Fun While It Lasted

I have come to the decision that I no longer possess the dexterity in my hands to create the jewelry I started to make almost 2 years ago. I picked up my pliers one day about a month ago and proceeded to try to fix a clasp on a necklace that I have had for years. I was able to get the jump ring open, but when I tried to hold the jump-ring with one pliers and close it with another, my hands just didn't want to cooperate. My fingers tightened up and my grip failed me. It was at this point I decided that it was time to destash my collection of jewelry making supplies.

I took out a few of the little containers that I keep everything sorted and labeled in. The beads were so pretty, sparkly, and cool to the touch. But when I thought about trying to string and twist and crimp, my hands started telling me to change my thoughts.

Over the next few weeks I hope to get all my supplies listed and photographed to sell. Not sure which avenue I will take. I may list some select items on Etsy, but most of the bulk supplies will probably go on Ebay as a lot. But I have so much, it is going to be hard to decide which to put where. I do have a lot of Swarovski crystals, Crystazzi crystals and pearls, and other very nice charms and other beads. Some of what I have were purchased with the intent of making gifts for friends and family, but I just never got to it.

I also have a lot of findings, key chain and phone fob elements, head pins and eye pins, spacers, ear wire, bracelet clasps, eyeglass lanyards, and everything in between.

Most (and this is a big portion) of my supplies were purchased from FireMountain Gems, and a good portion is from Michael's (Crystazzi specifically), and another online jewelry supply site that I can't recall the name for. Everything is excellent quality and in excellent condition.

So keep your eyes peeled, I may have something you need to finish a project or get one started. I will, of course, create a blog to show what is listed and where.

This isn't something I wanted to do but I know I can't create the same quality if I don't have the strength in my hands to ensure a solid piece that won't come apart. I just wish I would have put down on paper all the ideas I had when I bought everything!

I Am SOOOOOOOOOOO Connected!

WOW! I have more logins and passwords that I can remember in one sitting. Now I'm connected another way, via Facebook and Etsy. Yes, Etsy now has a feature that allows you to send your feed to your Facebook, so when you list a new item, or "heart" an item, it will give you the option of having the action show up on your Facebook wall. I also have Twitter that feeds to Facebook, and my blog automatically updates my Twitter which updates my Facebook whenever I post a new blog. You'll see that in action if you go to my Twitter or my Facebook after reading this and it will also show up there with a link back here.

Now if only all these places where I have a login would email me every week to remind me that they are there. I think I have things that I forgot about. Who knows. If you happen to see my presence somewhere, drop me a line and let me know where. Kind of like playing Where's Waldo, only this time it's Here's Karen! LOL

Now to make a new list of logins and passwords since the one I had is out of date. Besides, I can't find it since the move, probably because I put it somewhere for safekeeping. But where? Probably in one of those other accounts that I forgot I have!

My Own Domain

Well, I did it. Last night I took the plunge and registered designsbyrukar.com. I haven't built a site yet, still in the idea stage. I plan on eventually having it set up as a full-fledged e-commerce site to sell my jewelry and accessories, and probably some other things, like vintage and collectibles.

But to get it started, I will post pictures of my jewelry with the link to buy it linking to my Etsy shop. Once I get the site tweaked just the way I like it, there will be a shopping cart on it so my buyers don't have to go to any other sites.

I don't plan on closing my Etsy shop. I like Etsy because of the networking and helpfulness of the other members there. I will probably have some of the same items there that I will on my new site. This way if someone wants to buy something without registering on Etsy, they can do it this way. I have a lot of friends and friends of friends that want to buy from me but don't want to register to do it.

Wish me luck!

