A New Direction

Hi everyone!!

Well....it's been a while since I've been able to keep in touch here on the blog. Our family lost a beloved pet of almost 20 years to cancer, which was just heartbreaking. We were also blessed, against all the odds and a difficult pregnancy, with the miracle of a little girl! She is such a cutie and so very precious!

With welcoming our new baby, things are running a bit slower on the business side of life and it's time for me to simplify and focus more on family.

With that goal in mind, I'm going to be shutting down the old website, which is run entirely manually (Yes! It's THAT old! Lol!) and moving everything to Etsy and Ravely. The patterns there automatically download so you can start creating right away! I will also be moving all the jewels over to Etsy as I have time to photograph them. With all this change, a new simpler blog will be in order paired with a new focus on social media.

Looking toward 2015 and the future, I have a TON of awesome crochet/knit patterns on the back burner waiting to be photographed and formally written out and a whole new line of super cool wearables in the drawing notebook!

Please bear with me as I take a little longer to fulfill orders and communicate with you with the arrival of our new baby :) I thank you all for your patience and understanding!!  I hope this transition to a simpler, more user-friendly Jeweled Elegance will enable me to keep serving all of you and keep the business going during this new joyous time for our family. Thank you!!!

Pearl Cotton vs Crochet Thread Sizing

When designing crochet jewelry, I am partial to thin yarn/thread because the finer the thread, the more delicate the finished piece of jewelry. I used crochet thread for years, but one day tried embroidery thread (also called embroidery floss) and was instantly hooked.

If you live in the US, embroidery thread is found in craft stores in the sewing/embroidery section. It comes in a mind-boggling array of beautiful colors. Often time the store will have row upon row of this stuff. And .. it is extremely inexpensive.

For those who may be confused on embroidery thread vs. crochet thread for knitting or crochet, the important thing to remember is that crochet thread and embroidery thread run on different sizing systems. Both are mostly 100% cotton. Here are the nearest equivalents:

* #5 pearl/perle cotton is a little thicker than #10 crochet thread, but is suitable for most #10 cotton patterns.
* #8 pearl/perle cotton is about the same as #20 crochet thread.
* #12 pearl/perle cotton is about the same as #40 crochet thread.

LinkWithin -- A Handy Blog Widget

Vintage Cinderella & Fairy Godmother Illustration

The Jeweled Elegance Cinderella transformation continues! On this post I started listing related posts at the bottom of current posts because I felt there was so much goodness buried in my past posts. Well, that strategy worked .. but as I got more and more posts, it became more challenging to manually sort through all my posts. Luckily, I just found LinkWithin! This blog widget does all the work for you. It generates related posts with photo thumbnails for every post. I am really liking it, but some of the things it generates as "related" do seem a bit weird!

Vintage Sleeping Beauty Queen Illustration

I've been working hard like a busy bee and have *mostly* finished my website boutique overhaul. How fresh and bright it looks! The banner now complements my business cards. The blog and site match perfectly. The press page is upated. The promo pics are redone. And I redid from scratch about half the product photos. Worlds better! (The other half are things I'm taking to market in 2 weeks and since they might soon be in happy homes, I didn't want to spend the hours photographing them quite yet). I still need to get my newsletter program fixed .... and get the scarflettes and patterns up! I have 6 scarflettes almost done .... and am working on the patterns for at least 4 of them, plus the pattern for the fingerless gloves. The patterns are taking longer than I thought because I first have to write them, then test them myself by crocheting straight from the pattern to sure it flows smoothly and has no mistakes, .. and THEN have an independent crocheter test the pattern out. Soon!!

Getting Gorgeous

Hi all!! Well, you might have noticed from the changed look of my blog that big changes are afoot. Not only is my blog completely redesigned, but I am also working on completely redesigning my website boutique. It's been two years since my last major website update while I worked on getting Etsy up and running and my poor neglected website really needs some love and freshening up. So, I'm ignoring the beautiful weather outside and keeping my nose to the grindstone making new graphics, taking new pictures, creating new product, and handcoding lots of HTML and XHTML. I'd love to have a fancy, integrated cart website with all the bells and whistles, but that will have to wait until I win the lottery or something :) So, it's still the Paypal shopping cart, but it's going to be just gorgeous!!

As if that wasn't enough of a project, I am also moving ahead on launching my crochet goodies and patterns. AND starting at least one new blog project (maybe two) to create a new direction for the future of my company. So, I'm not going to spend much time in blogland for the immediate future .. because as great as that is, it can consume enormous amounts of time, and I'm a girl with a mission!

I want to have everthing up and running before the start of my Saturday Market on May 2. Oh, that's right! With all my other projects, I also need to be ready to sell at market in .. gulp .. 3 weeks!! I'm going to be one busy Bejeweled!

