BeadGal Designs: Totally Adornable!

New Quantity Discounts!!

2010-01-25T13:20:00.001-05:00

Now available: quantity discounts for Little Buds earrings!

There are also new little leaf earrings on the way! These are similar to the little buds earrings, but with glass leaves! super cute!

~Sarah

We've moved!

2010-01-24T21:35:00.001-05:00

It's a little late as we've been here 3 weeks, but we're now located in Toronto, Canada!

Please keep this in mind when estimating shipping times as they will likely be different than in the past.

~Sarah

Out of town notice

2009-08-25T13:30:00.001-04:00

I will be out of town from August 29-September 6th. Any purchases Made on August 28th and after, will not ship until I return. Thanks!!!

Temporarily closed

2009-06-29T12:31:00.002-04:00

Due to a death in the family, BeadGal Designs will be closed from June 30th through July 7th. All orders placed during this time will not be processed until after the 7th. Thank you for your patience!

~Sarah

Holiday mail deadlines!!!

2008-11-29T21:12:00.002-05:00

Just a heads up, here are the holiday shipping deadlines for this year:

Domestic first class: Order by December 15th for guaranteed delivery. (items ordered until December 19th may arrive on time, I just cannot guarantee it.)

International first class: Order by December 10th, however it is not guaranteed that it will arrive by the holidays due to speed of customs in each country.

~Sarah

Black friday sale!

2008-11-28T10:12:00.003-05:00

Just for today! 20% off your entire purchase. Enter code: blogblackfriday at check-out!

Not good on shipping or custom orders. Expires at midnight New York time.

BeadGal Designs

~Sarah

New earrings!

2008-11-24T12:29:00.002-05:00

A new pair of earrings for sale!

Vintage and Modern earrings

Super chic and modern, a great pair of earrings for a loved one or for yourself!

In other news, I have a *ton* of new jewelry to post. Hopefully I can get it all up before the holiday shopping season has ended!

~Sarah

This weekend!

2008-09-23T14:27:00.002-04:00

Just a reminder that I'll be at the Strange Folk Festival this weekend!

If you're planning on coming by and you want to buy something specific, please let me know! I won't have many of my normal store items there, so if you contact me I'll make sure to have what you want in stock!

~Sarah

Craft show!

2008-08-18T10:41:00.002-04:00

For those of you who are interested, I'll be in O'Fallon, IL for the Strange Folk Festival. This is taking place September 27th and 28th. It's a great chance to see the jewelry in person, plus I'll have a ton of designs that aren't listed anywhere else!

Even if you don't need any jewelry, I suggest coming down for the show to see all the other cool vendors that will be there. I'm going to have so much fun visiting all the other booths!

~Sarah

Overdue vacation photos post!

2008-07-06T04:02:00.002-04:00

My husband and I have been back over a month now, my how time flies! We had an amazing time in Belgium. The chocolate and waffles were amazing! I really hope to make it back some day! If you care to see photos, you can visit my Belgium photo set in my flickr account:

Belgium!!

~Sarah

Out of town!!!

2008-05-15T22:07:00.002-04:00

The store is closed from May 16th through the 26th! Any orders placed during that time will not ship until the 28th!!

My husband and I are going on our delayed honeymoon :) It's going to be a ton of fun and hopefully I'll have a few pictures to share when I get back!

~Sarah

2008-02-25T13:59:00.001-05:00

Howdy :) Just a note that I'm not dead, just *extremely* busy! I'm currently taking a class to expand my skill set, so I hope to have some new amazing pieces in the store by the end of the summer! I can't wait!

~Sarah

Gift certificates and important shipping deadlines!!

2007-11-26T11:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've updated! Life has been extremely hectic, but things are finally settling down. I got married on the 3rd and then moved 1000 miles away starting the 6th! Busy times indeed!

Here are a few bits of information for the holiday season:

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shipping deadlines!!
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The deadline for domestic packages is December 15th. Anything ordered after that date is not guaranteed to arrive before Christmas! The deadline for international delivery is December 4th and these items are not guaranteed to arrive before Christmas. Typically items arrive in 2 weeks, but due to increased holiday shipping I cannot guarantee these delivery times.

*******************************
We now have gift certificates!!
*******************************
Having a hard time finding a gift? Have to buy a gift for someone who lives far away? Try buying a gift certificate! Gift certificates are a great way to ensure that the recipient receives something they love!

Purchase a gift certificate in any of the listed values. Your account with us will then be credited for the chosen amount. After purchase, you sign into your account and from there you can disburse the money to whomever you want, even multiple people! The only requirement is
that they have an email address to which the gift certificate is sent.

