Bali Sterling Silver - a handmade treasure!

Have you seen the cost of silver lately?? I'm not paying it!!  So, I decided to pare down my Bali sterling silver bead collection as well as my lampwork and give other jewelry designers the opportunity to NOT pay that much also!

In my Etsy store, (the de-stash one), I am listing beautiful handmade Bali sterling silver beads.  I originally imported most of my beads directly from Bali, and I am selling them well below my wholesale purchase cost, but now they are also BELOW THE CURRENT PRICE OF RAW SILVER ($17+ an ounce)!!

I currently have 2 lots for sale, and hope to list more shortly.  The first group weigh a little over 74 grams or 2.6 ounces, and they measure from 12mm to 24mm wide.

The second group is a little smaller - they measure from 8mm to 12mm wide. Weigh a little over 34 grams or 1.2 ounces.

And more to come... it's downsizing time for me - www.cathdesigns.etsy.com

Bouganvillea Season - it's DRY again!

Fall - late fall - begins our dry season, and it's here already!  That means the bouganvillea will be blooming profusely until next May, and brilliantly color our walk out the front door every day!

But somehow, I have other things on my mind......

I think I've been watching too much HGTV !

Lampwork Beads

Do you know what lampwork beads are?  Little glass works of art! They are handmade one at a time by an artist using a torch and glass rods and I love them! 

I just went to the ISGB bazaar in July and purchased many new lampwork beads!  But now I have to find space for them, and so I am trying to weed out the beads I have had for years and for some reason never used.  I find that I am moving away from color, toward more natural or organic beads.  

So these lovely, colorful beads will need to find a new home so they can be used.  It's hard to let them go, I still like them, but after filling my tenth bead box today I realized I need to share some of them.  I am going to put them in my Etsy shop for destashing - www.cathdesigns.etsy.com - and giving them away for just a few dollars to cover the packaging, handling, and shipping costs.  They all come from U.S. artists, purchased directly from them.  Take a look if you are a designer, or let your 'beading' friends know about it, please!

Dragonfly

This copper dragonfly just arrived, from Chicago via AD Adornments.  It is immense and so beautiful!  Thank goodness it is hollow, it must be 2 inches wide at least!  It is perfect for Fall, even here in south FL where it is 90 degrees today!  Cold front will finally reach us tomorrow and we can open our windows to get some fresh air to breathe indoors.  OK, I just measured the bead, and it is only 1.5 inches, everything looks bigger when you're too hot!!