New Necklaces! coupon code

For all my followers please note the free shipping code is still imworthit. I didn't advertise it for "strangers" but am keeping it for family, friends, blog followers :)


Hope you like the new stuff. There will be another 10 necklaces or so, some bracelets, and earrings coming up in the next few days. 


:) Thanks for watching! Here is my favorite 

It Lives!

I apologize that I had to leave for a bit. I am alive, just got busy with paperwork. And work.


I will be opening the shop back up with all new necklaces and a few rings and earrings and bracelets I hope next week sometime.


Lots of neat new things coming up!


Since I sort of slacked on my give-away I am going to just send all 5 wonderful followers a flower :) Please email me your address to beadievine(at)gmail.com


These will go out after I get the shop open. :)


Here is a new one I am not sure I am going to sell but I have the beads at a local store ... most of them, so I can make more if I get requests. It is a nice hanging size 21 inches so just at collar bone, a bit lower. The neat thing is I also wore it as a bracelet this weekend and even though it did not wrap all the way around 3 times, the magnetic clasp allowed me to attach it basically anywhere I wanted and it stayed pretty secure unless it got next to something else magnetic--then it sort of attached to IT. LoL. 

Adventurine

I have been trying to go in a new direction with more semi-precious stones, so I got a few from Michael's, the first being Adventurine. I know nothing about properties of any gems. I have to look them all up. I don't know if I believe in any powers of any stones other than them making me say, "Oooo ... pretty..." but I also never would have thought I would be in remission from chronic Lyme from the extract of a tree bark. But it happened so what the heck.


Here is some info from http://www.crystalsandjewelry.com/metaphysicalproperties_a.html
 Aventurine (General, Green)

Aventurine is said to benefit one in all areas of creativity, and imagination, as well as intellect and mental clarity. Lore says that it enhances prosperity and brings career success. It is a gentle stone energetically that gives a sense of calm and balance and enhances happiness. It also helps one to see alternatives and potentials in all situations, giving a positive outlook, courage and inner strength. It is also said to bring luck, especially in games of chance. Green aventurine is also a mystical stone of prosperity. Aventurine bring friendship to one's life. It is also a stone of protection energies. Folklore and metaphysical lore say that physically it is beneficial for blood, circulatory system, balancing blood pressure, sinus problems, nausea, headaches, general health, allergies, eczema, fever, and sleep disorders. Aventurine is associated with the heart chakra. 

I started making a necklace but ran out of the dark, round, green beads so had to improvise. The finished product (providing I can find more dark, round, green beads will be Adventurine, S hook, dark green beads, S hook all around. The other junk on there right now is so I could see what it looked like on. 

The S hooks are wire pounded a bit flat, copper permanently colored "brass" although I think it looks gold. The smaller wire is "gold" but because it was 5 bucks for a big spool, probably not real, eh? LoL. 

I hope to start making more of these types of necklaces and bracelets soon. 

I am not Vogue.

I am not one to follow fashion usually. Many times it seems the things they put on the runways are so weird-- no one would really wear them. But I figured I should pay attention so I know what colors are in, what types of jewelry is going to sell and be "hot."


According to Jewelry Business Blog by Rena Klingenberg, Pantones' color of the year for 2011 is Honeysuckle-- A cheery bright pink with a reddish cast.  She also reminded us that people will need jewelry to accent this color so the color palete is in that link as well.


http://jewelry-business-blog.com/jewelry_trends/spring-2011-jewelry-trends-color/


DHgate.com gives "knotted jewelry, flora and fauna, military and urban futuristic, maritime atnd multi-ethnic, vintage and retro--romantic" as trends. This sounds like quite a list. LoL. What's NOT hot?


So basically what I learned from this is: Everything is in style. Except wearing mud and probably eyeball necklaces won't give you that "classy" look.


Kidding aside, I am going to go with a few of these colors that I had picked out already, make my own thing. If people like it, they like it. If they don't, they don't.


I think the only people who really pay attention to "what's in style" live in an entirely different world anyway. I'll leave it up to Vogue and Giselle to stay on top of it.

