of these beads are up on the website and next week, watch out, the Etsy store is going to be packed full of new Holiday. I will let you know when it happens.

Have a great Friday!
Jennifer

Halloween Beads are on Sale!

I just stocked up the Etsy shop with Halloween beads, and today I marked them 20% off. This is just for the Etsy Halloween beads and when they are gone they are gone, so get them now.

Happy Halloween!
Jennifer

Flashback Friday-Memory Wire Charm Bracelet

Memory Wire Charm Bracelet

Supplies Needed:

• 6 ceramic charms
• 7 black 6mm faceted Czech beads
• 140 size 6 seed beads in coordinating colors
• approx. 16 inches memory wire
• wire cutters
• round nose pliers

Instructions:

1. Begin by grabbing one end of the memory wire in your round nose pliers. Turn the pliers to make a loop, making sure the end of the wire is turned in. This will ensure, thewire isn't scratching the wearer.
2. Give your seed beads a good stir and then string ten of the beads onto the wire. After the ten beads, add a Czech bead.
3. From now on string ten seed beads and then alternate between adding a ceramic charm or a czech bead. Do this until you have used all of your beads.
4. Trim the excess memory wire, leaving an inch to make a loop.
5. Repeat step one to make the loop. Make sure to roll he wire around until it is snug against the seed beads.

Enjoy your project! This was last years Holiday Project number one. We had a new project this Wednesday that was sent out in the e-mail newsletter. If you didn't get it in your inbox that's means you're not signed up. Go to the Jangles Website to sign up so you don't miss another.

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Finally, New Things on Etsy!

Etsy Buy Handmade Jangles

I am gearing up for tomorrow's first Holiday Project, Wahoo! I have it almost ready but in the meantime, I really needed to get some new beads in the Etsy shop. I am adding new beads as we speak and there will be more added tomorrow as well. Just thought I would let you know....

Have a good one,
Jennifer

Finally,

The Art Fair

Whew! What a weekend, I remember why I stopped doing art fairs, they are a lot of work. I had a lot of fun even though, I was working hard. Here are the pictures of my booth from the weekend. I think the display turned out all right since I really didn't have a complete plan. Usually, I set things up in my house first to get everything the way I wanted it. I was winging it this weekend.

All in all it was a good sale, so enjoy the pictures....I am going to go unpack the van now...





Have a great day,

Open Studios Tour

Studios Magazine is having an Open Studios tour online this weekend. I thought it sounded like fun, so I am posting the photos of my studio. Since I have been featured in their magazine already, I thought it would be fun to post some before and after pictures. When my studio was new, it so clean and now, well, it's been worked in. I find it impossible to keep it completely clean. Plus, I could always use more space, but isn't that always true? So take a look around and enjoy the photos...


Okay, those were the beautiful before pictures, now here is what the studio usually looks like. I will be at an art fair this weekend, so I have been getting ready all week, there's been no time for cleaning.


Hope you all enjoyed the tour..have fun visiting other studios, I know I can't wait to see where people create.

Happy Saturday,
Jennifer

Packed Up and Ready to Go

Hey there,

My friends came over yesterday and saved me. I am still amazed at how much jewelry we got made. We got things priced and bagged and boxed and ready to go. I am feeling pretty good about how much I have for the show. You know there are always more things I would like to make, but that will have to wait until next year. I have everything in boxes and ready to be loaded into the van, I am going to do that this afternoon because we have an early departure tomorrow.
Here are all my display items, ready to be packed.
This is all of my stock boxed and ready to go. It's quite a change from back when I made tables. It would take me four hours to pack my truck. I had a little Chevy s10 that I could fit almost 75 tables in. It was like a puzzle to get it to fit. I'm guessing this is going to take me ten montutes to load. I was always envious of the jewelers, now I get to be one of them.

If you're in the Atlanta area please stop by and say hi. It's the Norcross Art Fest. You can find all of the information here.

See ya!

Bringing in The Back-ups

Morning...

Today is pretty much it for getting ready, my Friday is booked with appointments. I have a big fat kiln load of beads just waiting to be made into jewelry. Plus piles all over my studio. I can't believe I will be showing you on Saturday what my studio looks like. You won't believe it. Anyway...there is no possible way for me to do it all by myself. Well, I could do it by myself, but I wouldn't sleep much and I don't give up sleep. I need my 8 hours or I'm grumpy. So I asked a few friends to come over and help string today. They are arriving soon and so I need to start lining up my beads so we can all get started. I am super excited to have some help. I will take lots of pictures today and post them all tomorrow along with my display items too. Make sure you come back!