A Very Profitable Weekend

WOW! I woke up Saturday morning and for the first time in a long time, didn't check email until after my shower and about 2 cups of coffee. I had an 11 am appointment to get my hair cut, then lunch with my mom and maybe do some shopping, so I didn't really have a lot of leisure time to spare. I had a few minutes to check things out while waiting for my husband to finishing dressing.
I first check email, then went to my Etsy shop. I noticed there were 4 less items listed than there were the night before, so I thought I had some things that expired. I looked in the expired listings, nothing new in there. Then checked sold, and I had sold 4 items! It must have just happened after I checked email because there was no notices in the email then, but when I check again after being at Etsy, there was my email from Etsy and Paypal. I was so excited, I almost missed my hair appointment while I gathered the items she ordered to put them aside so I could get them ready for shipping when I got home.
I tell you, this sale really made the difference for me. I hadn't sold anything since January, despite having plenty of views, and I was starting to get discouraged. I now have a renewed ambition to keep on creating.
So watch for new pieces to appear in my shop very soon!

New Bracelets Listed --- Finally!

Finally!!! The six bracelets that I blogged about last are listed and online in my Etsy shop.

I won't put the pictures here since they are all included in the previous blog, but will instead list a link with a description of the bracelet. You can see all my new bracelets along with my other original designs in my Etsy shop at http://designsbyrukar.etsy.com/

Here they are, in all their beautiful glory:

Green & Gold Multistrand Bracelet

Green Catseye & Swirl Bead Bracelet

Blooming Colors Swarovski Crystal Bracelet

Botswana Agate and Semi-Precious Hematite Bracelet

Crystal and Gem Chip Bracelet

Lilacs and Roses Bracelet

MARCH MADNESS SALE!

I just marked down almost everything in my shop...MARCH MADNESS SALE!

I plan on doing a lot of designing and creating this weekend and hope to have new pieces listed very soon! Visit my shop to check out all the great bargains by clicking below:

Designs By Rukar

A Very Accomplished Feeling!

Well this has been a very productive weekend for me. I got some new jewelry pieces made for my shop and just finished listing them. There are seven new listings as of today; five bracelets, one pair of earrings (that would go nicely with one of the bracelets that were just listed), and one bracelet/earring set.

This bracelet/earring set was created with beautiful sterling wrapped lampwork beads in a very warm and seductive amber glow. The druk beads are tortoise and complement the lampwork beads very nicely.

The earrings are on surgical steel earwires with silverplate accents, and dangle 2-1/4" from the top of the wire.

The bracelet is linked and closes with a silverplate toggle clasp. It fits to an 8" wrist.

This bracelet was created by linking art glass rectangles in red and blue with glass squares that are a deep rich red tone. The bracelet fastens with a silverplate toggle clasp, and fits to an 8" wrist.

The red squares, on first sight, reminded me of the anise hard candies that my grandfather always had on hand.

This bracelet is a bit chunky but sure to get attention!





The earrings that I just listed were created with fancy jasper and agate semi-precious beads. They are featured on silverplate hoops which are on surgical steel earwires with silverplate details. They dangle 1-1/2" from the top of the earwire.

They also include clear plastic earwire stops that help prevent the earwire from slipping out of the ear and getting lost.





This is a bracelet that is on silverplate memory wire and includes fancy jasper and fancy agate semi-precious beads, in round, faceted square, and disks.
This bracelet is one size fits all and would go with anything. Beautiful earthy tones in the beads, ranging from green to black to amethyst shades.
It would go wonderfully with the earrings above.




I have many other items that were just listed today, and they can all be seen in my shop, at Designs By RuKar

Please visit my Etsy shop, I'm sure you will find something that you just can't resist. If you see something you like and would like a different size, color, or other change, please let me know either by convo on Etsy or email me at rukar@karuss.com. We can work something out for a custom order. And don't forget - FREE SHIPPING on all items to U.S. addresses!! This is for regular First Class mail, but if you prefer Priority Mail, I can do that for an additional charge. Just contact me before sending payment.

New Listings Today

I finally got the time and energy to make more accessories and listed them this evening in my etsy store.


