Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy 2014!!

 Happy New Year All! I hope 2014 is a healthy, happy and prosperous year for us all! I just updated my website- hope you'll have time to check it out. I am in the midst of re-programming it so that it will be more 'readable' by search engines, but it's a slow process....

You can find it here:



I also managed to get a cache of medium/large Ethiopian opals cut before the kids were home for Winter Break- half of these I recently bought, and half I've had for a while. Prices for rough were down 1/3, and even cut stones have come down in price. Not sure why.... Due to my main supplier having sold out of his opal stock, I've had to rely on other suppliers and myself! I did manage to get a few nice faceted opals at the last International Gem & Jewelry Show, and these will do nicely for those customers who prefer cabochons. Some had a lot of sand in them, but I think once the bezels are on, they'll look great. It's always a struggle figuring out how much stone to cut off, and how much sand is acceptable to leave on, in order to give the stone more weight. Myself, I don't mind much sand, for it reminds me where it came from and that it's a natural object. 

Once the kids are in school next week, I have gobs of projects to finish up- look for more good stuff here soon!!

Sunday, December 29, 2013

A Photographic Opportunity

This holiday season I had the opportunity to consign some pieces to photographer/portrait artist Leslie McIntosh in Virginia Beach. She wanted to try to market jewelry from a smattering of different artists and did several shows in her beautiful studio, with creative displays and marketing.


What's so interesting is how she photographed my pieces, above. It's always surprising to see one's work photographed by someone else. It takes you aback because of the way they 'see' your work, and the decisions they make to package it. But there are definite advantages to having a photographer market jewelry!! It's a beautiful photograph. The makeup dots above her eyebrows seems to reinforce the granulated technique of the jewelry.  It has a certain spirit, too, which I think aligns with the spirit of the pieces. As I always am taking extreme close-ups of my pieces, I do seem to want to look closer at each of the pieces, but I have to remind myself to take the image in as a whole.

What do you think??