New Special Offer through Jan 3

At long last, gold is finally coming back into fashion jewelry in a big way. It's still a little hard to get unique findings in gold, all the good designs having gone the way of the silver ghetto, and don't even ask me about copper, but it's nice to be seeing a lot of it again.

Consequently! This week, get 10% off up to three items containing goldtone metals when you use the code "andrew."


Available here.

Discounts will be given through PayPal after purchase. Just enter the code in the "Notes to Seller" section when you buy!

Shells, shells, shells

I have no idea what the professional etiquette is for this kind of thing, so I'll just be as anonymous as possible ...

I might be doing a beach-wedding line on consignment for a brick-and-mortar bridal store.

I sent a photo of this:



And they want a whole line of more like that. The original is sold, but I'll make several similar pieces.

It may not work out, of course. They may be consignment-scalpers out for my beaded blood. They may just decide not to use me. But the interest is flattering and ....

Eeeeee.

That is all.

I have a caaaaaamera!

This will make custom orders tons easier, let me tell you. Previously I haven't been able to photograph things at M's except with my cell (which results in shots like the 1960's Charm Bracelet - blur city), so this will be a huge blessing.

This also means that I prowled the house playing with settings and photographing eeeverything (like Lilo!), so um ... have a picture of our fish!



This is Miso. Miso's our betta. He's a pretty boy. He is also a very, very spoiled little fish, who lives in a tank more than twice the recommended size for bettas. We put him in the store-recommended one, then our Googling led us to a betta-fancier site that made us feel guilty and we dropped over a hundred bucks on our stupid fish. That's his writing desk at the lower edge and his tank background is actually wrapping paper with old world maps on it, cut to fit (he's a highly educated fish who requires a writing desk and a map of the world, possibly a pirate captain fish?).

In other news, my latest obsession is bento boxes. Simple techniques in infinite combinations, the mating of two disparate elements (cuisine and ... well, scrapbooking, almost), and totally obsessive, just the kind of thing I like to do! Can I justify this with bento-inspired jewelry? Of course I can.

No, seriously, I have to stop ordering bento boxes and alligator hair clips now. Stop, Chelsea, stop, you will regret this before the first of the month!

Some Christmas Eve thoughts

1. Just got back from a Christmas Eve afternoon trip to Wal*Mart. Once upon a time I refused to shop there, being fiercely pro-labor, but that was before I discovered poverty. :p Hypocrite? Who, me? Anyway. Was actually surprisingly fun -- M and I flirted with a cheerful and very attractive sales associate with skin the color of dark French roast who was kind enough to show us where the matchbooks were (hint: they're not next to firelogs, candles, picnic stuff or toothpicks) and then the very speedy checkout girl had an electronic singing Santa hat. Christmas kitsch for the win!


2. I read all three volumes of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen yesterday. I'm ... I'm sorry, I'm just not that impressed. I probably would have been if I'd stopped with the first one. I mean, they're blindingly racist and cheerfully misogynistic, but this is deliberate, a genre-savvy sort of thing, and even though Captain Nemo is perpetually referred to and addressed with cringe-worthy racial slurs, he's also probably the most noble and most effective character in the series. I can deal with that in the same way I can deal with Huck Finn. What I can't deal with is the crazy mood whiplash in the second volume (spoilers ahead). You can write a very good comic that's sarcastic and self-parodying. You can write a very good comic that includes a graphically detailed scene in which a woman is brutally beaten to the point of vomiting. Possibly you can even do them in the same comic. But not within a few pages of each other. Even to someone who plays violent and disgusting video games with happy abandon, I found that part deeply shocking and unsettling. And then there's the fact that the characters change their character between novels. I mean, Mina and Allan in vol. 1 wouldn't even have a nodding acquaintance with Mina and Allan in the Black Dossier. Though I have to say, I really enjoyed Hyde and the complexity of his relationships and motivations.

It's ... I'm about to turn in my geek points. There were things that the movie did better. There. I said it.


3. If anyone needs lovely little personalized keepsakes, I highly recommend SweetScarlett. She did a wonderful little set of vintage-graphic owl-and-magpie bookplates for me to give to M. Free customization, too, since it was originally a crow. She's across the pond, but speedy and lovely and I highly recommend her.


4. If anyone needs T-shirts or decals, I highly recommend Broake & Thumb Studios, especially if you love Vikings. The artist did a custom-sized Viking Navy T-shirt for me. Their decals are also great, and quite sizable, and their dice bags are lovely high-quality pieces.


5. I've been reading up on blacksmithing. It's fascinating.


6. I just found out the the Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie is slated for next December. I am very, very excited as that was my favorite Narnia book (though in close competition with the horse one, me being a seven-year-old girl at the time). Also, dragons. Also, ships. Also, Ben Barnes and his Sultry Accent. Did you know he based it on Inigo Montoya? This makes the (spoiler if you live under a kiddie-lit-free rock) "you killed my father" scene in Prince Caspian rather entertaining.


7. Yesterday:

"Ooh, do I get street cred?"

"M, I have read Prisoner of Azkaban over thirty times. I know who Tuor killed at the Fall of Gondolin in The Silmarillion. I own a d20. I am not qualified to award street cred."


8. And of course, a Merry Christmas and/or Yuletide to all! We sort of celebrate both -- ritual on Yule (M's an ordained priestess), Christmas Eve with her half of the family and Christmas Day with my half.

My favorite Christmas song this year is, by the way, Bing Crosby and David Bowie's Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth mashup. Usually it's something by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but I've bought their Beethoven's Last Night album since then, which is a non-Christmas rock opera, and am still having trouble not going "Why is Mephistopheles singing about chests of toys and old letters? What's in that chest?"

Now, mind you, I hate the Little Drummer Boy, I think it's vapid and excessively saccharine. But that dual song is about what ... well, what it's about. About giving more love than you receive to make the world a better place. Gives me warm fuzzies quite beyond the aesthetic tingle of a really good counterpoint duet.

So whether it is Christmas Eve or just past Yule, or Die Natali Sol Invictis, or early Kwanzaa or belated Hannukah, have a happy one.

Stocking Stuffer Sale and Squee!

FYI -- a lot of the pendants and earrings in the shop have gone to 10%, 15% or 20% off for a Stocking Stuffer Sale. Personally I can't think of a better stocking stuffer than a handmade pendant. They have quite a bit of impact!

FY further I -- I've just added a lot of the new Geometrica pendants and a ring to the relevant set on my Flickr stream. Some of my absolute favorite pieces have just gone up there, pieces where I really felt like I accomplished the marriage of elements I was looking for. Perhaps all my weird combinations of plastic and pearls, all my bizzare charm-bracelet designs are all in a quest for that seamless marriage of what doesn't belong into a coherent whole. Perhaps this is a metaphor for my quest to heal the rift between my faith in humanity and my perception of the world. Perhaps I need to put down Civilization and its Discontents now.

And, in Squee of the Month -- both M and I have just been unexpectedly informed that we've been hired back for winter quarter! Me on Monday and her today. So that's just ... well, really awesome, and we're very thankful for it.

New Special Offer through Dec 20

Still have a girly-girl to shop for?


Available here.

Through December 20, give the discount code "salt" in the Notes to Seller section to get a free pendant or pair of earrings -- your choice, just let me know which -- when you order anything pink.

Pendants make great stocking stuffers due to their small size and big impact, and no woman can possibly have enough pairs of earrings -- the idea is simply ludicrous.


On the other hand, maybe you have someone a little less girly but still a lover of stylish jewelry yet to cross off your list.


Available here.

No problem! Give the discount code "pepper" to get the same offer when you order anything black.

Just don't forget to tell me whether you'd prefer earrings or a pendant!

Beady-eyed Beadywoman posts, posts late

*sigh of relief*

Law final is done.

