Fabric Flowers

I enjoy sewing, both by machine and by hand, as well as my main passion which is making jewelry. It would be great if I could incorporate both of my loves.

I've found a great how-to on making fabric flowers. If you are like me, you enjoy other crafty things. 

I have to say, the internet is great for having information about just about everything, but it can be a real pain to actually find what you are looking for. I think search engines need to be able to figure out what I want even if I can't actually get the right terms for this.

What do you think?

I'm in multiple Treasuries

My jewelry has been selected for several treasuries. This is real morale booster for me. Please go check them out and make comments.

The first Treasury was also featured in a blog also; this was a treat. Check out my Prehnite and Peridot Earrings.

And our team Treasury has my Moonstone and Blue Topaz Earrings.

Featured Artist

I am so excited that I was picked to be the featured artist of the week by Q Branch Ltd. blog starting
this Thursday at 6 pm Eastern time.

To keep this post short and sweet, please go visit them starting Tomorrow Evening to see my spot.

Meanwhile, I'm going to be working on a new series of earrings. See you later.

What Does Your Birthstone Mean?

As I researched birthstone lore, I found out that one or more characteristics or meanings are attached to the different stones. I because fascinated by not only finding this out, but also finding out that in addition to Europe (mainly England) having birthstones, Tibet and India also used certain stones to signify each month.

So, first a quick refresher on birthstones. Tiffany & Co. was the first jeweler to market the concepts of birthstones in 1870. The idea of birthstones was already in place by then as referenced by an old English poem. In this poem, birthstones were not only noted, but there were characteristics attached to each gemstone. The belief was that if you wore a particular stone you would be endowed with the same strengths. The months and their stones have pretty much stayed the same until today, with the addition of an alternative birthstone as the cost of the original stones has increased.

When I started looking into the history of birthstones, I found that there are gems associated with each of the signs of the zodiac as well as gemstones for each day of the week. Now that information was a surprise to me. I knew that astrology attached characteristics to each zodiac sign, but I never thought that in addition to this there were gemstones too.

Here, then, is the list of the signs of the Zodiac and their corresponding birthstones:

Capricorn	12/22 – 1/20	Ruby
Aquarius	1/21 – 2/19	Garnet
Pisces	2/20 – 3/20	Amethyst
Aries	3/21 – 4/20	Bloodstone
Taurus	4/21 – 5/20	Sapphire
Gemini	5/21 – 6/21	Agate
Cancer	6/22 – 7/22	Emerald
Leo	7/23 – 8/23	Onyx
Virgo	8/24 – 9/23	Carnelian
Libra	9/24 – 10/23	Peridot
Scorpio	10/24 – 11/22	Beryl
Sagittarius	11/23 – 12/21	Topaz

The next time you are searching for a gift, do something unexpected. Give some jewelry based on the zodiac.  If you need any help in finding the perfect gift, just ask me.

For more information about Birthstones, see my Ezine article.

I have a winner!

Congratulation to freeindeed! She is the lucky winner of my Light Blue Triple Crystal Sapphire Earrings.

Stay tuned for more giveaways and coupons.

Keep those entries coming!

I just wanted to let everyone know that there is only 4 days left until my giveaway ends! Keep those entries coming because if this is a successful giveaway, I will be doing more of these in the near future.

So, please tell your friends about this giveaway. The more people I get, the more likely I'll do more of these very soon.

I have a lot of really nice earrings and necklaces, so please be sure to go to my site and look around.

Remember, if you purchase something, your entry will automatically gain 5 extra positions! These are really nice earrings I am giving away, so to increase your chances, buy!

Give-away! - My First Giveaway

The winner of this Giveaway- My First! - will receive a pair of my Light Sapphire Blue Triple Crystal Earrings. These Earrings are made with Pretty Light Blue Faceted Swarovski Crystals dangling from the end of 3 Sterling Silver Snake Chains of different lengths. These chains are attached to a Ball Post pierced Earring.

These Earrings with this Icy Blue color are perfect for this summer. They will complement almost everything you will wear, not only this summer, but the rest of the year as well. I just love these earrings!
They are 2 1/2" (6.3cm) long and sell for $89.98.

