First Friday events - June 2015

Tonight we are celebrating First Friday with a special Tina Given's sample sale, a kit premier AND a free Gunshot Tassel-making project. We are the perfect place to start your weekend! Friday's schedule Breakfast and Beads  8:30-10:30 Clothing Sample Sale  12-9 Cocktail Sampling 5-8 Free Gunshot Tassel making 6-8

Make it at the red table...

tonight! Tonight join us for a special FREE First Friday project, the Gunshot Tassel Keychain, from 6-8 pm. We'll be offering this special First Friday project in conjunction with our Tina Given's Sample Sale, taking place Friday ONLY from 12-9 pm. You'll be able to create a fun tassel keychain using a recycled bullet casing and scraps of fabric designed by Tina Givens. This project is suitable for ages 10+ and does use a smelly glue to affix the tassel.  The Tassel project is free (one per person) Friday night and will be $4 per tassel for the month of June.

my weekend picks- Sarah Tector will be at Quercus Studios tonight and tomorrow with her newest jewelry learn more here Samantha will be at the Patchwork Market in Durham (at Full Steam brewery!) learn more here SO MANY of my favorite artists will be at the Larkspur Party this weekend. A beautiful setting for amazing art.learn more here

Okay, I'm headed off to the VAE Ignite Creativity Conference...I'm participating in the 'How to find a store' panel this morning! learn more here But first, a cup of coffee!

Ornamentea loves...Fiquet

About a zillion years ago, in the long distant past, I had a jewelry design company. This was before Ornamentea was even a thought. I made jewelry out of (mostly) vintage or vintage-looking parts and had many helpers who provided the nimble fingers to make those orders fly out to our customers. We did shows here and there, but everything was made in a little studio in the Carter Building. Our store would eventually be born there, at 20 Glenwood.

Before the store, though, I needed the hands. Beading, especially repetitive beading of multiple pieces of jewelry in the same design, is not for everyone. Some folks, like the talented Kiona (I'll talk about her later) were geniuses at production. Some were not. We had to hire new fingers on a fairly regular basis.

Since this was the dark ages, we actually would put ads in the newspaper to find new hands. One day a very chic young woman came in to apply for the jewelry-making position. She was a design student at NCSU (a good thing) and was wearing really nice boots. She came with a lovely alto laugh, confidence and an unusual name, and I loved her the moment I met her.

Fiquet Bailey started out making jewelry for our far-flung customers. She was casually adept at wire working, horrible at any task that required gluing, and instantly understood most of my cryptic directions. After she had worked in the studio for a few months, I began to bat around the idea of opening a store. Someplace to sell our sample jewelry, and the excess beads. Nothing big, just a little storefront in the street side of our jewelry-making studio. Over our lunch, we chatted about this and one-by-one, staff members loudly declared their desire not to work in a retail store. Many of them were working for me precisely because our customers were so distant. Retail is hard. Too hard to be nice all day. Too much chit-chatting with customers. With a laugh, Fiquet announced she LOVED retail and wouldn't mind working in the store.

Well, that decided it.

Really, if Fi hadn't piped up that day, I am not sure we'd even have an Ornamentea. I traveled too much to be the one in the store. The other staff were beaders, not greeters. Fiquet meant it, she really did like working with customers. She ran our shop, helping me set up the closeout sheet, and the pricing codes and helping establish Ornamentea as a place where unusual goods were coupled with exceptionally friendly customer service. Fiquet really did like retail. Even the weirdest customer requests didn't fluster her. After a while, her wings grew and she flew off to Chicago to run a very fancy bath shop (the kind that let you take an actual bath to try out the luxury towels before you committed to them!) before returning to Raleigh to open her own place; Luxe Apothecary at North Hills. She sold me some of the best lotions and soaps I've ever used. She's moved on now, to selling homes and she's opened a sweet shop beauty workshop called Bailey and Scott (inside Fleur at North Hills) but she still knows how to make a customer comfortable and happy. I imagine she's also still got that same laugh.

Learn more about Bailey and Scott right here. It opens today, if you want to stop in. And tell Fi I sent you.

Upcoming Silk Painting Classes at Ornamentea

Kim Kirchstein, of Leopold Designs, creates BEAUTIFUL hand-painted silk scarves, sarongs and clothing. We love her work here at Ornamentea and are so proud she'll be teaching classes in silk painting right here at our store.

Learn about Kim's silk painting classes right here

Kim's work was recently featured in the Redress Raleigh Eco-fashion show. This timelapse video makes me really wish I could be back there, sitting in the front row to watch all those beautiful clothes and accessories parade by. Work by other Ornamentea favorites, including Mood Swing Studios, Zass Designs and Claudia Corletto was also shown that night.

this is a snap from the show catalog, showing Kim's work (with that Mood Swing jewelry!)

Learn more about the Redress 2014 Fashion Show, including the designers featured, right here.

Vote for our Staff Challenge entries!

We have occasional staff challenges here. They are always crafty (we've never had a foosball challenge, or a cooking challenge) and they are always fun. Sometimes we have a specific item that has to  be incorporated into the project, some times we have a theme, sometimes we have a color palette. 

