Jet Jewelry

You never know what you can find at some gemstone shops. From my last trip to my local store I discovered JET stone for my jewelry! I've got a couple of friends who LOVES bold jewelry. They like big stones. I was really very surprised when I took 2 of this Jet stones. The size of the stones is around 35x22mm but oh gosh, you wouldn't believe how light are they. Perfect for earring wich I already posted as my new listing at MyWayToSay shop.

Jet (also known as gagate) is fossilized coal. It is a hard, lightweight lustrous black stone that was used in mourning jewelry during the Victorian era (especially after Queen Victoria's husband died in 1861 and she went into long period of mourning, greatly affecting jewelry fashion). Jet is frequently cabochon cut. Most jet is from Whitby, England; jet has been mined near Whitby (on the Yorkshire coast of England) since prehistoric times. It is also found in Spain, France, Germany, and Russia, but these other sources are said to be inferior to the harder, more elastic Whitby jet. Jet has a hardness of 2.5-4 (quite soft) and a specific gravity of 1.30-1.35 (it is relatively lightweight). Jet leaves a brown streak. When burnt with a red-hot needle, jet smells like coal. Black glass and plastics are often used to imitate jet (glass is much heavier and harder than jet) - jet is warm to the touch.

ETSY Gift Guide secret

ETSY Gift Guide secret

In this post I’d like to share with you some little tips how to stay in Gift Guide a bit longer. If you know this secret your are smarter then me. LOL J

So the first thing in the morning – go to the great place HEART-O-MATIC - type your store name and click on Featured section.

If you found one of your item featured in a Gift Guide – make sure that you’ve got 2 of this items in stock!!! It’s very important!

If your item will be sold from Gift Guide you’ll be out of there. But if you’ll have 2 in stock one sold one will stay there

Lucky you ! More people will see you there!

I still have this item in Gift Guide I sold at list 10 of them and half of this was from Gift Guide!

One more thing! I noticed that 90% of my customers are the buyers only or the people who are purchased the same day the sign up with Etsy!

Hope this was a helpful tip for you!

From fun to unique

From fun to unique

So today was the day when somebody asked me to make necklace out of my best selling items. Looks like most of us felling these quotes by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich – Well behaved women rarely make history!

I sold bunch of rings, key chains and now necklace!

It’s was the same day as always and I was making photography to post this necklace in my shop – but you can’t stop your creativity. And the necklace came to the shape of women!

Creative ?! Simple?! Unique ?! - I think yes! And I know I will sell this a lot !

Try to make something unusual from your crafts and people will get this WOW COOL factor and you’ll be happy get some sales.

Selling jewelry on-line

The hardest thing is to sell jewelry on line. How many times in my past – when I only start making jewelry I received feedback – like this “Your jewelry much better in person then on the photos”

Now I’m trying twice more to make my pictures pop to my customer’s eyes.

Some tips from me!

1. Make a composition with some extra items on background. They shouldn’t be too big neither too small. (The extra items are a nice background in the composition and not like wow what is she selling? )

2. Contrast is also good tip – don’t use blue background for some blue jewelry.

3. Try to find the angle that is not usual .. you must make the photography with the thought like the necklace or earrings or .. must flouting to the customers wish list

4. If you don’t know how Photoshop works – try to use some simple programs (I use Picasa and Paint.net) Always make some fixing before listing your items sometime even a little retouch will be great for your creation.

Here is some photos from my favorite shops - they will give you some ideas how to make your jewelry stand up.

Yuliaart on Etsy


TomBjornDesigns on Etsy

MyWayToSay on Etsy

IrinaPhotography on Etsy


Arctida on Etsy

Need blue jewelry

Yes I need something blue - Something happy .. In Seattle it's already 2 weeks with no clean blue sky .. we want it so bad ! So if the nature can't give me blue colors outside - I'll take them myself !
Here is my first try with the sea glass from North- West :)!
Sterling silver chain with Swarovski and blue sea glass with freshwater coin pearl.
So fresh SO light - woo I like it



And the second is the ring with the beautiful blue faceted glass stones. The ring is Sterling silver base and the glass stone in the pewter framing.

