The Etsy Exodus

... Has begun, my pretties!

http://QueenoftheCatPeople.etsy.com

New location for purchasing shiny goodness :-D


I've taken down all the Paypal buttons from my old website, but all of the old pictures are still up if you need a quick online shiny fix. Eventually, I'm going to revamp the whole thing into a more streamlined online gallery and portfolio. But it ain't doin no harm as is, so I'll just leave it be for now, while I'm working on the Etsy store.

<3 Chrysilla
Your priestess of shiny

Home and safe... phew!

Sorry I didn't post between the events, but I needed to hibernate for a bit. Both SalonCon and Wicked Labyrinth kicked convention butt, and I did very well for myself and for the Interstitial Arts Foundation.

Now the only question is, do I ask to be on the IAF's "friends" page as "Queen of the Cat People", Chrysilla, or my real name? They'll link my name to my website if I ask, but its always fun to be eccentric.

If you're curious:
Here is my SalonCon photo gallery,
And this is my Wicked Lab gallery, including a pic of the lovely lady who won the Other Mother necklace :-D

I have video footage of my booth kittens at Wicked Lab singing songs about selling shiny objects, but those will have to wait for now. First I need to redesign my website and start the Etsy-migration before I can wrestle around with YouTube ;-) And yes, this means I'm about to undertake a major online overhaul of shiny, just in time for the holiday shopping season (I hope!).

That also means there may be a lag in shiny postings, but I'll see what I can do. I'm going to start selling earrings online thru Etsy, so that's some new pictures you my readers have to look forward to. Also, STEAMPUNK!

And expect ... eventually ... more projects from my Bards & Beads community, especially after the New York Whole Bead Show this October. I've got three books to catch up on, yikes.

My next planned engagement is Wicked Faire in February 2008, but I'm currently waiting to hear if I've made it into the Bust Craftacular on December 8, ironically in the same space as the NYWBS.

<3 Chrysilla

Raffles!

So for SalonCon this weekend, I'll be raffling off this necklace, called "Miss Spink"


And next weekend for Wicked Labyrinth, I'll be raffling off this necklace, called "Other Mother"


Both are based on The Bards & the Beads's first book project, Coraline by Neil Gaiman!

Proceeds from both will go towards The Interstitial Arts Foundation.

Rejoice!

Snaaake! Snaaake! Aaaah, it's a snaaake!!

When your natural response to nerves is to work, it's hard trying to convince oneself "You don't have to make any more shinies for the cons this month, take a break!" So this is part of me trying to convince myself, bear with me ;-)

Here are some more pieces with those nice wood pendants:


I thought snakes would be a good theme for the goth-ish conventions I like to do business with, though I usually use an earthy color palate for the wooden charms.


I'm gonna need a longer display board for all these lariat necklaces. But I guess that fits the snake motif.


This one isn't a lariat, I thought this cute compact little bat would suit a choker lenght necklace. And you can't go wrong with onyx and garnet, it's a fruit bat! ;-)

I still have a few wooden charms that I just can't figure out. One is a pair of kitties playing, another is a mommy and baby seal cuddling. Sometimes it just takes a while for a piece to come together, other times a piece or material just comes unbidden to your mind.

In other news, I've decided that after my September events I'll be moving all my stock to Etsy, because my website just isn't working out as a store. I'll still have this blog, and the website will become my portfolio, all neatly linked together.

Square pegs... I mean beads

Salon Con approaches, and I can't stop making earrings. I think it's a nerves thing. Tho there isn't actually anything to be nervous about, it's a nice con :-)


Swan-Deco
Square beads are fun :-D


Another necklace scrapped and reborn! I like working with chips, now that I've got hte hang of it. One trick is to not measure the number of chips, but the actual lenght of each section of chips.


This one isn't about square beads, but I like it anyway. I wanted to do a Halloweenie type necklace, since I had yet another lovely bat pendant. Samhainey too, if you like ;-) I also have more wooden bat pendants, and snakes too. Will post those tomorrow.

I've had kindof a rough summer. Can I call do-over? On the other hand, it resulted in some really nice shinies.

