May's Featured Business

Many of you have and use their products in your jewelry designs and aren't even aware of it.  We see them in the craft aisle of Wal-Mart, Jo-Ann, and Michael's, but never know until you look at the back of the packaging who manufactures those beautiful and sparkly items we love so much.

I am super excited to introduce you to Cousin Corporation of America.

Their product line includes the Jewelry Basics® line, Snap In Style®, Crystazzi®, Trinkettes®, as well as various tools, cording, kits, and bead organizers.

"Providing quality, value and inspiration for the designer in you.

This simple statement is our mission and the vision that we live by every day. It is the force that drives our business so we can deliver on our promise. Since we began our company our focus has been to design, manufacture and provide quality jewelry making products at an exceptional value to customers who are inspired by the craft of jewelry making.

Company History

Cousin has been family-owned for over 40 years. It all began in 1970 as Enterprise Art, a retail craft store in Largo, Florida. With the success of the arts and crafts, floral and home decor products, a wholesale division was created and Cousin was born. The popularity of jewelry making inspired us to focus our efforts on the products for this exciting craft. Today we are a premier wholesaler of jewelry making supplies.

Product Development

Our experienced design team creates jewelry making components with a classic style and gives it a twist of the latest fashion and jewelry looks. Our multi-talented designers constantly research jewelry, fashion and accessory trends, staying in tune with the newest look and ahead of the latest trend. We create and update our collections to provide our customers the most up-to-date quality jewelry making products at an exceptional value.

Digital Media and Marketing

We support our products and promote our brand by being innovative. From our comprehensive catalog and interactive website, to our extensive social media campaigns, we are engaged with the jewelry making community. We are the market leader in this ever evolving craft.

Cousin Today

Our stability and solid reputation speak for our company and our culture. Our full-service approach allows us to create and develop products in-house, from initial concept to creative design to final packaging. Our team of talented professionals ensures quality products at a value and provides support and inspiration to our customers.

Environmental Responsibility

Cousin is committed to making our world a better place through recycling, conservation and sustainability. Our “Green Team” has improved our existing processes and continually implements new environmentally friendly improvements. For more information on our initiatives please visit our website, www.cousin.com."

The Cousin Corporation of America's website is full of wonderfully helpful technique tips and project ideas.

Cousin Corporation of America also hosts product giveaways on their Facebook page.  Be sure to check it out and enter.  Click here to go to their fan page.  You can view their catalog here and order directly from their website.  Cousin Corporation has a blog you can follow as well.  Click here to visit their Jewelry Design Blog.

Absence

Forgive my long absence.  I've been severely under the weather lately.  I'm getting back in the swing of things though.  I have contacted two new artisans to be featured here in the next coming weeks.  In the meantime, I will be randomly blogging about stuff.  I will be featuring a company that not only is a mass producer of beads and findings, but a great source of inspiration and project ideas to the jewelry design market.  Visit again soon.

Featured Shop of March 5th, 2012

This week I have chosen to feature Lilywinkel, Real Touch & Silk Bouquets, Boutonnieres Flower Jewelry.

Meet Annie and Suzanne, owners of Lilywinkel:

My name is Annie and I work with my grandmother Suzanne (who I call Grammy). My grandmother has been creating beautiful wedding bouquets for over 30 years, having worked first in a florist shop and then later creating both fresh and artificial wedding floral for family and friends. She's the florist of choice for all her grandchildren's weddings as well.

I've often sat at the kitchen table with her, wiring leaves and handing her clippers or flowers, carefully shaking off the water and making sure the thorns didn't stab. Then I would watch as she placed the most beautiful flowers in crucial places in the bouquet. For one, it was a lily on the very top of the bouquet that only the bride could see so that she was reminded of Christ clothing her like a lily of the valley. For another, it was carefully placed magenta orchids that throbbed with life and beauty for my little sister's wedding. After the primary flowers were in place, she would fill in with complementary flowers and leaves, each blossom placed exactly right. Sometimes, when she didn't have to think about the artistic placement of each flower, she would tell me stories about her childhood in the Dutch Reformed community in Denver, and about her mother's rosebushes, and how girls in her youth always got married with orange blossoms in their bouquets or in their hair.

Now, I would like to learn from her as I share her beautiful bouquets with you. We will be working together to create silk and "real touch" bouquets that have the life and artistry of a freshly cut bouquet, but the long-lasting steadiness that only a silk bouquet can bring. Your love doesn't die when your wedding day is over, so why should your flowers? We hope to make you happy by listening to your wishes and ideas and then filling your hands with gorgeous designs that will take your breath away for years to come.

Featured on the Christian Artists and Sellers Blog here: http://christianmarketplace.wordpress.com/category/featured-artists-and-sellers/

Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Lilywinkel
Find us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/#!/Lilywinkel

Featured Shop of 2/13/12

This week I am featuring Beata Belanszky Demko's Contemporary Original Artworks from Etsy.com

Meet Beata Belanszky Demko, owner of Beata Belanszky Demko's Contemporary Original Artworks

I am a wife and mom and live with my little family in Hungary. I started painting after the birth of my son. He is almost 4 years old, and since then I had many exhibition locally and internationally also.  I am the member of a Transylvanian Artists community and participate in international artist's painting camps.

