I've been Indiespotted... AGAIN!

This is the 3rd time that Indiespotting has used one of my submissions. I keep submitting one every 7-14 days and they keep adding mine! That must mean they like my work... or they put everyone in the rotation but I'm going to pretend its the first option! YAY!
Check it out!
www.myshoppingconnection.com/indiespotting/2010/index.php

Sodalite

This is hands down my best friends FAVORITE stone. And its easy to see why! With its deep blue hues and the bright white veining throughout, its a beautiful contrast or colors. I use a lot of sodalite in my custom jewelry work. People tend to be drawn to the sodalite rings I make more than anything else.

Sodalite properties center around being receptive. Its a stone that is used for meditation and healing. Many associate the stone sodalite with wisedom. I have personally used a ring I made myself with sodalite for its calming and stress relieving effect.

I like Sodalite for rings because of these properties. Being able to glance down and see the deep blue colors and white swirling reminds me of water. There's a calming effect that looking into pools of water provides for me and this stone creates that same effect. I also like to use sodalite in rings because it is held right up against the skin that way. It also makes it easy for the wearer to reach down and touch the stone or rub it to help relive stress, the same way one would rub on a worry stone.

Whatever your reasons, sodalite is a wonderful stone to include in your work.

Featured Studio piece 3-9-10

Today I would like to feature a wire wrapped pendant from my studio. This pendant is built around a soapstone cabachon. Soapstone is the stone of choice for worry stones, since you can rub on the smooth surface and over time wear it down. Putting this in a pendant is unusual but its lovely green and yellow color makes it an excellent focal. I cradled the cabachon in brass wire frames held together by tight brass wire wrapping. I then added some little labradodrite and iolite rounds for a splash of contrasting color. This piece will come with your choice of a brass or copper chain. $40

Featured studio item 3-8-10

Today, in honor of my previous blog about quartz crystals, I would like to featured one of my necklaces made from a quartz crystal point that I dug out of the Rocky Mountains of MT myself. I took this little single terminated quartz point and wire wrapped it in copper 18 gauge wire. I then wove garnet beads onto it with a much smaller gauge wire and kept on weaving to ensure a secure cradle for the crystal was created. I use no adhesives in my wire wrapping and allow only pressure to hold the stones fast. This pendant is dangled from an antiqued copper chain and is a dainty and grounded look for any neckline out there.

Edit: I would like apologize for the fact that this blog will only allow the WORST picture of this piece to be uploaded. If I could get my better picture of this piece uploaded, I would love to be able to show that one instead. Stubborn blog.

Quartz crystal

Today I would like to blog about a stone I have had a long time love affair with: quartz crystal. Let me start with my childhood, since that is where I first was introduced to this LOVELY shiney rock.
I spent part of my childhood in a town called Butte MT (please spare me the jokes about the name). Its nestled in the Rocky Mountains and its a lovely place to be. Butte is/was sort of a dying town but being up in the mountains, there were all sorts of mineral goodies to be found. I used to walk along the railroad tracks, much to my mother's dismay, and pick up shiney clear quartz crystal points on my way home from school. As I got older, my grandparents and aunts and uncles would take us camping up in the National parks. There was an entire park set aside just for the digging and finding of quartz crystals! I was in rock heaven.
We moved away from Butte when I was still in elementary school but we often go back to MT to visit family. And every year I go back I make sure to visit Crystal Park and dig for more shiny rocks. I bring them back to Kansas with me and do my wire wrapping magic on them.

Now, quartz comes in all sizes shapes and colors but the kind I want to focus on today is that clear, terminated variety, the crystal point. Crystals are more highly valued if they have what is known as a termination, or a naturally occuring point. Double terminated crystals have a point at each end and naturally double terminate crystals are very rare. Many companies and stone workers often grind the terminations onto a chunk of quartz crystal to increase its sale value.

Quartz crystals are often called the "Witch's stone" and are said to have many magical properties. It is supposed to clear the mind and allow for true visions. This is perhaps why the sterotypical gypsy fortune teller used a sphere made of clear quartz to looked into people's futures. It has even been used as a milk stone to cause more productive lactating in nursing mothers! Quartz crystals are most often used to balance the mind and body as well as increase psychic abilities.

