New Website on GoDaddy

After two years of hosting my website with CityMax, I decided to start over and create a website using GoDaddy's Website Tonight. I am so pleased with this site builder. It is very user friendly, and I can preview my updates prior to publishing them. That was not possible with CityMax unless I created a whole new page and kept it hidden, and then replaced the old page with the new. See my new PlumBeadacious site hosted by GoDaddy.

I also decided not to have my own shopping cart on my site. Everything is listed on my Etsy shop, and the new website will link customers through to Etsy. When I tried to list jewelry on my own website and on Etsy, it became difficult to track what was for sale where. Sometimes I had things posted both places, and sometimes I found that I didn't have certain items listed at all.

Watercolor Blues Necklace and Earrings Set

Dueling Pianos

My husband and I had a night out on the town tonight. I am usually a stay at home type person, but my cousin reserved a table for a bunch of us to celebrate the fact that my son has been hired to work at Google, and will be leaving us here in St. Louis next week to move to California. We are all excited for him, and we celebrated at Jive & Wail, a piano bar, here in the community of Maplewood,MO.


What fun it was! There were two pianos on the stage with two guys playing and singing. It was crazy, fast paced and loud. It took me out of my normal comfort zone, and I had a blast!


Now, had I thought ahead, I would have worn some funky earrings like these Pumpkin Aglow earrings that I created last week. These were made from rich fluted orange cubic zirconium beads that look a lot like pumpkins. Then I selected yellow orange Swarovski crystals to cap off each end of the "pumpkins". The black of the gunmetal used for chains that dangle from the beads and the leverback earwires are the perfect contrast to the orange. Great to wear from now through Halloween and Thanksgiving! Take a look at them at Plum Beadacious.

Leaves of Gold

Fall is coming up very fast here in St. Louis. Normally we have very hot weather well into September, but this year not so. We have had temperatures at night in the 50s with highs in the 70s during the day. I guess that is to be expected after the unseasonably cool spring and summer we have had.

So in keeping with the season, I made this delightful golden necklace that I call "Leaves of Gold". I was looking at color design in a quilt book and decided to try a three color scheme from alternating colors on the color wheel. With this type of color scheme you start with one color on the color wheel, skip a color, use the next color, skip a color and use the next color. I started with the tertiary color yellow-orange for my main color. This is the color of the leaves. Then I selected small beads to complement these leaves in the tertiary colors of yellow-green and blue-green. The design is very symmetrical and is finished with goldplated brass chain.

Color is lots of fun to play with, and I am hoping to come up with more combos that are vibrant like this one is. This necklace is available for purchase through my Plum Beadacious shop on Etsy.

Stylin' As We Work

As school is started and vacations are over, we all start thinking about supplies and needs to make our everyday work a bit easier and more convenient. Many of us, including myself, are required to wear or carry an ID badge to work or school. These have absolutely no style or fashion sense at all, and are a necessary item in today's world. Many crafters make beaded ID badge holders to wear around the neck as a fashion accessory. They are called lanyards, and some are remarkably beautiful.

I tried my hand at making a few of these and will be selling them at my Plum Beadacious shop on Etsy. They are comfortable to wear, and add a touch of fun to every day attire. I made mine without magnetic break away clasps. I did this because whenever I wear a piece of jewelry with a magnetic clasp, I am constantly watching to make sure it has not fallen off. I have had problems with that, and so don't want to be losing my ID badge because of this. However, I do know that for safety reasons, many schools and employers require break away lanyards. So I will do them if customers would like me to. I plan to go ahead and make some with break away clasps so that customers have a choice.


I would love to hear your comments about these. Do you wear an ID badge? Would you wear a beaded one? Would you need a break away clasp? Please let me know.

Charming Brass Filigree Flower Necklace

This was another fun project for me. I purchased several of these charming brass filigree flowers and as usual had no idea how I would use them. I just thought they were delightful! So once my creative juices got in gear, I decided flower upon flower would be a great idea. So I took a brass headpin and placed a small blue catseye bead and a green Czech glass flower on it. Green and blue color combinations are one of my favorite color combinations. Then I glued this into the center of the brass filigree flower. After that I took a small brass chain and cut it into smaller segments so I could wire beads between the segments. I used the blue catseye beads there again to coordinate with the one in the flower, then added a few white glass beads, and to pull it all together added some green glass cone shaped beads in a tone similar to the green glass flower in the pendant.

You will see that I added a couple of catseye beads near the clasp at the back of the neck. I have seen other jewelry artists adding small beads at the back, and just love the effect. Hope you do too.

Voila! Creation of a Favorite Necklace!

I had so much fun creating this necklace and matching earrings. I found these large vintage lucite beads on eBay and fell in love with the scrollwork on them. I used to paint on wood and enjoyed Rosemaling and other types of decorative strokework. This reminded me of that. After I bought the beads and had them in that little plastic bag sitting all alone on my work table, my enthusiasm waned for awhile. All I could see is the brown color, and I did not have the slightest idea of what to do with them. Weeks later I started pulling out my various beads. I knew I didn't want everything to be brown. I thought of moukaite. These natural stones come in a variety of muted colors. They are brown, rusty red, soft rose, cream, gray, soft yellow, and other variations. They complemented my large scrollwork beads perfectly. Now, I needed some sparkle. Gotta grab your attention! So I selected some lovely faceted Czech crystal roundels in soft rose pink and pale green with a hint of pink. Sprinkle in some sterling silver beads , and voila - a wonderful unique necklace! As I say about my favorite pieces - It's just Plum Beadacious!

This necklace and the earrings are for sale in my shop. I named them Soft Earth.

Show Me Etsy - St. Louis Artisans

I am so pleased to be a member of the up and coming Etsy team, ShowMe Etsy! We are an energetic group of artistic entrepreneurs who have banded together to support one another's endeavors and to have some fun. Last night we met at a local Starbucks and talked non-stop for two hours, yet managed to make plans, yes, even important decisions, for upcoming events. We have a blog, a webjam site, and a flickr site.

Some people will participate in some arts and craft shows this week-end and others will participate at shows in August and into the fall. Come on over to our web page to learn more about all we are doing. We're looking for other Etsy artisans from the greater St. Louis area. We do cross that big old Mississippi, and have members from Illinois too. So check us out!

I will be displaying my jewelry at the Cool Art Hot Jazz Festival with this group on August 15, 16 and 17 at Queeny Park. Come see us!

Summer's End Necklace