My Prayer for the New Year

Dear God,


This year I'd like to have a fat bank account and a slim body.


Please don't get them mixed up like you did last year.



AMEN

Moving on and Growing

Private Stock Jewelry on line sales have been suspended due tothe fact that most of what is listed is now sold. New stock has been placed in Mystique Artisan Gallery at Pioneer Place, Downtown Portland and O'Shiny in Clackamas, OR. My new line of wedding jewelry will be announced in the coming weeks.

You are welcome to view my galleries at PrivateStockJewelry.com, check out sponsor sites or visit
my partner shops in Portland. Thank you all for your business and check back for new
announcements.

I am also in the process of learning new jewelry making skills and having a great time doing that too!

Rita Juhlin

Free Tutorial and Video on Chain Maille Bracelet

DIY Network: Great Video: Chain Maille Bracelet

Because I like to learn something new everyday, well almost everyday, I search for free tutorials on different techniques. This is a clear and easy way to start yourself on chain maille. I just made a similar bracelet, you would not believe what I went through to do the same thing. Believe me this is a great video!

This video is much more professional than what you will find, in most cases, on You Tube.

(Your Welcome) LOL

DIY about Making Enamel Beads

Make Your Own Enamel Beads

This is a good vido about making Enamel Beads, this also can be done to make colorful head pins, I've seen some and they quite pretty.

Significants of Wedding Rings

This article was written by Elaine, who writes various articles on Fashion and Jewelry. This article is about Wedding Rings. She would love to hear from you at elainebrown1976@gmail.com

After choosing your life partner, the next thing isto find a wedding ring that is as nice as the person who is going to wear it for years to come. In the words of Louis K. Anspacher, marriage is that relation between man and woman in which the independence is equal, the independence mutual, and the obligation reciprocal.


As soon as you hear the term marriage, the thought of the wedding ring strikes your mind. Such is the emotional and sentimental value attached to the wedding ring. So, it is natural that you select an exclusive and above-the-ordinary model.

Go for a gold or platinum ringif you really wish your wedding ring to stand apart from the ordinary. Regarding the patterns, you can choose a ring with three interwoven rings, which are symbolic of the three Christian virtues of 'faith, hope and love'.

You hold your wife dear to your heart; gether an magnificent wedding ring with some really wonderful designs. You can bet that she will simply love your gift as it is no ordinary ring but a symbol of your eternal love and enduring marriage.

You can create a good impression by picking a ring with those designs she loves. There are rings with Floral designs, Interwoven ones, Handmade or Rolling, Two-Tone or Tri- Color designs.

Normally, a woman's wedding ring is slim and sleek than a man's. So, you can check with the jeweler if there are designs exclusively meant for women, say for example, designs such as the Comfort and Engraved rings. At the same time, if she likes to wear something exotic, go for a ring highlighting Medieval designs or Celtic themes.

How to Select the Best Wedding Band for your Marriage

Marriages are made in heaven and to make this day unforgettable in every person's life, certain traditions have been followed since ancient times. One of such customs is wearing a wedding band. The shine and glitter of the wedding bands remains the same even after the fun and gaiety of the marriage fades away, reminding you of the wedding vows of eternal love.


As wedding bands are very special to you, similar to wedding rings, you could wellchoose from the best in the market. Many leading stores offer you a wide range of wedding bands to pick from; for example, if you your jewels to be sparkling and showy, opt for a golden wedding band with a rosy-pink or yellow-gold shade. You can also opt a platinum band if you want to gift an exotic wedding gift to your partner.

Check if your partner loves stone-studded jewelry? Then, choosea band with bright and unique diamond stones. Eternity wedding bands are a perfect complement to your engagement or wedding ring.
To add more uniqueness to your wedding band, you can choose a common element for wedding bands. the designs may not match, you can choose the same metal for bands for both of you.

Once you have decided about the metal that the band should be made of, you just need to go toa popular and trustworthy jeweler. He would provide you with catalogs of awesome collections of wedding bands, such as Celtic or Trinity wedding bands, uniquely carved and designed to rightly make your wedding unforgettable and the most cherished memory of your lifetime

This guest post written by Elaine, who writes various articles on Fashion and Jewelry.

"Green" Etching for Jewelry without Acid

There is a fabulous tutorial at http://www.making-jewelry-now.com/acid-etching-metal-jewelry-part-1.html by Virginia Vivier (Esprit Mystique Jewelry) using acid. The tutorial has great tips and techniques.  This article is about using saltwater and a battery. If you dig a little you can find ‘how to’ information free of charge and that is what I did, or you can buy it from a popular magazine.
What you need:


Patience (this process takes longer than acid)
Safety Glasses and Rubber Gloves (strong salt solutions can burn)
D battery and a D battery holder
Alligator clips and heavy ga. copper wire
Copper to be etched and scrap copper
Kosher or canning and pickling salt
Glass container deep enough to hang your art piece
Resist

Resists Available: PNP blue paper (good info on this at: http://www.makersgallery.com/goss/pnp.html ) , nail polish (if you’re desperate), enamel paint, etc.

Hook up a D battery in the battery holder, attach alligator clips to the lead wires on your battery holder and then to the two pieces of copper wire to suspend the art piece and the scrap piece in a saltwater bath. Current draws copper from the piece being etched to the scrap copper. You can use the same kinds of resists you would use for acid etching. Red alligator clips on your jewelry/art piece. Put resist on the back of your art piece or etch a design on the back too.