This month, we had a word. The word was 'bedizen.'

Years ago, before there was an Ornamentea, there was a company called Bedizen Ornaments. I started it in my kitchen, making jewelry for a local boutique and lamp shades for an interior designer. I started doing wholesale shows, then hired some handy folks to help me, then sold designs to Anthropologie and other large chains, then enticed my husband to quit his job and work with beads. He helped me to create Ornamentea, and the business shifted a bit. We stopped making jewelry for catalogs and department stores. We started teaching classes and selling just the ingredients. That word, 'bedizen' was the name I chose for the business way-back-when as I didn't know how else to unite jewelry and lampshades, and I liked the fact that there was a 'z' in the word, and I liked that it had a vague meaning to most people. When we moved the business from making jewelry (we abandoned the lamp shades very early!) to selling the parts, we kept the Bedizen name as our 'official' incorporated name.

So, there's that. And there's that word. 

Bedizen.

The photos below are how five staff members interpreted the word. There is a lot on the line; the winner gets to have me work for them for a whole day, plus SERIOUS bragging rights with their co-workers. Also, I will probably take everyone out for drinks at the winner's choice of watering hole. Shh, they don't know that last part! 

You need to help us out by voting. Just click on the # of your favorite project in the column on the right hand side. It's easy. You can also share this with your friends and family and get them to vote. The winner will thank you. 

#1 one features a hand-made silver wire chain with Swarovski crystals. The pendant elements are custom-cut lucite with decopaged images from the crown jewels of some fancy country. 

#2 features a soldered central glass bevel, tab-set in copper, with dried dogwood flower, hammered and formed copper wire 'petals' around the central element and a red silk duiponi ribbon necklace. 

#3 features detailed micro-macrame strands mixed with trade beads, glass pearls, wood and chain links in a multi-strand style.

#4 features a triple strand of chain, ball-chain and hand-knotted neon pearls with hammered jump rings and a glass-bottle pendant holding a suspended elephant charm.

#5 features a felted and embellished doll with coiled-wire crown, beaded accents, tiered ribbon skirt and a floral beaded strap handle. 

Voting will continue through midnight, October 31st. Winner will be announced via our newsletter. 

Subscribe to the newsletter here so you don't miss a thing. 

Finding something right under your nose...

I spend a good bit of my time searching for the perfect new items for the store. It sometimes is fun, but sometimes it's frustrating when I can't find exactly what I want.

This fall, I feel like I'm on some kind of a lucky spree.

We've been looking for a long time (okay, maybe two years...) for really big, interesting toggles. Customers come in wanting larger (25 mm or more) toggles and we just don't have them. The few companies who make larger toggles put them out in one or two styles that sort of scream 'CHEAP' when you look at them. You know what I mean...the kind of findings that make anything you make look way less interesting the second you attach them.

Somehow, after all our searching, the perfect solution just popped up. Sarah Tector, of S.Tector metals, was first a customer, and then a staff member. She's a talented metal smith with an exacting eye for details and specifics. When she heard us griping over yet another vendor who's 'big' toggle looked like it had been made, and chewed on, by muskrats, she spoke up. Her impeccable work always features hand-made closures and she thought she could solve our problem.

Wow, was she right. I fell in love INSTANTLY with the clean, architectural designs of her toggles. They are large, yet light and airy at the same time. She had designs with square wire, with round wire, with twisted wire. She had toggles that you'd hate to hide at the back of your neck.

Needless to say, I ordered a whole bunch. Now we've got them in our case...and many sold out on their first evening in the store.

Hannah Goff at Belks

Ornamentea alum and NCSU grad Hannah Goff has torn up Charleston Fashion Week and now a quartet of her dresses are available at Belk. Yep, our home-town girl is doing great. The collection features mixed prints in very wearable and girly shapes. I haven't tried any on yet but I can't wait to twirl the Fit-n-Flare dress. That print calls to me.

Visit the Belk page here. Do Hannah a huge favor and use the Belk 'facebook share' button right there on the left hand side. Show her off to your friends!
Visit Hannah Goff's site here for more photos of her current work. That photo above is from her site.
Read about her work at Charleston Fashion Week where she was the Featured Designer. This link has amazing pictures.

New Girl Hazing and Old Videos

I just realized I had never posted this video to the blog. Brenda's been with us for MONTHS now. Really, just MONTHS.

She's totally past the new-girl hazing. We even have nick-names for her.

And we totally love the way she packages linen.

Earring of the Week - Sparkly!

Are you looking for something sparkly to make for New Year's Eve? This might be just the pair for you. They are sparkly enough to be festive, but not so glittery that you couldn't wear them for dinner with a friend in late January, and then to a concert in March, and to Mother's Day brunch in May...

You'll need:
openwork leaf and branch connectors in antique brass
Palace Green opal Swarovski chain
crystal chain ends
8 mm black diamond Swarovski rhinestone  balls 
1 " antique brass head pins
tiny metal spacer beads (or use crystal beads in a color to match the Swarovski)
antique brass simple ear loops

For information on how to close the crystal chain ends, please see this tutorial


These lovely earrings were made by Tracey Johnson.

