My name is Karleen Page/vibrantjewels and I'm both a buyer and seller at JustBeads! I've been crazy about rocks all of my life. Yeah, some say I have rocks in the head, too! LOL, but everywhere I've ever traveled, I'll pick up interesting rocks and bring them home. When my brothers and I were children, we'd go to our ramshackle cabin on Craig's Creek, and spend hours looking for pretty rocks in the shallow rills.

When I first started college "way back when", I was an Art Major, and although that didn't "pan out", I've taken many art courses over the years, in addition to being a writer and having a lot of poetry and things posted at my other web site, www.theopenheart.net,I have always painted or done crafts of some type all of my life.

When I married Jim 3 years ago, we shared our interest in rocks, minerals and gemstones. We started going to gem and mineral shows, and came home with many treasures. I started making necklaces for myself, and soon realized that I had a lot more gemstones and beads than I coud ever wear, plus it was getting to be a very expensive hobby, er, habit! Yes, I confess, I am now a full-fledged beadaholic!!

Jim had been an insurance agent for too many years and I have been teaching computer classes. We've been looking for something we both enjoy doing and perhaps can earn a living at that is more creative and less stressful. So we've begun selling jewelry, bead kits and beads. The name of our jewelry shop is Vibrant Jewels, which is mostly online and all over the house! LOL. Well, the name came from our domain name, www.vibrantjewels.com, our venture into web page design. Since we owned the domain, we decided to name our jewelry company after it!

I find almost every gemstone fascinating, especially the ones that are sometimes overshadowed by diamonds, emeralds, etc., such as the Jaspers, Chalcedonys, Adventurine, Fresh Water Pearls, Amethysts, Turquoise...oh, bunches and bunches of neat things. Rainbow moonstone, how could I forget that one!!! Jim is crazy about Labradorite, Opal and Ruby, and is teaching himself to polish, facet and cab gemstones. I also love lampworked and dichroic beads, and vintage glass, and love putting together unusual combinations.

It seems that people are more interested online in buying beads and kits and "doing it yourself" than buying finished jewelry, so we have concentrated more lately on creating bead kits. It's really more work than you might at first think to put together something unique and pleasing, but it does give great satisfaction as we work together on ideas and designs.

I have bought many lovely beads and kits myself here at JustBeads, and I hope I don't leave anybody out! Bettina and Beadfairy are the co-queens of vintage, and I have to force myself NOT to buy everything they list! But I have acquired many treasures from them that I doubt if I could part with! Kugee of Supernaws and Mandy of Designer's Studio always have good deals on many different kinds of beads and I have enjoyed dealing with them both. Carol of BuyTheBead and Dee (bookwurm) have also sold me some delightful beads. I also am inspired by Andrea of Viadelsol, who has introduced me to beading cabochons, which I'm not very good at yet, but am eager to learn more. And don't forget Jim and LaFaye of Beads and Rocks!!! I've bought at their shop in Virginia Beach and at gem shows, and they are just wonderful human beings. I've met some very nice and helpful people at JustBeads, and if I left you off my list, please yell at me about it! :)

As a seller, I'm challenged to make interesting kits that are good values. I've found it's not easy to price things or to merchandize things. I've tried several approaches, and am open to suggestions as to what buyers like. If I set a low price and a reserve, I've found that items get bid on, but not sold. If I set the price too low, I sell things, but don't make any profit. So I think the best approach is to figure out the lowest price I'm willing to take and make a small profit, and hope that what I do is popular enough to add to that. After all, if we can't make a living doing this, I guess we'll have to quit.

For those not in the selling business, a lot of hidden costs go into creating jewelry or even bead kits. Not only do you have the price of inventory, but overhead - such things as electricity, other utilities, housing costs, postage, supplies and materials such as baggies, thread, labels, etc. And then there's the value of your time - and it takes a lot of time to create a piece of jewelry or a bead kit, then it must be scanned, a description written with measurements, posting fees at auction sites, the time it takes to handle e-mails and paper work.

I normally do NOT copy designs, although I get ideas from a lot of bead books and magazines. Maybe sometimes I "re-invent the wheel" so to speak, but I really enjoy playing with my beads, and creating something interesting with them.

I'm very open to ideas from buyers. Tell me the kind of beads, kits, or jewelry you want, and I'll see what I can come up with. I have a pretty large inventory right now, from new beads to vintage, and many kinds of gemstones. I tend to get interested in a particular color and theme and make a lot of kits out of that at a time. I like to try new color combinations, like the turquoise and lilac kit that has been very popular.E-mail us at vibrantjewels@earthlink.net with any ideas or suggestions.

Please feel free to view my current auctions here at JustBeads.com