Have a great day,

Still Getting Ready

This is going to be a super quick post today, because yikes, I have a lot to do still. Yesterday I worked on bags and wallhangings. I finished up 11 bags and got about half way through on my wallhangings. Today the day is going tobe spent in the glaze studio, glazing all the beads I possibly can for jewelry. I will let you know how that goes tomorrow...

Have a great day,
Jennifer

Studios Magazine

How fun is this? Studios Magazine is having an open studios virtual tour this Saturday. Stop back by on Saturday morning and I will give you a tour of my studio in it's crazy pre-art show state. Maybe I will have some before and after pictures...

Then after checking out my studio you can get to their site and see other artist studios. Super cool!

Painting

Hey there! I told you Friday I was painting...and here's the proof. Whew! It was a long day but I got lots finished. Above are my wood plaques for my wall hangings. Below is the fabric I painted for more bags. I love painting with paint, it's instant gratification. I don't have to wait on the kiln to fire.
While I have been working I have been thinking about my display. I will write more on that later but IO decided to paint some signs and pieces to bring the jewelry, bags, and wall hangings together. I found a cool Christmas tree for my ornaments at Hobby Lobby but I had to add some dots to it to make it Jangle-ly.
We had these doors from another project set aside in the garage so I painted them black and I plan to hang hooks on it to display my wall hangings.I still might paint a little sign on it too, but I couldn't decide at the time.
Here are my signs I painted, yes they are painted on a pizza box. I will trim them up later.



Today, I am going to be making beads. I still need to make quite a few for the show. But first, it's Monday so I think I am going to call a Jangles board meeting to get a big fat to-do list compiled for the week. Otis, (my dog), really hates to sit through these meetings, but he's my only employee. :)

Have a good day,






Come see me at the Norcross Art Fair, this weekend....
www.NorcrossArtFest.com

Yesterday was a good day

Good Morning,

I am feeling pretty good today, I got a lot accomplished yesterday. I started out the morning with the cleaning and organizing. I found some beads and some jewelry, but not as much as I was hoping for. I laid out on my work table everything I had and then made a big list of supplies that I needed. I got them ordered and they are on their way, but they won't be here until Wednesday so the end of next week will be saved for assembly. After placing my online orders I went to Hobby Lobby and found a cute tree to hang my ornaments on and got some other essential supplies for my wall hangings and bags. Once I got home I still had some time before the boys got off the bus, so I got some pendants and earring pairs painted and in the kiln. That's a pretty good day, I thought.

Well it turns out teh Grey's anatomy season opener was on last night so after the munchkins went to bed I headed back down to the studio to make jewelry. I could sit on my comfy couch and watch TV while I made jewelry. I got a bunch made because the show was so long! Above is a picture of my work table after I had gathered all of my beads. Below is a picture of my work table after my evening of work.

Heather over at Art Bead Scene had a great post yesterday. It gave us a list of what you should plan to bring to an art fair. It could not have come at a better time for me. Check it out if you are doing any shows soon.

Today the plan is painting and lots of it! I will show you soon.

Happy Weekend,

Jennifer

Step 1: Clean up

Good morning...alrighty today is the day I start getting ready for this art fair. Yesterday I spent the day wrapping up orders and things that really needed to get done. I sent out jewelry catalogs to shops that had requested them, got some holiday orders ready to ship, photographed some new Etsy items, and so on and so on. I wasn't going to be able to think straight unless I cleared everything off my plate.

This morning is going to be spent cleaning up my studio. Seriously, I have beads everywhere. I am hoping to find enough to start working on jewelry. I don't have tons of time to make beads so I will start with cleaning. Above is my work table...what a wreck. Below is a tray of beads from a project I was working on. I have lots of trays like that. I am going to clear off my work table and start grouping beads together that will work for bracelets, necklaces, etc.

After I get organized, I am going to order supplies. It's going to be tight to get them here in time to make jewelry. I might just have to pay extra for faster shipping.


Here is a tray of unfinished bags. I can get those sewn up pretty quick. The show director specifically asked for bags and wall hangings in my booth as well as my jewelry. I would have probably left them out otherwise. She saw the new Jangles Emporium and that's what sold her on asking me into the fair. I am happy to bring them, but it does throw a hitch into the designing of my booth. I was going to go with one long table but that's a lot of different work to combine in one spot. While I am cleaning today, I will be thinking of display ideas.

