Christine's Beadworks Fan Page Giveaway #3

 

Christine's Beadworks on Facebook

Christine's Beadworks has reached over 280 facebook fans thanks in large part to the Flint City Handmade Market and the recommendation of my supportive fans.  It's time for another giveaway and my good friend, Loretta, selected two items from my inventory for two lucky fans.      

First the rules.  To enter, you must be a ChristinesBeadworks Fan on Facebook or a follower of this blog; you must be 18 years of age or older; and you must leave a comment here on this post or on my face book page here.  The winner will be selected randomly from those who leave comments and will be contacted through their facebook or blog profiles.  Now the comment topic:   I'm considering offering optional beaded and/or satin cords for my bottle cap pendants. The big question of the day is:  "When purchasing a pendant, would you prefer an optional neck cord (you can select your own) or an included neck cord (a complete look)?"   The winner will be selected and notified Monday, March 29, 2010.

The first person chosen will receive this lovely spiral rope.  For some reason, I cannot seem to get a good picture of this beauty.   The enameled, sterling silver button from Gita Maria inspired this colorway and is evocative of spring days romping in daffodil fields.  This 18 inch necklace can be worn with the button facing front or back.  It's a versatile piece wearable with most spring and summer colorways (yellow, blue, teal, raspberry, red, and green).

The second person drawn will receive this riveted metal pendant featuring my newest, double sided design.  The featured bottle cap is from Magic Hat Brewery located in Vermont.  This is another awesome brew with an equally awesome bottle cap.  Each brew has a thought provoking quote inside the cap that a customer suggested I find a way to show.  This is my first generation pendant fulfulling that request.  Like all my metal pendants, this one is heavily textured with brass on the front and copper on the back.  Both flame and liver of sulfur were used to create an aged patina.  Alcohol ink provides additional aging to the saying on the cap's back and resin protects the image on both sides.  The pieces are riveted with copper wire and the pendant suspends from a handmade copper bail.  A 24 inch brass chain is included.  


Good luck everyone.

Spotlight on Mortira Natasha vanPelt

Each month, my online group, Etsy Bead Weavers, hosts a challenge where the entire membership is encouraged to participate.  A theme is chosen by the previous winner and off we go to create a masterpiece in beads.  Today, I'd like to spotlight an artist, whose work did not make it into the challenge but immediately caught my eye.  When I saw Mortira's bracelet, Little Goat Tree, I was immediately struck by it's beauty, it's earthy colors and how well it represented the tale she choose to protray. I could almost envision the silver leaves floating in the wind.  This is Mortira's story behind her bracelet and her art.

My bracelet was inspired by a lesser known Grimm Brothers’ folk tale, “One Eyes, Two Eyes, and Three Eyes”.  I have always been a non-conformist at heart, so the obscure fairy tales were usually my favorite.  This is one I remember reading a lot as a child.

“Little Goat Tree” represents a kind spirit’s last gift to the story’s heroine.  The magical tree with golden fruit and silvery leaves draws the attention of a handsome prince, who takes Two Eyes away from her life of grief and want.  I like this story because it has a truly happy ending.  The evil sisters, One Eye and Three Eyes, are inspired by Two Eyes’ kindness, and in the end are sorry for treating her badly.  In most fairy tales, the good guys live happily ever after, and the bad guys suffer some fate worse than death. 

About the Artist

Throughout my life, there have been only two things that I’ve stuck with: beading and books.  When I discovered audio books, I was able to combine my two favorite hobbies.  Listening to a book while creating with beads is more appealing to me than a tropical vacation or trip to the moon.  I can’t say for sure why I’m drawn to beads, but I can’t ever see myself growing weary of them.

The thing I am most proud of is my decision to abstain from metals.  When I first decided to forgo clasps and other metal components, I worried that it might hinder my ability to design.  I was surprised to discover that it actually fueled my creativity.  Now that I don’t have ready made materials to fall back on, I take bigger risks and try new things with more enthusiasm.

I'd like to leave you with two more creations from Mortira's shop.  On the left is one of Mortira's favorites, her Tide Pool Scarf Necklace.  This delicate netting makes me long for those days when I was closer to the ocean.  On the right is one of my personal favorites from her shop, West Coast Woman.  I have a current fascination with with beadwork utilizing unusual materials.  The carving in this focal point is stunning and Mortira's beadwork enchances it perfectly while also pulling from her Canadian heritage.  

