Archive for the ‘Creative Reflections’ Category

One Answer to “What Can I Wear With This?”

“What can I wear with this outfit?” JEWELRY is one answer! That question is a question women have asked since time has been recorded. Women have pondered this and answered it with clothes, jewelry and accessories. Early stone wall drawings show female figures wearing necklaces, bracelets, and other body adornments. Museum collections from the pyramids include gold, silver and gem encrusted jewelry pieces. Cleopatra is often shown in pictures with ornate gold and silver headdresses, necklaces and bracelets galore. Early literature and writings give detailed descriptions of the clothing styles and jewelry worn at that time. The monarchy loved their baubles, men and women alike. Of course, their stones of choice were diamonds and precious gems set in large ornate rings, crowns and other settings. The richer you were in bygone eras, the larger and more opulent your accessories.

Little girls grow up playing “dress up” and love to wear necklaces and bracelets. I remember playing in the summer at my grandmother’s house and layering on the bracelets and jewelry all the way up my arms. Of course, the earrings were mostly clip on style then and they could pinch if you weren’t careful. But I remember clipping them onto other necklaces, the dresses and shoes too for “dress up.” I think I better add a tag for “creative meanderings” to this post as I just took a little trip down memory lane.

Jewelry as an accessory is here to stay! New and different jewelry designs help you stretch your wardrobe dollars. What an easy way to add color, define your style and add bling to your outfits. Change your jewelry, change your outfit. Dress it up for evening, go big and bold or soften your look for daytime and career wear. Buy pieces that will mix and match with several color combinations. Use your jewelry to update last year’s fall and winter neutral favorites with trendy new styles and colors. Neutrals are in style for fall and winter this year too, so accessorize and update yours now.

My Color Wheel or Rainbow Crystal Necklace Set is a great example of jewelry that goes with everything! This necklace has 18 different color Swarovski crystals with jet black beads and white Swarovski crystal base pearls with a little silver accent.

You can see more info on this necklace set here.

’till next time!

KC Bead Designs - Beaded Jewelry by Cheryl Skeens, located in the greater Kansas City, Missouri area, is owned and operated by Cheryl Skeens. In business since 2003 as a jewelry artist / designer of handcrafted beaded jewelry such as beaded earrings, bracelets, necklaces, eyeglass chains, beaded lanyards, zipper pulls, cell phone charms, mother’s bracelets, bridal and prom jewelry and more. Reflections. . .Beaded Jewelry. . .by Cheryl Skeens opened in July 2008 along with her new blog-site and is her second online store.

Tags: Beaded Jewelry, color wheel necklace, jewelry accessories, rainbow necklace

Website Store Open…Blog Relocated…Fall’s Coming!

My new (and 2nd store location) is now up and running. The inventory is limited, but I am adding to it every day! Now you have 2 sites to preview and browse my beaded jewelry designs as well as seeing them here on my blog.

You can connect to both stores easily from my blog by clicking the tabs in the top header or the Pages in the right side bar. Both store locations have secure shopping cart checkout so you don’t have to worry about using your credit card online or I have PayPal on both sites for those who prefer using their accounts for purchases.

For those who have followed my blog for a while, I apologize for all the url address changes recently. I wanted to grow and establish my own website complete with my blog and a new store to increase my internet business presence. I just didn’t anticipate all the pitfalls and challenges I would face doing all of this from scratch by myself. I am really lucky I have a great online support group on the Creative Shop Talk Forum. Thanks to you all.

I am beginning to start designing for fall and winter and have been researching trends and colors. One color trend I see already is the use of green and gold together. Everything from yellow gold to dark antique gold is being mixed with green shades in clothing and accessories. Circles and rings are still dominate in jewelry, but have a more subtle use as part of the design, not necessarily the focal point. Swirls, etching, hammered, coils, textured are all adjectives for this fall’s metal and wire components.

Here are my newest designs:

Amber and Black 3 Strand Necklace Set - This necklace set has simulated amber diamond shape resin beads with black glass twist beads and jet bicone crystals, seed beads and black nickel cable chain.

Gold Coins and Chains Necklace Set - This necklace set is gold plated cable chain with gold plated 8mm round beads and 25mm simulated gold plated coins. Necklace is shown doubled on model and is 30″ total length. The matching earrings are the gold coins dangling from fish hook wires.

You can see these and other new things in my stores. Click the tabs in the top menu.

’till next time!

KC Bead Designs - Beaded Jewelry by Cheryl Skeens, located in the greater Kansas City, Missouri area, is owned and operated by Cheryl Skeens. In business since 2003 as a jewelry artist / designer of handcrafted beaded jewelry such as beaded earrings, bracelets, necklaces, eyeglass chains, beaded lanyards, zipper pulls, cell phone charms, mother’s bracelets, bridal and prom jewelry and more. Reflections. . .Beaded Jewelry. . .by Cheryl Skeens opened in July 2008 along with her new blog-site and is her second online store.

