Soopsee!

I'm giving soopsee.com a try! It seems like a slightly more customizable website that leads your customer back to Etsy.

Pros:

• Helps get your name out there

• Easy set up for a more customized web page than Etsy alone
  

• One page can links to your Etsy page, blog, contact information, other websites
  

• It's free, to a point, and therefore worth a shot!
  

• If you don't know how to build a webpage, it is an easy to use web hosting program

Cons:

• You still must use Etsy checkout (meaning users must still create a username and account through Etsy)

• You must pay to use the more advanced options and obviously to create your own domain

• While there is an ability to slightly customize your page, it is less of a blank template than other web hosting programs.

• I don't really see how the free version is that much different than using just Etsy. Perhaps it will be just one more username and password to remember...
  

Unlocking the Color Combination

There are many arguments in the debate of Art vs. Craft. As discussed before, my stance is that there are elements of one in the other. One can say that making jewelry is a craft, because it is. It requires materials and tools. Anybody with some cord can string beads, tie it off, and call it a necklace; however it is the color combination, design, and inspiration that make it art.

If you browse my shop, you might correctly suspect that my favorite color is any variation of the color teal - turquoise, blue-green, aquamarine. I am particularly fond of a teal, black, and silver color combination. I'm also partial to blue-green with earth tones.

Pacific Horizon is a necklace that reminds me of the ocean. Russian Amazonite beads were used in combination of silver and black, making each blue green amazonite bead stand out.





Silver and turquoise go well together even without black. These tear shaped turquoise howlite beads were hugged with silver, and turned into Hot Air Balloon Earrings. Turquoise howlite is actually howlite dyed blue-green, in this case a little more blue than green.



My Betel Nut Stretch Bracelet uses bicolored beads - one side teal and the side black. It's a perfect color combination, and the beads are earthy by nature!



Turquoise colored glass beads were mixed with shades of brown in the Metamorphosis Choker. The pendant is made from a coconut shell and the choker is symbolic of metamorphosis from egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, to the adult butterfly.