Why Shop Small and Support Local

 Shop Small

Three questions about shop Small and Support Local 

• What does it mean to shop small?  
• Why does it matter?
• Who does it benefit?

The term shop small means to buy from small business and not the big box stores. In my state, New York,  25% or 1 in 4 business have permanently closed in the first two years of the pandemic.  Where you spend your money matter and helps keep local business in your community.  Those local business support local causes and charities because we are close to them.  As an artist, and entrepreneur,  I know what is means to put everything into my business. 

For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

 Free the People ROC is the group in Rochester, NY.  

 Free the People ROC

March 23rd is three years since Daniel Prude was killed by police. Their graphic of events next week.  

I believe in supporting my local community. As an ally,  I know we need to listen and show up to support groups in our city.  FTP ROC is a vital part of our community.  

RSVP   bit.ly/DanielsLawWOA

How to manage your cash flow

Good morning entrepreneurs and small business owners. You know your profit margin, I am certain.  Business 101 know how much money you are making because you know what it costs every day or month to run your business.

 Problems I help my clients solve: 

• cash flow management either monthly or quarterly
• finding time to ... sleep, date night, take a day off
• budget for the growth of their business
• reconcile bank accounts
• planning with their CPA(how often)

 

This is a great question to ponder about and reflect as to why we are in business.  Is it a dream or reality? 

think back to why you started your business.  what benefits do you need?  how is it better that working for someone else?  

Yes I am proficient in Quickbooks and Excel.  Please DM me.  Happy to help.

If you do not want to ask what went wrong in 2023, call me.  

My email:  kim@pandajewels.com

 

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Free the People ROC is the group in Rochester, NY. 
 

 

Free the People ROC

 

We need to support our brothers and sisters.  

 #BLM #blacklivesmattter

Goodbye 2021

Artist Life

We have all been though a rocky year.  Some more so than others because of how much loss in their lives.  It hit me hard several times.  Here is a place I try to share how I create and what inspires me.  when it is too hard I shut down and get quiet.  Parts of 2021 were like that.  Looking forward to an amazing 2022.  We can only go up from here.  

Black Lives Matter

Free the People ROC is the group in Rochester, NY.  FB page  Free the People ROC

I invite everyone to stand up, listen to others, be kind and be ready to support our sisters and brothers.  

#bekind

#blacklivesmatter 

#stopasianhate

#standup

#listen

Shop Local

Genny from Charlotte 

 Support small business.  Our goods are not

 stuck on cargo ships.  

My shop:  Panda Wear Website
Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Instagram: Instagram

Why shop small?  For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community.

As a woman in business, I ask you to support small business when you need something.  It helps all of us to survive this pandemic.  

Women's History March 2021

Women's History Month

2021 is very different than I have imagined it to be. How many of you back in 1999-2000 had a picture of what you thought the 21st century would be like?   I know I had a vivid one. Certainly happy to have a women in an elected position in The White House. I wish we had a female President. Happy for the progress of more women elected in 2020 to congress & senate. Proud to be part of history in the USA.

Proud to be a woman business owner and to have accomplished all I  have in the past three years with these firsts  

•  Feature in a holiday shopping guide in my city
•  Dance festival as a vendor in Dance Flurry Saratoga Springs, NY
  
•  Host & founder of online group with video chat weekly (zoom)
•  full Year without live art events in 20 years
•  National interview in an article as a feminist
•  My work in a store in Seneca Falls,  NY
• Sell my gemstones & work at monthly festival for over a year 

My questions for you, after following my progress for the past several years:

How will Women's history month change how you do business?

Whom are your role models?  

How do you inspire other?   

Buy Local from the Maker

 
My shop:  Panda Wear Website
Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Instagram: Instagram

 

Why shop Local (small)?  

For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community!  Yes Over 2/3 stays in your local community!

 

 

Black Lives Matter

 

For Education  please Search 
 I Can't Breathe
Black Lives Matter 

and read from fact checked news sources.  As a supporter I am speaking up.  Please join me.

 

It is time we listen. Let our Sisters  take the  lead & show us what we need do to help them.. I know we can fix this and become one nation again.   It will be a process and it will take time.  Be patient and show your love of others now more then ever.

 

 

 

Black History Month 2021

We need to listen and be ready to stand with them.We have a local Black Lives Matter group in our city.  Free the People ROC is the group.  the FB page of the group Free the People ROC

Black Lives Matter in ROC

The Group in my city is Free The People ROC

 I invite everyone to stand up, listen to others, be kind and speak up. 

