one by one

Green garnet or tsavorite and moonstone earrings
Topaz and chrysopase and tsavorite necklace

coral

lapis, iolite, aquamarine

yellow opal and peridot

moonstone white and pink

Lapis and aquamarine

Aquamarine and Bali silver

Blue glass and swarovski crystals

Blue glass on silver (nickle free) ear hooks

Blue glass

Get ready for some bling!

Here are the photos! All the earrings have either 14kt ear wires, sterling silver ear wires or nickle free silver. I am usually very sensitive to silver ear wires and they make my lobes itch. I have experimented with these different wires and sterling 925 works well as long as there is not any nickle. I have found a brand I really like. I am liking the silver ear hooks that are nickle free. This has been so much fun. Ok all prices, the blue glass earrings are $10.00 each and the rest are $15.00. I am feeling the creative juices flowing!!! If you have any color or stone combinations let me know! I have loved the support and comments thus far. Thanks for all of your help!

ENJOY!

i made earrings! tsavorite and moonstone on 14kt earwires. cheers!

Sometimes you just never know

Hi folks, I just returned to the island after a brief visit to Everglades City. I visited with the same great folks that I described in the earlier post. I delivered a few earrings that I whipped up the other day. I am on a roll and really excited to keep on working on this business. I am going to look into how I can either get a website to sell or what I need to do. I was thinking of keeping this blog site to talk about what is new and where I am and all that jazz but I'd like something a bit on the professional side. After talking with Kathy I am really excited about the prospect of donating a percentage of my profit to charity. I don't know scholarships to Outward Bound? Central Asia Institute to build schools? Immokolee Foundation?
There are so many worthy institutions that it is difficult to choose. Any ideas are welcome.

My day in Everglades City

BIG NEWS!! Earring are being made. I am so darn excited. I spent the day with a friend of mine, Bonnie. She helped me to sort through my jewelry and we were going to do so more photographs for the blog but she said, "Where are the earrings to match?" I replied,"I can't make them. I am not good at that and well I don't make them." "What?!"
Bonnie's fantastic friend Kathy was there as well and she concurred that earrings needed to be made. Just try it. I mean all you need to do is a wire wrap like this and she pointed out a piece that had some wire wrapping. So, I did, I tried it. It didn't look great at first, so I tried again and again...next think I know it is mid afternoon and I have about 8 pairs of earrings that match various necklaces. WOW, I did it. Who knew? Trish did, she showed me how but it seemed so easy for her. I want to take a wire wrapping class now and learn more. I could get a book...that might be more feasible. I am really happy about the way the day turned out.
I was really sad in the morning and then I had a day of creativity, meeting new folks, talking about how to grow the business. One thing Kathy said was to link C'est la Bead with a charity. Brilliant. That way, I get the satisfaction of creating, I get the opportunity to make someone happy with the product but the best part is that I get to give back! I mean it was like the universe swirled around and created this perfect opportunity for me. It really opened my eyes that I can do something meaningful with my life. I can give back. It was exactly what I needed to spur me on. Thank you so much ladies. You have helped me in more ways than you can imagine.
My camera is in my car so just words in this post, but later I will get the photos of the earrings!

SOLD!!

Well, a big thank you goes out to Nancy at the local grocery store. She bought one of my favorite coral necklaces. She said coral brings joy and luck, I couldn't agree more. She is inspiring me to try earrings. This trip to DC was fruitless for sales but great for learning. I learned how to wire wrap. Trish tried to show me once, she is really good, but it didn't make sense. I am going to work on wire wrapping the next few days. I hope I can make a pair of earring to match Nancy's necklace. We will see. I will keep you up to date!

Great feedback

I am currently at the Food and Wine festival in Washington, DC. I brought some of my pieces to the show. I don't have a great design for display but I positioned them artfully. The booth next to me is a jewelry maker as well. Talk about display. It was amazing. multi level, multi colored...a bit overwhelming. She mainly does big stones and crystals. Not too many semi precious stones. Mostly quartz and glass. $70-$120 a pop. She whips these things up in seconds. I watched her today make about 17 necklaces, 4 pairs of earrings and 10 bracelets. We were only there for 8 hours. It takes me 8 hours to plan out my design. I was amazed. I wonder if I will get that quick? I wonder if I want to be that automatic....
The woman on the other side is a photographer. She had lots of prints as well as framed art. She built a wall on one side of the booth and allowed me to display on it. very nice! She watched the booth for me while I used the bathroom and got a bite to eat. I hope tomorrow I have a chance to walk around. Maybe in the morning. Folks are not so interested in us in the AM. I had a much better response after lunch. We are in a weird spot. Not near the drinking or eating. This was not one of my better first days in terms of sales. Nice folks though.
So, the title is great feedback...I learned today that using complex clasps on necklaces are difficult to maneuver if...
a) you have long finger nails
b) you have had too much to drink
c) if you are unwilling to put down the drink to try on the necklace.
That seems fair, right? I wore that one the rest of the day so no one else would have to suffer such frustration.
I was able to try an organic tempernillo from Chile and an organic Bordeaux from France. YUM! Also, as usual Trefethan Merlot was out of this world good. Only $32 a bottle, heaven! Maybe more tomorrow.
Cheers!
Cheers!

Photo bucket

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn91/annelovett/cest%20la%20bead/

Above is a photo sharing website. I think high speed internet will be the only option, sorry mom. If you have dial up or slow speed I will be posting most of these pieces one at a time. I just looked at the site and I have misspelled many of the tags. I was going fast and not paying attention. Sorry, not very professional. I will try to figure out how to fix that. In the meantime you will have to forgive me!
I have been having fun. The next group of photos will be models wearing the necklaces. Mom could you send me a photo of the green garnet piece that you made in Marco? I will have to get a shot of Grandmommy wearing the Jasper piece. FUN!!
I will be in western NC May 10-14 and Washington DC 15-19. Does anyone have any connections to DC? I need a place to crash. I'll bring thank you gifts!

Ego Boost

I was at the grocery store today and the cashier commented, " Oh I like that, what is the stone in your necklace?" "Coral.", I replied. She inquired where I bought it. I told her that I made it and showed it to her. Then I handed her my card and asked her to visit my website. She was really interested. She asked me to make her one a bit longer and bring it back to the store. I think I will begin to work on one today. I was really happy that someone noticed what I am doing and appreciates it. It really made my day! Here is a photo of the necklace that boosted my ego today! It is coral branch, coral beads, sterling silver beads, red glass beads and a sliver toggle clasp.