Glass Menagerie Cupola Blossoms

Inspired by the lovely blossoms that are at last putting on an awesome display of beauty here in Southern Ontario, I'm pleased to announce a handful of limited creations along the "Glass Menagerie Cupola Blossoms" theme.

Shown here is Coral Bells, a whimsical floral earring composed of copper earwires, base metal, austrian crystals and pretty Czech glass.

My ArtFire studio is located at:
http://www.artfire.com/users/AnnaLee


If you're a lover of handmade jewelry, please stop by my ArtFire shop and tell me what you'd like to see added. What colours? what gems? what theme? materials? or components?. We carry a vast array of materials and we'd love to hear your feedback or if possible, present info & pricing on custom creations.





Some of these earrings are shown with sterling silver earwires. Some however, are the modern base metals and patinas.

But because I cannot wear base metal earwires (they irritate my skin considerably) all our base metal earwires may be swapped for sterling at NO upcharge!

Glass Menagerie Cupola Blossoms pieces are part of my new Vintage Metalworx line - a stunning spring/summer collection with all the value and precision craftsmanship that you've come to expect from Oracle Gem Designs.

Jannadu - artwork of Jann Alexander-McCullough

Jannadu: new online boutique!

My friend Jann Alexander-McCullough of Glendale Arizona is the talented artisan behind Jannadu and Phoenix Rising Glass Art studio on etsy. Jann has been an artist all her life and has been trained in most all of the traditional mediums but watercolors is her favorite.

I'm intrigued by Jann's pencil drawings. Her pet portraits are wonderfully lifelike and affordable. Contact Jann for your custom pet portrait! Jann's paintings and artwork have received acclaim but lately her passion has turned to glassmaking.

Jann recently opened an online boutique which features a few of her fine arts pieces as well as unique handmade jewelry designs for the Rubenesque & Lovely Women of the World. Her big, beautiful women's bracelets will be adjusted to 9" and up per your specs prior to shipping.

The term "Rubenesque" refers to the pear-shaped woman of ample bust, plump cheeks, soft-full lips, and a healthy profile of alluring curves and crevasses. The full bodied female form was popularized by the works of renowned oil artist Peter Paul Rubens. Today the popular acronym BBW (big, beautiful woman) has a similar meaning.

Jann is currently exploring a variety of jewelry making techniques and materials including precious metals and gemstones to showcase her unique handmade glass creations. Rich color, wonderful texture combinations and unique materials are the hallmark of Jannadu handmade artisan jewelry.

Check out the Jannadu shop on etsy: http://Jannadu.etsy.com and there's more information on Jann's blog: Art & Artists - Me and My Friends. This artist loves custom commissions, so feel free to contact Jann today to get your personalized jewelry adornment project underway!

S and T Creations - Beautiful Handmade Artisan Jewelry

When style and flair combine with quality and value everyone wins. That's why it's such a pleasure to feature the unique jewelry creations of S and T Creations, a developing jewelry design company located in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

The prolific artistic team of Saundra and Teri of S and T Creations is always busy churning out a seemingly endless array of attractive yet affordable jewelry designs.

Check out the complete S and T collection of colorful, whimsical and contemporary styles that will definitely get you noticed. Order online now and receive free domestic shipping or a handmade collectable bonus gift!

And this design and marketing duo is now making many of their unique and fresh creations available to a wide audience through their new online boutique http://www.sandtcreations.etsy.com/.

The wise value conscious fashionista takes a structured approach to formulating her unique personal fashion style and statement. And the other day I found timely help with regard to this ongoing task in the form of an informative blog feature presented by Saundra of S and T Creations.

Reading Saundra's article I was reminded how challenging looking and feeling like a million dollars gets in dismal economic times such as these. Even if inflation soars and our fashion budget shrinks, we gals still need our secret sources of great fashion finds. Enter S and T Creations...

At S and T you'll find retro, classic, formal and funky so grab a few things to stretch your wardrobe. S and T Creations also has something for everyone on your holiday gift giving list. No matter what your budget or purpose, you'll find fab jewelry accessories available from this team.

For more information about what's new in the world of S and T Creations, please visit their web log.

etsy Social Marketing Artisans group

My venture into the social marketing sphere is progressing well. Several weeks ago I started eSMArts, a group for etsy and other artisans interested in learning and applying the latest ecommerce promotion techniques in order to drive traffic to their etsy storefronts and other sales sites.
I was looking for like minded souls interested in promoting their art to work with me. eSMArts has its own mandatory yahoo forum where all information concerning social marketing is stored and shared. eSMArts also refers to our talented group of artisans who sell online at Etsy.com.
Our global collaborative consists of artists from all media and genres. We have seventy contributing members, 30 auditing members who have yet to establish an online sales venue and more applications arrive each day.
We stipulated from the outset that we were looking for artisans of handmade goods. An etsy storefront wasn't a requirement at first but for administrative purposes we may need to revisit that issue. We may amend membership criteria down the road limiting new entrants to etsy sellers in good standing.

To sell handmade goods on etsy, either you or a member of your immediate family must be making (or directly supervising the creation of) handmade goods. So that requirement goes without saying.

Etsy (owned by eBay) provides a user friendly shopping cart that accepts PayPal (also owned by eBay - big surprise). Etsy does no promotion however. Listing fees are only 20 cents per item which is great. But unlike eBay, Etsy doesn't even feed products through to google base. So merely setting up a lovely etsy store doesn't mean you'll make any sales. Your items likely won't show in search engines unless they've been promoted elsewhere on the web.

Veteran etsians have known for some time that the only way to crack the promotion problem was to form large supportive groups who cross promote one another. These groups were originally geographically based, hence the term "street team".

