The New Quadra Beads

Well, technically, not so new, since I started making them about 6 years ago... But I hadn't really made that many in the last little while, until people started asking for them that is. I'm thinking the fact that this one is on my business card is why people are really starting to show more interest in them:
I used to believe that the fun part in making them, was that it was a great way to go through odds and ends beads, left over from other projects. But now, I'm getting custom requests for them, which is sending me all over town in the search for particular stones or colors... More often than not now, it's "Do you think you could make one with these colors?", or "I really like this, but can you make it smaller?"

Ah, the joys of offering custom work. I'm on the fence with custom actually. I mean, I don't mind doing it at all, but whenever I get requests for custom work in front of an impossibly colorful array of my already existing work, it just drives the "You can't please ALL people ALL the time" point home, you know? From my very first craft show, when this lady had about 8 different sets of a particular design to choose from, she STILL asked if I could make one in a different color! Gives you that "Can't win" feeling, non? ;)

Anyway, here are the newest ones I've just completed:

Turquoise, wood, silver, and glass beads.

Ceramic, lace stone, wood, copper, and glass beads.
This one has a different shape. It's the same pattern, but the different sized beads gave it more of a 'flying saucer' shape, as my DH likes to say.

Coral, wood, silver, and glass beads.

Jasper, lace stone, wood, copper, and glass beads.

Same beads as the one above, but changing the sizes of the end beads brought it back to the original design's shape.

This is cute: Large round frosted glass, with wood, silver, and glass beads.

I just got an order for a few more, custom of course. And wouldn't you know it? I've been asked to 'tweak' the design just a touch. This person LOVES my Quadra beads, but she likes to be able to see them from the top, as opposed to sideways, which is how I wear them, just strung on a silver snake chain. No biggie, it's manageable, but still, it still drives that point home. LOL!

Now, if you'll excuse me, the timer just went off, and I've got to remove these eye patches I've been sporting for the last 30 minutes. (I absolutely LOVE these BTW! They totally take the puffy sleepy eye look away! I keep mine in the fridge. Double whammy of depuffing power!) Hey! Nothing like multi-tasking in the morning, am I right? ;)