Introducing Barbara Bechtel

Hello friends!

I would like to introduce to you my friend, Barbara Bechtel of Floridity and Second Surf! Barbara is really amazing! She is so sweet and talented. I have really enjoyed writing back and forth with her during our trade. So speaking of talented. She does it all! Yep, from her packaging, to her beads and even her prints!

 

Here you can see her lovely stamped cloth bags and her super cute 2S tag. I love that the bag is hand stamped with this aqua glittery paint? Everything is carefully packaged with detail and care!

 

Here is a close-up of the wonderful little print she added to my package! I was super excited to not only receive beads,but some of her artwork as well! It even came in one of those wonderful shiny bags, which I really think showcase stuff so well ;)

 

So Barbara and I got a little carried away in our swapping and it had that extra element of surprise because I didn't know exactly what I would receive from her when I opened the package. I was FLOORED by it's contents! Everything was carefully labeled with it's name and price all in their own little bags. Can you believe ALL of this was in that little cloth pouch?!

 

In the box I received these AMAZING items! I was really excited that Barbara sent me so many of her little treasures! She even sent things that all went together :D

I LOVE everything she sent, but thought I would take a few close-ups of things so maybe you could get a better idea of the details that go into her work...

 

Just look at her "Carved Rainbow Nuggets". They are so colorful and "painterly". They look like little water colors carefully faceted. The wonderful rainbows contrast well against the white facets!

 

I especially LOVE this new style she is doing. They have this wonderful "scratchiness" to them. They look like the are dry brush painted, but they also have these teeny tiny scratches in their surface as well giving them this wonderful visual appeal. 

You can't really tell without holding the pieces in your hands to inspect them, but all of the pieces are very carefully cut and beveled. The edges are smooth and the holes are perfectly cut.  You can tell each piece is lovingly detailed through each part of the design process.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Barbara a little more through my post and that you will stop on by her shop and pick up some gifts for the creatives on your list this holiday season!

Thanks for stopping by!

xo Genea

And the winner is............

Hello friends!

We have a WINNER!

The winner for this amazing focal is......

Literally picked from the hat by Ricky....

 

Debra Beach!!!! Congrats Debra! We will get this out in the mail to you!

A HUGE Thank You to everyone that stopped by to enjoy our holiday sale!! You all are AMAZING!

xoxo Genea

CYBER MONDAY SALE- 40% OFF- code "cybermonday"

Hello friends!

Today is  our Cyber Monday sale in the shop! For all of you that didn't make it on Black Friday we also decided to give the same amazing discount on Cyber Monday for all of the online folks since this is the biggest internet shopping day! 

Use the code "cybermonday" at check out to receive your discount of 40% OFF! Each item you buy will also put your name in the hat to with this focal bead ($65 value) so that's an extra bonus!

 

Happy Shopping!

xo Genea

WEEKEND SALE 25%OFF- code "shopweekend"

Hello friends!

Thank you to everyone that made it to our Black Friday sale! We are very excited and honored that you shopped with us and supported handmade!

Our weekend sale promo is 25% off by using the code "shopweekend" at check out! Genea Beads

Stay tuned for our Cyber Monday sale as well! Stop here to get the code!

Happy Shopping!

xo Genea

BLACK FRIDAY DISCOUNT CODE "blackfriday" 40% OFF!

Hello friends!

We decided to post the discount code on our way home since it was already midnight for our East Coast friends!

Use the code "blackfriday" at check out to receive 40% off your purchase in our shop Genea Beads!  

This discount is ONLY good through MIDNIGHT! Then our other sale promos start!

Happy Shopping!

xo Genea

BLACK FRIDAY/ CYBER MONDAY SALE! 25-40% OFF! Plus a GIVE-AWAY!

Hello friends!

It's that time of year again, can you believe it?!  I can't hardly believe it myself! Infact, we just figured out what our sales would be the other day! I guess working at home and mostly making trips to the grocery store or gym you get caught up in what's going on in the studio more than the outside world.

So if you want to avoid the chaos outside the safety of your home and want to shop in your pajamas you can shop with us right here! 

We have decided with the busy season we are going to keep the shop "together" until after cyber Monday for easier shopping for our customers!