Need blue - welcome to MYWAYTOSAY shop and have fun.

ETSY featuring Day 4

Welcome to our Day 4 featuring ETSY artists for the big christmas shopping 2009.

If you missed
Day 1 - IrinaPhotography - photography
Day 2 - AllMadeWithLove - leather, gems jewelry
Day 3 - Jezek - felted accesores, scarfs etc

Gifts for him! Do you know how hard to shop for our lovely boyfriends, father, husband? Looks like they have everything or they don’t need anything. Today I’ll show you Shrimp Salad Circus Vintage shop on Etsy

Etsy Buy Vintage shrimpsaladcircus

“Shrimp Salad Circus is Lindsay & Marion. We graduated from Alabama together (cue obligatory "Roll Tide"), trekked a small portion of the world for a bit, and are now sadly located several states apart. We've both lost countless hours scouring thrift store after thrift store looking for God-knows-what and have accumulated more vintage whatnots (purses, mainly) than we'd probably be comfortable admitting. Despite our attachment to all this fabulous stuff, we can't keep buying it up at this rate, so we're passing it along to you!”

ETSY featuring DAY 3

ETSY featuring DAY 3

Please feel free to see

Day 1 – IrinaPhotography

Day 2 – AllMadeWithlove

Today I want something warm and cozy! That’s why I chose Jezek’s shop on Etsy! It’s another style of craft I’ve never worked and I don’t think I will! She works with wool, fiber, cotton. I love her felted shawls and scarves! You also can find felted jewelry in her shop. So take a look and enjoy the work of this artist on ETSY .

From her BIO

“ Being a child I couldn't choose something concrete as a hobby.
It was just that I took a great interest in fancywork, knitting, crocheting, sewing, beadwork, drawing, dancing and after all in athletics practice.
My mother always believed that my excessive creativity came through my grandma. She was a good hand at any handicraft.”

You can find her at:

FlICKER

BLOGGER

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

BLOG ON RUSSIAN

ETSY featuring DAY 2

For my DAY 1 featuring look here.

Today I want to show you AllMadeWithLove shop and my favorite leather necklaces! I remember back in Russia I always loved this style and I have no idea how she made it! But with the price of this necklace – better just buy and enjoy it! Stop and look by her shop she also has some lovely gemstone necklaces, crochet and knitting stuff.

“ I've always loved crafts. Jewelry Designing, Crochet and Knitting are my passions. I've learned knitting and crochet when I was a child and have done this throughout my life.
It is a pleasure for me to make blankets, shawls, sweaters, jackets, adorable little things for babies, and many more.

Creating jewelry is my new passion, and has been such for the past four years. I love elegant, simple and extravagant contemporary and vintage designs. I have been making jewelry, using gemstone beads, chains and vintage elements, or whatever may inspire me.

Laura “

You can find her at:

Twitter

ETSY featuring artists Day 1

Christmas shopping will start in a couple days, that’s the main reason why I want to start browsing great site Etsy and feature different artists. So come back every morning to see who is next? And if you want to be one of them – just post a comment with the link to your ETSY shop and I’ll visit you.


Today is a very grey and rainy day here in Seattle so my first artist will be IrinaPhotography. Just take a look at some of Irina’s work and you will understand why she is number one in my featuring list!



"My name is Irina.

Photography is my hobby. I have taken pictures since I was a teenager. My favorite genres are Still life and Landscapes.

I would be honored for my pictures to grace your walls. Please feel free to ask any questions and I will respond.

Sincerely,
Irina"

You can find her at
FLICKR
BLOG

Feng Shui jewelry

Feng Shui jewelry.

This NECKLACE has been inspired by my lovely money tree plant (or jade plant or dollar plant).

The Jade Tree honors the jade plant as a feng shui remedy that attracts wealth and prosperity; Chinese jade as a precious stone imbued with both mystical power as well as healing properties; and the tree as the Tree of Life, a symbol of strength, wisdom, and longevity in many cultures.

I had this beautiful Swarovski crystal pendant and it’s looks the same as a jade plant! So now I’ve got my jade tree NECKLACE with me all the time. And the wealth will come!