Yesterday, M caught a baby. She's a doula (a professional labor assistant; basically a midwife without some of the medical training) and her client gave birth yesterday to a seven-pound baby girl named either Elizabeth or Bellarosa. My vote is on Bellarosa.

So we stayed at the home of a friend who lives near the hospital, and this morning I was surprised in the altogether by a crazy friend of said friend who still, for some reason, has a key to their house to go with her aversion to knocking, and also I made a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer references to people who didn't understand them, and had a melon shake thrown at me, and assisted in a police investigation, and friended M's grandmother on Facebook, and invented a court case that never existed to illustrate a point about tort law, and ate ravioli, and read study guides for an AP exam I took five years ago, and got medical advice from the entire staff of the campus convenience store, and thought in grave and excessive detail about elf genetics in Tolkien, and closely examined maps of South Carolina, and all this was kinda mundane but sounds very mysterious and exciting because I don't explain it. That's called suspense. Er, by the standards of Jerry B. Jenkins that's called suspense.

Tomorrow, when I am a little more awake, it is possible that I will come back and explain this tomorrow. But I might still be easily entertained by myself then, or I might just be trying to keep M from climbing out of a dentist's chair and forget, so no promises. Bed now? Bed now.

Medieval Polish Voodoo Zombies and New Special Offer

I just took a final in my Medieval Law and Society course. I wrote an essay in which I used the phrase "zombie of good repute." I restrained myself from "the voodoo that Saint Stanislaw do(es)," but I did manage to work in "This leaves the reader with a perhaps-unintentional impression that the prior of Barnwell was afflicted with grabby hands."

I hope my professor appreciates some mildly ill-placed humor. I think he will -- he wore a Tigger tie the other day, always a good sign -- but this is a guy who loves medieval primary sources. He waxes lyrical, saying things like, "This is my absolute favorite medieval document. It doesn't have to be yours, but it's definitely mine." He grows furious with intrusive translator footnotes, like a tender suitor disturbed in his lovemaking by an unsubtle voyeur with his textual pants down. I must say, it adds a layer of fascination to the Polish ius commune of the eleventh century.

ANYway, now that I'm between exams, special offer time!


Available here.

Since I posted my 111th item on Monday (and I'm not expecting to survive tomorrow night's law final, so what the hell), take 11% off your first two items when at least one of them is from the section called "Earthy, Tribal, Ethnic." Use the discount code "clemson" in the Notes to Seller section and I'll refund you through PayPal.

Now to study for the intro class that technically precedes the one I just final'd for ... which, again, is going to be the death of me. Pray for my soul.

Good show, good show!

Had a show today! UCR's Market Day, to be exact. It's never been a hugely profitable venue but I maintained my hopes and ... er ... was rewarded. There's a lot of competition from the little let's-buy-lots-of-child-labor-plastic-crap-and-sell-it-for-a-dollar outfits, but I tend to do okay.

Last night was spent agonizing over packing my jewelry into its carrying drawers (WalMart clear plastic storage drawers with a liner of squishy eggcrate foam -- works like a dream) and trying to figure out how exactly I display some of the new products: the button bracelets have to be fastened around a bracelet roll in order to look right, and I have rings and pendants to deal with now ... bigger table, though, which helped.

Incidentally, the fastest way to make a bracelet roll for display? A paint-roller, some Elmer's spray adhesive and a little of your table-cover fabric.

But, point is, I made about my average ... and then someone came at the very end of the day and spent ninety dollars on me.

Squee.

A very cool charity

As a small businesswoman, I'm trying to do some charity this Christmas even though M and I are rather impoverished and the employment front is looking ugly. Due to that situation, it's mostly been little things -- a jewelry set to be auctioned by a school for autistic students and some beads I'm packing up for a charity that teaches crafting classes to underprivileged kids.

And then I saw a banner ad on insanejournal for Kiva. I have to blog about this. It is so cool.

Basically, you pick an entrepreneur in a less developed country and make them a microloan (from $25 to ... whatever amount it is they need). They use the money for what they need (feed for a dairy cow, a display case for selling hand-embroidery work, rent on studio space) and they pay you back through the site. So you're helping them get on their feet, but you actually end up getting the money back.

I am sort of a passive-aggressive psuedo-Marxist, so any charity or program or effort that puts the means of production in the hands of the workers is exactly what I want to be contributing to. This is just ideal for me. What a cool idea! I wonder who came up with it?

Two simultaneous special offers: Free pendants and free shipping!

This week (through Sunday, Dec 6) get a free wire-wrapped pendant with any purchase of an item with a floral motif. Search the shop for "flower" or "floral" to find all the eligible items!


Available here.

Just enter the code "peruvian" in the Notes to Seller section when you buy.



And from November 27-30, I'm having my very own Black Friday-and-then-some sale. Buy one item and get 10% off any second item, AND take free shipping on the second item. And there's no limit -- you can make as many BOGO pairs as you like!


Available here.

All discounts given as refunds through PayPal. Use the code "tgiving" in the Notes to Seller section. And yes, you can combine this with the above!

The college fashionista accessorized

Posting from the class I tutor (my entire function today is to sit here until someone wants help with the peer draft review; not intellectually stimulating), and one of my students just walked in wearing the following ensemble:

*Oversized menswear flannel shirt, sashed at the waist, sleeves rolled to just below the elbow, in blue and grey plaid
*Shorts in yellow, aqua and green plaid
*Footless tights in grey tartan
*Black sandals and a navy paisley headband

I am reasonably sure this isn't "everything that was clean" college-student dressing, as this student's dress sense runs long on multiple patterns, visible garters and kawaii -- sort of a Goth-Lolita look without the Goth but with a dash of hippie chic. It's growing on me.

So I have decided to make a necklace and name it after her. (Maybe not the best idea, actually; she shares a name with one of President Obama's daughters, they've been exploited enough lately). Anyway. I have grey tartan beads and floral beads and possibly still some polka-dot beads. These must come to coexist. It is a mandate upon my soul.

It's kind of an interesting fashion trend, though, when you think about it. An import from Asia, possibly? When I was little I had to be discouraged from pairing red striped pants with pink polka-dot shirts. But from where I'm sitting, I can see the following combos on representatives of 18 college freshmen:

* the abovementioned three plaids and a paisley (on a girl)
* black and white checks with tie-dye (on a boy)
* a subtle grey and white camo with a jean vest and kente-like bandanna (on a girl)
* plaid flannel shirt over white-on-white stripe tee (on a boy)
* narrow vertical stripe jacket over horizontal stripe blouse (on a girl)
* argyle sweater with subtle floral skirt (on a girl)

Surely these sets would have once been unthinkable ... two different stripes together? Camouflage and kente cloth?

Now my fingers are itching for beads and I have 90 minutes and a shopping trip to get through before I can get my pliers in my hands again. Gaaah!

Wire and Bat-Squid and Rings, oh my!

A busy weekend for us! M has no fewer than three squid commissions going (Ron Weasley, Batman and Harley Quinn) so she sewed all yesterday. Batman is adorable. He's made of black fleece and deep grey suedecloth, and has a dark grey mask behind his eyes and a yellow fleece toolbelt (pockets and all) around his head. His heart/mouth (she always puts a heart patch between the tentacles, so it's both mouth and heart at once) is the Bat-signal. Tonight we have to get a fabric marker, because I'm going to draw a chess knight on Ron's heart.

We also organized a lot of my beads, pendants and findings. Since M is obsessive-compulsive on a wonderful, wonderful level, she organized them all by color last Christmas when I was struck down with the demon mononucleosis -- and we hadn't done it in a while. God, the number of beads I have.

Finally, I photographed a whole lot of inventory, which means two things:

a.) New items are being posted at last, and
b.) I get to give a blog preview of the new wire-wrapped rings!

