Iolite Flower Ring
Iolite is a beautiful gemstone. It's also known as dichroite, because of it's dichroic properties. Its color changes subtly depending on the direction that light shines through the stone.Iolite isn't usually mined, but is found in gravel beds as a pebble worn smooth by water. On the Mohs hardness sc

My Star Trek Treasury
Guess I'm a bit of a geek. Star Trek has been one of my favorite shows, alright, it is my favorite tv show. The original series, with James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock, Bones, and the rest. Oh wait, "and the rest" is Gilligan's Island.I made a Treasury of a few of the fun things on Etsy celebrating Star Trek. I know there's a grey area there about copyright infringment, but Etsy is okay with it, and I guess the Star Trek francise must be too, or else they'd shut it down. And it's hard to image they want to launch a line of hand knitted dolls or handcrafted anything about Star Trek, so it's probably more a matter of good, and free publicity.The Treasury is called "

How to Make an Etsy Treasury
Once the Treasury opens up, you need to be fast. I'd recommend you already have a title for your Treasury. A field will open up towards the bottom of the window, asking for the title of your Treasury. You have a limited window of opportunity to act -- he who hesitates is lost --- well, at least your chance of getting in this particular Treasury will be lost. If you suddenly find yourself in the uncomfortable position of forgetting the title you had in mind, just type in something generic like 'pretty stuff' or 'great finds' and then click on the "create" button.

How to Find Out When Etsy Treasuries Open
There are a lot of great features on Etsy. One of which is the Treasury, which is a collection of 12 items that anyone with an Etsy account can pick, and if you're lucky enough to time it when the Treasury opens to new items, you can have posted.Trying to time it correctly is problematic. Just lurking on the Treasuries, waiting for the number of current Treasuries to drop below the magic number of 222 for the Treasury West, and 333 for the main Treasury, at which they open, is time consuming and nerve wracking. There's a better way, which I'll now divulge. (-:Just go to http://www.craftopolis.com and click on "Treasury Clock". It will tell you how long before th

Art and Gift Show
I've just been accepted for my first Show, and I'm really excited about it. My parish is having an Art and Gift Show for Christmas shopping. We're a pretty big parish, around 4,000 families, so there should be a lot of people there.It will be at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Batavia, Illinois. If you live in the area and are interested in selling there, you should contact the parish office, just google to find out the phone number, or send me a message. It's very reasonable to sell, they provide you with an 8 foot table, or two tables if you need them, it's indoors, in the Church hall, and only 25$ for the table, plus 20% of your profits after you subtract your overhead. I