The necklace is 16 inches. The size of the pendant is 20x12mm. Fancy gold filled chain and a spring ring clasp with 2 mystical Swarovski crystals They are light amethyst but during the night they change color on light green!

My ETSY wish list for Christmas shopping

I didn't make any new posts for a long time ! Today is the day to show you my Christmas wish list wich was made with ETSY

So NUMBER ONE!!!

Everybody knows that my favorite color is blue - so I want this soo bad !!! I never had anything felted - so this will be my number One!

This Scarf might come to me from Moscow. As you know Moscow is my home town - so this will be a great gift from Russia.

If you like this scarf - my friend has other colors in her shop!

Please visit MANONKNITS and pick something for yourself!

Shop Handmade soap !

Did you try to shop for Handmade soap ?! Why should you shop handmade soap?! Where is the best place to shop ??

I made this post with the help of many people who like Handmade soap!

Let’s count and find out why people buy handmade soap and maybe you will try to ?!

1. Handmade soap genrally has less or no chemicals in it.

2. Custome scents that you can’t find elsewhere

3. Because it lacks all the raunchy chemicals and detergents that are in 99% of all mass produced soaps - which makes skin sooo much healthier. (Commercial "soap" is detergent based with synthetic chemicals like SLS thrown in to create foaming to make you believe it works instead of it actually working. Then these companies will toss in a pathetically small portion of a real ingredient, like cocoa butter, and charge three times as much for their "luxury" "soap")

4. VERY reasonable prices on handmade soap

5. It’s made with love a personal touch

6. Natural ingridients

7. Handmade soap last longer

8. If you have allergies – you can always find one soap your skin will be happy with

9. HandMade soap is a pice of art nowdays!

10. Great for the gifts or just fo reasonable price treating for yourself

So here is the main 10 reasons to shop for handmade soap! Find yours! Shop for yourself of get ready for crystmas !

You can find soap for kids – well it will make them wash themselves with joy – because it’s a lot of funny sapes colors sizes out there on the soap market

You can find soap for adults (Wink)

You can find handmade soap for anybody!!!

So did I inspired you to spend couple $$ and try handmade soap ?!?!?!

Have fun shopping at ETSY

or BONANZLE

Then take a look at some of the soaps I prepered for you !

Bonanzle Sidewalk Sale

Thank you to WhatASteal for organizing this Bonanzle sidewalk Sale !

Tuesday August 25
Time: 12:00 on Tuesday to 12:00 on Wednesday – Bonanzle Time
Discount: 20% off entire purchase.
Use any of the following coupon codes listed below to get 20% off your entire purchase at participating stores all day on Tuesday.

TSALE1
TSALE2
TSALE3
TSALE4
TSALE5

Click on flyer and it will take you to a participating vendor.

Weekend free shipping deals on Bonanzle

I’m glad to see you today on my blog. As you know I’m a happy Bonanzle seller for about 1,5 month. CLICK HERE TO VISIT ME.

Starting this week I will try each Friday post the list of the booth which will have WEEKEND FREE SHIIPPING DEALS for you! I’m sure every other week there will be different booth on the list – so if you interested – just follow my blog to be the first to shop with weekend free shipping deals on Bonanzle.
This weekend - shop for Jewelry (handmade, fashion, fine), Vintage, books etc.


GreatSupplies – jewelry supplies
Pigletntrekky4hair – only 90% with free shipping
Pearllreala – fashion jewelry
SadieBellsBooks – vintage
Silver_Gems – handmade jewelry
Dakotaexchange – Black Hils Gold Jewelry
MyWayToSay – handmade jewelry

Healing power of Copper

Here is some of the beautiful items I found on my new place were you can sell everything - Bonanzle



What does copper do in our body?
Copper is used by our body to support many health functions and copper deficiencies cause many health problems.
• Healing copper is an essential component of the natural pigment, melanin that gives color to our skin, hair, and eyes. Yes, copper helps stop our hair from turning grey and helps keep our hair thick.
• Healing copper is required in our body to make enzymes that stop our arteries from hardening and the resulting high blood pressure.
• Healing copper is required to support the enzyme lysyl oxidase. Lysyl Oxidase is used in the synthesis and maintenance of bone and connective tissue. If this enzyme is somehow not working properly, the maintenance breaks down. We believe that copper is essential to the activation of lysyl oxidase and supports both elastin and collagen, areas of great concern for arthritis sufferers.
• Healing copper is considered to have a positive influence on blood circulation and metabolism.
• Healing copper is considered a strong conductor of energy (considered an excellent combination with magnetic field therapy) as an aid for exhaustion.
• Healing copper is often known as the "Love Metal"… helping us open up to Love energies.


