Statement Necklaces for a Black Tie Affair, Etc.

Bead Up had a very, very busy weekend. A very project filled weekend! For starters, the husband and I made 3 (count 'em, 3!) display holders for the upcoming jewelry party! I will be blogging about them every Wednesday until the party :) Let's just say that they all turned out better than I had expected and well within our budget! Secondly, I finished making the most of what I call "dainty necklaces" for the party, and have now moved onto making earrings (I find that I can make more when I stick with one type of product and just produce them in mass quantities rather than jumping all over the place). Next on the list is bracelets and then gifts, and before you know it, it will be party time! I also made a few pairs of earrings for one of my high school friends who asked me to make her something to match the heirloom yellow pearl necklace she is wearing on her wedding day. Abbey originally asked me to make all the wedding jewelery, but after finding her grandma's pearl necklace she made some earrings to match it for her bridesmaids. She called one day in a frantic because she just couldn't come up with a design she liked for herself. On the right is a picture of what Abbey made next to her Grandma's necklace for her bridesmaids, and below is what I came up with. I figured I would give her options in addition to paying homage to the design she originally came up with, but with some extra length to differentiate :) What do you think (I personally like the middle ones the best!)?

Lastly, I also spent some time making several attempts at a statement necklace to go with a little black dress I planned to wear for a taping of Dancing with the Stars. A few months back while in Chinatown I bought some crazy golden coral stick-lookin' beads (which my shopping buddy Erin though were horrendous!). I also bought some beautiful turquoise crystals in downtown LA last month that I have been dying to use. Here is necklace #1:

($26 on Etsy)

I like how it turned out, and though I never mind wearing brown and black together, I didn't think this necklace went well with my dress. On to design #2. I bought a bunch of REALLY heavy, funky, beautiful agate pink and purple beads at a craft store next to Mood Fabrics (the one as seen on the current season of Project Runway) in West Hollywood a few weeks ago and have been itching to use these, too. Here's a little choker of a piece that I came up with:

($30 on Etsy)

I liked how this one went with the dress, too, though still wasn't 100% satisfied as it still seemed to lack the WOW factor I was hoping to achieve. So I finally tackled some crazy big amethyst chips I have been avoiding in fear that I would only find frustration in them. Turns out, I found a winner! I added some little green beads as accent colors and double-wired the thing to make sure it wasn't going anywhere! So yesterday we set off to see a filming of Dancing with the Stars! Here we are before leaving for CBS Studios in West Hollywood. We waited in line for 2 hours before finally finding out that more VIPs came to the taping than they had expected and we were about 30 people shy of getting in. Though that was the sad news, the good news was that they would give us free confirmed seating VIP tickets to a taping of our choice! I left a happy camper after all :) I will let you know when I finally do end up going (I am hoping for next week!). Lastly, did you get a chance yet to enter Bead Up's October Giveaway on Etsy It Up? If not, what the heck are you waiting for? You have up to 13 chances to win one of my Fall Line necklaces! See you tomorrow when I replace tomorrow's I Love You, Wednesday's with I Love DIY Projects that Save Me Money!! ;)

Fall Line Giveaway!

Ok, lovelies! It's my favorite event of the month:

GIVEAWAY TIME!

I found Celeste's blog, Etsy It Up!, one day while blurfing (blog surfing), and immediately fell in love. Her site featuring Etsy sellers is visually stunning, clean, crisp, and very interactive (and she uses blogger!). And best of all - she often features awesome giveaways! And this week, guess who she is featuring? (And don't you think our blog header designs and names go so well together?)

Celeste and I decided on giving away one of my new Fall Line items, this Sprout Necklace :)

You have up to 13 (woah!) chances to enter - so what are you waiting for? Click HERE to enter!

Also, if you buy something from Bead Up between now and the 10th and mention Celeste's giveaway, I will offer free shipping and even throw in a free pair of earrings!

