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