Heard of ArtFire?

This is a link to my shop on ArtFire. If you haven't heard of ArtFire, click the link & check it out. Similar to Etsy but smaller. I would love to hear what you think of my site there; I have been slowly upgrading it & adding jewelry to it. As always, it's a work in progress (what isn't??). Enjoy.

Visit LauraTeague's ArtFire Shop

new earrings

i really am enjoying creating these different earrings - love experimenting with the circles; this are very "infinity" looking to me. what is it about circles, anyway?

post turkey

well, thanksgiving has come & gone we had a great time. parents in town as well as both sons, from california and seattle; it was a great holiday for us. now, i have to turn my attention to filling a couple of special order earrings and getting ready for the FABULOUS Chimneyville show in Jackson, MS, this coming weekend. it is a huge, beautiful, INDOOR show (HURRAY!) and i always look forward to it. a lot of work but a lot of fun meeting new people, talking about my jewelry. it's at the trademart in downtown jackson if you want to check it out. in fact, here is a link in case you are interested. http://mscrafts.org/index.php/chimneyville-crafts-show/ the show is saturday and sunday.

i have a few earrings to post here; i'm very aware that i need lots of good pics of my jewelry & it's so hard to keep up with that. hard to find a photographer who can do justice to my designs - if they are just put out on a table & photographed, they lose all their charm, it seems to me. photographers who do anything else are quite expensive & the problem is that i need lots of pictures. just whining here. more later.

Festival Acadiens & Creoles!

Festival Acadiens & Creoles in Lafayette, LA is this weekend! This is a fabulous festival with lots of great food, great music and wonderful local crafts being demonstrated - fishing nets being made & other local talents. I'll be there as a vendor, selling my handmade jewelry. We'll be there Saturday & Sunday, 10-5 pm. Should be a wonderful weekend - hope you can come join us!

Earrings!

Here are a couple pics of some new earrings i have for the fall shows. All are sterling silver.
The first is called Out of This World - it matches the bracelet and necklace of the same name. It is a chainmaille pattern that i have recently begun making as earrings - they have been popular - i like the "knotty" look of them.



The pair above right are made with tiny daisy spacers and the y are similar to a bracelet i make called "clover chain" because it reminds me of the clover chains we used to make as kids - fun, no?
One more -these are great fun - 3 simple hammered rings looped together. they are attention getters although the design is simple. Bright & shiny!

Fall Plans

I have pretty well finalized my plans for where i will be showing my jewelry this fall. Here is the line up of shows i have planned -

October 9-10, Lafayette, Festival Acadiens et Creoles - lots of fun, lots of dancing.

October 30th, New Orleans, Palmer Park - this is the monthly NOLA Arts Council show. Last month was incredibly hot which was followed by a thunderstorm, complete with lightning - which is pretty exciting in a little 10X10 EZ Up tent....surely the weather will be better this month!

November 6-7 - Peter Anderson Festival in Ocean Springs, Mississippi - this is the first time I'll be a vendor at this show and i am really looking forward to it; i have heard great things about this show.

December 3-5 - Chimneyville Crafts Show, Jackson, Mississippi - this is the third year i have participated in this show and it's always lots of fun. It's an indoor event, which means i don't have to contend with weather - woohoo!

December 11 - Baton Rouge Arts Market, 8 a.m. - 12 a.m.; my 'home show" - the December shows are great fun

December 18- Baton Rouge Arts Market, 8 a.m. - Noon; last show before Christmas!!

So, that's the plan for the fall. I may add another date in New Orleans but i don't have that firmed up yet; it would be on Dec. 19th, if i decide to do that. It's all about have the energy at that point.

More later.

New Bracelet - Gold!

This is a bracelet that i have made in the past but had not made in a long time. i decided to start making it again after a customer came by who has a bracelet like this and told me how much she loves it; that reminded me of what a fun piece of jewelry this is, so here it is again, resurrected! it's made of handmade sterling silver links and clasp with ceramic beads dipped in 14K gold; the beads are from Greece. This bracelet has lots of movement - i call it "Tahiti" - just seems fitting. i'm planning to start work on a matching necklace today - tres dramatic!

More tiger jewelry

Here are a couple more bracelets currently at the Cook Hotel. Top is an extremely fun bracelet called "Tiger Geaux Geaux"; lots of movement in this one!



This bracelet is an attention-getter - it's made of glass beads from Czechoslovakia and sterling silver, including the ferocious looking tiger. Lots of fun to wear.

On a side note, I took this photo with light coming from underneath - it gives it an interesting "glow", I think. If you have read many of my posts here you know that photographing jewelry is an ongoing challenge for me; I'm always reading & trying out new approaches to get the best results. I like this effect although it doesn't do as well with opaque components.

Tiger Jewelry Photos

This is the "Geaux Tigers" bracelet now being shown at the LSU Alumni Center, Cook Hotel Gift Shop; only tiger-themed jewelry at this gallery!