Ok-- what IS that thing? JLo has a Swarovski

So I am waaay behind in my music these days. I just saw JLo's On The Floor video the other day. At the beginning she is in some dark alley-- in a BMW-- gets out and opens a box that says Swarovski and takes out this -- thing. Pretty thing but I don't know what it is. Is it a big earring? Some sort of weight? A pretty type of hearing aid because she damaged her hearing listening to her husband sing?

Kidding. :)

But really. It doesn't look like it has a regular hook for an earring and that thing was MASSIVE.

So if anyone knows, please comment. Here is a link because I know you are all dying to see it now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4H_Zoh7G5A



My 5 followers-- I think we are all in the same age group anyway which is too-old-to-be-seen-in-the-club or anywhere "on the floor" (unless taking a break from your daily 5 sit-ups like I do ) and we still think Pitbull is a dog. And we WANT that Swarovski, whatever it is, to make our own thing like a necklace that will actually show up and not be hidden by someone's HUGE HAIR.

Love ya JLo. Seriously. The song is my latest ear worm. :)

TANGENT: Sorry I have been lax blogging, my dear 5 followers, but as many know my work computer blue screened and my kitty is close to kitty heaven. So it's been crazy around here.

I haven't forgotten about the give away. If you bring any new friends it will make it so much more FUN--competition! Ha. You are probably all telling your friends to avoid me so YOU can win, right? That's why I have less than 10 followers. Not because I am boring. Right?

Later ladies!

B.

Using a Rock Tumbler

I don't remember quite how I stumbled on this, but reading through stuff about jewelry and gems and shiny jewelry I saw something that said something about getting out little nicks in wire and shining it up all pretty with a rock tumbler. I knew people polished and used special pliers when working with wire, but I didn't know you could also use this cool machine.

So now, of course, I want one because I always have nicks because I am a bit of a newbie. I tried the coated pliers but I don't like the way they grip. I was going to try the rubber dip stuff that supposedly helps but didn't get around to that yet either.

I guess you put Dawn or some other soap in it along with "sterling shot." This is sort of like pins and other metal stuff and apparently it does not hurt much of anything except a gem or bead that was cracked already. Amazing.

Picture of Sterling Shot

I have read that Michael's sells these rock tumblers for a nice price, at least for my little necklaces--maybe not so much for someone who is doing a big hefty amount. So I am saving up.

Here is a funny blog post about using a jewelry tumbler and shot. http://akacontrariwise.blogspot.com/2008/12/rip-my-faithful-rock-tumbler.html

Here is some more information on how this works!

http://news.urbanmaille.com/how-to/tumble-polish-jewelry.html

Gemstones: Cat's Eye and link to gemstone guide

I recently turned 40 and I remember way back when we didn't have as many books as people do now. They were sort of a luxury. Lots of kids had story books. My favorite book--A Gemstone and Mineral identification book. I just loved the pictures of all the pretty rocks!

So when starting to work with beads I became very interested in (again) all these neat semi-precious, precious, rocks, what-have-you and trying to see what I could play with next on my limited budget. The most recent fun thing is cat's eye or chrysoberyl. Very cheap ones.  Here is the link to see one and a picture of a really expensive kind. The link also is the gem guide that is my new best friend. Mostly expensive things but it takes the place of the book I lost.

http://www.gemselect.com/chrysoberyl-cats-eye/chrysoberyl-cats-eye.php

These are fascinating. Here is a necklace/choker and earrings I made with royal blue ones.

Here is another great website with more information than pictures and some great info about Chrysoberyls like this :

"Scientists have discovered that very fine inclusions, deposited in the stone, are responsible for this fascinating phenomenon. The incident light is reflected off them, so that a bright strip of light appears, running perpendicular to the inclusions, similar to the eye of a feline predator. When the stone is turned, this strip seems to glide away across the surface of the stone. In technical terminology this phenomenon is known as 'chatoyancy', which comes from the French 'chat' (for cat) and 'oeil' (for eye). Whilst chrysoberyls lacking the cat's eye effect are mostly faceted, cat's eyes are always cut into cabochons, since only tall, rounded shapes render the line of the eye properly visible."

http://gemstone.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=69 

Happy drooling!