Every business person is asked to donate merchandise from time to time.  Tonight I have to select a piece for the Yukon High School (alma mater of Garth Brooks) post graduation party auction.  Decisions.  Decisions.  Since I only sell online, I have no displays at all.  What to do?

February 5, 2003:  Jane Marie will kill me, but I choose her very favorite piece from the Dido collection for the Project Graduation Auction.  After all, if JM loves it, my CDO (chief design officer) approves and our very own graduating senior agrees, how could I select anything else to donate?  I also decided to donate a professionally written press release

In a burst of reality, I've begun changing all the NancyKamp.com logos over to VeryShinyObjects.com.  Who would have guessed that a name chosen casually for eBay would be a better draw than my own?  (Maybe anyone who wasn't blinded by ego and had an ounce of the marketing smarts I think I have.)  This has been a major waste of time and resources as well as a lesson in humility - give your company a name your target audience will remember that has something to do with your product.  Duh.

February 7, 2003:  I made a pilgrimage to the grand opening of the Harry Hines Trading Company today.  I guess I expected wonderful stuff at great prices, but while the retail prices were good, the jewelry was dreck.  (I don't speak Yiddish, but the word sounds like what I saw.)  I did see two or three bracelets with very nice beads amid tons of plastic and cheap metal.  I must never take the CDO there as she will be in junk heaven.

February 9, 2003:  In a fit of zeal or something else entirely, I took the CDO and two of her closest friends on a bead shop expedition.  We were going to visit all the bead stores in the area we'd never had a chance to check out.  We made it to one - Bead Town Beadery in the mystic, almost Moore region of south OKC.

Rolando, the owner, was super nice and after 22 months in business, very enthusiastic.  He's building up his stock (I bought some pretty little gold beads) and trying out every method of expansion possible - things like restringing and birthday parties.  I wish him success, though it will be a while before I make the trek back to his neighborhood.  We put 65 miles on the car and our only detour was the above mentioned Harry Hines Trading Company because when you've got three teens in the car, free grand opening bracelets are almost as important as food.

Just in case you missed CBS Sunday Morning, click here to read the article about artist Liza Lou whose desire is to bead the world.  The picture on the page isn't much, so I suggest you keep Lou's name in the back of your brain until you hear it combined with the word "exhibit."  Then go. 

Lea, wearing the necklace, hair designer Chandra and Jamie.  The necklace itself can be seen in the column on the right .

If you missed it while I had it on the site, the Seal was a banner representing a program that guarantees that a seller has sound business policies and will resolve disputes.  Well, I do.  However, nice as it would be, I can't afford to pay a third party to stand behind me or tell me how they've increased my sales totals when I know for a fact this is not quite the case.  Still, they aren't bad folks and I may try them again someday.

March 10, 2003:  Today's Lesson: If you put a seed bead between two much bigger beads, it gives the illusion of a knot.  That means you can use wire instead of silk for stringing.  This is also a better thing to do when you use non-round gemstone beads because these usually have uneven holes.  The seed beads help fill them, the holes, up,

March 16, 2003:  The clasp situation is getting serious.  I really need to order larger spring ring (circle) clasps, but the only supplier I can find is General Bead.  And their website is a nightmare.  I wrote about them several months ago, and their representative found the reference and urged me to try them again.  I've resisted because they might have the worst (hardest to navigate) website on the net.

What to do?  Darned if I know.

This has , however, led me to wonder if our next contest (coming in June) shouldn't be some kind of nominate your favorite website for a Martha Bear™ Beary Fine Website Award.  We could give away another necklace in a random drawing of entrants who also submit websites for awards in categories to be determined whenever Jane Marie gets around to it.  Comments?

Sorry about the bad illustration, but who would give me permission to use a picture of their jewelry once they knew I didn't like it?

May 9, 2003:  For a preview of the official May newsletter listing of new stuff on the site, check out Teddy O™ and the Bearific Bargain.  You'll understand why I suggest this when you've read this charming story from Jane Marie's Martha Bear® series.

