PANTONE COLORS FALL 2011

Bamboo
is a soft warm golden color, like butterscotch amber, golden calcite (http://www.beadbear.com/g0901.shtml), citrine, topaz, yellow sapphire, canary diamonds, champagne pearls (http://www.beadbear.com/c0111.shtml ) or serpentine; moissanite. Contrast with tiger-eye topaz (http://www.beadbear.com/i0308.shtml), or vintage tiger glass (http://www.beadbear.com/f1002.shtml) Wear with brown, green, or red (http://www.beadbear.com/h0905.shtml)


Emberglow
a gentle orange, like the glow of a Padparadscha sapphire, orange chalcedony, Madagascar citrine; carnelian (http://www.beadbear.com/f1007.shtml); red jasper; Baltic amber, a favorite gemstone of Catherine the Great(http://www.beadbear.com/d0907.shtml); some alexandrite; goldstone. Contrast with green (peridot), apple chalcedony or demantoid garnets. Wear with your favorite camel-hair slacks or skirt and cashmere.


Honeysuckle
in the rose family, suggesting rhodolite garnet(http://www.beadbear.com/d0909.shtml); lepidolite (http://www.beadbear.com/a0207.shtml; http://www.beadbear.com/g0910.shtml, mauve pearls (http://www.beadbear.com/c0907.shtml), pink tourmaline, rhodochrosite, pink sapphire, rubies (http://www.beadbear.com/b0111.shtml) or cherry quartz. Wear with white, black or purple suitings for dramatic effect


Phlox
purple-blue a versatile hue that is complimented by (http://www.beadbear.com/h0909.shtml), amethyst, tanzanite, iolite, blue aventurine, purple aventurine, blue lace agate, blue sapphire, aquamarine; mystic topaz. Can be contrasted with rhodolite garnet.


Cedar
a subtle greenish khaki or putty color: suggests rutilated quartz (http://www.beadbear.com/g0908.shtml), serpentine (http://www.beadbear.com/f0207.shtml), jade, labradorite, chrome diopside, peridot, nephrite (http://www.beadbear.com/g0909.shtml), green tourmaline, heliodor, chrome diopside, green aventurine (http://www.beadbear.com/f1005.shtml); nephrite; pearls; alabaster


Deep Teal
a perennial favorite to show off malachite (http://www.beadbear.com/d0908.shtml), emeralds, deep green tourmaline, rutilated quartz, bronze, or green peacock-dyed freshwater pearls (http://www.beadbear.com/h0907.shtml; http://www.beadbear.com/f0904.shtml; http://www.beadbear.com/d0901.shtml); moss agate, and turquoise (http://www.beadbear.com/f1010.shtml); amazonite-Chinese(http://www.beadbear.com/d0903.shtml) or Russian. Contrast with rubies (http://www.beadbear.com/b0111.shtml)


Coffée Liqueur
velvety brown with a grey undertone, like chocolate diamonds, smokey topaz or quartz (http://www.beadbear.com/e0311.shtml; http://www.beadbear.com/f1012.shtml), Siberian amber (http://www.beadbear.com/f1009.shtml); dyed freshwater pearls (http://www.beadbear.com/e0902.shtml); (http://www.beadbear.com/e0905.shtml)


Nougat
better than beige or ecru: kunzite, morganite, pearls (http://www.beadbear.com/c0902.shtml; http://www.beadbear.com/f1016.shtml), rose quartz (http://www.beadbear.com/f1014.shtml;http://www.beadbear.com/f0905.shtml), pink or champagne diamonds


Orchid Blush
palest gray: Akoya pearls, labradorite, moonstone, star sapphires, aquamarine; natural blue topaz. Contrast with onyx, black diamonds, Tahitian pearls. Contrast with rubies or garnet, or Venetian glass gold foil beads (http://www.beadbear.com/c0903.shtml)


Quarry
pale blue-gray; aquamarine, blue topaz,London blue topaz®, blue sapphires, star sapphires, pearls (http://www.beadbear.com/h0902.shtml), lapis (http://www.beadbear.com/f1003.shtml)or amazonite (http://www.beadbear.com/d0903.shtml); blue diamonds

Wedding Tips For A Successful Marriage

I have found the more that is spent on the wedding, the shorter the marriage. There are some very famous weddings we've all heard about that cost thousands, which lasted only a few months or weeks!
 
When my husband and I got married in 1990, we spent a grand total of $658.00, which included the marriage license, engraved invitations, postage, wedding cake( had that made), food (we catered it ourselves), paper plates, glasses, cutlery, napkins, flowers (I went to the wholesale florist and bought flowers for the table, a spray of orchids for the bridal party to wear, roses for me, plus everything with which to assemble the bouquet and corsages and buttonieres for the groom and his best man, and my "best broad"), clothes and rings. We got married at our local bar. Actually outside, in front of a mural painted on the side of the building by an artist friend of ours. The owner was so tickled that we asked, that he gave us two cases of (very nice) champagne! We had a friend that was licensed to perfom weddings marry us. She was delighted that we asked, and we wrote our own vows. The photographer was the husband of my "best broad".
 