Now I realize that I listed a few new items 2 weeks ago and never mentioned it in my blog! Shame on me!


Ok, here's the preview:


This is the Lime Twist Charm fob.

It can be seen at:

My Etsy Store - Accessories




This is the Crystal Charm fob.

It can be seen at:

My Etsy Store - Accessories









This is the multi-color beaded charm fob.

View this at:

My Etsy Store- Accessories

The previous listings that I never wrote about here were for two key chains, and a beautiful crystal and glass pearl necklace.





This beautiful necklace would be stunning with a little black dress for a holiday party or that New Year's Eve event.

See it at:
My Etsy Store - Necklaces



Two keychains that are also in my store can be viewed here:

Luck of the Irish Keychain
My Etsy Store - Accessories

A pink and blue beaded keychain
My Etsy Store - Accessories

If you see something in my shop and you would like it in different colors, please convo me on Etsy or email me at rukar@karuss.com and I will work with you on your request and create a custom listing for you.

Time For A Breather

Whew! It's now 3:26 pm here in cool and cloudy Plainfield IL, at the office. Love that little Weatherbug icon in my systray, I can look at it and know what the temperature is without walking outside. Right now it's 43 but the forecast says it is going to drop, then by Friday be in the 60's! This is goofy, no wonder so many people are sick. Nobody knows how to dress so either you're overdressed and sweat your butt off, then get chilled; or you are underdressed and get chilled right off the bat! All I can say is.....LAYERS LAYERS LAYERS. It's easier to take something off if you're too warm (within reason of course), but you can hardly put something on to warm up if you don't have it with you to begin with!

Anyway, I finished what I hope is the work I had for the day and needed some time to regroup before I hit the rush hour traffic on my way home.

I put in another order for some odds & ends with Fire Mountain, among which are jewelry boxes. Have to get ready for the holidays. I can feel those sales ringing up for holiday gift giving.

While I was eating my lunch today, I decided to do some rearranging in my shop. Moved everything that was $10 or less to a special category, obviously named "Ten Dollars and Under". Then did some changing of gallery pictures so different ones were shown on the first view. Trying to see if a change of scenery will spark more interest, altho I have to say I was suprised at the amount of views I have received. I see a lot of new views when I post in Twitter about new listings. Every little bit helps!

Today I submitted my shop url to google search and msn search. Let's see if this brings in any new interest. It all depends if their search engines decide to crawl my url or not. I'm keeping my toes crossed...can't cross my fingers or I wouldn't be able to type...or bead!

Tonight I am going to see if my son will go with me to Michael's so I can find some silk thread. I have some Crystazzi pearls and I want to try my hand at stringing and knotting pearls. Wish me luck!!

New Listing - Swarovski Crystal Earrings---GORGEOUS!

OH! I just love the way these earrings turned out! They are so pretty, I'm tempted to keep them for myself. I just listed them on my Etsy shop so go take a look.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16600298

These would go great with the Swarovski Crystal bracelet that is already there.

If you buy both, mention that you saw my blog, and I will give you a 10% discount!

As always, **FREE SHIPPING - FIRST CLASS MAIL TO U.S. ADDRESSES ONLY**

New Listings on Etsy...More To Come

Just listed a new bracelet, and an eyeglass chain on Etsy.

Both are made with primarily Czech glass beads.

The creative juices are flowing and will have more listed by the end of the weekend.

I'm Finally In A Treasury!!

I answered a post in Etsy forums for pink, and it got me a spot in a Treasury West Treasury!

The link is http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=29685

Here is a part of the listing (a screenshot):

Monday Technology Quirks - Very Frustrating!

So it's Monday. Not a holiday for me, I have to be at work. Not sure what I will accomplish. Banks are closed, no mail, half of our job sites are closed down for the holiday, yet here I sit.

