No, no, no, no, no!!!

No, I never really stopped making jewelry.   Yes, I know I have been away from this blog for a long, long time.  A lot of personal stress going on as I get ready to finally finish my masters. Only a year behind my original plans, but no biggy, eh?  Looks like this summer. Woot!

As for jewelry, can I just be obnoxious here and say that I am rather disappointed at the jewels at some of the traveling shows.  And yes, I do get that prices are going up (big time) but is that any reason to sell buyers cheap crappola?  Just sayin'. 

When I go to a show I want to still see high quality beads, gems and findings and not be overwhelmed by stones that are clearly the dust from the bottom of of the stone mine and glued together to then look like a newly discovered stone?  (see chalk turquoise, low-grade azurite).

Photo from jewelrydesign1.com

I realize that with the plethora of people currently making jewelry, or like my mom, simply collecting beads (love ya mom) that it is very likely we are running out of semi-precious stones in the current mines out there--which is why reconditioned jewelry is so fascinating.

I suppose I will be looking at that for a while now, lol.