What's New? Keep Reading...............

This will be a busy month for me! We were able to get into two different Markets, the one we did last month in Boerne Texas and New for this month will be the Market Days in Gruene Texas! I am very excited about the Gruene Market.... It's a juried Market, Artisan only, so it's NOT easy to get into. We know we've been accepted for September, but not sure about the follow on months... We'll find out more when we do the Market.

The Boerne Market Days are September 10th-11th and Gruene is the following weekend, September 17th--18th. If you live in the San Antonio area, please come out and see us! These Markets are both really cool, have lots of interesting stuff and it's NOT too soon to start thinking about getting great handmade items for Holiday gifts!

I have a number of items I am selling at the Markets only.. You WON'T fond them in my Etsy shops... You'll have to come out to the Market to purchase them.  Plus having the opportunity to look, touch and feel is great! I don't have photo's of my "Market Only" items to taunt you with yet, but will get some taken and post them!

I am gearing up for the Holidays! I know it seems early and it does seem annoying when you go to the store and see Christmas decorations out before Halloween has even past, but from a retail stand point, you have to start early, and when you make EVERYTHING you sell by hand.. YOURSELF.. it takes a bit of planning!

The pretty soft pink earrings pictured are a nice, different, slightly less showy version of Vintage Jewels. They are transparent and domed, rather than faceted and foil backed. They still take in lots of light and have a nice sparkle, but are a nice, more subtle option for those who like things a little less.."Look at me". I have a similar jewel in a beautiful olivine green soon to be listed, and just got in a wonderful ruby red, which will be great for the holidays.. I have them in both antiqued brass and silver settings, but I have a limited supply. Sometimes I can get more... Sometimes I can't.

I have a nice stash of new crystals in and have been making Vintage Style bracelets out of them. I am working on some coordinating earrings as well, so look for those to be coming soon!

If you want updates on new listings, follow my Twitter! I post things there daily. I also post to Facebook, but less frequently. I have buttons on the side bar on the right if you aren't already following those pages. Be sure to check my Principessa Jewels shop for new jewelry listings and Principessa Glass for beads! Thanks for stopping by!

A Few New Things!

I've been expanding my vintage jewelry line, most recently adding vintage, resin cameos. I am really loving the selection I am finding and will continue to add more pieces. My only complaint with these is there seems to be a limited range of colors available. I do really like the classic carnelian/coral background with an ivory image, but it's hard to find a lot that moves out of that color group. I have a couple in blue and gray currently listed..VERY pretty and more to come in a few more colors, but unfortunately, these aren't available in a wide range of color choices.

A while back I decided to try some of the Asian made crystal beads. I have always been a Swarovski crystal fan, but it is hard these days to make anything with a significant number of crystals and still keep the price range reasonable. Most people are pretty careful with their spending right now and I like creating pieces that are quality, yet affordable. I won't compromise my quality, but I can make adjustments. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice this crystal is. It does lack the precision and super high quality standards of Swarovski, but it is still a very decent product. I did find a few beads on the strands I bought at a local bead show that were what I would consider unusable, but all in all, I was very happy with the beads. It should be noted that ALL crystal contains lead. This is the universal difference between glass and crystal. Swarovski crystal is... crystal and contains lead, just like any other crystal bead, or that crystal vase you have.. The metal content is what gives the clarity and weight to crystal you will not get with traditional glass.

I am continuing to play with vintage glass jewels.. always looking for new and interesting colors and finishes. I love the more unique jewels, but they are quite difficult to photograph well. I am working on getting in some awesome colors to transition to fall. Some I have coming are just YUMMY!!!!

If you haven't seen the filigree rings with vintage reproduction flower cabochons on them, give them a look! These are truly fantastic! The price is almost too good to be true...I made myself one and wear it all the time. It is fun, comfortable and very feminine! I love the filigree ring base I was able to get.. these are very nice.. they are not thin, cheap, flimsy stampings.. nor are they really stiff and difficult to size...They are like Goldilocks and the three Bears..."just right"...

I have a great selection of my Vintage Jewel Daisy Pendant Necklaces in my shop now.  Just about every combination of jewels I can get in this size, in both a silver plated brass settings and and antiqued brass setting. I am now setting all the jewels in these myself, I like the creativity that allows me. There is a limited amount of jewels in the size I need for these pendants, so I won't be able to make them in any color, but I have found a lot of choices. I am hand making most of the pendant hangers you see on the necklaces as well.

I have been severely neglecting my bead shop lately.. I intend to try and get some torching done this week and next to hopefully have a few new things to add. Please stop by my Principessa Jewels shop to see all of my latest jewelry offerings and Principessa Glass shop for artisan made lampwork beads!


I've added pages to my blog! Some are still a work in progress, but click on them and check them out! Hopefully you'll find some of the info listed interesting! Thanks for stopping by!

More Flower Power!

Yep! Still paying with flowers... still loving it! I've been able to find several sources for hand dyed reproduction vintage Lucite and they are GORGEOUS! The shades they are creating are fantastic and the pieces with multiple color tones are to die for!

I'm still of course playing with my Czech glass flowers as well.. so many colors, sizes and finishes available in these, both vintage and vintage reproduction. I really like combining the Lucite and Czech glass together. The end results are beautiful and still very light weight to wear.

I have some more of the beautiful vintage jewel pendants in the Daisy settings coming. I am setting some myself these days in both the antiqued brass and a silver plated brass. I've found it to be quite labor intensive setting all those little navette jewels! And quite hard on my hands! It's also not easy to find the necessary size jewels needed for the settings. A lot of the price of each necklace is all in the pendant.. they aren't cheap little trinkets.. lots of jewels, which take quite a bit of time and some finesse to get in place.

