Phew!

Last Sunday I had a little table at my village's Arts Festival, selling jewelry; as a result, for the last few weeks all of my non-school, non-family, non-internship time was used preparing for the show. It was fun, and I even made a tiny profit, but it was a lot of work (especially for Mr. Beadgirl, who was responsible for handling the two Beadboys hopped up on cookies and bouncy-houses).

My wares:
My Halloween/Day of the Dead wares. I got the idea for the spiderweb earrings from Beadwork, which regularly runs articles on different stitches; this stitch is built from five spokes of ndebele stitching connected with strung seed beads. It didn't take much at all to see all the resulting web was missing was a little spider in the center. Every pair I've ever made has sold almost immediately. The skull earrings, calaveritas, were inspired by Mexican Day of the Dead sugar skulls covered in brightly colored frosting. The first few pairs I made I embellished with fringe in seven colors, but for this show I decided to try a new look -- beaded daisy chain flowers in yellow and orange, to represent the marigolds often used in Day of the Dead celebrations. These are my favorite, and had they not sold I'd've kept them for myself. During the show I made another pair, this time with skull beads with a vertical hole, which took some time to work out the construction (I eventually tied the thread ends into two knots, threaded the headpin between the knots, and buried the knots in the hole). The skulls look like little flower pots:
But I think I need more flowers (I ran out of orange beads). The skull necklaces were an obvious pairing.

Milagros necklaces. Not much to say except I love these, and have one I wear often.

Birthstone earrings, with swarovski crystals and tiny ear wires suitable for women and little girls. These were very popular when I sold them through my cousin's store.

Funky fiber beads. I wrap strips of fabric around a length of straw and tie some fancy thread or yarn around them; sometimes I also wrap colored craft wire strung with beads.

Some other pretty necklaces (I didn't get pictures of all of them).

Button earrings. I layered two to three buttons and strung craft wire through the holes, twisted the ends of the wire together, and then formed the twist into the loop for the ear wires.

Felt ball earrings. I got the idea from the felt necklace I made. The larger felt balls didn't have holes, so I sewed the findings on. The colors are not my favorite, but they were the only ones I had in pairs.

Bookmarks, which I threw in for variety. The two embroidered ones are left over from the bookmark swap. The others are cut from the paper cloth I made, and sewn onto felt backing.

At the last minute I realized I needed bags, but I didn't want to spend any more money, so I used some pretty wrapping paper. I cut out long rectangles and folded the long edges in a quarter of an inch, put glue on the edges, and folded them up. It's not a major achievement, but I was pretty proud of myself.

Over the next few days, I'll be listing in my etsy store the leftover jewelry.