Now the rules:

1. Visit http://www.etsy.com/shop/JewelryByJaynemarie. Come back here and leave a comment listing the item that you like the best and why. If you have multiple "bests," you can enter them here also, but each item must be given a separate comment. (And, no, you cannot list everything I have, you will be disqualified if you attempt to do this). Each comment = 1 entry for a maximum of 3 entries.
2. Blog, Twitter, Facebook this giveaway and leave a comment for each action with the link = 1 entry.
3. Follow My Blog and Leave Comment = 1 entry
4. Become a "Fan" on my Facebook page and Leave Comment = 1 entry
5. Follow me on Twitter and Leave a Comment = 1 entry
6. Purchase something from my shop and you get 5 entries. PLUS, for every $10 you spend in my shop, you will get an additional entry. For example, you purchase a pearl earring that costs $29.86, I round that up to $30, which gives you 3 extra entries for a total of 8 entries. If you purchase the Copper and Bronze Fan Necklace at $72.23, I would round that up to $80 to give you 8 extra entries, for a total of 13 entries.

This contest is open to everyone
Please make sure I have your email address, otherwise I cannot award you the prize.

This contest will run until Midnight, Sunday, June 13th, 2010. The winner will be chose using a random number generator.

Good luck!

I've decided to simplify

Yesterday, I took a long hard look at all of my supplies and tools and realized that I really have more than I need. So, yesterday, I decided to start this and listed my first tool that I hadn't used for months. I really only used a couple of times to start with - that seemed a prime candidate for started this process.

So, I took the plunge and listed my Pepe disk cutter on ebay, hoping that I would be able to sell it at a reasonable price. Well, I was surprised! I put it in for 10 days thinking that it would take that long to get a good price, but after one day I already had 5 bids and the price is near my reserve price. At this rate, I may sell more of my non-essential stock.

If you are interested, take a look at: Disk Cutter. I put it at a very good price, so if you are interested - go and get it.

Well, that all for now. See you later. I have got to start remembering to come here more often and let you know what is going on.

New Treasury

My earrings are in a new treasury on Etsy! Go take a look at it; I think it is a fun treasury. I would never have thought of doing a treasury based on the the theme of bows. This one turned out really well.

I'm really glad that Miriam of MiniMade chose me in this treasury called Bow Bonanza.

And you can see a lot of her lovely quilts at Miriam's Sewing Studio.

And, of course, you can always see my jewelry at my site and become a fan on my Facebook  page.

My Earrings are in a Treasury!

I am so pleased! My earrings were picked for a Treasury, I hope I get new pictures taken of them before the Treasury expires, so they will really pop. But if not, at least they are up there.

But a really strange thing happened. I couldn't leave any comments in the Treasury area using Firefox. I had to go to Safari in order to do this and I don't know why. I don't know if this is a problem with Firefox or a problem with Firefox because I added the Craftomania Toolbar. If its the Toolbar, I need to get rid of it, because I really prefer using Firefox to Safari, especially since Firefox remembers my passwords for certain sites (only the ones I want). This is a real time save for me. I don't think Safari has this feature. If it did, it would be a fantastic addition!

Anyway, since I always include a picture, here is a picture of the earrings that are in this treasury. You can follow this link to see the treasury, because it is really full of pretty blues. But, if you don't want to, here are my Moonstone Filigree Earrings that are in this treasury. This is not the same picture as in the treasury. This is a picture that I took using the new lens that I bought specifically to photograph jewelry. I think it takes fantastic pictures of my earrings!

It's been way too long

Well, I'm now on TheKnot, the wedding website, where I hope to get a lot of business doing personalized wedding jewelry. I'm excited about this opportunity, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed here!


I also bought a new lens for my camera, just for photographing jewelry! Wow, did that cost a lot! But, it made a big difference in the quality of my pictures. Even I can see the difference. ☺ I'm also making new jewelry just for this market, so I've really been keeping busy here.

So, I'll end here with a picture of one of my new pieces, I'll pick the Fire Opal and Pearls Earrings this time. But, I have a lot more new pieces at my shop, you'll just have to go there to see them. Unfortunately, they haven't all been re-photographed with my new lens, but these earrings have been. As you can now clearly see, these have handmade earwires too.

Next time I write, it shouldn't be so long before I do so, but I only have so many hours in the day, and I'm still taking my health one day at a time. So, without further ado, here are the earrings -

I'm still writing

Well, I have now had 2 articles published by Ezine and I'm currently working on my third. Wow, I never thought I would actually be doing this much writing and enjoying it. So, next time you want something to read, other than my blog, pop on over to Ezine and search for my articles. And, so that you don't miss any of them, sign up to follow me on Twitter - I'm JewlryJaynmarie, and never miss any of my articles again!

