I’ve interviewed many interesting people including Elvis’ jeweler, Lowell Hayes, several veteran designers, and top jewelry retailers. I’ve even spent one wonderful weekend as a ‘journalist/reporter/photographer’ at Kirks Folly’s annual factory sale in November 2007, meeting the lovely Kirk family, interviewing their wildly enthusiastic fans, and taking hundreds of photos of the frenzied crowd and the glamorous sparkling jewelry they could not buy up fast enough. In the process I have also become BellaOnline’s Fashion Jewelry editor, adding another weekly article to my schedule, so much do I enjoy the BellaOnline community and writing about jewelry.
In 2007, I began collecting gemstones and was inevitably hit with the design bug myself. My collections are known as, ‘Silver Spirit Designs’ and ‘Pizzazz-Fun Fashion Jewelry’ and they offer similar designs in two different price ranges to my customers. Both collections feature a variety of materials including precious metals, brass, copper, gemstones, cz’s, rhinestones, Hill Tribe Silver, Swarovski crystals, Swarovski pearls, glass pearls, plastic pearls, wood, glass including dichroic, lampwork beads, vintage and random components, leather and suede, shells and organic gemstones like coral, freshwater and cultured pearls, precious metal clay, ceramic paint, acrylic beads, paper clay, and more. I launched with a couple of craft shows late Summer 2007 with the formal launch of my online shop at Etsy, eBay store, gallery at SPJ, and website planned by Fall 2008.
These rich experiences in the last two years have helped me grow as a person and as a writer, and nurtured a love of gemstones and jewelry design. It has been a fascinating journey and made possible only because one day I discovered BellaOnline and applied for an editor position and was accepted. When I joined the editorial team of the second highest ranking women’s website in the world, BellaOnline, and immersed myself into the world of jewelry and gemstones, I made a commitment to learn all I could about my chosen subject. I am truly thankful for the opportunity to reach out to so many jewelry collectors every week and share with you all a variety of interesting and helpful information about gemstones and jewelry. (Due to some unforeseen personal circumstances, I have not written articles for the last few weeks, but I am very happy indeed to be back in the swing of things again. I promise you some exciting new stories are in the works and I look forward to sharing them with you.)
When I began writing about jewelry collecting a couple of years ago, I would say I was an avid jewelry collector, my preference being costume, Native American, gemstone, and any bijoux with pizzazz. Over time, I have learned to appreciate so many different types of jewelry and therefore become even more passionate about collecting. The more one learns about jewelry—how it’s made—the nature and rich diversity of the materials and gemstones used—the colorful history of jewelry from the Ancient Egyptians to contemporary society—it’s cultural significance and how jewelry is used for decorative, religious, and protective purposes— the important role of jewelry in fashion and style—and how and why jewelry has become a global obsession—the more intrigued one becomes to learn even more. I thus began organizing my BellaOnline notes and weaving random ideas for jewelry stories together and developed a website exclusively focused on jewelry which launched Halloween Day 2007.
SPJ (Susan’s Passion for Jewelry) is a work in progress and I am excited to report it’s becoming more and more popular every month, generating enthusiasm with jewelry designers and artisans, jewelry experts from miners to appraisers, retailers, jewelry shoppers, and jewelry aficionados in general. I am thrilled to say I get positive comments and inquiries just about every day since we launched.
SPJ is a “Celebration of Wearable Art for Jewelry Lovers” and has well over 200 beautiful handcrafted pieces of jewelry in the Designers Showcase, and growing. Several designers will have their own Exclusive Gallery in the Designers Showcase over the coming weeks. I am even planning a Designers Shops area to be launched Summer 2008—Etsy style! If you are a designer or know someone who is, spread the word and don’t forget to mention our ‘Free6 Gallery’ which offers a beautiful exclusive 6 piece gallery in our Designers Showcase including Bio, at no charge. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get on board SPJ and showcase your work to our community and the world at large.
At SPJ we have jewelry experts sharing their expertise and advice with visitors in our ‘Ask the Experts’ feature. There is a growing ‘Jewelry & Gemstone Dictionary’ and new articles are being added to the ‘Article Library’ weekly. SPJ aspires to become the ultimate jewelry shopping and jewelry resource guide for jewelry lovers everywhere. With a decided emphasis on promoting and showcasing the work of the independent jewelry designer community, SPJ will soon offer a ‘Designers Corner’, an exciting feature brimful of information, advice on how to grow your business, tips and jewelry making techniques, and excellent tried and true suppliers. Designers Corner is specifically designed to help designers and jewelry artists meet their artistic and business goals. And this is just the beginning!
Show & Tell the World about Your Jewelry Collection in Our Collectors Corner
I am happy to extend a special invitation to jewelry collectors throughout the world to showcase your jewelry collection in ‘Collectors Corner’, SPJ’s newest feature (coming soon) and also be featured on the Jewelry Collecting at BellaOnline site. Whether you collect antique jewelry, for example, Scottish-Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian, etc., vintage jewelry, estate jewelry, Bakelite, Hill Tribe Silver, gemstones, diamonds, Chanel, vintage hair accessories, African, Chinese, papier mache, brass, Ancient Egyptian, cloisonne, Peruvian, Mexican silver, chain maille, Schiapparelli, Hobe, Boucher, Trifari, Kirks Folly, wire-wrapped, contemporary handcrafted jewelry, Native American, costume...well, you get the idea...it's an endlessly exciting world we'll explore in Collectors Corner at SPJ.
I am looking for a wide variety of jewelry collections to be represented in our showcase galleries at SPJ and to share right here at Jewelry Collecting over the course of this year, 2008. Share your story with the world through a gorgeous gallery replete with photos of your collection and your story. Tell us how you got started collecting jewelry, why you collect a specific type of jewelry, tips and lessons you learned along the way about collecting, where you travel to collect your jewelry, care and storage of your collection. Consider the fact you will be introducing the fascinating hobby of jewelry collecting to other jewelry lovers. Your experience and passion will inspire others, and that's what intrigues me most about sharing your collection.
I invite you to 'show and tell' the world about your collection! Contact me for full details about this special invitation by choosing “Email Editor” below or “Contact” on the right hand menu throughout the Jewelry Collecting site or by sending your inquiry to fashionjewelry@bellaonline.com or info@susanspassionforjewelry.com with Collector’s Corner in your subject line. Thanks for your interest as always and I will respond to you within 24 hours. I look forward to hearing from you, my loyal visitors and jewelry collectors from around the world.
