It's what's on the inside that counts.

I was attending one of the traveling bead shows over the weekend and came across a booth (EarthArt) selling all sorts of mineral specimens and geodes. They had the coolest thing where you could pick a rock from various bins and the guy running the booth would load it into a vice-like contraption. He would then give it a couple clicks with a socket wrench and the rock would crack. (You can see the crack above if you look closely.) Once cracked, it was carefully handed back to its purchaser to be opened to reveal the jewels inside.

It was very exciting and I got a bit carried away with it. When I took the two home that I purchased on Saturday for $5 each and shared the calcite, smoky quartz and amethyst with my husband, he asked me to get a couple of the $10 ones on Sunday. No problem! They are just so cool. I have no idea what I'll do with them, but I got some nice ones!

This is one of the Los Choyas ones. It contains chalcedony and smoky quartz (if I remember correctly).

Another Los Choyas, this is one of the beautiful amethyst ones I picked.

This type looked so different on the outside from the others. They reminded me of potatoes in in both color and texture. This one is Moroccan and contains quartz. Very beautiful!

Custom orders and something new

Lately, my Etsy shop has been getting steady traffic, I think, plenty of views, but not many more sales. Now, I haven't been adding many pieces lately because I've been getting ready for the show last weekend more than anything, so I'm sure that's not helping, you know, not getting into the new items feed. That should change this weekend though, as I have a few new pieces coming soon.

In the meantime, I seem to be having a little luck with custom orders, thanks to my mom! Apparently she's been selling my services to all the ladies at work, which is very nice of her. I've made her a couple necklaces, which I'm pretty sure she wears on a regular basis and shows around too.

This earring and necklace set is a mother-of-the-bride ensemble for, of all people, my 2nd grade teacher, who actually works with mom these days. It's so weird when I think about it. I remember her from when I was so young and now she's buying jewelry from me? Anyway, from what I hear she loved the set, but her oldest daughter snagged it from her, telling her she could borrow it for her sister's upcoming wedding. Too funny! The focal points of both the earrings and necklace are (one of my new favorite stones) chalcedony. It is just so pretty! Oddly, the Swarovski crystals that appear more brown here in this pic are green. Not sure why they looked that way, but everything was very cool and water-like in tone, paired with sterling silver.

Another score from mom was this pair of larkavite and sterling silver drop earrings. Larkavite is sometimes called black labradorite. It's also from the feldspar family. These were made for another co-worker of my mom, who was looking for a birthday gift for a friend. She didn't want to give them away, but did. She reported back to mom that the lady wears them all the time. Always nice to hear! I liked them enough to make a second pair for my store which you can check out here.

Some may remember these earrings from my store. They sold over the weekend at Ladies Fair, to the mother-daughter pair. The daughter actually got them and her mom liked them a lot also, but she wanted the same earrings in a smaller scale, so I made her up a smaller pair and shipped those out to her this past Monday. They've always been a favorite pair of mine. I really like the way the copper works with the carnelian and the turquoise.

And finally, I'm going to try something new. Metal stamping! I bought a set of metal letter stamps from m.a.t.'s beads, a fellow Etsy seller, and I've been picking up sterling silver stamping blanks whenever I see them. I know, everyone says to "practice on inexpensive copper"... I probably should too, because I have no idea what I'm doing, really, but, eh, what the heck. I'll figure it out. I'll be sure to post an update and some pics. This should be interesting, to say the least. I'd be happy to hear any advice from my readers about stamping!

Time to catch up...

With the blog, that is. I'm not even sure how I got this far behind this time! It makes me a little crazy...

Work is going pretty well, so far, which is good. It's been a little less busy than I like it, but it should pick up soon with the addition of a couple new clients. Hopefully they like print advertising (which is mainly the area where I specialize). I feel like I'm back in the swing of things there. That's a nice feeling for sure.

A lot of time this week seems to have been devoted to getting some more shows lined up for the upcoming spring/summer months. At the middle school show last weekend, I did have a chance to talk to some really nice vendors and I got some good show leads. A photographer mentioned one that is being put on by Hamilton County Parks District at Glenview Gardens on June 7. I figured it's worth a try to get in, plus it's an art fair, so maybe I'll have a little better luck, who knows. Anyway, I went to their website and found out that it is a juried show and the submission deadline – well, I missed it by a mile – was February 6. That's right, I'm 3 months late. I have a knack. I sent an email to the organizer and she said they are trying to fill a couple more spaces if I want to submit photos and an application. I sent those materials off today. I would think I'd hear pretty soon one way or the other.

Then I found another one online that is at a local community church in July. They have over 10,000 members within their combined locations and are going to do radio, tv, print and internet advertising, not to mention they are inviting the local news and vendors also have the option of purchasing ad space in a booklet that they will hand out to everyone who walks in the door. Love it! I'm in! It sounds really promising. At least there should be plenty of people to not buy my stuff this time. :P

Other than that, I have some new loose beads and strands that I picked up a couple weekends ago at a traveling bead and gem show. I'm impressed with this batch. Lots of sparklies. Take a look:

Left to right: Thai silver toggles and links, flower amazonite, lodalite, green amethyst, chalcedony, opal, serpentine, sunstone, Mexican fire opal and amazonite. I already have some of the green amethyst and the serpentine in my shop. Just trying to find the time to work with the rest!

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading my rambling. :)