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"Your life is better when you have some creativity in it." Julie Armstrong more quotations |
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"Your life is better when you have some creativity in it." Julie Armstrong more quotations |
2007 Diary - next year 2005 Diary - previous year
About Us - Find out more about Nancy Kamp and Jane Marie Beading - Main page and Table of Contents Books about Beads, Beading and Jewelry VeryShinyObjects.com - Watch Nancy's jewelry business grow! |
February 1, 2006: When Tiffany bought of 200 their own products on eBay, they found 3/4 of them were fakes according to Boost Marketing. This is very scary, so please buy only from sellers with good track records.
February 3, 2006: There are a number of quick and easy jewelry project videos from Jackie Guerra online at http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/pac_ctnt/text/0,2019,DIY_14161_40995,00.html
February 20, 2006: Nikki Reed, who plays Sadie on "The OC," refers to "someone" who makes the jewelry Sadie makes on the show in an online interview for Fox. That would be Maya Brenner.
March 2, 2006: I just leaned "rolled gold" refers to gold-filled in the Wire-Sculpture daily tip. Last November 27, I listed the bead ezines I receive. Click here and scroll down to see if you want to sign up for any of them.
March 4, 2006: Today's Wire-Sculpture tip said amber floats in the Baltic Sea and is sometimes found washed up on beaches. Thank you, Preston.
March 6, 2006: I really don't care who wins entertainment award show awards. But like most of you, I love to see what the women are wearing. The CDO and I noticed these actors and their jewels at last night's Academy Awards:
And as for the clothes ... some commentator actually liked the huge bow Charlize Theron had on her shoulder! I say it's only positive function was to draw comments away from the large puff ball on Naomi Watt's lower chest. One of my favorite dresses was worn by Ziyi Zhang - black top over a black and white skirt. Even her jewelry - black band with a tasteful center diamond was perfect.
March 22, 2006: We're just back from a wonderful two weeks in Europe visiting our Jill and her friends while they study abroad. We took jewelry pictures in many museums and lots of store windows, but there are so many photos to edit, it may be months before the good ones make it to this site. In the meantime, here's what I noticed:
April 1, 2006: Yesterday, I got my first issue of Rena Klingenberg's newsletter for those who make and market jewelry: http://www.home-jewelry-business-success-tips.com - Rena gave me permission to quote this very important tip for anyone who sells a product at a craft fair or other organized show:
Thanks, Rena!
April 6, 2006: They're having bead crochet classes in Norman (OK) over Easter weekend. I have very little desire to learn this basic technique. What kind of a clod does that make me? I periodically yammer on about the fact that most gemstones are treated in some way. Rachel Loving says ethical jewelers do not sell "High Pressure High Temperature" diamonds without letting customers know. The process improves the color and may remove cloudy occlusions.
April 12, 2006: I am delaying the publication of our newsletter while I figure out how to take acceptable photos of my new Celebration Bracelet™ design. The Swarovski® crystals are so sparkly they throw off too much light, and my camera picked up the gaps in the weave of the velvet I've been using for a background. I tried scanning the jewelry into my computer. After numerous attempts, I found I couldn't get the contrast right. Then, I tried leaving the scanner lid open - better. And with a few lights on in the room - better still, but ... Anyway, the result to date is in the right column.
April 25, 2006: Congratulations to Jessica Herrin, Luxe Jewels CEO and Founder, on the birth of her second daughter. The Herrin family has a wonderful new addition and the Luxe family has a new jewelry maven.
April 27, 2006: I'm sooo far behind on everything, but I finally got some of my students' photos online with the jewelry they made. My apologies to Sonia Flores and Jessica Sanchez whose pictures did not come out. You were gorgeous, but I'm still learning to use my camera. Note: If you're looking for your photo, use our Search function. I'm trying to scatter them throughout the website.
May 2, 2006: I'm taking more pictures. The photo of the Celebration Bracelet™ we're using right now is very bad - Dad thought it was a necklace. I am making progress though. Rather than buy a white box, I rigged up a cooler, complete with white washcloth and white paper. It's great for other jewelry, but when I tried to get a good picture of the clear-sparkly bracelets ... well, let's just say I have work ahead of me. Results to date are in the right column.
May 3, 2006: Today, I took photos of Jane Marie's Secret Pebbles™ on the white paper (no cooler/photo lab to reflect light) inside a northern exposure window. These worked, and the bracelets are better, so the cooler goes back into the garage.
May 13, 2006: I'm just now reading my morning mail and came across this amazing fact from WIRE-SCULPTURE: "There is 100 times more gold in 14 kt. Rolled Gold (gold filled) than in gold plate."
May 16, 2006: I've been getting excellent customer service lately. I had a poorly drilled bead problem with a Luxe Jewels kit, and they replaced the bead - no problem. This is the way things are supposed to work. Yes.
May 19, 2006: My pictures are coming out better in direct sunlight on a purple background. I don't think they are quite acceptable, but gain is gain.
May 26, 2006: Our website software, FrontPage (may it rot in hell), has given up on life. With a site this big, who knows when we'll be able to clean up our HTML code and be ready to make additions to our content. Thank you for your patience.