Earring of the week: Pretty dangles

This week's earring is a pretty little pair that features tiny flowers from our Autumn Blossom Mix stacked with crystal bicones. The head pins that hold the crystal and flower stacks onto the Flower Trio Dangles are simply looped in the back. This is called a loop rivet and you could add a dangle behind each leaf but I like this simple treatment.

These earrings were designed by Jane Mormino.

Inspiration - Space

This beautiful necklace was created by Jane Mormino, a North Carolina artist who also happens to be part of our wiz-bang team of designers here at Ornamentea. This necklace is currently listed in her Etsy shop where you can view it and vote for it in the NASA & Etsy To The Moon and Beyond Contest. The winner of this contest gets to attend the last shuttle launch in 2011.

I love the way Jane has combined vintage images of moon walks and space craft with the curved vintage watch crystals. Those watch crystals remind me of shuttle portholes.

So, please go vote for Jane's lovely design right here. Her shop name is Ergane.

To the moon and beyond!

Have you ever wondered what it looks like upstairs?

check out this picture of the very-busy Libby and Andrea working hard to fill orders on Cyber Monday. The photo appears in a News & Observer article about retail sales over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. You can read the article here.

This is what it looks like upstairs at the store. Not fancy at all. I hope this doesn't disappoint you; we keep all the fancy downstairs where the customers can enjoy it!

(and, btw, did you subscribe to your local newspaper yet? go do it, now...local newspapers are essential to the free and open society we now enjoy. Yeah, I know you may get all your news online, but the reporters have to be paid somehow and that is still via newspaper sales. So, go subscribe now!)

-Cynthia

Free Project Idea-The Key To Sparkle

This necklace mixes silk and chain and sparkling Swarovski dangles. I am thinking of making one with a brighter silk, maybe in red, and then using the same topaz crystal dangles.

You can get the full project directions and the ingredient listing here.

This lovely necklace was designed by Tracey Johnson.

Scissor Earrings-I'll cut you!

These sweet and not dangerous earrings were created by Andrea Souza in our store. I love the way she put a tiny acrylic flower from our Autumn Blossom Mix into the hole where the two halves of the scissor were joined. These would be a clever gift for a sewing friend...or my mom.. Shh!

Make your own!

Autumn Blossom Mix

brass scissors

brass simple loops

tiny wire mobile connectors

head pins

seed beads 

jump rings

Enameled Rings that make me go hmm...

I love this ring. It was created by Ndidi Kowalczyk, the designer behind Hothouse Posey and our Education Director at Ornamentea. She's one of the Handmaidens, a Raleigh-based artist collective that produces craft shows here in Raleigh. Their next show, the Handmade Market, is tomorrow. Ndidi will have rings like this-featuring brilliant enamels and her signature complex color palette. I am going to get one.

For details on the Handmade Market visit the market web site here.

For information on enameling classes click here. To purchase Thompson enamels for use on metal, click here.

Melissa Lowery featured on the IndieNC blog!

One of our staff alums and a favorite teacher here in Raleigh is Melissa Lowery. She creates etched metal jewelry that features timeworn patinas and finishes. Go read this fab article on her at the IndieNC blog.

If you don't know about the IndieNC blog you should-they write about homes, food, art and culture here in the Old North State. I've been drooling over the recent post about a lovely Oakwood home. Makes me want to paint my walls.

Lovely floral earrings

These lovely earrings were created by Jane here at our shop. They feature tiny plastic flowers, 3 mm crystal beads and Swarovski crystal posts. Jane used headpins and just coiled them around on the backs of the leaves like tiny vines. These earrings are just sparkly enough, and quite lightweight. See the full parts listing here.

Two new earring designs...

Both of these new earring designs were made with some of our newest parts by Jane Mormino. Visit this page to see all the new items and don't forget to look for the project ideas. Just click on the item pages to see the ideas.

Elaine Ray Beads Retiring...

We are retiring select Elaine Ray beads to make room for new ideas she has cooked up. You can order these soon-to-be-gone styles right here at Ornamentea.com. If you want to know what she's up to, come see her on Friday or Saturday this week at the Double Trunk Show. She'll have some of her newest glazes and shapes for you to see and purchase. You can even talk with her about what you'd like to see or show her your designs. Elaine loves to make beads but she really loves to see what other folks do with her beads. 

The necklace above is by someone...I have the picture but no name attached to it. Obviously, the disc bead is Elaine's. If this is your necklace, please let me know in the comments! I love it!

See our Staff Craft Challenge winners for August...

See the page in much greater detail right here...

Earring of the Week-Casually Sparkly

These sweet earrings were created by the talented Caroline. She's made a pair of dangly hoop earrings with some nicely stitched on rhinestones. That detail, the stitching, makes these much more than just a pair of sparkly hoops. They look handmade-yet-vintage. I love them. You can take a class with Caroline and make these sweet ear-bobs on September 14th or October 30th. They'd make great gifts for friends....

Click here for class details. Call the store at 919-834-6260 to sign up.