Moonstone with Orange Geode Druzy Necklace and New Sale at Craftsy!

Happy Fridays my fellow Jewelers! This is my newest addition to Joules of Jewels, Moonstone with Orange Druzy Necklace! This cute necklace is made with orange/burly wood colored rare Agate Druzy and very delicately faceted moonstones in papaya, white smoke grey, and cloud white. It is carefully finished with sterling silver French wires in between, and has a very detailed connector in the back. 

I have purchased the moonstones from a wholesaler and it has served me very well. All the pieces I used from the bar clasp to the french wires are all sterling silver. This necklace is a fun conversation piece on a hot summer day with a cute cocktail dress, or a soft white T-Shirt with beach shorts, or a professionally tailored dress shirt for first day of work! You can purchase here in my etsy shop or simply click on the pictures. 

Craftsy is having a $9.99 sale until 11:59PM on 5/31/14! It is a steal considering the most discount I have seen from them is 50%. Usually the jewelry class I had my eyes on are about $29.99 so it is 66% off! Here's the link or simply click on the image above.  I purchased Kiln-fire Silver Clay class for just $9.99 which I have been saving this class on my wishlist for a day such as today! I have been watching it since I got off work and it has been an intriguing class. Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend and learn something fun!

February - The Romantics - Roses

February Treasury

Romance is what makes our everyday life energetic and full of love. For this, I created the treasury containing all things related to roses, the most romantic flower. For the Valentine's day this year, instead of buying flowers like most others, I bought a lovely heart shaped bamboo plant for my lovely better half. The bamboo was from 1800flowers and it was delivered in time for our valentine's day dinner. It was very lovely.

The most important thing about valentine's day is to show the people you love that you care about them. One of my coworkers, being away from home and hopelessly romantic, he bought construction papers and made a huge valentine's day card for his girlfriend. I hope you enjoyed this great little holiday also. But remember, you don't need a special day to celebrate with people you love. Any day is a good day for some kindness and love in life.

Affordable Tutorials (2) Inspiration with simple Tutorial - Heart Hoop Earrings

love cymbal earrings ($80.00) on Uncommongoods

I've always been fascinated with hoop earrings. Of course I myself know how hard it is to make one really good. This pair of heart hoop earrings I found from uncommongoods.com. The materials they used are brass, nickel, bronze, guitar string,and steel. However, I think a beginning jeweler can easily pull this off with $10.00 or less.

First, lets look at the materials, and I think we can even make all the brass colored areas gold filled, and it STILL will be MUCH cheaper than $80.00.

Materials
2 heart shaped pendant (similar)
12 inch 49 strand soft flex beading wire, silver (see here, or at your local craft store)
2 10 inch 24 gauge wire gold filled (or base metal) (found here or at your local craft store)

The reason I think 49 strand soft flex is good for this is because we are trying to achieve a perfect circle by relying on the beading wire itself. There is no need to bend the wire, of course you can't bend 49 strand wire and not kink it. The more strands there are in the soft flex, the more flexible they are, and the less likely they are going to kink and not look smooth. This is what we are trying to achieve.

You can first make the hoop with the soft flex beading wire. Braid them like you would braid someone's hair with three strand interlace with each other.
Then, take the 24 gauge gold wire, wrap it around the ends of the soft flex wire to close it up. Make sure to make a wire wrapped loop on the top to attach ear wires, and make a loop on the bottom to attach to the heart pendant.

Now you've made a pair of cute $80 worth earrings all by yourself under $10! Easy and affordable. I think that's what we look for every day in life.

Readers, what are some of your easy and affordable solutions?

Affordable Tutorials (1) - Gold Simplicity Earrings Tutorial - What to buy for Mom - Inspiration

As Christmas is tiptoeing, I have found some new wire wrapped jewelry project. Recently I have read an article about "less is more." In that article, the author argued that sometimes we "try too hard" to make a jewelry. Sometimes, simplicity is the key to beautiful jewelry. So baring that in mind, I have found a couple of easy, cute, and simple earring style for the holiday.

Golden Path Earring ($120.00) uncommongoods

This pair of earrings is easy to DIY. They used an alloy material called Shibuichi in the back as the dark oval shape, and a flat gold strip slightly bent in the front as contrast. This item on uncommongoods is sold for $120.00. But in fact, you can totally DIY it for less than $20. One can easily change the shibuichi into a flat oxidized silver oval teardrop (similar here), and the flat gold strip can be made from simply hammering a 20 gauge gold colored base metal wire or gold filled wire. You can find gold filled wire from here. You can even buy square gold wires. They are a little more expensive than the round ones (see here).
After this, do you still want to pay $120.00 for this pair of earrings? Make it your own for someone special in your family this Christmas!

Here's the material List:
1 pair of ear wire (can be found here)
2 2-inch Gold filled wire (for the gold strip) hammer it flat
2 tear drop silver oval pendant

You will need:
Round nose pliers
Flat/Chain nose pliers
Benchblock
Hammer

Brown - Garnet Colorings for the holidays

Click on the image to see the Etsy Treasury

Lovely warm chocolate brown color for the holiday season! Another great finds on Joulesofjewels Treasury! I especially adore the brown cow coin bank (on the upper right corner). It is absolutely adorable!! And it cracked me up a little. :)

Of course I somehow stumbled upon Mr. CarnivalOfTheManiac suit (3rd from the left on the second row). Still stunned by his fashion and great work! I actually read that etsy feature of his shop. Really lovely inspiring story.

Treasury - Purple, Mystic Lilac

Happy Saturday! Hope everyone is having a stay-in warm day with a cup of hot chocolate~
Purple has always been a favorite color of mine. Elegant and mysterious, it's also linked to one of my favorite scent, Lavender. Enjoy the treasury :)

A Harry Potter Day - with Starbucks Butterbeer and Cute HP gifs

I solemnly swear I am up to no good.

Here's the treasury for Thursday!! For those Harry Potter fans. WE LOVE HOGWARTS!

I have also stumbled upon this new starbucks "secret menu" butterbeer recipe. According to what I have read, it is seasonal because of the butter nut syrup. So go try it before Christmas! The instruction says that as long as you provide recipe, Starbucks will make it for you.   I am gonna try it this weekend!!! (For original source, please click on the butterbeer picture)

Here's the recipe: Give them out to the starbucks employees and have them make a butterbeer for you at this holiday season!

Cold Butterbeer Frappucino:

• A Creme Frappuccino base. "Don't skimp on the fat by asking for skim or 2% milk as whole milk is required for the right consistency."
• Add 3 pumps of caramel syrup.
• Add 3 pumps of toffee nut syrup.
• Top with caramel drizzle.

Hot Butterbeer Latte:

• Whole milk steamer
• Add caramel syrup (2 for tall, 3 for grande, 4 for venti)
• Add toffee nut syrup (2 for tall, 3 for grande, 4 for venti)
• Add cinnamon dolce syrup (2 for tall, 3 for grande, 4 for venti)
• Whipped cream and salted caramel bits on top
• Optional: Add a shot of espresso (2 for a grande or venti)

The other inspiration I found was from theorange.co.  It is officially my new favorite graphics website! I find all the graphics and colors on there simple, edgy, and very to-the-point. So here's a set of gifs created by Jon Eckert. Please note this is NOT my work. I am just an admirer. For original post, please click on the pictures :)

Hope you enjoyed this Harry Potter craze.

Mischief managed.