Brand New Jewelry Projects and Ideas

I've got several brand new jewelry projects for you just uploaded to the www.making-jewelry.com website.  Here in Portland, Oregon, spring in the air, and if you're looking for some inspiration to pull you out of the winter doldrums, check out my ideas featuring bright spring colors, and hopefully something will spark your imagination. 

This month, it's all about earrings!  I've created six new spring earring designs for you to try:

	Citrine Bead Earrings - Very pretty sparkling golden citrine beads accented with white seed pearls.  Sophisticated.
	Green and Blue Turquoise Earrings - Featuring both green and blue turquoise beads accented with silver, these pretty earrings and great for spring and summer.
	Pearl Drop Earrings - Featuring silver accent beads and oval freshwater pearls, these elegant earrings will go with everything.
	Amazonite Earrings - Beautiful pale aqua amazonite stones with silver and gold create swingy contemporary earrings.
	Malachite Earrings - Beautiful green malachite beads are the focal point in this elegant earrings.
	Turquoise Tube Earrings - Pretty  and fun with turquoise heishi and aventurine tube beads.

Want to Build your Own Website?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have your own website?  Do you have a jewelry website now, that isn't performing quite as well as you had hoped?  Are you just overwhelmed or confused with all the options that are out there?  Well, let me tell you my story.  I built www.making-jewelry.com all by myself, and it has been one of the most positive and rewarding experiences of my life.  Through the connections of the Internet, I meet people from all over the world who share my interest and love of jewelry making.  Not only is it a great hobby, but a website can be a wonderful way to enhance your business as well.  A website business can even give you the freedom you need to work at home and have the flexibility to pursue other interests and have balance in your life.

You might be thinking you have to be technical or have a lot of know-how to build a website, but using the amazing service that I am using to run my website--anyone, and I do mean anyone who is willing to spend the time--can do this!  Don't take my word for it though, read more about it from all these other people who have made it work for them.  Literally thousands upon thousands of people are using this service to create their own websites--ordinary people like you and me.  Many of them have seen such incredible success on their sites that they have been able to quit their day jobs and work exclusively from home on their own business.

This service works, and I would not personally recommend it if it didn't.  And, if you think I just got lucky on my jewelry site, I didn't. I enjoyed the experience of building a website so much that I have built a second website, all about my home town, the City of Portland, Oregon.  If you are interested, visit my other website at www.portlandneighborhood.com and learn all about what makes Portland special.  I often get over 1000 unique visitors per day on that website alone.  Both of my websites were ranked among the top 3% of ranked websites in the entire world within a year of building them.  So, now I have two successful websites running at the same time! 

You don't have to build a site about jewelry--you can build a site about any one of your hobbies or interests.  If you have a passion, you can write about it and put it on the web for everyone to share.  I will be thrilled if even a single one of my newsletter subscribers finds the success that I have by building their own site, and when you do, I hope you will write and share your story.

Be sure to check this out, and learn more for yourself.

April and May Birthstones

April's modern birthstone is the diamond

If your birthstone is the diamond, then aren't you fortunate?  Diamonds are of course, the most valuable gemstone, with a hardness of 10 on the Mohs scale.  Diamonds come in many colors, but a colorless diamond still is one of the most desirable.  Did you know how diamonds where mined?  Read this excerpt from galleries.com:

"Diamonds are found in a type of rock called "Kimberlite", which comprises the core of certain volcanoes over especially thick portions of the earth's crust.  This hard stone is mined and then crushed between giant steel rollers.  The kimberlite is reduced to fine gravel, yet the extremely hard diamonds come out unharmed!  Water is added and a grease covered roller sorts the diamonds from the gravel, as the diamonds stick to the grease. Typically, a single carat of diamond is recovered from a ton of ore."  No wonder diamonds are so expensive!

May's modern birthstone is the emerald.

Not to be outdone by the diamond, the May birthstone is the gorgeous Emerald.  Emeralds are a form of Beryl and of course are known for their amazing green color.  Emeralds have been prized since ancient times and continue to be one of the most popular and expensive gemstones. Did you know most emerald stones have been treated with oil?  Read more in this excerpt from buzzle.com:

"Nowadays, most emerald gems go through a process called oiling. In this procedure, the emerald gems are immersed in oil to preserve their clarity. However, due to its basic mineral composition, emerald gemstones over one carat are rarely very clear. Therefore, if you do find a stone that is over one carat and extremely clear, beware! It just might be a fake. "

Current Jewelry Supply and Bead Specials

Looking for special deals to save some money on jewelry making supplies?  Here is what I have scouted out for you this month:

ArtBeads  - Always check for the weekly online coupon for additional savings (this week an added 5% off with code SC250).   Check out the latest discounts and special offers at Artbeads.com  Coupons, Promos, New Products & More.   Also, here is a free shipping offer with no minimum purchase. Artbeads.com - FREE shipping with no minimum order

Auntie’s Beads  - Auntie's is always having a sale on something, so be sure to check out their website specials.  This week they have freshwater pearls on special.  Visit their Specials page for savings.

Beadshop.com is offering a clearance sale with 30-75% off.

PMCSupply.com is a great place to get metal clay supplies.  If you haven't tried precious metal clay jewelry designs yet, you can get a starter kit and lots of helpful information and design ideas on their website.  Free shipping for orders of $50.

I'd like to offer an apology, if you tried to send me an email message recently, I may not have received it!  It happens to all of us from time to time...dreaded computer issues.  I had some technical difficulties with my email system.  Email spammers recently filled my whole email in-box with junk emails,  so there wasn't any room left for real email to come in.  If you sent me a message, it may have bounced back to you and I never received it.   So, my apologies for the inconvenience, I've cleaned things up and you can feel free to email me now and I will reply to your requests.   

Thanks for reading the newsletter this month. Remember to check www.Making-Jewelry.com often for more “How To’s” and project ideas.  “From inspiration to your creation…” Take care, happy beading, and have a great month.

Know somebody who'd like to read this?

I really hope that you've enjoyed reading this newsletter. If you think your friends might be interested in taking a look, please feel free to forward it to them.

Haven't subscribed yet?

If you're reading this on the recommendation of a friend and would like to receive all the future editions, you can subscribe for free by clicking this link.

Contact us:

If you have any comments, opinions, or content ideas I'd love to hear from you. Just click on the this link to access my contact form.  

Best Regards,

-Lorri Ely, Jewelry Designer and Owner of www.Making-Jewelry.com