Gift certificates have no expiration date and discounts or coupons cannot be used in purchasing gift certificates

Link to Gift Certificates

Thanks again for all your support over the year. Best wishes to you and your loved ones!
~Sarah

One more pair!

2007-08-10T12:36:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I lied last time when I said it'd be a while before I posted again! I had forgotten to post about these earrings, oops!

Pink and Shell earrings

These earrings are super cute. One of the things I always find myself doing with my jewelry is making pieces that aren't terribly complex, but work well to highlight the inherent beauty of the materials. I'm a total glass geek, so I often find myself just wanting to appreciate beads in themselves rather than actually using them in a piece. A nice compromise between admiring the beads and making jewelry out of them is to create jewelry to works to highlight the components. The shell in these beads is very pretty. They're nice and smooth and have a nice organic glow to them. Not quite sure if that's a good term, but it's all that I can think of for the moment. The pink beads are a nice way to add some color to these earrings without detracting from the natural simplicity and beauty of the shells. I know this style isn't for everyone, but I just love it!

Okay, this really will be my last post for a while. Well, unless I get more photos taken this weekend! We will see!

~Sarah

Two more pairs of earrings!

2007-08-07T13:04:00.000-04:00

More new pieces! (can you tell I've made a resolution to update more? ;-) )

Clover and Pearl earrings

I love these earrings. I've been making these clover bits for ages. I think it's probably one of the first 'fancy' things most wire workers learn to make, so making them is a very 'zen' kind of experiece for me. Although they are simple, I love how they look in jewelry. I bought these pearls a bit ago and I thought they'd be perfect for a pair of earrings with a silver clover. I think I was right and I hope you like them too! So pretty!

Pearls and Shells earrings

I fell in love with both of these beads when I received them. I can't even describe how beautiful the pink shells are. The translucency is so beautiful and I really wish I wore anything that would match these earrings. Alas, I look much better in browns and oranges than I do in such pretty pinks! However, I know there are other people who would look smashing wearing such beautiful earrings.

And that's going to be my last update for probably a little bit. I hope to get photos of my even newer pieces in the next few weeks and get them posted. I can't wait to share them with you!

~Sarah

More earrings!

2007-08-01T12:15:00.000-04:00

Two posts in such a short amount of time? What is the world coming to! :D

Another new pair of earrings. I've had these chevron beads in my stash for *ages*. I love how beautiful they are, but they are extremely difficult to match. The other day I sat staring at them and I came up with these. I love how they turned out. Again, they are a very different color combination for me, but I think they turned out very well!

I decided to call them "Flowering Cacti" as they remind me of, well, flowering cacti ;-) I'm not normally a huge fan of Cacti, but I do love the contrast of the prickly cactus and the soft bold flowers they produce. Such a contrast!

Flowering Cacti earrings

So pretty and I have even more new jewelry to share, but not today!

Anyhoo, feel free to sign-up for our newsletter using the sign-up form on our website or in the sidebar! Thanks again for stopping by!

~Sarah

Where does the time go?

2007-07-26T01:14:00.001-04:00

Things have been super hectic and busy in BeadGal Land. For those of you who don't know, the BeadGal is getting hitched this November. A happy thing, but this means one thing: bride brain. Oh yes, the evil, brain sucking, parasite that is bride brain. Alas, it only gets worse the closer the date appears *eyes calender evilly*. Lucky for you, I've been able to beat of the evil bride brain beast (bbb for short) to share some new jewelry creations with you!

Moderna: $14.00

I love love love these earrings. They are so modern, clean, and fresh. If I wore clothes that matched these, I would so have my own pair!

Moderna Valentino: $14

A different version of the Moderna earrings. I switched out the clear glass beads for these bold red glass beads. I love how adding the red makes these earrings even edgier. I really like how they turned out!

Alright, that's it for now! I've got more pieces to share with you, but I'll save those for later. Hopefully the bbb will stay at bay so I can continue creating!

~Sarah

busy busy busy!

2007-04-17T22:44:00.000-04:00

Things have been super busy at BeadGal Labs. I've been in a earring making frenzy. A few weeks ago I got in a huge shipment of the most glorious glass beads and ever since then I've been totally inspired.

A small sample of some of the new items!

Raindrop Earrings

I just love these earrings. The glass drops have such a nice weight to them that they feel so good to wear. I also love the shine of the glass flowers. Very cute and very pretty!

Drop of the Ocean Earrings

I also love these earrings so much. The long length is so dramatic, but the simple lines keep it from going over the top. The drops have a great weigh to them, have you noticed how much I love these??, which give the earrings a great great swing to them.

