candygram.

Coming soon to the shop:

shop update at big cartel

This week's shop update is entirely blizzard-inspired. During my snow days last week, I made two enormous and sparkly bracelets, and one dainty pair of golden teardrop earrings. The bracelets are both one of a kind and cannot be repeated.

early bird

I'm making a conscious effort to get a little ahead of myself so that my weekends aren't so jam-packed with to-do list things. So I spent some time this weekend pulling beads together for holiday designs. Most of them won't be in the shop for a while yet, but it felt cozy to be enjoying crisp, cool weather and gathering up sparkling silvers and whites for winter wear.

Here's a preview of what will be in the shop tomorrow, though - I played all weekend in the beadyard, so there will be several new earring designs and two new necklaces this week.

(Keep an eye on Leaves of Glass, too - there are several new pieces that will list there tomorrow as well.)

a new leaf

It's been a very long time since I've posted anything here. During the silent months, I've enjoyed a hilarious and productive summer vacation, gotten rid of what feels like half my stuff, rearranged my apartment, started a regular workout routine, redyed my hair three times (it's blue right now), read many books, designed lots and lots of new work, and made a perfect mulligatawny soup. And three failed batches of caramel.

A lot of this has been chronicled on Twitter. I find it easier to keep up with that, for some reason, although it obviously doesn't have the scope for reflection that blogging does. If you do the Twitter thing, please follow me - I promise hilarity and frequent hair updates, as well as immediate notification when I post new things and the occasional random sale, based on whimsy. I have renewed intentions for good blogging, of course - when do I not? - and a head full of half-written blog posts on everything from concert reviews to dyeing Lucite beads, and I hope to actually be able to write about them soon.

Anyone who already follows me on Twitter will know that I've been working on setting up a new shop over at Big Cartel. As of this week, I'll start posting my new designs for Leaves of Glass in that shop rather than my Etsy shop for Tuesday updates. (For now, urban legend will remain on Etsy only). I'll continue to sell existing listings and several of my best sellers on Etsy, but will be working on promoting the new site as much as I can. There are a number of reasons for this, but I'll just touch on my top 2 here:

1. It's more cost effective for me, and therefore I can make my jewelry a bit more affordable for you. You'll notice that prices are a little lower there than in my Etsy shop.

2. DISCOUNT CODES! Big Cartel allows me to program discount codes into my shop so that you can take advantage of sales, coupons and special offers without waiting for a revised invoice or refund.

This is a huge deal for me, and I'm excited to try it out; so to celebrate point #2, I'll be launching this week's brand new Leaves of Glass shop update with a discount code. Enter code NEWLEAF when you checkout at www.leaves-of-glass.com for a 10% discount on your order. (Fine Print: This code will be good through Tuesday, October 5, and may not be combined with other discounts.)

I'll also be sending out an email reminder with the new shop information. In the meantime, here are a few sneak peeks of tomorrow's update to whet your appetite.

love bites, part 3

And here's how it all came together:

After spending about a week communing with Lola's teeth and my bead boxes, I decided to make a sort of harness out of sterling wire that would cradle the teeth securely, but wouldn't change their structural integrity at all. I played around with shapes and wound up with this:

This is basically the same as the vintage lampwork glass leaves and flowers that I love so much - tooth flowers. When I had the final versions all wired up and ready to use, I put them in a tiny vase for pictures. This is my favorite photograph that I took during the entire project:

For the final earring design, I wanted to do something that definitely looked like my work. Since my work lately focuses heavily on asymmetry, I opted to make a mismatched pair of earrings but kept them a bit shorter than the crazy long asymmetrical pairs I've designed in recent months. The beads I chose are classic and elegant - some of the rarest and oldest things in my collection - but have a decidedly Gothic flavor when assembled with dark metals (and teeth).

Here is the end result, the Love Bites earrings:

And a little chart of the pieces I used to make them:


I'm really pleased with the way they turned out. It was a pleasure to make something special for someone whose joy, generous spirit and hard work (really, crazy hard work - I secretly suspect her of having bargained for extra hours in the day) I admire so much. Thanks for the teeth, Lorraine! I loved having them in my company, and they'll be on their way back to you soon. I hope you love them!

love bites, part 2

Here's what happened next:

I freaked out a little bit. I mean, I got the shouty spinnies. "You got me Neil Gaiman's dog's teeth to make earrings with? For the Fabulous Lorraine to actually wear?! This is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me!" (My strict grammar training deserts me in high-tension situations.) And then I did a Cordelia: "Excuse me. I have to call everyone I have ever met, right now."

When I calmed down, I started to freak out in a quieter, more worrisome way. It's a fun and amazing prospect to think of making earrings with something really special for someone you don't know but really admire, but then it hit me that I'd be using unique, irreplaceable, very very sentimental materials. The baby teeth of someone's beloved pet - it doesn't matter whose pet it is, that's a very special thing to do. (Weird, I know, Dad - just try to be happy for me...) I want to make something lovely and lasting and unique, that she'll love but that also looks like I definitely made it. So I got to continue with that quiet, daunting freakout while I waited for the teeth to arrive, all the while debating what to do with them.

My first thought was to set them in silver (with help from some metalsmithing friends) and do something simple but striking. Then they arrived, though, and I saw immediately that wasn't going to work. Here are Lola's elegant and dainty teeth:

They're about a half inch long and a little less than a half inch high at the tallest point, and they're very, very thin. I was sure that doing any metalwork with them would dry them to the point of making them brittle, and might actually crack them. Drilling them for hanging was also obviously out of the question. I spent the next week staring at them and taking some pictures, while I debated how I might use them and what beads I'd like to use.

Tune in tomorrow for the results.

love bites, part 1: a tooth tale

photo of Lola by @neilhimself via Twitter

Here's what happened:

The phone rang, and I answered it. It was Shana. You can find out what she said here: http://shanasays.typepad.com/shanasays/2010/07/this-odd-thing-i-did.html

Tune in tomorrow for another toothsome installment!

in the sandbox this week

These are some of the beads and colors I'm playing with right now. Look for these in Tuesday's shop update at urban legend!

leaves of glass flashback

I've been doing inventory while planning supply orders, and have come across a few of my early jewelry designs. I thought it might be fun to list these pieces in my shop at their original prices, as a sort of retro sale. So starting today, and continuing until they're gone, I'll be listing a couple of these oldies for your nostalgic shopping pleasure. Have fun!

20% off all weekend!

Leaves of Glass is having a 20% off sale all weekend - Friday, November 26 - Tuesday, December 1. Item listings in my shop have been edited to reflect the sale prices, and all orders will be shipped on Wednesday, December 2 to arrive in plenty of time for the holidays. Happy shopping!

introducing a design change at urban legend

pop rocks necklace

In order to offer some lower price points, I've started using gunmetal components in several of my designs at urban legend. I'm really excited about this, as it allows me to offer lots of new durable, high-quality bracelet and necklace designs at about half the price I've had to charge in the past. For my customers with sensitive ears - don't worry! All of my earrings hooks are still sterling silver. I know several of you rely on me to provide high-quality irritation-free hooks, and that won't change. But you'll start to see several necklaces and bracelets made with gunmetal wire and chain in my shop. If you prefer sterling silver in any design, please contact me - most designs can be reproduced in sterling for an additional price. This change only affects my jewelry in the urban legend shop; my designs at Leaves of Glass will continue to be made and listed with sterling silver. Here's a sampling of what's already available in the new gunmetal line at urban legend; look for lots of new pieces to start listing in the next two weeks. I encourage your input on this change; please feel free to contact me with any comments, questions or concerns!

baggage necklace

orchid thief necklace

nomad bracelet