May 10, 2003:  The late Prince Ahmed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia used to travel with an organ donor - just in case.  I, on the other hand, am content when my family, my home and all my possessions aren't blown away by a tornado.  I even spent last night's agonizing wait-and-see-whose-life-is-destroyed-lottery making jewelry.  And I learned a lesson: sterling silver crimp beads (they pinch the stringing wires together) are made of silver, which is soft.  If you fold and refold the material enough times because you fear a storm will blow you and yours away, pieces will break off.  (Always keep odd bits of sterling silver - someday you may have enough to sell as scrap.)

May 18, 2003:  I just finished a graduation set for a very special client.  Behold:

  click on the photo to enlarge it

May 22, 2003:  The design for the necklace we'll be giving away in our next contest is giving me problems.  It's important to use the proper gauge or thickness when stringing with wire, but I'm finding it difficult to work with beads that can take a double thickness of wire on the ends where the finishing takes place.  My solution has been to complete a design with similar beads with bigger holes.  However, sometimes this just doesn't look right.  And that could mean reworking a whole design - I know you're supposed to use bead boards to lay things out, but mine are always covered with beads to be sorted.  Also, things don't look quite the same after they're strung.  So it's strictly trial and error.

June 2, 2003:  The new contest info is up, and the necklace we're giving away is made.  Though not an exact duplicate, it looks suspiciously like Jane Marie's birthday present from our Tatiana Collection.  And now that I think of it, she's the one who suggested the design. 

click on the photo of the new prize to enlarge it

Also, we've opened the contest up to Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.  Shipping and insurance will be under $25 and that seems like a small price for us to pay to include more of the many nice people who've visited our site.

We still haven't chosen the winner of the last contest.  Since that was a random drawing, I printed a list of all the lawfully registered entrants (US and Canada only on this one).  When our CDO returns from a short trip, she will cut the entries apart with the paper cutter, put them in a large bag and draw the winner (who gets notified next Monday).  Good luck, everyone!

June 8, 2003:  I can't believe I've made the mess I'm stuck with in the digital picture department.  I am just now trying to work my way through tons of photos of jewelry, flowers, places and family that I've thrown into a big My Pictures file.  I need to have everything sorted out for easy access so if someone says, "Can you make a necklace like whatever for me?" I can get an idea of what they want - even though I never make exact duplicates.  Also, my hard drive will burst if I don't get rid of the bad pics soon.  If only I were more anal.

June 12, 2003:  Our necklace winner has been notified and the prize is on the way.  But where, you ask, is the Beading Diary?  Where are the details of my uphill battle to build a beading business?  And I shall tell you.  When I get a minute.  Which may not be today. 

June 17, 2003:  When I write something, I never seem to finish editing it and the same is true for making a piece of jewelry.  If I look at a necklace I made a while ago, I get the urge to remake it.  Fortunately, I'm getting better at design and technical stuff.  Otherwise there would never be a finished piece or a happy customer.  But in case you've been wondering why I haven't written anything on this page lately, you can now figure out that I've been tweaking jewelry.

If I haven't mentioned this lately, beads are much cheaper online than at your local bead shop, but sometimes you end up with awful stuff in the mail because the photos were better than the real thing.  I'm going to have to figure out what to do with some real loser beads that arrived recently.  Sell them on eBay?  Use them in a fish tank.  Palm them off on the CDO?

June 19, 2003:  Finally got the photos of our contest prize re-shot on a black background - only to get an e-mail from Jane Marie informing me that jewelry photographs best on purple.  Sadly, I have no purple velvet - the fabric of choice for jewelry photography - so black it is until I get my hands on the purple stuff.

June 24, 2003:  I haven't been writing about beading lately.  I haven't been beading either.  But I never stop thinking about it.  Clearly it's time to make all the designs in my head in order to be ready for the Christmas selling season.  If I don't start now, sales will be flat and that would not be a better thing.

