To Reach Me ..............................

Hi .............if you would like to get in touch with me about any of these beads or necklaces or bracelets, you can email me at

sally.shoaf@gmail.com

Prices are genereally in the $25 for a necklace and $10 for a bracelet range, sometimes a slight variation depending on the piece.

I am still trying to fogure out what to charge for the beads themselves.......

I thought I'd take a few minutes and tell you a little about the process and making of the beads and the jewelry........

These are polymer clay beads, I use several different methods to get the different effects I use as far as the designs of the beads.......and I make beads that are a plain opaque group of colors, some are "pearl" clays, and some are "glitter" clays.....some have extra transluscent clay mixed in, which gives the clay a different look, and some I use the transluscent so that the glitter shows through. I mostly use a very very fine glitter, cause I am drawn to sparkly things recently.

The beads are rather large and I usually make sets of graduated sized beads, and make enough extra of the medium sized beads to be able to also make a matching bracelet. The finish is an acrylic floor finsh.......after the disaster of ruining a couple of thousand beads with the wrong finish, I am glad to report that this stuff works very well......I string the beads on split speaker wire and then dip them in a bowl of the finish. and hang them to dry. There are at least 6 coats of finsh on each bead, sometimes more, if I am not satisfied with the degree of shininess after the 6 coats......

When the bead is finally finished, it has the appearance of china, with a high gloss shine to it. and they feel nice in your hands. If you don't put a strong finish on the bead, the clay is porous and will get dirty fairly quickly.


Keep in mind that these are also hand shaped beads ( if you very closely, you can sometimes see my fingerprints in the clay ).....I don't use a bead roller.....so they are never really a perfect globe.....and even after putting many thousand holes in beads.....I still have trouble making the hole in the exact middle......so the beads are a unique mixture of primitive and a certain amount of sophistication.......

I don't like the colors that the polymer clays come in, so with the exception of the red and blue sparkle clays, and of course the black and white.....every color is custom mixed......and each batch will be different.....I have yet to make a batch of beads that will make more than 4 necklaces....


and as to the jewelry.....I use 1 mm thick stretchy cord for both the necklaces and the bracelets, I personally haven't been able to break it with my hands....and I asked a guy friend of mine to try and he managed it, but it wasn't easy. It is very strong......I use a "doctor's" knot lots of them .....so you don't have to worry about scattered beads all over the floor.......I have necklaces that I made 3 years ago using the stretchy cord and it's still going strong.

Finally, as for cleaning them, all that you should ever need to do is perhaps wash them in warm soapy water.....but do dry them off quickly.....while there is 6 or more coats of finish, because of the way I put the finish on, sometimes right around the hole area, the finish is thinner.......so I wouldn't wear them in the shower or swimming.

Oh ! and the other day at the flea market, I dropped a finished necklace on the asphalt, the large glass bead broke in half, but my beads weren't harmed at all....then I dropped a single bead and it bounced all over the ground.....nuffin ! .....so they are very strong.

fell free to ask any questions, and I will do my best to answer them