Goodbye etsy - hello BigCartel!

Yep.  Slowly moving my work off etsy and onto a cleaner, more modern site.

I'll admit that I finally got tired of seeing the same things on the landing page day after day, week after week, year after year, in spite of all of the complaints and ideas proposed to make etsy more sleek.  What began as a site for handmade and unique has finally turned into a site where everything is welcome to the point where anything handmade can mean truly artisan work created from start to finish by a single artist to cheap charms hung on a cheap chain.  Don't get me started on the dishes from the garage sale next door.  I just can't compete.  Worse, I can't be found.

So I find BigCartel.  Sleek, modern, easy to use.  Gone are the teens and tweens and any mention of Hello Kitty.  If these people were craft and art show people, I would be proud to have my tent parked next to theirs.

Not sure my rant is over but do take a look and cruise through the BigCartel site - even my own shop site, if you have a few minutes to spare.  Tell me what you think.  I think it's a good fit.

I'm out of words today . . .

 Honest.  Do you ever just run out of words?

I'm busy getting ready for a show in Omaha next weekend and I'm cranking out the juicy stuff and loving every minute of it.  Reminds me that what I really love is cutting and polishing my own stones and hand-fabrication - metalwork - fire - hammers.

So here you go.  A little bit of lavender color chalcedony cut from a band of blue agate, translucent and glorious.  Set in sterling silver and accented with a little drop bead of sunset color carnelian.  For my money, nothing is more satisfying than taking a little bit of pretty stone and making it prettier.

The end.

Oh, for sale.

Loading up the shop . . .

It's an experiment.  I am sending out six gift certificates over six consecutive weekends in giveaway bags.  These bags are going out as prizes at a local racetrack and as a 'thank you' to fans and supporters and will, of course, contain more than just my gift certificates.  In fact, people will be encouraged to pass along what they don't intend to use and I'm hoping these certificates will eventually get into the right hands.  So today was spent taking new pictures and listing listing after listing on etsy.  Fingers crossed.  We'll see what happens next. 

O.M.G. My first!

I finally made it to etsy's front page today! I'm validated! The little Tourmalinated Quartz necklace was part of a treasury and it sold immediately - yay. Add 7 hearts and I'm tickled!

What I like to wake up to . . .

Two sales! Just when I start to lament that I haven't had an etsy sale in October, I get two in one day. However it comes, I like it.

I love this piece of pale cream Willow Creek Jasper and it polished beautifully. Like a pencil line drawing on a creamy paper with a tiny sun rising in the upper corner, or maybe a little coffee spill from the artist's cup, this will be gorgeous on a warm, winter wool coat, maybe a jacket, and I've loved it for a long time. Bye . . . sniff . . . I miss 'em all.

The other little necklace is one of the first pieces of apple green Prehnite that I cut and polished earlier this summer. It glows, I swear. It has its own life. On the back I've punched a pattern of a little constellation from a galaxy far, far away. Another simple setting, it will be perfect hanging in the hollow of your throat.

Bon chance, little pieces!

Enjoy your new home! Write!

For my friend Lil Fish Studios . . .

I am so lucky.

Lucky to have learned lapidary work, to have learned metalwork, to have friends who will send me little rocks to 'prettify', to have two healthy hands to create and lucky to have a creative mind that works.

Here's what you get when you use all of the skills to create something of beauty - two little necklaces to cherish. And both of them are on their way to Lisa at Lil Fish Studios as a 'thank you' for sending that sweet box of rocks to Nebraska.

Lovely.

Tourmalinated Quartz . . .

This turned out to be one gorgeous icy ring. The inclusions are spectacular so setting it with an open back was a no-brainer - as was darkening the channel in the band.

So cool.

Update :: sold!