My fiance (now husband) found 2 beautiful velvet jackets for his best man and himself at a thrift store. They looked as if they had never been worn and were  perfect fits for both of them! My dress came from a shop in the neighborhood. I had been lusting after it for quite a while; when I went to buy it it had been marked down from $99 to $35! Went to the fabric shop and bought a hat, and various bits of lace, ribbons, silk flowers and crystals. A friend of mine who is a costumer, assembled it for me. The lace designer shoes were marked down to $12.00,new from Bakers', and matched exactly the lace on the hat.
 
The diamond engagement ring is a beautiful antique,from 1897- just under 1/2 a carat, that I purchased from a local jeweler who was recommended to me by my orthopedic surgeon: he called him and told him to give us a good deal. As I am a jewelry designer, I purchased our wedding rings wholesale.
 
We invited 100 guests. Some of our friends also brought food for the occasion. We got married a little after noon; left around 2pm. As we lived and worked in the French Quarter, a buggy driver that we knew drove us away, with ribbons and flowers that he had decorated his carriage with, just for the occasion. We heard that the party lasted another 10 hours, and made the 6 o'clock news! A year after we got married, we were still receiving wedding pictures from tourists that happened to stop in. The bar owner said that was the biggest ring-out he had ever had.
 
We have been very happily married now for over twenty years.

Love, Laughter. Happy Ever After,
Anne the Beadbear
http://www.beadbear.com

A.R.T. Precious Collectible Jewelry Featured in MUSES

A.R.T. Precious Collectible Jewelry designed by Anne Renée Timmons-Harris is featured this week at MUSES Shopping Magazine

Setting Boundaries When Your Home is Your Studio/Office

Clearly designate the time of day when you are at work, and do not allow family members to interfere or interrupt during that period (unless the house is on fire). Be consistent. This includes pets, children as well as spouses. Walk the dogs before getting started. Feed the cats. Give them treats, toys, the catnip sock. Chances are your pets will learn to leave you alone before the kids or your spouse will; they understand low growls and snarling. The humans may require more behavior modification, and ask “why?” Closing the door may help. Borrow your teen's “Enter and Die” door sign. When all else fails, throw your shoes at them.(Just kidding, sort of)

Make sure the children have been fed, or have suitable snacks available. Schedule your work when the baby is asleep. Instruct them that you are “off limits” during the designated time. You will not be available to mediate spats during this time. If your spouse or partner is also home, let them supervise the kids, be in charge of dinner. Remind your spouse or partner that this is how you bring money into the family coffers. Enlist them as an ally; leave the red lipstick out on the bathroom sink as an inducement.

When friends call to chat, let the call go to voice mail. Call them back, but after work. The ones that get huffy or drop you weren't really your friends, and you're well rid of them now, before you hit the big time. Your neighbors are just being nosey. Explain as well as you can ahead of time to your mother and your mother-in-law, that you are conducting business during whatever time you've designated. Better yet if your spouse or partner is home, let them handle the calls. Try to arrange your schedule so that they are in charge of fielding social calls while you're at work, just like if you were working outside the home.

Make sure you call your Mom or your mother in law back, after work, and explain (remind) them that this is another way that you are able to bring income in, without the added expense of driving, or baby sitters.

Establish that boundary amd maintain it. Doesn't matter if it's different times during the week. It may help to post your schedule on the refrigerator for all to see. Good luck!

Anne the Beadbear
http://www.beadbear.com

Commentary on breakdown of the Kimberley Process:

http://www.jckonline.com/blogs/cutting-remarks/2011/06/29/human-rights-and-kimberley-process?utm_source=JCK+eNewsletters&utm_campaign=3062d47770-2011_06_29_Diamond_Wednesday6_27_2011&utm_medium=email

One has to start somewhere. And granted, while the desired outcome hasn’t occurred, that doesn’t mean that having an ongoing discussion won’t have a positive effect…eventually. Of course when greed and profit are involved, good intentions will be left by the wayside every time. Note the lack of cooperation by China and Russia, two countries notorious for their casual regard for human life. india too has their nose out of joint because they were making profit from cutting contraband stones. Remember how upset they were when Tanzania nationalized their mines, and demanded that tanzanite cutting be done in their country, rather than exporting all their rough to India. India’s shrieking and keening was outrageous and deafening, but wholly out-of-place.

And especially China with their abhorrent record with respect to human rights. From Tiananmen Square, to the ongoing and futile US efforts to coax China into not using toxic materials in their manufacture of children’s jewelry. The Chinese government just doesn’t care. They’re just as unconcerned about killing their own people as killing others’.

Russia is also first and foremost all about Russia. Between the behavior of their government and their crime-boss oligarchs, all pleas fall on deaf ears.

