Donations for Shimmy for the Cure

As many of you know, I'm vending at Shimmy for the Cure on Saturday, June 13th, and Sunday June 14th. I have donated the fabulous items shown for the raffle. Details? Swingin' from the Chandeliers are Swarovski Crystal and Sterling Silver, and are light as a feather. The Empress Bindi is Thai Silver and Swarovski Crystal, and is guaranteed to make you look fabulous! I call it the Blindi because is shines so much! So here are the pictures to drool over, and I'll see you there!

Bead Swap,Bead&Button,Shimmy for the Cure, and more!

I've been working on projects for the Bead Unique Bead Swap lately, and I'm getting ready to send them out. I have included here a picture of the Wire Business Card Holder I'm sending.

I'll be participating in Shimmy for the Cure starting Thursday, June 11th with a Henna party, and going until Sunday, June 14th with Workshops. I'll be vending on Saturday and Sunday. For this auspicious occasion I will be unveiling new Bindi designs, including some that should be called 'BLINDIS'. So keep an eye out for tons of new fantastic products at Shimmy, and also in my shop just after http://www.msplinks.com/http://www.gypsybeads.etsy.com/. For more information on Shimmy for the Cure, visit http://www.myspace.com/ShimmyfortheCure. to work on Zils bags, but I'm running out of time before the Bead&Button Show , so we'll see. I'll be teaching a mini-lesson at Jonsey's Art Bazaar on Saturday, June 20th at of around 1:00 along with vending there. Stop by to say 'Hi', and check out my wonderful wares in case you missed me at Shimmy. You can see more information at: http://www.myspace.com/jonesysartbazaar

Keep an eye out for a contest to win a wonderful, shiny prize sometime in the near future here on my Blog!

My first Etsy Treasury!

I just made my first Etsy Treasury, and had to share. It's called Gypsy Spirit, and it features all the fun things that a Gypsy could need. I chose two good friends to showcase on this treasury, MsBelle, and Skwrrl, so check out each of their items especially :)
Gypsy Spirit Treasury

Re-organizing my Creative Space!

So, for years now, I've been trying to re-organize my creative space. I'll admit that I have a tendency to be excessively messy when creating a project, and then I won't clean it up before I start a new one, and then I start a new one and....it's a vicious cycle. This year, in honor of the upcoming Bead&Button Show, and the Bead Unique Bead Swap, I decided to at least organize my craft station that my husband built for me last year for my birthday. Here are the results, but you should see my 5x5 tall craft table in the middle of the room! It's piled with crafty goodness, and I can't find anything. So last night I started to clean it off (without piling all the stuff somewhere else). I would love to come home to a clean craft area when I get back from Bead&Button. We'll see how it goes. Does anybody have any great tips on organizing tons of teeny-tiny stuff?

Great Show!

I had a great show this past weekend at Jonsey's Art Bazaar. I met tons of wonderful artists and designers, and sold some stuff to boot. I met Vivian Vavoom and Reyna Von Vett of Black Box Burlesque, a new Burlesque venue here in Denver. They offer plenty of classic Burlesque shows, as well as some flashy Hollywood Glamour style shows. Vivian taught a mini tassel-twirling lesson to innocent bystanders ;). I have included a picture of a couple of the participants wearing their pin-on pasties! She also does bridal parties, and girl's night's out. I also met Chef Julia who makes the most delightful strawberry, lemon, and coconut flavored marshmallows. Need a lesson in cooking? Chef Julia's your girl! Love vintage jewelry, but can't afford it? Check out Retro Betty! She makes new jewelry using vintage buttons and images. Keep an eye out next month for me to teach a mini bellydance lesson at the bazaar. Saturday, June 20th, high noon!

So much going on!

These past few weeks have been exhausting. Between art shows, teaching, and trying to get ready for the Bead&Button Show at the end of the month, I hardly don't know what to do with myself! I've been sewing, beading, and organizing like mad, and I hope it all pays off in the end. I have a show tomorrow called Jonsey's Art Bazaar between noon and 3 tomorrow. Stop by to see me if you get a chance.

