Thank you; My friends and My Family

I like to think that my Orange Avocado Jewelry business is a one man show. I design the jewelry, I make the jewelry, and I market the jewelry. However, after each one of my Spring and Christmas shows, I realize that it is far from that. If it weren't for my friends (Sandra), my family (Debbie, Rayna, Roma, Kim (my mom who couldn't make it this year), and my wonderful daughter (Erin) I wouldn't be able to do it. I ask each time for their help and no one hesitates to leave their very busy lives and help me for a day. And it is a very long day. I'm running on adrenaline; they are running on friendship. So thank you.

My Orange Avocado Jewelry Spring was another great success and I welcome each year old and new faces to my show. Thank you to my loyal fans of Orange Avocado Jewelry. You make it fun for me to do this each day and night!

Silver on the Rise...Feeling It

I learned my craft of silversmithing from a talented silver and goldsmith about 6 years ago. I took private lessons and slowly learned how to make art out of sheets of sterling silver, bundles of silver wire, and made molten silver out of my silver scraps. That was then; this is now. I just met my teacher a few months ago and she nolonger sells her jewelry actively because she cannot afford the silver at the prices that it is now. She thankfully teaches her craft to others, but she cannot keep up with the rising silver costs. Now that is a shame.

Silver, once at $18.00 an ounce when I began silversmithing, closed at over $46 an ounce yesterday. Although I feel that I have priced my jewelry to reflect the materials plus the labour that I put into the pieces, I must now increase the price of my jewelry to reflect the increase in silver prices. Despite all of this, my prices will only rise approximately %10 to %15 and I will continue to absorb alot of these rising costs. Prices will only increase AFTER my Orange Avocado Spring Show on April 27th, Wednesday. So hopefully this is a temporary phase and silver will become affordable to all that love the art of silversmithing.

Giving Back...

Glori Meldrum, Founder of the Little Warriors charity organization contacted me back in November 2010 to arrange a meeting with me. I was asked to design a jewelry line for her charity organization. Ideas flew around the room for the next 2 hours as we talked about the organization: education and prevention of child sexual abuse. We talked about Glori: founder of g-squared and trafik interactive. We talked about what I could create: something unique and special to Little Warriors.

So here it is.

I am proud of it. I am proud to be associated with Little Warriors.

I am honored to be connected with Glori Meldrum.

The entire jewelry line can be found on Facebook under "Little Warriors" and soon to be on their website http://www.littlewarriors.ca/ Fifty percent of all sales of this jewelry line will be donated to the organization.