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Well, I’ve finally launched my new website for another line of jewelry I make, Handmade Birthstone Jewelry. This new line is a series of earrings, necklaces, and bracelets made of 14kt gold fill or sterling silver and Swarovski® crystal in the 12 birthstone colors. I’ve been making this line for a while and up until now have offered it only at craft shows. I’ve also taught some classes on the basic technique, but I’ve finally gotten around to putting them online.
One of the things that people love about this particular line of jewelry is the fact that it’s customizable. You can purchase the jewelry pieces as is, but I also do customized mixing and matching of the 12 crystal colors. This makes this line a pretty popular gift, especially around Mother’s Day. Last month I made a nice mother and daughter set for a lady who ordered earrings and bracelets for herself and her daughter in their birthstone colors. Other folks simply choose colors that they like and I’ve many people order jewelry in their school colors.
You can check out the new website here. If you are a subscriber to my newsletter The Monthly Bling!, you’ll get a monthly discount coupon code for the birthstone of the month. The birthstone for June is Alexandrite, so if this is your birth month and you want a piece of jewelry for yourself or for a gift, be sure to subscribe to the newsletter first so you can get that discount code. You can subscribe by filling out the sign up form on the right.
My mother was a computer programmer when I was growing up. When I was a little girl, Mom would often take me to work with her and I got to see these huge computers that would fill up entire rooms that were freezing cold because the air conditioning had run constantly to keep those massive machines from overheating. It’s funny to think that the MacBook Pro I’m typing on now is more powerful and has more memory than those gigantic computers I grew up with. Along with those computers, there were other interesting things in those computer rooms like big bins of colorful used computer punch cards, and large stack of dot matrix computer sheets, and big containers of data and cable wire which I use to play with when I got bored. I like to think that I got my interest in wirework because of those early days of playing with data wire.
Those days of playing with wire came back to my when I was looking at the work of Courtney Watson from Twisted Handmade. She makes fun and colorful jewelry out of twisted data cable and wire. Really cool stuff. You can check out the rest of her work here at the Maker’s Market and on her personal blog. In addition to jewelry, she also makes baskets out of data wire. Check it out!
My beloved 60GB iPod died a couple months ago and I hadn’t had a chance to get a new one. But this clever iPod Shuffle cover pendent might encourage me to get a Shuffle to tide me over. Very cool!
I just got in a new set of paper samples this weekend for my small book earrings and my paper bead earrings and been hard at work experimenting with new designs. This time around I ordered a lot of my favorite kind of paper, Japanese washi.
Japanese washi a medium weight paper made with mulberry fibers. There is a variety of different types of washi, but the kind that most people are familiar with, and the kind I use in my jewelry is Chiyogami or Yuzen washi. This type of washi has a variety of colorful and decorative patterns silk screened on the plain mulberry paper base. One thing about making jewelry with paper is that you have to pick patterns that will look good on a small scale, otherwise you’ll just get large blocks of color instead a mixture of colors and patterns. Chiyogamil washi is perfect for this purpose.
Some of the other papers I’m testing for new jewelry include Pasticcio prints, which are silkscreened cotton rag paper from India.
I’m also intrigued by this new type of paper made of recycled cotton viscose called Stardurst Chiffon. Basically it has a semi-translucent texture that feels similar to fabric.
It has a nice glittery background and is printed with delicate patterns of flowers and vines. What I like about this paper is that fact that it has glitter in the background without it becoming too overpowering like so many other papers that use glitter in the base of the paper. So I’m very interested to see how this paper turns out in my test designs. So keep an eye out!
It’s the Wearing ‘o the Green Time on my Etsy shop! Make sure that you don’t get pinched this year on St. Patrick’s Day! Get free shipping on all my green book earrings in my store from March 1st to March 15th! New green designs are added daily! Check out the “Seasonal” section of my store to see which earrings are eligible for free shipping. For updates on new green designs, be sure to visit my Etsy store daily or follow me on Twitter.
I’ve been doing some paper shopping for some new designs for my Paper Bead Jewelry and for my small book jewelry. With the spring coming, hopefully very soon, I’m doing some freshening up of my online store and my Etsy store. Meanwhile, I’ve been hard at work putting up some designs that had been working on over the winter. I’ve updated my Etsy store with 5 new designs, one of which, the Purple Clover Book Earrings, sold within hours of me putting them up. Fortunately, I had another pair to put up in the shop, so if you like any of these designs, be sure to visit my Etsy store to see my entire selection:
Lately as I’ve been cruising through the Twitterverse, I’ve encountered a LOT of negative commentary about jewelry commercials. Yeah, you know those commercials from the big chain jewelry stores or DeBeers diamonds (the diamonds are forever folk) that always increase around Christmas time and reach a fever pitch right before Valentine’s Day. Comments usually range from mild amusement:
Me and my dad are cracking up at these corny jewelry commercials, good times (via @aprainey)
Have you ever noticed how completely lame all the jewelry commercials are? Does anyone actually use those lines? (via @KelleySeitter)
I will be very happy when Valentine’s Day passes and the commercials for tacky jewelry stop. Diamonds deserve better. (via @CapitolClio)
…to gagging and nausea…
Jewelry commercials make me violently ill… Is Valentines day over yet? (via @meghanlambert)
Confession #2: Whenever cheesy Valentine’s jewelry commercials come on, I make loud obnoxious vomiting noises. (@LeeAnnMarcel)
Why do jewelry store commercials always make me want to barf? (via @angrae17)
…to downright hatred and violence.
