beading | Bead Happily Ever After

Giveaway – Garden Party Earrings

Posted on June 29, 2009 by crystal

Welcome! 🙂

This week’s giveaway is a whimsical pair of dangle earrings that I’m calling “Garden Party” because they remind me of the little lanterns you might string around your patio in the summer! They’d be the perfect earrings to wear to an outdoor event such as a cookout, a concert, or a . . . garden party! 😉

They’re made with Vintage Moonglow Lucite Beads in a beautiful shade of girly-girl pink. The beads have a soft glow, which gives the impression they’re lit from within, as a lantern would be.

I’ve accented them with textured gold-plated bead caps and Swarovski Crystals in rose pink! The earwires are 14k gold filled.

Measurements: approximately 1-7/8″ long, including the 14k gold-filled earwires.

Contest Rules and How To Enter

This week, you will have up to four (4) chances to enter the weekly giveaway.

You can choose any or all of the following 4 ways to enter:

1st Chance:

Leave a comment answering the first weekly question:

What is you favorite season and why do you like it best?

2nd Chance:

Leave a comment answering the second weekly question:

What makes you nervous?

(You can see my answers to the weekly questions in the comments section!) 🙂

3rd Chance:

Join my mailing list! Just mention “mailing list” in your comment. By doing so you will receive 3-4 emails per year with coupons and special offers for items in my Bead Happily Ever After web store!

4th Chance:

Come back another day this week and leave a comment on any other post on this blog. It can be left on a recent post or an old post. There are over 170 posts – take a peek at the “Categories” on the right side of the page for choices.

Please note: You do NOT have to tell me that you left a “comment” on another post. The blog program shows me all of the “comments” as they come in – so I do not miss any of them! 🙂

The Boring Stuff . . .
You must be 18 yrs. old. After the completion of the contest, the name of the winner will be listed here. The winner will also be notified by email. If no valid email address is given at time of entry, or if winner fails to respond to email within 3 days from the time notification email has been sent, the win will be null and void and a new winner will be chosen. The prize will be mailed by USPS First Class Mail.

All entries must be received by 9:00 p.m. EST on 07/05/09, and the winner will be selected on or about 07/06/09.

The Elusive Vintage Bead

Posted on June 24, 2009 by crystal

In last week’s post on Vintage Beads (seen here), I promised to continue the discussion . . .

People often ask me where to find vintage beads. The best way to explain it would be to compare vintage beads to antiques.

For example, let’s say you wanted to collect antique teapots. There are only a limited number of them still around in today’s world. You can’t just go to the mall and pop into the “Antique Teapot” store and buy a couple.

Some of the antique teapots that have survived are in museums; many others are in private collections already; some are part of the inventory of antiques dealers; and the rest are in attics and basements waiting to be discovered. In order for you to get your hands on an antique teapot, somebody in the group of people I just listed has to part with one that they now own.

It is very similar with vintage beads. There is no place called “Vintage Beads Are Us” at your local shopping center. For many decades, most costume jewelry was made in the United States, but since the 1990’s almost all of it has been manufactured overseas. Sadly, the U.S. factories have had to close their doors and many of the old warehouses that contained the jewelry components (beads and findings) have by now liquidated their old stock. Private collectors own a large proportion of the vintage beads already. Bead sellers own another large share and they are always on the lookout for collectors who would be willing to part with their treasures, or to buy the stock of other bead sellers who have decided to go out of business.

Occasionally, large vintage bead collections are discovered in the attics or basements of people who worked for the old costume jewelry manufacturers. Often, it’s the family of one of those workers, who will eventually happen upon the collection and offer it to a dealer.

So where can you find vintage beads today? Actually, in more places than you might expect! There are numerous online sellers, but you can begin by looking in Grandma’s jewelry box. Those old necklaces and bracelets might have a broken clasp or a few chipped beads, but often you can salvage many of the beads to create something fabulous. (See my post on recycling vintage jewelry here!)

Next, search the yard sales, flea markets, church bazaars and second hand shops. There are still vintage treasures to be found in those places if you really look!

Finally, there are people who began as vintage bead “collectors” and went on to become sellers of some of their beads online. I know because I am one of them! 🙂

I’m continually looking for new sources of vintage beads, so if you’re cleaning out Auntie Ethel’s attic and you come across beads or old costume jewelry that you’d like to sell, please let me know!

Giveaway – Misty Lilac Earrings

Posted on June 22, 2009 by crystal

Hi there!

I’m so glad you stopped by. 🙂

Talk about fun and interesting comments! Last week’s answers to which 5 items you would want if you were stranded on a desert island were terrific! There was such a wide range of ideas – some incredibly clever and some absolutely hilarious! Thank you so much for participating!