Orange Blossom Earrings

These earrings are just perfect for summer. I love orange and I love mother of pearl, so these earrings are right up my alley. Super cute and just perfect for the beach!

There are tons more where these come from, so feel free to drop by the site and see all that's fresh and fun!

~Sarah

Happy Holidays from BeadGal Designs!

2006-12-06T09:43:00.000-05:00

The season of spiced cider, holiday wishes, and family is upon us. I
hope you're having a great season so far!

Christmas is quickly approaching and so the deadline for sending out packages for delivery by Christmas is nearly upon us!

For Domestic customers: First-class deadline is December 17th and Priority Mail is December 19th. As always, the mail service gets very very busy this time of the year, so items sent near the deadline might not arrive by Christmas.

For international customers: The airmail deadline is December 10 and the Global Priority deadline is December 12. As always, airmail is not guaranteed within a certain time frame and may take up to a month to arrive.

Please consider signing up for our monthly newsletter! We announce new products, subscriber only sales, and keep you up to date with the behind the scene activity. Use the newsletter sign-up box in the column to the side to sign-up!

Thank you again for your support and I hope you and your loved ones have a magical season!

~Sarah

Busy busy busy!!

2006-11-12T10:02:00.000-05:00

Things have been super busy at BeadGal Designs. We finally migrated all our newsletter data over to our new service, so we'll be sending newsletters again! hurrah! You can see the new and nifty sign-up bar in the right-hand column. or you can just use the one here:

~Sarah

Asian Buzz blog mention!

2006-09-13T09:54:00.000-04:00

It's been a good couple of days here at BeadGal Designs. Today our Asian Allure earrings are featured on Asian Buzz.

It's a great blog for asian and asian inspired item, so I encourage you to pop over and take a look!

~Sarah

Pendants everywhere!

2006-09-09T14:29:00.000-04:00

Part of an experiment I did back in May, was to make pendants out of some of my favorite earrings. I wanted to offer them so people could have a matching earring and necklace set if they wanted one. Plus I'm a total pendant junkie, so I wanted to offer them to other pendant people like me.

Little Flower Pendant:

Leilani Pendant:

Now all pendants at BeadGal Designs are available with an 18 inch sterling silver box chain for those who want a completed necklace rather than just a pendant. The chain is only an additional $6, which is a great deal!

Feel free to pop on over to BeadGal Designs and see all the other pendants that are available!

~Sarah

BeadGal Designs in the news!

2006-09-02T18:09:00.000-04:00

I checked my email today to find that we've been featured in a blog! Indie Obsession has featured us. Thank you so very much! Go on over and check out this blog, they really feature a ton of cool things!

~Sarah

Autumn Dew Jewelry Set

2006-08-05T00:12:00.000-04:00

I had seen these beads online and just fell in love with them. I love how unique the shape is and anyone who's looked at my bead collection knows how I feel about turquoise! So I bought a bunch of them and they arrived last friday. I opened up my box and almost immediately set to work making this jewelry. I didn't have a plan in mind, but these beads were just so inspiring! I love how everything turned out and I think you will too.

Earrings: $12 available here

Bracelet: $46 available here

~Sarah

BeadGal Designs is now live!

2006-07-30T21:17:00.000-04:00

It's been alot of work, but BeadGal Designs is finally live! Check out all the beautiful jewelry and wristlets!

~Sarah

Asianesque

2006-06-07T15:15:00.000-04:00

asian wristlet
Originally uploaded by beadgaldesigns.

I recently entered the world of sewing wristlets. I've been sewing for a good part of my life, but I don't sew often. It usually takes more preperation and concentration than I'm usually willing to give. I like the immediate satisfaction of jewelry, but I do find completing a sewing project to be an extremely satisfying thing.

So to combine my need for 'immediate gratification' and my desire to sew again, I started making wristlets.

This wristlet is made with a gorgeous cotton fabric I found. I'm not normally a fan of either turquoise or red, but I just love the combination of the two! The accent colors of light green, dark green, rose, cream, and yellow make for a truly fabulous fabric.

I have four of these available, one of which is currently listed here,

~Sarah

featured item

2006-06-01T21:43:00.000-04:00

featured item
Originally uploaded by beadgaldesigns.

My little flower earrings were featured on Etsy on monday. It was really nice in that it was my first time and I really like those earrings. The exposure was really nice, I just hope it happens again!

