I’ve finally got around to taking photos of bracelets I made for sale. I uploaded two of them today, with a couple more items still saved for later.

Capturing these photos was not an easy task. I had to do a little bit of editing to get the colours to look more like the real thing. Still, learning every day. The photos link to their Etsy pages, which will give you a description and more images.

Starting out this beading project hasn’t been easy either, financially. I really need a lot of bead and finding stashes to be able to make various styles. I order a lot from other Etsy sellers, and each package takes at least a week to arrive. I can never order enough to last me more than a week. Actually, it lasts me about a day before I realise I need some other type of finding. So I order more and wait patiently… (yeah right). The next day or two, I order more supplies from another seller. And the cycle continues. Have a look at my stocked work area in our new apartment in Zürich-Oerlikon:


I’m still itching to make my own beads, because that would at least eliminate the need for me to search high and low for affordable glass beads in the colour I want. Of course, I would then be searching for and buying glass rods, wouldn’t I? Right. So anyway, I purchased a book on Making Glass Beads by Cindy Jenkins. I was originally worried that I would need a kiln to even start out, but after finding a German online store that sells all the equipment and glass stock, I now know that I can use vermiculite (Kühlgranulat) to anneal small beads. This is good news for a beginner wanting to try out the craft without spending at least AU$500 for a bead kiln.