Countdown to SalonCon

Eeeek, I'm excited. I haven't been a vendor at an event since February.

Here's some sneak peaks of what I'll have:


Withered Hope
Inspired both by the song and the strange new materials I came across in my stash.


Pink Lady
The frosted/matte onyx looks like leather next to the rose quartz ;-)

The Salon Convention!

In two weeks! Eeee!






And here are my pictures from Dragoncon last weekend :-D

Rose is Rosie

This is another commission I put together this summer, from Ellen Kushner to Delia Sherman, who are the sweetest ladies ever! Ellen was impressed with my necklace based on her character The Black Rose in The Priviledge of the Sword, but had some reservations with the shape, so I improvised :-)


I introduced a second motif of hearts with the roses, the result is adorable. And from what I hear, Delia was quite pleased. *Happy dance!*

Working for authors is so much fun ;-D

Love birds and crystals

Here's a set I made on commission recently, for a wedding this fall:




The necklace, with Swarovsky crystals and love bird clasp.


Matching Swarovsky crystal earrings.

Sterling and crystals are so much fun to work with. I'd never actually worked with Swarovsky crystals before, and now I'm unfortunately addicted. Darnit. Still, they're sparkly, and that brings me some peace ;-)

<3 Chrysilla

Fun with Faeries

Yep, I've finally jumped on the bandwagon- faery jewelry. I liked the delicate silver piece, and wanted to match that light and airy look with little, light colored beads. Also, when I think fae I think of the rough and natural kind of beauty, so I went with irregularly shaped beads and chips.


And continuing with the natural beauty theme, I saw this amethyst lily in a local bead shop and could not resist. In fact, I have a second, if anyone wants a copy or comission piece.

Still more new pieces, yikes.

A simple, fanciful piece of rose quartz chips and flourite flowers.



Black cinnabar cameo with matte onyx and purple colored mother of pearl shell beads.

Was working with a lot of polymer clay over the weekend, hopefully I'll get the finished pieces photographed and postable soon. I'm also starting to work on a line of steampunk inspired pieces.

<3 Chrysilla

Turtles all the way down

So here we have a piece that would have gone with me to the Gothic Pirate Ball, except it was cancelled :-( Oh well, I'm sure it will be well recieved at Wicked Labyrinth.



And here is a piece made from an earlier necklace that sat on my table for one convention too many. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, revising my old work, and I think this version is more interesting. Yay, turtles!

Even MORE new pieces

Reeeeeally busy. Been experimenting with polymer clay lately, will put pictures of that up eventually. I was never any good at cane work, but I've learned to do other things with the medium. Tho I won't be using the oven until the 90+ heatwave in NYC breaks. Until then, here are some more necklaces starring black cinnanbar!



I <3 Flourite



I also <3 these cameo pendants. So lucky I found them before Salon Con.


<3 Cris

More New Pieces

These pieces are also immediately available for sale on my website :-)


Black cinnabar swan with purple colored mother of pearl shell beads and matte onyx.



Fanned-out tigereye beads with more tigereye, onyx, and quartz cubes.

<3 Chrysilla

I'm back!

So, between an illness earlier in July, a goth event that got cancelled, and having lots ot catch up on, I've been behind in posting new work. But at least I have something to show for it ;-)


Black Jack! Black hearts, red spades... wait, shouldn't that be the other way around?



Celtic cubes. I had a hard time figuring out what to do with all these square bits, then finally had the wits to put them all together.


These pieces, and many others, are new and for sale on my website in the "Necklaces" section. Go check them out!

And I just booked my rooms for SalonCon and Wicked Labyrinth, looks like both will be a lot of fun.

<3 Chrysilla

Coming to a convention center near you!

First, I am the happy winner of the last challange on the Bards & Beads community. At about the same time we started reading Cat Valente's Orphan's Tales, she won the Tiptree Award for the same book. So she set us up the bar- whichever of our OT necklaces she liked best (posted by mid-May) she would purchase and wear to the ceremony. She was torn, and the other necklace was gorgeous too (I'm so jealous of people that know how to work in wire), but when she polled for help on LJ I came out the winner. Yay! So now Ms. Valente is the owner of the Ixora necklace, which will remain a QOTCP original.