Tags: amber, Beaded Jewelry, fall trends, gold chains, necklace set

KC Bead Designs Top 100 Artisan Jewelry Sites List

In the constant search for additional ways to promote, advertise and market my website store, I have created and am sponsoring a new Top 100 Site List.

Description: Browse and find Artisan Jewelry Sites featuring unique handcrafted jewelry, original lampwork beads and custom cut semi-precious gemstones by some of the finest artisan jewelry designers, handcrafted jewelry artists, lampwork glass artists, and lapidaries providing custom jewelry supplies online.

If you are interested in visiting my Top 100 Artisan Jewelry Sites List you can click here. Join and add your website, store, blog, forum, etc. related to artisan jewelry/designers, handcrafted jewelry/artists, lampwork glass artists/beads and lapidary jewelry design supply. I paid a yearly subscription fee to my Top 100 List provider to have my list be “advertising free” so there are no paid advertisement links appearing on my list to compete or draw visitors away from the sites added to my list.

For those interested in creating their own Top 100 List and for shoppers curious about what they are I have added this informational article:

What is a Top 100 Site List and how does it work? This is a list you create for a group of people to add (join) their website banner, description, and url making a directory of websites relating to the list topic. In exchange for adding their website to your list, the website owner places a link to your list somewhere on their website that contains their member code. When visitors to the website click on the link a vote is registered for the website on the Top 100 List. These incoming votes accumulate and move the website banner up in rank on the Top 100 List. When visitors browsing the Top 100 List click on a banner a vote is registered for the website as an outgoing vote. The more incoming votes a website receives, the higher in rank the banner will appear on the list.

So, what is the benefit of joining a Top 100 List? The most important reason to join a Top 100 List is to gain internet exposure for your website. The list provides “free” advertising promotion and increases traffic that may generate more sales for the website. If the webmaster for the list is promoting and advertising the Top 100 List and the list is growing, when the search engines crawl the list it will be indexed and included in their search results.

How do you create your own Top 100 List? There are several companies on the web who offer free Top 100 List templates for you to create and sponsor your own Top 100 list. You decide on a topic or group that you want to target for your list and fill out the template. You will need to complete a list of rules or facts for your list, create banners for the site to be placed somewhere on the joining website and then monitor the list to approve new members and keep the site neat and pleasurable for browsing visitors. Top 100 Lists are fairly automatic in operation but to be successful it is an ongoing process that will require time and commitment from the webmaster who creates the list the keep it growing and fresh to attract new members.

’till next time!

Tags: artisan jewelry, beaded artisan jewelry, handcrafted jewelry, lampwork glass artists, lapidary, Top 100 Artisan Jewelry Site List

Bright Colors for Spring and Summer 2008

The color forecast for spring and summer 2008 is very bright and vibrant colors. I’m sure you have already seen many of the new shades available for the upcoming seasons in your local stores and malls. Bright greens from lime to grass green, hot peony pinks, blues in saturated shades from light to royal blue and aqua to teal, peach shades in cantaloupe and salmon, citrus yellows, and don’t forget the bright reds.

The jewelry trends are still big and chunky with lots of circles, metal rings, metal components and chains everywhere. The big bold bright colored acrylic and resin beads are showing up everywhere too. What’s really nice about the acrylic and resin beads is their light weight. You can add some really stunning beads without them weighing a ton! Metals are being mixed together with some pieces I have seen including silver, gold and copper metal beads or chain all together. Models in magazines and people on TV are wearing multiple necklaces in different lengths at the same time. This season you can pretty much set your own style and establish your own signature look.

I have added several new pieces for spring and summer. Here is a preview of some of my favorites.

Aqua Black Dots & Rings Necklace Set - $30.00

These fun acrylic dot beads are approx. 3/4 inch and the black acrylic beads on either side are approx. 10 mm. The colored rings are transparent acrylic and the wavy discs and chain parts are silver plated. I have made necklaces with the dot beads in aqua (shown here), hot pink, and bright green. I will be adding all of these necklaces to my website this week.

Green Crystal Acrylic Beads with Silver Wire Stars - $28.00

The acrylic beads in this necklace set look like faceted crystal and are 3/4″ size. The wire wrapped stars are silver plated and very light too. Check out my website for more necklaces in hot pink acrylic crystal.

Aqua Acrylic Barrels with Stripe Beads Necklace Set - $28.00

The aqua beads are barrel beads in incremental sizes from the large center focal bead to smallest at the clasp ends. The white beads and stripe beads are also acrylic and are approx. 14mm size. I have the stripe beads made up in black and white and pink and white also.