~Sarah

New pictures of old items

2006-05-07T19:46:00.000-04:00

Due to the relisting of old items on Etsy, some of my older items came to the front of my store. When I was first posting on etsy, I had dark, blurry, and overall bad photos. This was the result of having a fairly low quality camera and living in an apartment (it's nearly impossible to get good light). I did the best I could at the time, and since then my photos have gotten worlds better. I did not like having such horrid pictures being front and center of my page, especially when they were taking the place of some fabulous ones. So I sat down this weekend and re-took some photos of some of my older items. They turned out fabulous, so I thought I'd share them with you here.

Silver Twist

Ancient Silver

Crossing Greens

Discotheque

Heart Felt

I don't have these earrings re-listed, but I may do so in the future. If you're interested, feel free to comment and I can re-list them for ya!

Summer Lovin'

Jade Swing pendant and earrings

That's it for new photos! I'm almost done on my new squid, only two more details to go, and then I'll post him! He's turning out so fabulous!

~Sarah

Bamboo Adobe

2006-05-05T13:18:00.000-04:00

Bamboo Adobe

I sit along in the dark bamboo grove,
Playing the zither and whistling long.
In this deep wood no one would know -
Only the bright moon comes to shine.

Wang Wei tr. Liu Wu-chi

Bamboo Adobe is a very elegant modern piece. The bamboo tile is complimented with sterling silver wire and a metallic ceramic bead. Truly stunning, this piece will is a piece of art for your neck.

The pendant is made out of black bamboo tile (approximately 1” x 2”), a ceramic bead, sterling silver wire, and accented with fire polished black faceted glass beads with a bronze half-coat. The rolo chain is very substantial and is made of sterling silver, as is the simple toggle clasp.

This item is available at my etsy store: Bamboo Adobe

~Sarah

Little Flower

2006-05-04T12:08:00.000-04:00

One thing I have been trying to do with my newer jewelry pieces, is to introduce some brighter colors. I am naturally drawn to soft turquoises, pinks, and blues when I buy my supplies (you should see my tray of blue beads, eep!), despite the fact that I rarely wear those colors in my every day. I'm more likely to be found in browns, greens (I am currently wearing a particularly vibrant shade of charteruse today), orange, yellows, etc. I like bright colors, so in the spirit of summer, I decided to give color a chance and start using some components with real pop.

Little Flower

“Just living is not enough... One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

~Hans Christian Andersen

These beautiful earrings are made out of wonderful carved new jade (serpentine) flowers, beautiful fire polished deep blue faceted rounds (these are such an absolutely fabulous color), and sterling silver wire. They measure just under 2" long with the ear wire and 1.125" without.

These strikingly beautiful earrings will make a fantastic accessory for any outfit.

Price: $16
clip-on price: $28

As you might have noticed, I offer clip-ons for all my earrings. I need to start mentioning that in my listings. So if you want clip-ons, do not hesitate to note that in the 'comments to seller' box when ordering. I'll send you a revised bill that covers the higher price.

~Sarah

Squids squids, everywhere there's squid!

2006-05-01T14:42:00.000-04:00

In addition to making jewelry, I also crochet career squids. "What's a career squid?" you ask. The best way to explain it, is to share a picture!

This is a picture of the lovely Anna Squidlova:

I have also created The Ninja Squid:

and R. Matey the pirate squid:

So yeah, crocheted squids with personality. It's a bit odd, but it suits me just fine. I'm just about done with the next squid in the line, so I hope to have pictures and a link up within the week!

~Sarah

Earring and pendant set

2006-04-30T22:55:00.000-04:00

Lately I have been making alot of earrings. Earrings are what I wear with any consistancy, so I guess my habits are showing with my jewelry :-) To expand on my earring habit, I've started making pendants to match the earrings. Pendants sell fairly well and I think they'll do well with matching earrings.

These are my most recent creations Amphitrite and Amphitrite Pendant:

They are both hand-formed out of sterling silver wire. The earrings measure 2" long with the earwire, 1.25" without. The pendant measures 1 9/16" without the jumpring.

The earrings are $22, the pendant is $12, while the set is $32 (a savings of $2).

This really is a lovely set, the picture truly cannot do it justice!

~Sarah

Welcome to BeadGal Designs!

2006-04-29T22:55:00.000-04:00

Howdy and welcome to the blog for BeadGal Designs!

I started BeadGal Designs just over a year ago out of a need to share my jewelry creations with the world. Over time, my business and technical skill has grown to where I consider this a significant part of my life.

Soon I will be launching my independent website at BeadGal Designs . Currently I reside on Etsy.com at BeadGal Designs on Etsy . I have enjoyed my time at Etsy and will gladly tell you about the site and the community. I have made some great friends there and have no plans of exiting, even after my independent shop is up and running.

I will be using this space to talk about my recent creations and to talk about works in progress. Thank you for stopping by, I hope you come again soon :-)

~Sarah