The etsy community consists of thousands of artisans from around the world. Check out the hundreds of thousands of wonderfully handcrafted gift items available for immediate purchase at etsy!

Etsy's community is a very inspiring place for we creative types - being surrounded by so may creative folks pushes us to achieve more. And I'm noticing that even our newest etsians have made a few sales already. See our gallery of creations.

The difference between eSMArts and perhaps many of the other etsy "street teams" is that we are not merely a chat group. Each member of our team is 100% commited to promoting the endeavours of our team. We feel that fully participating in one street team is more than most artisans can handle. For that reason membership to eSMArts is limited to those who do not already belong to other etsy groups.

Our eSMArts etsy team members are currently moving through the intial setup phase of building etsy storefronts, learning more about taking quality photos to display their art in the best light, setting up online web logs (blogs) and doing online networking.

We've gone through a few growing pains, but I'm full of pride when it comes to my new team. I'm increasingly proud of their willingness to help each other and the hard work and time each member has invested is already paying off. Our team blog is taking shape too.

If you're interested in working with us, if you'd like to sell your handmade goods online, or if you're currently an etsy seller who doesn't belong to other etsy street teams, click the link in the sidebar to the right. Come see what the excitement is all about. We'd love to work with you!

PhonyArt Isn't Phony At All

Finally, I've found something worthy of a blog post. It's the fresh work of a new artist from my own backyard, from Toronto! Everyone (especially if you're a big, bold beauty like me) should check out the blog called Fat and Feminine in Toronto. Besides running a very cool blog, this jewelry artist creates chic modern metal wearable artwork. I've pulled at random this piece called The Full Pallette available from Phonyhttp://www.abbeyforge.com/store/p499/Titanium_Blue_Quartz_Crystal_Wand_Copper_Long_Sweater_Necklace%3A_Citrine_and_Dragon_Vein_Agate.htmlArt on Etsy.

My mom is a gifted oil artist, and somehow I feel this tiny, simplistic piece would be meaningful even to her critical eye. I wish I had created this awesome pin!

Support an independent artisan and remember to buy handmade for unique, truly one of a kind heirloom collectables. PhonyArt isn't phony at all and her prices are insanely low so grab these unique collectables while they last...

You can purchase this item (only $46!) directly from the artist by clicking on the pic or links above. They'll take you directly to the PhonyArt storefront on Etsy which is a showcases the collective work of tens of thousands of artists located worldwide.

Custom earwires - cool finishing touches

I've been searching and searching for cool earwire components to use in my jewellery designs, but nothing I'm seeing at the supplies outlets really grabs me. From time to time, I've seen exquisite earrings (usually from European designers) with fab earwire components, but where are those exotic findings being sourced? It's literally driving me insane. Then I had an epiphany... why not start making my own handcrafted, unique wires.

With a few trials, I came up with this idea. It's a sterling silver hand knotted earwire supporting yummy aqua apatite faceted onions and a tiny sky blue topaz. The sterling silver wire (22 gauge) was wrapped tightly to form this knot. The final product was oxidized (I use liver of sulphur) and then I like to polish the relief for effect.

Shown below is another style of the knotted earwire. That's summery lemon chalcedony with apatite. Now these are 2 very fun and flirty examples of the hand knotted earwire in application, but the same styles will work well on my luxe earrings.

Last week for example, I gave birth to the Earth and Sky Chandeliers - an ornately wire wrapped luxe earring with over 45 carats of gorgeous gemstones. For that design, I was truly in need of an appropriate sterling earwire. I settled for a stock bali sterling silver french hook that isn't totally in keeping with the feel of this piece.

Anyhow I am pleased with how the Earth and Sky Chandeliers turned out. They're currently listed on my flagship shoppe called http://www.gahooletree.etsy.com/ and this creation has caught the attention of enough readers that I was featured on Talent Database the other day as an emerging designer! Whoopee!!!

I'm enjoying the opportunity to showcase my work online. These blogs, online shoppes and websites are a wonderful record of my work, my online portfolio as it were. And it's becoming an important part of my creative process to document my accomplishments and progress in this regard.

The coolest part of this earwire development process is that I can now expand upon this base and create more styles. And perhaps this 'need' to develop high end findings will force me to get out the torch.

But before I get to that I suppose I need to reorganize my workspace and create a true soldering and metalworking bench area. And before I do that, I absolutely must clean up my studio. Things here have gotten way too crowded and disorganized :)

Welcome to SassyDLite Jewelry Blog

Welcome to the blog regarding our latest gemstone jewelry brand, SassyDLite. I've been creating artisan jewellery for a few years and some examples of my work are available for purchase under the GahooleTree label featured at http://www.gahooletree.etsy.com/. I am trying to get into the habit of regular blogging for the Gahooletree label and that blog URL is http://www.gahooletree.blogspot.com/ also maintained here on Blogger.


But a few days ago I opened a new storefront on Etsy in order to feature fun, fresh and flirty jewelry for girls, teens or simply the young at heart. The rantings on this blog will center around our newest brand, SassyDLite, its product development and design issues.




Featured to the left is the sleek "Fresh Turquoise Stix" earrings for only $9!!! It is hard to find a hand crafted, handforged sterling silver earwire for only $9 not to mention one which has gemstone and sterling embellishments.



Check back to discover more affordable jewelry finds to be featured at SassyDLite online. My sketch book is crammed with new design ideas so over the coming weeks we'll offer tons of great things on SassyDLite.

Feel free to contact us for custom work or if you have questions. There is additional contact info at the Oracle Gem Designs main site.



Thanks for your interest and don't forget to subscribe to this RSS feed to keep up to date!