I was making researches and found this interesting article Analysis of Copper Bracelets for Arthritis: Do They Really Work?

If you'd like to see some of my copper jewelry - wich will be great for the gifts - I'll be happy to see you in my booth MyWayToSay - Please enter code copper15 - to recive 15% on any purchase!

Making children jewelry

Today was the day when we decided to make some kids bracelets. After I made one denim bracelet she asked me to make another.

denim bracelet

So we decided to make a sets – 2 bracelets of each style. We name them Sister bracelets or best friends. It was really very fan to work with her. We used glass pearls, some lampwork beads, some crystals. If we sell them – it’s great – if not – Alexcia will have a lot of cute little gifts to give her friends during the holidays.

You can find more of our today creations at one of my Bonanzle booth

Adding Animated Banners to your Blog

Ever wondered how you make you blog more interesting! What about adding Flash animations to your blog? I’m not a master of making this banners – let the professional make it wile you promoting your shop and making sales. I made mine at the Digitaldoodlebug . You can find her Booth at Bonanzle (one of the best place to sell anything you want)

See a sample of what can be done below, doesn't this look cool!

Now the trick!
After you got your animation you need to put it online , since Blogger does not allow you to upload any SWF, GIF files you need to upload them to your own webserver, or a free image server, in my case I put the GIF file at free image server .

I found the first one after I typed at Google Free image server and it was http://www.freeimagehosting.net/

After you download your banner there they will give you all the cods you will need to use in your blog, forum etc. Save them and you ready to make your blog much lovely!

Hope this post will be helpful for you!

If you still have any questions - Feel free to ask!

Russian community on ETSY

Everybody know that ETSY is an international on-line place where you can sell your handmade or vintage stuff. As I’m a Russian and now live in USA I’m happy to let you know that now here is a Russian team on Etsy. Our team is still awaiting approval for being official. We are worldwide here is a couple countries our members are: USA , Russia (Moscow), Buenos Aires , Sweden, Riga, Canada … etc.

If you speak Russian and want to be a part of us – you can always find us here ★ ★ ★ Russian TEAM - we speak Russian ★ ★ ★

And now we have our page on FaceBook.

Become our fan to stay in touch with Russian artist. Shop unique and one of a kind clothing accessories, jewelry, painting, photography, handmade clothing for kids and adults, patterns...

For those who like Vintage !!!

Today I found out that one of my item has been featured on Bonanzle if you are not there please feel free to look inside - and you will love it ... It's great for buyers and sellers etc ...

and here is the featuring collection -

STEPPING BACK IN TIME ... one click at a time

Vintage footwear THANK YOU Mjrurl - Click on the picture - and welcome to see large size !

Gay pride parade 2009 in Seattle

Well I never expected this to happen on my 4th anniversary of arriving in USA, I celebrated with family and friends at Seattle’s gay pride parade. If somebody had told me about this show several years ago, I would have told “NEVER will I go there! ” So life is constantly changing and you never know what you will do in the future.
We got a spot in the shade and after the first hour we were cold, but we never thought to go home.
It was the first parade which was so long for me; it was from 11 till 2 pm … Can you guess how many people were there? We saw clowns (not sad or happy, more the freaky kinky type) we saw fun floats and lots of companies who offered support to the community. OK there were a few nude people and some kink too, but mostly what we saw were people letting their hair down and have fun in the sun!
Coming from another country I was not prepared for what I saw, but I found myself simply caught up in the fun. Plus watching our daughter and friends dancing and laughing was just contagious and inspiring, more than I expected and a great time was had by all. My husband took some great photos while we cut loose, so here are a few to share a great day with you!