(If you are new to this blog, you can always find the winner of the previous week’s giveaway by clicking the “Giveaway Info” button located on the right side of this page)

This week’s giveaway is a pair of dangle earrings that are not only fun, but have a touch of glamour, too!

They’d be the perfect earrings to pack for a vacation because they could be worn either for a day of sightseeing or an evening on the town!

These “Misty Lilac” Earrings feature beautiful diamond-shaped Czech glass beads with a graceful twist. The beads have a transparent watercolor effect in glorious shades of teal and violet. I’ve accented them with Silver Bali beads and Swarovski Crystals in coordinating colors!

Measurements: approximately 2″ long, including the sterling silver earwires.

Contest Rules and How To Enter

This week, you will have up to four (4) chances to enter the weekly giveaway.

You can choose any or all of the following 4 ways to enter:

1st Chance:

Leave a comment answering the first weekly question: What item do you have sitting in your closet that is collecting dust… but you simply CAN’T get rid of it? Why do you keep it?

2nd Chance:

Leave a comment answering the second weekly question: What are your three favorite fruits?

3rd Chance:

Join my mailing list! Just mention “mailing list” in your comment. By doing so you will receive 3-4 emails per year with coupons and special offers for items in my Bead Happily Ever After web store!

4th Chance:

Come back another day this week and leave a comment on any other post on this blog. It can be left on a recent post or an old post. There are over 160 posts – take a peek at the “Categories” on the right side of the page for choices.

Please note: You do NOT have to tell me that you left a “comment” on another post. The blog program shows me all of the “comments” as they come in – so I do not miss any of them! 🙂

The Boring Stuff . . .
You must be 18 yrs. old. After the completion of the contest, the name of the winner will be listed here. The winner will also be notified by email. If no valid email address is given at time of entry, or if winner fails to respond to email within 3 days from the time notification email has been sent, the win will be null and void and a new winner will be chosen. The prize will be mailed by USPS First Class Mail.

All entries must be received by 9:00 p.m. EST on 06/28/09, and the winner will be selected on or about 06/29/09.

The Allure of the Vintage Bead

Posted on June 17, 2009 by crystal

When it comes to vintage beads, I’m often asked two questions:

1. Why are vintage beads so special?

2. Where do you find them?

I’ll answer the first question today, and then answer the second in a future post.

So, why are vintage beads special?

It may sound corny, but they don’t make things like they used to! This is definitely true with beads.

Sure, mass-produced contemporary beads are pretty, but they can’t compete with vintage beads in terms of color, cut, reflective flash, and the sheer artistry of the vintage designs.

There are several reasons for this, but to put it simply – the world has changed so much. It’s no longer cost-effective for beads to be produced with the painstaking care and time-consuming methods of the past. Just ask any lampwork glass artist in today’s world if it’s easy – in the current market – to be paid a truly fair price for the time and imaginative skill that she puts into her work.

As has been the case in the manufacture of many different products over the years, there often comes a time when certain processes of production become too expensive to maintain or are found to be environmentally unfriendly. Early bead makers often used finishes and coating formulas that had to be modified for these reasons. As a result, today’s crystal beads with an aurora borealis finish, for example, simply do not have the full spectrum of color and brilliance of a vintage aurora borealis crystal, and so that adds to the value and desirability of the vintage crystal.

Vintage plastics and Lucite are cherished for the same reasons – the old methods yielded beads that are often superior to the versions created today. Sometimes it’s a minor difference, but often it’s very obvious that the vintage beads were more finely crafted and are more beautiful.

If you haven’t used vintage beads in your designs before, why not consider using some in your next project?

You might just fall in love! 🙂

Crazy for Clay . . . Beads!

Posted on June 16, 2009 by crystal

With a website called Bead Happily Ever After, it’s probably pretty obvious that I LOVE beads! 🙂

I‘ve been collecting and designing jewelry with both vintage and contemporary beads for years now. More recently, I’ve begun to sell beads on my website and also on etsy.

My specialty is vintage beads, but I am crazy about all kinds of beads including those created by bead artisans – both in glass and polymer clay. There is such joy in making something special with beautiful beads!

Here’s a set I’m working on that incorporates some fabulous clay beads. Notice the lovely layering of shapes on the pendant.

(Click photos to enlarge.)

Aren’t the coordinating diamond-shaped clay beads pretty, too?

For accents, I’m using genuine amethysts (the rectangles), and Swarovski crystals (rounds and bicones).

As you can see by the tape on the ends, I’m still pondering the style of clasp I want. The little ziplock bag on the left holds the exact beads that I’ll use to make matching earrings. Gathering those “earring beads” in a bag is a tip I learned the hard way. It’s so much easier to do it when designing the necklace – in case there will be a delay between finishing the necklace and actually making the earrings. Trying to find exactly what you need later can be difficult, especially if you’ve cleaned up the worktable in the meantime. 😉