Monthly Gems

This new monthly feature will showcase some amazing jewelry artists/designers, along with supplies and materials from well-known companies (and some not-so-well-known). You will get a glimpse of their month in review every first week of each month.

Designers

Margot Potter – At the beginning of the month Margot shared her thoughts on what she’s deemed the Social Networking Fatigue Syndrome, then her personal assistant “Madge” wrote an “excuse from blogging” letter to her fans – that gave me a chuckle. She also shared with her readers about her days at Ranger University (she’s now a fully certified Ranger Instructor – way to go Margot!), her shopping trip in NYC and let out her thoughts on a book she’s currently working on. … Sidenote: back in April I was privileged to interview Margot, you can read that interview in this blog post.

Cristina’s Jewelry Blog – this month found Cristina gracing with her presence before getting down to catching up after come back from her Eurotrip.

Colin Farley @ Creative Progressions … Colin is the first of my featured PEI artisan’s whom I’ll be sharing their wears with you each month. Colin happens to be a neighbor of mine, who’s daughter plays with my son and will be attending kindergarten together this fall. Colin has quite an unique flare for creating some of the most beautiful pieces of metal jewelry I have seen – especially here on the Island. If you’re ever on the Island, I would highly recommend you visit his studio here in Crapaud.

Supplies & Materials

Fair Trade Jewelry: Offers education on the “toxic supply chain behind an average piece of jewelry”, it helps to bring to light the poor and often brutal conditions workers are subjected who create the mainstream jewelry available at major department stores. This month Fair Trade Jewelry educated us on the Ethically Sourced Gemstones From Southern African Nations, shared an interview with Mike Angenent (a seller of fair trade gemstones & traceable melee diamonds), The Battle of the Greenland Ruby, CRED Jewellery announcement this month, along with Columbia Gemhouse’s attempt at trademarking the term “fair trade gems”, and the Monterrico metal faces injunction over torture allegations.

Gemjunkie: Gemstones & jewelry supplies for all your beading needs. Some amazing new supplies listed this past month, such as freshwater pearl beads, pottery shard pendants, a handful of unique toggle clasps, vintage style beads, and pendants, and a whole bunch more you’ll just have to go check out for yourself! (When I get down in supplies I plan on purchasing some items from this store! Right now, I have enough to keep my busy for quite a while. *laugh*)

Jewelry Biz Links

Handmade Jewelry Marketing Tips
International Jewelry Designers’ Guild
Handmadeology Challenge
Canadian Jewelry Display Source

Please Share!

If you know of any jewelry designers/artists and jewelry making supply companies (large or small) who need a little link love, please let me know so I can feature them here!