 

We are offering 40% OFF on BLACK FRIDAY(Nov 25th)/ CYBER MONDAY( Nov. 28th)and 25% OFF on Saturday and Sunday( Nov.  26-27). How do you receive this discount? We will be posting COUPON CODES HERE the days of the sales! There will be DIFFERENT CODES for Friday, Monday and the weekend! These codes will expire at the sale days end. YOU MUST ENTER THE COUPON CODE AT CHECK OUT TO RECEIVE THE DISCOUNT. We will be checking EVERY transaction to make sure that you receive your discount, but making sure to enter the code will keep things simple ;)

BUT THERE'S MORE.... Every person that makes a purchase this FRIDAY-MONDAY will be put in for a drawing to WIN this AMAZING FOCAL BEAD!

Each item you purchase will put your name in the "hat". So if you buy 5 items, that's 5 chances to win! So what happens if you don't make jewelry and you win this bead? We will make it into a pendant for you and send you an adjustable black 18-20" cord!

Happy Holidays from Genea Beads!

xoxo

NEW focal and Bardara Bechtel bead swap REVEAL!

Hello friends!!

It has been so hard keeping my mouth shut and pics off the net about this NEW focal I created especially for Barbara Bechtel of Floritidy and Second Surf! It all started with our bead swap.(yep! Another swap, I sure am a LUCKY girl indeed!!) I kind of knew what Barbara wanted, but I got a few more quick ideas from her before beginning on her piece. 

One of the things she wanted was some wing dings. So I thought to myself what colors would I use for ocean water? I pulled out rods and rods of color. I had so many in opaques, opals and transparents.

 

So here are my oceany colored wing dings! Wonderful aquas, teals, sea foam, and turquoise!

I knew Barbara really loved my "Desert Serpent" style focals. She said to me that they reminded her of tide pools.

 

Here is an image of one of my Ancient Tablet series called "Desert Serpent Corazon".

So I sat down at my bead table and pulled out all of my goodies for this style focal except I wanted to create more of a sea themed bead. I wanted a really amazing "tide pool" look to it. I worked and worked and added glass, pressed, twisted, raked. I made cane and added sparkle. I finished and I just about cried! OMG look at this AMAZING BEAD! My God I hope it makes it in the kiln. I always have this fear when putting a bead with lots of layers of different glasses in the kiln that somehow it might come out broken. 

The annealing cycle was done. I RAN to my kiln and anxiously opened the door. I flipped on a light and brought the bead into it's glow....

 

This might be the most AMAZING bead I have made yet! I turned it's every angle and inspected it carefully. I was amazed by all of the little details, color and sparkle!

 

Here is the back side.

I LOVE the way the dichro glitters through the layers, the spots of rainbow raku, the little barnicles, the starfish, the look of sand from the silver leaf, the amazing webbing of dark ivory glass!

 

Some more shots of the angles.

I needed to make another! After making the first I had to try another one right after with some slightly different colors....

 

OMG another amazing bead! Look at all that shimmer!

Just like the glittery ocean!

Then spacers, yes, SPACERS!....

 

Two different styles. One to match Barbara's focal and then some slightly different ones to match the other focal. If you click on this photo to enlarge it you can see these amazing spots under the layer of tealy water colored glass. It is such an amazing effect!

 

AND look at THESE! OMG, watery and amazing on a wonderful sandy ivory base with gorgeous dark webbing!

I must make ANOTHER!

 

This time with some wonderful lighter seafoamy opal and glitter!

 

I just LOVE how this looks with the webbed ivory and the glittery opal glass half and half like that. I accidentally did that on Barbara's focal and had to mimic the effect on this one. This time I added a few little ivory shells to the bottom of this one as if they were gently layed there by a gentle wave from the sea to the shore. Lovely treasures washed up for the beach comber to find :D

It was such a pleasure to create such wonderful beads for Barbara! I was so excited to be so inspired by this new style. I hope you enjoyed seeing the beads I sent her for our swap and the inspiration that was born from it!

Thanks for stopping in again this week!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo Genea

What do wings, eyes and hearts have in common?

Hello friends!

No, it's not some riddle like the ones you hear in movies with no answer. It's my NEW Ruffle Ribbon Eye Hearts! You may have remembered the black and white design I posted first just before my move into the new apartment. I expanded this design with some layers of transparents to give them more color and depth!

 

Here is the one you might recall seeing "Escape" .

 

If you remember awhile back you might recognize my "Rainbow Ruffle Ribbon" hearts. This design inspired the "Ruffle Ribbon Eye Hearts"! I wanted to add an eye on top of this design a LONG time ago, but just finally got an opportunity!