Here's a pic taken by a mutual friend of ours of Ms. Valente in her full Tiptree regalia at Wiscon 31. It's gotta be an awesome ceremony if part of your award is a tiara. Congradulations!

Sadly, my finances did not balance out for me to go to Wiscon, but if I don't have the riotous good time my friends have promised me for DragonCon, I may make Wiscon next year's "big" convention. Between travel and convention expenses, each would probably cost about the same amount of $$ for me.


However, I am scheduled for several events over the next few months, some selling, some just attending:

Gothic Pirate Ball on Thursday, July 17, 2007 @ The Element/Vault which I think used to be The Bank (of legend). I will be selling jewelry there, but it's a less-vendors-more-dancing sort of event.

DragonCon, August 31st thru September 3rd 2007, in Atlanta, GA. I won't be vending, but I will be attending, and wearing as much jewelry as I can without passing out from the weight.

Camarilla Club North East Regional Event, September 13-16 in Syracuse, NY. This is a Cam Club event, and I'm not sure they'll have a dealer's room. Not sure if I'll have the energy for it anywhoo. But I will be well-costumed and bejeweled, promise ;-) If you're a fellow Cammunist, check out the Conventions page on the main Camarilla Club website.

The Salon Convention, September 22nd, in Edison, NJ. This was a blast last year! And this year the talent is even more impressive! This year my crew and I *may* host a room party the Friday nite before, but that is uncertain. Depends on who is going, and how much a suite costs, and if there are any left to begin with. I will be selling jewelry again this year.

Wicked Labyrinth, September 28-29 in Edison, NJ. They are taking over the whole hotel and doing strange and wonderous things with it, but I will be in the vendors room which is only open that Saturday.


Soooo... yes. September will be wild. I will have to sleep through August to get ready, but I think it will be worth it ;-) Still wondering if I should get real rennie garb this season, I'd certainly get a lot of use out of it.

<3 Chrysilla

Orphan's Tales, round 3

The Maidenhead, based on the pirate ship of the same name. Rich reds and natural bone beads, with a bit of far Eastern flavor.


Satyrs <3 Selkies!
Just go read the book, this one's a lovely story ;-) I wanted to encorporate the woodland life of the satyrs with the sea dwelling selkies, in necklace form.

And that's not all, I have even more pieces coming later!

In other news, my Ixora necklace won the challange set by Catherynne Valente on the Bards and Beads community. If delivery goes as planned, she will be wearing it for the Tiptree Award Ceremony at Wiscon this weekend. Thanx Catherynne!

The Alchemist

This necklace is based on the overall arc of The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. Read it, it's good :-)

Not sure if I'll be auctioning this piece off or not, we'll see.

The Orphan's Tales, round two!

The Ixora is the tree in which firebirds nest and hatch their chicks. The pendant shows a firebird, but I think I may need a better picture. This piece will be part of Ms. Valente's art show in the Fall.


The Yi, eternally creepy necromancers, children of the Moon, who wear the bodies of the dead until they look pockmarked and grey as their mother. The initial idea for this necklace is what sparked The Bards & the Beads, but while the necklace didn't turn out quite as I'd planned the comm is doing quite well :-)

And I'm not finished with this book yet, more coming later!

Jewelry from Orphan's Tales, round one!

The current book for The Bards & the Beads is The Orphan's Tales: In the night garden, by Catherynne M. Valente. These pieces (and others) will both go into an art show celebrating the release of the sequel book this fall. Some of these will be auctioned off for the IAF as well.



A white lotus bead for every tower in the sacred city, and 5 beads between for the 5 centuries Ragnhild was undead. And a little amethyst goddess for being Papess ;-) I thought a rosary styled necklace would suit her story best.




I've read so many selkie stories lately... There's even one in this book, and it's marvelous!

More Orphan's Tales pieces coming soon!

More necklaces about books!

