Adventures in Handmade Jewelry

So every site now has a blog component it seems and it's hard to keep up with the content in them, but I think I've come up with a method to my madness. 1000 Markets has a blog feature and lately I've been using it to write a series of articles about materials I use in my work. I think it helps with some of the insider jargon that customers might be confused about. I'm up to part 4 - The Turquoise Dilemma ! I've thought about reproducing them here, but since they're really customer-oriented, this isn't the best place. So hop on over & let me know what you think.

One thing I noticed when it comes to handmade jewelry is a suspicion on the part of the buyer that they may not be getting the real deal when it comes to what the piece is made of. Granted, not every jewelry lover is a gemologist or metallurgist and so a lot of trust goes into the relationship. Is it really sterling silver? Is it really turquoise/jade/lapis/insert gem here? How come this lampwork glass piece costs so much more than others? Gold filled? What the heck is gold filled? It's crazy and sometimes confusing. Especially online where terminology is flung about sometimes arbitrarily and a prospective customer cannot handle the merchandise before buying. Accuracy is key, but what if the shopper doesn't understand the terms you use? Frustrating on both sides. So in order to shed some light here I've started a blog series on my 1000 Markets Site that will go into detail regarding many of the materials and terms used in handmade jewelry making. I'm going to...