Get The Look For Less -- Chakraluscious Crystal & Lava Stretch Bracelets...

These are the first in my new line of inexpensive Chakraluscious bracelets using mostly lava beads to keep the prices down around $30 to (occasionally) $50.

Fitting a loose medium, they're great for stacking. Contact me to order your bracelet here or to order a custom size or with particular crystal beads. Note that in the 6mm beads I have almost 200 different crystals to choose from.

The following are just some crystal properties. Meanings change, amplify and alter depending on other stones they're with.

Garnet & Lava:

8mm beads, $30.

Aids in turning visions into reality; regeneration, energising, balancing, protection, strengthening; removes and transforms negative energies.

Orange Calcite & Lava:

8mm beads, $30.

Integrates the spiritual realm with the physical body; enhances creativity; helpful with emotional issues; directs positive energy into will and sexuality. 

Golden Tiger Eye & Lava:

8mm beads, $30.

Releases fear and anxiety; aids in harmony and balance; make decisions with discernment and understanding unclouded by emotions. 

Malachite & Lava:

6mm, $50.

Warrior stone; manifestation, transformation; guardian of the heart; absorbs negative energy, pollutants; brings balance, abundance. 

Lava: 

 grounding; providing strength, courage and stability through times of change; 

reducing anxiety. 

All of my bracelets are strung with Stretch Magic, a silicon stretch cord. Customers have come back a year later to show me that even with continual wear their bracelets have still not stretched out. Need repairs or resizing? Has your favourite choker gotten all gungy? I sell replacement leather cord, and I do different types of repairs from replacing earwires and broken clasps to resizing and restringing necklaces. I charge $5 to restring bracelets.

Shipping depends on your location. You can pay via Visa, MasterCard, Interac eTransfer (in Canada), and PayPal. Cash works, too! Don't forget, I'll be at The Gem Expo / MetaExpo in Toronto at the end of July.

Come and see my new bracelets, sterling silver, skulls, crystals and tree of life pendants and more at the Woodstock Farmers Market every Saturday morning from 7:00 until 12:00 noon on Nellis Street at the Fairgrounds. For you early birds, I'm almost always there by 5:00 a.m. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday Morning Market Production...

I made these adjustable chokers yesterday morning at the Woodstock Farmers Market. Then it got reeeeeeeeeeeeeally busy. Love long weekend Saturdays at the market. All the people who do NOT go away are in a party/barbeque mood.

I'm always amazed at how a simple bead and jump ring combination can look so spectacular. In this case I used gunmetal beads in a two-three combination with stainless steel coloured jump rings. I was able to use three jump rings to form the bail on these pendants. Using more than one makes it more stable, and enhances the design. And if one or three pendants look good, five repeated in sequence is even better.

Here is an experiment using glass pony beads, copper and gunmetal. Not quite as effective as above.

When designing anything, making mistakes is invaluable because that's the only way to see what works and what doesn't -- and also to come up with happy surprises. I think here the combination of beads distracts from my using different pendants.

These cords are 1.5mm, and I scour bead stores and online for big hole beads precisely because this is an inexpensive, fast and easy-to-change-out way to bump a simple pendant up to stunning.

These are made with silver-plated wyverns, dragons and bird skulls, glass, copper and variously plated beads, all on adjustable leather cords. Prices range from $25 to $45.

Hope to see you next week IRL with hundreds of semi-precious, pewter, metal and silver jewellery and crystals at the Woodstock Farmers Market, at the Fairgrounds on Nellis Street, Woodstock, 7:00 a.m. until noon all year round. For you early birds, I'm almost always there by 5:00 a.m.

Thanks for stopping by!

Trip to Toronto...

I was supposed to leave Woodstock by 7:00 a.m. on Sunday to the Toronto Gem & Mineral Show at the Don Mills Arena, but ended up tossing, tossing, tossing and packing and moving until 2:00 p.m. downsizing from a 2-bedroom house to a tiny room in a shared house. Okay, and a storage locker for all my show and market bins -- all of which are on large wire baker's rack type shelves. System works great.