I've still got a few more weeks of working hard, and then I can go outside to the patio to smell the flowers and have a well deserved slice of decadent cheesecake with a pot of fancy tea!

Happy New Year & Happy Valentine's Day!

It's a new year and that means new handcrafted unique artisan jewelry at Jeweled Elegance! Our crochet hoop earrings are getting great reviews. These sweet pink ones are "Monet". The finishing touches are being put on "Wisteria", some awesome lavender ones, and I hope to get them photographed tomorrow. I think they are my favorite ones so far.

A new year means clearing out some of our older inventory, so look for select jewelry starting to be marked down and put on sale. Help us clear out some of our older beauties and get some great Valentine's Day gifts at a great price!

We also have a great Valentine's Day special going on right now. Order $35 worth of Jeweled Elegance items and get a free gift - a free pair of flower hairpins! We have several pretty designs worth between $8 and $20 dollars, and would love to add one to your order! The special is running until February 15th. (While supplies last - free earrings will be substituted if we sell out of hairpins)

And now for a little bad news...A new year also means some items (just a few!) will be costing more this year. We adjust our prices on a yearly basis, mostly for increases in material costs, and try to keep the adjustments as small as possible.

Happy New Year!!

Creature Comforts' Holiday Giveaway

It's not officially holiday season yet, but holiday contests are already in full swing! The Happily Handmade Giveaway is wrapping up, so get your entries in this week. If you missed out on the HHG, next up is the Creature Comforts' Holiday Giveaway. Win a gift basket crammed full of fabulous handcrafted goodies! Included in your prize will be a delicious jewelry goodie from Jeweled Elegance. Keep an eye on Creature Comforts in the coming weeks to see what it, and all the other prizes, will be!

Art & Antique Fair: A Great Success

The Sherwood Art and Antique Fair was a great success! Beautiful fall weather, thousands of happy people and some truly awesome vendors. We also had some wonderful musicians providing live music for the event. These are a few photos of my Fair display. I was very happy with my cheerful, colorful display and loved how it turned out.

I know the booth was a bit packed at times (I never thought there could be such a thing as too many customers) If there was something you had your heart set on, and I wasn't able to get to you in a timely manner, just e-mail me and I will get your jewels to you. Thank you everyone for making this such a great event!

Rare Robin Awards: Vote For Us!

The Rare Robin Awards were created to recognize the online stores that carry unique finds worthy of being featured on Rare Bird Finds. Please vote for us, Jeweled Elegance, in the funky jewelry and woman's accessories categories and win 1 of 7 gift baskets - with a combined total retail value of more than $1,300! Vote for us and we will love you forever!

Happily Handmade Giveaway Starts Today!

The Happily Handmade Giveaway starts today! Go to
Jeweled Elegance and click on the offical HHG banner in the middle of the home page to enter. Good luck on winning one of the fabulous indie prize baskets!!

Crafters for Critters

Here are some of the really cute items Jeweled Elegance just donated to Crafters for Critters. If you're not familiar with Crafters for Critters, it's a wonderful shop of indie designer goods where the proceeds are donated to various animal rescue groups. Every four months, three different organizations receive the money raised. One of the three organizations is always a greyhound rescue group. We just mailed off our donations today, so look for them in the shop soon!

"Rare Earth" Terbium Glass

We are please to offer beautiful new "Rare Earth" Terbium Glass briolette jewelry. The stunning glass faceted briolettes are made with the rare earth element terbium. When terbium is added to the glass, it adds exceptional brilliance and creates a rich product similar to fully leaded crystal.

Our new glass jewels include a brilliant red, an emerald green and an onyx black. They seem to glow from within and their large size suggest crown jewels. Look for some new y necklaces and a Tudor style ruby and pearl necklace made with these brilliant new teardrop briolettes. They will be available for purchase at our boutique in just a few days.

Jeweled Newsletter

At last! Jeweled Elegance now publishes an e-mail newsletter. Sign up to join our mailing list and be informed of new jewelry, products, news and specials. Look for our first issue this summer!

New Look

Every purchase you make at Jeweled Elegance is gift boxed, FREE! Here is our beautiful new packaging. It comes in a lime/pink combo and is just fabulous for gifts.

Jeweled Elegance Goes to the Market

This Saturday, May 6, is the opening day of the Sherwood Saturday Market. We are proud to be market vendors and hope to see you all there at our new location: the new city walkway adjacent to the Sherwood Library and City Hall, just off of Pine Street. The market runs from 9:00 to 1:00 most Saturdays and is located in Old Town, Sherwood, Oregon. If you are in the area, stop by and say hello!

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for Jeweled Elegance, LLC ! Jeweled Elegance is a small indie business that creates handcrafted artisan jewelry. We have a wonderful easy-to-use online boutique here. We use beautiful natural materials to create fiercely romatic jewelry for your inner princess. Come take a look and treat yourself to a little luxury!