A few new things in my Etsy shop

Just a brief update: As somebody asked and bought the same day I put in a (new) listing for 50 mgambo seeds/weleweka seeds/Hawaiian pussy willow seed in my Etsy shop. You can also now find fresh water pearls in bundles of 10 (you pick the colors and shapes - there are more than Etsy has space for pictures, so if you don't find 10 there, go to my website for a look, I'm happy to combine) and Tahitian Gardenia seeds (tiare seeds, gardenia taitensis seeds), so far only in quantity of 20. I can ship those seeds to most countries even if they're not listed as such. Some countries however are very picky about what they let in, Australia is one of them. Send me email, or a convo on Etsy or a PM on Lampwork Etc. (if that's what got you here) if you're not in the US or Europe.

I'll get new pictures on things as I get around to it, I finally have a camera of my own now. And I'll be putting up more jewelry as I bought a wonderful collection of lampwork beads from Kalera Stratton (beadwife.com).

Google shopping , and a few other things

Well, if you don't do Etsy (some people I talked to quite recently had never heard of it), maybe you do Google shopping? What is in my Etsy shop can now also be found in Google Shopping. There will be more, and better pictures, as I decided that I finally needed a camera that isn't a hand-me-down (usually twice), so light and such permitting I'll be able to take some half decent pictures. (For now I'm still a way away from putting up even a light tent).

Storing botanical beads and jewelry

As somebody asked me by email whether she should store her mgambo seed and freshwater pearl necklace refrigerated, here are some tips on storing botanical jewelry:

- Botanical jewelry (i.e. jewelry that contains any kind of seeds or plant parts) should be dried
thoroughly and preferably rather soon if it gets wet. Best is to not let it get really wet in the
first place. It may look like beach jewelry, but if you want to keep it it isn't. Try to keep it dry. Plant seeds don't mind getting wet, but they are not meant to last, they are meant to germinate.

- Job's Tears will chip if gotten wet and dry too often.

- Should you develop a bug problem (I have seen that with Job's Tears once but never with mgambo/weleweka/Hawaiian pussy willow seeds or Royal Poindicana seeds, I'd dry the jewelry in the refrigerator for at least a few days and then put in the freezer for a week.

I do not have to refrigerate botanical jewelry here in Hilo where the daytime temperature is usually above 80F (26.7 C) and the relative humidity normally above 70%. I do not see problems with bugs or mold.

You can normally find these in different package sizes on my website (HiloBeads) and in my Etsy shop.

Job's Tears in my Etsy shop

I put some Job's Tears in my Etsy shop. There will be more, but so far it's just 1/2 lb of the brown ones.

Work got the better of me last week, and as lilikoi season has started and I'm also harvesting cloves I'm rather busy.

On top, somebody started attacking members of the lampwork community as well as some other artisans. The latest people cleared of the attacks can be found in this blog:
http://artisantruthreport.blogspot.com/ - while I am not directly involved, some of these people are my friends, and most of them are at least acquaintances. Please read the blog and help out if you can.