CK Silver - Timeless and Elegant, Extraordinary Customer Service - BESTeam Featured Artist

I am so delighted to feature CK Silver a BESTeam member shop on Etsy.  Cindy and Marilyn, a mother daughter team, create classic pieces of jewelry that you will be proud to wear anytime, anywhere.  They use nature for inspiration and enjoy creating from what God has already created.  Their pride of workmanship carries over to their customer service.  They are always willing to work with you.

Enjoy the colors in this Southwest Autumn Necklace.  The beautiful turquoise stands out against the brown jasper and red garnet, a very pleasing combination.  CK Silver also has matching earrings and bracelet for sale to go with the necklace.

These Spring Tulip earrings feature lovely soft colored beads with sparkly crystals handwrapped with sterling silver wire to the earrings. They are lightweight and very pretty. CK Jewelry has a number of other earrings in different colors made in a similar style.

A different elegant style is featured in these Agate Sparkle earrings.  Notice the wonderful circular swirl of sterling silver at the bottom of the earrings.  Beautifully crafted, and there is a matching bracelet available for sale as well.

This next bracelet is dear to my heart.  It is a Fruit of the Spirit bracelet.  Each crystal represents one of the Fruits of the Spirit from Galations 5:22.  The sterling silver dove represents the Spirit of God.

Please make a visit to CK Silver at the Etsy shop or visit with them on their blog.

  

Are you a handmade artist who also blogs and has an Etsy shop?  If so, please consider joining BESTeam.  We promote each other shops and share marketing tips. 

Elizabeth M. Duquette has a broad range of interests and she shows it in her jewelry designs in her Elizabeth MD Etsy shop.  Elizabeth is a member of the Etsy team, BESTeam, plus a number of other Etsy teams.

One of my favorite pieces of jewelry that is in Elizabeth's shop is her  Silver Butterfly Heart Earrings.  $2.00 from the sale of these earrings will be donated to Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support..

In addition to the earrings, Elizabeth has a matching necklace.

Have fun wearing this red pinky ring.  Lots of color, yet casual and fun!

Look for ElizabethMD on her blog, 

Handmade Artisan Jewelry from Gilliauna

Bits n' Beads carries an impressive array of handmade artisan jewelry that is beautifully designed and constructed with quality materials and attention to detail.  It is hard to know where to start first when telling you about this artist's work.  You can find something in most any price range for yourself or for a gift.

Gilliauna creates fine handcrafted rosaries with exquisite detail.  I am especially drawn to her Holy Rosary Handcrafted in Blue Ceramic and Pearls.  The fabulous cross is unique with a gorgeous rich blue inlay.  In addition,  a gold-plated Madonna and child is the centerpiece.  This piece contains 191 links each of which is turned by hand.

You can find delightful practical items such as beaded key charms, beaded eyeglass holders, beaded id badge lanyards, and beaded bookmarks.  This shop also offers beautiful earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.

Here is one of Bits n' Beads made for fun pieces,

and a vintage inspired piece

and an elegant piece for a very special occasion.

A visit to this Etsy BESTeam member's  Bit n' Beads shop will surely delight you.  To find out more about the artist's work and thoughts visit her blog, The Meandering Musings of a Consummate Shopper, and find her on Twitter and Facebook.

Red and White -Just Right for Valentine Wedding

Here's another lovely Artfire collection for Valentine's day.

Valentine Wedding

  Curated By: CanterburyVin...

ArtFire.com

Unique Gifts

Sunshine Inspired Earrings

What a fabulous day this has been!  It is one of those at home days where I got some things done around the house and found time to create some new jewelry.  Here in Colorado, we often have breezes even when the weather is hot.  Such was the case this afternoon.  One of my favorite activities is to take a beading project out on the deck and create beautiful jewelry while I enjoy the beautiful weather.

The lampwork beads in these earrings have been sitting in my collection since early last fall.  The black eyed susans and shasta daisies blooming in our yard inspired me to create my own sunny garden earrings.  These earring are spicy hot, with fabulous movement in the way the crystals dangle beneath the lampwork beads.  

Enjoy the eye candy!

