Finally...I Found a What I Needed to Complete a Piece!

Making jewelry is all about visual appeal and that makes working with sea glass a challenge at times. You can only use what the tides bring you... the price is right, but you don't have many choices when it comes to shape and color.

About 2 years ago, I found a beautiful cobalt blue piece of sea glass. The smooth, rounded edges were quite unusual for the Jersey shore, and I assumed the piece has spent decades, and decades tumbling around the surf before presenting itself one cold winter morning. When I returned home that morning, I had a "creative vision" of what I wanted to make with this rare NJ find, so I set it aside, and began going through my collection to start gathering similar sized pieces that would be used in the creation.
My idea was for a necklace, one that would make for a great early summer/ 4th of July piece of summer bling... a great patriotic piece that would catch people's eye.

Of course, finding the perfect red piece of sea glass would be a challenge. Red sea glass is the 2nd rarest of sea glass colors and with the exception of a reddish-pinkish piece my DH found 4 summers ago, I haven't even heard of anyone coming across a red in NJ for many years.

So my gorgeous cobalt sat in a small gift box, with the similar sized white pieces I plan to use in the creation of the necklace. It sat waiting for the perfect red. After the 4th of July, 2009 passed, the pieces sat waiting for any similar size piece of red...perfect, not perfect.

With the passing of another year's fireworks, and another 4th of July celebration, I almost forgot about my "vision". That is until I came across a fellow collector with a couple pieces of red sea glass...and one was so similar in size to what I needed to complete my vision.

After much going back and forth as to what it would take for me to own the needed red, it finally came to fruition... I would trade Juanita a couple of aqua blues, and yellows AND wrap a couple of her special pieces to acquire the red (and a few pendant sized pieces of various colors)to finish my "vision".

The problem with my vision is this piece is it's not like the "greatest piece of jewelry" I've ever created. Actually the problem is my love for cobalt blue pieces, and when I found this well-rounded piece of cobalt blue on my favorite stretch of beach, I had to create something incredible with it...it screamed to me that I needed to make something great with this rare find.

And that's the problem with working with sea glass and having creative visions. You have your idea of what you want to do, and the ocean has her idea of what she's willing to give you and I'm sure she laughed loudly when she saw me coming. Here's that women looking for a red...as if! LOL

But we both know that the search was both fun (and a little frustrating)and deep down, I know that it would have been much more satisfying if I could have located the red laying in the surf one day. But had that been the case, I would be keeping the necklace for myself : )

Now it's time to hold my breathe while my DH drills small holes in the sea glass... I guess my vision isn't finished just yet.

til next time... and hopefully an image of the finished piece....
R

New Summer Sea Glass Creations, Craft Show Schedule....

I've been off from the J-O-B for the last two days, so I used my little "mini-vacation" to straighten up my craft table and do a little creating to build up my inventory for June & July craft shows.
The images above are a couple of my newest items (both are in my Etsy shop) and I'll be adding a couple more into both my ArtFire and Etsy shops over the next couple of days.

I even snuck out of the house and made a trip to AC Moore this afternoon...and found a couple items I've been looking for online, but unable to find. Finding those components will allow me to place my online orders for drill bits, and a bunch of sterling silver (wires, necklaces, bracelets, head pins, etc).

So my "summer circuit" craft show season is under way. I had a fun time at the Barnegat Bay Festival and was excited by both the amount of traffic at the show and the number of people that were buying and/or very, very interested in my sea glass jewelry. I handed out a lot of business cards and had quite a few people asking me what shows I'm doing next.

My summer shows (for my followers that prefer not to shop online)
June 13th- The Field Dog Expo on Mt. Holly Rd. in Medford, NJ. Looking at all the activities they are planning for this show, it looks to be a fun, family festival. Lots of things to keep the children occupied, plenty of puppies and of course, a handmade craft fair with a few EtsyNJ members attending.