This one is in Christmas colors and distressed copper/black wire. It has a nice layered look.

Available here.

This is a pendant-ring set. Unfortunately, I think the bead arrangement on the ring is a little too broad for comfortable wear.

Available soon!

And this one uses a nugget of rich, chocolatey agate and some brass beads that match the ring base. I think this is where I best pulled off the balance of metal tones.

Available soon!

I'm still playing with the technique (combination of wire gauges=yes, nylon-jawed pliers to flatten the wire=no), but those are the three I like best.

New Special Offer through November 29

This week, get free shipping on any item in my shop that is wire wrapped when you use the code market. Just enter the code in the "Notes to Seller" section when you purchase and I'll refund you through PayPal. To find all wire-wrapped items, search for them with the box just above the shop banner.


Available here.

This includes several items in the shop and a few I'm going to be posting this week and the next, including the new rings, some pendants and earrings and a vintage bead bracelet.

And yes, this offer is entirely so I had a good excuse to show that photo. :) I was rushing through items since I was just starting to lose that nice diffuse light of cloudy early afternoon, but the harsh shadows hadn't quite fallen yet, so I got that awesome diffracted sparkle. Gorgeous.

Overheard in the English department yesterday

"Well, is it sullen or angry? Because sullen needs toast. I wouldn't get into a car with an angry stomach."
"It's more grumpy and sullen than rageful."
"That's good. Rageful stomachs are bad."
"Rageful isn't a word."


(sung to a tune vaguely resembling "The Street Where You Live")
"If the tomato ... is yellow ... don't eat it ..."



"How can you possibly function in society without having seen Robot Chicken Star Wars?"
"Because I'm a raging dork in other areas?"



"Buggering ... BUGGER!!!"



"I'm sorry about your body."

Some thoughts for the ... morning? Noontide?

* I would really like to know what I'm doing right with Alchemy bids.

Seriously. I've had tons of interest and two commissions in the same number of weeks. What gives? What changed?

* Wire wrapping is AWESOME.

I've always loved heavily wire-wrapped pieces -- the ones that have that woodlandy, chaotic beauty with wire wrapping in on itself in layers and layers -- and yesterday, with some brass ring bases I got on clearance and leftover silver and brown copper wire, I think I got the hang of it. I'm wearing one of the rings right now (a piece of what I think is agate and fluted antique brass rounds, with a spiral of goldtone and wrapping in silvertone wire, on a wide antique brass ring base) and it gives me a little flutter of joy every time I look at my left hand. I also did a pendant with Czech pressed glass blossoms and leaves over a leftover square glass bead, and it has a WONDERFUL fairy-garden look. I feel like an artist.

* Condescending people suck.

I understand the need to distinguish between art and assembly, but this leads to a certain ... attitude in the Etsy forums. Technically under the Etsy rules putting a purchased pendant on a purchased chain qualifies the result to be sold as "handmade." And I understand that putting beads on a wire doesn't sound any more "handmade" to someone who hand-solders recycled metal, or some such. But statements like "Even the beader does SOME design work" make my hackles rise. Quilters select fabrics to go together in a pattern, I select beads and components to go together in a pattern, if you look at my pieces you can see I'm not just putting stuff together randomly or putting the same bead on the wire thirty times, don't dishonor my art form. *sigh*

* The average high school graduate has no understanding of tone.

I judge this by my own students. They're bright, bright kids, and they think they know it until I ask them to identify it, and then we both suddenly realize the kid has no clue what I'm trying to point out.

* I saw an EXcellent play last week.

"Doin' Time in the HomoNoMo Halfway House: How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement," by Peterson Toscano, is a phenomenal show. I share an office at work with the performer, Vincent Cervantes, and he's as kind, funny and wise in person as onstage. Also, he's got enough acting talent to make you both laugh out loud and get a lump in the throat within the same three-minute section of the show. Anyone who has acted knows how hard it is to make a mood whiplash like that effective. If you have a chance to see this, run-don't-walk to get tickets. It's both roaringly funny and touchingly meaningful.

* I have GOT to be more careful about cutting chain.

I have a charm bracelet I may have to remake tonight because I misjudged and clipped it too short by one. Freaking. Link. It's a fun charm bracelet, though; 60's music flower-power themed with some I *heart* NY stuff. So not as bad as it could be.

New Special Offer through November 15

This week, I've got a very special offer in mind.

Nothing makes a better gift than something you've had custom-made. From now until November 15, get free shipping on any custom order from TangoPig Jewelry Creations. I take custom orders through either email or Etsy!



A previous custom order is shown above -- what ideas do you have that you'd love to see translated into real life?

Just mention this post when ordering to get the free shipping!

And remember, anything you order from RhumbaSquid can be combined shipping with your TangoPig order!


This offer occurred to me because I actually have a custom order going at the moment; I'm doing a sterling silver charm bracelet for a seven-year-old girl. On that note, 1.) since when is "sterling silver plated" an acceptable metal-content description? and 2.) where have all the "princess" word charms gone? Seems they were everywhere a little while ago, and now I can only find one style. No time to special-order one, either, because the bracelet needs to be done this week.

Two other bids seem to have gotten interest, too -- a great Alchemy week, all in all.

New Special Offer through November 1

Through Sunday the first of November, get a free pendant with your purchase of any item containing vintage components when you use the code "shetland." Just search for the tag "vintage" in my Etsy shop, choose your pieces and enter the code in the "Notes to Seller" section when you check out.


Available here.

I love using vintage pieces. First of all, they almost automatically make the piece one-of-a-kind, which I like. Second, they're often totally different from anything commercially available now. And they're such a joy to hunt for, occasionally getting gems like the goodies from that yard sale I mentioned. I suppose this really ought to be my whole product line. I can never quite restrain myself to vintage pendants, though ... oops.

Fruit Flies, Colorful Knickers and New Special Offer through October 25

There is a fly sitting on my left hand -- rather determinedly, actually -- and I think it's a non-native Drosophila. I wonder where it escaped from. It would probably be ecologically responsible to kill it, since it's a non-native, but I'm too tender-hearted. You know, we all talk about cockroaches being disgusting, but read up on flies sometime when you're not planning on eating for a while. As an order of species, Diptera are three times as icky as Blattaria.

In other news, M and I spent yesterday tie-dying our underwear. See, my dad was trying to learn to do it because he's having a tie-dye event at his middle school, so we (Mom, Dad, M, me and my brother A) all played with the dye. My hands look like they've been repeatedly slammed in doors (those puce and red dyes cling), but it was awesome.

Anyway. The point of this post was a special offer, wasn't it?

Through October 25, get your choice of a free pendant OR 10% off your purchase of any item with flowers on it. Use the discount code "polly" and tell me which you'd prefer in the "Notes to Seller" section. Dicounts are given through PayPal within 24 hours of purchase.


Available here.

So if you've had your eye on one of my vintage locket necklaces or the miniature teacup, this is your moment!

Finally, it is at last cold enough to wear my beret. This makes me happy.

An article for buyers

An interesting article for jewelry purchasers from the Federal Trade Commission on what to look for in jewelry descriptions when buying.

I came across this and the only thing I can see lacking is my pearl descriptions ... I rarely say whether they're natural or dyed. I think all the ones I've used in my Etsy shop are dyed or bleached apart from the ones in the birdhouse necklace and the peacock pearls in the button and pearl charm bracelet. Those are natural.

I don't agree with the bit about gold metals -- gold is a color, and is used that way in descriptions, so unless there's a karat weight or the terms "gold-filled" or "gold-plated" or, more rarely, "rolled plate" are used, it's best to assume that goldtone is meant -- but of course the FTC isn't interested in my opinion of their terminology, so I'll go fix that. :) It's a good article for those interested in very fine jewelry.