I write about subjects all jewelers would like to hear about, such as where the best place to sell your scrap is, and about gemstones, and so on. So, sign up and never miss an issue; and its free!

I'm now working on more wedding jewelry, because I am really interested in this market. I think of all places, this is the market that I can be really good at. If you look at my website:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JewelryByJaynemarie

you will see many examples of my work. Tomorrow, I will have many new designs up because I have spent the weekend working on a  lot of new wedding jewelry. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take any pictures yet, because of my busy life of both of my two daughters! But, I'll get there. But, I can't leave without something of my work pictured, so here is my one and only calla lily earrings, made of hand carved white onyx with a tiny blue Swarovski Crystal in the center.

Craftomania Tools: Craftomania I-Scream is on the front page!

 Craftomania Tools: Craftomania I-Scream is on the front page!


And I am a now a member of the Craftomania Tools Team.  I really like their toolbar, it makes working on my Etsy site so much easier! You really should take a look at it and download it. I was surprised at how easy it makes navigating around Etsy and other sites to promote yourself. Now, I don't know how I ever lived without it - just kidding. But, it does make the Etsy side of the my jewelry job easier.


And, since we are talking about jewelry, I might as well show you another piece of my collections, This time, I'll show a Moonstone Necklace that would be great for a Wedding or any other special occasion. This is in my Special Designs Section.

Weddings, Weddings, Weddings

Well, I'm trying to figure out how to market my wedding jewelry. I know I have some good jewelry, but how to get it to the right market it the tough part. I'm in the research part of do I advertise? Or, do I do a lot of blogging and convos, etc. Give-aways are a definite part of my strategy, but is this enough? Then, there is always the question of what to give away? And, where to launch the give-away from?

That's a lot of questions for me to figure out. It almost makes my head spin. No, it really does make my head spin. But for an ending, here is one of my wedding earrings, so you can see, I do have a good variety.

You can follow me on Twitter!

Well, you can now follow me on Twitter! I'm moving up in the world. I've submitted a second article to Ezine and now have my Twitter account up and have a button on my blog so you can follow me on Twitter and keep up to date when I get new articles published and new designs on my website.

And, when I have any giveaways and contests, I'll let you know as well. So, make sure you keep updated by signing up for my twitter updates!

I'm an Author!

I did it! My article was accepted! I'm so excited, Ezine like my article and now I'm going to be published. I just got the news and was given the code to put the banner on my website. Wow, now I really have to get going on another article.

Well, I better get writing then. Bye for now.

I hate waiting!

Well, I'm waiting to hear from Ezine on my article about where to sell you scrap and I'm already writing another article for them. I can't believe I'm doing this. I mean, Engineers aren't supposed to be able to write. That's what I was told all my life. Well, I've been breaking molds all the time, so I suppose, this is another one to go (I hope, I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this).

I know I said I got a Twitter account, but I haven't figured out how to set it up so that when I post here, I will send out a Tweet. I need to do that, but if anyone know how to do that, please let me know.

Well, my CFS and Fibromyalgia is acting up, so to keep busy I'm writing and trying to learn some new Filigree techniques. I have to practice a lot to make new shapes because my long term goal is to do Russian Filigree work. 

Until then, I work on other designs, especially for weddings, that utilize wirework techniques. Like these new Silver Pearl Earrings.

I just started to Twitter

I know I need to market myself, so I've been asking for help from my team mates and so I took the leap and opened a Twitter account. So, now you can follow me on Twitter. My Twitter name is  JewlryJaynmarie.

I was surprised to see that soon as I signed up, I got a follower. Someone from Australia.  I think that is so neat. It shows that the Internet really has shrunk the world.

Now, I just need to figure out how to get Twitter on my blog. I'll get that next. I also submitted my previous posting to Ezine. I hope they publish it. I can use the publicity for my jewelry. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Selling Your Scrap

Last time I talked about working green for the sake of our planet as well as for the sake of our checkbooks. Then comes the next question of, where do I sell my scrap?