Lots of love,

~Christyn

Fashionably Friday: Dancing with the Stars' Samantha Harris

With it's largest cast yet (and it's largest Macy's Stars of Dance, largest dance-offs, blah blah blah, seems like they are always trying to up their own previous seasons to keep people like me and you watching), Dancing With the Stars is back this fall and just as enduring as ever. Not only do I just love dancing competitions, but holy cow the outfits, behind the dance floor drama, and live songs are such eye and ear candy (and don't even feel like a guilty pleasure - such class!). And guess who has tickets to this Monday's filming of the show? THIS GIRL! (I see a future blog post regarding the necklace I need to make for the event to go with a FAB black cocktail dress I have! Who is excited?!) I could easily do a million Fashionably Friday posts on the great (and not so great) costumes and coordinating jewelry, and especially how they are all dance resistant! But one of the most amazingly dressed women on the show isn't even a dancer, but the head co-host, Samantha Harris. Known for her E! Daily correspondence, Fit editorials and workout DVD's, Samantha Harris is the well-spoken and perfectly timed backstage host that always has encouraging things to say to jittery dancers before and after their performances. She also knows how to keep on pace and work with a 10-second time frame for each interview - quite a skill considering the circumstances! They also dress her in a ROCKIN' wardrobe, with beautiful ballgowns that weekly outdo each other. And with that, of course, comes some beautiful jewelery! Let's have a look! (Sorry about the low resolution of some of these pictures, I had to watch and caputre the images of many of the tapings to get a shot! Click on any of the images for it's source).

This is my most favorite of all the pictures I could get my hands on. Not only is the necklace AMAZING, but worn with a GORGEOUS dress - wowza!!

Usually I am of the Less is More camp, but if you are Samantha Harris, chances are you make it look good simply by default.

Samantha wore this during the show's 3-day premiere last week. I am pretty sure the "necklace" is part of the dress - count me in.

Here we are getting in touch with our gothic/80's permed look *duh?* - don't really care for the hair - but the ornate necklace (or maybe it's just an applique?) paired with the stunningly simple black dress is a winner in my book.

She also rocks some GREAT jewelry off the set, too. Here are some great examples:

Of course her face is worth looking at, too, but look also at this GREAT jewelry combination! Wish I could take credit for that one! (Samantha at the 2009 Oscars)

Samantha at the 69th Emmy's last month. This necklace reminds me of the ensemble she is wearing in the first picture of this post. LOVE IT.

I am digging the combination of a briolette dangle necklace with a loop-y beaded necklace. Hmmm, might be on my to-make list ;)

Simple, understated, and perfectly coordinated.

Though I of course couldn't get away with the neck of the dress, the dainty fuchsia necklace is a perfect match (I have a very similar necklace and earring set on my Etsy site).

What do you think? Whose jewelry inspires you lately?

Have a dance-worthy weekend, y'all!

I love you, Wednesdays.

This week China is celebrating it's 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. In 1911, China's Republican Party overthrew the patriarchal reign of the Qing dynasty, thus opening the battle ground for dominate ruling party over the most populated country in the world. From 1911 through 1949, two major players emerged: The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMP or ROC) and the Communist Party of China (or CPC, later to be know as the CCP). The two duked it out for centuries, and after changing the face of China in the process, Mao drove Chiang Kai-shek and Nationalist party into Taiwan and, on October 1, 1949, declared himself de facto leader of the People's Republic of China (otherwise known as "Communist China" or "Red China"). Now that you have had your history lesson for the day, I am going to first say that I will do my best here on out to omit my opinion on Chinese politics and history from the rest of the post (I want to be re-admitted back into the country one of these days! Though if you want to chat off the record, e-mail me!). During my junior year of college I found myself without a major and itching to study abroad. The only consistent classes I had been taking the two years prior were every Chinese language, philosophy, and history class I could get my hands on (I found the topics fascinating and myself strangely proficient at speaking the language). One thing lead to another, and I ended up creating the University of Kentucky's first Chinese language major. I studied in Shanghai for the summer of 2004, and in the summer of 2005 finished my thesis on the Cult of Mao by traveling to over a dozen urban and rural Chinese cities to interview locals and research in person. Though it's been 4 years since I was last in the country, to say the the place and it's people have left an impression on my heart is a vast understatement. (Here I am at Tianamen Square in 2004, sporting a red due and still carrying around my Freshman 15!). I am thus keeping the people of China and the country that has so touched my heart in mind this week (to see some great pictures of how the country is preparing for it's celebration, click here). Anyone who has walked into my home can visually see how much this country has affected my aesthetics and tastes (see: my love for black, red, and white!). Everything about China, from it's poverty to it's prosperity, fascinates me on a very visual level. The culture of the people has left no stone unturned when it comes to their own aesthetic expressions and art, even on a daily scale. Their philosophical practices (that which we in the West call religion) embody and revolve around artistic expression in both an ancient and modern way (see other examples of how Buddhism has affected my own jewelry making). Even each Chinese character (NOT symbol, for the love God please do not find yourself calling them that in front of me because I will let my pet peeve take over and correct you in public!) has been thoughtfully developed over the nation's 2000+ year history to embody stories and deeper meanings. Any artist has much - MUCH - to learn from the Chinese aesthetic and approach to artistic expression. It's breath taking, really. (Since I went to China before blogging and digital photography were standard in my life, I only have a few sets of pictures online - you can check them out here).

