You honor Me

I'm lovin it. When I started creating polymer clay items, it was more for me to incorporate into my own designs. I got a few remarks from people about the pieces I was creating, and one thing led to another. I do know tons of wonderfully gifted artists, and who better to share with I thought. In my wildest dreams I never thought it would make me feel the way it does. I'm so honored and thrilled to see some of my clay pieces incorporated into other artist's designs.

I wanted to show off a piece from a spectacular artist and friend of mine. Her name is Christine and her shop is Christinesbeadworkson Etsy.



If you have not seen her work before, I highly suggest checking out her shop, and grabbing up a piece for yourself. Here is a special thank you to Christine and all of you, who have used one of my pieces in your art. You honor me!!

A new passion and finding the time

As many of you may already know, It's been a while since my last post! What is that old saying "Time flies when your having fun"? Well who ever said that first sure had it right. I decided to start making polymer clay beads a few months back, and completely fell head over heals in love with it. I have definately neglected my blogging duties. The absence has hopefully allowed me enough time away, to get my newest obsession into check and I'm capable of getting my schedule under control again. I say this with a nervous laugh because you never know what comes tomorrow. Baby steps forward are still progress right?



I wanted to formally announce my new shop on Etsy, so here is a quick introduction to Rachele's Beads I have a lot of different beads to offer at Rachele's Beads. I have a lot of cabochons for all my bead embroidery and wire wrapping friends. I'm also making pendants and components for all. Lately I've been making cabs with metallic dust, and loving the way they are turning out, however as my skills improve, new designs will evolve.



The hardest thing at this point is finding the time to do all of my passions. Those of you who sell handmade items online know how much work really goes into it. There are so many skills needed and so many different hats to wear, like that of an artist, photographer, photo editor, writer, data entry specialist and even an advertising agent.

I would love to do article on time management. For those of you who have a great time management plan, please leave me your comments.

The Power of Friendship

We all need a really good partner in crime. Someone to share your interests with, tell your secrets too, hold your hair if your sick, laugh at your jokes, cry with you when your sad, and tell you your being a pain in the ass, when you are....lol.




Friendship!!! What does it mean to me? Everything!! In my youth, I had to learn quickly how to make new friends because we moved alot. Although, It was very hard leaving my friends behind to have to start all over again, it forced me to grow as a person. I truly believe that our mission in life, is to learn and grow, and become the person that we are suppose to be...good or bad, and the relationships that we make in our lives help determine the outcome.




One thing I have always tried to teach my children is to treat your friends right. Lift them up, don't tear them down. I believe the best way to keep friends is to make them feel good about themselves when they are around you. Who wouldn't keep coming back for more. Don't take your friends for granted, let them know how much you care about them and never have any regrets.




With all this being said, I bet your wondering what made me decide to do a blog post about my feelings on friendship. Well this reason is simple, a very good friend sent me a gift some time back, when things were really tough for me and my family. This friend knew how much I loved this item that she had made, and she asked me for my address and sent it to me with no questioned asked. It was the most beautiful act, and I love her for it. She has taught me so much about love, grace, patience, generosity, and the power of positivity. She is the perfect picture of positivity and most of you know her. Her name is Diane Alves but most call her Dini. She owns Beadazzled of Oregon, and she is a wonderful friend that I will always love. She is also my co-manager of the Beadweaving Emporium Market at 1000 Markets. Her work is beyond beautiful and I urge you to check out her shop. She is the queen of freeform beadweaving and here is what she sent me and only an example of her brilliance.

Thank you Dini, I love you darling!!!

A Happy Holiday Surprise

Quite a few months back, I had participated in a pay it forward thing on Facebook. You were suppose to send a piece of your work to a certain number of people, and they would do the same. Olga was the only one who had responded, and we both had agreed to do an exchange, for sometime in the near future. However both of our lives got really busy, and unfortuantely to be honest I forgot about it.

My husband had lost his job, and we were in such difficult financial times, that we were selling our personal belongings to pay what bills we could. We ended up having to move to a less expensive house, our vehicles went back to the bank, and we were struggling, not unlike most in our community, or nation for that matter. On top of all that, I opened up a new shop and Market(with others) on 1000 Markets, all within this time frame. My goodness what a year I have had....lol!!



Skipping ahead to the beginning of December I was feeling very stressed and excited with Christmas coming up. I was tired and to be honest a bit grumpy. I had so many projects that I was working on that needed to be completed before my daughters birthday and Christmas. So to say the least I was feeling overwhelmed, probably not unlike many of you during the holiday season. And then, to my complete surprise, I recieved a package from Sweden. It was from Olga, and it was one of the most beautiful bracelets I have ever seen. She named it Forest Path, which is perfect for me also because my favorite color is green, like the lush earth. I was so excited that I put it on and really didn't want to take it off ever....lol. She had just made my day, no actually she had just made my month. She is such an amazing artist, but more importantly she is an amazing person.



I feel so honored to have an original piece that was made just for me from Olga. She is an incredible artist. It's actually pretty funny, being a beadweaving and bead embroidery artist myself, that this is the first piece that has ever been made for me. I don't make jewelry for myself often at all, and this just feels wonderful. Please visit Olga's blog at http://mamma-foxan.blogspot.com to see more of her stunning work, I hope you all are fortunate enough to own a piece of her stunning art.

Olga, if you are reading this, thank you so much!! I'm honored and will treasure it always!!

Sincerely,
Rachele