Painting is my passion and my life. Colors really take me on a journey to another world. The procedure of painting satisfies my soul and hopefully it reaches the soul of the new owner too. I can't be more happy but when the painting finds its owner and the owner finds his / her painting.

What Is Love?

2-9-12

Ah...February.....National Heart Month, National Marriage Month, National Empty Your Pockets On Trinkets & Chocolate Month.

Where did January go?  Here we are almost Mid-February and staring down the barrels of Valentine's Day.  This is the month we celebrate our love for each other, shower each other with romantic cards and gifts.  But what is love?  Is it a chemical mix that happens in our brains causing an euphoric feeling or is it something else.  Love is an action verb not a complacent noun or an elated feeling.  Love is putting the thoughts, will, feelings, well being and best interests of another person or persons over your own thoughts, will, feelings, well being, and interests.  Love is a sacrifice.  It will cost you something and sometimes everything.

Today, love is thrown around lightly as if it is some magical thing to be cast upon someone to make that person do what we want him or her to do for us.  We love them as long as they give us what we want.  We love in word only and not in deed.  Is this love? I think not.

Even in the Church, the Body of Christ, we say "I love you" to people then talk about them when their backs are turned.  This is NOT the love we are supposed to have one for another.  We turn our backs on those who have wronged us instead of loving them.  We criticize those who do not do things according to our purposes, desires, and needs.  If we are not catered to, we pout and stomp our feet like children.  If we feel slighted by one of the people we claim we love, we don't speak to that person for months until they come to us and ask what's wrong.  Is this love?  I think not.

In the work place, our bosses may tell us "We love you and think the world of you" but plot to fire us at the first sign of any conceived insurrection without the possibility of defending ourselves.  They applaud us in front of some only to back stab us in front of others.  Is this love?  I think not.

Jesus spoke relentlessly about love. Mark 12:30-31 tells us, "And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with [d]your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment. The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." If we truly love God, then we should truly love those around us.

1 John 4:20 tells us that if our love for God is reflected in our love for others, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" 1 John 2:15 says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

John 13:34 says, "I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another." John 15:12-13 says, "This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you. No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends."

So what is love?  1 Corinthians 13:3-8 tells is, "Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.  It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy ([d]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]."

1 Peter 4:8 tells us, "Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and [a]disregards the offenses of others]".  In other words, we don't go around pointing out the past or present sins of others.  We love them in spite of who they are.  We look past what was there and is there to see what could be there.  Love looks to the future of a person, not their past.

When another points out the failings of a person, the love in us should cover that person and the one bringing the accusation. Love sees the sinner who is in need of a Savior not the sin. So often, we hate the sinner and wink at the sin.  Galatians 6:1 gives us this admonition, "Brethren, if any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself, lest you should be tempted also."  This is love in action.

The next time, you tell someone you love them, mean what you say and live what you say.

Most scriptures taken from the Amplified Version.  Some taken from the King James Version.

Featured Shop of Week of 2/8/12

It's been some time since I featured a shop on my blog.  This week, I chosen to feature a wonderful photography shop from Etsy, This Is How I See It Photography.

Meet Zach Dalzell, Owner of This Is How I See It:

I've have been interested in photography my whole life. I grew up watching my dad do it. He worked as a photographer, first, and then as photo editor for a major newspaper in Illinois. However, I didn't get a camera until a year ago.

I shoot with a Nikon D90 right now. I will to upgrade to a pro model camera soon. However, as many photographers know: "It's the photographer, not the camera who make the pictures." I typically shoot all of my photos with my 20-35 F2.8 lens or a 300mm F2.8 lens.

The best thing about photography to me is capturing the world for that split second and always having that saved. Everyday, we lose time on this earth and memories fade. If I have my camera, I can take a photograph of something and have that moment forever.

I attend school at the University of Illinois and am studying History. I do wish to have photography as a career, but have heard from many people in the industry that a degree is not needed. So I am studying my second love: History. I am fascinated with our past and seeing how it keeps repeating itself.

So....I started painting

For a Christmas present, my dear hubby gave me an artist set complete with brushes, paints, pastels, canvases, an easel, pencils, paper, and a carrying bag.  Well, I started painting.  I burned out two paintings tonight (1/30/12) and I did a four canvas painting on Saturday (1/28/12). I haven't had this much fun painting since college.  I had forgotten how relaxing and therapeutic it was to paint.  My love is abstract paintings and these are no exception.  I can't paint anything realistic to save my life....so I paint abstract.  If I were drawing with Chalk Pastels, no problem getting something to look realistic.  It's something about the paints that bring out my inner child.  I have paint smears all over my hands.  My nails look slightly blue because of the paint AND I DON'T CARE!   I can't stop.....I'm off to paint so more.