It’s Friday again and we are almost a week into the new year . Happy New year to all ! 2017 treated us well , sometimes it was a wild ride but that is life. Comes and goes. We just ride the waves.
John and I decided to simplify our life , which is pretty simple anyway but sometimes online life and wearing so many different hats can really be a hoot of an experience.
I probably told you about starting up a new website last year. Well because of not being able to find ourselves in search we had to make the decision to move. Honestly if you can’t find yourself in search , well you are not gonna get found. Even though starting over is sometimes hard, it is also necessary. So that is what we did. 🙂
We love our Etsy shop. It’s our baby and does well for us. We also have a need to not have all our eggs in one basket due to so many reasons. We learned this lesson a long time ago in business. We also enjoy having a site that we are in control of, so when the winds of change happen , and believe me they do, we have something to fall back on.
I have been working on some new beadwork designs that I hope to get done sometime in the next few months. I am looking real forward to creating them. Right now they are being cultivated and grown in my heart and mind lol 🙂 .
We for the first time have introduced fuschia ( pink) leather. Wow , it is really pretty. Take a look
One of our favs this year has been wolf paw medicine bags.
I created this one in black leather with a blue wolf paw for one of my customers. This is a work in progress picture. I love doing work in progress pics.
Good morning friends! I hope everyone had a beautiful day of giving thanks! During these holidays John and I really try to stay at a steady pace. So everything we make is very well made and there is no OMG stress. In our online stores most everything is made to order. But this year we have some “READY TO SHIP SECTIONS”. We have been making the things we make for over 25 years and have learned there is no way to have every single thing we make sitting there ready to ship out .
This year we have ready to ship leather handbags, beaded handbags , medicine bags wallets, and a few pair of baby moccasins. You can find all of these sections in our ETSY SHOP THUNDER ROSE , in the first three sections after the ON SALE section. Just so you know we are running a sale. When you buy $30. or more you receive 20% off.
We are no longer making promises for things to get to you by Christmas that are made to order. But the ready to ship items go out in one or two days. No problem.
Sometimes we are running a little ahead of schedule but not always. In the end we just want to make sure everyone gets something quality made. So that is what we do.
Here are some things that we have in our ready to ship sections.
It’s been awhile since I blogged anything. I keep thinking about it but some days are so long I am just not feeling it in the afternoons. It’s Saturday morning and I just finished working on our new online store thunderroseleather.co. It’s a work in progress but I a happy with the new store. It will take some time to get all the products we offer up but of course we do have our Etsy shop (Thunder Rose).
In Arizona we have been having an extreme heat wave that seems to be breaking this week. It has been so hot. We are feeling grateful for a break and praying for rain. It’s been a really tough garden year for sure. The heat, squirrels and gophers have been a huge challenge. So I just said well enough of that. Comes to be a point in time when it’s time to be done. lol…. At least for now.
We have been very busy in the shop making some custom white leather bags this week. Each one has it’s own uniqueness.
Beaded pipe bag
I love the long flowing fringe on this white beaded four directions pipe bag.
Four directions rosette
When I do a four directions beadwork for our customers I always ask where they would like the direction colors to be. There are many tribes and each person likes their colors to fit with their tribe.
white leather wedding bag
This beautiful white leather bag is a special wedding bag. We feel so honored to have our work be with someone on their special day.
white leather wedding bagwhite leather clutch
Our fringed leather clutches are so cool. I love the bigger size of this one and the simple beadwork makes it elegant. Love all the fringe.
white leather clutch with a beaded rosettewhite leather bag
This white boho bag is so unique. We looked for a while to find this beautiful turquoise center piece and finally found just the right one. This white custom bag turned out really beautiful.
This is what John and I have been up to this week among other things. I really love how all of these have turned out. They are all on their way to their forever homes.
If you are looking for a custom bag for a special occasion or for your everyday life come by and contact us. You can find us here.
For those of you who are still looking for some last minute gift ideas we have a ready to ship section in our Etsy shop that has gift ideas for family and friends.
Above you see some of our multi color handmade leather handbags and medicine pouches. Some bags have fringe and some are non fringed. Two of these bags have antler tip closures. It is easy for us to add a closure at no charge if you would prefer one. Please contact us or leave a note at checkout.
Above you see a beautiful purple leather handbag with an antler tip closure , beaded and plain children’s moccasins and three different medicine pouches. Two of the the medicine pouches have beaded chevrons and one has a beaded dragonfly. These leather bags and moccasins are all handmade and hand stitched by John and me . I do all the bead work in the family.
Above you see more beautiful leather handbags done in burgundy leather , a navy blue clutch with an abalone button, a turquoise leather handbag with long fringe , a pair of beaded newborn moccasins and a pair of toddler’s moccasins. If you take a closer look at the clutch you will see that it has a beaded edge.
Above we have some white buckskin newborn baby moccasins, a drawstring leather pouch with double cut fringe , a beautiful black leather fringed handbag more baby moccasins done is saddle tan elkskin and palomino elkskin and a beautiful fringed green leather turtle bag.
Under each of these pictures you can see the price of the item. If you click on the picture you will be taken to our ready to ship section where you can see all the information for each item. Everything here is one of a kind and ready to ship.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop in and take a look!
Thank you to all our awesome customers who have been so very supportive this Holiday season! You are so appreciated!
The last time I did a blog post I shared my latest beaded turtle bag that I did with the abalone cabochon. At the end of my post I showed you what I was working on. It was a beaded green turtle that I added to a forest green leather crossbody bag. It is ready to ship in our Etsy shop.
This crossbody leather bag is a fun size for traveling light. I like this style for the times when you only need a few things a phone , camera, keys and small journal. Lets say you are going to the beach or the creek to sit and meditate and you really don’t want to carry a lot of stuff. That’s what I’m talking about.This is that bag. It would also make a great festival bag.
This fringed leather bag measures 8.5 inches tall and 7.5 inches wide not including the fringe. It has a 48 inch strap length.
This small purple medicine bag measures 6 inches tall x 5 inches wide. It has a double drawstring closure and a beaded dragonfly on the front of the bag. For all of you who have dragonflies as your medicine totem or if you really love dragonflies this is the bag for you.
I can also see this really making a little girls day!
Our ready to ship section has a variety of different items that are always changing. So come by and see if there is something there you might like.
Most of our leather bags and purses are made to order and Christmas is around the corner so come by and get your orders in now.
We also make a very wide variety of handmade , hand stitched leather bags , baby and children’s moccasins in all kinds of styles and sizes.
This bag started on day when I received some abalone cabs and was looking at them.I was stunned at the beauty and thought about what would be the perfect rosette for this. My mind went right to a sea turtle. It was very fitting. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love beading turtles. Turtles really mean something to me. I feel I have learned from them in this lifetime. For one they are so ancient and represent Mother Earth who I love dearly. Their wisdom teaches to slow down and be in the moment and enjoy life. For me when it’s time to go inside and be quiet then do so. Be still and go within calming the mind and refreshing your energy. In water they can move fast and gracefully. So the wisdom in life for me is when life is moving fast and intensely be sure to breath and move mindfully through life’s intensities. If you get off track come back and start again from where you are.
I looked at this beautiful abalone cabochon and picked out the beads I thought would look best with it. So this is the turtle.
Beaded turtle totem with abalone cabochon
Once the turtle was finished it was time to make a choice on what color of leather would bring out the abalone. I looked at some smoke leather, chocolate leather , green leather and then the burgundy leather came in. WOWZA! It was perfect ! It totally brings out the colors in the abalone cab.
This burgundy leather bag is ready to ship in our Etsy shop.
I decided on this style bag because in the meantime between making the turtle and the leather purse I had another inspiration flow though me.
So many of us love to journal these days in different ways. Some of us like to sort out our minds this way , some like gratitude journals , dream journals, you get the drift. I have enjoyed journaling mostly by writing a prayer , poem , inspiring thought and gratitude thoughts. I love coloring in mine . It’s fun and makes the journal pretty.
My inspiration is it would be great to have a very special bag to keep a small purse size mini journal in for when you go for a hike or want to sit by the creek , ocean , river or sit in your yard like me and watch the birds.
I needed a bag that would also be big enough for your cell phone and keys.
This is the kind of mini journal I am thinking of. My friend Carola Bartz makes and sells these in her Etsy store
Hi there friends. My blog is now ad free. I didn’t have to start all over and I registered a domain thunderrose.info. I really thought I was gonna have to start over but yea, no, I didn’t. I was just about to and my friends at wordpress wrote and helped me out. So I can keep on with this one. I am so grateful because I have put a lot into this one and starting over even though that can be cool, right now I would rather keep on trucking with this one. Plus I didn’t really need another blog.I have blogged myself and others here for many years now. Just feeling very Grateful right now!
It’s Monday and it’s a beautiful day in Arizona. Our fall weather is here especially at night. Did you all catch the harvest moon this weekend! It was so fantastic. It came up so big , bright and beautiful.
This week I made a cool turtle. It is a work in progress turtle. The turtle is all finished but I haven’t made the bag yet.
Here is the turtle
Beaded turtle totem with abalone cabochon
I am pretty sure I have decided what kind of leather bag I want to put it on. It will have lots of fringe. I love fringe! When it’s all done I will do a blog post to show you.
So that’s it for now…. Fall is only a couple days away. Happy fall to all!
Blessings!
Be sure to stop in to our Etsy shop and say hi. There is a SALE going on right now.
I have been working on this project and decided to take pictures along the way. We got a new camera and it is fun and very helpful. I even shot my first video this week. That was all about my garden I will do a blog about that later and stay focused this morning on the beaded bag project I did.
I must say I love my shop my big desk , my sewing machine that John just fixed up for me. We have one in the big shop and now I have one in my little bead shop. I do bead work and small projects in here and big , large leather projects in the big shop. Just for fun take a look. So here you are seeing my machine that is used for very small medicine bags. Most of our bags are stitched by hand as you will see in the pictures below. Next to the singer sewing machine is my bead desk. I have my special medicine bear and hummingbird Kachina that my friend John carved for me while he was staying with us. He carved the bear out of a rock and the Kachina out of wood. He is Hopi Tewa and a great friend and awesome artist. Big thank you to John!
Singer sewing machineMy desk
The bead work you see is the one I made for this custom leather crossbody bag. First, lets take a look at a couple work in progress pictures.
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Cut out and ready to sewAll laced upBead work attachedHandmade leather bag finishedSinger sewing machine
So there you have it. It is a journey from one end to the other in this little shop. Of course all the cutting happens on the big leather table in the big shop. Here is a picture.
We have been doing all this for over 25 years now. It has been an awesome part of our journey.
When I started this blog post I was just going to share this leather crossbody bag I made this week. It evolved into a little more. Hope you enjoyed the journey. Isn’t that what life is all about.
