So I had made a lot of plans for the Miss New England Pageant. But the night before as I was packing and go through my inventory, making new last minute items everything just fell apart. The business cards and banner I had ordered never arrived. I don't know why I didn't look into things sooner. Turned out that my payment hadn't gone through. Color me surprised. I flew into a panic as I started checking my emails looking for something from the company telling me what happened. There was nothing. I only found out the payment never went through because they had sent me a tracking number when I had placed the order. I was so so angry.
The next morning I woke up with a full blown stomach virus. It was the day of the show!!! GAH! I woke up before the alarm and got violently sick. That's the shitty thing when you go through Cancer. My immune system is weak, so when I get sick it hits me hard and fast. I contacted Christine, the president of the organization that runs the pageants, and let her know that I wasn't coming.
So all that preparation and planning, promoting was wasted time. I had even created my Diva Inspired line JUST for the pageant.
Luckily Christina was kind enough to let me reschedule and come to the MISS ROYAL AMERICA pageant! It takes place the last weekend of April at the Bradley Airport Sheraton Hotel! A second chance!!! YAY!
I ordered NEW business cards and a banner. I have lots of inventory ready to go and am working on more (as always!) I am so excited to have this second opportunity to get it right!

I recently started gaining a following on Facebook and Twitter. This is so exciting to me. People who really seem interested in my work, it blows my mind. So I thought how can I do something for people who are actual fans of my style and work. So I posted on Facebook and asked, what if I had a secret sale or give away for FB fans? Every Thursday? One person said sure, and I was off and running. (Sad, lol, I know!)

So thus begins my Thursday Secret Sale. It runs from midnight to midnight EST. It's open to anyone who is a Facebook fan of mine. ( http://www.facebook.com/JillianLyonsDesigns )Or a Twitter follower ( @JIanBoutique ). The way this works is you can go to my Etsy Shop or use the My Etsy Shop link on Facebook, buy and I'll give you the sale. For example,today my secret sale is buy one, get one half off. I will refund the difference via Paypal!

So what's my point? If you like me (and you should, I'm nice.) If you like my work, then you should Like my Facebook Fan Page, save yourself some money, get some great freebies and discounts. I want to do something nice for people who like what I do. Happy Thursday!

There are a lot of people out there who make jewelry. So when I decided this is what I wanted my focus to be on in my creating, I knew I was taking a chance. Jewelry designers on and off line are a dime a dozen. While everyone has different styles and prices it seems like you need a little something extra to set yourself apart. I spent a few weeks researching. I started following some of the top jewelry sellers on Etsy. How can I infuse my personality and creativity even more so into this business. I want my brand to be a reflection of who I am and what I love.

Hand made packaging. Hand stamped tags. Thank you cards I make and write something specificly to YOU in. When you receive an item from me, everything you get comes from me. I am putting all of myself into every detail. This is what I want people to see and remember when they come across my business or order from me.
You're paying for the best quality where everything down to the tag is handmade and unique.

There was a point in my life where all I did was craft and work on making my business stronger and better. I was a full time artisan. Some weeks it was tough, living off a craft is certainly not what you do to be paid well. I tried my best but sometimes (most of the time)came up short. I was devoted. But suddenly I found myself getting tired all of the time. Sleeping more during the day, doing anything was becoming difficult. In October of 2010 the craft life stopped for me completely. I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

It completely knocked me back. I was moving along in life. I liked what I was doing and where I was going. This is me literally one month before I was diagnosed.
This is when I was living in a teensy apartment with three other people and working on my wedding favor paper goods business. It was physically taxing but I loved it and was getting somewhere.

Suddenly I am in the ER, I'm in pain, I'm nervous. They didn't know what was wrong with me. Two hours later I am quarrentined and being admitted. No one tells me what's wrong. A transfer to Yale and 24 hours later, a doctor explains to me that I have lung, breast and uterus cancer. What? Chemotherapy? I am drugged and spend my birthday in the hospital. My friends and family try to cope with me. My only joy is the cake of Scott Pilgrim that my awesome friend Sara at You've Been Cupcaked made.