My jewelry is more at the fashion jewelry end of the spectrum, with some exceptions, but I still try to follow those guidelines. This is partly just a matter of trade honesty, and partly because I don't think "fashion jewelry" means low quality. Unfortunately, we have that association with the term. My work is very high quality and made to last years; however, it's also affordable, which aside from karat weight is just about the only difference between my jewelry and that which can be properly called fine jewelry.

Anyway, it's an interesting article, and there are a few others on the site of interest if you're in a browsing mood.

New Special Offer through October 18

Through October 18, get a free pair of Halloween earrings when you purchase any necklace or bracelet containing the color black. Just include the code "woods" in the Notes to Seller section.


Available here.

And if you purchase another necklace or bracelet, I'll throw in a wire-wrapped pendant, too!

Joy oh joy!

I have a new laptop! Another HP Pavilion, because I've been impressed with their repair speed (M's Fujitsu once took three months to get a repair). This one is black and silver with a fun bubble pattern. More importantly, it has 4GB of memory and a 12-cell battery.

I'm going to have to replace a lot of item photos, but I'm happy to have a computer again.

... and now to try to get my Sims 2 neighborhood to transfer to a new computer. :p

But on a much more relevant note, M and I were yard-saling over the weekend and we dropped in on a lovely lesbian couple who were selling some fun stuff we could repaint for our hand-altered Halloween village. And also, a big five-dollar bag of fun-looking shiny stuff.

Eeeeheeheehee.

Have a look at some of it:



You're seeing:

-over 50 silver-plated pendant-style cab mounts
-8 traditional coral-and-white plastic portrait cameos
-more than a dozen vintage cab-mount link bracelets in various styles
-5 of same in their original packaging
-a few other, larger cameos; roses and cupids and courting couples
-two painted porcelain half-inch cabs
-fourteen gold-plated giraffe brooches with snap-in cameo mounts
-sixteen goldtone teddy bear brooches with prong-style cab mounts
-various-size pinbacks
-two hinged cab-mount bracelets
-various other bits and pieces in various conditions

You're not seeing:

-about fifty owl brooches with glue-in mounts
-fourteen silvertone butterfly brooches with prong mounts
-some very odd cab-mount hardware (bottle openers and gag tie clips)
-over one hundred vintage screw-back clip-on earring findings
-and a load of other stuff

What a find! Five dollars for all this. I can't say this enough times. Five dollars. I've never worked much with cabochons, but what an excuse to start! I have so many wonderful ideas -- how about buttons in one of the link bracelets, embellished with the polymer and metal flowers you see on the upper right of the tray? -- and can't wait to get paid in November so I can order the other supplies.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...

On the "best" side of things:

-I love my new job to death. I have one student who refused to sign up for his appointment before and now wants to meet a nine in the morning (not. Happening.), but the rest of them are bright, interested kids and I am having a great time working with them.
-My girlfriend loves me.
-Sales have picked up this month; four of them!

On the "worst" side:

-I am horribly, horribly sick. It's not swine flu. All the cool people get swine flu; I get a sinus infection. For those fortunate enough to have no had them, sinus infections basically cause your entire head and neck area to fill up with thick, sloshy glue.
-I dumped soup on my laptop. And my thigh, but the blisters healed; the power port didn't. Brodie (our Malinois) left a dog toy where I would step on it. I have to get a student loan now so I can get a new one.


More good than bad, mind you, but the bad is ... draining. Consequently, I'm largely MIA. So until further notice:

- Go read this webcomic strip. You will thank me.

- I'm too disgusting to be creative, so, have a free pair of earrings with any purchase. Discount code "walrus." You're welcome.

New offer through Sept 27

This week, get 10% off any item with a listing date before last June when you enter the code "ramen" in Notes to Seller.


Available here.

Offer ends on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 11:59 PM. All refunds will be given through PayPal soon after purchase. And yes, if you act fast, you can combine it with last week's offer for the next few hours; just give me both codes.

Work happy!

I went to my second day of training for my new tutoring job today, and halfway through the instructor whose class I'm assigned to came in and handed me a note saying "Let's have coffee" with her phone number. We went after the training session to do so, and she asked me halfway to the car, "What books do you like for this course?" I told her I hadn't been terribly thrilled by the booklist, but ... "No booklist. I'm post-six," she told me (post-six lecturers have something one step below tenure; they are the Most Awesome). "What books do you want to do?"

We're still going over it, but we've agreed to do The Yellow Wallpaper, probably scenes from Hamlet and/or Othello (my favorite play), and maybe a little T.S. Eliot, with the possibility of showing "Another Brick in the Wall."

I am so, so thrilled to be doing this.

Tonight, I restring a paid commission and some things for M's grandmother's sister. Restringing is pretty good for the money, honestly, especially because people usually end up giving me spare vintage beads. I'm doing an anklet for an Etsy customer, previously on elastic, with gemstone teardrops hanging to swing freely from small hammered silver rings, which interrupt the bead strand. This takes a little (a lot) longer and rather more stringing medium than simply hanging the teardrops from the wire by either their drill holes or by jump rings, but it should look very lovely when done.

New special offer through Sept 20

Until 11:59 PST on Sunday, Sept. 20, get a free pair of earrings for every $15 you spend in the Etsy shop! If you really want the early-shopping bragging rights, now's the time to get Christmas gifts (already, I know). This also applies to custom orders!

Enter the code "labor" and your choice of colors in the "Notes to Seller" section to claim your free earrings.

Total is exclusive of shipping. For example, if you buy two necklaces at $25 each, totaling $60 after shipping, you get three pairs of earrings for the $15, $30 and $45 marks of actual merchandise.


Available here.

And on a more serious note ...

You may recall that I am both an undergraduate student and, recently, an employee of the University of California in Riverside. The reason I chose "labor" for this week's offer code is because of the current situation at the University:

The UC president has decreed raises to many of the upper-level faculty, and also created new administrative positions at the upper echelons of the pay scale. He has given 8-12% raises to his entire staff in the past year. At the same time, numerous positions have been cut. Year-appointment staff have been given quarterly positions with laughable health benefits, which they found out literally three months after the university was contractually obliged to give contracts. Some of the year-long contracts that were given were later rescinded. The staff is being required to work without pay on "furlough days." They can be fired if they don't show up and give 100% for nothing.

The president of the UC makes $828,000 a year. My partner, who is a lecturer, makes something like $35,000 ... in a good year.

It is always, always those who determine how the pie is cut that get the biggest pieces. This is how, even in our much-quoted "free country," we remain oppressed. We are made to fear the loss of our jobs, so we cling harder to those we have, so the conditions can be made even worse, so we have less recourse if we lose them, so we need them even more, so it can all get even worse ... and the cycle doesn't end until someone does something about it.

I'm done soapboxing. But think about it.

I am so lucky ...

... I have a girlfriend who will make an unscheduled freeway exit after seeing an interesting sign, drive two miles up an unpaved road in a front-wheel drive vehicle, hike up a hill in the Mojave Desert in September without sunscreen or water, in sandals, all so I can do the nerd-squee over a pre-Clovis early man site.

Also, I had a truffle ravioli at the Bellagio that caused me such bliss I was unable to speak for several seconds.

Also also, Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity is an excellent show for the not-easily-offended. Try to get seats toward the front of the thrust stage, though. Was thoroughly enjoyable.

Lost wages?

Hello, reader mine, from Las Vegas!

M has taken me to stay at the Orleans for my birthday. I have to say, I'm oddly inspired and itching to make things. Our hotel room (which is enooormous) is a riot of patterns, with five completely different lamps, two lovely ornate mirrors (one full-length, one vanity) in the room proper and a more standard one in the very large bathroom, an overstuffed armchair and sofa, and a bed so big that when we lie at the edges we can barely reach each other's hands without rolling over.