July 11th- OM Baby, Pt. Pleasant, NJ- another EtsyNJ event. It seems like about 20-25+ EtsyNJers will appear at the OM Baby Yoga studio for the 2009 spring version of this event. It's in a great area, many wonderful shops nearby and of course, the Pt. Pleasant beach and boardwalk.

July 18th- The 2nd annual spring edition of The Handmade Faire. This year's spring event will be held in Freedom Park, in Medford, NJ. The show is juried, (I'm still pending and crossing my fingers to be accepted) and one of our EtsyNJ team leaders, organizes this event. The first annual spring and fall events were outstanding... the high quality of handmade crafters made these shows the best in Central/Southern NJ and perhaps the best throughout the state (they were by far the best handmade show I've ever attended) I'm really looking forward to this show, and hope to be selected (emails to AbbieRoad of Etsy requesting my presence are appreciated... lol)

August 1- The Lacey Crabfest & Craftshow- I don't remember how many years the Crabfest has been held, (I know it's more than a dozen) but the CraftShow is in it's 9th year. The event attracted several hundred people last year despite a hard early morning shower and even with a slow start, the show was a success for me. Another fun show that attracted a handful of EtsyNJ members (which always makes a show a good time)

Hopefully somewhere in the mix, we'll get the first handmade craft show at the Nautical Museum in Beach haven on LBI (probably the 2nd or 3rd weekend in August)

That's it...a busy summer, squeeze in a vacation and a few trips to the beach and it's almost Labor day by the time the smoke clears : (

til next time...

R

New Sea Glass Jewelry, and a few days of Beachcombing

The sudden heat wave brought a few great days to hit the beach this past weekend and with the heat wave, came the day-trippers, the seasonal "tourists" and all of the locals.

I hit the beach early Saturday morning, to find an almost empty beach...only one other person was out walking her dog. I found a few shell beds that had been left behind by the early morning high tide and spent a good deal of time picking out some shells and searching for sea glass. It was quite enjoyable to spend a beautiful sunny, warm early morning on a quiet beach...just searching for treasures, and watching the morning sun rise in the sky, especially after the rough winter we had this year.

As spring turns to summer, there may not be very more quiet beach mornings. But I truly enjoyed the first warm morning of the the year and found it wonderfully revitalizing.


I suppose that becomes a nice bridge to my next topic... Finding incentive from my trip to the beach, I came home and went to my crafting table.

A few of the pieces I created this past weekend have already made their way into my shop on Etsy, and a few more went to the brick & mortars where I have some sea glass jewelry consignments. The images above are some of the new creations and I'll be back at the crafting table later this week to make a few more pieces.

Who knows, maybe I can squeeze in just one more quiet morning on the beach before things get crazy around here : )

Finally...a few days at the beach and some new creations....

With my children off from school for Spring Break, I was able to take a few days off from work and spend some time with them. We took the boys out for dinner Weds night and spent the morning with them before they went to spend the night at their Aunt's house (which our youngest bailed out on, cutting short some quiet time with the hubby) But before he bailed, my hubby and I had enough time for an hour long stroll on the beach (also dinner and about 45 minutes at a bookstore) looking for sea glass.

Once again, LBI was void of shell/rock beds and the sea glass pickings were few and far between. We did manage to find a few nice shells and a few pieces of glass each, but for the most part, it was really a nice walk on the beach.

On Friday, we decided to try taking a trip to New Jersey's southern most beach... Cape May. We took our boys with us and arrived at the cape May lighthouse a little after 1:00pm. The four of us trekked along the beach, heading south until we we stopped at Sunset Beach, which is famous for the concrete ship that ran aground in the surf and remains stuck in the water a short distance from the beach.

Once again, it wasn't a great day for sea glass, though we did find many more pieces in Cape May than LBI. What we had fun looking for were Cape May Diamonds. The "diamonds" are actually very clear pieces of quartz and they can, when polished in a rock tumbler, resemble a diamond.
We did find several examples and the boys had fun picking up some very pretty rocks.