My New Place - DaWanda

I'm very happy to tell you that now you can find my store at DaWanda I've been there for a long time but I start to put some of my free time in promoting my ArtBizhu store.
So if you like my Mini DaWanda - please come and take a more detail look !

Result of 1-st week - Loosing pounds

I'm sorry i didn't post everyday about my results . It's hard to find time for this. So I decided make weekly posts about my goal.

The goal for the First week was "Feel good and get used not eat after 6 pm" I lost control on the second day and get extra pounds ... So it was just only one time. The rest of the week was great ... I'm now ok with NO EATING after 6 p.m. ... If I feel hungry - a cup of tea helps me.

I didn't loos much - and I didn't got extra pounds .

The Second week start with the same 228,5 pounds.

The goal for the second week - add hiking and running to my day routine.

Hope I'll be ok with this ..

Come later to see where I'm.

Day 1-st - my Loosing pounds life

So yesterday was not as bad as I thought it'll be ..
I think the most difficalt was to see how my baby and hubby were eating icecream at 10pm :)! But I did it - NO smell - No try - No eat!! Good Start!!

Day 1.

Start 228 pounds

9am – wake up
10am Breakfast

2 donuts with 2 cup of coffee (milk – no syrup or sugar )

1.20

10 minutes Exercise

2.pm

Lunch : Soup – chicken broth + 1 small potato + a little of pasta for soup + broccoli + carrot + 1 egg – LOVELY!!! 1 piece of chicken (baked in the oven)

5.30

Dinner : Thin cut stake on the grill + salad carrot cabbage tomato

Day 2-nd start with 227,5 pounds :!)

I want to lose some pounds - YOU ?!

Done – Need lose weight!!!

I was trying to find something what can fit me and my style of livingJ - YES I LOVE SWEETS J and I want them .. so to tell NO to cakes – candy donuts – NOP – it’s not for me!

So I heard about this system long ago and now I’ll give it a try! It’s a Russian lady Katerina Mirimanova with her book – Minus 60 (so 60 is like minus 60 kgJ )

The whole idea is

1. You can eat as much as you want Sweets , fat and and and – you name it BUT this crazy stuff only till 12 AM !!!

2. You can drink as much as you want

3. Feel free to use salt but not to mush

4. Sugar honey - ONLY till 12 AM

5. Breakfast – MUST DO

6. Don’t count your calories

7. You can eat as much as you want – if you want eat – eat – and be happy

8. If you will eat a lot of fruits it can be hard to lose weight

9. Don’t eat after 6 p.m. – here is the key!!!

So here is to start with :! )

Every day I’ll try to post something new about this book - as a book in Russia I’m making a little bit of my translations … will try to make some similar diet style of weight loosing on English sites …

And today will be my first day

I’m starting with 228 pounds with the 5.8 feet tall

My goal will be 150 pounds - so I need to lose 78 pounds – and it’s around 40 kg J!

YAHOO ! ! ! We Did it ! ! !

Thank you so Much for all your entry and posts and feedback - it was nice to read it! As I promised on 31-st of May - we will find who is the lucky one ! ! !

It was my first giveaway - and looks like I did a little mistake - you can't see the numbers of each entry! But There were 74 posts - and .... and .. and ....

Here is the winner!

throuthehaze said...

i would like Hand made macrame plant hanger in natural cotton color...my mom used to make these and they are so neat!
throuthehaze at gmail dot com

May 18, 2009 3:41 AM

Front Page for one of US !

I've got a great news !

Yesterday the member of RussianArt team got on the Front page!!!

We are very Happy for you you JANEBOFELT !!!

And the best news - she got a sale today!!!

Congradulation with this!!! Many more sales to you!

Here is what she says about her work :

..."Every of my felted scarf, hat, bag or jewerly is one-of-a-kind and made by me using my favorite wet felt or nuno-felt techniques. Recently I discovered freeform chrocheted jewelry. Stay tuned for new designs!" ...

Please come and take a look at her shop JaneBoFelt - very nice felting work.

And here is the treasury she was in and some of her work.

Something From the Pastt !

LOL I forgot it was a best seller last year - so I put them Up for sale agayn :)!

