Beads beautiful Beads

My Paua Abalone beads arrived! Also, I visited my family this weekend(fri/sat for me) and a little craft store in their town is closing and is selling all their beads off at what must be below cost, so I went a bit mad...

From top left: Dark blue lampwork beads with white flowers, turquoise blue striped lampwork beads, purpley glass beads(the colour of this one isn't displaying correctly in this photo), drilled shell pieces. Middle row: mother of pearl stars and hearts, mother of pearl assorted shapes. String of paua abalone beads at front.

And of course the first thing I did when I got home was play with my new supplies:

I teamed my new paua beads with pink dyed dragon's vein agate to make this pretty little pair of earrings. They can be found listed in my etsy Shop.






My little workshop/shop assistant Random Cat is much much better and is currently sleeping on the chair at my worktable. She was thinking about hopping up among my beads and tools, but thought better of it,..just as well...or she'd have had a rude and swift removal before she knew what was happening!

Memories of Shell-combing in my beach-side childhood

Have been mostly working on the less creative behind-the-scenes stuff this past week. Totally redid all my current shop listing photos... the whole shop looks so many million times better now, much more cohesive and consistent. Also been getting my paperwork and filing sorted out properly, with proper places for everything etc. Too bad I haven't got room in my tiny apartment (just slightly more than a studio) for a dedicated office, it would make everything so much easier. My 'workshop' is my dining table, and my 'office' is the coffee table and couch.
 

I have some Paua Abalone shell beads on order...from Hong Kong. Despite the fact that Paua are native to New Zealand, Paua shell beads are hard to track down and quite pricey locally. I grew up by the ocean, and when I was quite young...6-7(late 1980's early 90's) maybe, you could walk along the beach and find Paua half shells washed in on the high tideline. You could also find the small variety living on the rocks under the 'hill' that stuck out into the harbour. By the time we moved when I was 13 though, they were becoming rare. Overharvesting, and people taking the immature Paua(there is a size and number limit on what you can take, but it's widely flouted).

Below is a photo of the 'hill' I'm talking about. Mt Paku, in, Tairua, New Zealand, taken from the surf beach side.