Forgotten Bead Stash!

This is what happens when I need some room on my desk and don't have time to figure out where to put stuff. Open a drawer and shove it in. I forget all about what I did and then 6 months down the road I open the drawer and find BEADS! What a cool suprise...its like I got new beads all over again! :)

B-Side the Sea in Poole, England

I wanted to share with you the little adventure that some of my jewelry gets to go on. There is a quaint little shop in Poole England called B-Side The Sea



and it is owned by the nicest gal Marina and her hubby Paul. She has the perfect name for her beachy themed shop that sits close to the Quay, in Old Town Poole. I read here on thedorsetpage.com that five of Englands best beaches dominate Poole and that Poole Harbor is said to be the largest natural harbor in the world.

It's the perfect place for my beachy themed jewelry and I'm so proud to have had it at B-Side the Sea for about a year and a half now. Evidentally it's been a hit as I've received back some wonderful feedback from miss Marina :D



Here is a close up of the top of the case. It's kind of blurry but you can see they have a print out from my website with me and my sisters picture...pretty cool!



And here are some more shots of the shop so you can see the other sea inspired items she carries. What a fun beach themed shop!

"Put the Lime in the Coconut"

and wear it as a necklace to remind you of tropical summer fun!





Beautiful brightly dyed lime green top drilled coins of mother of pearl with large and lustrous white nugget pearls all hand knotted on lime green silk cord with a mother of pearl pendant hand wire wrapped with sterling silver wire.

This item has not been added to Jonara Blu Maui just yet but it will be listed at $62. Feel free to let me know if you'd like anymore information.

Only in Hawaii...

and well maybe in other parts of the world I'm not familiar with..but certainly not in the rest of the States...would you find sashimi being served at a grade school graduation. And yes that is my nephew chowing down on it.



Here is what else was on the menu that night...the noodles are quite good as well as the orange chicken (like Panda Express)All the kids like that. The little egg was a quail egg... I think..I'll have to ask my mom again who asked the catering company. Not something I have ever seen here.



My nephew, Nakana, is the one doing shaka...



Very popular here at graduation time is to buy your graduate a toobie to wear as well as leis. The toobies are fun because all your friends sign them.




Some of the entertainment..she was a very good little dancer. The kids were all screaming like she was a rock star..it was so cute! I think they could relate to her so much because she was their age.



Then they played some tahitian drums and all the kids got up and just shook thier boodies like there was no tomorrow..what a blast! The dance floor was packed!

What is cane burning?

ChezChani asked me in the comment section of my blog post entitled Giant Cloud and a Boat what cane burning was. I figured others might be curious as well so that I'd answer in a blog post.

Cane burning is the burning of the sugar cane..it's unfortunately the way they harvest it. It is done to get rid of the leaves on the plant, old debris and centipedes but it does not prepare the sugar cane itself in any way. I don't know if it's true or not as I'm not finding anything about it online so far, but living here I've heard the story a couple of times that ages ago..they didn't didn't burn the fields to harvest the cane. Supposedly someone set a field on fire as an act of agression but it turned out to be a good thing, helped them to discover an easier way to harvest the crop.

Cane burning is a huge controversy on Maui. Many protest against is as it causes allergies and health problems. When it burns the plastic drip system they lay to water the cane as well as the pesticides used also burn along with the cane and all those toxins are released into the air. And of course they have to plan to burn on days when we don't have strong trade winds so sometimes we wake up and it's all smokey outside. It's really irritating when this happens because it's too hot to leave your window's closed since many homes here do not have air conditioning. Yet you want to breathe air not smoke.

Some days we get what we call Hawaiian Snow..and it's big black ash flakes that float down everywhere. A real bugger when you are doing an outside craft fair. You can't wipe off the flakes or it will smear black. We have to fan it off very carefully.

Heres a funny video I found on youtube created by Field Camera class for Akaku Community TV that talks about the controversy



This one has the embedding option disabled but you can click below to see a drive down one of our highways with cane burning in the distance.

Sugar cane burning video

But on the positive side..the cane fields are beautiful part of the scenery of Maui; espcially as they sway in the trade winds.

Giant Cloud and a Boat

Or - Cane Burning on Maui and the Maui Cruiseship

Driving down Haleakala into town a couple weekends ago we were greeted by this massive cloud. It was pretty amazing and even beautiful if only it wasn't generated by cane burning :\ We see clouds from cane burning all the time..but this one just seemed more massive and poofy and more white even. Maybe I was just closer to it, I don't know. These pictures make it seem smaller...don't really show how awesome looking it was..I guess its one of those "you had to be there"





Here you can see it generating from the ground..over near Paia where they must have been burning...








and this was the next mornings drive down the hill..we could see the cruiseline ship coming in from all the way up the hill...

Summer Beaded Ankle Bracelet

It's summer and it's hot! Your colorful socks have been put away until winter and now its time to show off those cute summer ankles with a beaded anklet...and where better to get that beaded anklet then to get one that wasmade on Maui!




Brown glass seed beads, with turquoise and copper accents. Findings are gold filled. Size is adjustable from 9 1/2" to just under 10 3/4".
Available here

My Sister, the Wedding Photographer

My sister is Kimberlee Aihara of Aihara Visuals. She used to make jewelry with me..but really doesn't have much time anymore as her other love has taken off and basically exploded. I'm not suprised..just look at her work here on her blog. I could sit here forever and look at her pictures..she's amazing!

