Etsy Fest Holiday Sale

***Esty Fest Holiday Sale!***

From Thursday, November 27th through Monday, December 1st (PDT), your entire order is 15% off! Either wait for a revised PayPal statement from me, or get a 15% refund after purchase.

Happy Holiday Shopping!

Etsy Buy Handmade earthcharms

That blog post below got some attention. :)

I'm featured on the 1000 Markets Community page!

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Originally uploaded by salyx

We at earthcharms do not recommend eating Christmas lights (especially the flavorless white ones). We do, however, encourage the taking of interesting and inspired self-portraits, because you are beautiful. Yes, you are. Don't argue. Even if it takes 30-something tries sitting on your bedroom floor with your camera propped in front of a mirror so you can see what the camera sees in the reflection and trying to hit your remote control and get in place correctly (WHEW), it's still worth it to get one really nifty shot.

This picture is actually from two years ago, before I got into crafting. I've never taken a self portrait this cool since... maybe I should try. ;)

Why Macrame?

My mother taught me (and my Girl Scout troup) how to do basic macrame back in 1990. I didn't use it again until May of 2007. It seems so random when you think about that 16-year gap, so what happened?

I had been making very simplistic beads-on-a-string necklaces, but it turns out that a single strand of waxed linen will fray and snap over time. I had to think of some way to reinforce it, and suddenly I recalled macrame. At first I wasn't very good. I will openly admit that. My knots were loose and uneven, just like my memory of being 10 years old. As I experimented with it, my technique improved and so did my bead-buying habits. Pretty soon, I was branching my knots out. I never looked at a book or online tutorial for this, I just make it up as I went along. I was so very proud when my first pirate choker was finished, and the response to it was universally favorable. I started adding different colored waxed linen into the mix, and after some experimentation I came up with the button-style choker.

Though I eventually did give in and start buying chain for more traditional necklace styles, I will not give up the macrame. Many of my customers love tying on their necklaces and chokers, because then they fit perfectly! I've also been told by some of my customers that they love my pieces because they have metal sensitivities that otherwise limit their jewelry options. I understand that the word "macrame" itself conjures up visions of hemp plant hangers and owls on faux wood-paneled walls with shag carpet and avocado green furniture. My macrame involves no hemp (it's too thick for my beads and I find it itchy on my skin), and I'm certainly not selling you 70s styles. This is macame for the 21st century.

Holiday Sales

I've joined a group of Etsy sellers who are going to have sales starting Thanksgiving and ending the night of Cyber Monday. We're all having individual sales, and mine will be 15% your entire purchase!




Click Here for A List of Participating Merchants!

Updates

Current Projects:
More wine glass charms... 35 and counting!
Onyx and garnet Pirate Choker
More torso pillows

Just Finished:
Pirate choker in earth tones (pale agate and smoky quartz)
Pink tourmaline and raspberry garnet earrings (they look edible)
The organization of my beading supplies & tools (this took a LOT of work)

Keep checking back:
http://www.earthcharms.etsy.com
or
http://www.earthcharms.1000markets.com
I will be listing new items as often as I can!

Get Your Rainbow On

Seven stones for seven chakras... a rainbow of positive energy!

Chakra Dangles on Etsy
Chakra Dangles on 1000 Markets

Coming soon: earthcharms website. I'm doing a CSS crash course first. I had no idea all my HTML was so out dated!

I try to keep politics separate from my work, but...

http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/relationships/37706prs20081105.html

The California Constitution itself sets out two ways to alter the document that sets the most basic rules about how state government works. Through the initiative process, voters can make relatively small changes to the constitution. But any measure that would change the underlying principles of the constitution must first be approved by the legislature before being submitted to the voters. That didn't happen with Proposition 8, and that's why it's invalid.

...

This would not be the first time the court has struck down an improper voter initiative. In 1990, the court stuck down an initiative that would have added a provision to the California Constitution stating that the "Constitution shall not be construed by the courts to afford greater rights to criminal defendants than those afforded by the Constitution of the United States." That measure was invalid because it improperly attempted to strip California's courts of their role as independent interpreters of the state's constitution.

Marriage used to be about breeding and pedigree and bloodlines. It used to carry on family wealth and important names and royalty. Children used to be married off before they were even born. Fathers would pay men to marry their daughters. Until 1967, some states still held the right to turn away interracial couples.

There's no reason to marriage to be about bloodlines and procreation anymore. We're not a world starving for more people, we're a world starving people because there are too many mouths to feed. Marriage should be a legal union between consenting adults who love each other, plain and simple.

Proposition 8 wasn't about protecting the definition of marriage, it was about protecting bigotry. It was about saying to a group of people, "We don't want to you have what we have because you're different than us." People have argued that they have civil unions, and we have marriage. Well, black people used to have different restrooms, schools, and entrance ways than whites. Segregation is not cool, folks, and civil unions are not the same thing as marriage.

Ask anyone who lives in Massachusetts or Connecticut if they've been sucked down into hellfire, or if all their young children are growing up gay, or if their hetero marriages have all lost their meaning. Ask them if they're even AWARE of gay marriages in their state, and you'll probably get some blank stares because you're asking crazy questions.

So I send out a snarky congratulations to the slight majority of California voters who have passed an unconstitutional proposition. I hope the legal proceedings I've linked to above go through and wipe this one off the slate. Shame on you for voting out of fear. The world needs more love in it, not bigotry.

Little Helpers...

My little helper, Klunk, is behind my computer screen right now. Every now and then, she sticks a paw around and reaches for something. Since my computer desk is ALWAYS a disaster, she's 100% guaranteed to hook onto an item of some sort and then gleefully toss it off my desk. All I'm seeing are paws, claws, and whiskers.

I don't know what I would do without her.