#blacklivesmatter

#standup

#speakup

#listen  

We are in this together. Wear a Mask, Stay home, Stay safe, Flatten the curve, Facts Matter.

 

Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she published the novel The Color Purple, for which she won the National Book Award for hardcover fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Black History Resource

As Covid contines I know many are having trouble.  there is help outstare.  remember if you know someone who sounds different reach out have another friend reach out.  Send a letter, snail mail is very uplifting.  

NSP link

Help NSP

Buy Local from the Maker               

My shop:  Panda Wear Website
Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Instagram: Instagram

Why should we all shop small?  For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community.

this is Biggs jasper I hand cut into this beautiful gemstone.  I am happy to help with Valentine's month gifts.  

Suffrage Centential August celebrations

 Herstory

15 Women Voted in Rochester, NY in 1872 and were arrested:  Susan B Anthony, Charlotte ("Lottie") B. Anthony, Mary S. Anthony, Ellen S. Baker, Nancy M. Chapman, Hannah M. Chatfield, Jane M. Cogswell, Rhoda DeGarmo, Mary S. Hebard, Susan M. Hough, Margaret Garrigues Leyden, Guelma Anthony McLean, Hannah Anthony Mosher, Mary E. Pulver, and Sarah Cole Truesdale.

Susan B Trial

Proud to live in one state to fully enfranchise women two years before the 19th amendment - 55 years later guaranteed to all with this:
Voting Rights Act of 1965

2020 Celebration

Proud to honor the Centennial of the 19th amendment this year.  Wish we could all join hands in the streets and celebrate this anniversary of such a huge milestone in our democracy.

This is a candid with  an organization whom came to Rochester at Susan B. Anthony Square to film for the 2020 Suffragist Parade. Thank you Women TIES.  Happy to be part of this celebration by women Business Owners in my city.  Many are entrepreneurs and the lady in charge of the group celebrate 25 years in business in 2020.





For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stays in the community.

Social Justice

Black Lives Matter!  Flatten the curve. Wear A Mask. Stay Safe. No Justice No Peace. Participate. Stand up. Practice social distancing.

 For Education  Search 
 I Can't Breathe
Black Lives Matter
and read from fact checked news sources.  As a supporter I need to speak up.  Please join me.

Jewelry Safety and Precious Metals

Since February 2009 the Federal government in the USA has required manufactures to have their products for sale to children tested for lead. 

I am often asked why I use gemstones and precious metals in my work.  Why not go the the local craft store and by the cheap stuff on sale?  I use precious metals gemstones in the creations of the jewelry because I make a quality product.  I want my work to last, not be disposable & throw out after wearing once or twice.   Precious metals do not need certification at this point.  The materials used to create them are known.  For complete safety I do not sell or market my work as children's jewelry. 

For more information about safety in Jewelry and there hazards in our home. Made Safe. 

their blog on jewelry jewelry blog

I have often written about my process and the materials I use.  My precious metals blog Metals 101

Honesty and discourse of what someone is buying is a integral part of my business.  the earring have have surgical steel earwires; as the copper patinas(turns green), your ears do not. I always tell people jewelry is a body decoration and do not swim or sleep in it.  

For Education  Search 
 I Can't Breathe
Black Lives Matter
and read from fact checked news sources.  As a supporter I need to speak up.  Please join me. 

Just finished reading this last week &  I am humbled.

when they call you a terrorist

a black lives matter memoir

Black Lives Still Matter!

Seeds of Kambaba in Sterling silver below.  One of my gavotte gemstones to cut.  

  Buy Local from the Maker 

My shop:  Panda Wear Website
Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Instagram: Instagram

For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community.  

We are in this together. Wear a Mask, Stay home, Stay safe, Flatten the curve, Fasts Matter.  

Garden Sauna

My garden has turned into a virtual sauna with the rolling heat waves of the late spring & early summer.  It seems fitting to share some of my drought tolerant plants whom love the HEAT. This is an outdoor hardy cactus  called an opuntia .  We have them in both a pink as well as this yellow blooming variety. We recently gave them more sun by removing a few evergreens that were growing between them.  As these pictures show they are quite happy with the change.  

Another of our summer lovers is the Sago Palm below.  This pic is of the new fronds it is growing this season.  the plant is over 20 years old.  In out climate it come indoors in the winter.  The fellow gardener in my house collects cacti & succulents.  We have them outside in the summer and several hundred of them move indoors for the winter.