People laugh at my 30-inch wide bed but it's super comfortable and I can store lots underneath. I gave away tons and tons of stuff, but still have too much. 

I stayed downtown at Hi-Toronto on Church just north of King, and my current fave place to stay in Toronto. The common kitchen/dining area has been renovated -- took out a dividing wall, and despite losing counter space, it's made a huge difference. The room is now filled with light. I've always loved the mismatched wooden tables and chairs look. Took this picture at about 6:00 a.m. but in the afternoon/early evening, it's really beautiful. Plenty of fridge/freezer/food prep space. I bring my own coffee for early in the morning.

All I did was eat, and walk and eat some more. We had lunch on Monday at crazy-good KoJa Sushi in the Liberty Village neighbourhood with Ruth. The plates are works of freakin' fresh and goooood art.

We headed to an artisan co-op stores on Queen in Parkdale, but found Curiosa in its place, full of Harry Potter paraphernalia. Magical place. One of these days I'll binge read/watch the Harry Potter books and movies. Then we went to the Lakeview Restaurant on Dundas at Ossington for dinner, my second time there. Walking up Ossington and taking the streetcar along Dundas, there are so many little restos and so little time -- and money. More money and more time would be good. The key of course to all this good food is a whole lot of sauntering. Five-plus kilometres each day. The next day we went to the Bus Terminal Diner on the Danforth at Coxwell, another great time warp, diners being a current theme.

Very sorry I missed Karma's Kitchen on Gerrard, but I got to Toronto too late Sunday evening to consider it. Dim Sum Plus on Spadina is new, tried it on my last visit, and I would've liked to have gone back there. Three more weeks to wait...

Meanwhile back here IRL, Mother's Day is May 13th. Two more market shopping days: don't forget to come and see me and all the other great vendors at the Woodstock Farmers Market every Saturday morning from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. We have great gifts, and great food for your BBQ or party. I'm there by 5:00 a.m. for anyone who wants to stop by on their way to work.

See you there!

Mother's Day earrings...

New for the cool moms on Sunday, May 13th! 

Silver-plated bouquet of flowers and bird skull dangle, sterling silver earwires, just $25. $30 if you want sterling silver leverback wires. Out of town? Shipping & handling is extra. 

I'm at the Woodstock Farmers Market every Saturday 7:00 a.m. to noon; for you early birds, I'm there by 5:00 a.m. setting up and making items.

Want a Chakraluscious healing bracelet? I have over 150 different 6mm beads, and a large selection of bracelets ready to go, or contact me to make a custom bracelet just for you. They are truly beautiful and you'll fall in love with their stunning colours. Please email me directly to order or for more information.

Thanks for stopping by, and see you at the market on Saturday!

Saturday Market Tips: Repairs & Sales...

I can't emphasise enough the benefits of offering repairs and restringing. People are truly desperate for this service, but having grown up in a throw-away culture they have to be educated that, yes, it's possible to inexpensively repair their favourite jewellery, that this service is not restricted to expensive gold and silver items. A couple of dollars (or even less) and they have a new clasp/jump ring or new earwires or a wearable necklace. This has become a lucrative business sideline for me: around $75 on Saturday just on repairs.

 A customer brought in a baggie full of broken 4mm blue stretch bracelet beads on Saturday. We'd talked a week or two ago about possibly adding some other beads when I did the restringing. She sat down and started playing with beads -- she was amazed to see how some colours worked and some just were NOT going to look good, no matter where she put them.

This is what she came up with, still keeping with the fine and delicate 4mm blue beads, but with the addition of 6mm aquamarine, and tanzanite flanking some beautiful moonstone with blue flare.

The lighting is a little off in the photo (taken in a hurry under my OttLite at the market) but her 4mm beads (possibly blue chalcedony or more likely dyed quartz???) and the 6mm aquamarine were almost identical.

