Feb 26 2008
Uma Silbey’s jewelry is unique! She always incorporates semi-precious gems in her designs – whether it is a spot of color in a glowing cabochon, or an entire carved crystal wrapped with sterling to create something magical. Her designs are unpretentious and downright whimsical. They are “happy” pieces – they always put a smile on my face, and just make me feel good!
To see all our new Uma pieces – click here.
Feb 26 2008
Well, it has taken weeks of late nights (is it really 4:43am right now?!), but we have completed a significant rebuild of the Lytha Studios site (not the blog). Lots of technology has changed behind the scenes, the design has been updated, and a great deal of the photography has been redone.
123Bead site: you are next!
I’m sure there are still some lurking issues and hidden “gotchas”, so if you come across something, please let us know!
Feb 22 2008
Two pups having fun on a snowy day….
It reminds me of a day about eight years ago…
Feb 19 2008
The blog has been slow lately, and will be for the next week or so. Eric and I have been putting in LONG days working on a major website overhaul of the Celtic and Metaphysical portion of the website. The Celtic side of the website has, I say, a “Classic” look to it. Eric puts it differently – “1998 called – it wants its website back!”
So – we’re working on a big update to make it look more like 2008 instead of 1998. We’re never going to have a slick, corporate website (yuck!), but we’re going to have clean, stylish site that keeps the feel (and navigation) of the classic site, with a fresh new look. And style is important, because we have reason to expect an influx of visitors soon who are all about style……. More details on *that* coming soon.
Feb 08 2008
It is a leap year, and my inner nerd always gets excited by that. Leap year is a tacit acknowledgment that human constructions (like the calendar) do not always accurately map to the natural world (the path of our earth around the sun). At a more tangible level, it is kind of cool that leap year is also always an Olympics year and a United States presidential election year. Of course I also always enjoy that “free day” to catch up.
So enjoy your extra day this year, and I hope you are having a safe and comfortable Winter! Happy Beading — Erin
http://www.123bead.com
Feb 08 2008
The new Winter 2008 Collection from TierraCast® is here, and it is a beauty! The collection is called Solutions for Large Hole Beads. All the pieces in this collection are geared towards beads made on a 3/32″ mandrel – lampwork, cane glass, large hole drilled gems, etc.
The collection is made up of several parts. It begins with a selection of “bead bars” in various sizes. These heavy weight bars are perfect for stacking with large hole beads. They can be used and reused as the mood suits you, and you can make a beautiful focal pendant or earrings in literally a minute or two. They’re perfect for lampwork accented with large hole bead caps and spacers, which is the second part of the collection – see the earrings shown right.
This collection also includes a line of glue in findings with posts geared towards large hole beads. Again – an easy solution for taking a beautiful lampwork bead, or perhaps a gorgeous piece of dichroic glass and making an instant pendant or earrings. Finally – this collection has an ingenious component line that TierraCast® calls BeadAligners™. These clever little gizmos align large hole and small hole beads to eliminate the wobbles that result when you try to string them together.
All pieces are in stock in Silver, Gold & Copper, and ready to ship! To see the new collection – click here.
For instructions or a kit for the project shown to the right, click here.
Feb 08 2008
We call upon the Beast Blogging Lovers to help us name the Peacock! After six months of uncertainty, we have concluded (based on the color of her primary feathers, and a few other indicators) that our peacock is actually a lady peacock, properly known as a peahen. Now that we know (or think we know) her gender, Eric, Owen and I have each chosen a favorite name, and we’re asking our readers to help us decide. Please vote in our poll (in the left hand column of the blog), and let us know if you think she should be known forthwith as Indira, Maya or Pava. Indira and Maya are both Indian names (she’s an Indian Blue Peafowl) – Indira means “Beautiful” or “Splendid” and Maya means “Dream” or “Illusion”. Pava is the feminized version of Pavo – Pavo Cristatus is the Latin name for Indian Peafowl.
Feb 03 2008
This February marks our second annual TierraCast® Spacer Sale. All of these beautiful, American-made spacers are 15% off through the end of the month. I adore TierraCast®, and I use these spacers exclusively in my work now, in place of the sterling and vermeil that I used to use. They’re beautifully made – far superior in appearance and regularity to Indian bali spacers, far more affordable, and they’re available in so many different finishes.
The “Antique Silver” finish looks exactly like sterling. Antique Gold and Copper are available, as are Bright Silver and Bright Gold. Finally – our Antique Rhodium finished spacers are a little darker than Antique Silver, but they’re highly resistant to tarnish.
To see our selection of “flatish” bali style spacers and heishe – click here.
For our “fancy” spacers – click here.
I have the NEW WINTER 2008 line from TierraCast® on my desk, and am in the process of photographing and listing these new components. This line has, among other things, several beautiful and innovative new spacers, and I hope to have the whole collection ready by the middle of the week.
Feb 01 2008
A big silly peahen (aka “Peabrain”, aka “Pavo”, aka “Indira”, aka “Maya”), napping in my chair.
We’ve only in the last three days come to realize that “he” is, in fact, a “she”, and her name is a subject of some debate at this time…
Feb 01 2008
*** One of my customers suggested the current Mercury Retrograde was to blame (Thank you, Barbara!), but there were several egregious errors in spelling and expression (and the year) that have been corrected in the Blog version of the newsletter. My apologies for errors! — Erin ***
I grew up with a decided lack of appreciation for winter. Spring and fall were for riding bikes and taking walks. Summer was for summer vacation (of course), and spending hours laughing and talking with my best friend. But winter was cold and dark, and for most of the sun’s precious hours we were locked away in a classroom.
Yet I now find myself enchanted with Winter’s subtle charms. I don’t know when my feelings started to change. Maybe it was eight years or so back when we started doing much of our winter heating with a woodstove. I find myself many evenings, like Anne of Green Gables, “curled up Turk-fashion on the hearthrug, gazing into that joyous glow where the sunshine of a hundred summers was being distilled from the maple cordwood”.
I’ve come to love a little walk in the late afternoon sunlight – to hear the barren branches of the trees gently tapping each other in the breeze, to see the garden – soil sleeping and resting before the summer richness, and to smell the familiar, acrid smell of the wood fire burning on my hearth.
Wishing you a warm, light-filled and joyous mid-winter — Erin
http://www.lythastudios.com