Pretty, Awesome, Pretty Awesome Treasury

Etsy seller Damjana of Lodddelina curated this supergorgeous Treasury, and was kind enough to include my Laurel necklace in French Blue and Brown. She also included things from two of my favorite Etsy shops, which I might as well blather on about now:

Lotta Hellberg of Inleaf Design made those sachets on the bottom left. Her work reminds me a bit of that other Lotta (Jansdotter) in its subtle color palates and natural textiles, but Hellberg's work tends toward the more refined and sophisticated, and I really love it. Plus, she creates her designs by printing with *actual leaves* - a technique I've tried and love, though my results have been vastly inferior to Lotta's!

Sharon Montrose's photo of a goose is in the second row in the middle. I love the way her use of the glowing white backgrounds bring into stark relief some aspect of each creature's being. Plus, they're really, really pretty : )

And now thanks to this Treasury, I've got a new favorite Etsy shop - Kuutydruk! Shop proprietess Moonika who hails from Estonia (Kuutydruk means "Moongirl" in Estonian!) is making laptop sleeves (second row, far right) as well as CD organizers, iPod covers and handbags out of linen, and embellishing them with traditional Estonian embroidery designs. I love the juxtaposition of a centuries-old sewing technique on covers for new-fangled techno gadgetry.

So - thanks again Loddelina for this amazing collection, and for making me part of it!

Jewelry By Jessica Weekend Deal: 15% Off At My Etsy Shop!

Starting tomorrow, Friday, August 21 through Sunday the 23rd, I'm having a 15% off sale in my Etsy shop. I'm also giving away one of my DIY Shrink Plastic Necklace Kits to one random weekend patron. So, yay! 

Nerd alert: I am totally geeking out that my new Punch Flower Necklace in Teal and Lemongrass was featured in the "Weekend Deals" Gift Guide, which is compiled by Etsy Admins (screenshot above). {They like me! They really like me! Okay, okay, I'm over it : ) }

Anyhoo, take advantage of the discount this weekend to stock up on some new accessories for Fall. It's just around the corner. (At least it better be - I am done done done with the sun!)

Two Treasuries! Seven Treasures Earrings and Flowering Stem Necklace Get Their Moment in the Sun...

What luck! I am currently featured in two Etsy Treasuries!

The first one is an in-your-face extravaganza of red and white awesomeness curated by jewelry designer Amy Singley of Adorn By Amy Singley. It features my Seven Treasures earrings in Crimson - which seem to be holding their own among Amy's very cool picks. 

The second one features a really lovely color palate of sky blue, lime, green and purple - and features the Treasury debut of my brand new design, Flowering Stem in Eggplant! (For now, available exclusively at my Etsy shop.) This one was put together by Dorothy Domingo, who is a woman of many, many talents - beader, quilter, ceramicist, and who knows what else! 

Thanks, Dorothy and Amy for featuring me! 

Lovely Little Things: Mandag

"Shopping" gets a bad rap. What is "shopping" but looking at pretty, pretty things? Who doesn't enjoy looking at pretty, pretty things? For me, there are also huge benefits to shopping: I get inspired, I get ideas, and, well, yes, sometimes I get stuff. 

Anyway, because social networking via Etsy is technically "work" for me (wink, wink) I do find a ridiculous number of amazing handmade things online, and I can't possibly buy them all. But I can share them with others who might buy them, oh yes I can. So here's the first installment of my new, whenever-I-have-a-moment, Lovely Little Things series: some cards and a pillow by Sini, a.k.a. Mandag, who lives in Oslo, Norway. 

I love the hand-cut look and the color palates on the cards. And I love the steel grey of the crochet pillow (in fact, my Fall jewelry line is riddled with this color - I can't wait to get back in my studio to get going on it already!) and the way the colored buttons give the homespun texture of the cover a very modern edge. Both the cards and the pillow (along with many other really lovely things) are available in Mandag's shop on Etsy. Go forth and shop : ) 

Etsy Treasury Feature: Salsa

Red + green: it's not just for Christmas, people! I love red and green together. Always have. Is it because of the high contrast - opposite sides of the color wheel and all? Who knows. What I do know is that my Meadows necklace in Crimson, featuring little red flowers on green stems made it into this Etsy Treasury (see the bottom row there) put together by Planet Treasures. She was inspired by other fabulous red and green combos: salsa ingredients and a landscape painting of a green and red field. Vive la vert et rouge! 