I had a brainstorm to create and upload a page to the sub-domain I created last week on our home site. Not being much with raw html code, I thought I did pretty good for a simple and basic page. Even did the background color, text color, etc. Ok, next step is to ftp it to the server. No problem. I even remembered my ftp username and password!! Wow, that's an accomplishment for me, since I have so many different logins and passwords for the many sites, programs, and other access points that I use. I've been meaning to create a wallet of all my logins so that I have them. Never fails, I try to login to one of my suppliers and I can't remember my login, then have to remember which email address I used to register so they can send me my login. Ok, I digress.

I was happy to see that the page I had just coded loaded and displayed as best as I can expect, considering I didn't do anything fancy, with the exception of adding my etsy mini. Now, when I signed up with the hosting server, I was given $75 in free google adwords. I figured I might as well use them, so I proceeded to login to my account (yep, remembered the login, this time!). Lo and behold, the server is DOWN! I managed to access the support page, of course THAT isn't down. It appears that their main server had a nervous breakdown and they are "working" on getting things up and running, but no word on how long it will take. Great! I get my site online, have it referring to my etsy site, and nobody will find it because I can't setup the adwords.

I am seriously considering moving my web to another host, but not sure which one is good. I like yahoo but it can be quite costly. But I guess you get what you pay for, huh?

If anyone has any suggestion for a web host, please, let me know! I am currently on powweb. I like it, there are a lot of features that make it easy for someone who hasn't kept up with her html coding that was learned many years ago, (Can't even do CSS, XHTML, or any of the other ones, just basic HTML), but what good is it if it's always down?

Oh, and if you want to check out the new page, it's at http://rukar.karuss.com/

Happy Monday!

NOT!!!!!

Found A New Bead Store!

Today I was introduced to a new bead store. I was on a quest with my son's girlfriend to find a bead so we could fix her bracelet. She has a Lia Sophia bracelet, a 3-strand beaded bracelet with black beads, gunmetal ball end eye pins and gunmetal clasp. The bead we needed was a 10mm faceted Czech bead. None of my usual places carried this bead in 10mm. Plenty of 8mm and 12mm, but no 10mm. After making stops at 3 places, she mentioned that there was a bead shop near her house which is a few towns over. Since we were near there, we decided to check it out. Voila!!! We no sooner walked in the door than her sharp eyes spotted the beads in a drawer of a display unit. My eyes were still adjusting to the change in the lighting, but I could see it would do the job. It was a Swarovski, and the bracelet was made with Czech, but the only difference we could see was the price. I'm sure a Czech glass bead would have cost less, but having none to be found, this was our best choice. The new bead is the one at the top center, next to one of the originals. (You can see that it is unattached to the rest.)

The next leg of my quest was locating the gunmetal findings, which we didn't see at any of our previous stops, and the bead shop only carried a few findings, earring and necklace components.

So, when we got back home, I fired up my laptop, made a pot of coffee (3rd one today and it was only 2:30pm), and proceeded to check out all my online sources. Very few of them carry the gunmetal head/eye pins and/or the wire, but the hard part was finding the ball end headpin. After searching through all the jewelry supply sites that I could find, I remembered that there were a few stores on etsy that had supplies. After flipping through a few pages of my search results, I finally found a source for my headpins. The picture was very clear, and the color was right on to what we needed. So I ordered, paid and already got my response from the seller that they will be mailed out on Monday. Being that Monday is a holiday, I anticipate not getting them until Friday, which will be perfect since I don't get much bead work done during the week.

All in all it was a good day. I had an enjoyable afternoon with my son's girlfriend as we had our fun in the craft stores, discovered a new bead store that I intended to get back to on occasion, and I found everything I will need to put her bracelet back together. Oh, and yes, I did buy more beads at the new bead store. Watch for the new items in my shop in the next few weeks.

New Jewelry Listings Today

The mistress has been busy. She made four new jewelry creations last night, but managed to find time to spend with me of course!

