Chat…Just Because

A big thank you to Mara for reviewing Just Because Jewelry on the blog, Shes Daily. This is one cool Web site where you can find the latest offerings in beauty, fashion, style, gifts and so much more. Fun site to explore!

I’m honored to have been featured! Please stop over, check it out and bookmark it!

New Just Because Jewelry items are now available here! Please check back too, because we’ll be adding more pieces in the coming weeks.

Thanks for your patience and support!

Just Because Jewelry is having its first sale! In an effort to make room for the new batch of inventory currently taking shape in my studio, we are offering several items at reduced prices during the month of April.

Please take a look at what we have to offer in our April Spring Sale, and if you like something, act quickly. Sale ends April 30, after which time, those sale items will become part of our online viewing gallery. This is a great opportunity to stock up on some beautiful Just Because Jewelry pieces for the summer and fall.

Look fabulous at a great price … just because!

Most of us are probably aware of what our birthstone is for our birthday month. But did you know that there were several variations on that theme depending on if you were referring to the traditional birthstones or modern birthstones? This means you may have more than one choice when it comes to claiming a birthstone. Here’s a little breakdown that shows which months have different stones associated with it.

Birthstones have also been separated into healing and mystical categories, as well as categories that represent the day, hour and season in which you were born. Who knew?

I was excited to be the featured reader on Wickedly Chic, ”independent shopping for the wickedly fashionable.” It was a great opportunity to share some of my indie shopping recommendations. Check it out before it’s gone!

Thank you, Liz!

Yay! What a great weekend! Weather was beautiful; hung out with the kids and Don; got in a 1.5 hour hike on Saturday and another long walk on Sunday; and managed to nearly complete five newly designed necklaces! I say nearly because I’m waiting on some clasps to finish off a few of them. Should have those by the end of this week.

Don and I will have a lots of pieces to photograph next weekend, and hopefully after that, we’ll get those pretties out on the site.

In the meantime, check out my cool new silver sandals I bought this weekend! Warm weather can’t get here soon enough, y’know?

Part 5 of 5
In my final post of this series, let’s address the reasons why your skin may turn green (or possibly black) after wearing rings, bracelets, or other metal jewelry, and what alternatives you might consider if this is an issue.

Usually the green coloring left on your skin after contact with a metal is due to oxidation. Those with highly acidic skin will experience this reaction, even with sterling silver in some cases. Oxidation can also be hastened in highly humid weather. One other reason for green finger is an allergic reaction to the alloys used in the sterling silver or gold. An alloy is a metal made up of more than one element, and when used with sterling silver and other metals, make those components highly durable. Usually it is the nickel alloy used in inexpensive jewelry and the composition of your unique body chemistry that will cause a green reaction on your skin.

To combat tarnish, many times metal components used in jewelry are plated with rhodium, a member of the platinum family. Rhodium is highly lustruous, does not normally oxidize and will protect the jewelry from interacting with your skin. So silver rhodium is an excellent choice in keeping the the verdigris (and tarnish) factor down and out.

Other hypoallergenic metals you may want to consider for your jewelry if you’re prone to green skin or allergies would include titanium, black PVD titanium or noibium.

˜And so ends my little tutorial. There is much more information available about metals in jewelry, but hopefully I’ve covered enough in this series to pique your interest and arm you with a bit of knowledge that you can use for future jewely purchases. If you have any other questions, please send them my way and I’ll do my best to provide you with what you need.

Oh! And for those of you not familiar, Elphaba (aka the Wicked Witch of the West) is the title character in L. Frank Baum’s book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” on which the award winning musical, “Wicked” was based. Madeline and I saw the show about five years ago in NYC with the original Broadway cast. T’was awesome! Obviously Elphaba was the green witch, and her name is made up of a variation of the author’s first initials.

Part 1: Let’s tawk
Part 2: Embracing differences
Part 3: This or that?
Part 4: Out, damned tarnish!

As I mentioned earlier, I was busy this past weekend and managed to complete several designs that have been bouncing around in my head for a while. Here is another item that I happily put on the ’finished’ list. Created with African opals and turquoise howelite, it’s a longer necklace at 24.5″ with a 2.5″ pendant of sponge coral. You could easily shorten it a bit because I used large link sterling silver chain in the back. Look for it to be posted on the site in a few weeks.

Good Monday morning! Here’s a quick shot of one of the fun necklaces I finished this weekend. It’s made of beautiful faceted carnelian, some small smoky quartz rounds (in the back), along with a turquoise pendant. The bright sun actually washed out the color a bit in the photo, but it is absolutely gorgeous in person.

All of the components are sterling silver, and I hand wire wrapped the links on to tiny sterling silver rings. It measures just under 17″ with a 2.75″ pendant. I only have one of these, so if you’re interested let me know. I’ll add it to the site with its formal studio photo in the next few weeks, along with the other new pieces I’m finishing up.

Wow, this week has gone by so quickly, I can hardly believe it! I had all good intentions for posting a relevant, interesting entry, but so could not carve out enough time to make it happen. I do have one more post in my Lessons in Metal series that will be ready next week though.

For now, I’ll be happy to tell you to have a wonderful weekend and to thank you for taking time to visit Chat Just Because!