Base metal findings and wire prices

Brief update, no pictures. As I made up my mind about the base metal findings and to let you know more specifics about the base metal wire (it's not on the web site yet):

Prices (other than the 1.5" headpins, these are for both the silver and gold colors)
earring hooks:
100 pieces (50 pairs): $4.-
50 pieces (25 pairs): $2.50
16 pieces (8 pairs): 1.-
2" and 3" headpins (these are thin enough to fit through fresh water pearls):
100 pieces: $5.-
50 pieces: $3.-
12 pieces: $1.-
1.5" headpins, silver color only, these are thicker:
100 for $3.-
50 for $2.-
20 for $1.-
Craft wire (gold, silver and copper color, Beadsmith), tarnish resistant:
$4.-/spool (for 20 gauge it's 45 feet, 24 gauge 90 feet, 28 gauge 120 feet)

A bunch of updates: AGLF, Kalera beads, my new camera, base metal findings

Rather than trying to find the time to do these piecemeal, I'm going to try to do them all at once.

I mentioned earlier that there was a defamation attack going on, labeling artisans as "fraud". None of this is true (of course), some details can be found here:
http://artisantruthreport.blogspot.com/ and references therein. To help with a legal fees to put an end to this a private fund was created to which many donated, and many donated some of their creations and supplies. This is the AGLF (main page, links to Ebay, Etsy and Artfire listings are further down), which stands for Artisan and Glassworker Legal defense Fund.


Here is finally a picture of most of the beads I bought from Kalera Stratton, an experienced lampworker in Portland Oregon, who I had the opportunity to meet in person and watch make beads. Some of the beads already turned into jewelry, some on the way there, one being another wire crochet example, another one preliminatrily conected to my first attempt at so-called French Knit. Which brings me to:


my new camera. I hate dealing with new things as there are always learning curves involved. My new camera is a Canon PowerShot A1000 IS, and so far I'm happy with it. I finally got the pictures out of it that I took 10 days ago, a necklace and earrings made with another set of the lampwork beads from Kalera:

This set is currently available in my
Etsy shop










and some chip strands which I'm going to list at Etsy in the supplies category (they're long enough to wear as necklaces as they are if you prefer that):


The first set is picture jasper, leopard skin jasper and unakite, the second is white howlite, snowflake obsidian and blackstone. Each strand is about 32" long, strung on monofilament. There will be more.

A local customer recently asked me about/for base metal earring findings. So I now have the following (not priced yet): french earring hooks, the silver colored ones are surgical steel, the gold color ones I don't know, both silver colored and gold colored headpins, 2" and 3" in length, that are thin enough to fit through the holes in freshwater pearls, and 1.5" silver color headpins that are a bit stiffer and I'm sure won't fit through the holes in fresh water pearls.

Fixed my computer crashing problem - a year later

While I probably never mentioned it in my blog, I've been fighting my notebook crashing sometimes every half hour for a year. It makes a real crimp in your productivity (and sometimes sleeping hours) if you have to wait for a 5 year old notebook to boot up several times a day.

Last summer while on vacation I bought a new network card. The old one doesn't work with all networks, so I needed a new one to be able to access the net from wherever. A day later my notebook crashed for the first time.

This was in a hotel room, with the flat surface being the bed, so I thought of dust, overheating, and such things. Well, no such luck, it continued to be the case. Including, after I borrowed a "can of air" from work (I use the same notebook for work when I work out of hours), took it apart and dusted it rather thoroughly.

A week or so before that I got the first blue screen of death rather than just a freeze, and Microsoft sent me a URL that told me the problem had to do with my network card. I got the available updates for the driver, hoping that would fix it, but no such luck.

As something similar happened again a few days later I decided, oh well, maybe I'll just switch back tot he old network card. - The notebook has been running since.

In case anybody wants to know: the old card (which is rather old and rather slow, but quite reliable) is a D-Link, the new one is a Linksys. I don't have the notebook here, but I'll try to remember adding the model numbers later.

A few new things in my Etsy shop

Just a brief update: As somebody asked and bought the same day I put in a (new) listing for 50 mgambo seeds/weleweka seeds/Hawaiian pussy willow seed in my Etsy shop. You can also now find fresh water pearls in bundles of 10 (you pick the colors and shapes - there are more than Etsy has space for pictures, so if you don't find 10 there, go to my website for a look, I'm happy to combine) and Tahitian Gardenia seeds (tiare seeds, gardenia taitensis seeds), so far only in quantity of 20. I can ship those seeds to most countries even if they're not listed as such. Some countries however are very picky about what they let in, Australia is one of them. Send me email, or a convo on Etsy or a PM on Lampwork Etc. (if that's what got you here) if you're not in the US or Europe.

I'll get new pictures on things as I get around to it, I finally have a camera of my own now. And I'll be putting up more jewelry as I bought a wonderful collection of lampwork beads from Kalera Stratton (beadwife.com).

Google shopping , and a few other things

Well, if you don't do Etsy (some people I talked to quite recently had never heard of it), maybe you do Google shopping? What is in my Etsy shop can now also be found in Google Shopping. There will be more, and better pictures, as I decided that I finally needed a camera that isn't a hand-me-down (usually twice), so light and such permitting I'll be able to take some half decent pictures. (For now I'm still a way away from putting up even a light tent).

Storing botanical beads and jewelry

As somebody asked me by email whether she should store her mgambo seed and freshwater pearl necklace refrigerated, here are some tips on storing botanical jewelry:

- Botanical jewelry (i.e. jewelry that contains any kind of seeds or plant parts) should be dried
thoroughly and preferably rather soon if it gets wet. Best is to not let it get really wet in the
first place. It may look like beach jewelry, but if you want to keep it it isn't. Try to keep it dry. Plant seeds don't mind getting wet, but they are not meant to last, they are meant to germinate.

- Job's Tears will chip if gotten wet and dry too often.

- Should you develop a bug problem (I have seen that with Job's Tears once but never with mgambo/weleweka/Hawaiian pussy willow seeds or Royal Poindicana seeds, I'd dry the jewelry in the refrigerator for at least a few days and then put in the freezer for a week.

I do not have to refrigerate botanical jewelry here in Hilo where the daytime temperature is usually above 80F (26.7 C) and the relative humidity normally above 70%. I do not see problems with bugs or mold.

You can normally find these in different package sizes on my website (HiloBeads) and in my Etsy shop.

Job's Tears in my Etsy shop

I put some Job's Tears in my Etsy shop. There will be more, but so far it's just 1/2 lb of the brown ones.

Work got the better of me last week, and as lilikoi season has started and I'm also harvesting cloves I'm rather busy.

On top, somebody started attacking members of the lampwork community as well as some other artisans. The latest people cleared of the attacks can be found in this blog:
http://artisantruthreport.blogspot.com/ - while I am not directly involved, some of these people are my friends, and most of them are at least acquaintances. Please read the blog and help out if you can.