The first thing I ask myself about these stones is: “Where in the heck is Moldova?” Well, a quick internet search says that Moldova is a little country in Eastern Europe that’s snuggled in between the Ukraine and Romania. According to the BBC news, Moldova was once well known for it’s wine-making, but because of economic troubles (like getting it’s gas supply from Russia periodically cut off) it isn’t doing so well anymore. Maybe Etsy rock sales is the beginning of a promising new export market for them? I hope so, because if these photos of Moldova from Pinterest are any indication, it’s a beautiful country and we’re lucky to have these people sharing the Earth with us!

My next question is what are these stones exactly? What geologic processes made them into such cool, wiggly shapes? Well, after some careful geologic inspection (meaning I looked at them real close) I’m pretty sure that these stones are fossil coral that’s been weathered to wiggly-ness by centuries of wave or river action. On a few of the stones I can just make out places where chunks have broken off, but not weathered much. Looking closely, I can see that the stones have an internal structure. The walls of the fossil coral are visible!

A coral reef grows through the action of old corals dying and new corals building their houses on top and eventually as the world changes and places that used to br oceans are lifted up into mountains, these dead coral reefs become huge chunks of fossil-rich limestone. Then a long time after that when rain has eroded the mountains back down to flatness, the limestone weathers and becomes smooth, wiggly stones. Then some jewelry artist comes along and says “Hey! These would look really great in some men’s surfer necklaces with some black wooden beads!” or “I think these would be great as women’s stone necklaces!” and the stones just keep on tumbling through their geologic journey

I haven’t made anything out of these unique Moldovian stones yet, but I’m really excited to get started!

Every once in a while, I get emails from customers wondering if they can send their necklaces back to have them shortened a few inches (which they can and which I’m happy to take care of at no extra charge!) but I also get emails asking whether shortening the necklace themselves is easy and could I give some tips for how to go about doing it.

Why yes it is and yes I’d be happy to show you all how easy it can be to shorten a chain necklace! In any case if you try to shorten the necklace yourself and find that it’s not as easy as you wanted it to be, you can still send it back and I’ll fix it up. But if you shorten it yourself successfully you’ll save money on shipping and get to wear it right away!!

You will need:

- 1 necklace with a chain that’s got bigger links in it. (When the links are too fine, the chain ends attach differently than in this example and aren’t as easy to shorten.)
- 1-2 pairs of small needle-nose pliers that will cut wire.

1. Open the jump ring that attaches the chain to the clasp and slip the chain off of it.

2. Open the jump ring at the other end of the chain and slip the chain off of it.

3. Using the wire cutters, cut the chain to the length that you want. (When cutting a chain with a fixed pendant as in this example, you should cut an equal length of chain from each end so the clasp will end up in the middle!)

4. Slip the chain and the clasp back onto one of the jump-rings and bend closed.

5. Slip the last jump-ring onto the other chain end and bend closed.

You’ve done it! And remember, I’m only an email away if you need any professional help, but doesn’t it feel great to be able to get that special necklace on right away instead of going through the disappointment of having to wait for it again?

Despite a fervent love of reading, I only brought one book with me for our three week vacation in Mexico. One non-fiction book that I am still working my way through: “Walking in This World: The Practical Art of Creativity” by Julia Cameron, author of the more well-known book, “The Artist’s Way”.

“Walking in This World” is the second level in her series of books for boosting creativity and giving direction and focus for people walking the path of an artistic life. It’s an inspiring book that walks you through a succession of brainstorming exercises that help uncover what artistic urges are the ones that lie closest to our true hearts. The real artistic work that we need to be doing! It’s been really interesting to me how much of what I’m discovering has to do with ceramic sculpture and fine art as opposed to my handmade jewelry. It’s like my day job (working part-time in a library) is becoming obsolete and my handmade jewelry business is becoming my day job which, in turn, is opening up a space for me to return to my real true passion of ceramic sculpture! Only 11 years after graduating from college with a degree in fine art, I’m finally committing a part of my life to it again. Never say never! (Thanks, Julia Cameron, for writing this inspiring book! I’ve been doing my morning pages every day since Christmas!!)

So, the whole dream thing is for us to be able to spend winters in Mexico (since hubs work is seasonal and I want to take Authentic Arts full time) and I’m super excited to report that this year we finally got everything squared away about the property we bought down the street from his parent’s house and got the foundations dug for our bardas (the 9 foot high brick walls that separate us from the neighbors). The property’s big enough that even with the house in there we should still get a view of the mountain-top from our patio!

It’s great to be back with my business up and running, but it’ll be even greater when I can run it from my little house in Mexico all winter! (Can you tell I’m not such a big fan of snow??)

1. If you’re trying to drive up a mountainside and your truck stops working, a discarded plastic bottle might just be fashioned into a make-shift hose that will get you the rest of the way up the mountain and back down again. This is the lesson of being innovative! Mexico is a whole country of people who can turn wood scraps into refrigerator door hinges and table scraps into fresh pork. Innovation is like instinct for them, I swear! The other part of this lesson is to jump in and try new things.
2. Accept death and decay. As handmade artisans, our main focus is on creation, which is wonderful! But, leaving room for mistakes and disasters and the forces that work against creation is what makes creating more potent and meaningful.
3. It takes a village to raise a child. (Literally! My young niece spends as much time with her other aunt as with her mother. No baby-sitter needed!) Community ties are integral to Mexican culture. For your business, this lesson applies two ways: a) maintaining strong community ties means that when you don’t know how to do something for your business, you’ll be more likely to know someone who does, and b) customers are more likely to buy from someone they know, trust and connect with authentically.