No matter what your thoughts or beliefs on the quartz crystal are, they are a beautiful stone that I continue to mine myself and wrap.

Jewelry party research

I have been wanting to start hosting handmade jewelry parties in my local area for a while now. I picked up the idea reading about the idea in the Artfire forums. It hadn't even occurred to me to try it. And then I started to ask myself questions about the idea.

In my quest for answers, I took it to the forums. I began asking as many artisans as I could about hosting or being hosted for handmade jewelry parties. I wanted to get an much information about it as I could.Some of the things that were plaguing me the most were how high the attendance for these kinds of parties was and also what the host/ess got in return for hosting.

The answers I got varied quite a bit. The incentives for the host/ess of the party ranged anywhere from 30% of the party sales in free jewelry to 15% of the party sales in cash. Most of the artisans I spoke to offered a percentage of the sales in credit towards their product. I was planning to offer a dollar amount in credit on jewelry in my studio as an incentive.

I also inquired about door prizes. This was interesting. Some artisans said yes, absolutely offer 2-3 door prizes for those attending. Some artisans were very much against offering door prizes but instead offered sale rpices or coupons at the door. I was planning to have 3 door prizes available and do it raffle style. For each additional person a guest brought, I would give them one more ticket for the raffle.

The guest list is usually comprised of friends, family, and co-workers of the host/ess. However, i found that alot of artisans also send out invites to those customers on their email lists in the area. This greatly ups the attendance of the party. That average of invites per party was about 50 and the actual attendance was about 20. I have a much smaller base to invite... closer to 30 people. However, if each of them brought one friend... that could up the attendance significantly.

The one piece of info that was most encouraging to me was the average amount of sales made at each of these parties. Every artisan I asked about this said they made anywhere from $400-1500 in sales! WOW! I can only HOPE my first jewelry party sales are that high. Even at the local craft shows I do I only make about $200.

I plan to host the first jewelry party at my own home to get the ball rolling. Other artisans say they offer a in home party at least once a year and can get additional bookings from that show. I also feel this would be the most welcoming way to introduce my friends and work colleagues to my work as well as the idea of hosting my jewelry in their home for their friends, family, and colleagues. I was going to try and do this party next week already but no one seems to be able to attend and I discovered I had a conflict as well. I am hoping to reschedule for the week of Spring Break and/or the week following.

So, there you have it. All the information I collected about jewelry parties. Its not a lot but it gives you an idea and it definitely encouraged me to try giving a handmade jewelry party in my are.

I would like to take this moment to thank all the artisans who contributed information to my jewelry party research:

TimelyImpressions http://www.artfire.com/users/TimelyImpressions

catinalife http://www.artfire.com/users/catinalife

BAKidagain http://www.artfire.com/users/BAKidagain

girlseattle http://www.artfire.com/users/girlseattle

Tali's Creations http://www.artfire.com/users/talicreations

If I have left anyone out, please let me know and I'd be happy to add you. It was hard to keep track of all the answers I got since they were so spread out across the forums and various emails.

Featured studio piece 3-7-10

Today I would like to feature a piece I just listed last night. This little wire wrapped cabachon was inspired by my best friend, Amanda. She adores carnelians. Everytime I come across a carnelian in my sotkc, I think of her. She also is drawn to amethyst. She has a LOT of amethyst pieces around and about her wardrobe. Now, if/when she read this I know she's going to disagree with the amethyst thing, insisting she's more drawn to Sodalite (which is another of her favorites). However, I see a lot of purple colored stones in her jewelry drawer and I think subconsiously she's drawn to it. The little bit of garnet in this pendant is my little bit of flair kicking in. I love garnet. It also kind of represents our hair, as we both often have our hair colored red.

This piece is available for sale in my studio on artfire. (http://www.artfire.com/users/divapixie) and comes with an antiqued copper ball chain. Cost is $40.