Bead artists have the heart to take on breast cancer

A while ago I blogged about my contribution to Jeanette Shanigan's project "Bead It Forward". Here is the whole story:

Last year Susan Clinkscales read about the Bead and Button show and their auction to help fight breast cancer and came across Jeanette Shanigan's website and her beaded quilts. Jeanette asks beaders around the world to donate individual beaded squares based on a theme. She then sews the squares together to make gorgeous quilts, mounts them in shadow boxes and donates them to be auctioned at the Bead & Button show. In 2008, these quilts raised nearly $4,400 for breast cancer research.

Being a member of the Etsy BeadWeaver's team (EBW), Susan knew there was a lot of talent in the EBW group so she asked the members if they would like to make squares to be included in Jeanette's quilts. Susan collected all of the squares and submitted them at one time in hopes that they would all be included in one quilt. Fifteen EBW members stepped up and created 35 squares to be included in a 2009 quilt. The theme for 2009 is "Bead artists have the heart to take on breast cancer" and the EBW contributors did a magnificent job representing the theme.

Below is a mosaic Susan created of all of the EBW squares. This is not the actual quilt, only a digital version using photos she took of each square. Please visit the Bead & Button Show website to find out more information about the auctions, which will be held June 6, 2009. Below the mosaic is a list of contributors. Click on their name and you can visit their Etsy shops.

First row (l to r): Susan Clinkscales, Eddy Downing, Eddy Downing, JoJo Curley, Swanee Hielscher
2nd row: Swanee Hielscher, Swanee Hielscher, Swanee Hielscher, Linda Davis, Smadar Grossman
3rd row: Smadar Grossman, Smadar Grossman, Smadar Grossman, Lisa Savoy, Lisa Savoy
4th row: Lisa Savoy, Jama Watts, Jama Watts, Jama Watts, Kerrie Slade
5th row: Kerrie Slade, Kerrie Slade, Kerrie Slade, Victoria Thompson, Victoria Thompson
6th row: Victoria Thompson, Kim Shaver, Dawn Nelson, Melody Murray, Melody Murray
7th row: Ileana Munteanu, Ginny Bracht, Ginny Bracht, Ginny Bracht, Ginny Bracht

My "square" is the first in the last row.

May 11, 2009

EBW just got wonderful news from Susan, the coordinator of this project: "I just wanted to let you know that one of the Bead & Button editors, Tea Norfolk, mentioned the EBW contributions to the beaded quilt for breast cancer research in the Editor's Blog at the B&B Magazine website!! A huge thank you to Kerrie Slade for contacting B&B and telling them what we had done!! Thank you, Kerrie!

You can see the write-up here:

http://cs.beadandbutton.com/bnbcs/blogs/beadandbutton/2009/05/11/learning-from-fellow-beaders.aspx

Congrats EBW!"

FANTASTIC (2) !!!

I created a treasury in Black and white, Fantastic (2)!!! It wil expire on Sunday March 29 at 2:06 pm. You can still see it here:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=48339

Etsy Treasury by FleurDeIrk

Another Treasury featuring one of my necklaces is curated by FleurDeIrk.
Please visit her shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6181477

Here is a beautiful necklace she created:

Etsy Treasury by azuredandelion

I had the pleasant surprise to find one of my bracelets in this Treasury curated by azuredandelion. Please visit azuredandelion's shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5606643
Here is one of her beautiful paintings:

Beading for Breast Cancer

Excerpts from the STORQUE Article:

Etsy Beadweavers Team is helping to fight breast cancer! Twenty five members of the Etsy Beadweavers (EBW) have joined forces to help fight breast cancer and create beaded squares to be included in Jeanette Shanigan’s 2009 Beaded Quilt. Jeanette sews the squares together to form the quilts and then frames them in shadow boxes. Finished quilts are auctioned at the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, WI, and the proceeds are donated to the Medical College of Wisconsin Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 100 percent of the donations go directly to research. This year’s theme is “Bead artists have the heart to take on breast cancer” and all squares will include a heart motif. Almost $10,000 has been raised for breast cancer research from the sale of the quilts. EBW members have set an October deadline for themselves in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You can see photos of quilts from previous years here.

The 2009 “Bead-It-Forward” Breast Cancer Donation Project

The title of this project is “Bead artists have the heart to take on breast cancer.”

The artist can use ANY beadwork stitches or other techniques but the motif of the square must reflect hearts of any type. Any colors, shapes, or styles of beads can be used, providing the overall motif is the heart.

My contribution to the EBW Quilt is a red HEART, surrounded by flowers.

My Front Page Treasuries at Etsy

Since I started to enjoy the Treasury World I curated many treasuries. I published some of them at Flickr. I would like to share here the most important events:




On September 16, 2008 I had a very pleasant surprise. The treasury I curated, “Yes, it is Chartreuse!”

hit the Front Page at Etsy.


Also I had the honor to be featured on the Front Page in Treasuries curated by other Etsy artists:

On 09-18-08 by SpoolDesign
On 01-27-09 by Gypsyeye
On 03-09-09 by Gulinoartware

Improving my Presence and Success at Etsy

I was surprised and honored to see that Chad Dickerson bookmarked my August 1/2008 entry, Improving my presence and success at Etsy

http://www.chaddickerson.com/blog

Here is my entry:

I opened my Shop at Etsy in 2007 with only a couple of items, and, because I had other venues to sell my jewelry (Shows, Galleries) I forgot about Etsy for a while. I started to be active only in February 2008, when I decided to give it a new try and I started listing more pieces in my shop, taking care of my Appearance, Shop policies, etc. I immediately had a sale , a Heart Brooch, right before Valentine’s Day. Shortly after I discovered Etsy Beadweavers Team ad I signed up for membership, because I knew how important is for an artist to belong to a group, to a community. I participated in the March Challenge, Stormy Weather, and I was happy to see that EBW Blog visitors would vote for my Brooches. I even sold an other Heart Brooch, The Purple Eye of a Summer Storm - Amethyst Brooch

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9974696

as a result of the Challenge.

Needless to say, at the beginning I was kind of lost at Etsy. I had to figure out a lot of things, how to improve my pictures, how to make a Treasury. I did my homework every day, looking at statistics (how many people are visiting my Shop, hearting my shop or my pieces, etc.), visiting my fellow EBW members shops and blogs, in order to know them better, commenting, in a word, being active in any way I could. Usually I don’t talk a lot, but I tried my best to be in touch. I made many friends in the group.

Having an Etsy Shop and being constantly successful requires hard work. I will try to list here a few things that I learned at Etsy and in the EBW group. I am trying to implement them in my every day activity.

- get good pictures, not to dark, pictures that would catch the buyer’s attention in the few seconds of her/his visit. The first picture “should be the one in which the item takes up much of the available space”. The work is much more “effectively shown” in close up pictures, so show them first!

- have a detailed description of your piece.

- list/re-list every day, so people can see your presence

- try to write in your blog at least once a week

- comment as often as you can in the EBW Blog and other members blogs

- check often the Forum for News concerning Treasuries, Blogs, New Listing and other events

- learn how to do treasuries. Until you get to do that, comment in as many Treasuries as you can.

And the list doesn’t end here…

My Etsy