Challenges, Friends & Networking :)

Some days go like a gentle breeze, and you get a lot accomplished - and other days you have those strong gusts of wind that make it difficult to progress LOL...today already feels like one of those gentle breezy kind of days, while yesterday was one of those challenging, gusty, windy days.  You see I was set to list a boat load of new jewelry in our Artfire and Etsy stores last night - all that was left to do was upload images to my laptop.  While in the process of saving the images, my SD card decided to take a siesta - and eventually we had no choice but to reformat the disk (which erased all images).  So believe it or not, today I'm smiling because I feel very fortunate to have an excellent natural light type of day for taking pictures...AND I'm equally sure that these new images will be 10x better than the ones lost - I know...I'm always the optimist!

Networking...today I wanted to take a brief moment to share how I stumbled across some of my best E-friends in the world...all due to networking and sharing links.  I'm going to rewind about a year ago...that was when I decided that I was going to leave the lucrative world of selling my jewelry wholesale and start dealing direct with my customers.  It was at this time that I also had a dream about some new jewelry designs in Brass (I've always worked with Sterling Silver and Gold - so this was a new creative venture for me).  I contacted Vintaj Natural Brass and placed my first order with them.  While looking through their "favorite links" section, I stumbled across Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp's (Sky Jewels & MoreSkye Jewels on Etsy) - fabulous wood artisan tiles and I immediately started drooling over them LOL.  It wasn't long before I had a few in my hand...and then proceeded to order many more this past summer.  From that point we became fast sister friends and through Marie, I met (and continue to meet) even more creative friends like Amanda of SeaShoreGlass (Boro Glass beads) and Martha of Menagerie Studio (Polymer Clay Shabby Chic style charms and pendants) -  both of which have been the center/focal piece of a few new jewelry designs too.

Below is just one of my recent designs which feature a "Paris" wood tile of Marie's.  Because of the contrasting blacks in the print on the tile - I wanted to use very deep dark brown/black Brass - and enter my fascination and love of another fellow Etsy store... "Fallen Angel Brass" or FAB for short.  Fallen Angel Brass is co-owned by two special ladies...Karen and Tina.  I absolutely LOVE the look and feel of the their things which are created right here in the United States.

This Eiffel Tower Bracelet will soon be listed in our Artfire store...and with the individual hand wire-wrapped connectors with Black Riverstone, Green Turquoise gemstones, FAB beads & Chain, along with Swarovski Jet Black crystals - this design was definitely a time consuming one with all the little details - but for me, so very worth it.  The Paris bracelet is full of chic style and romance...it feels wonderful on because it's not too heavy and not too light :)

Well my small list followers - networking is a wonderful thing!  And I have to share that in the short time that I've been on Facebook...my "fans" on the biz page have grown from 16 to 130...and monthly active users are now over 300 -of course my hope is that more people officially join both our Blog and Facebook biz page in 2011.  So feel free to spread the word (not just about me...but all my other networking friends too)!  I've just added a networking link page on my website - check out the details :).

I look forward to meeting new people and growing our creative circle of artisans and artisan lovers.  Look for some fun upcoming contests and freebies soon...Wishing everyone the best in 2011!

~J-Lynn