Inspirational Rings and Beads Necklace - $28.00

This necklace has inspirational sayings around the larger rings and a quote on the donut pendant. All metal is silver plated in this necklace and the bead dangles are Czech fire-polish faceted beads. This one is one-of-a-kind and will not be repeated.

River Shell Drops and Ant. Silver Chain - $38.00

The shell drops are natural river shell dyed lime green and deep purple in teardrop, diamond and round shapes. The chain has an antique silver brushed finish and there are small drop tabs in round and diamond shape in this same finish too.

Summer Fun Lime Green and Bumpy Beads Necklace - $25.00

This fun necklace has a lime green Rare Earth Pendant™ and beads with white acrylic round beads and 12mm - 14mm lime bumpy lampwork beads.

Lampwork EYE Beads with Cat’s Eye and Copper Bracelet - $25.00

I love these beads! Bright blue lampwork beads with white, aqua and black “EYES” are 14mm coin beads with yellow 8mm cat’s eye beads and copper spacers and toggle clasp. I have these beads made up in a necklace and earrings too.

That’s all I have time to preview for you today, but there are many more new items being added to the website, KC Bead Designs.

’till next time!

Tags: Beaded Jewelry, handcrafted, Necklaces - Necklace Sets

Jacqueline’s Bookmark and Red High Heel Charms

This is a story about an author who lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, contacting an artisan jewelry website for a jewelry artist living in Missouri and red enamel high heel charms.

A few weeks ago I got an email from Jacquie Gum on the contact form on KC Bead Designs asking if I would be interested in designing a custom bead bookmark for her to use in her promotion packets for her newly published book, CONFESSIONS OF A CORPORATE SL_T. She gave me a link to her website so I could see the book cover art and check out her book. The book title peaked my interest and after reading her bio and the review saying the book was inspired by a true story, I decided I wanted to work with her if my ideas for her bookmark met any of her expectations.

I was interested in what she had in mind for her bookmark and its use for her book promotions. I emailed her back and said I definitely saw a bright red high heel charm dangling from beads for her bookmark. After sending my reply to Jacquie, I started seaching the web for “hot” red high heel charms.

When Jacquie emailed me back, I found we had similar ideas about the design of the bookmark and I went to work making a sample and taking pictures to email to her. After a few more emails (isn’t this medium wonderful) we agreed on the design, the components, and price. Now I had to order the beads, bookmarks, and charms to make a large quantity of the bookmarks for Jacquie and her schedule.

I was excited as each of the ”parts” were delivered and couldn’t wait to start putting the bookmarks together. Naturally, the most important “part” (the red high heel charm) was the last thing to be delivered. When I emailed the final picture to Jacquie her reply said “I love the bookmarks!”

The bookmarks are all finished now and sent to Jacquie and her publicist has sent out the press release packets for her book. Jacquie will be making book signing appearances and you can check out her dates here on her website.

What I love about this whole experience is how two people met through a virtual store and established a working business relationship. I enjoyed working with Jacquie and think I made a new friend as well. Jacquie and I decided to put links to each other’s websites on our websites and she has graciously put a link to the bookmark for sale on her site also. I wish her much success with her book, CONFESSIONS OF A CORPORATE SL_T, and hope to work with her in the future.

Jacqueline Gum’s Website

Jacqueline’s Bookmark (purchase)

’till next time!

Tags: beaded bookmark, red high heel charm

Spring Bling For Your Home Decor - Beaded Chain Pulls

Spring is just around the corner and its time to think about adding some BLING to your home decor! When spring rolls around we put that heavy warm wardrobe away until next fall. Why not do the same for your home? Brighter colors, lighter fabrics, sparkle, metallic, and glitz are still in the fashion forecast for our wardrobe so dress up your home too.

To help you with updating your spring decor adding some BLING, I have added NEW pretty practical jewelry for your home decor . . . Beaded Fan Lamp Chain Pulls.

Beaded fan lamp chain pulls/pendants can be used to brighten up a ceiling fan, a closet light, a lamp or anywhere a bead chain or string is pulled to turn on or off an electrical switch.

My beaded fan lamp chain pulls are strung on multi-cable stainless steel beading wire or strung on heavy guage craft wire with an attached wire pendant ready to attach to your existing bead chain pull. The pendant section length varies by design and style, but each beaded fan lamp chain pull is a total length of 12″ and the bead chain is easily adjusted to accomodate your particular needs.

I have several styles and designs available in my webstore designed with wood beads, glass beads, crystals, acrylic beads, lampwork beads and more. All of my beaded fan lamp chain pulls are priced at $15.00 each and can be found under the Home Decor category in my store.

Click the titles under the pictures to see the full description and more pictures at KC Bead Designs.