Dilemma

I’m just about out of orphans beads to sell.  What I have left now is a wide assortment of pendants.  I’m trying to decide how to group them. 

They’re a variety of shapes, sizes and patterns.  Right now I have them separated by shape – stars, hearts, teardrops, circles, squares (diamonds and rectangles too),  pointy ovals, shield, and misc.  Is this a good way to group them?  Some of the above groups will be grouped together since I only have a few of each.  Others may be separated into more than one lot.  I’m also undecided as to how many pendants to put in a lot.  I did the orphan beads as strands of about 35.  Now pendants use more clay (usually) so maybe groups of 15.

Does anyone have any ideas or opinions?

An example of matching yet different.

This post from Stef Créations shows something I want to achieve.  All of the beads are different yet they match.  Of course I’d rather do them in round than in discs like that but I really like those (helps that they’re purple too.)

What I’ve been up to

Which is not too much.  I did get a bunch of beads made, which are now in the tumbler.  And that tumbler is temporarily set up in the basement.  We’ll be building a cabinet for it in my studio.  Why isn’t it in my studio now.  While it is a vibratory tumbler and therefore quieter than a rotary, the vibrations give me a headache if it’s in the same room.  By building a solid, sturdy cabinet with a door in my room, I can close it off and still have it nearby (so I remember to change grits on time).

I’ve also been working on another color combo ebook.  It’s going well.  Just needed to take a break from it to get the beads made.  And I needed those cuz I’m finally running out of orphans to auction.

I won a Barnes and Noble gift card recently and have been agonizing over what to buy.  It was only $25 and what I wanted was way more that that.  I finally decided to go for it and ordered 4 books, 3 of which are preorders.  And to get the free shipping, I had to chose to ship in as few packages as possible.  That means I won’t get any of it until the preordered books are in, which is Sept, Early Nov and Late Nov.  So now I basically have to forget I ordered so that I don’t get the “where’s my stuff” itch.  And I’ll probably forget so well that when I do get the package I’ll say “Where’d this stuff come from?  Oh yeah, I ordered it back in August.”  I spose I could just call it buying my own Christmas present early.

Here’s what I  ordered:
The Art of Polymer Clay Millefiori Techniques: Projects and Inspiration for Creative Canework
Donna Kato, Vernon Ezell (Photographer) (preorder)

Polymer Clay and Mixed Media – Together at Last: Incorporating Craft Materials and Found Objects in Clay Figures (preorder)
Christi Friesen

Clay Art for All Seasons
Yukiko Miyai

Brisingr (Inheritance Cycle #3)
Christopher Paolini (preorder)