While I'm working, I'll be dreaming of visiting the Amber Room in Russia, whose reconstruction opened this month.  The original room, faced entirely with carved amber, was a gift to Czar Peter the Great.  It disappeared during World War II, but the reconstruction is, by all reports, equally amazing.

Amber is the golden fossilized tree resin made famous as a source of DNA in Jurassic Park.

For more info:

July 2, 2003:  I was looking at beads last night and thinking about all the wonderful combinations that might be possible when I realized I've been doing something of the sort all my life.  For example, I can remember sitting on a blanket in my cousins' front (!) yard playing dolls and discussing the hair and eye colors of our future children.  I wanted one kid with green eyes, one with blue eyes and one with brown eyes.  (We weren't aware of subtle variations then.)  I also wanted one child with blonde hair, one with red, one with brown and one with black.  The math problem was my third wish: combining the two so I ended up with 12 children - no two of which would (forgive me for using the next word) match. 

All I can say is that sort of thinking works much better with beads than with children.  But it explains why I simply can't copy myself when it comes to making jewelry.  Each piece has to have its variation that makes it special.  And as we slowly, very slowly (I am not a machine here) get closer to the publication of Jane Marie's romantic historical novel, The Goodbye Lie, I am trying to figure out a way to tie jewelry to each of the female characters.  My only solution is to continue creating collections of similar pieces.  At least for right now. 

July 3, 2003:  I get quite a few requests for bracelets, but I don't like to make them to sell because of the elastic knot problem.  I put a drop of clear glue on the knots so they won't unravel, but even though the whole thing is clear, I still think it's unsightly.  I'm not going to to try to sell something I'm not proud of.  If you have a solution, let me know.  And have a Happy 4th!

top - glass beads / bottom - dyed mountain jade and glass beads

July 8, 2003:  Just volunteered a necklace as a fundraiser.  See right column.

The teenaged son of an old friend was paralyzed in a bicycling accident and the medical bills are horrendous.  It's the least I can do.  Even OU's Bob Stoops will attend.

KYLE MORRISON REHABILITATION BENEFIT 
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum [OKC] - Special Events Center, August 8, 2003, 6pm-10pm

 

Early fears that the Baghdad National Museum had been completely looted have not exactly played out.  While every loss harms us all, the current situation is almost a relief.

I'm pretty sure that most gems are color-enhanced these days.  This is a better thing because it allows the rest of us to have access to lovely jewelry at reasonable prices, but I do wonder how many innocents are buying things that have been altered while under the impression that their new jewelry is as pure and untouched as when it came from the oyster or mine.  The law says jewelers have to disclose any treatments their products have received, but I've bought things at jewelry shows that must have had chemical/laser work and nothing was said to me.  Tsk. Tsk.

July 14, 2003:  Just unsubscribed from a jewelry mailing list.  The webmaster was rude AND he sells (ugh) plastic.  Boy this feels good.

July 25, 2003:  I've been having a terrible time with the page width on our jewelry pages.  While all of them look fine on my screen, I get reports of major scrolling problems, and nothing I do seems to help.  I don't know why this happens, but I do know it's a function of FrontPage, which I regularly curse in my weblog, Diary of a Mad Web Lackey.  Please accept my apologies if you've had trouble viewing anything at VeryShinyObjects.com.

Now for something interesting.  Though I keep a dictionary at my feet as I sit at the ole PC, I have never taken the time to look up the word "parue."  But last night while reading Brilliant by Marne Davis Kellogg, I found the definition:

Demi-parue - "An archaic jewelry industry term that describes three matching pieces: a brooch, earrings, and a necklace."

Parue - Five matching pieces of jewelry: a brooch, earrings, a necklace, a tiara and a bracelet.

This bit of info will be good to know the next time I'm invited to a royal ball.

July 29, 2003: We've published an short article on prayer beads in various religions on our new site at prayerbeads.  There is a lot of material out there on this subject, but unless you're feeling scholarly, this should be just the right length.

