New Special Offer through November 1

Through Sunday the first of November, get a free pendant with your purchase of any item containing vintage components when you use the code "shetland." Just search for the tag "vintage" in my Etsy shop, choose your pieces and enter the code in the "Notes to Seller" section when you check out.


Available here.

I love using vintage pieces. First of all, they almost automatically make the piece one-of-a-kind, which I like. Second, they're often totally different from anything commercially available now. And they're such a joy to hunt for, occasionally getting gems like the goodies from that yard sale I mentioned. I suppose this really ought to be my whole product line. I can never quite restrain myself to vintage pendants, though ... oops.

Fruit Flies, Colorful Knickers and New Special Offer through October 25

There is a fly sitting on my left hand -- rather determinedly, actually -- and I think it's a non-native Drosophila. I wonder where it escaped from. It would probably be ecologically responsible to kill it, since it's a non-native, but I'm too tender-hearted. You know, we all talk about cockroaches being disgusting, but read up on flies sometime when you're not planning on eating for a while. As an order of species, Diptera are three times as icky as Blattaria.

In other news, M and I spent yesterday tie-dying our underwear. See, my dad was trying to learn to do it because he's having a tie-dye event at his middle school, so we (Mom, Dad, M, me and my brother A) all played with the dye. My hands look like they've been repeatedly slammed in doors (those puce and red dyes cling), but it was awesome.

Anyway. The point of this post was a special offer, wasn't it?

Through October 25, get your choice of a free pendant OR 10% off your purchase of any item with flowers on it. Use the discount code "polly" and tell me which you'd prefer in the "Notes to Seller" section. Dicounts are given through PayPal within 24 hours of purchase.


Available here.

So if you've had your eye on one of my vintage locket necklaces or the miniature teacup, this is your moment!

Finally, it is at last cold enough to wear my beret. This makes me happy.

An article for buyers

An interesting article for jewelry purchasers from the Federal Trade Commission on what to look for in jewelry descriptions when buying.

I came across this and the only thing I can see lacking is my pearl descriptions ... I rarely say whether they're natural or dyed. I think all the ones I've used in my Etsy shop are dyed or bleached apart from the ones in the birdhouse necklace and the peacock pearls in the button and pearl charm bracelet. Those are natural.

I don't agree with the bit about gold metals -- gold is a color, and is used that way in descriptions, so unless there's a karat weight or the terms "gold-filled" or "gold-plated" or, more rarely, "rolled plate" are used, it's best to assume that goldtone is meant -- but of course the FTC isn't interested in my opinion of their terminology, so I'll go fix that. :) It's a good article for those interested in very fine jewelry.

My jewelry is more at the fashion jewelry end of the spectrum, with some exceptions, but I still try to follow those guidelines. This is partly just a matter of trade honesty, and partly because I don't think "fashion jewelry" means low quality. Unfortunately, we have that association with the term. My work is very high quality and made to last years; however, it's also affordable, which aside from karat weight is just about the only difference between my jewelry and that which can be properly called fine jewelry.

Anyway, it's an interesting article, and there are a few others on the site of interest if you're in a browsing mood.

New Special Offer through October 18

Through October 18, get a free pair of Halloween earrings when you purchase any necklace or bracelet containing the color black. Just include the code "woods" in the Notes to Seller section.


Available here.

And if you purchase another necklace or bracelet, I'll throw in a wire-wrapped pendant, too!

Joy oh joy!

I have a new laptop! Another HP Pavilion, because I've been impressed with their repair speed (M's Fujitsu once took three months to get a repair). This one is black and silver with a fun bubble pattern. More importantly, it has 4GB of memory and a 12-cell battery.

I'm going to have to replace a lot of item photos, but I'm happy to have a computer again.

... and now to try to get my Sims 2 neighborhood to transfer to a new computer. :p

But on a much more relevant note, M and I were yard-saling over the weekend and we dropped in on a lovely lesbian couple who were selling some fun stuff we could repaint for our hand-altered Halloween village. And also, a big five-dollar bag of fun-looking shiny stuff.

Eeeeheeheehee.

Have a look at some of it:



You're seeing:

-over 50 silver-plated pendant-style cab mounts
-8 traditional coral-and-white plastic portrait cameos
-more than a dozen vintage cab-mount link bracelets in various styles
-5 of same in their original packaging
-a few other, larger cameos; roses and cupids and courting couples
-two painted porcelain half-inch cabs
-fourteen gold-plated giraffe brooches with snap-in cameo mounts
-sixteen goldtone teddy bear brooches with prong-style cab mounts
-various-size pinbacks
-two hinged cab-mount bracelets
-various other bits and pieces in various conditions

You're not seeing:

-about fifty owl brooches with glue-in mounts
-fourteen silvertone butterfly brooches with prong mounts
-some very odd cab-mount hardware (bottle openers and gag tie clips)
-over one hundred vintage screw-back clip-on earring findings
-and a load of other stuff

What a find! Five dollars for all this. I can't say this enough times. Five dollars. I've never worked much with cabochons, but what an excuse to start! I have so many wonderful ideas -- how about buttons in one of the link bracelets, embellished with the polymer and metal flowers you see on the upper right of the tray? -- and can't wait to get paid in November so I can order the other supplies.