jewelry commercials this time of year at tantamount to waterboarding. #hewenttojared (@TheEngagementP)
Aside from my regular hatred for Valentines Day (which is HUGE), I hate it even more because of all the stupid gushy jewelry commercials. (@bractune)
All these valentines jewelry commercials make me wanna choke a b****. (@ThisIsAlanya)
Commercials for Kay Jewelers and Jared’s appear to be a favorite target….
does jewelry equal love? yes if you’re kay jewelers (via @ShantaFabulous)
The materialism of jewelry store commercials disgusts me. Every kiss begins with jewelry? Makes me grind my teeth. (via @joshgister)
kay jewelry commercials make me want to vomit. (via @whitneyw3)
Oh my gosh, these jewelry commercials are so cheesy, but this Kay Jewelers leg cramp proposal commercial had me dying laughing! (via @hlsteed)
The Kay Jewelry commercials make me want to vomit. (via @livelaughlove32)
Kay and her Jewelry store deserve to have baseball bats taken to the head for making us endure those heinous commercials! (via @libbycrews)
good lord all these jewelry commercials are SO DUMB! “Don’t be scared, I’m right here and always will be.” *GAG* (via @kerrinsuzanne)
The previous quote was talking about this commercial in particular:
So what is it about these commercials that makes people react so negatively? Seriously, I’ve seen very few comments how much folks enjoy the commercials. If they’re out there, then I haven’t run across them. People don’t wait for these like they do for Super Bowl commercials. Is it because there’s so many of them that people just get tired of them? Are the complainers mostly single folks that hate Valentine’s Day? Do they just seem cheesy and unrealistic? Or are people upset because they reduce the holidays and love to a retail event? Or maybe everyone just so cynical that they can appreciate old fashioned romance.
For my part, I mostly ignore the commercials. Although I make jewelry I’m more likely to get excited over a brand new MacBook Pro than a honking big diamond ring. But when one does get my attention, I’m more amused because I can’t envision anybody I know actually giving jewelry in any scenario like those portrayed. Now, I’ve witnessed some thoughtful and memorable gift giving involving jewelry in real life (my sister in law’s recent engagement springs to mind), but never the picture perfect scenes common in most commercials. But aren’t most commercials shot in that picture perfect world? Maybe jewelry commercials would be more interested if they were messier…or a bit more ironic. Maybe if they involved a bit of the messiness of real life, say a husband giving jewelry because he’s stuck in the dog house. Now that would be interesting.
So what do you think? Jewelry commercials…love them? Hate them? Indifferent?
The holidays are only weeks away and jewelry is often a great gift to give to a loved one, a co-worker, or a special friend. That is *if* you shop carefully. In this month’s Monthly Bling! article, I’ll list some tips on how to pick the perfect gift jewelry!
To read the article, sign up for The Monthly Bling! for free here or by signing up on the form on the right. If you subscribe now, you’ll be eligible for my monthly jewelry giveaway and get a chance to win a free piece of handmade bling!
I just got a note from Etsy user leentastic letting me know that she included my book jewelry in her new book-themed Etsy Treasury. If you’re not familiar with what an Etsy Treasury is, it’s an Etsy feature that allows members to curate themed lists of items. With the millions of items that get listed on Etsy, it’s always an honor to be included.
You can check out leentastic’s book-themed Treasury here. Be sure to do so before Sunday as the Treasury expires on November 8th. And if you’re an Etsy user, be sure to comment and check out the work of the other artists in the Treasury!
It’s Halloween Madness at the Etsy store starting today October 22 until Halloween! This means Free Shipping on all of the items in my Etsy Store until October 31st. Also, look for a special Halloween Madness Deal of the Day where you can get a special deal on any items in the shop that has an orange border around it. The items change daily, so check on my Etsy store daily, or check here on the blog to see what the Halloween Madness Deal of the day is. Get some holiday shopping done early!
Multicolored ovals of yellow, pink, and green on white makes for a fun set of book earrings. Covered with acid-free paper designed by Peek Stationers, these earrings also have inner pages of Brockway text paper and are bound with Italian book cloth. Ear wires are 14kt gold fill french hooks.
Normal Price: $17.75
Today’s Halloween Madness Price is $14.75 + free shipping!
Each pair of earrings come on an earring card that doubles as a mini-book. Open the pages and read about “The History of the Book”! Click here to check them out!
Plus, check out the new items on the store as well
Get monthly tips on everything that has to do with Bling! Get tips on jewelry care, jewelry trends, and get a chance to win a free piece of bling in my monthly jewelry giveaway! Click for more info
Well, I’ve finally launched my new website for another line of jewelry I make, Handmade Birthstone Jewelry. This new line is a series of earrings, necklaces, and bracelets made of 14kt gold fill or sterling silver and Swarovski® crystal in the 12 birthstone colors. I’ve been making this line for a while and up until now have offered it only at craft shows. I’ve also taught some classes on the basic technique, but I’ve finally gotten around to putting them online.