There seems to be small quantities of rocks, like topaz, quartz (in many colors) etc, lying in the Cape May surf and the day turned out to be one large rock/sea glass collecting treasure hunt. And to top it all off, hubby took us all to The Lobster House, one of my favorite restaurants along the Jersey shore for dinner.

I've often said that every day at the beach is a good day and even though we didn't find many great examples of sea glass on Friday, it was great to the beach on a fairly warm, sunny day. We took a nice long beach walk, found lots of beach treasures and topped it off with a great meal.

Yes, it was a VERY good day : ) !!

Oh yea, I did get a chance on Thursday to spend some time at my crafting table and made a couple of bracelets, a pair of earrings and 4 or 5 more necklaces. The image of the necklace above, will eventually get into my shop on Etsy and the top image is the concrete ship that ran aground just off the Cape May coast.

'til next time...

R

New Handmade Sea Glass Jewelry...

Getting ready for an upcoming show, putting together a line of sea glass jewelry for a summer resort area gift shop and building up some inventory for my online shops have kept me at my crafting table for much of the weekend.

I finished several pieces today, a couple that will go into my online shops and several that will go into the gift shop where I'll be displaying some of my handmade sea glass jewelry. One of the pieces is my first necklace (or any piece of jewelry) with a piece of red sea glass. The red sea glass piece is absolutely beautiful and practically flawless. It's wrapped with sterling silver wire and hangs on an 18" sterling silver chain...(Image above)

One of the other pieces I finished today was a gorgeous heart shaped sea glass necklace. The piece of sea glass is a dark cornflower blue piece that has also been wrapped with sterling silver wire and hangs on a sterling silver necklace.

These were the only 2 images I was able to photograph during a brief brightening of what was a rainy and overcast Sunday sky. Hopefully the weather will clear up a bit, so I can continue taking pictures this week.

til next time...

R

New Sea Glass Creations, Works In Progress and Getting Ready for Boutiques?

Two new sea glass necklaces have been added to my Etsy shop and I'm busy working on putting together a few new bracelets and a couple new pairs of earrings. I'm looking to add a couple of bracelets to my Etsy shop, and I hope to add a bracelet and earrings to my ArtFire shop and a couple pair of earrings to my 1000 Markets store.

I've been busy drilling sea glass, and I have about 60 pieces drilled and I'm looking to add another 15 or 20 pieces during the week. Hopefully, my last 2 drill bits can complete the project.

I'd on the fence over putting together a presentation package for a few local brick & mortar shops. I'm hoping to have enough sea glass for my shows and to keep my shops, especially Etsy, stocked throughout the year.

Finding enough jewelry quality sea glass is getting tough. There's quite a bit of competition on the beaches looking for the ocean gems and the few trusted suppliers I purchase from have found the demand for quality pieces far exceeds their supplies...which of course means higher prices. Silver has been going up every day, so it's becoming harder to make affordable sea glass creations and having to charge more $$ in a sluggish economy means less sales.

So finding the right store or boutique is going to be very important and being able to keep them supplied all summer long is going to be challenging. Hopefully, I can talk hubby into hitting the beach in hopes of finding a few pretty pieces during the next few weeks.

I'll post more images, as I complete pieces.

til next time...

R

Sea Glass on ArtFire, New Sea Glass Creations...

In my previous blog, I mentioned placing a pale lime green necklace in my Etsy shop. After reviewing my sea glass item in my Etsy shop, I decided this pretty piece may be better suited to be the debut item in my ArtFire shop.

My Etsy shop has quite a few pieces of sea glass jewelry, so rather than add another to the mix, I thought it would be better to spread the greens around to different markets. I choose ArtFire over 1000Markets for this piece because my views at 1000Markets have been very low and in my first full day on ArtFire, my single listing received 13 views. Compared to my last listing on 1000Markets (also a green sea glass necklace) I'm impressed 13 views in one day vs 3 views in more than one week.