Etsy Treasury: Black & White

Someone recently asked me which MJ song was my favorite. "Black Or White" was the first one that came to mind. The person had never heard this song. But the album "Dangerous" was the big MJ album of my childhood, and the face morphing portion of the video for "Black and White" (which starts at about 5 minutes 30 seconds in) was pretty darn amazing at the time. 

All that to say my Sweet Fennel Blooms necklace is in an Etsy Treasury. And at first glance I thought the title of the Treasury was "Black Or White," and that it was maybe an MJ tribute. But at second glance, I saw that it's actually called "It's Black and It's White." So, uh, nevermind. : ) 

Thanks so much to Lisa at BeadCrazed for including me in this very cool (though non-MJ-related) collection!

Another Treasury: Whimsical Summer

I really love this treasury collection, "Whimsical Summer," made by Shawn St. Jean (who has a lovely Etsy shop of original photos.) You can see my Meadow Necklace in Crimson there in the bottom row. Thanks for featuring me, Shawn!

Meadow Necklace in Crimson Featured in Etsy Treasury

Another Etsy treasury feature - my Meadow Necklace in Crimson was included. Thanks to Miss Moose Designs for including me!

Blooms Necklace in French Blue & Poppy Featured in Etsy Treasury!

Another Etsy treasury feature - my Blooms Necklace in French Blue & Poppy was included. Thanks to jewelryvixen for featuring me!

Sweet Fennel Blooms Featured in Etsy Treasury

Another Etsy treasury feature - my Sweet Fennel Blooms necklace was included. Thanks to Creative Details for including me!

Gingko Leaf Necklace in Dark Teal Featured in an Etsy Treasury!

Another Etsy treasury feature - my Gingko Leaf necklace in dark teal was included. Love teal and lime together. Hmm, perhaps a future necklace color combo... Thanks to LilithEnvy who made the list for including me. 

Etsy Treasury: It's All about DIY

Hey, lookie there. My DIY Shrink Plastic Necklace Kit made it into an Etsy Treasury  (a themed list of stuff curated by an Etsy member, for those of you unacquainted with Etsian parlance). The kits seem to be a hit - they're flying out of my shop! Now to force people to send pictures of the pieces they make...I want to see!

My Other Etsy Store...Modern Beads

Did I forget to mention my other Etsy store here? Uh, guess so. I launched Modern Beads at Etsy a while back as a place for my "minimalist modern" bead and sterling silver earrings and necklaces. 

I developed a real love for beads. However I maintain my dislike for fussy bunches of beads. Just one or two at a time, please. Three tops. What developed was a minimalist modern look. I started with earrings, and all my friends seemed to love them. And I wear them all the time too. So I decided I needed to have a venue to give me the excuse to keep making them - and to keep my jewelry box from overflowing. I uploaded a few new pieces the other day - hope to get this store stocked up again for Spring soon!

By the way, I use mostly repurposed or thrifted beads for the pieces at Modern Beads, so each necklace or pair of earrings is extremely limited edition -- some are one-of-a-kind. If you want first dibs on new Modern Beads pieces, you can RSS the shop feed. Isn't that cool?

Jewelry By Jessica: Some New Designs!

I read a really great article in Etsy's The Storque called "Give Props: How to Style Your Photos" written by the extremely talented Susy Jack. Basically it talked about creating more of an environment for your work in photographs, using props and backgrounds.

For a long time, I've been using mostly plain white backgrounds for feature photographs of my jewelry, thinking that I wanted the colors to be the star of the show. But - even if it's not obvious in the designs - my work is very much influenced by Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts Movement patterns and lines. So I thought - why not use some of those patterns as backdrops? Somehow it seems to work - I'm really enjoying the fresh look it gives my pieces. Haven't tried props yet....baby steps : )

So two of the pieces piectured above are new for Spring: Scallop Pattern in Lilac and Chinese Lattice Pattern in Red (only at Etsy for right now) and the other two just look new, thanks to their spiffy new backdrops: Laurel in Brown and Leaf Green and Loops in Red. Enjoy the color/pattern feast!