8 necklaces I just can’t help drooling over

I don’t know about you, but I get tired of looking over the necklaces for sale at Walmart and Target. Yes, that jewelry is inexpensive, but it usually doesn’t strike me as very creative or unique.

Now Etsy, on the other hand, has some talented jewelry designers selling some delightful wares, some spendy, others not so much.


This lemon jade flower choker can be found at HandHeadHeart at Etsy and comes from Thailand. I love the elaborate ribbon wrapping used to make the stems look like wood. Be sure to check out the other products in this shop; HandHeadHeart is a prolific and skilled beader!





This is a polymer clay rose necklace by Simply Chic Lily at Etsy. So feminine, it’s perfect for weddings, Valentine’s day, or just one of those days when you feel extra girly.




This linen and pearl necklace is made by Cynamonn at Etsy. There’s something about this necklace that just grabs me. I think it is the startling contrast of visual textures. Shiny versus matte, round versus long strings. The rhythm of those pearls, along with their asymmetrical placement paired with the rhythm of the linen threads twisting into a knot. This isn’t just jewelry, it’s also art. This necklace makes me think of a barefoot walk on the beach in the morning. It's dramatic, yet somehow informal.





This eye-catching necklace of bronze, copper, and silver grape leaves is made by Connie Colton and can be found at her Etsy shop “inspired by nature.” It’s rather spendy, so it may be a good birthday or Christmas gift. I think it would be perfect for those times that you’re channeling your inner elf. Someone’s Lord of the Rings costume would get a major lift from this.





Here is a “Larimar” necklace from kiwawa on Etsy made by Vlasim in the Czech Republic. It's also a bit spendy, but the workmanship is amazing. I find it fascinating that the stone was set without glue. When I look at all those rich brown textures, I just want to go eat some chocolate or weed my garden like an Earth Mother.





Twirled Treasures sells necklaces made of an unexpected material—paper. This is her “Glistening Honey” necklace and here’s what she writes:

“This exquisite pendant is reminiscent of sparkling drops of honey dripping from a comb. Shimmering loops cascade gracefully, encased in a blanket of tiny gold crimps which perfectly blend with the antique gold chain that houses it. Made entirely of paper, this lovely quilled piece measures 3/4 x 1-1/2 inches, hangs from an 18-inch antique gold-finished chain, has been meticulously hand varnished to make it water resistant, and comes in a gift box. What a unique treasure!”





Here is a necklace called “Moonlight of Saturn” by Lisa Zamcho, who runs BrightFireBeads at Etsy. Right now she is making fabulous “steampunk” necklaces with a lovely mix of gears and crystal sparkle. (You can't see the red crystal very well in this picture, so you'll have to go to the necklace page.)




This raspberry leather necklace is made by Jess Amity at Etsy, as part of her Modern Pocahontas Collection. She writes, “The Modern Pocahontas Collection is my interpretation of the question "If Pocahontas was transported through time to today (and had a killer sense of style), what would she wear?" The answer is jewelry, bags and accessories in leather with both traditional and modern adornments. So, Pocahontas would totally rock!”

Make sure you check out Jess Amity’s other jewelry as well. She does things with old drawer pulls that you never thought were possible.





I know this isn’t a necklace, but it is so “wow” that I just had to include it at the end. These is the "Le Printemps Pearl and Filigree Art Nouveau Head Piece Headdress" offered for sale by the Raven Eve Etsy shop. This would definitely be a neat piece to wear for high school formal dances, for weddings (both bride and bridesmaids), and for high class shindigs. I’m trying to decide what clothes era it would belong better with. These diadems certainly have an art deco element to them, but there’s also a distinct “barbarian princess” look to it too. It could nicely set off renaissance garb, if you don’t mind being a little bit anachronistic. Are they gothic like Raven Eve says? You decide.

Okay, so now that we're all excited and calculating what our Christmas presents are going to be, I'll just leave you with this little thought to remember when you're enjoying new jewelry: it doesn't matter how good you look on the outside if you're not as beautiful on the inside. Let's be beautifully good as well as beautifully accessorized.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Reflections on "Content is the only advertising left"

Here’s a thought I ran across recently on the internet—“Content is the only advertising left.” What is this talking about? This is referring to the social media revolution and the explosion of blogging as a way to market a business.