To say that Chinese culture, art, philosophy, and even it's language affects my aesthetic and thus my art is of course an understatement (here are a few my own pieces that incorporate the Chinese aesthetic directly, you can read a blog entry about one of them in particular here). Though it's presence isn't huge on Etsy yet, there are traces of the magic that is "Chinese" on the website:

grigio, theartofdang, nakeddecor, chefjen137

poofny, plasticpumpkin, onpurposephotos, samphoto BRIANKENNYCHICAGO, rossthompson, rongouldstudios, forevereast aldesigns, bomobob, HeyHarriet, annamackhardison

Make sure you visit their shops, too!

So, what inspires you today?

Preparing my Fall Line and for a Jewelry Party!

Welcome to Fall, Y'all! It's been a busy season in the Bead Up world, as I have been spending alot of my free time preparing for a jewelry party a friend is hosting for me in less than a month! This past weekend I got the invitations I designed in the mail (I did the text and my sorority sister Mary Ellen did the awesome illustration - make sure you check out her site!) I am really pleased with how they look! I passed about two dozen out to people at church yesterday alone, and am going to mail about two dozen more out and give the other 80 postcards to my co-sponsor Cheryl of Cupcakinitup! and the host of the event, Marla! Cupcakinitup! and I also spent a good part of Saturday taste testing chocolate frosting for the event, attending a decorating demo at Michaels, and choosing cupcake liners (pink zebra stripped!). I can't tell you how much fun this whole event has already been! At this point I have made over 100 necklaces and earrings for the event, yet my to-do list still seems endless! Anyone have any jewelry party ideas/tips that they would like to share? :) And to add to the fun, yesterday I got an e-mail asking if I would like to be a featured vendor at a local Christian school's Christmas fundraising event in December. Would I? Sign me up! Now I have even more of a reason to create in bulk! That said, it's been hard deciding what to post on Etsy and what to save for my party. I have decided to at least have my whole front page on Etsy be items from my Fall Line, so here are another 5 items I added today (all bird themed)! Let me know what you think! (Click on any of the images to see the listing on Etsy)...

Bird with the Yellow Rose necklace

Around the Blue Birdie Bend earrings

The Spirit's Grace Necklace

Bye Blue Birdie Brass Earrings

Bird Plaque with Pink Roses necklace

Fashionably Friday: XXI

I figured with the Emmy's this past weekend I would have plenty to blog about this Friday. Sadly, though, none of the red-carpeters walkers wore anything blog worthy when it comes to jewelry. Call me picky, but even InStyle's list of "Best Emmy Jewelry" left me totally underwhelmed. Seriously, no one's jewelry was even worth blogging about. ::sigh:: So then I figured I would finally blog about all the jewelry I have been noticing on TV this week. Not only have I not been able to find the images I hoped to snag (dang you copyright police!), but I really don't want to do prime time TV overkill. Next on my list was reviewing designer jewelry, but the prices associated with rather unoriginal or foolishly ornate pieces only frustrated me. So where does a 20-something girl turn to for inspiration (and financial bliss)?... Forever XXI* :)

No need to lie. About 75% of my wardrobe hails from the chain, and even some of my jewelry components are no more than a necklace or bracelet from the store that I tore apart and re-formated. What's just as impressive as the store itself is the crazy large selection of jewelry and accessories many of the locations carry (to the point of even opening up separate accessory stores, called Love 21). But, as always, with the good comes the bad. Let's look at some of what XXI offers online this fall...