Here she is working....



and here are a couple of my new favorites I snagged from her blog. I was so overwhelmed with favorites..it was hard to choose!






If you are planning to get married in Hawaii and need a photographer, you NEED to contact my sister...she's the best! And her dates fill up quick..so don't procrastinate!

Aihara Visuals

Simple Beauties

Simple and beautiful, natural and organic...




Large white petal keshi freshwater pearls hand wire wrapped with sterling silver wire to sterling silver lever back ear wires. Shimmering beach petals to dangle from your ears..perfect for the beach bride or for those who love island inspired jewelry.

These earrings are available here at Jonara Blu Maui

Beach Bride Anklet - Something Blue?

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue"

Need something blue..but just want a hint of color?
This beach bride anklet features light blue nugget pearls along with white top drilled keshi pearls, tiny white pearls and clear glass aurora borealis seed beads that pick up just a hint of blue. It's enough for your 'something blue' with out being over powering.




Available here!

Ruby - July birthstone

July's birthstone is Ruby and it's rich color reminds us of love and passion. It has been said that the Ruby's red glow comes from an internal flame that cannot be extinguished, it's no wonder that making a gift of this stone is symbolic of everlasting love. I have a special spot in my own heart for ruby as it's my own birthstone :)

The word Ruby comes from the Latin "ruber," meaning red. It is a variety of the mineral Corundum which is the second hardest mineral after Diamond. It comes in a variety of colors, and is considered a Sapphire in any color except red.

In ancient times, they were thought to represent heat and power. It was said that if you threw one in a pot of water, the water would boil! This gem was also ground down to a powder and put on the tongue as a cure for indigestion.

I have not used any ruby beads so far in my jewelry creations, but one of my very talented colleagues and friends has..she sent me a picture to share...



You can find more of her beautiful work at Szarka's

If you have made something with rubies, please feel free to send to me while we are in the month of July and I will post it for you on my blog along with your link :) jonarablumaui @ hawaii.rr.com (remove spaces)

Jonara Blu Maui
Jonara Blu Maui Etsy

Colorful Anklet and Plumeria Flower

I forgot all about this picture. I had taken a picture of this Tropical Garden Anklet already, but the picture came out a little dark. Tonight a customer was inquiring about it so I remembered this picture and sent it to her so she could get a brighter view of the beads. It came out much lighter..but what was cool about this is that the plumeria flower blew over in the wind (like they so often do when I'm trying to take pictures) and this one had some colorful stripes on the underside that aren't usually there on the flowers from this tree. I thought it was pretty so I took the picture just like it fell.



This beaded anklet is available in my shop Jonara Blu Maui

New! Shell Hoop Earrings!

Super cute black lip shell hoop earrings are black irridescent on the front and white mother of pearl on the back.





These are brand spanking new and have not been added to Jonara Blu Maui's shop yet..so please email or leave a comment if you are interested.

Yellow Plumerias

I've been gone for 3 days and have not had time to catch up since..so today I'm just sharing a close-up pic of the plumerias I use in many of my jewelry pictures. I have a tree in the middle of my front yard and we just planted one in the backyard in a pot. With Plumeria trees you can just cut off a stalk of it and stick it in the dirt!

A Cocoa Beach Wedding

Meet Omayra and Edwin...they eloped and were married on Cocoa Beach, Florida June 25, 2008. So romantic!



Omayra is wearing a beach bride pearl necklace and earrings that she purchased from Jonara Blu Maui, they look amazing on her! She was so nice...a definite pleasure to work with :)



Here is a close up of the pearl beach wedding jewelry she picked out. The earrings were custom changed to gold findings for her to match the gold in the necklace.






What a beautiful beach wedding. Thank you so much Omayra..I wish you and Edwin all the happiness in the world!

Copper Seashell Bracelet

Just added to the shop



An asymmetrical mix of copper, carved bone, burnt horn, and stabilized turquoise.

Available here

at Jonara Blu Maui

Fun Summer Necklace - Copper and Turquoise

Here is my newest summer creation, a copper starfish charm with turquoise beads and copper accents and brown glass seed beads. It hasn't been priced yet or uploaded to my shop...so please contact me if you are interested. Or check back for this post to be updated with more info.

Beachy Style Ring Bearer Pillow

I just stumbled across this...what a cool idea for the ring bearer pillow for a beachy wedding. Have the rings in an oyster shell! Of course it's prettier then a real oyster shell. Check it out for yourself! I found it here at WeddingDepot.com

Not Afraid of Squidoo Anymore!

I've been afraid of Squidoo for some time. Only having glanced at it when I read that it was one of the sites I 'needed' to join..I was overwhelmed and so put it off for probably a year. I don't know why I was such a scaredy-cat...it's so much fun!

I know I've only scratched the surface of what you can do there..but here is a snapshot of my first 'lens'. I created one on Beach Wedding Jewelry...of course!



and here is the link:

http://www.squidoo.com/beachweddingjewelry

Please visit my lens, rate it and leave a comment at the end :D

The definition of lense from Squidoo's faq page is this:

"A lens is one person's view on a topic that matters to her. It's an easy-to-build, single web page that can point to blogs, favorite links, RSS feeds, Flickr photos, Google maps, your eBay auctions, CafePress designs, Amazon books or music, and oh so much more. That way, when someone is looking for recommended information, fast, your lens gets him started and sends him off in the right direction."


It looks like a really fun place to surf around as well..so I'm sure I will be spending some time there as I make myself comfy and try to learn.