Spicy Yellow and Orange Lampwork Earrings

Sugar Plum Delight

I totally enjoyed designing and creating this necklace.  For those of you who enjoy creating jewelry, this type of necklace is a great way to improve your wire wrapping skills   Each of the sweet plum colored Czech crystals are individually handwrapped with sterling silver 24 guage wire and dangle from a strand of delicate pink seed beads.

For more information and to purchase  - Sugar Plum Delight 

Crystal Dreams - Very Vintage and Victorian

I made multiples of the earrings below.  They are just so Victorian and vintage looking to me.  I call them Crystal Dreams, and I posted them today on Etsy.  Hope you like them!  Happy Independence Day!

Black and White Twist

Here is one of my new creations.  I went outside of my normal comfort zone and style to create this bold chunky necklace from some lovely white howlite nuggets.  The nuggets are streaked with gray, and I decided to do the black and white theme.  When I made this I tried to offset the nuggets on the three strands so they lay well on the neck.

Do You Use Facebook?

I read somewhere the other day the use of Facebook by women over the age of 55 has increased 175% in something like the last six months. Can you believe it? I suppose I am one of those women. I never used it much because I couldn't figure out what to do with it.

Now I am getting into the groove and using it to show my newest jewelry. Another idea I saw for use of Facebook is to provide special discounts to those who visit my page and become a fan. I am going to try that too.

Social Networking is not easy for me. It does not come naturally. Still and all I am determined to get the hang of this because I love making jewelry, and I thoroughly enjoy learning all the new things that I come across on the internet. I am so fortunate to have this opportunity to market my work without having to physically travel all over the country.

Let me know what your experiences are. Do you have some tips? If so, please submit them to me for consideration to post here with a link to your shop.

Oh! By the way, become a fan on my Facebook page. See my newest jewelry there, and I will offer specials there for purchases through my Etsy shops.

Here's my newest posting on my Plum Beadacious Etsy shop.

Filigree Romance - Vintage Inspired Jewelry

I decided to update my Etsy shop that I called LeAllyson's Creations. It is now called Filigree Romance. I really enjoy the feminine look of Victorian vintage inspired pieces made with gorgeous Czech glass and Swaroski crystals, and then decorated with antique brass, antique silver or copper filigree beadcaps and beads. Have a look at the designs I posted at Filigree Romance. Several of my favorite pieces of jewelry are pictured here.

Blue Porcelain Earrings

Here is my newest earring creation posted on my Plumbeadacious Etsy site. These are made from porcelain and display lovely small flowers. They are a good size earring, and will look great with jeans. I have these beads in several other colors, white, yellow,and green. If you are interested in another color, contact me.

Rescued Treasures

Most of us are looking for creative ways to economize and save our hard earned dollars. None of us know what will happen next with our jobs, our investments, and our futures. We never really did know those things; we just felt more secure prior to this international economic crisis.

First and foremost I have faith that God is in control, and that he has a plan for each of us. From that perspective I try to look at the adventure and the good in all of this. As I have expressed before, I enjoy searching for quality old jewelry at estate sales and garage sales. I am beginning to create new pieces from the best of the old pieces. These are my "Rescued Treasures". Beads are rescued from a boring life at the bottom of a box or drawer, go through the pain of resuscitation via soap and water, are introduced to brand new youthful beads and findings, and take their places side by side with those new beads and findings, and take on new life in a brand new jewelry creation.

I have only posted a couple of "Rescued Treasures" on my website at this point. Check back often for more.

Reminders of Summer - Carribean Blue Jewelry

I wistfully wish summer had not rushed by so quickly. This jewelry reminds me of summer vacation at a beach by the ocean or swimming pools or ponds with aqua blue water.



I like to wire wrap loops and attach one bead at a time to chain. I enjoy watching my creation start out with a piece of chain, a spool of wire, headpins, Czech glass beads and a toggle clasp. As I use my pliers and cutters, one step at a time a fun necklace appears. I made matching earrings, too.

These Czech glass beads are lots of fun because they are a little different. They are fat fluted beads that are elliptical in shape.

Go to my Etsy shop to add these pieces of fashion jewelry to your personal collection.

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

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.