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Thursday, May 18, 2017

All The New Gadgets!! Loop Making Pliers

I am so out of the loop when it comes to specialty tools. I am so old school :)

I saw a video for these pliers on Firemountain Gems Facebook page this morning and WOW!!







It appears to be the tiniest bit of a learning curve to get the hang of these pliers.  For my taste, the loop is too far above the top bead, I would want a tighter design, that aside, I think this is genius. For a beginner that is having problems with learning to make a loop, this would be great. For someone like me, with arthritis starting to set in, it would be perfect. I can find so many reasons to use this tool.

What are your thoughts on these pliers? Have you used them?

By the way, I am not paid to review products by Firemountain Gems. I just thought this was really cool and wanted to share it with you!


All of my jewelry creations are based on the metaphysical properties of the stones or the colors that are incorporated. Jewelry should be a window to our soul, a protector of our emotions and a companion to our spirit. All of my other creations come directly from my heart in hopes they touch yours as well. Celebrate yourself with healing jewelry, and other gift ideas made with love!

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Updating My Etsy Store - Etsy Algorithms - Photos And More

The struggle is real folks.

In my area of talent and creativity, there are just some things that elude me - photography and descriptions to be more exact. Having an issue with these two things in an online market place, it can make selling difficult.

At first I thought, "well, the pictures a pretty good, it will be ok, people will know what they are looking at.". As I follow my own thought process and scrol through my Etsy shop, I hear the words of my friend Julie- "People shop with their eyes", and it is true. I am even finding myself scrolling quickly and looking for something to catch my eye. Nothing does because my photos are sub par.

If you are stuggling with 'Why isn't my Etsy Shop preforming" I strongly recommend this quick and free course, that gives you information on how to access your shop, and see what you need to work on.
Handmade Seller  - Mastering The Etsy Algorithm Course - Free!.  Once you are on their site, just scroll down until you see the link for it.

There were so many good points made, and it made me take responsibility for my store. When I think to myself, why aren't my pieces selling like I want them to? The answers are in this course. Topics like, the photographs, the descriptions, the customer service, the tags, the marketing, they all play key rolls into a successful store. What I found out is that, what I thought was adequate, is just that adequate. There is nothing in my store that stands out, that makes people look and want or need.

Treating Etsy like a business and not a hobby, or a dumping ground for pictures of what you make, will give you the returns as a business (or hobby or dumping ground for pictures).

Learning how Etsy works, deep down how it works and learning to list your items so that Etsy will take notice, along with the millions of people who shop is essential. Read, watch videos, compare your favorite shops to your own, what do they do that makes them successful.

Invest time into your shop, invest yourself into your shop. It shows.

People who are shopping for hand made items want to buy from someone who is confident in their craft, shoppers want to be confident that what they are buying is well made. Make your shop well made to relay this to your customers.

I have started a new journey, upgrading my shop. Some things that I have done.

1. Got rid of some inventory. Some pieces had been taking up space in my shop for too long. Have a sale, move em out. Make new pieces to keep the store fresh.

2. Update all of my item titles. Here I am playing the Etsy game, and making the titles for my pieces as in depth as possible.

3. ALL NEW PHOTOS!! Yes. I started that today, and I could cry. Here are some samples of what I am trying to accomplish.

These first two are the images that are currently listed in my store. They are washed out, white, no warmth. but clear, and do show the fire in the stone itself.  How can I improve on this.

Instead of using the white background, I am going for a more natural look, and useing wood as the background, along with stone props to give the piece some depth (that is my thought process)


Problem with this light, is you can't see the 'fire' from the labradorite
Finally I got a good angle, that really shows off the fire in the stone, but the art work of the wire wrap is now lost, and even with the cropping, you can see the gap in the background walls.

This is where I am, and I have a long way to go, and I feel it is worth it for a truly successful store.  What do you do with your store that makes it successful? What do you do to attract new customers, and keep them coming back?

Bottom line.....I just want to make things!

btw - i am not paid to endorce handmade sellers - i just used that video course and thought it was worth sharing.

All of my jewelry creations are based on the metaphysical properties of the stones or the colors that are incorporated. Jewelry should be a window to our soul, a protector of our emotions and a companion to our spirit. All of my other creations come directly from my heart in hopes they touch yours as well. Celebrate yourself with healing jewelry, and other gift ideas made with love!

Monday, May 15, 2017

Emerald - The Stone for May

For all the May birthdays - Happy Birthday!!!

Emerald is the birthstone of May. May is one of the months that only has one birthstone.

As a boho style jewelry designer, emeralds are something I don't have the pleasure of working with too much, until now :)

Emeralds are soft and scratch easily and don't make a great bead. They traditionally are cut with a facet, and small, not so fun to wrap, and keep a boho vibe. FiremountainGems has several styles of emeralds to choose from on their site. You will also see they are oiled.  Emeralds are oiled to enhance the clarity of the stone due to the natural inclusions, fissures and microscopic cracks that happen naturally in the stone.  Gem Select has a great article on this process. 

Emeralds are a beautiful deep green, and found all over the world, some right here in North Carolina. Metaphysically it is the stone of rebirth and love. What a perfect stone for May right in the heart of spring!


I am a stone collector from way back, and several years ago I acquired a healing crystal business. In the inventory was this raw emerald. I had completely forgot about it, until I started writing out my to do list for blog posts.

I chose this hippie free form wrap for the stone. Didn't try to hard to match up two stones for the set because each piece of emerald is it's own work of art, in this raw, untumbled, un oiled state.



I am really loving this style, and will be making more!


All of my jewelry creations are based on the metaphysical properties of the stones or the colors that are incorporated. Jewelry should be a window to our soul, a protector of our emotions and a companion to our spirit. All of my other creations come directly from my heart in hopes they touch yours as well. Celebrate yourself with healing jewelry, and other gift ideas made with love!