I can see this explosion as I see the Craigslist ads that ask for highly skilled writers to write articles about ______ industry in 500 words for $20 or less per article. Businesses are hearing about how blogs can bring in business and they want that, but they may underestimate the time it takes a writer unfamiliar with the industry to gather all the needed information to make an article! They think it should be easy! Well, it would be easy, if the writer had all the expert knowledge of the industry. However, an industry insider is going to want to do their industry work business and may not have quite enough time to put together a witty blog post. (But if they were to take the time to start brainstorming some articles that represent their particular expertise, then they could probably improve over time.)

It’s pretty obvious when businesses don’t really want to put the resources into a quality blog. Firstly, the topics they choose are dumb. Secondly, the content is lifeless. Thirdly, the writing is bad.

What does it really take to have a quality blog for a business? The best blogs I’ve seen are ones that:

• Give answers to common problems
• Give away some trade secrets that help the customer help themselves, either with diagnosis or easy fixes.
• Tell the customer how to spot unscrupulous businesses in the industry and explain exactly why the offending practice is wrong
• Share a slice of life in a way that is both engaging and non-offensive (This is good for attracting people to the industry.)
• Divulge useful details of that slice of life without compromising sensitive personal information

What do the worst business blogs do? They:

• Make it seem like everything is a mystery--job security by obscurity
• Make it seem that the customer is not smart enough or not careful enough to do anything and only an expert is qualified enough (Seriously? If the customer thought that, why would they be reading blogs? They are reading because they consider themselves smart enough to educate themselves about their problem as much as possible!)
• Give the reader no real information that can help them help themselves
• Only contain text that markets the business (too self-satisfied) as a badly disguised forum for disseminating press releases (You think readers can’t tell? What, are you stupid?) or trumpeting corporate goals (Why should the reader care?)
• Burst with corporate rhetoric, jargon, and legalese disclaimers (permeated with covering-our-butt fear)
• Make all their employees comment on the blog, whether they have anything good to say or not
• Do not respond to real commenter questions and problems
• Do not look outside their own business at what the competitors do (self-absorbed)
• Bash their competitors (insulting)
• Bash their customers (insulting)

Have I seen good business blogs complain and yet be successful? Yes. When I see these complaints, they usually come in a situation when the expert is having to redo correctly some job that a previous idiot has made a blazing mess of out of ignorance and incompetence. These kinds of posts succeed and build trust with the reader when they show pictures/diagrams of the badly done job before and explain exactly what is wrong with it and then tell what is needed to do it done right. The right amount of moral indignation is needed. Just enough to communicate the bad previous job, but not too much to turn off the reader and make them think the writer has a bad attitude. The writer must preserve a good attitude about their own work and pleasure (but not arrogance) about doing their best to fix things. (Good example: The Floor Elf website. After reading everything I could find on this guy's website, I trust him.)

Can a business blog complain about customers? No, not in the strict sense of complaining. It has to be done in an extremely sensitive and professional way. So perhaps “complain” is not the right word. How to share stories of difficult customers:

1. Withhold their name.
2. Explain what the customer wanted.
3. Explain what company policy is so that the reader understands what the rules are and why the writer resisted unreasonable customer demands. Readers may not know what is reasonable or unreasonable behavior.
4. Explain how customer reacted to refusal.
5. Explain how writer felt (keeping it clean and professional) and then how the writer responded.
6. Explain how the interaction continued, how the problem was resolved, how the situation ended.
7. Describe any doubts and questions the writer had about their own part, or any questions they had about the customer’s attitude/behavior.

When I worked as a writing tutor, sometimes I had difficult sessions with certain students that I needed to gain perspective about. So I would talk to my boss about the session afterward in a way that very closely followed the above steps. I did not use names, I explained what happened on both sides, and then we had very fascinating, productive discussions about what I could do better to professionally handle that in the future. When I became a more skilled tutor, the conversations helped me see that I did all I could do within policy. This kind of model works well for business blogging.

What "problem customer" posts are useful for:

• adjusting future customer's expectations
• educating other customer readers about permissible behavior,
• educating customer readers about company policies and the reasons behind them (best when policies are rational and not merely company-serving)
• educating customers about extra services the company can provide in the context of an interesting story
• training future employees
  

Additional thought:
An internal business blog might be a good way for a business to create a corporate culture and spotlight various employees for the good they do. It might also be a good way for employees to communicate methods that worked or them. This ensures that valuable company knowledge base isn’t automatically lost when an employee leaves.