Hallo! Yes I've been lazy about posting. :-P But I've got some new shinies to show off today, both inspired by the book The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner, through the Bards & Beads community. I loved this book, I haven't laughed out loud while reading in a very long time. The characters are all very colorful, and the tale intriguing. I wish I'd joined the fencing team back in high school...

This one will be auctioned for the Interstitial Arts Foundation, of which Ms. Kushner is a member. I probably will be someday as well :-) The necklace was inspired by Katherine, who is the main character.




And this necklace is based on The Black Rose, a well known actress in the city where Katherine is coming of age. This is based on a necklace I made previously, that sprang back up in my mind as I thought about the character. I added some more rosy details and tried a different shape for the garnets:



This necklace is mineallmine, but I can copy it for commission work. In fact, any necklace on this blog (of my make) can be copied for no additional charge if it is no longer for sale, material-supplies permitting.

The auction for the first necklace will have to be delayed, as someone hacked into my eBay account over the weekend and changed all my personal info :-( But the matter is being investigated, I hope it will be resolved quickly. Can anyone recommend another auction site while I'm holding my breath?

The Bards and the Beads!

I started a book club on Livejournal a couple of months ago. An interesting idea, coming together a bit slowly, but I'm having a good time with it. Each month, there is a new book sugested to the members to read, and then we all make jewelry inspired by the book in some way. If you're interested in joining or watching, check out our LJ community!

January's book was Coraline by Neil Gaiman. So you can tell how slow I've been about photographing my pieces lately. But here they are:



This was based on a lot of different aspects of the Other Mother, from her button eyes to her bone-white hands with nasty long, red fingernails. And of course the cold black key.



Was very glad to finally figure out how to use the rhodonite drops. I'm also getting the hang of wire wrapping, finally. The pinks and roses bring a grandmotherly look to the piece, and the onyx and black glass adds a bit of dramatic contrast. The stone with the hole is an important part of the story as well.


I'd like to auction off these pieces for charity, but that means I have to go look at Ebay and see how it works from a selling perspective. Hopefully I'm eligible for a vendor's account, otherwise I'll look for a smaller auction site.

Hopefully, this will get some of the other members posting soon. A lot of people like the idea, and I'm probably not the only person in the community suffering from repeating colds and a tight schedule. February's title was The Alchemist (yay novellas!), and March is... well, I guess you'll just have to go look ;-)

<3 Chrysilla

Music and beadwork

Last night I went to see the Cruxshadows for the first time ever, and it was great! I've been listening to their music on and off for the last 6 years or so, and I'm so glad I finally attended their show. They are incredible live :-) And their new album is also wonderful! Listened to it this morning before work, and it's already sparked some ideas for some new pieces.

Lately, even before I heard about the concert, I've been playing their albums as my main 'crafty' music, in addition to Depeche Mode, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Loreena McKennitt, and Evanescence (tho not their new album yet). No wonder I've been using so much onyx and garnet lately...

And the Cruxshadows are still touring! If you like goth music, definitely check them out: http://www.cruxshadows.com/

Gifts and commissions

This was an Xmas/Solstice gift for my friend Teresa, she was quite pleased.


This was a Solstice gift for my friend Greg, he was also pleased.


This was commissioned by someone I know for their grandmother, to match some earrings he picked up for her from me earlier, with the same rose quartz roses and some other bits. He was pleased, I hope his grandma was too :-)


I think I've finally recovered enough from Wicked Faire to get back to work, so watch this space for some new pieces soon.

More bunnies!

While we were at the Wicked Faire, my friend Audrey was very happy about the shiny included in her payment (I pay my employees in free con tix and jewelry, haven't had any complaints yet). It was a little rhodonite (sp?) bunny rabbit with other pink and green beads. So happy was the webcomic artist that she drew this while we were at the event:


SQUEE!! I'M A BUNNY!!!

Not only did she capture my hair perfectly (I have poofy hair, I'm a librarian :-P), but bunny-me is also wearing my geek-flare shirt which is covered in patches from various fandoms. And now it's immortal. Yay!

Again, check out more of Audrey's bunny antics at The Bunny System, a webcomic with a PG-13 rating.

