"Last Supper" Goes Online

Now everyone can enjoy Da Vinci's Last Supper, all you need is Internet. The famed artwork was put online at 16 billion pixels (I wish I have a camera like that.) With such high resolution, experts can study the artwork online with full details, even details they cannot see in person, like the traces Da Vinci put down before the painting. All in the comfort of your own home, without the worry of wear and tear.

It's pretty awesome, see it here.

Our Weekly Featured Seller: Sweet Irie Originals

Meet our very first featured seller! Sweet Irie Originals has some fantastic jewelry. I can't tear myself away from her etsy store. Here's a little something about our seller:

1. What is the name of your store and what do you sell?

Sweet Irie Originals -I sell handmade jewelry and other accessories. You can find bracelets, anklets, rings, earrings, necklaces, cell phone charms, and bookmarks in my shop. I also sell gift certificates for those gift seekers who are not sure what to buy.

2. How did you get into your craft?

I started making hemp jewelry five years ago as a stress reliever and for fun. When my kitten was born, she made it pretty hard to create jewelry because she was constantly grabbing the hemp or my jewelry and stringing it all over the house. That was when I started doing just bead designs and working with more detailed and fine metals...and have never gone back. I have been creating beaded jewelry for almost four years now and love it!!

3. What is your latest project?

Yikes! There are so many....I honestly am trying to get lots of jewelry made to start going to flea markets so I can make some money. I have a lot of tuition coming due and gotta pay it. So, I have been working on making many different pieces with the new materials I have been getting in. Needless to say, all this crafting has my fingers tired and a little sore...but its worth it! ;)

4. Where can we find your products?

You can find my products online at www.sweetirie.com or by logging on directly to Etsy at www.sweetirie.etsy.com. I also sell my creations in two shops in Cincinnati and Bucyrus, Ohio and soon will be venturing to Fleamasters in Fort Myers, Florida where I will have a regular spot in the main market pavilion.

You can reach me via email at sweetirieoriginals [!at] hotmail.com or mbingham [!at] sweetirie.com.

Glen Wild Oktoberfest

Daibe Beads just had our first craft show! We debuted at Glen Wild Lake of Bloomingdale, NJ. It was full of Halloween festivities, with lots of cute costumes, and a kids parade! It was a good place to debut at because it was a community affair, thus keeping it small so that it could be more of a learning experience for us. Although we were disappointed that not as many people showed up this year (we were told that this year was the lowest turned out ever, possibly due to the extreme turn of cold weather) we made some decent sales. Our earrings turned out to be the hottest items!! We definitely learned some things that we will take with us to our next craft show, whenever that might be.

Here are some pics of our displays before the craft show began:

Featured Seller Guidelines

One of the original purpose of us starting this blog is to feature other crafty sellers. But we've been trying to fine tune this blog first, making it pretty, easily accessible and presentable before we decided to settle down and start featuring other sellers. You might have noticed that our blog look has gone through some changes since we first started, but we are finally satisfied with this template, so it is time to start featuring!

There are sooo many talented crafty sellers out there, and we can't wait feature them! Here are the guidelines

-We will make announcements in the etsy forum to look for other sellers to feature. Sellers must have handmade items. If you don't have an etsy store, that's ok, just leave a comment on our blog stating that you want to be considered to be a featured seller. But we prefer to feature fellow etsy sellers
- Photos must be in high quality!
-Once we make our choice, we will contact you and ask you to fill out a few questions.

Here are the Questions:

1. What is the name of your store and what do you sell?
2. How did you get into your craft?
3. What is your latest project?
4. Where can we find your products?

-In addition to the questions, if you are an etsy seller, we ask that you send us an etsy mini of the items from your store (thumbnails, 4x4).

Here is a sample to give you an idea (and of course shameless self-promotion!)

Our Weekly Featured Seller: Daibe Beads



What is the name of your store and what do you sell?

Our store name is Daibe Beads and we sell swarovski jewelry and figurines, all carefully hand-beaded.


How did you get into your craft?
My mom is a very crafty person. One day she discovered a beading book that instructs how to bead 3D animals. She loved it so much that she started making them that filled all the shelves in her apartment. Then she started making her own designs and got into making jewelry as well. I always loved beading my own jewelry, so we enjoyed doing them together. And I just thought that it would be great to share these cute, unique products.

What is your latest project?
We are having our first craft show this Saturday in New Jersey. Very Excited.

Where can we find your products?
Our official website is www.DaibeBeads.com You can also find us at etsy at http://DaibeBeads.Etsy.com. We are also on Lov.li and Blu Jay.

Mona Lisa's Secret

One of the reasons why the Mona Lisa is so enchanting is because of her mystery. Well Parisian engineer Pascal Cotte claims that he has unlocked some of her mystery with ultra-detailed digital scans of the painting

Here are his findings:

• Mona Lisa was originally painted with eyebrows and eye lashes. Through the scan, Cotte is able to see traces of them through the deeper layers of the painting.

• Da Vinci changed his mind about the position of two fingers on the subject's left hand.

• Her face was originally wider and the smile more expressive than Da Vinci ultimately painted them.

• She holds a blanket that has all but faded from view today.

• Cotte believes that he found the original colors Da Vinci used in the painting, including bright blue and whites.

Though these findings are fascinating, it's not without controversy of course. I mean this changes how the entire painting looks. But interesting indeed.

RealDolls

Read this.

The Movie "Lars and the Real Girl" stars a RealDoll, the silicone object of his affection. Until now I never knew about RealDolls (though the company's been around for 11 years): life-size, made of soft silicone to feel like real flesh with poseable joint skeleton, and takes 80 hours to craft. Customers orders them for companionship, muse, actresses, and of course an expensive sex toy (they cost around $6,500).

I guess it's easy to imagine a RealDoll as a real person and makes a great cure for loneliness (that is if you're rich). But frankly I think it's sad that you have to spend that much money to buy a fake companionship.

From a crafter's standpoint, I do admire the art that goes into these dolls though. They're very detailed and look very real.

Colbert Running For President

Stephen Colbert announced on his show that he was going to run for the White House.

I know it's a skit but won't it be great if he actually does it?

New Stuff Coming Your Way

My mom and I went bead shopping yesterday and found some really new and awesome beads. This means we'll have lots more new products soon! So far it's strange that what's selling for us thus far are the figurines rather than jewelry. (Then again, our figurines are cute!) But we do want to be noticed with our jewelry department as well and figure perhaps we don't have enough in our stores to even get noticed. We only had bracelets before, but now we have earrings and soon, necklaces! We're very excited.

The earrings for now are very basic designs, but we just got more materials yesterday to make more complex ones. To see the earrings we have now, click here.

Here are some of them:

We're Now a Part of EtsyBloggers!

Daibe Beads is now an official member of the EtsyBloggers street team! That's all the news we got for now..

Cali Got Spayed

My little kitty Cali got spayed today. She didn't go in without putting up a good fight and managed to scratch everyone who tried to come near her. (She's a feisty one!) Now she's back home, wobbly because she's been drugged, growling and hissing at everything. Poor kitty. Then she ended up peeing and pooping on the floor because she couldn't climb into the kitty litter box since her little legs are numb.

She'll be ok though, she's tough! Here's our version of Cali:



Get Cali now at DaibeBeads.com!