Her new items are necklace and earring sets, bracelet and earring sets, and a Swarovski crystal bracelet that I think would look "mahvelous" on ME for a collar! I suggested that, but she just chuckled. Oh well, can't fault me for trying!

Check them out:

This is the Swarovski crystal bracelet.

Don't you think it should be on my neck?

I do.

This is the amber and glass bead necklace and earring set.

Too big for me but I'll bet it would make a nice harness for the big dog that lives behind us. This beauty is 29" long!

Now this is a real beauty! What lady wouldn't like this for an special evening out, like Anniversary dinner, or New Years Eve.

This one is 18" long.

This is the ruby red and black bead bracelet/earring set.

If I lose weight, this bracelet would probably fit me.

naaaa, I like to eat too much!

You can see these and others at her Etsy shop. Just click the link on the side bar or go to http://designsbyrukar.etsy.com/

Mystery Stones

Ok, I'm on flickr now, mainly to store pictures for etsy so if I have them ready but don't list, I can always get them and do it at work when I'm bored LOL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rukar/

Right now it's just pics of some stones that I was asking others on etsy to help identify. They told me they are carnelian, a type of agate. All I know is they were part of a necklace that my mom had. She got it from a lady she used to work with who got it when she was in Africa, sometime around the early to mid 80's My niece broke it when she was about 2 (she's 17 now), so I know the stones are at least 20 years old or more. She had it when my son was small and he is 27 now.

Carnelian is supposed to have powers, healing, stuff like that. I asked my friend Laurie what she thinks of them, she knows a lot about spiritual things.

I don't know what to do with them. They're too heavy for earrings or a bracelet, and I dont have enough to make a necklace with them. I don't know if I should try to sell them or what. I'M SO CONFUSED!!!

Our First Sale!

We did it! We made our first sale in our Etsy shop. It was the turquoise earrings, which we called "Mysterious Sparkle Earrings". It is very exciting to make a sale, and also very encouraging.

Last night mistress and master went to their favorite craft supply store and pretty much depleted the gift cards that the mistress received for her birthday. Watch for some new sparkly and "pearly" creations in the near future. They also bought more storage containers, which were needed DESPERATELY! Unfortunately, I cannot open them as easily as I could the other boxes, so that means the only way I get to play with beads is if they are open or there are some out on the bead boards. Altho mistress seems to be wise to me now!

below: Catscan


p.s. How do you like this font? Does it make my ears look big? ;)

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday everyone! This was a bit of a busy weekend. Friday was the mistress' birthday so the master and the son and girlfriend showered her with gifts on Friday evening. Her son gave her a gift card to her favorite craft supply store, and the son's girlfriend gave her an assortment of glass and lampwork beads and other findings for making new jewelry. I don't have to tell you that my mistress was ecstatic! Of course the master bought her a new bottle of her favorite cologne - Ici. mmmmm sure smells goooooooooooood!

Saturday we spent the day doing the usual weekend things like laundry, cleaning, etc. Later in the day the mistress' mom and sister came over for pizza and birthday cake. They also gave her an assortment of jewelry making supplies and another gift card for her favorite craft supply store.

I did my usual prancing for attention, and all I heard was how FAT I had gotten since they last saw me. harumph!

Anyway, stay tuned for more great jewelry creations in the near future. My mistress was busy creating on Sunday and I'm sure by the end of the week she will have more items in her Etsy shop to choose from. I know she got some lampwork beads, and more glass beads in different colors; and her order of Swarovski crystals was delivered Friday so I know there will be some new things with those. The crystals are my personal favorite!

Just an afterthought, but I guess I could introduce my mistress and master and the son. I'll do another post and show you a picture of them. First I have to find the folder with the pictures in it. I know where the folder is with MY pictures in it, but I haven't found the folder with people pictures. I'll look for it after one of my naps. The rain keeps the birds from flying around my window, so I have nothing to watch---I might as well sleep!
psssst....sure wish I had thumbs, then I could make myself a beaded collar! hehehe