Last Day of Sandra’s Visit: Mellow Monday

Today Sandra and I are finishing the last of the beaded watches, enjoying long conversations and getting ready for her famous beef stroganoff for dinner.

Having Sandra here has been a wonderful vacation from non-stop marketing of Rose of Sharon Jewelry and worrying about slow summer sales. I’ve spent the past 10 days relaxing, creating and being together. Arden took time off too; so the 3 of us have “lived and loved” fully together.

As a small business person, often my days are filled with mundane tasks and trying to get the word out on all our beautiful handmade jewelry. At the end of the day, I realize I spent most of it at the keyboard and online.  That’s why a few days away is so critical to me.

Time off makes me crave the creative, just like a long winter makes me want to start gardening on the first warm day. I’m convinced that electronics (which I’m admittedly addicted to) can actually play havoc on our health and well-being. But surprisingly enough, I find that it can also adversely affect the business.

Being an self-employed, work-at-home Grandma has a lot of pluses and having 10 days with Sandra has been one of them!

Back to full-time blogging starting tomorrow!


PinExt Last Day of Sandra’s Visit: Mellow Monday

National Women of Achievement Month: Silent Sunday Tribute

Sept. is National Women of Achievement Month. Silent Sunday is a pictorial tribute to 19th and 20th Century women who helped make this a better America.

 

 

 

 


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Thinking about Upcoming Holidays: Sharon Saturday

The Rose of Sharon Jewelry artists have been thinking a lot about upcoming holidays. I’m almost done with the new bead bracelet style watches, Sandra is making sparkling earring, Mom is making more Breast Cancer Awareness designs and we have some wonderful lovely new wedding necklaces.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month so we’ll be promoting our anklets, bracelets and necklaces featuring pink awareness ribbons, affirmation charms and powerful symbols of health and recovery.

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Breast Cancer Awareness anklets can be found in the Adornable Anklets store at Etsy.

 

 

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Lots of wonderful beaded fashion watches will be appearing in the A.F.F. Jewelry collection at Etsy during October. They will be part of our Christmas promotion. Watches as gifts are hot  again! We’ve been seeing “mass made” versions arriving in stores and boutiques but handmade is so much better! We’ll have some with great bling! and others for every day wear.

 

 

 

Still busy with Sandra visiting until Tuesday when I’ll be back online full-time! Great to have time to really explore our different jewelry talents, bake rum cakes and laugh a lot!


PinExt Thinking about Upcoming Holidays: Sharon Saturday

May Peace Prevail: International Day of Peace

Today is the International Day of Peace. Peace – such a simple word but such a hard thing to achieve. Remember those who died while countries fought, tribal leaders burned villages, Americans dropped bombs and troops marched through the streets. May Peace Prevail!

make-peace Individually we seem to be so helpless but it with our combined voices and small actions that can change how people choose to deal with each other.

Here are 5 ways you can “grow peace.”

 

 

Growing Peace

  1. Teach your children to respect others and to respect themselves. Perceived disrespect has triggered gang wars, riots and invasions!
  2. Teach your children peaceful ways to resolve conflicts. Disagreements and conflicts are a natural part of life but how we deal with them makes the difference.
  3. Teach your children how to express themselves and their opinions without hateful words and attitudes. The progressive Democrat should be able to sit down and share ideas and information with the conservative Republican.
  4. Teach your children to learn about other faiths, other nationalities, other countries. Americans are kind and generous but we often ignore the world outside our borders.
  5. Teach your children to practice kindness and compassion. Actively participating in feeding the poor, donating toys and raising money helps a child feel powerful and in charge. Once the seed is planted you’ll never know what can happen!

Why not learn more about the International Day of Peace and how you can give peace a chance year round?


PinExt May Peace Prevail: International Day of Peace

5 Fall Jewelry Looks: Silent Sunday

Fall fashions need fall jewelry - darker, bolder handmade jewelry works best with sweaters, jackets and long sleeves. Here’s 5 great handmade necklaces for fall from Rose of Sharon Jewelry.

handmade agate silver necklace

 

 

September Breeze silver leaf and agate necklace by Betty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copper necklace

 

 

 

 

Copper Blue necklace mixing blue Jasper and copper by Sharon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Blush necklace

 

Autumn Blush carnelian necklace, bracelet & earring set by Sandra Lee. 

 

 

 

 

On golden pond necklace

 

 

On Golden Pond featuring antiqued brass crane pendant by Sarah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

silver pendant

 

Framed in Fortune – ornate silver wrapped calcite pendant on silver chain by LeAnne.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall is a great fashion time as jewelry plays a much bigger role than with casual summer wear. Invest in a few great handmade jewelry pieces and you’ll be able to freshen up last season’s purchases quickly and easily.

 


PinExt 5 Fall Jewelry Looks: Silent Sunday

Wrapping It All Up with Wire: Sharon Saturday

Wire wrapping stones transforms them into little jewelry gift packages. You can mix and match the chain for different coordinating looks.

Dena and LeAnne of Rose of Sharon Jewelry are best friends and self-taught wire wrapping artists. Each of their one-of-a-kind designs is lovely wrapped in sterling silver or gold filled wire just for you.

LeAnne and Dena work well together as you’ll see from their beautiful designs. Often one will start a project then have the other put her own touch to it! Collaboration at its best.

If you love simple, elegant jewelry – you’ll love their wonderful pendants. Dena and LeAnne hand selected their stone cabochons (flat backed stones that are cut and polished into various shapes) for their unique mineral content, unusual patterns and colors that tell a story.