So how does this new design look in color with more layers under the eye? Like this!!

 

Ruffle Ribbon Eye Heart- "Sea and Earth". Wonderful turquoise, teal and milk chocolaty brown. Lots of layers and transparents for amazing depth!

So what makes these even better?(besides more color, of course!) the new "eye" pins that come along with them as an extra bonus! As you know I have been loving creating funky glass headpins. This is no exception. So for now you can only get one of these special pins with the heart focal!

 

Ruffle Ribbon "Fuchsia Vision"- Pink and purple are always pretty together! Layers of lilac, lavender, and light rose with a bright fuchsia to make things pop!

 

Here is a shot of the awesome "eye" pin that is included!

 

"Starry Eyed"- another crying eye inspired design in some of my favorite Bullseye odd lot colors. I am so sad I am out of this amazing violet! You can see the lovely streaks in the base and if you look closely  you can see the amazing "water color" look in the lime dots. They are greenish, blueish, whitisy with whispys. So awesome!
 

 

Here is a shot of the star back. It has a little green flatttened dot on the back. It's very pale against that vivid yellow, but lovely none the less ;)

Yep, that is it for today. I have some other things that need to be photographed and some other wall art and jewelry that I need to list, but that requires getting the other shop up and running! ;)

WHAT ELSE IS NEW??....

I was surprised and somewhat relieved to find out that I'm not the only one with anxiety about getting all of my "i's" dotted and "t's" crossed. It seems like a handful of you are in the same boat I am with getting ready for the holidays, daily life and just keeping everything in order and moving in the right direction.

So what's on my list? Well I need to get things organized in the new shop, photograph glass tests, make Christmas presents, make new work, get some things made for the PDX Etsy team event at West Elm(which I am really excited about!!) and uh a bunch of other stuff that is bouncing around in the empty hallways of my mind that I can't remember at this second! lol.

So what's going on with the Etsy group? We are making some sweet promo buttons. Members have been asked to create some 1.5" images of their work ! How cool huh? West Elm is putting on an event with our team on December 1st! So if you happen to be in Portland, stop on by from 6-9pm to check it out and meet our creative collective!

Here is Brooke Weeber's images for the buttons! 

 

Aren't they amazing?! You can check out Brooke's shop here!

I'm really excited to go through my images to choose which photos of my work I would like to include. What's the most amazing thing about the event on December 1st? My mom is flying into town to visit so we get to go together!!

Well I suppose I should get going to work on my button designs. Any suggestions of my work that you think I should use??

See ya soon!

xo Genea

Need these necklaces! Know where to get them???

NEED YOUR HELP: Anyone know where I can get some of these cords ASAP and relatively inexpensive??
I ordered cords like this from a vendor on Etsy from China and it's been 15 days since I ordered. Normally international takes 10 and I have just seen lots of negative feed back on her(it was all positive when I ordered). I NEED to get some of these cords quickly as I have an order for a client that NEEDS to go out.

 

 Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is the FIRST business transaction I have done with this company and the tardiness of the shipping makes me look bad :(

Thanks all!

xo Genea

Trade with Staci Louise from Artisan Accents

Hello friends!

I'm SOOOOO excited to share my treasures from Staci Louise of  Artisan Accents! Staci wrote a wonderful article on bartering at the Love My Art Jewelry(which is a fabulous blog btw). So would you like to see the amazing things I received from my new creative friend? 

Here is the entire collection of beads that I received! Aren't I just the luckiest girl EVER?!  Please do click on the images to make them larger so you can get a better feel for all of the love and details in her wonderful work!

From Left to Right and top to bottom: Semi-precious stone earrings with copper patinaed caps, a collection of semi-precious stones, "Earth, Sun, and Stars for you", "Night Flight", "Give my Heart Wings", "Tentacle," "Man on the Moon," "Marissa Night and Day" wings, "Yellow Ocher Sea Thing," "Lichen," and "Turquoise Sea Thing".

Some things you never really think about when you buy things is how big are they? They always look huge in photos, but you never really can tell the size unless you read for it in the details. I thought I would take a photo of one of Staci's amazing hearts in my hand so you can see what a wonderful sized focal it is. 

You may not know that I used to be OBSESSED with suns, moons, and stars. I do wish I had a photo of my family room from when I was about 19. It had these short black toppers(curtains) with suns, moons and zodiac signs on them accented with gold, a gold star garland stapled, coiled on the wall(it wasn't as tacky as it sounds ;), and some sun watercolors I painted. 