Furthermore both countries function under the premise that anything the West and in particular the US is for they are automatically going to be against. Just because.

Until some kind of way this becomes too (read expensive) painful to China, and Russia, and/or greed ceases to become a motivation, nothing is going to change. Angola , Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone will also continue to abuse their own people, because a) they can and b) its lucrative c) them’s what gots the biggest guns and the most ammunition makes the rules

Beadbear
http://www.beadbear.com

Fine Jewelers Advised to Avoid Beads

Reply to GUEST EDITORIAL: BEAD-WARE!
http://news.centurionjewelry.com/articles/view/guest-editorial-bead-ware


I have successfully designed and sold fine bead jewelry FOR YEARS! I am highly amused by the retail jewelers that have come so late to the retail success that bead jewelry has enjoyed since the time of the Neanderthals.
You remind me of all those old European fuddy-duddy royals that sneered at Za Za Gabor when she married that Austrian noble. They were appalled that she wore with her lavish diamond necklace, bracelets and rings one of her lovely crystal and platinum beauty crowns when she was “presented” to them in the 60’s.
The problem for all those who march in lock step and buy the same items is REDUNDANCY. Your customers that like beads and wear them do not want to see the same damn thing everywhere they go. They are a more sophisticated and educated shopper than you obviously suppose.
What you fail to apprehend is that women and men who wear and enjoy bead jewelry also wear gold, platinum and silver. I know because many of them are MY customers, some of whom have ten or more of my designs. They are very comfortable wearing both, either separately or at the same time.
Of course, I create exclusively one of a kind pieces, that are hand-knotted, with quality findings. Selling the identical items that everyone else has is a sure path to failure.
Further, in these difficult times, the savvy retailer has merchandise that appeals to all price points. Pam Danziger also observed that the affluent shoppers are now shopping more at Target than Nordstrum’s.
I don’t mean to rip on you but this is the same attitude that keeps retails from using all marketing tools, including the internet and social media, as Scott Galloway stated so clearly at the GIA Symposium.

Beadbear
http://www.beadbear.com

Why Taxing Online Shopping Is Unfair

The hysterical lobbying for sales tax to be collected by online retailers reminds me of a story about two farmers on a dairy collective in the old Soviet Union.

Vanya and Vasili were farmers at the dairy collective. They both came to the collective at the same time, and were alloted the same amount of cows. All the cows on the collective grazed in the same fields and meadows. All the farmers drew water out of the same well. The farmers supplemented the grazing with feed purchased for them by the collective.The collective did well, and were able to purchase more cows the following year. There was even a little money left over that was divided among all the farmers, based upon their cows' production.Vasili used the money he received for his cow's milk to build a big house a heated barn. Vanya seemed to prosper too. However, he did not build a big house. Instead he and his family shared the barn with the cows, like they had the previous year.

Gradually, it came to be noticed that Vanya's cows always gave a little more milk. The calves were frisky and healthy. And the cream was said to be richest and sweetest of all the collective. Vanya with fewer cows earned almost as much as his neighbor. This was not lost on Vasili. He watched as Vanya's cows were led out every day by Vanya's wife, and brought back in every night by Vanya's children. His heart became small and hard like a stone.He became envious of his neighbor.

One day Vasili could stand it no longer. He stormed into the office of the collective, where Anya was entering the day's totals. “I cannot stand it”, he yelled. “It is not fair”.

“What is not fair, Vasili, inquired Anya mildly. “Vanya!” Vasili spat his neighbor's name. “What is not fair about Vanya?” Anya asked. Vasili's face contorted into a rictus of rage. “It is not fair”, he said repeated. “”I buy cows like Vanya. My cows graze same grass. My cows drink same water. Yet His cows give more milk! people say his cows give better milk-is richer, sweeter. That is not fair!”

”But”, protested Anya. “You have same kind of cows. You have more cows than Vanya. What you want me to do?” Anya was clearly perplexed at Vasili's fury. Vasili smiled evilly. “I want you kill his cows”.

All this is to say that brick and mortar stores have an advantage over online businesses. Customers can walk into the store, and try on any item on the premises. Customers can walk out immediately with their purchase. The customer pays sales tax as a condition of purchase.

Online venues do not enjoy that luxury. Many of us cannot afford to invest in a well-appointed boutique and inventory. We rely more heavily on the random kindness of strangers, and the algorithms of Google and Bing. We invest more heavily in advertising, in far more media outlets, as we do not have window displays that face out onto the street or the mall, where hundreds of shoppers pass by daily. Packaging is a greater investment. To entice business, many of us have to offer free shipping, even on returns, exchanges, or repairs which quite an expense given fuel prices today. We also have employees, contrary to popular myth. We pay inventory tax. The overhead may appear to be less, however the mark up is not as generous.

In conclusion, the argument that tax-free online shopping for customers puts the physical stores at a financial disadvantage is specious at best, and mendacious at worst.
Beadbear
http://www.beadbear.com