Make a saturated salt solution by dissolving salt, (lot-o salt)


Clean your art piece and clean it again, alcohol works well.

Draw or transfer your design with whatever resist you want. The scrap copper needs to be cleaned off with a scruby pad to remove any residue, then it's ready.

Fill glass (I don’t like plastic) container with the salt solution, attach your two pieces of copper to copper wires and hang them from the sides of the container so they are submerged in the solution. Attach the positive alligator clip to the art piece etched and the negative clip to the scrap copper. You will see little bubbles rising from the scrap copper, and the water will become cloudy.

It takes an hour or more to get a nice deep etch (patience).

Disposal of used salt water, well I’m not convinced it’s a good idea to pour into the sink, there is copper in it. Maybe consider calling waste management services and double check with your area requirements.

Love those little Altoids Tins? Etching Altoids Tins: go to http://steampunkworkshop.com/altoid-etch.shtml

The fun of this is you can transfer virtually any image or pattern to copper, nickel, or brass.

Want more info? Search the web there is a lot of free information. Take some time and learn something new!!  I welcome any comments and additions to this method of etching.

Half Persian 3 in 1

Not the best video but you'll get the basics.

Free Tutorial for Beaded Hoop Earrings

Free Tut on some Colorful Ear Art with Threads

This is fun: Win a Printer

Go to Woman's Day give aways

Five lucky winners will receive an Artisan 810 All-in-One Printer from Epson. Approx. retail value: $299; epson.com

Don't ya just love color!!

May you be. . . . .

May you be inspired to create something new and different in twenty-ten. Creative inspiration may come from many sources but creation comes from within.

Learn from tutorials and create from your own soul, may your aspirations come true.

Happy New Year!

Free Tutorials

Chain maille: You have some choices; I've posted free tutorials on the right side bar. You can buy tutorials at JewelryLessons.com, bless them for trying to make a buck with copywritten designs they sell, or you can go to the chain maille organization and get TONS of instructions on all kinds of patterns, techniques and so on all for free.

The newbies jewelry designers/artist coming on board everyday should really do some research on "how to's" for free before you jump into buying tutorials that actually have been copied from magazines and other free tuorials posted all over the web.

Wire wrapping: for the most part you can find easy to follow instructions all over the place if you are new to the craze. More advanced wire wrappers can look at something and duplicate it. Good Luck and above all learn something new everyday.

Read Before you Buy! or Buyer Beware

I hope this reaches the newbie jewelry designers/artists out there who are seeking a successful on line jewelry business.

I received "another" email from someone who is selling "how to make money selling jewelry" (sigh), I actually removed my email from her list but I still get the "end all" emails with sloppy videos, nonsensical verbage and way to much information about her personal (unrelated to jewelry) activites. I'm a let us get to the point person and it didn't take long to remove my email address.

What I want is for you to read is this: "What it means: In other words, I can’t guarantee anything, and furthermore, I can neither confirm nor deny that I know what I’m talking about. I can assure you that I only have the best intents and my sincere purpose in creating these lessons is to help you learn how to increase your business success. But even though I have your best interests in mind, you still are responsible for your own actual results.

Now I ask you would you pay money for this? I hope not and as she often says: "Holy Crap" I don't know if it's holy or not but I do know it is crap! What really seems unethical is this: "sincere purpose in creating these lessons is to help you learn how to increase your business success"; me thinks it's the money you spend buying the program or lessons or what ever else she is selling. Why? This is the "Earnings Disclaimer" Ufdah.

Nothing Goes to Waste not even Pine Needles!

What do you do when you decide to be a poor country folk artist?

With little money (if any) you must be creative. Use your resources.
This artist did just that.
What do you find in the mountains of Idaho ?.........PINE TREES.
You're thinking something made out of wood......Right?
Not even close.
These bears are made from Pine Needles!!!!
A couple of hundred thousand of them in one large bear.
The pine needles were gathered off the ground, sorted, washed, trimmed and hand woven.
Over 8 months in making the life size bear!

One Pretty Thing

Every now and then I get the urge to write something hopefully to help someone. I've been encouraged to participate by a favorite author, blogger, jewelry artist (I could go on) Rena Klingenberg, Publisher of creative ideas for making and selling jewelry. Rena is the kind of person that inspires.

So when I found out that my "copy and paste" jewelry business inventory system is one of the featured links on the October 8 "Crafty Reading Roundup" on OnePrettyThing blog I thought it would be a good thing to let everyone know about the "One Pretty Thing" website and blog that I did not know about;



I hope you enjoy it. There is a great deal of information there!

Thank you Shiela from makingjewelrysupplies.com.

We operate the largest Jewelry Supplies website featuring more than 30,000+ blogs. Our site averages 200,000+ uniques visitors per month. As a kind note We have featured your blog at http://makingjewelrysupplies.com/blog_awards/index.php?id=1411

Excellence

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle

Mt. Rainier puts on a show!

By Scott Sistek

I wish I could have seen this myself.

Girls Night Out!! WooHoo

GO Here to View Blog



If you are a female business owner or have a craft that you sell online, you'll be able to feature your business in an Expo list that will be posted on Girls Night Out. On the said weekend (September 26th), You will post a feature of your business on your blog, (details, links, photos, etc) that will introduce visitors to you and what you do. You can also host giveaways and drawings if you wish, but it's not a requirement. Visitors and hostesses participating in the event will visit all the shops over the weekend (beyond if necessary) and learn about what you do and what you have to offer!

Never Give Up

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he/she grows up.” - Pablo Picasso