For Education  Search 
 I Can't Breathe
Black Lives Matter
and read from fact checked news sources.  As a supporter I need to speak

Sago Palm

up.  Please join me.

remember Stay home Wear A Mask Stay Safe Flatten the Curve

I am thankful for dear friends & family at this time to help keep us on track during this pandemic.  I have a weekly artist chat on zoom I host to allow a safe space for us to speak & share how we are coping.  Some weeks there is new art to look at while other weeks we are happy to have the group to discuss important topics.  Yes I am told there are FB groups but this is so remote and distant to me. this more personal and helpful to  us artists.  Keeping my schedule as regular as possible in the new world we live in has bolstered my creativity and I am now able to make some new pieces.  They will be added to my website and will be featured on Instagram first. 

Larimar in Sterling Silver

For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community.  We are in this together.

       Buy Local from the Maker 

My shop:  Panda Wear Website

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram

No Justice No Peace

BLACK LIVES MATTER

It has been difficult recently.  Hard to see such rampant racism in the USA. It has been encouraged from many places and it must STOP!

No Justice

No Peace

I wish I could say I Understand how the African Americans feel.  I empathize and I am an avid supporter.  It is time we listen. Let our brothers take the  lead & show us what we can do to help them.. I know we can fix this and become one nation again.   It will be a process and it will take time.  be patient and show your love of others now more then ever.

Being the second generation of an immigrant family I empathize with what many are going through right now.
DISCRIMINATION,
POLICE BRUTALITY
& RACISM are  WRONG.

Support & Help links below

https://blacklivesmatter.com/arts-culture/ 

Defund the Police Petition 

 Many more in the image on the right.  

In NY OMH Emotional Support Helpline: 1-844-863-9314

more help:https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/covid-19-resources.html

Happy for Snowpeas

Snow peas 2015

I will begin with a quote from Susan B Anthony. 
"Organize, agitate, educate must be our war cry. "

The new variety of snow peas we planted is finally sprouted.  Happy dance here because in 6 weeks we should have fresh snowpeas to enjoy.  Note to others,  read the seed packets instructions carefully.  These require warmer ground than I thought.   Also added to the garden this past week are Dinosaur Kale, Brussel sprouts, Tatsoi Mustard, Rainbow Kale.  The greens will be ready for harvest in about 2 weeks.

The season here feels later than it actually is.  Staying home to stay safe makes time feel different.  Adding some things to the website so my customers can buy even though I do not have any live shows at the moment.  Fro the latest new listings, follow on FB & IG - links below.

The Sterling & gold filled bangle bracelets are a popular choice with my customers.  Working on two orders currently. this lapidary is also cutting some new gemstones.  Will post pics soon.

Spirals on Website

Buy Local from the Maker

My shop:  Panda Wear Website

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram

do you have some future post topics?  please share them.  

Reflections of an Entrepreneur

I am a lady artist in this new century. What a fantastic journey it has been so far.


On this last day of 2019, New Year's Eve I was inspired by the quote below.

This is one of my favorite pieces to have created.  Seeds of Kambaba unites my love of gardening and lapidary with jewelry design.  Maybe it should be part of a series of garden inspired designs?  What to you think? 

The Sam Haskins quote is a fantastic example of what it feels like to be an artist.


As this decade comes to a close we are all reflecting on what this past decade has meant to us.  There have been so many laments and reflections that I have seen recently.  How do we turn off the outside noise aka our technology and enjoy the quality time with family?  Especially this time of year as a lady without a living father this time of year is never easy.









I have become an activist in the past decade as a feminist.  One major reason being  we are still not paid equal pay for equal work as females.  I have been a supporter of the ERA since last centruy.  No it has not passed or been fully ratified yet.  It will be that I am certain.

Want to help? Join NOW            ERA.org

NOW,  National Organization for Women in your area.  I was elected treasurer for my local chapter this year.   It is an honor to be part of this organization.





Want to support this Artist, feminist activist?
 Buy Local  from the maker.

My shops:  Panda Wear Website
                   Cabochons and Beads

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram


Happy to create for you in precious metals a unique piece of your very own.

2018 Vegetable Inspiration

Good day and welcome to mid-spring in Western NY.  Inspired by my vegetables each year.   Veggie garden layout was finished over a moth ago when we still had freezing temperatures.  The   Snow Peas, Mustard, Kale, Collards, Broccoli, Romain lettuce are all in the dirt. 

One of the best things about this season, is investigating the changes the winter has brought to my garden.  Last year my Oregano survived but it was not growing quickly until a new oregano was planted. Still investigating how the perennials and annuals are doing.

