Confessions of a Seadbeadaholic part 4

And it's story time again today.

The wire necklaces I made were ok. But that's definately not the end of my bead quest.
I was thinking what if I made my own beads with Fimo Polymer Clay. Then my necklace would be even more special.

So I started experimenting after a quick glance on the internet. Couldn't be that hard I thought. Haha wrong off course. I rolled my beads - nothing wrong at that time. But then they needed to bake in the oven. Ok no problem, I took some tooth picks and pushed them in the clay. But none of the clay beads kept their shape when being pushed on the tooth pick. But I managed to get them shaped again more or less. And in the oven they went.

Great my first badge was ready. After they had cooled down I put on the varnish and waited for a day to let them dry. Finally the next day it was time to get them of the sticks. What did you think happened? The sticks where stuck - couldn't get the beads off. There they went, all in the trash can. 😢

So I decided to buy this book on Bol.com - they even still sell it :)

https://www.bol.com/nl/p/making-jewelry-from-polymer-clay/1001004010363347/

After a bit of training I succeeded into making some reasonably nice beads. Like the ones in this necklace I still have 😊

But I must say making those beads is pretty labour intensive. First softening the clay and making shapes or mixes with them. Then rolling out the beads. And the step that I didn't know about before was putting them in the fridge for about 15 minutes to harden the clay again. And I used special bead baking pins to put the beads on. So then they went in the oven for 35 minutes.

After they had cooled down I put on a first coating with varnish. Then I had to wait until next day to put on the second coating. And finally the third day I could take them of the pins and start to use them in my jewelry.

Some people liked and others did not. And I did sell a few on markets. Yes indeed always enough to cover my costs and buy a few new materials. But I wasn't getting rich - no way. My business was still bringing in just enough to buy me some more beading stuff. And I was still happy with that.

The end for now - gonna tell you more about my bead addiction later

Hope you had fun reading.......Until tomorrow......Have a great day

Renata (Seadbeady)

Confessions of a Seadbeadaholic part 3

Time to tell you a bit more about my story on my tiny bead addiction. A big addiction, but tiny beads off course. Last time I told you my necklaces where far to simple and I had sold a few to colleagues. But my business wasn't thriving, if you could call it a business at all.

I needed to find something better if I wanted to make it in the Jewelry business at all. Since my physical health problems had forced me to give up my music (who knows maybe if I have the courage one day I might make a short video of me singing). I really needed to find something to keep me busy during the time my body needed rest. So I had no intention of giving up on this. Must have herited some of my fathers stubbornness. 

I remembered seeing something with thin metal wire that another colleague made. So I started searching the net again to find out how to make those. The net aaah such a wonderful invention, but careful you could get addicted just like me to my beads. And I haven't found a cure. Actually I am still not sure if I even want that cure. I hope this picture is not too shocking, but this is what my first wire necklaces looked like.

I know that's a hideous picture. Sooo sorry 😉 Way to dark, my own shadow on it and way too yellow, or should I say brown. But the necklace itself wasn't that bad, and I did sell a few of those to colleagues again. Haha those poor colleagues, but sweet, they must have felt sorry for me.

But I decided I had bothered them more than enough. I wasn't gonna bring my jewelry pieces to work anymore, only if they asked for it. That's when I found out about creative markets. I bought some materials to be able to make me a stand at those markets. I used an old pasting table and some lawn chairs to be abele to present my goods.

The biggest reward I got on those markets were the great comments from people who admired my work. And I even sold some pieces. Seriously I am not pulling your leg. After deduction of my costs I had about 30 or 40 euro left for buying new supplies. Just like a little girl in a candy store 😀

But the biggest downfall was the pain I was left with afterwards. So much that I could hardly straighten my back. My husband could not understand why I still wanted to do this. He actually really got mad at me sometimes, cause he didn't like to see me in so much pain for such a lousy bit of money.

That"s it for today - hope you enjoyed

Have a great day

Renata (Seadbeady) :)

Confessions of a Seadbeadaholic part 2

Time to continue my story on how I got to be addicted to those little tiny beads.
You can find the first part of my story on the page Seadbeady's Blog 

My bead journey started with larger and less expensive beads. I didn't have the need to go out and follow workshops so I started my search on the internet to teach myself how to make jewelry. I soon found out that Youtube was a great way to do that. Who knows maybe some day I will be putting on my own tutorials there if I have the nerve lol. But I was really amazed to see out how much you could find there.

So after a bit of studying, I decided to go find the right store to get the supplies I needed. I got myself a pair of flat nose pliers, metal wire, a bead board, scissors, some lobster clasps, split rings, crimp beads and some lovely beads to work with. And this is how my first necklaces looked like.

Would I buy this in a store, oh no sorry not good enough. But at the time I thought they looked wonderful. Ok I admit that I was a little (just a tiny bit) subjective. You can imagine I made a lot more of those, and I wasn't gonna keep them all to myself. At first I gave them away to my nieces or my sisters (I still do sometimes). My daughter wasn't such a fan. Couldn't really understand why not, but I supposed It must have been a matter of taste, right???

But I wanted to make more, and even though they were not the most expensive supplies, they did cost me. So I took my (gorgeous) necklaces to work, to see what my colleagues would think. Who knows maybe I could sell a few. I suppose they must have seen the desperate look in my eyes, cause they did buy a few. Oh my I was over the moon. And as you suspected I went out to buy me some more supplies. To make more necklaces and sell them again. But I soon ran out of colleagues to sell to, even though I was almost begging them. So that was the end of that, and also the end for today.

More about my addiction next time - have a great day

Renata (alias Seadbeady) 😁

Labor Day Sale until september 7

Wanted to let you all know I am having a Labor day sale in my Seadbeady shop on Etsy.

The sale started on august 8 and will be running up until september 7
You will get a 15 % discount when you buy for a minimum amount of 40 €

All the items in my shop are made by myself with needle and special beading thread.
Shipping costs are already included in the price so that there will be no unpleasant surprise at checkout.

To have a peek you can follow this link 😊

Seadbeady

Tx for reading
Have a great day

Renata (Seadbeady)