This pertains to my full time day job. Short story, we’re salaried. As thus, if our company wanted to make us work 16 hour days with no compensation other than our regular pay and a clap on the back, they could. The edict is to do “this task” by “this date”. On paper, it is probably doable, IF everyone does a little every day, including weekends (so, I’m talking maybe 1-3 hrs a day, seven days a week, five weeks straight – on our own personal time). And most likely that is how the upper echelon sees it. That’s not really how real life works though, everything always looks good on paper, so we’ll see. I predict some burnout before it’s over, though.

Anyway. My point is, not really knowing how much extra time this task is going to take out of my off-work life, I will still try to do my best to keep up on the Crazy Train promotions and my guild promotions, but please don’t hate me if I fall behind a little.

Speaking of this task, guess what I need to do now? Yep. Can you see me jumping for joy yet? No? Don’t count on it.

On a positive note, I worked several hours on Saturday making eight new pairs of earrings, in lucite, Czech glass, Swarovski pearls, a few teeny freshwater pearls, and antiqued brass findings. Now where to find the time to take pictures of them and list them for sale?

She has SOOOOOO many items in her shop, it’s very difficult to pick out a few to feature here.  Nevertheless… here are five:

Acadienne has a wide variety of items available in her shop.  From hardanger bookmarks and Christmas ornaments, to hand knitted & crochet socks, dishcloths & washcloths, shawls, scarves, kitchen towels sets and gift baskets.

The rapid cart for her studio will be over on the right sidebar so if you see something you like, be sure to click on it to be taken to her shop.

The artisan at this studio makes generous use of Swarovski crystals – so sparkly!

Just a small sample from her studio of what she has to offer – please go pay Krystallized a visit!

Athena, who lives in New York, originally started out making jewelry, but has since switched gears to a new medium that I think is pretty ingenious, and I’ll just say, the woman has some patience for sure!

She still has some jewelry items available in her studio, though, so I’ll show a couple of those, and then end with an item from her new medium.

First, a pair of earrings made with Chrysocolla gemstone.  I think that is such a neat looking stone!

Here is a neat bracelet, using aqua colored seed beads and some flashy Roman coin buttons:

And finally, Athena’s new creation, seed bead mosaics – this one is a beautiful praying angel:

Currently, Designs of Avalon is offering free shipping in the US and reduced shipping for International buyers, so go check her out!

Taking the spotlight now, is Dancing Wind Designs.

Sue at Dancing Wind Designs works with seed beads.  Working with seed beads must take great patience, especially with the more complex designs.  All I can say is, Sue, you have it in spades.  Wow is the word that comes to mind:

Wow, I say again.  I have a lot of respect for anyone who can do this, because quite frankly, I personally don’t have the patience to do this type of work.  It’s quite beautiful!

I’ll have a rapid cart widget over in the sidebar on the right for Sue’s studio for a bit.  So if you see something you like over there, click on it and you can buy it right there, or you can click on the “visit studio” link in that box to see what else she has to offer.

I think this is probably one of my favorite pieces in her studio, a copper wire wrapped lilac turquoise pendant:

Are you a jewelry maker and in need of some handmade copper earwires?  How about these?

Here is a pretty pair of citrine barrel beads, wire wrapped with silver plated wire:

Please visit Scarlet-Impressions to see what else she has to offer at her studio!

The artisan offers an array of earrings, bracelets and necklaces, all made with genuine semi-precious gemstones, like quartz, amethyst, topaz, citrine and many others.

Here is a pretty blue topaz necklace:

And this is a beautiful pair of earrings made with amethyst, topaz, and sapphires on gold-filled lever backs:

And finally, here is a lovely bracelet made with amethyst, citrine and mystic pink quartz with 14k gold-filled chain:

She does beautiful work, please go give her studio a visit!