Bumbershoot Designs and Supplies August 2015 Special for Newsletter Subscribers

Vintage Swarovski Bead Earring Kit, free with purchase – Our treat for August is a new earring kit featuring wonderful vintage Swarovski peridot beads and antiqued silver findings! These dangling earrings featuring August's birthstone peridot will surely help you celebrate the fabulous month of August. During August, we will send all necessary components to make the earrings shown in the photo above.

Our newsletter subscribers can receive this kit, free with any purchase at Bumbershoot Supplies or Bumbershoot Designs.  See your August 1 and August 15 newsletters for details and the coupon code.

Also, don't forget your 1-time free shipping offer that you received when you signed up for our newsletter.

And YES, you can combine specials. So you can have the earring kit plus the free shipping code you received upon signing up for the newsletter in the same order!

Not yet a newsletter subscriber? You can read past issues and you can sign up right here and get your free shipping and earring kit at your next purchase!

Featured Artist. Joanne Depape of Jaded Seas Designs on Etsy

I'm very happy to share with you the work of Joanne Depape of Jaded Seas Designs on Etsy. 

OK, wrap your mind around that shop name, Jaded Seas...  Doesn't that evoke images of deep green water, tropical flowers, hot sun and cool drinks....  If you are not there yet, head on over to Jo's shop and check out her splendid banner, it will get you there. 

Jo is in New Zealand.  One of the gifts of Bumbershoot Supplies is that it connects us, however briefly, to people all over the world, and also to diverse locales within our own country.  We all intersect at our love of art and craft and in our desire to work with beautiful materials to make fine and beautiful things.  I'm grateful to all my customers for showing me this connection on a daily basis, and for transporting me to exotic and varied locales, as least in my imagination :)

Jo's work will transport you to exotic locales through the components and images she uses. Jo uses sterling silver, beautiful Japanese paper, clear glass domes, and vintage glass cabochons, some also Japanese in origin, like the ones from Bumbershoot Supplies featured in this post. With these components, she creates unique rings, pendants, earrings and necklaces, including her innovative cluster style pendants.

I hope you will enjoy a trip to Jaded Seas Designs.  You will find the experience customer friendly and accomodating. Jo can make rings adjustable, or with a solid band in your ring size. She can set rings in your preference of portrait or landscape orientation. Necklace chain lengths can be adjusted.

Plus I'm sure you will be inspired. 

And don't forget to check out the banner :)

New at Bumbershoot Designs. Seattle Rain Drops Vintage Glass Pearl Necklace, Antique Clasp

There are a number of new pieces in Bumbershoot Designs this week, but in keeping with the pearl theme that was the focus of the Bumbershoot monthly newsletter, I offer this new necklace.  It's been a while since I have offered teardrop necklaces in the Seattle Rain series, so it was really exciting to find these gorgeous vintage Japanese glass pearls to work with.

To my mind, with classic designs the components must be absolutely top notch quality for the design to sing. These vintage glass pearls are in glorious condition for their age (60+ years) and the embedded wires allow the bead to come to a real point at the top, so the lines are really elegant.

Plus, the sterling silver scalloped chain provides such a graceful line around the neck.

I finished this necklace with an antique clasp, Edwardian, from the early 1900's, direct off the original card onto the necklace.  Yes, that's right, at least 100 years old.  Cool!

It just doesn't get much better than that!  Works like a charm too! Well, as you can see, more than 100 years later...

...Quality Guaranteed.

You will find this necklace in the vintage pearls section of Bumbershoot Designs, and if you don't, just contact me.

New at Bumbershoot Designs. Screw on Clip Earrings. Using Vintage Components in Jewelry Design

I have been venturing yet further into vintage components involved in jewelry making and have been experimenting with earrings using clip and/or screw on findings.  This week, new at Bumbershoot Designs are 2 earring designs for non pierced ears, although those of us with pierced ears can wear these also.

Part of my reason for providing such designs is personal - my lovely daughter Emma does not have pierced ears, and I love to make things for her.  It's a lot of fun to experiment with styles she can wear.

I've had to purchase and discard many, many different lots of earring findings in order to find clips and screw backs that are both beautiful and comfortable to wear.  Most often I find, whether they are contemporary or vintage, clips are far too tight for Emma or I to wear comfortably.

I have found a few, however.  I am particularly fond of the combination clip and screw on.  This style allows the earring to go on the lobe easily, with the clip, and then you can personalize the tightness with the screw.  It seems to work very well.

And sometimes I have been lucky enough to find components that are signed, which is really exciting!

These earrings are currently available in the earrings section and in the vintage pearls section of Bumbershoot Designs, with more designs completed and coming to Bumbershoot Designs as soon as I can get them photographed. If you are interested in them and can't find them, as always, just contact me and I'll be happy to help you out.

Best wishes for a great weekend!

Say it on your wrist

Come on let it rain, let it rain down on me
Let the rain touch my hands, let the rain set me free.

Since finding them, these words from Melissa Etherbridge have really resonated for me. When I took another class this week at Fusion Beads, I knew these would be the words I’d use.

The “Say It on Your Wrist” class with instructor Lindsay (thanks Lindsay!) creates a stamped sterling cuff bracelet. I love using words in my art and I’ve stamped into metal for some time now, separate from jewelry making purposes. It was interesting to apply this technique in a different way, and I learned much, about the character of really, really thick silver wire, antiquing, neat tools for punching holes and for bending metal. Silver is such a beautiful metal to work with. I could totally see wearing a whole stack of these bracelets, each stamped with a different quote, a child’s name, favourite words, inspiration. It was a fun class, and one that Fusion Beads offers regularly, if you are interested.