To learn more about Mortira or the EBW Team, please visit the following sites:

Inspirational Beading
Sage's Cupboard
Sage's Cupboard on Facebook
Oh Canada Team
Etsy Beadweavers Team

Blog Makeover

I recently updated the look of my blog and invite you on my journey for blog improvement.  I'm not sure I will do this journey justice, but I will try to start at the beginning (a very good place to start according to Julie Andrews).  The journey began when I noticed a new blog follower, Anne Huskey-Lockard, who shared my love of bottle caps and recycled artwork.  I was thrilled, in turn, to discover her blog, El Milagro Studio.  It just so happened that Ann had just won a title makeover from Susie Jefferson at 1stFloorFlat.  Of course, I took a journey over to Susie's blog and was amazed at all the advice, tutorials, and blog backgrounds she offered.  I was happy with my blog at that particular moment.  The colors provided in the standard Blogspot template, Thistle, matched my header perfectly and I liked the two column layout.  

Then I started my in-depth artist interviews and was increasingly frustrated with the small column width in which I had to write.  If you've not noticed, I tend to be wordy and with the exception of this post, I like to include lots of pictures.  The picture sizes I had to use in those articles was too small to fully do the artwork justice and I had to eliminate pictures that I otherwise would have included.  Loran Scrugg's video was cut off slightly and everything seemed to be scrunched and hard to read.

That's when I started to modify my blog in earnest.  Anyone who has worked with me in my previous Finance career knows I'm pretty good at tweaking macros and simple code.  I'm not good at writing it myself, but very good at modifying existing code to suit my purposes.  How hard can HTML be?  Well, it's not hard exactly, but I do not have enough fundamental training to do much more than modest tweaking.  I was able to make my column wider, but I could not make the format follow.  I was like a dog worrying a bone, I could not let it go.  I spend several hours, days even, changing this and that before admitting defeat.  I really liked my colors and resisted changing templates because I wanted to make this work.


That's when Susie came to my rescue.  I posted a comment on her blog and she visited mine to take a look.  Completely free of charge, she played around with the Thistle format to see if she could make it larger for me.  The verdict; it could not be done easily.  It was one of those pesky formats that resisted changes (made me feel a little better that I hadn't lost my tweaking skills).  She suggested I switch to Minima or Minima Stretch.  Both of which were easier to modified and many sites offered free backgrounds, headers and other cool stuff that worked on that template.  


Bear with me, I know this post is getting way too long.  Minima Stretch worked perfectly.  I began reading Susie's tutorials in earnest and she sent me a couple of links to other blogs with tools to improve my blog's appearance.  Her feedback was invaluable and willingly offered.  I really can't thank her enough.  There are four major changes I made to the standard Minima Stretch template.  First, I modified the code to put a background color behind the titles in my sidebar (very proud of that bit of tweaking).  I then used the links Susie provided to put a background color behind the entire sidebar to make it stand out more.  The instructions for this are on the blog, The Cutest Blog on the Block.  Next, I took Susie's advice in her post about Blog Backgrounds, to not use italics as it was hard on the eyes.  Now, when I use someone's direct words, I highlight their words in a different color.  You can see it in my interview with Jan from HungryHoller.  You can find instructions for doing this at, BlogBulk.  


Almost done, hang in there.  With all these changes in place, I was still not happy with the look.  It was flat and rather boring.  I needed a texture in my background for interest.  I liked the colors, but it needed a bit of spark.  I searched for free backgrounds but none of them were quite right.  After all this work, I was not willing to settle for something that did not quite match my color scheme.   There are instructions out there on how to make your own, but I know from experience, it's time consuming and frustrating if you don't have a strong background with photo editing software.  I contacted Susie for a quote and could not be happier with her service.  She tweaked the background for me until I was happy with it and then, free of charge, she modified my header when it was clear it no longer fit the new format.  She even provided a second, smaller header, when my daughter thought it was too big (I outvoted her, but Susie gave me the option anyway).  I'm still doing a bit of tweaking (once I start playing with code, I'm like a little kid with a new toy), but I'm very pleased with the final results. 


Let me know if you like the look or if there's anything that is hard to read.  Below are links to places you can go for more information on updating your blog  and if you haven't discovered Anne's blog, check her out on El Milagro Sudio:


1st Floor Flat
The Cutest Blog on the Block
Blog Bulk