a crystals & jewelry adventure

A lovely piece I’ve received in several emails. I thought I’d share it in case you haven’t seen it. 

Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long  before it breaks?  The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come.

When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick  it up and lift it high above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring high above it, gliding with ease. The eagle does not escape the storm, it just simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm into its world.

When the storms of life come upon us — and all of us will experience them — we can rise above them by setting our minds and faith toward God!!! The storms do not have to overcome us.  We can allow God to lift us above them. God enables us to ride the winds of the storm that brings sickness, pain, tragedy, failure and disappointments in our lives, and make something good come from it. We can soar above the storm.

Remember, it is not the burdens of life which weigh us down, but it is how we handle them that counts.

— Author Unknown

Or something like that. I’m not sure the metaphor holds true. Can you imagine me saddling up a rock and riding it?  Or Chuck riding off into the sunset on a piece of jewelry? hehehe

 We are back, though, and getting on to answering emails and shipping out orders just as quickly as we can. We’ll be "talking" to you soon!

The office is officially closed until Tuesday, May 29th. Being a small business, or rather two working together, Chuck and I sometiems hit it so hard we forget to sleep. So the long weekend is a chance to take a vacation and sleep and eat and generally chill out. But we’ll be back on the 29th ready to go!

In the meanwhile, since we obviously can’t ship things or answer questions, we have EVERYTHING at CrystalsAndJewelry.com on sale for 10% off. Woo hoo!When we get back on the 29th, we’ll be shipping orders out, answering emails and everything, in the order they were received. The shop-wide sale is our way of  saying "thanks for your patience".

Have a super Memorial Day weekend, or just a great weekend if it’s not a holiday in your corner of the world. :) 

I am often asked about how my website CrystalsandJewelry.com is done and what I recommend for jewelry artists wanting to start their own sites. I have done my whole site on my own, and still do. I had an "unfair" advantage with getting my site together because I was a professional web and graphic designer when I started CrystalsandJewelry.com. So it wasn’t exactly a leap for me.  That’s not the case for most folks, though!  So here are some tips on things I use and recommend for starting your own jewelry site.

The single most important tip I can give you is this: Once you start doing jewelry as a business, in many ways, it’s a job, not an adventure. The making jewelry is still an adventure, but so many other things are business, that sometimes the fun of making jewelry can get lost in it all. Consider what that means before you take the leap. Consider it again. Consider it yet again. Then, if you’re still interested, have at it! 

I’m not saying that to discourage you from starting a jewelry website, by any means. I don’t  worry about competition from other jewelry artists because we each have our own unique style and personality that we bring to our jewelry and our websites.  I do, though, want you to realize what a large undertaking a successful jewelry website is. I’ve seen many excellent jewelry artists become discouraged and even stop making jewelry altogether because they thought doing a website would be an easy way to make a buck, but found it wasn’t. I don’t want that to happen to you. It’s not easy to have a successful website of any sort. It can, however, be a great way to do business and get your jewelry recognized.

All that said, let’s have at some of the basics of actually putting a site together.

Gotta Have Photos

It’s fairly obvious that if you want to sell jewelry on the web, you have to have decent photos of the jewelry.  The best resource I’ve ever found for photographing jewelry photos is here. But here’s my two cents worth also.

• Camera - I use an old Olympus 740C with ultra zoom (macro) and 3.1 megapixels and it’s more than enough for web photos. The features it has include all these things below that are either necessary or just really helpful.
• Macro capability is a must for any camera for photographing jewelry.
• Megapixels, not so much if you’re only going to be putting photos on the web.
• Other features that are super-handy are white balance control, auto focus, and color balance control.
• Lighting - Cloud Domes, Photo Tents, and photography lights all help. Rather than go into them all here, check Rena’s site for tips.
• Photo Editing Software
• The cream of the crop is Adobe Photoshop, but it’s also overkill if you’re just doing photos for the web, in my opinion.  If you have the $700+, nab it, it’s the best. If you don’t, try one of these:
• Photoshop Elements which is essentially Photoshop Lite. I’ve heard really good things about it, although I’ve not tried it. Cost: Around $100
• GIMP or GIMPShop - Two open source photo editing softwares with great reputations. And the price can’t be beat. Cost: FREE
  Personally, I use Photoshop because I already had it when I was doing professional web and graphic design. If I were starting out now, though, I’d go with GIMP or GIMPShop.

Gotta Have a Way to Get Your Site Out There

One thing  to think about before you go making your own site is whether you really need a site all of its own, or whether a blog format would do. Since I’m talking about websites as opposed to blogs, my info here is assuming you want to do a website. 