July 31, 2003:  I'm researching an article about sacred colors and came across some interesting info about turquoise on our own Exotic India.  For the devout Buddhist, "Turquoise is a symbol of the blue of the sea and the sky.  Infinity in the sky speaks of the limitless heights of ascension.  The stone is opaque as the earth, yet it lifts the spirit high, laying bare to us the wisdom of both the earth and the sky."

August  2, 2003:  People who like gemstones probably also like rocks or so my theory goes.  I took several photos of special yard rocks.  These are not necessarily native to the area but ended up in someone's yard or garden anyway.  Please see right column for the pics.

August 7, 2003:  I just got a Nigerian Scam letter from a woman who said she was Jewel Taylor, the wife of Charles Taylor, the president Liberia who won't leave his country.  She claimed to have $10,000,000 to dispose of "for safe keeping."  These scams are always ugly, but when children are starving, I am more appalled than usual.

August 11, 2003:  "Carnelian was highly prized throughout ancient Egyptian civilization, and the main source of the stone was the Eastern Desert."  Toby Wilkinson,  Genesis of the Pharaohs

I put up the Livia Augusta (she was the wife of Caesar Augustus of Rome from the New Testament) page over the weekend.  It's full of variations on carnelian, and wouldn't you know I'd find the above quote in Genesis of the Pharaohs, which happens to maintain that based on petrogylph rock art, Egyptian civilization rose in the Eastern Desert between the Nile and the Red Sea rather than in the Nile River Valley as we were all taught in school.  Since I swear I recently saw a documentary showing that Egyptian civilization grew out of the Libyan desert based on mummification, I'm not prepared to know what to think about ancient Egypt, but I do know I like carnelian. 

August 15, 2003:  I got an e-mail from a fellow OKC beader the other day.  I was so stunned when I realized she was local, I sent off the clever reply, "Are you in OKC?"  As my correspondent pointed out, there isn't even a beading club here, and I have been feeling Tiggerish about the situation - even though there are bead stores in the area and handmade jewelry appears at craft fairs, I've been operating under the premise that I was, like Pooh's friend Tigger, the Only One.  How nice to have kindred spirits in the neighborhood.

(If I sound like Anne of Green Gables, it's because I've been reading and rereading books for children and juveniles for our book review pages.)

My neighborhood has grown as of yesterday when we moved our Jill into a dorm at OU in sort of nearby Norman, OK.  I envisioned the day as a few minutes of lugging suitcases and several hours of wandering through the local bead shop.  Ha!  I finally got Jill's computer working just before 9:00 p.m., and there's still all kinds of must have stuff to purchase and junk shifting to complete before classes begin.  It may be months before I track down that bead shop.

August 24, 2003:  While I only title the weblog additions in Diary of a Mad Web Lackey, I'm pretty sure this entry should at least have some kind of warning. 

I was sitting on the floor trying to decide if I had enough solid color olive jade to work up with some new serpentine beads when I came across some wonderful bone beads and began a necklace for the Queen Salamasina Collection.  An errand in the kitchen interrupted my work, and I returned to find the CDO fighting off Haggis, our less than excellent junior senior canine editor, who was about to chow down on what anyone could see was, well, bone.

Lesson:  If you have a dog, do not sit on the floor when working with bone beads. 

A further caveat - the beads I was using had not only been carved, but painted /dyed with who know what.  If Haggis had managed to eat any of them, she might have gotten ill.

August 31, 2003:  For some reason, I can't get the song Big Rock Candy Mountain (Big Rock Candy Mountain: 23 Songs for Ch) out of my head.  Maybe because I just found out Egypt has a Crystal Mountain, which is a large quartz rock with a hole in it.  It doesn't look like quartz in the photo (click on the link), but perhaps if we imagine a glass mountain (like in the fairy tale where the princess is set on a glass mountain so her suitors will have to work to make her acquaintance - I thought it was from the Brothers Grimm collection of fairy tales, but I haven't been able to locate it so far) we will all be inspired to make or wear quartz jewelry.