And how much do you guess we paid for this?

$30 a night. Yes. Really.

But back to the relevant bit ... the colors, the colors! The casino is a fairly standard ornate Mardi Gras look, fun and beautiful in a garish way. But our hotel room is an interesting baby blue and wheaten yellow, with accents in leaf greens. It should be awful, but it works. And the jeweler's under-brain goes "Eeeee?" (My under-brain vocalizes chiefly in long vowels.)

I suppose it's because I'm without all my beads that I suddenly have this itch ... but even dinner got me going. Well, menu photos of artisan desserts, actually. There's a rather nice set called "Amaretto Pear" in my future.

Okay ... time to sleep at last ... I was posting mainly to unwind from the hell of class registration. There is much to be said for large departments ... you could start by saying, "There are more than two classes one can get into on a quarter."

A Buyer's Gift Guide to Bracelets

So you're thinking of a birthday gift for a friend or relative and you're pretty sure you'd like to get them a unique bracelet. The question is, which kind is best?

If you're looking for a single, elegant piece for someone who doesn't wear a lot of jewelry, charm bracelets are right out. For someone who does like to jingle, though, they can make unforgettably thoughtful gifts, especially because they're usually themed.

Available here.
Things to look for in this type of bracelet:
*Strong connectors. Sturdy jump rings are good, soldered or split rings are better, wire-wrapping is best.
*Fullness. My bracelets are generally delicate, classy pieces with evenly spaced, mostly symmetrical arrangements of charms, simply because I prefer to wear that type myself. If you're buying for someone who wears bold, artistic, over-the-top jewelry, consider sellers like these instead.
*Easy clasps. See the comparison of lobster and toggle clasps below.

For truly easy wear, consider a memory bracelet instead. These bracelets simply wrap around the wrist and hold in place. They're a great choice for people with arthritic or clumsy fingers, and they're stylish and current on everyone -- a memory-wire cuff imitates the shape and thickness of a large cuff bangle, without the annoying size and movement.

Available here.
Things to look for in this style:
*Bead size. Are the differently-sized beads arranged in a pleasing pattern? Small beads make these very delicate, larger ones make them bold statement pieces.
*Length. Generally speaking, you want at least one coil with significant overlap. If the bracelet is shorter than the circumference of the wrist, the bracelet may be uncomfortable on the thin skin of the inner wrist. It takes many, many coils for these bracelets to be too thick, and keep in mind that the diameter of the unstretched wire is usually smaller than that of a wrist!
*Dangles and charms. Elements that hang from the body of the bracelet, if any, should all hand in the same direction. I usually put them all on the last coil so they can hang gracefully over the hand.

Many kinds of lobster claw bracelets are traditional, adjustable and very secure. Many people find lobster clasps hard to fasten, though, so they're best as gifts for those who don't live alone and will have help accessorizing. An adjustable lobster clasp and chain closure is perfect when you aren't quite sure of the recipient's size.

Available here.
Things to look for in this type of bracelet:
*Clasp size. If buying in person, make sure the clasp is sized to slip easily through the fastening ring or chain.
*Length. Make sure you're not buying a child's bracelet for a large-boned woman, or vice-versa! Adjustability is best if you're really unsure of size; most people's wrists are about seven inches around, give or take an inch.

The last word in easy fastening is toggle bracelets. Consider them for anyone who might have difficulty with a lobster clasp. They hang easily in necklace racks by the hoop side of their clasp, and many absolutely beautiful toggles are available to designers.

Available here.
Things to consider when purchasing this type of bracelet:
*Clasp style. Toggle bracelets tend to rotate; the clasp should match the rest of the bracelet in metal and in style. The best toggle bracelets incorporate the clasp into the design.
*Stiffness. This isn't something you can worry about when ordering online, but if you're considering buying in person, flex the bracelet. If it flexes easily, it will hold up to wear longer than a very stiff one.

Other things to keep in mind:
*Various types of add-a-bead bracelets are on the market, from the Italian link bracelets to newer Biagi bracelets, slide bracelets and many others. Starting or adding to a collection may be very welcome! Many Etsy sellers provide beads or links for these styles, so you can still buy handmade.
*For people with large hands, bangles and cuff bracelets are often the bane of our existence. If you choose this style, make sure you buy them large enough!
*Screw clasps don't really work for bracelets, as they're nearly impossible to connect and stress the stringing material.
*Most Etsy sellers, me included, are very willing to do custom work. Nothing makes a gift better than knowing it was specially commissioned with you in mind!

Armed with this information, you can choose a bracelet that your loved one will love.

New offer through Sept 13

Why the thirteenth? It's my birthday, and the schedule for offers has been shot, lately. As things settle down it'll get back to regular weekly posts.

Until 11:59 PM PST on Sunday, September 13, get a free pair of earrings in your choice of colors with any purchase from the shop section called "Whimsy and Fantasy." Just enter the code "thistle" under "Notes to Seller."


Available here.


Available here.

Hurricane conditions, dead squash, and earrings

Okay! I think we're all right. Evacuations have been downgraded to voluntary, due to smoke.

We had the most phenomenal weather yesterday. First, wind. True California Santa Ana winds. Then it rained. It poured. It rained and poured and blew so much that the rain was going in two different directions at once, neither of them down. My mother-in-law found a large puppy advert in her roses that had been posted three blocks away.

M's dogs hate thunder; Fergus, the large flat-coated retriever who ate our sewing counter and our first garden, refused to come out of the bathroom

Feeling inspired, I went and reseeded some of my plants once the weather went back to normal. My oregano sprouts fried, so I've redone that and placed it where there's a bit more shade. My sweet pea actually did sprout, I discovered once I unearthed the seeds, so I reburied them under less soil and am hoping to see them break cover soon.

The zucchini has died and I can't figure out why, though I'm tempted to blame squash stemborers. It was doing so well for a while, it was like a little potted jungle with leaves as large as my two spread hands, but then it all yellowed so I basically pruned off half the plant. It was looking better for a while, but now it's dead again. I'm contemplating filling its squash pot with garlic. Any suggestions for new veggies? I'm Sunset zone 13/USDA 9.

I'm having one of those alarmingly productive days. I ordered in a ring mandrel so I can start trying wire-wrapped cocktail rings, which I haven't done in some time indeed, but it's on back order, and ordering the next item up was a difference of ten dollars. Hopefully it'll come in soon!

Until then I'm doing earrings, often in very bizarre designs. I've hit one of those creative walls I get sometimes, where I'm convinced that I need to do something New and Fresh and Different so I wind up with incredibly random designs and eventually M finds me having glued my hands together and sobbing over a mismatched earwire with bits of batik in my hair.

And, um ... I think I inhaled a little sliver of glass. This is probably bad.

TangoPig Broadcasts from the Field

Well, from M's house, actually. I woke up this morning to find that we'd been given notice to stand by for the evacuation order.

My parents and brother are still in a holding pattern at our house, trying to wait until the evacuations become mandatory, since we have five family pets to transport.

Ordering from the Etsy shop is still open; since we had time to get non-necessities, I packed up my inventory. And now I just wait to see what happens. It's harder than it sounds like it should be.

Well, that was an adventure.

A great number of people are probably aware that the state of California is pretty much a large forest fire at this point. One of the individual wildfires is the Oak Glen Fire. Yesterday, I was six or eight blocks away from it.

Today, my mother walked outside to look up at the planes dropping fire retardant, looked eight houses down to the end of the street, and saw flames.

