Now Open!

The store is now open, such that it is. At the beginning of the year, I had big ambitions to get off Etsy, establish my own storefront on a newly-developed website and really get rolling with bigger pieces. Then, life got in the way, and I find that I don't really have a lot of time to devote to jewelry-making at all right now, and that this lack of time will probably continue for the next two to three years. At which point, who knows where any of us will be? Life is full of possibilities, after all.

However, in the meantime, I still have modest ambitions. I've scaled back, but I have at least tied my blog into my web address (www.melissajlee.com, for those of you who come to me through www.strandsofbeads.blogspot.com). I still intend to phase out my Etsy presence during the course of the year (I am leaving it up while magazines and books which identify that store as the place to find me are still new and around). And I have opened a small, little storefront directly on my blog. There aren't many pieces in there right now - just a few pendants. However, they're pendants that, with one exception, I haven't previously offered for sale. And this trend will continue from here on out.

You see, I've decided to be selfish. Since I have very limited time, I'm going to work only on making pendants, beads and jewelry that actually interest me now. Which happen to be more three dimensional pieces - like the divided boxes. Although I still like my earlier designs, like "Geek Love" (which still appears in the Etsy store), I'm really more interested in new work. And maybe some large finished pieces. And if the wind shifts and my interest turns, I'll create different projects at that point.

Given my circumstances, even when I put up new work, there will never be more than a few pieces in the store at one time. Nevertheless, I hope you will check there periodically to see what I've been up to.

Thank you - and thank you for continuing to follow my work!