4. You’ve got to watch out for yourself. Self-reliance is just as important in Mexico as community ties. Don’t expect the world to do you any favors, and that way if a favor gets tossed your way, it’ll be like winning the lottery! Neither walk in front of a vehicle expecting them to stop, nor drive down the road expecting pedestrians not to jump out in front of you.
5. Keep things tidy and you’ll be less likely to find a scorpion in your sweatshirt. Yes, that really happened to me a couple of weeks ago. (I hate killing things, but in safety’s interest I stomped on the little guy.) For your business, this lesson goes for your physical workspace and online shops as well as for keeping tidy business records. You might manage to stomp on the scorpion before it stings you, but prevention is always the best medicine. (This is the lesson I have the hardest time implementing, as those who know me personally will attest!!)
6. Patience in all things. While it’s important to get things done and make progress, it shouldn’t be at the expense of living well in the moment! I can’t tell you the number of times they said we were about to go somewhere that I sat around all ready for another half hour wondering why I got ready so quickly!! So go ahead and enjoy that movie on the couch and sip that tea while crocheting a blanket for your friend. The now is all we really ever have.

Aside from the great lessons in Mexican society for inspiring the way a handmade business is run, there are innumerable, daily examples in Mexico of people making things with their own hands that inspire the heck out of me! Homemade cheese for sale at the little tienda, little handmade wooden toys in the marketplace, buckets and tin cans re-used as plant pots, the belts and bags my sister-in-law crochets, the handmade crochets and embroideries in San Juan de los Lagos, my mother-in-law making tortillas over a wood-fire from corn my father-in-law grew,

houses people just sort of cobble together themselves, muzzle loaders my husband and his brothers made from chunks of wood and scrap pieces of iron pipe when they were kids. (Crazy, but true!) I could go on all day, but I won’t! Mexico is one of the places where I pull inspiration from, I hope it’s been inspiring for all of you, too

Happy crafting, everyone!

Hello everyone! Where have I been? Visiting my husband’s family in Mexico for the holidays!! It was warm, sunny, relaxing and we had an awesome time, but I have to admit that it feels really great to be reconnected to the internet (and to all of you!) and to have my business back up and running!!

Before I left, some people remarked that I’d probably be bringing back rocks from Mexico to make jewelry with. Sounds reasonable, considering what I do for a living! Well, I found a few that might work, but on the whole I came up with zilch in the rock department. Now you might think this was ironic considering that where my husband is from in Guanajuato is a mountainous, rock-filled paradise, but there are a couple of good reasons why I had a hard time finding rocks for jewelry making:

1. The mountain that their town is nestled against is an “extinct” volcano! Which means that all the nearby rocks are igneous rocks which are hard to drill.
2. There are no streams or rivers nearby. Which means that all the rocks are big and chunky and raw from the ground. Rivers or large lakes are essential for wearing down big, rough rocks into thin, smooth stones for necklaces. (There is a good amount of groundwater, a lot of which is thermally heated and naturally warm. That’s why “extinct” volcano is in quotes. There’s actually no such thing as a truly extinct volcano, they’re all just biding their time!)

There are a couple of large lakes within driving distance, but they’re super shallow and I don’t know if there’s enough wave action on them to pare any rocks down to a nice manageable size and shape. Some year I hope to go and check it out, but the atmosphere in Mexico is so chilled out that we always end up staying very close to home. I haven’t even seen the famous mummies of Guanajuato or driven over to see the Aztec pyramids by Mexico City yet. There’s just too much sun and nature and happiness right here in La Luz to go traipsing around looking for tourist attractions!

Anyway, it’s great to be back here with all of you! I’ll see if I can create anything beautiful for you to wear with these little pieces of hardened lava that I brought back!!

• Cut the lime in half.
• Hold one half in one hand and with the other, stick in the fork.
• Squeeze.
• Then, to get even more juice out, squeeze the lime in a circular motion AROUND the fork.  (You’re actually rotating the lime with the fork stationary as the axis point.
• Finally, marvel at how much juice you got out of that lime, and at the fact that all you have to clean is a fork, which you can first use to mix and then serve some tasty Pico de Gallo salsa!

The good news for you is that I can keep my natural jewelry shops open for another week, so if you’re looking for last-minute gifts you have until Dec. 19 to get your order in! (I’m actually really pumped about being able to be here for my customers another week!!)

I am happily at your beck and call once more!
~ Jenny

I’ve had a really fun year connecting with all of you and helping you give meaningful gifts to your nature-loving friends and family and special jewelry treats for your nature-loving selves! Even though I’m going on “vacation”, I’ll be working on blog posts for next year and making business plans and planning supply orders. It’s more like a sabbatical! I look forward to hooking back up with you snazzy peeps in January and I wish the best and happiest holidays to all of you! Thanks for joining the Handmade Revolution and supporting my life!!!