September 4, 2003:  One of the things I didn't know before we all began to look toward the Middle East / Central Asia was the number and quantity of gemstones that come from that part of the world.  Afghanistan alone produces aquamarine, emerald, flourite, kunzite, lapis lazuli, morganite, ruby, sapphire, tourmaline and other gorgeous minerals. 

It looks as though the gemstone trade could be a critical factor in the recovery and growth of the area.  In other words, if the common people can mine and trade, they can support their families and help rebuild their country.

Exotic India, with whom we have an affiliate relationship (if you click on their picture links and make a purchase, we get a small fee, which costs you nothing) carries lots of gorgeous beads from Central Asia.  Click on the photos for details.

flourite

peridot

lapis lazuli

September 15, 2003:  I've been reading my little heart out and trying to figure out a way to tastefully impart the information I picked up.  Here goes:

September 18, 2003:  Sort of in keeping with the recent theme of exploration, I started thinking about coasts that have to do with jewelry. 

While the Gold Coast of Ghana was named for the mineral Europeans found there, and the one on Long Island for 19th century robber baron types who settled there, I'm pretty sure the other names have to do with green plants and blue water - except in Australia where the name seems to have been derived from prosperous real estate deals.

September 20, 2003:  I nearly had a stroke while riding down the highway this evening.  There in front of my beady little eyes was a billboard for a bead store!  And it was close.  So close that I had been at its very own shopping corner not two hours earlier.  I had even seen the GRAND OPENING sign.  But I had been in a hurry and couldn't figure out what they selling, so I didn't bother walking up for a closer look.

Still ... we just got back from the trip of a lifetime that included a visit to Murano, the island near Venice (Venezia), Italy most famous for its glass blowing and the source of many beautiful beads.  I had expected to find cheap but gorgeous beads everywhere, but I only discovered one bead store where I purchased a total of three (3) beads!

November 20, 2003:   I just ordered the heart-shaped clasp for the yet to be made necklace that will be given away in our new contest.  (It begins on January 1st.)  We are really excited about the imminent publication of Jane Marie's book, The Goodbye Lie, and are planning all kinds of fun tie-ins.  Since we're always doing several things at once, the details aren't finalized yet, but at least I remembered to get a clasp in time.  Whew.

December 7, 2003:  It's the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Somehow appropriate, I guess, to be writing here.  The DF and I went to Hawaii on our honeymoon, and I remember visiting the memorial - very moving, slightly surreal as cleaned up battlefields always are. 

December 9, 2003:   The CDO and I took a quickie class in Chinese watercolor painting the other day, and I was struck by some thoughts:

This all ties into my recent ruminations (November 29 entry) about trying to create a Christmas necklace with red and green beads that I'd be proud  to sell.  Every attempt at a good-looking necklace to date has been garish.  I'll keep trying because I know there's a market, but the problem may lie in the fact that I'm not very inclined to wear holiday jewelry.  Hmm.

December 10, 2003:  I just found the bonus from Sunday's class in Chinese watercolor - it seems the characters for my name, Nancy, are also the characters that mean "southwest."

I'm not sure just how this works with beading, but I do think I need to drag out all my books on feng shui (the Chinese art of arranging one's surroundings for a better life).  Geography forms a important part of this ancient practice.  Feng shui masters were originally called "geomancers," and they continue to use a special compass to check the directional orientation of buildings to insure the best fortune for the inhabitants.

But I digress.  Back to beading.

December 14, 2003:  Miss Manners, Judith Martin, reminded us today that "fancy jewelry" should not be worn before 6 p.m.  I say wear what makes you happy, what makes you feel good about yourself - unless you're at a business function.

December 26, 2003:  Professional Jeweler says terrorists continue to use diamonds, gold and cash (Saddam was captured with $750,000 in his rat hole) to finance their activities. 

"The link between another terrorist group, Hizballah, and a part of a Lebanese diamond-trading network in West Africa is definitely current, according to the U.N. Special Court Chief Prosecutor and Chief Investigator in Sierra Leone."

Jewelry is big business.  What a pity the bad guys get a piece of the action.

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