Each of Dena and LeAnn’s pendants come with a personally selected chain that coordinates with the look of the pendant.

Here are a few of their lovely pendant necklaces that are being featured in the Rose of Sharon Jewelry store. To find all of the wire wrapped pendant pieces, select Dena DeSelms or LeAnne Velona from the artist menu.

 

Starting with Great Stones

31Mother Earth is a wonderful gold wrapped agate pendant on multilayered gold chain.

Notice the mineral streaks that add a rich contrasting color to the natural stone.

 

 

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Rainbow Nephrite is a lilac with a touch of green Jade donut pendant.  Nephrite (the actual name of true Jade) is considered to beneficial for prosperity and excellent for creating an erotic atmosphere. Perhaps wearing this handmade necklace on your next date night would be a good thing!

 

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Ruby in the Rough features a colorful Ruby Zoisite stone. This exceptional stone features the bold pink (a similar mineral to ruby) and the green matrix which often surrounds natural rubies.


Ruby Zoisite is known for its energetic and sexual properties (as is ruby) with out the anger often associated with rubies. The green mineral provides the balance for the wearer!1

 

Turquoise is always in style and Dena’s silver wrapped Turquoise Traveler  has wonderful flourishes. The stone is a deep turquoise color with some nice matrix (the darker minerals within a natural turquoise stone).

 

 

All of Dena and LeAnne’s  designs are hand crafted with sterling silver or gold filled wire. You’ll find them to be artistic and versatile. And they are all great values!


PinExt Wrapping It All Up with Wire: Sharon Saturday

3 Great Handmade SteamPunk Jewelry Artists: Friday Finds

Steampunk is hot in handmade jewelry now. Today’s post shares this innovative mash-up of old and new from 3 great jewelry artists who create it.

So what’s steampunk jewelry? The Steampunk term typically steampunkrefers to Victorian –era industrial elements blended with a fantasy, science fiction creativity. In jewelry, this means hard elements such as antiqued base metals, hardware and gears, watch components mixed with softer, romantic images.

Steampunk jewelry isn’t for everyone.  I do believe that its popularity is growing as the availability of attractive base metal components is flourishing. It starts small with a antiqued brass filigree and soon you’re riveting gears together!

 Okay, so that probably still leaves you confused. That’s because with all art – the artist gets to intercept the medium.

The best way is to show you photos of the wonderfully creative work of three steampunk jewelry artists marketing on Etsy. Once you’ve seen a few designs, you’ll get the idea.

There are over 27,000 Etsy products listed as “steampunk jewelry”.

 

Steampunk Jewelry by CatherinetteRings

This design has wonderful work which best represents the steampunk jewelry genre.

steampunk-bracelet

Gears never looked so great as in this steampunk copper and brass bracelet.

 

Daniel is a full-time steampunk jewelry artist whose work is bold and innovative. You’ll find his Etsy store filled with “not for the timid” jewelry and sculpture.

 

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His steampunk robot ring will start conversations whenever you wear it. 

The centerpiece is an actual reptile glass eye used in taxidermy.

 

 

 

Qacreate @ Etsy

steampunk-ring

 

This cocktail ring created by Qacreate, is one of many in the Etsy store. The mix of watch parts with Swarovski crystals makes this a real conversation piece.

 

steampunk-watch-pendant

 

This pocket watch pendant is my favorite in the Qacreate store and a great interpretation of  mechanical and Victorian images.

This pendant is called The Eye of Time.

 

Explore the Qacreates store where over 100 steampunk jewelry designs are listed.

 

steampunk-winged-cuff

Aranwen’s Jewelry

Watches (even those that work and not just parts) are big in steampunk. This magnificent silver winged cuff by Aranwen @ Etsy has the romantic Victorian influence.

From Athens, Green, artist Vicky’s designs are a blend of Gothic, Victorian, Steampunk – whatever you want to call them THEY ARE FABULOUS!

steampunk-heart-necklace

 

This heart locket necklace is another one that I love. The romantic design features brass and crystal.

 

You’ll find her on-line portfolio at http://aranwen.deviantart.com/

 

 

If you love steampunk jewelry or are a steampunk jewelry artist, my readers and I would love having you post links to your online portfolio, store or jewelry find! You can leave your comment by clicking the left hand link!


PinExt 3 Great Handmade SteamPunk Jewelry Artists: Friday Finds

Elizabeth Warren is Looking Out for Us: Thankful Thursday

Today I’m thankful for Elizabeth Warren, Law Professor & bankruptcy expert, wants to look out for consumers. She the current frontrunner to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. elizabeth-warren1 Warren was selected from Harvard academia to chair the Congressional Oversight Panel over the bank bailout. Appearing regularly on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. She has shown herself to be a practical, thoughtful consumer advocate – the perfect choice for the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She’s not someone in the pocket of the banks or big business – she stands up for consumers! I’d like to share a recent Democracy Now video where she discusses what’s needed to run the bureau and exactly what consumers need to defend themselves against the powerful lobbyist industries who don’t have our best interest in mind!
 
This second video is a 60-minute lecture on the coming collapse of the Middle Class. Fascinating and riveting. Thank God we have such a learned woman as Elizabeth Warren. Contact your Congressional Representatives and encourage them to select Elizabeth Warren. To learn more about Elizabeth Warren, just Google her. You'll be pleased at what you find.
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pixel Elizabeth Warren is Looking Out for Us: Thankful Thursday