The Story of Fine Heart

Architecture college encouraged me to continually invent things and build them with my own hands so that I could learn good design principles while learning to create well made tangible objects. We built furniture, lamps, stained glass pieces, embossed art, carved wood and on and on and on. I realized that creating boils down to having these two skills: a competence to determine the best materials to use and an expertise to construct so it lasts. And the object being beautiful is just the icing on the cake.

Ruby Gemstone & Pearl Bracelet

The ironic and blessed thing is that when I needed a lot of self care and therapy from too much stress designing and building homes as an architectural designer in the Virginia countryside, instead of pedicures and face masks (although I love those too), I turned to making jewelry as a way to relax. 

Designing the jewelry pieces satisfied the perpetual need to design something  functional yet beautiful and wire wrapping exquisite gemstones, pearls, crystals was the outlet which I found the most relaxing. Little did I know that this attempt at relaxation would turn into our online “empire” (what other word would you use? There’s an Etsy shop, a Facebook Page, Instagram, Pinterest, oh yeah an old Twitter handle, a neglected blog, a website, and now a You Tube Channel.)

Going Public

In 2005, with husband and pup in tow as the faithful roadies, we started selling the lovingly handmade jewelry at the local craft fairs, art markets and our all time favorite - the Virginia Wine Festivals. Soon after, gift boutiques and spas commissioned Fine Heart Jewelry. And to my delight and surprise, brides came in droves. They requested custom jewelry for themselves and their bridesmaids for the wedding, and also asked for precious thank you gifts for their moms, flower girls and lovely wedding planners.

Swarovski Crystal Chandelier Earrings

I realized that my new found love affair with making all things sparkly also met a need (or deep want) for many women who loved exquisite and thoughtfully designed arty yet everyday jewelry that reflected their own specially created and brilliant selves.

John Keats wrote "a thing of beauty is a joy forever..." and so we encourage you to spread beauty all around you. A genuine compliment, a grateful heart, a beautiful smile or a thoughtful handmade gift to someone who may need just that exact encouragement at that precise moment.

Why Fine Heart?

We will take care of you so well that we guarantee our work!

Artist Notes

Yes, we still love designing custom pieces for you. If you find a jewelry design in our shop and want to make it truly yours, we can change stones, crystal colors, metals, lengths of jewelry, clasps, earring closures fairly seamlessly (a true advantage to purchasing handmade).

Imagine gifting someone something that will make an impression and last a lifetime? We can recommend jewelry gifts for you if you are unsure. Just message us.

Going Online

In 2010, we made a conscious effort to sell mostly online (yes, my roadies quit) -- so that we can be extra focused on our lovely loyal online clientele. On occasion, we still do in person jewelry shows at private home jewelry parties, and sometimes by invite only art events.

Like you, we know being beautiful in a sundress and sipping wine while shopping at a festival is super fun, but being in pajamas and sipping wine while shopping is so much more therapeutic!

Freshwater Pearls & Swarovski Crystals

An Invitation

Love to save some while online shipping? Do you like being invited to exclusive sneak peeks? You want to be included in surprise giveaways? Simply sign up here www.tinyurl.com/fineheartfriends

How Not to Twitter

Prologue
In my last post from (ahem) 2014, I said I would underachieve on this blog by posting lighter fare and hopefully, this would lead to blogging more consistently. So, I tried to underachieve and there was much silence on this blog.

So today, I try again. I will try to make this blog a tad lighter, possibly shorter (ha), and yet still be somewhat informative about online marketing and share tips that I learned from having a little handmade jewelry shop on Etsy.

Today's blog tips are direct lessons learned from my Twitter fails.

Three Fails on Twitter
A lesson on how not to Twitter.

Fail #1
Because I used an automated Twitter app (etsy-fu) to tweet my jewelry images for me, I checked my Twitter account off my to do list and never looked at it again.

Although the Etsy-Fu App is amazing and I DO highly recommend it, my extremely neglected Twitter account went from normal inconsistent you can never count on it weird to EVERY eight hours of automatic pictures and naggy posts weird.

Basically, a long long time ago, I signed up for Twitter. Then, I never really used it, then I felt guilty, then I would tweet for a few days, even weeks in a row, then I would get tired of it again, and I would leave it alone again until I felt guilty...yada, yada. It's called the Twitter Circle of Hell Merry Go Round. Never pretty.

Much later, I found this automated Twitter app and thought, "aha, my problems, at least the twitter ones, are solved!" But there was a catch. Inevitably for me, signing up for an automated tweeting app, was not a good move.

Why?
This is because, and this may come as big surprise to many of you, Twitter is for PEOPLE not "bots" (that's short for robots, actual people, readers, you).

Fail #2
Because my Twitter account was automatically engaging my twitterverse, I actually gained more followers. Good? YES! (See, I told you it wasn't the app's fault!)

My Bad Move
However, I never engaged a single re-tweet and never acknowledged a single mention. I probably made more "un-followers" than followers by NOT engaging the actual people at all.

The automated app which was tweeting for me every eight hours made it look like I was active on Twitter, but then nothing, nada, chirping of crickets not birds, only silence from actual ME.

I can just imagine the retweeters and mentioners saying, "well, thanks for nothing @fineheartjewels"

And, they have every right to say so. This is because Twitter is a SOCIAL media app. This means being social, connected, engaged.

Fail #3
Because there has always got to be a #3, here it is. Neglect is one thing. Silence pretty bad. Not checking links on my profile? The worst fail.

When I signed up for Twitter like 100 years ago, it was brand new. Brand new as in new baby smell new; yes, even fresh towels from the laundry smell new. This was BEFORE the Arab Spring, or the Kardasians, or even before Ellen (@TheEllenShow) was on Twitter. It was before anyone had advice on how to actually use Twitter because quite frankly no one knew how to use Twitter. We were all still poking it with a stick.

But, I digress. Oh right, links. When I signed up with Twitter, I linked this blog, yes, this very neglected blog, to my Twitter account: not my handmade jewelry shop on Etsy which I update every hour, not even my www.yvetteperri.com from my empire online which I updated once a week. I linked a un-updated blog, a dead blog, a blog I had not posted on in a long long time to my now naggy updating every eight hours Twitter account.

So, when my automated Twitter app was tweeting for me and people were seeing consistent tweets and wanted to see what I was up to? They would click on my link. Then, they would see a very quiet blog, neglected, an irrelevant post from eons ago, not even a single cricket was to be found. A very sad fail.

Hope
But as always, I can't end this post there. There is always HOPE! Because in life's fails, there are always lessons to be learned.

The Simple Moral of the Story or Lesson of the Day
Twitter was most likely invented for people. Tweets are actually words from actual people. People like to talk and be engaged with whom they are speaking with at the time. If you are going to "tweet" (talk), then by simple logic, there has to be a discourse, a discussion, an engagement. So, do it.

Robots are not people. Leave the robots for cleaning floors and other future household cleaning chores they will one day do for us (mostly me). The lesson? Tweet like a human.

Epilogue
Thanks to Donna Moritz @sociallysorted. I googled and read her article on how to manage my twitterverse better. I like the way she writes: straight to the point, clear instructions with pictures, and easy to read. This is her article for 7 Ways to Attract and Engage Followers on Twitter
(Not affiliated with Donna Moritz but now a fan and a follower).