Wednesday, November 25, 2015

The Fishtail Pattern - Finished, but not by Me!

Hi everyone!

I just had to post the coolest thing that happened only recently. Some of you may recall my free beaded Fishtail tutorial

I had planned to complete the design, but just never really got around to it.



But thankfully for me, someone else did! Amy Bradley contacted me on the Malfait Luciu Facebook Page. She showed me a fishtail bracelet she'd made, but she'd also finished both ends and a clasp. Her chosen color palette is just perfect, too.



Isn't it gorgeous? I love those little green fringe beads and the very pretty way she created the sort of 'checkerboard' effect on both ends to finish them off.

Thank you so much, Amy, for showing me your work! And to anyone who uses any of my free tutorials, I do hope you'll share your work to me! Post your completed pics on the Malfait Luciu FB page, and I'll feature them here on the blog. Got a variation you tried out? Show me! I hope at one point I'll be able to dedicate a page on this blog specifically from works by others :)

Thanks again, Amy!

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Goodbye Autumn Jewelry

Hello everyone!

I have been very busy yesterday and today working in my brand new studio space. It's the only space in the house that I feel really belongs to me, and I have some plans to spruce it up some (it IS in an unfinished basement, after all). However, when I visit my mom for Thanksgiving, she's giving me a nice rug to spread on the concrete floor, and I'm going to bring home my massive poster of Trent Reznor (this thing is enormous, my love gave it to me a very long time ago when we were just friends). It was looking rough, ragged edges, etc. But at the time I worked at a framing shop, so I sent it out to get mounted on acid-free foam core with a simple bronze frame. Well, I know exactly where that's going! There's a space on the wall right in front of my work table that is the perfect size for my massive poster of teh sexxiest guy ever :P

Not at all to say I'm not thrilled with the space (I spent a good five hours there today working on a ring I'll put up elsewhere in this post - and with a free tutorial that I should complete by tomorrow, stay tuned!) But I'd love to hang a curtain to hide this one spot in the corner that I'll never use and is an eyesore, and also I'd love a big comfy chair or small loveseat to relax and take a break from the wire a bit.

I've been working with my wire so much these past two days that my fingertips hurt! He'


Cannot for the life of me get a good photo of this but I love it and I finally used my seafoam green wire that I have literally owned for years and never used. Plus there are two teeny tiny pink montees on either side of the bead (which sparkles like craziness).

I've got the photos taken for a tutorial, just have to edit them and then post them, hopefully tomorrow.

❦  ❦  

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I was born for winter. I look forward to cold temperatures the way people can't wait for the hot summer sun. But even though I love winter, I do think that autumn is just too damn short.

So, to 'keep the memory of autumn alive', I'm running a sale on the Fall-themed items in my shop, all marked down for you!

Looking for a statement necklace? This design is available in two colors, brown and bright copper. They're actually quite sturdy, although they look delicate. My favorite parts are the pair of acorns each pendant features - each necklace has one brown glass acorn and one champagne colored Swarovski pearl.


These were $25, but with my Goodbye Autumn Sale, they're only $18 each! Does bright copper draw you in? Or maybe you're more inclined to deep rich brown?



How about a sweet pair of acorn earrings? These faceted glass beads each have their own Vintaj acorn top (quite easily the cutest little finding I've ever seen). These were $10, but for the Goodbye Autumn Sale, they're a steal at $6!


A pair of lucite, somewhat translucent rich brown leaves affixed to hairpins? These are decorative hairpins, not bobby pins. They're intended to adorn hair that is already in an updo. An easy, unusual hair accessory that people will notice! They were $6, but for the Goodbye Autumn sale, they're only $4!


Prefer traditional bobby pins instead of hair pins? My Autumn Palette barrettes are just the thing to add a little touch of fall. These were $7.50 but for the Goodbye Autumn sale, they're only $5!


Today in one of my boxes I found some old lucite leaves and a bronze circle finding. It's laying out on my desk right now in this configuration, but I haven't decided on a design yet. The leaves feel wonderful in your fingers, you'll love their weighty look but light feel. We'll see what I come up with with these!

Today, I'll leave you with Trinity's single white toe <3



Til Next Time!





Monday, November 23, 2015

A New Studio Just for Me!

Hello everyone!

For a long while now, I've been suffering from the dreaded "artist's block". I couldn't even get up the motivation to pick up my pliers- hell, I couldn't even manage to put pencil to paper to doodle some designs!

But, I'm grateful that that seems to have passed. It was a matter of sheer will - you WILL create something today, Jet!

But it's true what they say about being kind to yourself- when I find myself feeling like my work is pointless or bad quality, I ask myself: 'If someone else said that stuff to you, wouldn't you be furious?' In other words, be kindest to yourself.

If it's a motivation problem, or a huge task to handle, I just break it up into small tasks and ignore the big picture. As my mom and Grams are fond of saying: "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time". :3 I'm so grateful for having these two ladies and their wealth of wisdom.

So, I desperately wanted to create. I decided to ease into it, with a very simple necklace.


I've had these little metal black bow charms for god knows how long. I have them in silvertone too, but I feel like it gave me enough experience to get back into the swing of creative. I'll list it in the shop soon


These were my next attempt at getting back to my tools and pliers. I wanted to do a simple but elegant shape, with just a little wire wrapping. I could'nt resist putting them on those chains - these earrings will likely not ever stay still, which I think is the fun part.

And of course I went with green and bronze. Bronze wire is my favorite, and I just love the way it looks with greens and purples. These will go up into the shop very soon, too.

Tonight I'll leave you with Trinity, who has been trying for ages to get up to the top shelf of my shelves and finally succeeded (and of course she's sitting on my sewing box :P)


'Til Next Time!