M and I were right behind her, and it is uniquely terrifying to watch one's mother panic. In ten minutes, we had files, computers, medications -- the irreplaceable essentials. I packed up the entire contents of my brother's dresser and a few of his electronics in what must have been about 90 seconds. My father, who was still at work, can now confirm that his pickup does over 100, and incidentally is now a federal criminal because he went around a roadblock. "I figured they could chase me, arrest me at the bottom of the driveway after I gave my family the truck keys," he told our neighbor Dale.

We were never given the evacuation order, though I get the impression that's partly because there just wasn't time. It started a few feet from my neighbor Devon's back fence. She was all alone when it began. The whole thing was nightmarish -- I was grabbing things and not panicking, because only one person in any given crisis situation is able to panic but I was a little frantic. I was okay as I tried to think of any essentials we might have forgotten, and find the cats, but then I realized we were going to have to leave our tortoises behind and I lost it, sobbing for about thirty seconds before I could give myself another task to rush to.

When I went outside I could see the flames on the hill. The shrubbery around houses burns with a much blacker smoke than most natural California vegetation. And to think I could have gone my whole life without knowing that. I ran around the block to check on elderly neighbors, and people were frantically moving vehicles and trailers to the far end of the street, filled with possessions thrown into the backseats. Flashing lights were everywhere, and the planes were flying so low overhead I could pick out every detail of the mechanics.

It's interesting -- there's only a certain length of time that a human can maintain a frantic emotional state. We all sort of segued from terror to walking around and talking to each other and watching at about the same time. There was this general knowledge that there was nothing we could do but wait -- and then we hit the point where my neighbor Jim suggested ordering fifty pizzas and advising them that the delivery person would have to do some offroading to get around the police, and suddenly there was this knot of people laughing hysterically and dreaming up home-insurance fraud schemes.

They're calling ours the Pendleton Fire. It may have been an ember, but it was probably a lit fire -- and while they're not saying so on the news, I overheard a discussion of having caught some kid who is suspected of lighting the match. Suddenly, vigilante justice doesn't sound quite so bad.

We're all okay now -- and probably safer for having had all the fuel around us burn away -- but it was a long, horrible day, and I still can't sleep.

New special offer through Sept 1

Until 11:59 PM on Tuesday, Sept. 1, get a free pair of soda tab earrings with any purchase of a necklace or bracelet. Use the code word "bagel" in the Notes to Seller section.


Available here.

I'll make you a pair of the popular soda tab earrings in the color of your choice. Jewelry sets count for your purchased item!

Pearls plus polymer ...

Looking at the items that the week's special offer applies to, I have to say ... I always seem to have these bizarre whims to combine pearls with really inappropriate materials.

There was this early-on experiment with printed wood beads where I appeared to think that red plastic and white pearls went perfectly together.


Available here.

And then there's these. Polymer clay and freshwater pearl is just not generally thought of together. As M says, "Those are strange. I like them, but ... they're strange."


Available here.

Mind you, I think both of those are great designs and great pieces of jewelry, but there's this ... almost a creeping sense of guilt for combining the two. Bead elitism, if you will. Like the clay should stay on its own side of the tracks, or the pearls' fathers will beat them up. Is that weird?

New offer through Aug 25

Until 11:59 PM Pacific (that's GMT -8, for reference, have I mentioned?) on Tuesday, August 25:

Get a free pair of simple pearl earrings with the purchase of any item containing pearls when you enter the code "almost" in the Notes to Seller section.


Available here.

No, sorry, glass pearls don't count, but mother-of-pearl does. :) The offer includes several items from the Etsy shop, and more to come in the next week!

Fimo is our friend

M and I spent most of the day playing with fimo clays. M made a fairy door with yellow roses on the frame, a gorgeous thing. I made several pendants, some of which worked, some of which cracked through. Many of these will be showing up on Etsy in the next few weeks.

I quickly discovered that simple tools work very well for this task. A deck of playing cards and an old rolling pin work as a slab roller, and my jewelry-making charms work just as well as texture sheets to give the clay surface designs. Great fun, and after some finishing with acrylic paint, the resulting pendant are absolutely beautiful.

Very special new offer through Aug 18!

This week, you do me a favor and I'll do you one ...

I still have several shop images that are on a background I was using before I switched to the unfinished pottery background you'll see in my more recent photos. I'd rather not have to retake all those pictures, so I need some of that jewelry to sell.

So, until 11:59 PM PST on Tuesday, August 18:

* The first item which was photographed on an old background entitles you to a free pair of earrings in your color of choice.
* The second item on an old background gets you absolutely free shipping for that item.
* The third item, and any subsequent purchases, will be discounted by 10% off the item's price.

To claim these rewards, enter the code "snow white" in the Notes to Seller section, along with the color in which you'd like your earrings made.


Available here.

That's actually a pretty good photo, if I do say so myself, but on some of them ... well, you can see why the light-colored background works better. Since I took the first couple batches of a photos, I've learned that I need texture to contrast with the usually glossy jewelry; to use light-but-not-white colors so the contrast doesn't go all wonky; and to avoid direct sunlight like a vampire soaked in orange oil.

So there you go -- the jewelry is just as beautiful and high-quality, but the photos are slightly lacking, so you get great deals on every item from that section you purchase!

Ten Unique Ways to Wear Your Jewelry

For when you need some extra uniqueness in an accessory. For when the pieces from your jewelry box, however fabulous they might be, need a new twist.

1. Layer a few simple chains around your neck for an instant multi-strand necklace. Mixed metals are very stylish, as are multiple layers. And you don't actually need a scoop neck for them; this can be effective and elegant inside the collar of an open-necked shirt.

2. Wear two charm bracelets with similar themes or color schemes on the same wrist. You get twice the noise, twice the movement and twice the glitter! My mother wears a gold charm bracelet I made for her all the time, but during high school football season, she adds one on the same kind of chain that has football buttons and my brother's school colors.

3. A favorite pendant can be strung onto bracelet-length instead of necklace-length chain. Double-sided pendants work especially well for this. If the bail is large enough, you can even slide the pendant over a simple beaded bracelet.

4. Have a necklace with an interesting clasp? Turn the clasp in front for a fresh look. This works best with longer necklaces, so that toggles lie flat and hooks aren't strained.

5. Cluster necklaces are especially trendy these days, but sometimes they all seem to feature the same bird, pearl and inspiring phrase charms. Create a unique one by adding several of your own pendants to a single chain, and let the personality of the new necklace change as they shift around each other.

6. Cuff bracelets and heavy bangles are all over the runway, but they're difficult to fit over large hands and unflattering to arms that taper significantly toward the wrist. Consider a memory bracelet instead; they're easy to fasten, since they just wrap around your wrist, and conform to the taper of your arm, while looking very much like the bold fashion bracelets from designer collections.

7. Fasten two bracelets together to make a stylish new anklet. Close the first bracelet. Then fasten the clasp of a second bracelet around the strand of the first. Bring the second bracelet around your ankle. Reopen the hook of the first bracelet to catch the ends of both, and voila!

8. Similarly, you can use a simple bracelet as an extender to make a choker into a longer necklace, and suddenly your occasions to wear it are limitless.

9. If you're fortunate enough to own a pocketwatch, don't let it sit in your jewelry box! String it on a chain and wear it as a necklace, or if you have the fob chain, wear it in the lapel pocket of a suit jacket for timeless (no pun intended) glamour.

10. Mix up your styles and types of jewelry. Put an heirloom locket or gemstone pendant on a more casual leather cord (just make sure it's fastened securely!). Wear a classic pearl bracelet with a chunky, colorful plastic one. Layering your jewelry will give you an effortless chic look and a sense of brand-newness without having to shop for a single piece.

Special Offer for my favorite color!

Though it's still summer-hot where I live, now is the time to do back-to-school and autumn shopping. Isn't it time to treat yourself to an inexpensive but wonderful new accessory?