Bead Dreams 2007, Bead&Button's Annual Bead Artistry Competition

Bead & Button is a magazine I like to read now and then. Not sure if I'm going to put in an entry, but I'm definitely thinking about it.

For more info, click here!

Wicked Faire 2007

Yay, what fun!

And here are some pictures of our operation:



That's me in the middle, with my booth bunnies Audrey and Jenna :-) In fact, Audrey writes a webcomic called The Bunny System (rated PG-13, I'd say). She drew something really sweet for me while we were at the faire, I'll post that later ;-)


This is a closeup of half the table. The guy in the corner is Nick, my other booth bunny. He's starting up his own leather business at Nicholas's Leather and wanted to get a feel for how these things work. We have agreed to share a booth next year, yay!


And this is the other half of our table, with the raffle display.

And here's a complete gallery of pics from the faire!

Our raffle made $100 for the Joseph D'Angeli fund. The winner was this lovely lady, who once worked with Mr. D'Angeli at the Liberty Science Center:

(picture posted with permission)

Things I'm glad I did this time around:
-Brought my wooden hand. I purchased it to display rings, then, um, forgot to make rings. It seems happy to be passing out business cards tho.
-Made more of the picture-frame-earring displays, and set the pins into them *before* going to the faire.
-Printed out price cards for the earring displays and trinkets box, and signs for the raffle.
-Had a raffle! They are fun, make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and make more $$ for the charity in question than if I just sold the piece at retail value and donated the total.
-Brought three booth-buddies with me. After all the hours I've spent making jewelry, it's great to be able to doze behind the counter while your employees handle the salesmanship.
-Remembered to bring the scissors.

Things I may do next time:
-Get a bigger/extra table. This is the biggest I've had yet, and I still don't have room for everything! Wow, my inventory just keeps growing.
-Set up the table(s) in a more space effective way for the space.
-Have some new ideas in styles and techniques, but you'll see those later ;-)
-Bring tape.

My next engagement will be with Salon Con, but that's not until September! I'm really liking cons and festivals, I should find a couple to tide me over in the mean time. Any suggestions in the NY/NJ/CN area? Might do PiCon this year, it was highly recommended by friends of mine, but I'd have to figure out transportation first.

Wicked Faire, Saturday Feb. 10! That's tomorrow!

If you've got transportation, and live somewhere in the area of Edison NJ, you should probably be going ;-)

If you are going, I'll be raffling off a necklace for a local charity, tickets $2 each and three tickets for $5, drawing at 10pm. I'll also be selling my usual array of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.

See you there!

<3 Chrysilla

Authors like my necklaces!

This was a Solstice gift for Sara Harvey, who published her first novel, A Year and a Day, last year. It is her love letter to NYC. The Angel of Joy and the Angel of Vengeance are given the mission to live as humans in the city for a year, but Joy has a slightly different, much more secret mission to work on while she's there. And Vengeance spends most of his time being moody. Fun book! Sara is practically my guru from my NYU days. I picked up two of these temple-cats, intending to do something completely different with mine, but it looked terrible so I just copied my friend's necklace ;-) The red tigereye looks really nice with this shade of wood.




And this was a solstice gift for my local partner in crime Kim Tempest Bradford, who will be featured in the upcoming anthology Thou Shalt Not. She is a dragon-luving person, and I liked how the lapis and green garnet beads each look like a little planetoid of their own. I know in some mythologies the world was made out of a dragon, but the one I think of in terms of Tempest just lives under St. Micheal's Mount in Penzance ;-)




This was commissioned for Catherynne Valente, who's written The Orphans Tales: In the night garden among other wonderful books. Go read hers too!! I may be making some necklaces *based* on her stories in the next few months, for they are very rich in imagery. She supplied the lizard pendant, and asked me to put together a necklace based on part of a folktale she described to me, where someone brought the lizard king of copper mountain the gift of a malachite box. This is where I FINALLY stopped being a sterling snob and started experimenting with other metals. Now I love copper, and can't find many findings made from it thru my usual resources. *sigh*