Tampa Bay Beadwork Group

This was last night's project - tempting, eh? Holly, the owner of ebeads.com posted this colorful bracelet on the Tampa Bay Beadwork Meetup page to show everyone what we would be making. This fun group meets once a month to socialize & create a new piece of vibrant jewelry. If you are in the Tampa area in a few weeks and like beading, come check it out. You can find all the details & sign up at the meetup link above.

This was the group. A fun mix- newbies (like me) and lots of talented ladies who have been making gorgeous jewelry for years.

Some of the bracelets. We all followed the same pattern but picked our own colors. Mine is the blue & green, 3rd over from the right.

And here is my finished bracelet.

I can't wait to find out what August's project will be. If you want to play, check out the meetup link above. Or pop into Beads and visit Holly at her shop on 1543 S. Dale Mabry Hwy. in South Tampa. She also teaches classes at the store almost every day. Check the calendar on her website to find a project that appeals to you.

Thursday Giveaway part 2 - You Are So Lucky!

New Thursday means a new prize, so let’s get rolling!

Remember Karen over at Will Oaks Studio?

You made her so happy with all of your generous comments, that she’s decided to play with us again. Woo Hoo! This week’s Thursday Giveaway prize is a $20 gift certificate for use in either her fabulous Etsy or Artfire shops. (More details at end of this post)

She’s also agreed to share with us a bit more about herself and her beautiful jewelry:

"I've been a working artist all of my adult life, with art degrees and all of that. The first few decades of my career (I got an early start AND I've seen a few birthdays...) were in sculpture--particularly sculpture that incorporated my hand made paper. I did large installations and dimensional wall pieces and worked with museums and galleries for exhibition. About 15 years ago, I became more serious about making "artists books" and these were also exhibited, are in private and public collections, and were much smaller in scale...but after almost 30 years of hand papermaking and using paper, my interests began to change.

I began to experiment with "wire, stones, glass and fiber" about 5 years ago because a friend turned me on to "beading" and, as a long time lover of jewelry (and collector and wearer!), I was very intrigued. You see, the past 6 years, I've been back on the "family farm" in my town of origin after many years of traveling and living all over the U.S. and Europe. It's been a challenging change for me as I began caring for my father whose health was failing, and ended up running our farm and seasonal campground. And taking over one of the bedrooms here which has evolved into my new studio.

I've discovered I just love pearls and tend towards natural materials including silver, copper and stones....but I also have an extreme fondness for Czech pressed glass, so these materials, often pulled together with fibers and leather, are my mainstays. I get a lot of my inspiration from nature and have "practiced" photography since I was a child...and so am very happy with the speed and ease now available with digital photography. Since I'm living in such a lovely place, and since I tend to plant things where ever I live, the gardens here have really been an incredible inspiration for me this Spring.


Although I work as an artist...I love engineering challenges and for me, wearable art pieces often give me plenty of those! I want my pieces to "wear well" and besides choice materials, I pride myself on careful and beautiful craftsmanship. I hope my pieces give the customer a lot of pleasure to look at and to wear and that they will serve well for many years to come. My work is available online at both my Etsy shop WillOaksStudio.etsy.com and at my ArtFire shop WillOaksStudio.artfire.com. Stop by any time! If you're curious about the campground, the gardens, the farm and the "messy business of making art behind the gallery views" do check my blog at willoaksstudio.blogspot.com "

Now how cool is that?

What Karen hasn’t mentioned here is that she has some shows coming up. She could really use some input on which of her pieces YOU like best, and why. If you’re willing to help, take a peek in her Etsy & Artfire shops. Then leave a comment either here or on her blog as to which pieces or styles you like the best. I must stress it is NOT necessary to do this to be entered this week’s random drawing. You are just giving Karen some feedback so she can choose which pieces to use in her upcoming shows.

To enter this Thursday Giveaway: Just leave any comment here at ArtSnark's between now & noon (EST) next Thursday June 18th. 1 random winner will be chosen.

Please be sure your contact info is correct. You don't have to leave an email, as long as I can track you down easily through blogger. If I do not hear from you within 10 days of your name being drawn, I'll go back through the list and choose an alternate winner.


Once again, this week’s fabulous prize is a $20 merchandise certificate, for use in WillOaksStudio’s Etsy or ArtFire shop, to be used as a credit towards any total purchase. This includes shipping charges. So if you want a totally free piece of jewelry, find the piece you like & then subtract the shipping charge from the $20. The remaining total is what you have to spend on a new piece of jewelry. Karen states that “I will refund $20, max, through PayPal after normal check out. BUT there's no cash value (and no cash refunds if the entire amount isn't used) AND it must be "spent" before September 30, 2009 or it expires. "

All images in this post are copyright of Will Oak Studio