• Pay someone to do it.
  If you have a lot of money and not a lot of time, this is the way to go.  Be aware, though, that there are inherent communication issues between the geek-minded and the art-minded. Plus, you may have to wait in line behind other customers to get things on your site updated or changed.
• Do It Yourself the Website Way
  Time-consuming, and there are a lot of things involved, but you have total creative and content control and it’s less expensive in cash.
• Web Design Software
  WYSIWYG web design software is the easiest for most artists to use. WYSIWYG is What You See is What You Get. It’s not exactly true, but it’s relatively close. And it’s easy for the non-programming-minded compared to learning to code by hand. Trust me on that one. My first website was done in 1995 and I coded it by hand.
  
• Coffecup HTML Editor - It does HTML code AND WYSIWYG! If you go with a year prepaid at LunarPages.com , they give you this free. If you buy it yourself, it’s only $49 — Cheap for what you get.
• Dreamweaver - The Rolls Royce of WYSIWYG by far. This is what I use because I love the Library and Template Features and it updates links for me all over the site. The downside is that it has a jillion features you’ll probably never use, it runs like poop on an older pc, and it’s around $700.
• Another option is canned site designers offered by web hosts. I’ve never found one I liked, so I’m not keen on this option. It is one, though, so you might want to look into it.
• Domain Name
  You’ve GOT to have your own domain name. They’re so cheap now that it’s ludicrous to even consider not  having one. You can get one for $8.95 a year for .com domains, or less, at Godaddy.com. I’ve been using them for several years now as a domain name registrar and have never had a problem, which I can’t say for the other folks I’ve used in the past, including Network Solutions.
• Web Hosting
  Without reservation, I recommend LunarPages.com, where I host CrystalsandJewelry.com. They are rock solid, and you have to have that to do business online. I made the mistake of moving away from them once, and within 2 months I was back. No more of that.  I’m back and don’t expect I’ll go anywhere for the forseeable future.  And if you don’t trust my affiliate link above, just go straight to their home page at LunarPages.com. I don’t need the couple of bucks from affiliate sales nearly as much as you need good web hosting.

Are you tired of reading yet? hehehe This is just the tip of the jewelry website iceberg. I’ll be doing articles on your site’s theme or niche, e-commerce choices, marketing your website, and other tips on making jewelry websites for you in the near future. Join my newsletter email list or just pop back occasionally to find out when they’re available.

From my TUT email today.

Often, Robyn, the very most spiritual thing one can do, is get busy. Physically busy. Hoeing, chopping, planting. Connecting, moving, grooving. Dipping, swirling, twirling.

Especially dipping, swirling, twirling.

2, 3, 4 -
     The Universe

 I’m starting a dance class in June; maybe it’s the best way to go for my spirit too.

In the wake of increased postal rates, many online shops have increased their minimum to get free shipping, if they offer it at all. Not CrystalsAndJewelry.com!  We’re hanging on to the low $50 for US orders to get free Priority Mail shipping.  By the skin of our teeth, perhaps, but we’re hanging on.  And we’ll keep it that way as long as we possibly can.

I’ve gotten quite a few requests recently for information on stones used in crystal healing for cancer. In a way it’s a little daunting to see that request come up so often lately, but since it is I thought I’d share here.

Please remember: Crystal Healing is a complementary technique, and none of the information I share is intended to be a prescription or replace medical care. Please please please see your doctor or other healthcare practitioner about all illnesses.

Stones used in crystal healing for cancer:

annabergit, colbaltite, kernite, petalite, selenite, smoky quartz, fluorite, sodalite amethyst, pumpellyite, bloodstone, natural glass (the obsidians would all count in that area), malachite, azeztulite, melanite, and uvarovite.

For tumors (cancer or otherwise) here are some others:

bloodstone, natural glass (again, the obsidians would count here), malachite, beta quartz, argenite, lepidocrosite, linnalite, mangesioferrite, paracelsion, petalite, pumpellyite, carbon-included quartz, sarcolite, selenite, wad, xonotlite.

Comments:

I tend to avoid red stones when working with people with cancer issues, because red is such an aggressive, growth promoting color. So when working with 1st chakra issues with stones when cancer is present, I almost always go with black stones instead of red.

"Why on earth are you crying over a dead cat? It’s just a cat. You never even met the cat. Are you nuts?" said a friend to me today.

Perhaps I am nuts, but  I’m crying over a cat that died, TeaCup, because…

   We’re all creatures of the Divine, human, feline, canine, insect and all.

   This cat’s story touched the lives of so many as we followed along and send prayers and energy.

   I know what it’s like to grieve, and I feel for Megan losing her furbaby.

   I cry for knowing I’ll be there myself five times with my five kitties. 

   It’s touching to see how many from around the world have gathered to offer comfort to a stranger in the ether of the internet.

But most importantly… 

   Love is always better than hate. Even when it hurts.

[tags]spirituality, grief, cats[/tags]