My business, my baby...June Jewels

Hi everyone, like promised, I would share with you guys this week all about my on-line shop called June Jewels.
 
June Jewels began on Etsy.com in 2009. For my new reader that don't know too much about me, I was raised in a family business that have been supplying rough and finished-turquoise to jewelers internationally since 1994. Over the years, I slowly realized how much I have learned about not only the jewelry-making process, but also many other aspect of the industry such as gemstone history, origin, and manufacturing processes. I started June Jewels right before starting my MBA program to pay for textbooks, but I quickly realized how happy I was running my own little business and I knew I would continue it as soon as school was over.

People often ask me if I ever get tired of jewelry and beads, I say "Never!" Because to me, creating jewelry is like creating history, a piece of jewelry made with genuine stones can last for centuries; its value becomes priceless and its story becomes everlasting!  

I truly enjoy sharing my expertise and be able to provide the material to all the jewelry lovers out there doing what they love.  My favorite part about running June Jewels is when my customers send me pictures of their work using my products; it just makes my day! I currently run this shop with the help of my husband who I have been married to since 2007. He is a firefighter and is just the most hard-working, genuine, and noble person I know. He loves his job and have always encouraged me to do what would make me happy no matter what anyone else thinks. So here I am, doing what makes me happy and hope to create as many happy customers as I can along the way!

You can check out June Jewels by simply going to www.junejewels.com, click the image below, or click the product gallery I have recently added to the right side of this blog. 

Until next time :)

 

Turquoise Nugget Bracelet and Earrings

I want to start off by apologizing for how long it has been since my last post. I have been super busy with my on-line store sales that I have been struggling to find a balance between work and "life". I guess I didn't anticipate the amount of sales when I started in October and thought I had more time to slowly grow, plan and well...blog! lol. Now that I'm starting to feel the momentum of my little operation, I think I am going to be much better at managing my time in every aspect. So don't give up on me yet...lol! And...for those who are wondering, I will officially introduce my on-line shop next week on this blog so you guys can see what I have been up to :)

This week, I just wanted to quickly share a special request I completed over the weekend for one of my husband's friend. I love the fact that my friends and family immediately think of me whenever any conversation related jewelry pops into their heads. So as a result, I get lots of special requests since practically everyone has some type of broken jewelry they want to transform into something special. This request in particular was actually just a bag of rough turquoise given by a grandparent; he wanted to transform and gift it to his wife for Christmas. So to start it off, I had to tumble and drill the stones into semi-smooth nuggets as seen below.

 

Because I don't have the fancy equipment that factories in China has to cut stones into different shapes, nugget shape was the best I can do with the rough that was given to me. From there, I decided to go simple because nuggets are considered to be very earthy, so complicated designs would actually overshadow the raw beauty of these stones.

 

Small accents of sterling silver findings on the bracelet with lobster-claw clasp, and regular headpin with a loop twist onto the lever-back earring hoops. On a side note, I love lever-back earring hoops because it adds an instant look of elegance and NO annoying rubber backing that goes onto the typical fish-hook wire, lol. 

So that's it for this week, I got a busy weekend ahead of me since I always procrastinate on holiday shopping lol. But I am super excited next week to share with you my on-line shop, so make sure you check back! Happy Holidays!