See you back tomorrow,

When Opportunity Knocks

I moved to Athens three years ago and I have to admit I am terrible at getting out and trying to get the local people to know my art. I don't have a gallery in town that carries my work, I am too big of a chicken to walk into a store and ask them to carry my things. I have applied to a little show in town for the past three years and can't get in. They have their set list of local artists and I guess I am too new to be one of them. It's not that I really want to do art fairs again, they are such hard work. But, I would like to have one to look forward to in the fall, I don't get out much in the fall, (for Jangles).

So yesterday I got a call from the woman who runs the Norcross ArtFest, she had a booth available and loves my work. It's an hour away from my house in a really cute town. Nice hours, good food, super cool artists, etc. The only hitch, it's October 3-4th! That's in a week and a half. It's not every day you get invited to be in a show, so I had to say yes.

Now that leaves me with a huge task over the next week, I have to make art. I need jewelry, small flowers, supply bags, and wall hangings. Plus then there is the whole display. See that picture above? That was my last art fair display. I was 23 in that picture, now let's just say I am older. Luckily, I have always used black in my displays and I have saved everything, seriously I could outfit a store in displays, I have so much stuff. It's just the digging out that will take awhile. So if you don't mind, for the next week or so I will be taking you on my fast paced, getting ready for my first art fair journey, via the blog.

Have a great day,

Rain and Pendants

Hey Hey,

It keeps raining here... it's been raining for a week now and is supposed to continue until mid-week. It's quite crazy. I think we have gotten at least seven inches. Anyway, we were all stuck inside this weekend, so I did quite a bit of crafting. I made some pendants for Holiday sales and worked on a quilt. The pendants are above.

I got an e-mail from a customer who made a super cool bag and used one of my pendants as a closure. It's knitted and felted and if that's your "thing", you should check it out here. I love the bumps on the bag. I wish I could knit....ah...maybe someday.

Alrighty, it's Monday and that means a big to-do list is about to be made....I will have more to blog about tomorrow.

Have a great day,

The countdown is on!

Check out my new widget over there on the right. Only nineteen days left until the Holiday newsletters start. I got my first order for Holiday beads this week. It was my wake-up moment. I realized I need to step it up around here and get making things in red and green. I am really happy with the Holiday projects so far, there might be some bonus projects in there because I can seem to just keep the number to ten.

You're going to hear this a lot from me over the next few weeks, sorry faithful newsletter readers, sign up now so you don't miss out. The projects are only in the newsletters.

Okay I am off to make some Holiday beads.....

Pumpkins and Markers

Hey Hey,

I bought the cutest little pumpkins and gourds the other day at the farmers market. There's one of the pumpkins in the picture above. I need to take some more photographs with my gourds. The Halloween necklace went out in my monthly newsletter yesterday. You can always sign up here if you didn't get it.

Not much exciting has been going on in the Jangles studio this week to tell you about. I have been working hard and getting lot's of things checked off my list. I started the week with a huge to-do list and I am whittling it down day by day. That's exciting for me, but it doesn't give me a whole lot to write about. But I will tell you about what I bought this week....

I am a sucker for art supplies and I can justify any purchase to myself. I always "need" the right tools. You know how that goes....well I decided that I absolutely needed a set of Copic markers. I have been doing some drawings lately with sharpies and I like them but the colors are limited. I started doing some research and came across Copic. At the same time I happened to be reading "Where Women Create", (love that mag!) anyway, Mary Engelbreit said she loved her Copics. Well, there you go....I was sold. So I sucked it up and bought them. They are expensive, but once again they are for art. I drew out my name in my new fancy markers and decided that would be my new signature on my blog. What do you think? Maybe at the holidays I will change it up and make it Christmas-sy.

Have a great day,

New Etsy Listings

Good morning....

Just added a bunch of new listings in the Etsy shop. These have been really popular and so I got as many sets together as I could. I am now out of found objects so I need to get out and search for some more soon.

Before I go, I wanted to mention that my friend Heather of Humblebeads has a bead cruise. I have heard nothing but great things about it. It sets sail this January and people are signing up for it now. I know in the past it has sold out, so if you're thinking about it sign up now.

There's a Jangles newsletter going out tomorrow, if you're not signed up go to my homepage now and at the bottom of the page is a sign up.

Have a great day,
Jennifer