Kalese Beaded Necklace - $13.80 I LOVE THIS. In fact, when I saw it at the XXI Outlet store in Anaheim, I was really close to buying it, but couldn't justify the $13.80! (and this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I make my own jewelry, because I am picky AND cheap!)

Tribal Rings Necklace - $5.80 So instead I bought this one, partially because it was half the price, but also because it posed the perfect opportunity to tear it apart! I added some of my own round wooden beads to the chain and kept the loopy things aside - look out for them in a future project!

Open Line Leaf Earrings - $2.80 I am really loving leaves this fall, and these earrings definitely incorporate both simplicity and decadence at the same time! (Um, and they are only $2.80!)

Translucent Bead Necklace - $5.80 Ok, here's a little disclaimer (and I may be shooting myself in the foot for it). I LOVE this necklace -partially because I JUST made one JUST like it for my jewelry party! Though this one is super cute, I am sure they didn't make it with LOVE like I did?!

Pear Shaped Collar - $8.80 Story: I saw a woman walking around the cafeteria at my work a few weeks ago with this necklace on. My first thought was that it was over the top and must weigh a ton. Then I saw her wearing it a few days later and found myself giving it a second chance. When placed with a simple top, this necklace can speak volumes. I can't believe that I like it, since I am the "less is more" type, but I give it a thumbs up (and for less than $9, really? Do we need to think twice about it?).

And the ones that make you say, "Yeah, not so much..."

Exotic Cluster Necklace - $15.80 Yes, this is a necklace. Looks like something off the walls of any given Vegas hotel. Ugh.

Marcasite Beaded Earrings - $4.80

Look, Mom! I found a new use for that brooch you bought a double of! Moving Fish Scale Necklace - $6.80 Ok, so I used to go to this vegetarian restaurant on Nanjing Lu in Shanghai when I studied in China, and every time I got the bill they gave the EXACT SAME fish out on a key chain as a souvenir. Kind of like a fortune cookie, just, ya know, more permanent. Looks like something my husband would bring home from his fishin' trip with his guys, hook and all. The vegetarian in me cringes. Rectangle Dimpled Earrings - $4.80 Jem! Is truly outrageous! Truly truly outrageous! Multi Chains w/ Ribbon Necklace - $8.80 Um, 'scuse me? I think your boyfriend left his bow tie on your...necklace?.

Just think! You can get all of these for less than $50 - combined! Lesson of the day, ladies. Just because you CAN buy it doesn't mean you SHOULD! Ok, I think that settles it. My new dream job is to design jewelry for Forever 21. Both to make sure some of these "classic" looks never happen again, and to also get on board with some rad resources and endless possibilities - and, best of all, it would be on someone else's dollar!

Happy weekend, Fashionistas!

* A note about Forever XXI. I know some people have a problem supporting chain stores that get their materials from questionable sources. Unfortunately, I find that these same people also eat at restaurants that don't qualify where they get their supplies, and buy gas from mega-sized distributors. Just sayin'.

I love you, Wednesdays.

Because, seriously, Friday is still 2 days away. I love you, Wednesdays is my bloggin' attempt at a.) shutting up about my products and sharing the love of others' with others! and b.) sharing sources of inspiration that often stands behind my jewelry and creative process. Last week my blogging friend Karen sent me a link to a website she thought I would find intriguing. Two words: heck yeah. She suggested I check out Lovely Clusters, which is a website dedicated to finding beautiful items and showcasing them by color, theme, or even season. I LOVE these kinds of websites (as mentioned in last week's ILYW blog entry!). Karen even suggested that I try to see if I could get my stuff featured on the site. I sheepishly asked the site's administer to consider Bead Up in her collection, and within a day she responded positively! So here's your challenge, everyone: visit Lovely Cluster's "Product Cluster" feature and see if you can find the two Bead Up products that are listed (hint: they are under the categories "jewelry," "autumn," "fuchsia," and "orange."). Post your answer in the comments section of this entry - the winners will get a free gift with their next Bead Up purchase! After finding my Bead Up items listed on the site, I decided to have a little fun of my own on the site. I have been saving this Crate and Barrel advertisement for some time now because I am just in love with it's color scheme. It totally mirrors what I am trying to go for in my Fall Line, both in terms of color and differing textures. Using the Product Cluster feature on the site and searching under a few of the colors listed, I came up with this little collection of color:

Marang97, claireyhairey, namolio lamarquisedesanges, ohhellofriend, CassiaBeck lamarquisedesanges, Marang97, SophieIsobelDesigns beanandthesprout, inklore, CassiaBeck

Don't forget to visit their Etsy sites, too!

So, what inspires you today?

Fall Line 09 - I'm a machine.

This was one of the first weekend's in a long time where I didn't have massive amounts of plans consuming any potential free time. In other words, I had lots of time to make jewelry! Making jewelry, much like scrapbooking, painting, writing, etc, doesn't just happen. You need to be in the mood and have some sort of inspiration keeping you going. Sometimes I sit in front of my supplies and think "WTF am I going to do with this?" Or other times I would rather waste away in front of the TV rather than face the disaster that has become my craft room. And it always seems that when I set aside time to get crafty, I come up with excuses or have no motivation or inspiration what-so-ever. Thankfully, this weekend, none of these were the case! When I started thinking of what I wanted included in my "Fall Line," the first thing that came to my mind was brass. I have seen alot of it around the craft world lately, so I knew I wouldn't have a problem finding this unique material. I have scored alot of brass charms and findings at Michaels, but the buggers don't carry matching chain in a size of my liking! I found myself in quite the dilemma on Saturday afternoon while staring at dozens of brass charms with no chain to match. Thankfully, the Hubs agreed to join me in a little trip to downtown LA's Jewelry District, simply to find the perfect chain. It had only been 3 weeks since I was last there, but I have already used a good deal of what I bought the first time I visited and knew that this trip would be much shorter than the last since we knew where we were going this time! Compared to our last visit, the Jewelry District this time around seemed more lively and promising (maybe because we weren't intimidated by it's randomness anymore: see picture on right). It's a mix of bead stores, trim stores, fabric stores, button stores, ethnic stores, mixed in between lots of random taco, hot dog, and ice cream stands. Kids run up and down the street playing with toys, guys stand under door frames urge you to step in their shop for a look, florist man corners hoping to sell gifts for sweethearts, and fabric lines the buildings on the sidewalk. We tried to visit a few stores that we missed during our first visit, but apparently this section of town is known for closing at 3 on Saturdays (fine, then!). No worries, the main store I hoped to visit, Athenian Fashion, was open and ready for me to drop some serious cash on some chain! I had a nice chat with the owner of the store and asked him if I could take a picture to share with you all. No dice, though I did at least get him interested in posting some on Yelp. I walked away with over 100 feet of chain and enough fixings to make dozens of necklaces! With the AC and TV on and food in my belly, I sat on my oversized suede chair for the majority of the rest of the weekend, making as many necklaces as I could on my ottoman. In the past, I have been proud of myself for making at least 3 necklaces in one sitting, but with my new supplies in hand, there was no stopping me! I think it also helped that I only had what I knew I was going to use for this specific project in front of me (instead of having ALL my supplies on the table - this only ever overwhelms me!). I also used only one kind of material and had a series of components that I mixed and matched. After a few cuts, bruises, and bandaids on my fingers accompanied by a very sore back, I was shocked when I counted how much I made: 30 necklaces and 5 pairs of earrings! I separated what I planned to sell on Etsy and what I am holding for my upcoming Jewelry Party, and then tediously packaged the two dozen necklaces in preparation for a very busy October. Here's a picture of all that I made: In the meantime, here's what I posted on Etsy this morning - click on any of the images to go it's listing!

I would love to hear what you think! I hope to add more every Monday for the next few weeks until my jewelry party... keep checking in! Now, where's that Tylenol?