Another new gallery for Laura Teague Jewelry!

My jewelry was recently accepted into the LSU Alumni Center, Shelton Gift Shop! This shop will be carrying my line of tiger-themed jewelry - purple & gold, tiger stripes, both bracelets and earrings. Of course, necklaces are also possible to match any bracelet you see at the shop but i don't expect that they will carry these - this will be more of custom order. I am so excited about this opportunity and encourage you to check out this shop if you are in the area. here is a link to the store (although I don't think my jewelry is on the site): http://lsualumni.org/shop/

New Gallery

hi, again -

i'm so happy to report that Laura Teague Jewelry has been accepted at the jewelry store Sabai, here in Baton Rouge. It is a beautiful store and i'm very excited to have some of my jewelry shown there. Peggy Day, the manager, took several bracelets and earrings from my inventory to have in her shop. If you are in town, go by and check it out. It is located in mid-city, near the intersection of Claycut and Jefferson Hwy, near Government Street. This gives me a second location in Baton Rouge - the first is at the LSU Museum of Art in downtown Baton Rouge, so this gives me a new location in the mid-city area. Perfect! Click here to visit Sabai online.

More lampwork jewelry photos, maybe

ok, coming to you again from laurateague.com.....still trying to get more pics uploaded for your viewing pleasure. ooooh, now it's working! this photo is a little dark, but hopefully you can see it. i'm really happy with how this came out. i especially like the nice-sized hammered mobius that you can see here at the top of the photo. i love to make tiger beads & i had a great time designing this bracelet using my own handmade glass tiger beads, a small solid black bead that i also made of glass and sterling silver wire. i guess at lea
st one other person liked this bracelet because it was stolen at a recent show. oh, well, at least i have a picture. btw, all of these lampwork/sterling silver link bracelet are OOAK - one of a kind. i will use certain elements more than once but i never duplicate a bracelet exacly; what would be fun in that? want to stand out in a crowd? get yourself one of these babies!! something different, oh, yeah!

Enough bracelets for now - how about a gorgeous, OOAK necklace with a big handmade glass bead? what do you think? i was very happy with the way it came out - lots of movement, thanks to the little hammered rings near the focal bead balanced with some more "orderly" smaller rings reaching all the way to the back. finished of course, with a handmade swirly clasp.

these are not on my website yet but there are lots of other goodies there - come take a peek if you're interested in sterling silver jewelry for real women! laurateague.com

More pictures

Well, on that last post, i said "here are a COUPLE of pictures".....i added one then, when i tried to add another, blogger wouldn't allow it. odd, eh? anyhow, i'll try again here.....hmmmmm still not working. wonder what the problem is. any ideas out that? guess i shut down & start back up & see what happens.

Sterling Silver and my own glass beads

so, finally, the long promised photos of a somewhat new endeavor. i have been wanting for some time to combine a couple of passions: lampwork bead making and silver wire jewelry. i have been making beads for awhile, often selling the beads themselves or just on a simple black leather cord which, although nice enough, wasn't very satisfying somehow.

When i was accepted to the Arts Council of New Orleans monthly art show in Palmer Park, I took the opportunity to really focus on this, using the date of the first New Orleans arts market as my goal. Here are a couple of pictures of my first work combining these two art forms.

a few new things

Spring is a busy time in the jewelry studio - there are lots of shows to apply to and prepare for and lots of fun to be had just playing around with metal and glass; gotta make time for the fun stuff!

Here is a charm bracelet I am now offering. The picture includes a fleur-de-lis charm but i sell them with or without the charm. I'm really happy with the simplicity of the bracelet - very sturdy but simple & elegant, I think. I plan to do more of these & have, in fact, been playing around with using bigger & bigger rings & forming some of the rings into ovals & other organic shapes. That seems to bypass the charm bracelet concept but they are quite lovely! I hope to have pictures - it's difficult sometimes to keep up with the pictures. the fun is in making the jewelry; taking photos is a necessary evil -----well, not evil exactly but just not nearly as much fun as creating something using plain wire, a pair of pliers & a torch! But i have to at least document the new things i make; otherwise, they go to their new homes & i forget about them & don't produce that design again, which seems a shame.

More info to follow - next up, lots of new jewelry designs using my own lampwork beads!

some catching up to do

oh, it's been a long time since i posted but i guess i can honestly say that life got in the way. my "real" job (the one that pays the bills) started back after a summer hiatus; i teach at a university and don't work during the summer months. once school starts back up, life goes into overdrive, you might say. things get really busy & , when i get home after work, it's hard to blog - mainly because what i really want to is make jewelry. taking pictures & putting them online keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the "to do" list. but, anyway, i do have some new pictures & i'll be putting them on the blog, possibly as early as tonight. so - see you again soon!