It’s only October, but there are less than 70 shopping days until Christmas and less than 60 days left until Hanukkah.
Here are some great gift ideas for that special woman in your life. 
Happy Holiday Shopping Everyone!
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Thank you Ms. Swan.
“I wanta spooky but also dancing.”
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Shiny Spotlight Thursday
There are some really talented artists, designers and creators that sell their handmade items on Artfire and etsy. I thought it might be nice to highlight some of the things that caught my eye this week while browsing.
Clicking on each image will link you to the seller of each item, if you decide you simply must purchase it.
If you haven’t opened an account on etsy to purchase handmade items, you really should. Also, if you haven’t checked out Artfire in a while, you can find some really unique gifts on the site. Artfire doesn’t require you to open an account to purchase handmade goods. Easy peasy.
I thought I would try out Artfire’s color picker for this week’s selections.
Enjoy!
Lovely Tulip Handmade Soap Slice by Epically Epic Soap Company.
3D Stained Glass Butterly by CD Childs
California Poppies Wildflower 8 x 10 Photo by Nature Visions
Sacred Amber Perfumed Oil by Allegheny Hearth
Steampunk Squid by Popnicute
Happy Shopping everyone!
Look for the Shiny Spotlight every Thursday.
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Merriam-Webster defines odoriferous as:
odor·if·er·ous
Pronunciation: \ˌō-də-ˈri-f(ə-)rəs\
Function: adjective
Date: 15th century
1 : yielding an odor : odorous
2 : morally offensive
— odor·if·er·ous·ly adverb
— odor·if·er·ous·ness noun
Several years ago, I purchased almost all of my jewelry on ebay. It was cheap, it was colorful and it fit a need at the time. For the last couple of years, most, if not all of these purchases have been sitting idly in my jewelry box. And some for VERY good reason. They were stinky.
Stinky jewelry you say? How odd. Indeed.
Some of the pendants I’d purchased smelled bad. Like dead animal, morning after binge drinking, bad.
Thursday night I couldn’t sleep, so, instead of having another glass of wine and going back to bed, like any normal person, I decided to clean out the odoriferous culprits in my jewelry box. I made a big pile of the stuff I no longer wear and proceeded to take them apart to determine the source of the smell.
Know what I found out? Really cheap jewelry isn’t made well. Big surprise, huh? There is glue. LOTS of glue. And lots of additions of paper or fabric or something under the stones in the pendants. The something and the glue was what was stinky.
So I ended up putting all the silver into a pile to be melted later, trashing the stinky liner stuff, and stashing the myriad glass and stone cabachons I saved. (You can see some of the glue still stuck to the rose quartz cabs in the second image below)
The glass cabachons will most likely end up in my supply shop on Artfire at some point. Not sure what I’ll do with the stone cabs I dug out of the miasma. LOL They may show up in my supply shop too.
So is there a lesson learned? Sort of. There is nothing inherently wrong with purchasing inexpensive costume jewelry. It serves a purpose. But, to the best of my knowledge, the good stuff doesn’t stink.
The end.
The members of Starving Artist’s Team on Etsy are planning a fabulous holiday surprise for you, our readers and customers. We’re sworn to secrecy, so even though we are bursting at the seams, we can’t tell you what it is.
You should check out the SATeam blog for further announcements.
The SATeam blog features artisan handmade creations by the etsy starving artists jewelry team. SATeam members create handcrafted jewelry and beads. More information about our team and its current etsy shop owner members can be found at SATEAM.etsy.com.
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Apatite, the most common phosphate mineral is a member of the Apatite group (isomorphous hexagonal mineral group) and usually appears in blue or green shade. However, the color ranges from colorless, white, yellow to red, brown, pink or purple. It is a brittle stone, and I wouldn’t recommend using it in bracelets or rings, unless extreme care is given in their wear.
Apatite is believed to decrease appetite (hunger) as well as enhance insight, creativity and learning. It is said that wearing apatite will enhance focus, clarity for concentration, intellect, acceptance, and unconditional love. This acceptance and unconditional love relates to the self as well as from others.
I have a couple shades in my bead stash, and used two of them in these lovely silver hoop earrings.
I used the green faceted apatite rondelles to wrap shiny silver hoops, and the more teal/cerulean blue color smooth rondelles to dangle from the oxidized silver pair.
I can’t decide which shade I like better. What do you think?
It’s only October, but there are less than 0 shopping days until Christmas and less than 65 days left until Hanukkah.
Here are some great gift ideas for that special woman in your life.
Happy Holiday Shopping Everyone!
Don’t miss a single post.
Follow this blog: Click here
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Shiny Spotlight Thursday
There are some really talented artists, designers and creators that sell their handmade items on Artfire and etsy. I thought it might be nice to highlight some of the things that caught my eye this week while browsing.
Clicking on each image will link you to the seller of each item, if you decide you simply must purchase it.
If you haven’t opened an account on etsy to purchase handmade items, you really should. Also, if you haven’t checked out Artfire in a while, you can find some really unique gifts on the site. Artfire doesn’t require you to open an account to purchase handmade goods. Easy peasy.
As the seasons change, it’s time for me to purchase a new purse. Hopefully some of these selections will entice you to do so as well.
Enjoy!
Handmade Leather Messenger: Almeta in Brown by Studio One Design
Anna Belle Chic Handmade Cocoa’s Teal by Mautto
Red Leather Slouchy Bag by The Leather Store
Stacked in Licorice Blossoms by Camille Star
Black Leather Flat Messenger by Urban Heirlooms
Happy Shopping everyone!
Look for the Shiny Spotlight every Thursday.
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I’ve received a couple emails last week with questions about my photography set up. I thought it would be easier to show than explain, so I took a few pictures of my bench.
First, let me say, I don’t recommend anything that I do, per se. It works for me and it’s relatively easy, so I’ll probably not change my set up anytime soon. That said, I don’t use a light box. I don’t have ott lights. I don’t use a tripod. I have my trusty Sony camera, a couple of slate tiles, some photo props from the backyard and my book shelf and my jewelry. Plus some ancient photo editing software (I use MS Picture It. Truth be told, I have PhotoShop installed on my pc, I’ve just never got around to learning how to use it. )
This is what my set up looks like today. You can see my work table, the tile, and the ubiquitous stick (highlighted by the big red arrow) from my backyard.
Two of my favorite photo props on my slate tile.
The real trick for me, is putting the camera in macro mode and then putting the lens right up close to whatever I’m taking a picture of. By the way, the camera in the photo below is NOT the camera I use. I just put a disposable in the shot to illustrate what I was talking about. I use a fully automated Sony DSC F828. I love that I can put the lens right up close to whatever I am shooting. And its almost completely automatic so I don’t have to learn how to use an SLR. Yep, I know, lazy.
After downloading the images to my pc, I crop them square, increase the focus a bit if needed and lighten them, again if needed.
The finished products look like this
Good luck in your photographing endeavors!
I spent a little quality time at the work bench this weekend. A little creating, a little organizing. You know how that goes. The organizing paid off, however, as I discovered some wonderful little deep red garnet briolettes I’d forgotten I had.
Both pair are available in the ShinyAdornments Artfire studio.
Citrine Encrusted Silver Hoops
Artisan Silver and Garnet Hoops
Happy Holiday Shopping Everyone!
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