So I do chemo. I lose my hair in 1 week. Here is me at my worst, before my eye brows fell out, then everything fell out.

I gave everything up when I heard the C word. My business, my life, my independence. My father took me to keep me in constant care. I had a nurse visit twice a week. My memory was shot. Talk about tough times! My only hope, the only thing that stopped me from crying at night was making little things. I would get up and knit for as long as I could. My kid sister modeled for me and became my crafty cheerleader. She always wanted me up and doing projects. That's how she knew I was feeling ok.

My friend Jenny strongly believes that art saves. And she is right. I yearned for a business again. To craft regularly. It was my motivation to stop feeling sorry and self loathed. Shut up and craft! Werk! And in the immortal words of RuPaul - how the hell you gonna love anybody else if you can't love yourself. My jewelry making today gives me that.
I guess this is my real story. The truth behind what I do and how it saves me from giving up. I'm not the best, never will be. But i will rival anyone on strength and passion!
Enough said.

When my boyfriend saw the title of this blog entry, he laughed. "It sounds like a Lord of the Rings chapter." I didn't know how else to put it. I had one ring that was breaking, so I broke it apart and made two.

This is where we begin:
This was a one piece banded vintage ring that I saw in the display case at Goodwill. When the girl took it out for me I inspected it and saw that the centerpiece was breaking off. No wonder it was so cheap! I thought, gee can I fix that?
So I came home and popped the top off, sanded down all of the jagged edges, cleaned everything using jewelry cleaner and Qtips, and poof! I was ready to make 2 new rings!
Using the band first I thought, what could I put on there where it won't look obvious that this once had been soddered on? I found a tiny clay rose left from my last batch of clay cabs I'd made. It was a lovely fit!


Then I took the golden flower centerpiece the ring originally had and placed it onto a large base adjustable ring! It looks just lovely Here is the finished product:

It really goes to show, you never know what you will find at a thrift shop! Both of these items are available in their refurbished state in my Etsy shop.
http://www.jillianlyonsdesigns.etsy.com

I have been in this ridiculous cycle with my phone company to try and get my phone fixed. While visiting the store I began day dreaming about being in other stores. Enjoying myself, shopping. What did I want to shop for? Ooh, beads. No, old jewelry. Something I can take apart and play with. It dawned on me, Goodwill is just up the road! AND in an effort to get my boyfriend to clean his car and kinda failing, I could donate a big bag of close I had left in the back seat for just such an occasion!
As soon as my phone treachery was over ("Just wait for FedEx to mail you a box, then put your phone in the box and bring it to FedEx and you'll have a new phone in two more weeks!")I was on my way to shopping bliss!

I made out like a bandit! My trash to treasure hunt was everything I hoped it would be! I found a silver frame for my kid sisters picture, a copy of one of my favorite books, and three pieces of vintage jewelry I loved! Lastly and BEST of all, I got a big bag of broken, weird and old jewelry for $5.99! When I got home there was soooo much usable stuff!

My first project became the restoration of these great vintage Christmas clip on earrings. I started by taking the backs off. One of the earrings fell apart, so I had to clean it and put it all back together.



Last I cleaned everything and shined it all up! This is the first time I have ever done any kind of restoration. It was incredibly exciting. I could not believe this was from a junk Goody Bag! Here is the final product.

Stay tuned for Goodwill Part 2: Two Rings from One!

Well hello there you savvy blog reader you! My name is Jillian, I am a bit of a serial blogger. This one in particular has a focus on some of my personal life, but mostly my creative work.
I am a knitter and a jewelry artist. I strongly use the word artist. What I do is create new jewelry from old pieces as well as new jewelry supply. I occasionally will reconstruct an original vintage piece and try and give it new life.
My method of crafting is a process. I will get an idea in my head and start putting shapes together. I'll search online and off for pieces to put together. Etsy.com, flea markets, Goodwill, tag sales, all of these are shopping with purpose. It can take me any where from a few days to a few weeks to get a piece together.
Sometimes I am able to create from what I already have. I sit down and plunk everything in front of me and look for things to come in together.
Below is a sample of some of my work over the past two months.