It's summer sale time at urban legend!

Necklaces are 10% off and earrings & bracelets are 20% off

through Sunday, July 17.

i want candy.

My urbanlegend shop is turning 2 years old this month. That's 2 years of making big, fun, candy-looking, please-don't-eat-the jewelry, and I've enjoyed every minute so far. I've also placed no less than 10 orders for beads in the last two weeks, so you can look forward to yet more fun new stuff - and I can look forward to trying to figure out where I'm going to put everything.

To celebrate this sugary bounty, I'll be having a sale from Friday, March 11 (that's tomorrow!) through Wednesday, March 16. Use the code IWANTCANDY in the coupon box of the Etsy checkout to take 20% off your order. Thanks for being a friend to urbanlegend, and I hope to see you in the candy store.

Etsy urbanlegend

colors & where they come from.

I get ideas from all kinds of places, but one of my favorite games is to find a photograph, or a page in a catalog, or a swatch on a color blog (Creative Holly Color or Color-Collective, for example) and try to match vintage Lucite beads to my source. It's sort of like doing a puzzle - it often takes me several tries to get four or five colors or tones into an arrangement that actually echoes the source image. I think it's fun. I'm nerdy that way. Here are some colorstories that turned into necklaces:

Beach Umbrella Fine Art Photograph by alicebgardens;
nostalgia necklace (coming next week)

swatch taken from color-collective;
mycology necklace

swatch taken from color-collective;
poranj necklace

City Center One - Art Print by tuesdaymoon;
city center necklace

Tak-Tak à la plage collage by Ma + Chr;
boardwalk necklace

that was fun.

I spent the weekend holding metal over a flame and then dropping it into a cup of brightly colored liquid, where it sizzled and spat and hissed and clanked. Then I fished it out, and repeated the process over and over and over until I had a whole sheet full of vintage metal and chain covered in lustrous colors. These components still need to be sealed, but they'll start turning up in new designs in another week or so.

In other productivity news, here are a couple of things that will be posting in tomorrow's shop updates.

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.)

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!

sneak peek june 14, 2010

I promised Pellet he could go to Milwaukee with me, but in my hurry to reach the beads I forgot him. As a consolation prize, I let him dive in and play around when I got home. Here are some pictures of him enjoying himself in the bucket o' beads.


Tuesday's shop update will be mostly for urban legend. I brought home some amazing vintage Lucite. A number of the pieces I bought are vintage Lucite pendants that are not available online from my suppliers yet, so most of the earrings I'm listing tomorrow are one of a kind (for now, anyway) - get them while you can, these are some really special beads!

the haul

My friends, I bought beads. Lots and lots and lots of beads. My Friday was spent wandering the aisles at the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee. Shana came up and met me in the late afternoon, witnessing my lunacy and carrying my stash when it got so heavy that I became delirious. My truffle hunt at long last exhausted, we went to Comet Cafe and had drinks and dinner. I spread the haul out on the table and sat brooding over it, drumming my fingertips together a la Mr. Burns (Shana's Amazing Technicolor Dream picture above for proof). I've spent several hours today making new vintage Lucite pieces for urban legend, and hope to make a few more tomorrow. The picture above is your pre-sneak-peek - there will be more photographs tomorrow afternoon to whet your appetite for Tuesday's shop update. Sleep sweetly, and dream of candy-colored beads.

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

oops.

I'm late with Friday's sneak peeks; I'm sorry! I was working my way through a gigantic to-do list and didn't get to any of the fun stuff. Here they are, slightly delayed. The new listings will start appearing in urban legend early next week.

The last of my summer line is discounted 20-50%, and will be on sale through the end of the weekend. (And then, like that, it's gone...)

just one

I don't often make one of a kind designs, but on recent forays into the bead boxes I've discovered a few pairs of beads that are too fun to ignore. So far I've made three pairs of earrings that are one of a kind items. These are all vintage Lucite, so they'll be listed in urban legend.

grass earrings: the long green drops are the "just one" element in these earrings.

pie hole earrings: made as a loving and sorrowful tribute to a wonderful (now cancelled) show, Pushing Daisies. This is the last pair I have of these creamy hot pink pendants.

cabana earrings: absolutely fantastic sunshiny yellow striped ovals. If I ever see these beads again, this design will return.

1 more day...

Fingers crossed that I'll actually be ready to push all those listing buttons tomorrow morning. It's been a long week, and I'm still not done, but I'm determined to make it. Thanks so much for all the lovely support and enthusiasm; here's one last sneak peek before my grand opening tomorrow morning.

2 more days...

4 more days...

5 more days...

urban legend countdown: one week!

I know I'm a one-note song these days. I promise I'll have other things to say in a very short while, but at the moment I'm 100% preoccupied with getting ready for my new shop launch next Monday. So on that (one)note, here's another sneak peek at what I'm making. I'll be posting a new sneak peek every day this week leading up to the launch on Monday the 23rd. It's almost here!

more urban legend sneak peeks

I'm still tweaking the photographs, and two days of black skies and pouring rain over the weekend aren't helping. I'm not sure if these are the final versions or not, but I like them enough to use them for sneak peeks. Plainly, I'm in love with gigantic plastic earrings!

the blogging, she suffers.

I know I'm way behind on blogging, and I have a number of things I want to do, but I just plain don't have time this week. So I have to be post-and-run girl and just add a couple more Urban Legend sneak peek pics - I apologize for the lameness. In my head, this is a much more interesting blog.

urban legend sneak peek #2!

Counting down to my shop opening on March 23 (fingers crossed); here's a sneak peek at my new vintage Lucite designs, available soon at Urban Legend.