 

It is the first of May today and happy to have one third of the vegetables in the ground and growing. As an organic designer, I am inspired by the way the leaves curl in the garden.  Also the angles of the light & shadows around the plants and ornamentation in the gardens.  

Above is the finished Flower I made several years ago in a glass class in Corning, NY at the CMOG.  It was a hot glass class and the surprise part was the actual color of the finished piece.  Inspiration to try another media is a great way to grow as an artist.  I have tried to work in galss several times but my passion is as a lapidary working in wire.

This Sterling silver piece is Seeds of Kambaba, a stunning custom cut Cabochon for this Statement Piece.

Reminder Mother's Day is 12 days from today.    May you be inspired by your passion the way I am.  Take the other turn toady and see when it takes you.   Buy Local, shop small & support the  Artists / Artisans  where you live.

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Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
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August How did this happen?

It is August and the summer is nearing the final hurrah.  Enjoy every moment.   The garden is tenacious because of all our compost it had received over the years.  We are happy to have a decent harvest at this point of the summer. Our experience and well enriched soil are why we have a successful garden.


Our harvest so far from the backyard garden:  beefsteak tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, tomatillo, kale, swiss chard, celery, thyme, oregano, sage, chives & fennel.  Several of them in this pic at right.  Green salsa = tomatillo salsa have been put away for later this year. One delicious way to use the salsa, is as a marinade. 

Went to the 2017 Flour City Brew Fest at the Rochester Public Market this past weekend.  It is a great way to enjoy the many unique and interesting creations by the talented brewers in my area. Certainly on the list of not to miss events for 2018.  A fantastic band, Grass is Dead was the headliner at the fest which made the event delightful.

Sterling silver or 14ktgf - which is my favorite metal to create with? This piece is Sterling & dichroic glass from a glass class from several years ago. 

My shops:  Panda Wear Website
                   Cabochons and Beads

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram

Enjoy your journey creating memories with your family through this beautiful season. 

Welcome to May

Welcome to May starting off cool and wet here in Rochester, NY. Busy working on a wedding order and Mother's day gifts here in the studio.


Happy to have the spring greens in the ground & they are enjoying all the rain we have had.  Rain, rain go away is often overheard around here.  We have had way too much rain recently after a sever drought last fall.  A rough start to the growing season here.

What are you plans for the upcoming Mother's Day weekend?

I am proud to be participating in the Second annual Right to Run 19K / 5K  in Seneca Falls NY Saturday.  It was fabulous last year and I know it will be amazing this year.  join us and see for yourself.

Join us  Right To Run & bring you Mom or kids.

My shops:  Panda Wear Website
                   Cabochons and Beads

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram


Enjoy the rest if this week and celebrate your family in a special way.

April Garden Installed

April is rapidly coming to a close.  The vegetable garden is installed or planted and the growing season has begun. We are happy to have a few greens harvested and enjoyed so far this month. As my regular readers know I am an avid gardener.  My inspiration for my jewelry designs come from nature.

 






Planted in the ground so far are lettuce, mesclun, kale, broccoli, parsnips, leeks, & snow peas.  We have seedlings waiting to be installed:  tomatoes, cilantro, peppers, celery, kale, broccoli, & lettuce.

These lovely garden pics were taken this morning between the rain showers. A beautiful spring day here in Rochester, NY,





With Mother's Day quickly approaching, I have
a few orders to finish and deliver. Jubilant customers and soon to be happy Mothers.

 PM with your special requests or use links
 
My shops:  Panda Wear Website
                   Cabochons and Beads

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram

Vacation Relax Road Trip

Sandy Hook, NJ

 Where to begin sharing my adventure with you?  The idea for the Road Trip was to see friends & family in NJ & MD.  Started out Thursday morning and was home Tuesday night.  It was such a fantastic adventure for me meeting new people and reconnecting with others.  

Asbury Park, NJ

I believe these photos speak for themselves showing  the beauty of Mother Nature.  Big Thank you to an artist friend, Dawn in NJ for the scenic tour of Jersey.

Artisan Bench

 These next three photos are from Brookside Gardens in
Wheaton MD.  Difficult to choose my favorite one. The benches are in several places & stunning craftsmanship. Pretty Ivy in one of the conservatory and finally a Free library. 

Swedish Ivy

Free Library

I felt a kinship to this community in Montgomery County immediately when I saw this,Free Library.  It is just like the ones here in my home in Rochester, NY.

Have an enjoyable rest of your day.  May your gardens bring you joy every day and feed your dreams.



My shops:  Panda Wear Website
                   Cabochons and Beads

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram