We start taking Year Twelve BotMo orders as of right now, September 12, 2015. However, you can order a package (or several packages) any time you like during Year Twelve, which runs from October 2015 through September 2016.
Note that we've added a ninth option for theme this year: My Personal Quest.
How does this work? It's pretty simple: you send me money and I send you beads. We used to do only one theme per month, but some of you wish it could be Jasper month every month all year long. Others like certain themes enough to have tiny packages but for others they want humongous packages. Still others have favorite themes that never seem to match up with their birthday month, which is when they'd love to treat themselves to a package of that theme to celebrate. We took this into consideration and experimented with a wild plan to make Beads of the Month fit better and have even better beads -- and we succeeded! Here's the plan:
1. For each month you purchase, you choose the theme of your Magpie for that month from these options:
Blood and Roses and Elegance Cabinet of Curiosities Focals and Earring Pairs Glorious Glass Jasper and Agate Look What I Found! My Personal Quest Treasure of the Deep Tricks of the Light
2. For each month you want, you choose the size of your Magpie by selecting any price you like as long as it's a multiple of ten.
You can get a one-star Magpie for ten dollars. You can get a three-star Magpie for thirty, or a five-star Magpie for fifty -- or get a gargantuan Magpie with all the stars in the sky, if you like. Get a two-star Magpie for every month except your birthday when you get a seven-star Magpie, or get a different size package every month, or get a five-star Magpie twice a year -- it's completely your choice.
5. Get FREE BEADS in September, when you will receive a Pirates Beads of the Month package equal in value to ten percent (less shipping - see below) of whatever you paid for all packages purchased during the other eleven months. Whee! These beads are on us -- and they will be weird and glorious loot as is usual for our Pirates packages. There could be anything in these packages, and there usually is. Any especially nifty beads that I only have four of, or a weird amethyst, or sometimes special things I've been stashing away in the workshop but haven't used in three years might end up in a Pirates package. (If you're not paying shipping for another package in September, you can send us shipping for your Pirates package or have us take it out of the value of your package. If your shipping for September is higher than the worth of the beads, you can convert your Pirates package to a credit towards next year's Beads of the Month or shinies, if you would prefer.)
FAQ:
If I get a three-star Magpie, does that mean I will get three identical one-star Magpie packages? Nope! You'll get a three-star Magpie of expanded glory, is what you'll get, with more and different beads. Bigger Magpies are a chance for us to put special groups of beads in, things you otherwise might not see.
Can I get two different Magpies in the same month? If you want a two-star Blood and Roses and Elegance Magpie and a one-star Glorious Glass Magpie for the month of December, you can do that. They'll come packed together, so it's still only one shipping charge.
Can I order Magpies for September even if it's Pirates month? Sure! And you will still get a Pirates package free, shipped with whatever else you get for September.
Can I order a package for December and a package for March and skip all the other months? Sure! The best part about how Beads of the Month works now is that you can choose the themes you want for the months you want them -- as few or as many as you like!
What if I'm reading this in January and want to start getting Beads of the Month? Can I still get in on it? Yes! Send an email to LionessElise@gmail.com telling me what you'd like to order and where I'll be mailing, and I will send you an invoice. (Please put BOTMO YEAR TWELVE in the subject header. Thanks.)
Thank you, and I really hope you enjoy this year's Beads of the Month.
I'm preparing to pack the August magpie packages, and then in a few weeks it's September, the last* month of Year Eleven. How have you liked your packages so far? Did you find any new favorite materials? Old favorites?
So apparently with my camera and a foldio photo studio box and certain kinds of BOTMO beads I can take photos that look exactly like last-generation CGI. This is completely unprocessed except for a bit of color correction.
Nov package arrived today. Before I even look at it, I want to tell you oh much I LOVED the Oct package. I've already got an idea what to do with those lovely purple rocks! Thanks so much! MKK
I got a 5 star Magpie from elisem as part of botmo year 11. The theme I picked was "focals and earring pairs." Elise included a card saying "I got a little carried away." I say OOH SO MUCH SHINY.
If you sent me email about Beads of the Month and have not received a reply with invoice and questionnaire, please let me know at lionesselise at gmail, OK?
A reminder: You can order Beads of the Month any time you like, and you can add on packages or make them bigger if you like. This year's all about the flexibility, so you can build your own plan. Details here, and happy beadworking!
We are taking Year Eleven BotMo orders as of right now, September 29, 2014, though you can certainly order a package (or several packages) any time you like during Year Eleven, which runs from October 2014 through September 2015. (Year Eleven?! Our second decade begins already? Goodness gracious. This year, we're trying something quite unusual, so hold on to your hats!)
Welcome to Beads of the Month! It's pretty simple: you send me money and I send you beads. That's been our traditional greeting and it remains the same, but we've completely changed how the themes and package sizes work.
Some of you have said to me that you wished it could be Jasper month all year long. Others have said they like certain themes enough to have tiny packages but for others they want humongous packages. Still others have favorite themes that never seem to match up with their birthday month, which is when they'd love to treat themselves to a package of that theme to celebrate.
This gave us ideas. We're going to try a wild plan to make Beads of the Month fit better and have even better beads. Here's how it works:
1. For each month you purchase, you choose the theme of your Magpie for that month from these options:
Cabinet of Curiosities Focals and Earring Pairs Glorious Glass Jasper and Agate Look What I Found! Treasure of the Deep Tricks of the Light Blood and Roses and Elegance (More details about the themes below.)
2. For each month you want, you choose the size of your Magpie by selecting any price you like as long as it's a multiple of ten.
You can get a one-star Magpie for ten dollars. You can get a three-star Magpie for thirty, or a five-star Magpie for fifty -- or get a gargantuan Magpie with all the stars in the sky, if you like. Get a two-star Magpie for every month except your birthday when you get a seven-star Magpie, or get a different size package every month -- it's completely your choice.
3. Choose your shipping option. (More info below.)
4. Get FREE BEADS in September, when you will receive a Pirates Beads of the Month package equal in value to ten percent of whatever you paid for all packages purchased during the other eleven months. Whee! You still pay for shipping for September, but the beads are on us -- and they will be glorious loot as is usual for our Pirates packages. There could be anything in these packages, and there usually is. Any especially nifty beads that I only have four of, or a weird amethyst, or sometimes special things I've been stashing away in the workshop but haven't used in three years might end up in a Pirates package. (If your shipping for September is higher than the worth of the beads, you can convert your Pirates package to a credit towards next year's Beads of the Month or shinies, if you would prefer.)
This is a note to remind me to post the photos and instructions for making a cool pendant with the raspberry sunstone and little glass flowers from the April Beads of the Month packages.
They arrived here in Seattle yesterday. I love agate & jasper and this has got some really great beads in it. I've already got 2 necklaces planned. At the Imperial Court with all that lovely Imperial jasper and a pendant & earrings with the Kambaba. I almost wish ALL months could be jasper & agate!
Charlotte and I are starting to pack January's Beads of the Month packages now, so no new orders for January BotMo will be taken. If you're in already, you're in.
Because of how we're doing things, we'll probably be closing some other BotMo packages early during this year, so if you want to get in on an upcoming month, soon would be good. Here's the Grand Roster for Year Ten.
Long story, but they're limited to the people signed up currently. I'll let you know about January as soon as I know. The rest of the packages will still be open for signup.
Unlike other months, September (which is Pirate month) does not come with an info sheet, because every single assortment is different. Hence our motto for the month: "This isn't educational; this is LOOT!" However, if you have questions about your beads, I'll try to answer them here.
And if you want to swap beads or are seeking more of something, here's a good place to put a note about that too.
(I thought you might enjoy seeing the info sheets from this month's packages. There are still some available if you are tempted.)
Beads of the Month - Year Ten - October - "Literally Figurative"
Welcome to another exciting year of Beads of the Month! If you have a Mother Of All Magpies package, please read the Great Big Magpies information too, because some of your beads are shared with them, and I describe them in the GBM section.
Great Big Magpies: You have nine bags plus one or two loose items in your package. The loose items are findings (that's jewelry-making talk for "hardware" or "useful connecty bits") for making charm dangles, which are sometimes used on cellphones and sometimes just hitched on to whatever will hold still for it. Two bags hold lampwork glass beads: one is a mushroom (suitable for use in an Alice in Wonderland themed piece with some of the charms you have) and the other is a yellow duckie bead wrapped in tissue paper to protect it. Another bag has a big red simulated cinnabar bead with a very cool koi carved on it. There is a rather large assortment of lead-free base metal charms (check out the white rabbit charms!), and yet another bag holds four little shiny grey glass flower beads and a hemetine heart. (Hemetine is synthetic hematite, and many of the beads sold as hematite are actually hemetine these days. By the way, the difference between simulant and synthetic is that the former is an imitation and the latter is a man-made version with the same composition as the actual gemstone.) One bag is our Sugar Skull mix, featuring colored glass flowers and bright skull beads of dyed magnesite. The remaining three bags hold glass beads: a trio of spectacular nautilus shell beads with a screened gridwork Aurora Borealis shimmer on both sides, a bunch of beautiful little blue flower beads, and a whole herd of iridescent turtles. Enjoy!
Mother Of All Magpies: You've got sixteen bags plus a few charm dangle findings. Besides a lampwork duckie and a lampwork mushroom, you get a pair of lampwork doughnuts (for earrings, perhaps?), a very cool lampwork owl, and a little lampwork critter (is it a frog? is it a lizard?) clinging to a cylindrical lampwork bead. You've got one of the simulated cinnabar carved koi beads, and a generous assortment of lead-free base metal charms. Besides the shiny grey glass flowers that match the pair of hemetine hearts, your "heart bag" also holds a heart-shaped bead with a hole in the middle. I believe these are poppy jasper, and they might make nice pendants with a contrasting round bead strung through the central hollow, as the hole in this bead runs vertically. You've got a nice little version of the Sugar Skull mix too. Another pair of bags holds a beautiful matte finish carnelian leaf bead (some of these are more clear quartz than carnelian) and some carved fancy jasper lily bud beads. (Fancy jasper comes in a lot of colors. I tried to give you an assortment.) Speaking of assortments, check out the bag of multicolored glass leaves. Another bag has leaves and flowers in clear glass and green glass. Like the GBMs, you have some blue flower beads and a nice herd of turtles, but the really spectacular bag is the one with nine of the great big black matte glass nautilus beads with the Aurora Borealis gridwork shimmer on both sides. Have fun!
So there I was, rushing to get the info sheets done after packing the August beads, so that I could get them out while it was still August. Packing had been done with the help of scotia_girl, who keeps me from making goofier mistakes, but a few final things were left to put in.
"Huh, that's odd," I said to myself. "Why do I have twice as many chrysoprase beads as I thought? And didn't I buy some really neat lampwork alligators? Oh, well. They'll turn up, I guess. And those must be the chrysoprase, because they're wrapped like I was going to wrap them, and yeah, I see the corner of one, and it's green, so that's what it is."
Darn sneaky alligators. Well, really, darn unobservant careless Lioness, is what it is. Some of you have lampwork alligators where there ought to be chrysoprases. (And the finest specimen beads were probably unwrapped rather than wrapped.)
If the sneaky alligators don't delight you, let me know and I'll send you some other goody, OK? As soon as I get done facepalming, anyhow. Sorry about that!