This is a very good question! There are so many ads on the TV, the radio and the newspapers all asking for your scrap metal. Well, I would caution you about going to any of those places. NONE of them will pay you anywhere near what you should receive for the precious metals you are turning in for scrap. In fact, most of them will be either reselling your jewelry at a tidy profit, or they are going to sell it to either of these places that I am going to tell you about. They just don't want you to know that.

First off, if you have a wholesaler's license, and have an active account with merchants who do sell gold, silver and gold filled metal, wire and findings, then they usually have a way for their customers to send them their scrap for either a credit for future metal buys, or will give you a check, which will usually be for less than the credit you would receive if you took the credit.

If you don't have an active account with a merchant such as this, don't despair! There is still as way to make a MUCH better deal that you would by going with any of the places I told you about in the second paragraph. This place is a precious metals refinery. That is all they do!

So, of course, they would want your scrap. And, the neatest feature of all, is their website, it has a way to determine how much money your scrap is worth, once you have measured it. Now, this will only be an approximation, because you will probably be using a kitchen scale such as I do. And make sure you measure in grams, because otherwise, the ounces jewelers mean when they say ounce is a troy ounce which is actually 1.097 ounces.

You will need to have a minimum amount of scrap in order to send off to the refiner, it has to be worth their while to re-refine new metal out of scrap, but this calculator will tell you if you don't have enough, so you can go back and keep saving. But once you see how much this refiner gives you, you will NEVER consider going anywhere else again. Believe me - I won't!

Oh, I have absolutely NO ties to this refiner. I haven't used them yet, but I will. Every other jewelry who has, recommends them highly!

This refiner is: Midwest Refineries, LLC in Waterford, Michigan. And their link is:

http://www.midwestrefineries.com/

Green Jewelry

I know recycling is very important today, so I wanted to let everyone know that I too, am aware of this issue and make sure that the silver, gold and gold filled material I use is made of recycled silver and gold from jewelers like me. We send in the material that is left over whenever we make our jewelry.

You know what I mean, you do a wire wrap, for example, and there is always a little bit of wire left over. Well, what do you do with that wire? For me, I have recycling jars. I have a separate jar for each type of material I work with: one for gold, one for silver and one for gold-filled.

Every piece of material, not matter how small, goes into the recycling jar. I even keep the dust from my filing. It adds up. When the jars get full enough - I go by weight, then I send the contents to the recyclers. They in turn will either send me cash, so that I can purchase more materials, or they will give me credit for me to purchase more metal.

This way, instead of relying on mining for more gold and silver, I know I am doing my part to help mother earth by recycling and reusing precious metals. And today, it couldn't be easier, with all the companies out there wanting to purchase your scrap.

My jewelry is been picked for a blog!

My wedding jewelry is now featured on Misscheviousdesigns blog for Wedding Ideas! If you would like to see what she said, click here. I am so excited about this. I loved making these earrings and to have someone love it enough to add it to her blog so that others might want it is wonderful. I am starting to get somewhere!

And, I now have the secret of making good pictures - to make your gems and crystals sparkle, use LED lights. Those lights with light up anything that sparkles. That's the jeweler's secret to making those wonderful pictures of sparkling jewelry. LEDs!

Now I have them too! And, my  pictures look so much better for it, you can really see the detail and the actual colors of the gemstones and the luster of the pearls. I only but the best, so it helps to have the lighting to show off what I have.

These are not the earrings chosen, but another example of some of the earrings I have for weddings on my web site.

My pictures are starting to get better

I'm starting to take better pictures finally. Its been really tough getting there though. My health hasn't been great, which makes it really hard to get things done; so I set myself with a goal of I at least have to take pictures of 5 items every day and at least I must edit them and then upload 3 or four of them every day. But I think some of these are pretty good:

I think I'm getting there, but with so little sleep; its tough to get into making new jewelry. I have so many ideas - but I'm so frustrated by not having the energy to make them. I keep telling myself that I'll get there, but its getting harder to keep going and not get depressed and give up. I really want this business to work. I know I have good ideas and whenever I wear what I make everyone loves them. I just have to figure out how to take good pictures and descriptions and then get good marketing.

It just takes so much energy that I don't have right now. I has to get better - I don't see how it can get any worse. Oh well, I don't want to sound so depressed right now, but I hope the doctor's can come up with something, anything, that can help me with my pain and fatigue, so that I can work.

I want my business to work so much - this is my dream!