Until 11:59 PM on Sunday, August 9, get a free pair of earrings with the purchase of any item from my shop containing the color orange. Just enter the discount code "truffle" in the Notes to Seller section. You can find all orange items by using the search bar at the top of the Etsy page, with the pulldown menu set to "tangopig's shop."


Available here.

I find that the combination of green and orange says "autumn" no matter what you do with them. I don't know if it's a childhood adoration for pumpkins or if other people see not only rich spicy tones but also pastel green and orange as an autumn palette. In this one, of course, the squash blossoms and wood help. Are those squash blossoms? Not daisies, in that color.

But ... orange. You can't possibly go wrong with orange.

My mother-in-law, by the way, says that orange is the new neutral. She's a quilter, and has started using orange fabrics instead of beiges and greys. Speaking of which, I owe her a new pair of orange and copper earrings, so if you'll excuse me ...

The Etsy Adventures of Beadywoman and Squidgirl

Posting is back in full swing again, as the laptop has returned from Hewlett-Packard in working condition once again! For those considering such a purchase, my two cents: I have had more hardware problems with this thing than the Hubble Space Telescope, but it's never taken more than a week from sending off for repairs to return in perfect condition again.

M's Etsy shop is also up and running. Pay her a visit! And as a joint special: If you buy any squid from her shop, you can get free shipping on your TangoPig jewelry order. Just make sure you remind us in the Notes to Seller to send them as one package.


Available here.

The charm bracelet special offer -- that is, free coordinating stretch bracelet with the purchase of any charm bracelet when you enter "no more june bugs" in Notes to Seller -- will run through 11:59 PM on Sunday, Aug 2.


Available here.

Home again!

The shop is back online!

At the conference I had, hands-down, the most successful jewelry show I've ever had. In two hours. Most of my shows are eight hours long.

That said, that particular event was disappointing. I was told we'd have six-foot banquet tables. I arrived, and we had ten-by-ones.

Better yet, the tables were set up such that only one person could possibly pass between them ... and if you've got hips like mine, only sideways. Spatial geometry FAIL. Then the person nominally in charge told us we couldn't move the tables. Someone gave her a long look, and said, "I'll bet the fire marshal would love to see this setup. And you know, I'm pretty sure that the organizers were aware we have at least two disabled guests. In wheelchairs." Oddly enough, she backed off at that point .... Seriously, though, how could anyone think that was workable for a selling event? M and I had to leave our booths each time the other one needed to move from one end of the table, because the only way anyone could possibly see the items for sale was if everyone buddied up and moved their tables so close only one could pass between.

But despite that misery, things sold well, and several people seemed interested in contacting me about custom work. M sold three pre-made squids, one from swatches and three custom ones! We went yesterday to find ink-blot fabric and smiley-face button eyes for a Rorschach squid, and radish fabric for a Luna Lovegood one. I'll post a link to her Etsy shop once it's live.

The lecture went beautifully if a bit garbled because I got flustered by my own hands.

Photos to come in the next few days of six-inch leverback earrings and glass beaded dress hooks!

Aaaand we're off!

This is it! We're going to San Francisco, and we have flowers to wear in our hair.

We'll be back on the 23rd. Until then, Etsy shop is in vacation mode. I'll get to any e-mails when I return, and there will also be photos of Gothic belly dance jewelry I made for M, and ... (sob) Potter jewelry. So very much Potter jewelry.

See you soon!

Shame on me

I still like macaroni and cheese. I think I was supposed to stop liking it sometime before the age of twenty.

New vintage beads!

I've been given some great new vintage plastic beads - top-drilled discs in purple, white and red. They're begging to become stretch bracelets.

Word on the laptop: It seems that I'll be able to get it repaired, since HP extends special warranties for the motherboard and fan, and someone my dad works with can rescue my jewelry photos. Listings will still be slow for a while, though - probably until after the conference at least. Fortunately I can use M's computer and I have hard copy of the paper I'm using to write my lecture.

Since my plan of posting more charm bracelets has gone out the window, I'm extending that special offer indefinitely (i.e., until I can post photos of the ones I've made). Keep an eye out for the vegetable garden and bromeliad charm bracelets in the next couple of weeks!

Laptop woes

My laptop has, to put it simply, bitten it. M thinks it's the motherboard. So that's off for repairs ... at the worst possible time, since I was supposed to apply for a job today. Hence the hours I just spent retyping samples from hard copy. Palm, meet face.

So, um ... all jewelry sales for the next unspecified period of time will go toward hard drive rescue.

But! On a much happier note! I found a cool cameo at a local antique store! It's a beautiful shade of medium gray with a classic ivory-colored portrait layer, in a gold setting, pin back, beautifully cared for. The jewelry on the subject of the portrait is very detailed -- part of me wants to try to replicate the necklace the woman in the cameo is wearing with the cameo as the centerpiece. This way lies madness. Someone tell M to stop me.

There was a second cameo, too, this one just the white profile portrait, no background, a bit more discolored. It'll need mounting or wrapping. This one is of a woman who appears to have an octopus in her hair, so, um ... that may become part of my personal collection.

New offer through July 12

From now through 11:59 PM, Pacific time, on Sunday July 12, get a free stretch bracelet in coordinating colors with any purchase of a charm bracelet. I often do this for my mother; she likes to layer them.

To claim your bracelet, enter the discount code "no more june bugs" in the "Notes to Seller" box at checkout. To find all the charm bracelets, use the search box at the top of the shop home: select "tangopig's shop" from the pulldown menu and use the search term (this will be a surprise) "charm bracelets."

This one is tied for first in favorite charm bracelets I've made. I had no idea how I was going to use the very large fan button, since I bought it for the rest of the set, but given some jump rings and a couple of vintage beads it came together. I've been "test driving" it to the grocery store, and the fan catches much less than you'd expect and sits straighter than I thought it would.

Available here.

There will be more charm bracelets posted over the course of the coming week, including a really cool one made of vintage buttons and baroque pearls, so keep an eye on the shop! The offer also applies to custom orders if you had a theme in mind.

Potter jewelry proceeds apace. I neglected my tally long enough to wind up with more Hufflepuff stuff than I needed, so now I get to play catch-up with the other three Houses.

Happy whatever day it is ...

I've been so deeply absorbed in the Harry Potter jewelry that I didn't realize until I logged into Blogger that it's the fourth of July. Patriotic one, me. Time to feed Benadryl to the dogs before the fireworks get started this evening.

My absorption has paid off, though; I'm pretty much set for everything except Slytherin jewelry. I'm also doing a Marauders charm bracelet, assuming I can find a black dog bead, and I've made a Patronus memory bracelet, and I have centaur charms, and M found a large focal bead among the bits my grandfather gave me from his collection that makes a passable Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone.

I've moved from the "feverish creation because I won't have enough!" stage faster than usual, possibly because I actually made a tally this time and possibly because I only have a six-foot table to look forward to setting. Unfortunately, this leaves time for my dread that I'll show up and no one will want to buy anything. Partially alleviated by the fact that after the show, all of this is going on Etsy -- unless, of course, you've been searching for years for a one-of-a-kind magical creatures bracelet, in which case, go ahead and make me an offer ...

Speaking of offers, the last one is still in effect until Sunday night if you love button jewelry.

Dog exasperation and Potter jewelry

The dog that ate the garden has now eaten our sewing counter. Yes, eaten it. He pulled all the drawers out, scattered the fabric and gnawed T-Rex bites out of the wood. He's lucky the sewing machine didn't fall on his head.

In other news, M and I have realized that we have just over two weeks to prep for Azkatraz, this year's Harry Potter convention, where both of us are delivering lectures on the formal programming (she's something of an expert on participatory culture). We also both have vendor booths booked and I'm selling one-of-a-kind House-color jewelry.