So what does this have to do with her beads? Well I just have that wonderful memory of my room and love for celestial things which in turn gives me a special connection with these pieces :)

 

I just LOVE Staci's new "Man on the Moon" design. I was so excited that she slipped on into my package! I love that if you look closely you can see little bits of her finger prints, which I find to be fantastic! That little bit shows me that someones artful hands created this beautiful little masterpiece :D 

One thing I was surprised to find out about Staci's polymer designs is that she works in all WHITE clay! All of that amazing color and layering you see is done masterfully with paints! Wow, huh?! I love the wonderful sepia color of this sweet little moon face and how there is a dark edging in the texture of the stars :D

 

If you know me(which I'm assuming you do by now ;) I LOVE color and lime green and aqua. I just LOVE these amazing patina's Staci gets on her pieces. The bases are copper or bronze. She patina's the metal several times, sands them and then seals them! Wow! I didn't realize how much work goes into patinaing metals! 

I'm so glad to have learned more about Staci's process. It really gives me even more of an appreciation for her art and style! She is such a sweet, sweet girl! I have very much enjoyed our conversations back and forth and the excitement that came with creating pieces for our trade!

Stay tuned to see the beads I sent to Staci!  Hop on over to her shop and nab up a couple of her pieces for yourself! 

xo  Genea

Moving SALE! Nov 4-6(Now- Midnight on Sunday)

Hello friends!

So it's official! We're moving on Etsy. We are dividing up Genea Beads into two shops! Help us pack up your goodies with our sale! Use coupon code "etsymove" to receive a 25% discount at check out!

We are super excited about our upcoming changes and we think you will too! Stay tuned for more details.

www.genea.etsy.com

Happy Shopping!

xo Genea

Why the BIG paws?

A bear walks into a bar to order a drink. 

The bear says to the bartender "I'd like a gin and........................................................................................... tonic. 

The bartender says "Why the big pause?" 

The bear says "I dunno, I've always had them". :D:D:D

This was one of those old silly jokes I heard from my sister. I guess my mind is a lot like Bumble Bee from Transformers. My mind works in clips of videos, music and silly things of that nature.

So what does this have to do with my post? Well if you remember I am working on the paw print jewelry and keychains for Advanced Animal Care of Colorado. Well as you may know I am quite particular about the quality of my beads, right? So since I am such a harsh critic of my work I decided to let my husband critique the paw print beads I made thinking he wouldn't be as picky as myself.

Want to see the ones he rejected?

Yep, ALL of them. Every last one! So you are wondering to yourself. How did these get rejected? They look like paw prints the hearts are pretty. I'm confused!

 

Ok so here are 2 more paw prints. On the right you have the one that "failed" on the left  you have the one that "passed". So why did one pass and one fail? If you look at the bead on the right Ricky didn't like the more "horse shoe" shape of the dog pad and the fact that the dotted toes were so close to the top of the bead. Did your heart sink? Mine kinda did too.... BUT, he was right about some things....

I do really like the more "heart" shaped pad on the left paw print and making the paw print smaller and more centered did make it look better. I guess the right paw print is kinda big and looks maybe more like a bear paw(hence the opening joke).

So back to the drawing board I went and made all new ones!

 

The order will resemble these two prints. The pendants have the red hearts on the back and the keychains have polka dots.

So where are ALL of those "rejected" beads going? The landfill? HEAVEN'S NO. I can't hardly throw away anything I could think about recycling! After all there really isn't anything wrong with them perse, they are just different than what our idea for them was.  So yes, beads are rejected from the studio based on FUBAR results AND design "mishaps" if you will.

These beads  go to the place all rejected beads go, my mom's bead box ;)

These beads enjoy a happy "second life" in her bead box to be made into whatever else she thinks up. Why don't I sell the "seconds"? Well quality, of course! I want only my very best work out in circulation! Something we can both feel happy about :D

Now on to finish up the order....

WHAT ELSE IS NEW???....

Still working on getting the new jewelry shop up and running and everything in it's proper order. Listings to come soon....

Working on some glass testing and prepping for the holidays!

Are you ready for all of that Christmas shopping yet???!

See you soon!

xo Genea

Vintaj GIVE AWAY!!

All you have to do is post this>>>>> I want to win the @vintajco & @beadaholique Crystal Copper Giveaway! #ilovevintaj and then go back to their site and tell where you posted media sites!

xo Genea