I started my way on Etsy, with a Wine rack and a Macrame Curtain! Now I have something small and tiny! YES it is a ring! This ring is made out of black hemp and a black faceted glass bead. It's size is about 7 1/2. Sure I can make one smaller or bigger. If you like just order one :)

The ring can be custom order with different colors of hemp and beads! Just ask for your favorite color... I will make it and I'll ship it next day!

This will be great for those who WANT have some jewelry but can't wear any silver og gold because of allergy ...

FIRST GIVEAWAY for ETSYVERSARY

MAY IS MY DAY ! ! !

This month is my Etsyversary – It'll be my 2 years with ETSY and my Birthday 30 years and I'll be without of my famaly - it's sad but such is life. They are in Russia I'm in USA

Want to know how I started ?!

I was waiting for my hubby from the doctor appointment and I was looking through some magazines – Woman’s day – or something like this – and TADAA – ETSY – very tiny Add and I wrote it in my book to see later … as a result:

I have 3 shops :)!
I started with
http://knotartwa.etsy.com - may 30-th 2007 - 292 sales
http://knotartoverstok.etsy.com was born in August 18 - 2007 and I'm at 2517 sales -
then I started to learn USA country by vintage stuff and open
http://lostfashions.etsy.com - may 12 2008 :) only 31 sales - but it's still fun :)!

Every year something new – so this year I decided to make my first giveaway!!! And I’m posting 2 items for the winners!

This cute Owl keychain – the winner will chose the favorite color. I sold a lot of this guys - so I think it'll be a great for the giveaway (regular price $10)

And This beautiful Garnet earrings ( value $35)

SOOOO Want to win?

Now through Sunday, May 31 st at 11:59pm EST you can enter to win a free CONTEST PRIZE!

To enter, simply go to KnotartWa and find the piece that you’d like to see in the next giveaway. Post your entry in the comments here and tell me why you chose this item.

Get extra entries the following way...

.. If you post this giveaway on your blog and add the link to a comment here, you'll receive a second entry.

.. If you follow me on twitter (KnotartWA) you'll get another entry

.. Add my shop as a favorite in Etsy and you'll receive another entry

.. PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM KnotartWa shop AND YOU WILL GET AN EXTRA 10 ENTRIES FOR EACH ITEM PURCHASED! (just for you 15% off – code “15Giveaway” )

I will be using random.org to select a winner. And don't forget to leave your e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win.

Red is HOT

Red is hot all the time :)!

I got an inspirations bird at 3 am - and the new set WAS BORN :!)

Love it !!! Will Keep IT !!!

Mother's day - and my First fishing trip

My mother and father in law took me along with my husband and daughter to Mayfield Lake here in Washington State to relax and show me and my daughter fishing for the first time. I was not very enthused as I do not like wiggly things like fish and bait. I was also envisioning my husband having a good time as I watched our little girl, plus this is not something I was accustomed to coming from Moscow Russia and being a city girl. Well needless to say everything went much better than I had envisioned!
We stayed at Winston Cove on the lake which had been renovated nicely, with wonderful views and grounds. There were playgrounds and great hiking which was so cool for the little one, plus I got a fish using my daughter’s pole on my first try. I was so excited I forgot all about fish, stress, and even my husband, thanks to my father in law Delt for helping my land and restrain my first trout. We caught Rainbow Trout for three days and most were in the 16 inch to 22 inch range, me and my husband Jason tied for biggest catch of the trip at 22 inches. I loved eating them as much as I enjoyed the thrill of my first catch, no crazy smell, no fat, no fishy taste, just flaky, clean and fresh like the mountain air.
It was also me and my daughter Alexcia’s first time boating, what a thrill! We saw black tail deer, bald eagles, hawks, blue heron, waterfalls, the dam, and even log hauling barges al while getting sunburned to boot. My Alexcia was grinning from ear to ear right up until the motion of the water put a three year old to sleep!
We finished a great four days with a birthday party as my daughter turned three on Mother’s Day this year, so all the ladies got treated like we deserve…showered in love and adventure. I am starting to think the USA is better all the time, why doesn’t the news show this side of living?