July 25, 2006: We're back - more or less. The change from a FrontPage-built site to a Dreamweaver-maintained one has been awful, and there are lots of little gifties (flaws) remaining in our pages - not to speak of the much needed graphic redo that looms in our future. But now I intend to focus on jewelry and work on fixing the site in my spare (ha!) time. So here goes: Yesterday, About guide Tammy Powley wrote about the Halstead Bead Grant winner and the runnersup. I tried to visit all their sites and found a wealth of ideas - though I didn't like everything - isn't that the beauty of creativity? Check out the entries, and prepare your site and product line for next year's contest.
July 29, 2006: I have a real problem with diamond industry assertions that blood or conflict diamonds are no longer on the market. Let's get real. Gemstones are a traditional way to finance everything from lavish personal retirements to revolutions and dictatorships. While I applaud industry efforts to clean up the system, the bad guys are always going to find ways to subvert it. And I look forward to the upcoming movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connolly, Blood Diamond. Awareness is a solid deterrent to crime.
September 3, 2006: I'm trying desperately to get back on the blog wagon after the long summer disaster on this website (May 30, 2006: Good Riddance to Bad FrontPage) but all I can think about is the flack Sandra Oh caught for wearing too much jewelry at the Emmies. (Do not look for a photo link here - I wasted hours trying to find a good one online. If you don't remember the outfit, look it up on an entertainment website.) Since all the fashion magazines are hyping the multiple necklace look, it's hard to believe they would consider her a worst dressed candidate when she went with the trend. I personally loved the dress and would have worn fewer necklaces or a smaller one myself, but she still looked fantastic.
September 15, 2006: I see "chocolate" diamonds everywhere. As far as I can tell, these would have been rejected as cloudy and unattractive before some marketing genius renamed them.
September 22, 2006: I spoke with a publicist yesterday about a jewelry book I will be reviewing, so you can imagine my surprise when today's mail brought what I thought was a bead book. Then I took a good look at Jeanne Rodes-Moen's Silver Threads and got that Christmas morning feeling. My mini-review is in the right column.
October 5, 2006: Congrats to Lanie Ketcherside. One of her beautiful creations is featured in the November issue of Beadstyle magazine.
October 19, 2006: I was going to do a whole webpage about cleaning rhinestone jewelry, but it comes down to this: Dust the surface with a soft toothbrush or cotton swab. If the piece is valuable, have it cleaned by a jeweler. Rhinestones got their name because they were first made in Strasbourg (Strasburg when it was part of Germany) on the Rhine River in France.
October 23, 2006: French words used in jewelry making: briolette: bree-oh-LET The word itself means brilliant, but in jewelry making, it refers to a faceted teardrop. cabochon: KAW-bow-shown A polished but unfaceted precious stone, often seen in old crown jewels. Note: "bow" rhymes with "go" and "dough" vermeil: The standard pronunciation among English speakers is VUR-may, but I looked up the word, and Webster said we should be saying VUR-mil. However, the standard American English pronunciation for "herb" is URB, while the correct British English pronunciation is HERB [because dropping the letter H is Cockney while pronouncing it is upper class], so who knows??? Vermeil, by the way, is gold plated silver. It can also be gilded copper or bronze.
November 19, 2006: My first public library class yesterday was saved by the presence of Lanna Lutz, music teacher and jewelry designer of Shawnee, OK. Lanna came by to discuss our upcoming craft show appearance in Edmond, OK, as well as her interest in Luxe Jewels. Since she knows how to crimp AND work with kids, she was a huge help in getting all the bracelets finished in a timely manner. Thanks, Lanna.
November 25, 2006: I came across a lead content warning on a website crawl (that means I don't remember which site). And I have been thinking about the fact that most cast metal and glass crystal - unless marked "lead-free" - contains lead. While no vendor I'm aware of carries toxic product, there is always potential danger. After all, the use of lead pipes and lead drinking vessels is one of the causes of the fall of ancient Rome. So obviously, jewelry containing lead should be avoided by children, nursing mothers and pregnant women. Also, California law under Proposition 65 expressly states handling lead can cause birth defects.
December 5, 2006: I'm still recovering from my first craft show. Because of the icy weather, there was so little turn out they gave door prizes to vendors! But I learned a lot:
Despite everything, I did as well as or better than anyone else there, so I will do more shows. Palladium, by the way, is the new hot metal in fine jewelry. I've never seen any, but I know it's white.
December 13, 2006: I've just been reading Eleanor Herman's Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge (P.S.)
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Secret Pebbles™ - Jane Marie's handmade favors and little gifts click on the photo of Secret Pebbles™ to enlarge it
Nancy's trademarked 2007 [MMVII] Celebration Bracelet™ as photographed by a scanner - click to enlarge
click on the photos to enlarge them May 2 effort: Nancy's photo lab
May 3 effort:
May 14 photo on white paper in direct sunlight
click on the photos of the jeweled buffalo to enlarge them summer - fall 2004 Nature Conservancy's Spirit of the Buffalo public art project in OKC
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It seems that on the death of England's King Edward III in 1377, his mistress, Alice Perrers pried the rings from the dying kings fingers. Parliament took back the rings and much of the property the king had given her, "including 21,868 pearls." 