I also like the idea of ArtFire offering a feed of my Etsy shop, and a more important back-link to my shop on Etsy. Plus ArtFire offers the ability for me to see where my views are coming from, so I'll now if advertising campaigns are working, when they work best and how they ended up in my ArtFire shop (and hopefully this will lead to some Etsy traffic via the back-link)

For a picture of my debut listing, check out the image in my previous post or click on this link and go to my ArtFire shop directly... http://creationsbyrobin.artfire.com/

My new sea glass creations are quite a few wire wrapped pieces that are waiting for a new shipment of sterling silver chains and I have several pieces of drilled sea glass (all dime shaped or slightly smaller... including a pretty red piece of sea glass) and I'll hopefully start placing those in my shops over the next week or so.

If you happen to head over to my ArtFire shop, let me know what you think. There's only one listing at this point, but the shop is a work in progress and I'll be adding a sea glass bracelet(see image above) to that shop tomorrow. For anyone interested in my 1000Markets shop, I have a banner linking the site on the right panel and I'm also CreationsByRobin at the 1000Markets site too.

'til next time...
R

Sea Glass, New Items, Works in Progress...

Brutal winds, cold winter weather and sick children have kept me off the beach this past week. No new pieces of sea glass to report and not much of a chance of getting to the beach tomorrow either.

But being home with the boys has given me the opportunity to take some pictures of finished pieces and list a few in my shops (along with some plain old : ) glass jewelry piece for Valentine's Day). A few of the pieces have already made it into a few treasuries on Etsy and they've been hearted by a few Etsy members.

The new item above is a unique shade of green, almost a greenish-yellow and very petite and feminine. This necklace will probably head into my Etsy shop, along with a new sea glass bracelet with 4 soft colored pieces.

The Gray sea glass necklace will head into my shop on ArtFire.com and I hope to add a bracelet and a few regular glass jewelry pieces into that shop this week. As for the Citron piece...I'm not sure where that piece is going just yet, perhaps ArtFire also...my etsy shop is quite full of sea glass creations.

I have a few drilled pieces that I'm thinking about using for another bracelet and a few heart-shaped pieces that I'd like to make something with for Valentine's Day, along with a small supply of red sea glass that may end up on a piece or two.

Hopefully I'll have a few more pictures to share with the next blog...

til next time...

R

Dark Aqua Sea Glass Necklace, New Listings, Etsy, 1000Markets

I was able to finish a few of my sea glass necklaces earlier today. The patterned Seafoam necklace, that I believe could have been from an antique glass art piece, went into my shop at 1000Markets.

The soft green and soft aqua pieces landed in my Etsy shop. The soft green really is a nice piece and I mentioned the versatility of the piece in yesterday's blog. The soft aqua is also a beauty and if photographed fairly well (considering the poor natural lighting I had to work with today) but I'll be looking to re-take images of the piece as soon as I have better light to work with.

The piece I'm very excited about is the dark aqua sea glass necklace (pictured above... not the best image, but shows a lot of detail). In more than 10 years of collecting sea glass, I've never seen a piece quite like this...in any size! Dark Aqua should actually be considered an extremely rare piece of sea glass because it's estimated that this color is found 1 in every 1,000 pieces (and remember, I've never come across one quite like this...even at Sea Glass festivals) The shard measures approx. 1 1/4" in length and it has a starburst pattern (that can be seen slightly in the photos) which may have been caused by severe weather exposure or it may be a pattern from a decorative glass piece from many years ago.

As soon as I can get better images, I may send a couple of pictures to a few collecting friends in hopes of having a better understanding of where this beautiful piece may have originated.

Right now, the images I have are okay, and I'm probably going to add the piece to my Etsy shop because of the sea glass following I have at the site. I would keep it for myself, but I sort of have my eye on the lavender necklace I made... the ocean gem is the prettiest lavender I've come across...perfectly smooth and so wonderful in sunlight.

As soon as I can get some of the other creations into the sunlight for their close-ups, I'll share them with this blogs followers before they get into my shops. Along with the lavender, I also have a dark citron, and a light gray necklace and each one is just sooo pretty!

'til next time...

R