Are you a blogger, and suffering from blogger’s block? In other words, can’t think of a topic for your next post? This list of possible blog topics might help.

If you are like me, you can use all the organizing help you can get. This article on organizing your supplies for crafting on the go has some great ideas.

Via craftzine, I found this tutorial for how to get acrylic paint off of clothing using rubbing alcohol.

Amethyst is the birthstone for February. It is purple, ranging from a light lavender to deep, dark violet shades. Non-purple stones called amethyst are created by treating amethyst with heat or radiation treatments. Citrine, which is yellow, is an example of a stone that can be created by heating amethyst, although the heating can also occur within the earth’s crust naturally. Ametrine is a beautiful stone that shows both purple and yellow, sometimes with some clear quartz as well.

These rough amethyst beads from Beadie and Things are a beautiful example of what amethyst looks like if left unpolished:

Rough Amethyst Crystals

To help you with your gift shopping, I’ve found a bunch of lovely jewelry made with amethyst. It’s all handmade by members of the Jewelry on Etsy Team (JET).

One of my favorite color combinations is deep purple amethyst with the bright, springy green of peridot. This necklace (left) from Designs by Victoria is a beautiful example, and would look great paired with my little dangly earrings (right):

Amethyst and Peridot Jewelry

This selection of beaded jewelry shows how versatile amethyst can be when paired with glass, other gemstones, wirework, and bead stringing:

Beaded Amethyst Jewelry

Beaded Jewelry Credits:
(1) Bracelet by Olivia’s Garden
(2) Necklace by Crystal Impressions
(3) Earrings by Malves 1009
(4) Earrings by Jewelry by Solange
(5) Necklace by Little Bug Jewelry

Faceted amethysts and amethyst cabochons also work beautifully in metal jewelry. Check out these three gorgeous examples:

Amethyst and Silver Jewelry

Credits for metal jewelry:
(1) Pendant by Capital City Crafts
(2) Stacking Ring Set by Little Bug Jewelry
(3) Ring by One Garnet Girl

To find more beautiful amethyst jewelry, search “jetteam amethyst” on etsy.com If you are looking for Valentines Day gift ideas rather than birthday gifts, check out my Valentines Day Gift Guide.

So…. I didn’t have time to work on my one of a kind bangle designs yet, but I did manage to get some fusing done and create prototypes for several bangle styles that I hope will become staples of my jewelry line.

Argentium Silver Bangles

So far, I’ve made them using three different sizes of wire (16, 14, and 12 gauge round) in argentium sterling silver. I made several of the skinny ones (16 gauge) and tried out three finishes: smooth, plus two different hammer textures. I think the 16 gauge and the 12 gauge styles will make it into my etsy shop, and I’ll offer them both smooth and textured. 14 gauge doesn’t look all that different from 16 gauge, so I don’t know if it’s worth offering it as an option, since I love the super-skinny look of the 16 gauge. (Wire gets skinnier as the gauge number gets higher, in case you are confused….) 12 gauge is much more substantial.

The fun thing about bangle bracelets, in my opinion, is wearing a whole bunch together, so I’ll be making a bunch! Expect to see bangles with gemstone dangles [along the lines of the upcycled bangles I did a few weeks ago] along with all-metal styles, perfect to mix and match, stack, or wear one at a time – whatever works.

The nonstop rain the past two weeks is starting to get to me…instead of going outside (which is where I go to use my torch for metalwork, can’t beat fresh air for ventilation), I’ve been cooped up indoors with a sick toddler.

Rainy Evening

I did make some new earrings, (torch-free, all wire work) that I think are gorgeous – freshwater pearls with peridot and golden sapphires dangling below – which I’ll be sharing just as soon as I can get some decent photos. I also wired up some lovely little amethyst dangles, perfect for a February birthday gift since amethyst is the birthstone for February.

But mostly, I’ve been looking out my window and seeing this…

Raindrops

…while daydreaming about the really cool bangle designs I want to make with my torch. If I can manage to get these new designs *half* as cool as they are in my head, I’ll be really excited. Think vines, twigs, and berries wrapped around your wrist, in argentium silver. Picture yourself sipping wine in an outdoor tasting area in the Napa Valley on a beautiful, warm, sunny day, wearing a gorgeous, one of a kind, handmade bracelet inspired by the views of the vineyards. All I need is a few sunny days to get started on these pieces, maybe this weekend? Pretty please, El Nino*, can I have just a couple days without you?

[*El Nino is a weather pattern we get occasionally in California where it rains non-stop for months at a time and you start to consider just how much more rain it would take before you need to consider building a boat in your back yard. But hey, at least we're not having a drought anymore!]

What is your favorite online resource for craft/art business owners? I personally read etsy’s blog, The Storque, pretty regularly, but it’s always fun to hear about other blogs and sites people find useful.

Drop a link to your go-to craft biz site in the comments! I’ll be updating this post with links periodically & hope to create something like a mini directory of the best online resources for owners of small, independent art or craft businesses.

Barbara from Capital City Crafts reminded me about Home Jewelry Business Success Tips – a great site I used to read regularly but had kind of forgotten about. Definitely worth looking at if you run a small jewelry business.

Here’s a new one I read about on etsy, http://handmademarketer.com. The site owner has a pretty successful etsy shop.

Indie Biz Chicks is specifically targeted at female small business owners – there are some free resources there as well as products you can buy such as press release templates.

Linked from the handmademarketer was this blog, A Fine Tooth Comb, with tips for running a handmade business.

15 Minute Craft Website tips sounds good to me – I’d love to accomplish something in 15 minutes for my business!

How could I forget Timothy Adams and all of his crafty business advice? Tim started out as a successful etsy seller and now is also fairly successful in the business of helping small businesses.