Customers can save my design time charge by picking out the beads themselves and making the final design decision to their taste. When they're happy with their choice, they finish their shopping while I string the bracelet (or necklace). She paid for the extra beads and my standard $5 restringing charge.


Later on in the morning... an easy leather bail:

My jewellery-making pal Lynn Dutton in Toronto scored a string of these skulls for me on a recent trip to a New York City bead store. The entire string was scooped by one of my regular customers who loves skulls. Here are the final two chokers I made with the beads.

This is a great style for men's jewellery in particular: about three to four inches of large hole (2mm) mixed metal beads with jump ring spacers on either side of any number of possible pendants, strung on an adjustable leather choker. It's fast, and simple, and looks solid and good on anyone. Changing the proportions of copper to gunmetal beads as I did here transforms the look completely.

When the leather gets gungy, they come back and I restring the beads on new leather.

These pendants had a large hole, so I made a really fast and easy bail out of 1.5mm leather, pushing the two ends of the leather down through the skull and tying it in a knot inside in the back. It's a very secure way of making a bail, and this way I didn't have to fiddle around with wire which would have taken a lot more time.

Thanks for stopping by!

If you fear change...

The Cavern bar/resto at the HI-Toronto youth hostel where I stayed this past weekend. I really, really like it there!

See you all at the Woodstock Farmers Market this Saturday with all my Toronto Gem Show goodies. I got lots of new beads to make chakra bracelets, as well as earrings and pendants!

Thanks for stopping by!

March 2017 Gem Expo in Toronto... & Class Info...

Yes, it's confirmed -- I WILL be at The Gem Expo at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on King Street in Toronto March 17th, 18th and 19th. Hope to see you all there. It's on the final weekend of March break when everyone -- well, a lot of you -- will be back from holidays, Sign up for any class(es) and get free admission for all three days.

In addition to all the usual goodies at my table, I'll be offering two classes:

Totally Addicting Stretch Stacker/Mala Bracelets

The Totally Addicting Stretch Stacker/Mala Bracelets class is intended for complete and utter beginners, but it'll still be an interesting and informative class for anyone of any age who wants to learn a new technique. I'll supply beads and Stretch Magic in the kit and there will be plenty of beads to buy, but participants are encouraged to bring their own beads and findings -- and there's a whole ballroom full of vendors with beautiful beads, too.

Class size will be limited to 8 participants, so sign up early. 

Wire Tips & Tricks

My Wire Tips & Tricks class is for not-so-beginners to intermediate students. You've already taken some classes, maybe you're new to wire or looking to improve your techniques to attain a more professional, finished look to your jewellery, or maybe you're ready to turn your hobby into a business and need to develop more efficient production skills.

We'll walk through an overview of tools, different wire and findings properties: features to look for, what's good for what, what to avoid, where to buy, the pleasures and pitfalls of buying online, how to buy wholesale, etc. If you're curious about what's involved in selling at craft shows or store/consignment venues, we can talk about that, as well.

Because you're a not-so-beginner, I want to move fast through the yackety-yack in order to get to the making part of the class.

I've been an artist most of my life, and have made and sold wire and semi-precious jewellery for about ten years, Since I'm a production person by nature and because time is money, I figure out the easiest way to make something and then I get really fast at it.

I'll show you techniques I've developed so you can quickly and consistently make your own ear wires, dangles and other findings, wire-wrapped beads for earrings and chains, and we'll cover some very basic wire-weaving tips and tricks.

Please feel free to bring a project with you for either a quick critique or help if you're stuck.

Class size will be limited to 8 participants, so sign up early. 

I'll let you know here and on my Facebook page when the classes are posted. Subscribe to The Gem Expo to get discount coupons, vendor list and info on the other classes being offered.

If you have further questions please ask below, or email me.

In the meantime, see you every Saturday morning at the Woodstock Farmers Market. Thanks for stopping by!