I still haven't made anything for the Bead Unique Bead Swap. I swear, I'm just having beader's block. Thing is that I have to get it together, like, now to make the deadline on June 5th. It sounds far away, but I leave for the Bead&Button Show on Saturday, May 30th, so I won't have time after that. I'm looking at a little bit of a lull for the next week after the show, so I hope that something comes to me and quick! Wish me luck!

Copyright issues, and Jewelry DESIGNERS

Alright, I'm going to go off on a tangent here and talk about Jewelry Design and Copyright. A few days ago I was searching around on Craigslist in the Artists section when I saw an add for a Jewelry Designer who was looking for a place to show her work. I click on it to read more, and it has some pictures of her 'work'. One of these items was a necklace that I recognized from one of the popular bead magazines a while back (I can't remember if it was Beadwork or Bead&Button Magazine), so I look at the name of the 'designer', and it's definately not the name I remember going with this particular woven necklace. I file it into the back of my mind to look at my back issues of magazines and find which one this necklace came out of. A couple of days go by, and I'm showing for the weekend at a little gallery (this particular gallery has this wonderful idea to show a different jewelry artisan every week to get their names out and offer something new to their clientelle, which I think is a grand idea), and a couple of the future artisans come in to talk to the owner and cement their own weekends...nothing out of the ordinary....until the Necklace walks in! You guessed it! The necklace from Craigslist walks in to talk to the owner. The 'designer' takes out her 'work' and I say "Did you get this out of a magazine?" to which she replies "Oh, yeah! It's nice huh?". So I point out to her that it's illegal to re-create for profit any item from any of the bead magazines I know of without permission from the original designer, to which she replies "But some of these are a little different than the one in the magazine, and they're a different color". Let me get one thing straight people: It's the pattern that's copyrighted not the color! I cannot stress this enough. And as far as those of you who think that 'If I change it 30%, then it becomes mine'...Newsflash! If you have to actually sit down and think of how much to change something to make it yours, then you're not a DESIGNER, you're a thief! You can take the Wizard of Oz, make the TinMan Copper, turn Toto white, and call it The Long Yellow Road, but the story is still the same, and this is Copyright Infringement! These people that come up with the ORIGINAL ideas work so hard to come up with the designs. They spend hours perfecting the designs, and writing the instructions, and taking the photos (which is less than an easy task with Jewelry in particular...damn Swarovski Shine!) And if you, even for one second, think that it's okay to steal their genious to make a few bucks without even giving them the courtesy of a letter to ask permission, then you're not only immoral, you're cruel. Many of them do this for a living; they feed their children with it, pay their mortgage and car payments with it, and generally LIVE on it.

What kills me most is that in every one of these same bead magazines that people are stealing from there is a disclaimer a few pages in that clearly states that the items represented in the magazine are for your PERSONAL use only, and that teaching, or selling the items without express permission from the designers is against the law. Not to mention that these same magazines, from time to time, put out a whole issue dedicated to informing their general public about copyright infringement. The problem is that many people think that this rule doesn't apply to them...they're only selling a few, so what's the harm? Well, you're the people that they rule DOES apply to, so pay attention.
In closing, I would like to say that there's nothing wrong with being inspired by another Artisan. I have long followed the work of Sherry Serafini, Laura McCabe, and Met Innmon, and have been inspired by certain aspects of all of their work, but when you look at my work, you don't see them, you see me. To those of you out there who have, all along, been creating your own work, I ask you to keep doing what you're doing, and to keep an eye out for those persons blatantly stealing from your favorite designers. For those of you who have been doing what I've just written about, I ask you to please stop and think about the consequences of your actions. They say that immitation is the sincerest form of flattery , but when you're trying to pay your bills, people taking money for their immitation hurts worse than anything; especially in this economy...

Off my soap box.