The Paper N Stitch blog has a great section on crafty business, including a 3-part series recently on product photography.

Feb. 17, 2010 – just discovered meylah.com, a site devoted to creative businesses. I haven’t looked around much yet, but it looks like a good one so far.

Feb. 23, 2010 – a few great articles for creative businesspeople:
Goal Setting for Creatives, Part 1 (it’s a 4-part series, read all of them!)
Artist Blogging 101

While not advice sites, social sites can be very useful to the art or craft entrepreneur for networking and promoting.

I’m on twitter, and in addition to promoting my own work there, I’ve gotten to know a lot of other craft business owners, and found some fantastic resources for business owners.

Social bookmarking sites are a great place to submit links. Stumbleupon and Delicious are two that I use. They both have firefox add-ons that make it really easy to submit a link – I click the little thumbs up to stumble something, and the tag button to bookmark on delicious. You can follow/friend people on these sites too, and discover what they are bookmarking – another great way to find resources and get to know other small business owners.

A third social option are wishlist/social shopping sites. I use wishpot, which is a site that lets you create lists of items you want or that you recommend.

With Valentines Day around the corner (one month away!), lots of people are once again trying to find the perfect gift. I might be biased, but I think jewelry is almost always the perfect gift for any holiday (well, at least for a girlfriend or wife).

This post is dedicated to my male readers, in particular those who are clueless about what to do for their special someone on Valentines Day (which is February 14th, a Sunday, this year).

For Valentines Day, think romance, feminine colors, and hearts. For example, here are a few pieces of jewelry featuring the color red:

Red Jewelry for Valentines Day

Where to buy:
(1) Sunshine – Carnelian Ring by Little Bug Jewelry
(2) Crimson Red Frosted Glass Earrings by Glitz Glitter
(3) Garnet Danlgy Earrings by Michon
(4) Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Pendant by 3 Squares

Tip: you can find a lot more beautiful handmade jewelry by going to www.etsy.com and typing “jetteam red” (or substitute whatever color jewelry you want for “red”) into the search box.

If you are anything like my husband, you detest wrapping gifts. With that in mind, I asked a few of my friends for their best gift wrapping and packaging tips. Check out this blog post from Jewelry by Solange for some ideas.

If you want your gift to come ready to give, many etsy sellers include a complimentary gift box with their jewelry. These lovely red glass earrings from Fucsia Bloom Studio, for example, come ready to give (as do most products in her shop):

Red Earrings & Gift Packaging

Seababe Jewelry also provides a lovely gift box with purchase, as shown here with their ruby ring:

Ruby Ring with Gift Box

If you mention needing giftwrap when you order from my shop, I’ll include a lovely handmade gift tag with a coordinating sticker on the gift box. Then all you need to do, once you’ve checked out the jewelry to make sure your gift arrived safely in good condition, is tape or tie the tag to the box and it’s ready to give! Don’t forget to write a romantic message on the tag, or at least fill in the recipient’s name and sign it.

What a nice surprise to log in this morning and see this lovely feature about my jewelry on the JET team (jewelry on etsy) blog!

There are some amazing artists and designers in the JET team so be sure to poke around and look at previous artist features while you’re looking at the blog.

Silver Canyons, a friend of mine from the Jewelry on Etsy Team (JET for short) started a series of posts featuring great jewelry from each color in the Pantone collection of colors for this spring. First up is turquoise! I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the series – there are 10 colors total in the forecast, and some of them are really amazing.

Updates:
Here is #2, Tuscany
#3, Tomato Puree
#4, Violet
#5, Aurora (yellow)
#6, Dried Herb

I’ve had an obsession with circles for the past six months or so. They pop up in almost all of my jewelry designs, and when I don’t have a new idea I sometimes make a bunch of fused circles just so I’ll have them on hand when inspiration strikes.

It was just a matter of time til I started making my own chain, and that’s when I found out just how long it takes to make a chain. Let’s just say a long time.

Inspired by the Rachel Ray “semi-homemade” cooking theory, I decided to try a semi-homemade set of chain jewelry.

I finished the set of a necklace, two bracelets, earrings, and a few stacking rings in less time than a single chain would have taken if I did it all by hand, and I love the results.

Mixed Metal Jewelry Set

It was really easy to make – if you can make large jump rings, you could make yourself a similar set. I used antique brass chain I got on sale at a craft store. It has very large links, about the size of finger rings, and they are unsoldered. I made some copper jump rings in similar sizes, using thick-gauge wire and hammering them a bit so they’d be strong enough hold up, and inserted them into the chain somewhat randomly. I ended up with two bracelets and a necklace, and enough leftover links to make matching earrings & wear a few as finger rings.

I wear this set a lot and always get compliments, so I’m considering adding some similar pieces to my shop. It looks great combined with some simple brass bangles if I want a more dramatic look, or I just wear one or two of the pieces if I want to be more toned down.

January’s birthstone is garnet, a beautiful stone that is typically a deep, dark red but also comes in other shades. It can be more orange or more purple, clear or closer to opaque, and comes either naturally or color enhanced.

I love the color of this garnet necklace:

Garnet Necklace by Designs by Cher

And this one, with a combination of garnet and ruby, and so much detail:

Garnet and Ruby Necklacy by Designs by Victoria

For a great Valentine’s Day look, these earrings with pearls would be perfect:

Garnet and Pearl Earrings by Sending Love Gallery

Besides red garnet, there is a stone called green garnet that I *love* although I’m not sure if it is technically garnet. I used it in these earrings:

Green Garnet and Smoky Glass Earrings