I swear there has never been such a challenge to my creative abilities as trying to come up with unique, interesting designs when limited to four color schemes.

There's an equal problem in that I have to come up with roughly equal numbers of each (that's Gryffindor red and gold, Slytherin green and silver, Ravenclaw blue and bronze, and Hufflepuff black and yellow, for those not in the know). There are a LOT more interesting ways to combine blue and bronze than black and yellow. Also, the shortage of yellow beads -- not only at craft stores and small independent bead stores, even at some of the nation's biggest wholesalers -- is at screaming-and-rending-of-hair levels. Not to mention that pale translucent yellows look green next to bright orangey ones and that only highly specific greens read Slytherin once put together and I've been using lobster/spring clasps so much that my fingers are literally bleeding and don't even get me started on the fact that I can only find phoenix pendants in silver ...

You know what? I think I'll go make something in purple and white and bright copper to ease the mental pain. Possibly followed by a nap.

Shop redesign and discount/bonus codes!

I've reorganized my Etsy shop so it now sorts everything by style instead of type (i.e. "steampunk" and "whimsical" instead of "earrings" and "charm bracelets.") Not at all sure how I'm going to handle this if I actually do add hijab pins to my lines ...

Anyway. I've decided to celebrate this and share the joy of my first-year anniversary, which I celebrated this week, by starting to offer discount codes!

From now until 11:59 PST on Sunday the fifth of July, get a free pair of earrings in your color of choice with every purchase from the section called "Upcycled, Buttons, Notions." Just add the discount code "megan" and your favorite color in the "Notes to Seller" box.

This section includes the button-weave bracelets (see previous post), my wildly popular bobbin jewelry (hey, let me dream), and a couple of pieces made with soda-can tabs.


Available here.

Button bracelets are go!

Finally found the camera! As such, the button bracelets are going live on Etsy. The promised photos:


Available here.


Available here.

Another advantage of this technique? It finally gives me an excuse to buy colored wire. I use nylon-coated stainless-steel wire in my jewelry and while I've previously stuck to silver, gold, bronze and black, it comes in many many colors - even non-specific craft stores generally carry red and blue wire, and more colors can be bought as well. The wire doesn't show in most of my designs, but it's gorgeous in the button-weave bracelets.

Might as well face it: you're addicted to charms

My partner just returned from a trip to Berkeley, and she happened to go through a bead store. She tells me it was ridiculously overpriced. There are these lovely blown glass beads we've seen at the local craft store, about $4.99 for three to five of them with coordinating plain glass spacers. And at this Berkeley bead store? Five dollars a pop. Yup.

Anyway. She stayed away from the expensive beads, but what they did have was charms. Discount charms. Eight or ten nice pewter charms in a little plastic packet for $2.75.

I spent over an hour sorting them, and resorting them, and matching them, and giggling evilly. I'm so addicted.

There are Hawaiian shirt charms in pewter and gold - nine of each. Little red enameled mouths that beg to become a Marilyn Monroe charm bracelet. About a million corkscrews in gold and silver. Yellow enameled bananas. About fifteen tiny, anatomically correct copies of Michelangelo's David (!). And a pack of wine barrels and grape bunches in antique gold with one horse's head included. I'm assuming that was an accident, but I would like to credit someone else with that kind of a sense of humor - The Godfather Charm Set, I suppose?

Spent today trying to fend off that nestless feeling by making our garden work. My partner, M, has an incredibly stupid flat-coated retriever who is convinced that something is living in the drainage system under her grandmother's gravel patch. He may be right, but considering the twelve-inch pavers in the way, he'll never find out. Unfortunately, he's destroyed our little tomato garden in the process. We jury-rigged a solution involving half a futon frame, three lengths of rope, two bricks and a crowbar. The garden is now quite a respectable little corner patch, and has morning glories. This gives me joy.

Earring Earnings

I like being able to offer five-dollar earrings at shows. Actually, I stagger the prices: I have five-dollar, eight-dollar and ten-dollar earrings. You would think the sales would be inverse to the price; they're not. Ten-dollar ones go better than eight-dollar, even though the primary difference is in price of materials and I'm selling on a college campus. What can you do? The five-dollar ones always go best, though, which was the point of that story -- and interestingly enough, stated reasons to buy are a fifty-fifty split between "Oh, my friend would like these" as an addition to another purchase, and "Oh, I forgot to wear jewelry today and these match my outfit."

Online I can use prices that would require change in person, so I'm thinking of branching out and charging eleven or twelve dollars for these:


After all, they're real turquoise beads and the dangles were an absolute pain.

But every so often I see a pair of earrings like these, and think maybe I should add another price point. Aren't those incredible? I wish I'd thought of them. Obviously I won't exactly imitate someone else's design -- that would be immoral as well as illegal -- but what about hefty shell button pendants with a stack of spidery red coral branches over them? Hey, I have these flat diamond-shaped shell components in a pretty canteloupe orange ...

International Shipping! Um ... wait ...

Price of the bracelets I just sold on Etsy: 6.00 USD
Additional shipping charge to Lancashire on Etsy: 2.00

One small bubble mailer at the UPS Store: 0.99
Shipping rate, inclusive of customs fees and California sales tax: 3.89

My gross profit, even before deducting price of materials and labor: 3.12
Minus cost of goods sold: 2.12
Minus minimum wage labor: 0.12

My profit: Twelve cents.

So. Um. I'm going to be upping my international shipping rates.

Button Frenzy!

To start things off, let's skip straight past the beads and wire and findings and talk about BUTTONS!

I love buttons. I always have. I used to play in my mother's button collection while she sewed. I could wander through the button aisle at the craft store for hours. But, until recently, I didn't know how to sew (my partner, M, is a quilter and costumer and is remedying that deficiency). Even now it's not a particular skill - I just follow the seams and do what M tells me. So what do I have to put buttons on?

Oh, wow, have I found a way to use buttons.

The bracelets I'm working on right now can use two-hole, four-hole OR shank buttons, so I'm not limited by style, AND I can incorporate beads! Only certain sizes work, but I'm thinking of trying some different techniques to make this style a bit more versatile (little delicate button bracelets? Big cufflike button bracelets? Yes please!).

Of course, there's always the option of threading a large jump ring through one hole of a button to make a dangle. I've seen whole chains of buttons made that way - my mother-in-law-to-be, S, has quite a long one in gold jump-ring chain with orange and purple plastic buttons. But I have this horror of doing something that's been done too often - an obsession, if you will, with being different (I've always been like that. Ask my mom). So I limit that to charm bracelets and bobbin necklaces.

I think I'll call what I'm doing "wire weaving." I'll post pictures once I find the dang camera.

I hope this isn't a technique everybody else already knows about and I'm getting excited. That would be embarrassing.

Hello, World!

Welcome to the blog of TangoPig Jewelry Creations!

Apparently, in this new world of technology, every artist has to have a blog, so this humble designer of jewelry is jumping on that bandwagon. Blogwagon. Thing.

I'll be posting irregularly to talk about jewelry: New lines I'm starting, techniques I discover, frustrations with jump rings, cool beads I find, new pieces I'm excited about, the vagaries of the jewelry business, et cetera. Expect a certain amount of navel gazing.

As for me: The whole jewelry thing started with a fundraiser in my junior year of college. I made and sold five-dollar stretch bracelets to support my friend's ballroom dancing club (I went to the same high school as Lacey Schwimmer of Dancing with the Stars fame; another bandwagon we all jumped on with great eagerness). Now I'm in college and trying to supplement my girlfriend's poverty-level teaching income and my measly wage as a part-time cold chef at a local gourmet pizza chef with my jewelry-making skills.

So please hang out for the beads, the stories and the occasional headpin crisis!