Most days when outside taking pictures, I do have a very "helpful" photo assistant named Daisy. She's my ten year old, overweight Tabby cat, who loves to spend the warm Texas days out on the porch. I think she thinks, she is a big game cat, out in the wild, soaking up the heat. She alternates to the cool cement when needed and of course has plenty of fresh cool water at her personal "watering hole" (aka dish hiding under wicker love seat, so slobbering dogs don't defile it).

I did manage to get some beads made over the past couple of nights, but don't have photo's taken of them yet. They should be listed in my Etsy shop Principessa Glass early this next week. The jewelry shown here is (or will be) available in my other Etsy shop, Principessa Jewels. Thanks for stopping by!

What's in a Name????

Plenty, they say! Who's "they"? I guess that depends on who you ask, but marketing experts will tell you a name for your business means a lot. I already know mine is too complicated to pronounce, but I traded that for having something that had meaning to me and a bit of inside humor.  My Lampwork glass shop is named Principessa Glass. I thought long and hard about a name for this business. I considered many versions that were a play on my jewelry shop, named Juniper Gems, which has been in place for several years, but nothing had a flow for me.

While I was building my lampworking studio, which was a costly endeavor, my husband was also in school, finishing a degree in nursing. One day I jokingly told him during a conversation about my "needs" for more lampworking supplies, that if he would just get a job, I could afford what I needed to get! (This was in jest!!!) He responded with a smirk and said..."you are such a Princess!" I replied "Thank you!".....

Now, a few months later, while trying to come up with a name, this conversation popped back into my head.. I started playing with it.. Then I took it a little further.. My father is Sicilian and one of my all time favorite movies is "Life is Beautiful", where the main character calls the woman he is in love with and trying to win the affection of, Principessa (Italian for princess), throughout the entire movie. The rest kind of fell into place for me. I told my husband the name, he smiled and said.."yep.. that's it!". 

Now, to make a long story even longer....(I'm good at this)... I have two Etsy shop with names that have nothing to do with one another, which was fine with me until now. I am working on selling my Jewelry and some of my beads locally and need a singular name, so I am moving my jewelry shop and renaming it Principessa Jewels. It will still feature my handmade jewelry using my own artisan made lampwork beads, and my latest obsession, vintage jewels. I use the vintage jewels in combination with the lampwork and alone.

I have the shop set up, but have not yet moved my jewelry there. I will be doing so over the next few weeks in a slow steady stream. Please stop by and check it out!

Super Size Me!

Hearts That would be..........I have some new extra large, focal sized hearts, I just put in my shop. They are about 32mm x 30mm x 18mm(1 1/4 x 1 1/8 x .75 inches) in size. I also have another new shape which is a folk art/ Shaker style heart, which is long and slender.

The large focal heart can be made with either a horizontal or vertical hole. The folk art heart is available in three sizes, the largest of which is currently listed in my shop. I will work on making the smaller two sizes this week. I think the smallest one will make a really cute earring size.

The bigger hearts do have a bit more weight to them. They take the better part of a rod of glass to make and a significant amount of time to build. Since these spend a lot of time in the flame this size may not be well suited to some of the more sensitive colors like pink, which tends to get fickle when heated too long. The more heat loving glass like ivory and opal yellow are awesome with this size, since the longer you work it the more interesting it gets.

I will be playing around with designs on these two new sizes and shapes in the weeks to come. The larger heart offers a really nice big canvas in which to work on.. lots of potential for design possibilities there. It's also a lot of glass to control and keep hot!

I am still playing with my vintage jewels! I will continue to explore designs with them and you'll see these larger hearts be incorporated into my heart necklaces soon. I may also do some simple pendant style necklaces with them as well. The jewelry as always, is listed in my Juniper Gems shop. Thanks for stopping by!

Sparkling Jewels!!!

One of my latest obsessions is vintage jewels. These pretty little sparkles have been around a long time, but like depression glass, have stood the test of time. Lots of it has sat in boxes, forgotten for decades only now being unearthed and given a new life. The array of colors and finishes is astounding! I feel like a kid in a candy store... so many pretty sparkly things!

The jewels themselves are vintage, the settings are all new, which allows for some diversity in the type of metals used and finishes.  I of course am loving the antiqued brass, but I have been finding more pieces and settings in an oxidized silver, which you will be seeing soon.

I have been using a lot of these pieces in earrings, but I have also made bracelets and used them in some of my necklaces. No doubt I will be incorporating more of them into everything as time goes on! I love the look, and feel that they have and I love that little bit of history they bring to each piece I use them in.

I have been using a lot more antiqued brass lately and have plans to start incorporating some other metals soon. As of today, sterling silver is now $28.00 a troy ounce. In the year 2000, silver was $5.25 an ounce, at the beginning of this calendar year, it was just over $18.00 an ounce, it has gone up $10.00 in the past 11 months. That makes the costs of all the components I am fond of using a whole lot more expensive to me! These are cost increases way beyond what one can absorb. I have always been annoyed by the way your local gas station will raise the price of gas based upon what the price per barrel of oil that was just announced toady. It's not the price they paid for the gas you are buying now, but somehow, you get to pay more sooner. I have put off raising my pricing on items containing sterling, mainly because I have always carried a large stock of items, so I don't buy often, but I am to the end of many things and am forced to restock at record prices. So if you don't like the price of sterling silver jewelry.... maybe I could interest you in some lovely antiqued brass!

I have decided to limit my previews on Facebook to beads only. It appears that the majority of the interest lies there. In the interest of making life more efficient and cutting out things that aren't worth the effort, I will just post a link to the listing I have put on Etsy for my jewelry. You can check out my Etsy jewelry shop, Juniper Gems to see what new listings I have and my Principessa Glass shop for all of my Lampwork beads. Thanks for stopping by!