I’ve gotten pictures taken and put up some listings in my Etsy store, mostly Swarovski crystal pieces I have lying around, including my Citadel earrings and A Lady’s Ransom bracelets.  Also put up a few Swarovski crystal leaves.

I did a copy of the first high-end piece I ever sold this morning as well, “Quartering the Arms,” which my good friend Brett bought for his fiance, Nora, at the Grand Valley RenFest. There is slight variance to this piece (instead of the 4mm rounds that I used in the first piece, I had some 3mm hand-cut faceted garnet beads lying around that I used instead), but it turned out quite nicely. The photos below are of the work in progress.

As you can see, I’m working at the kitchen table and didn’t fully clear everything off of it. I was working in the morning through early afternoon, thus my cup of coffee. If you look on the flasks real carefully, you can see some custom pieces I’ve made for my mother in the past!

The “Quartering the Arms” piece is inspired by my work as a historian.  In 1340, Edward III of England quartered the arms of England with the arms of France on his standard at the suggestion of the Flemish with whom he was dealing at the time.  This piece, done in sodalite and garnet with gold accents, echoes Edward’s choice and the color scheme of the combined arms (the arms of England at the time were gold lions/leopards on a red ground, the French arms were golden fleur-de-lys on a blue ground).  The metaphysical properties of this piece lend well toward working postively in a group environment–and getting along with said group (which bodes well for Nora, I think, whose day job is teaching)!  The finished piece turned out lovely.

This year has brought forth a new collection of more elegant, higher-end pieces.  I have made actually quite a few more than what will be featured here; more photos will be coming soon.  This collection augments my original collection of beadworked items with charms.

In addtion to the new high-end collection, I also have created new earring designs with names inspired by my favorite online gaming experience.  I also created the “A Lady’s Ransom” style of bracelet, which contains thirty-five Swarovski bicones seperated with pewter rondelles, fastened with a toggle clasp.

Also new in this year’s collection are a series of magnetic stone based bracelets made with crackle glass and other styles of glass beads.

Shows this year included the Grand Valley State University Renaissance Festival in Allendale, MI October 9-10 and the upcoming Athens Craft Show at Larson Middle School in Troy, MI on November 20, 2010.

After some work and gathering some advice from friends on how I might be able to make the Marks of the Crusade and Marks of the Dawn that I wanted to make, I experimented with creating a stamp out of scrap polymer clay.  It took a few hours and a couple tries to get it put together, but I eventually managed to craft one.  It was another two weeks before I had the guts to try it out.

The end result of the dry run was pretty neat if I do say so myself.

Marks of the Dawn, Marks of Honor Hold...

They look much shinier now that I’ve actually varnished them.  I have the clay to make a few more, I just haven’t gotten around to getting the clay out to do them (I intend to do some red ones as well, to make Marks of the Crusade).