Jooled is on an indefinite hiatus... Meanwhile, we are hard at work as usual at Amberjewelry.com, bringing you fresh Baltic amber jewelry designs daily.

 

 

Karissa Gindling

I would have never had a reason to think Karissa Gindling would break my heart, I didn't even know her in person. But she did. And today as for so many others the world is a little diminished by the loss of Karissa's bright energy. I would have bet I'd win the lottery before I'd ever have cause to write this post.

I don't know how we got here, to this moment, but yesterday learned that blogger Karissa Gindling of PrissyGreen took her own life over the weekend. I was one of Karissa's hangers-on, in a way- one of hundreds of women who "knew" her online through her work with Prissy Green where it seemed by herself she pulled off a one woman online magazine/blog show as if she were five people. Her singular blog put the editorial efforts of many beauty rags with budgets & a paid staff to absolute shame. I felt like she "got it"- the shape of what was to come, and that in the future beauty rags would look a lot more like PrissyGreen & a lot less like they do now. That advertising was going to shift into givertising where companies are more inclined to pony up product rather than write checks to advertising agencies.

I loved her site. And her humor, and wild spirit. And I know what it is like to be an entrepreneur & slowly come to realize that yes, you have to wear that huge stack of Bartholomew's hats yourself.

I met Karissa online & worked with her to promote our small company- http://www.Amberjewelry.com which is my Mom & me.

In fact in her photo, from TheBodyShopUSA.com Natural Beauty Blogger awards Karissa is wearing our amber rainbow dangle earrings- an award for which I nominated her, as I did for Divine Caroline because her blog was miles away the most fun beauty read out there, with an eclectic mix of lifestyle products & comments laced together with her signature style & real world wit.

When a somewhat trashy lingerie shop was chatting up product reviewers & making them uncomfortable, it was Karissa alone who cried foul.

When she "naturally" accidentally dyed her virgin hair & seemingly entire bathroom jet black with vegetable dye that should never have turned it that dark, we all laughed & cried opined & thought- "Hey, at least she looks great! She can pull off any beauty mishap!"

She was fun to work with & we became, I felt, actually friends in that blogosphere way. She surprised me by sending an unannouced thank you package of swag for some very minor help I offered her regarding her new online Open Skies shop- a set of Yes to Carrots cleanser & a mask, an organic scalp oil treatment.

I entered almost every PrissyGreen contest under the sun & only ever won a hairclip & a beauty package from one of her online Twitter parties. I'm positive I must have entered the Clarisonic one a hundred times! I tweeted, I blogged, it was a daily stop. In fact I took one of the supplements & had washed my face with that carrot cleanser when I sat down & learned of her death.

I last spoke with Karissa on the 11th when she unexpectedly reached out with an email that said, "Random Idea," saying she kept getting questions from people about how to tell whether amber was genuine or not- would I write an article she could post & we could figure out a permalink back from our site & both benefit from some traffic. After the New Year would be fine.

"Of course" I said. And we briefly tried to work out a quickie event in the week before Christmas before I backed out saying it would be a bad week to do anything extra, that I probably couldn't live up to my end as we are a small shop of two people & some seasonal family help & that is our busiest week of the year. But like everyone else I thought we had all the time in the world.

Then came the cryptic note about expected changes at an unexpected time & her moving, not knowing to where, to which I & I have to guess literally dozens of people wrote back & said- "Stay in touch, sometimes it's good to take a break."

I'm a tumbleweed myself- having moved 50+ times in my life.

We get approached often for product reviews & can't do them all as a business. We have close to zero marketing budget & early last spring we started doing giveaways as a way to get some feedback captured & just get our name out there into the air.

Jooled was started because I had aspirations to make a jewelry blog similar to what Karissa & others were doing with all sort of products- but with a strictly jewelry focus. I ended up having Amberjewelry.com sponsor the first givewaways but didn't have much luck landing any other sponsors plus got busy with real world, a shattered economy & other things- I was a little envious & admiring.  I  had grand ambitions, but ended up letting Jooled idle, always marveling at how Karissa managed to procure a seemingly endless supply of marvelous products to offer her readers & new companies to collaborate with.

She knocked my socks off with the review she did for us:

"I know one thing about Amber Jewelry, it was my first true love.  Forget those boys of high school.

There was a shop near my house, that I started buying REAL jewelry at, when I was about 16, and he handmade gorgeous rings, and my eyes always fell back to each and every Amber one he created. Then I started driving to the “artsy” section of town, and realized I could buy earrings, and necklaces, and pendants! My love was officially signed, sealed and delivered from that moment on!

I am not sure if it is the color or the magic of the fossilized resin, but it draws me. Take me to a shop with Amber anywhere, and that is where my feet take me. Amber can come in a variety of colors, from pale yellow, the burnt orange typically seen, to cherry red, green and even blue!"

Now that's passion. Karissa was so talented at building relationships, so good at engaging with people (except that I hated her autotweets!)

I don't know what calculus a person does in their own mind, to make that final leap to decide that their need to make it stop is greater than the anguish the act will cause everyone left behind.

I don't have, know nor am I likely to ever find out what could possibly have driven her to take such drastic measures, affairs of the heart, perhaps an undisclosed illness of some sort? A crazy moment of despair? Maybe years long battles with what I don't know?  I do know that this is not the greatest planet for sensitive people. So I'm going to refrain from letting myself wonder.

Suicide has been on my mind lately because just a week earlier singer Vic Chestnutt had also taken his life & I'd been reading the twitter feed of Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses fame as she worked through her grief. Social media is a two-edged sword that way, allowing one to feel close to people they may have never even met.

And so many friends have heard rumblings around them with several years worth of a shrinking economy & diminishing prospects, there is a lot of vulnerability out there right now. An economic depression brings dark & powerful energy with it.

But I will just never be able to wrap my head- or heart, around this one- because if anyone was wanted & welcome, it was surely Karissa.

The holidays are infamous for being very tough for a lot of people, filled with emotions that can be the exact opposite of what many of us experience. Look through your heart & address book & consider reaching out to people you may have fallen out of touch with & wish them a Happy New Year.

As wired as we are, and as immediate as everything seems despite all this, it is possible to feel alone & cut off & isolated in a profound way.

To Karissa's family I can only say that literally hundreds of us join with you in mourning her loss. I am so sorry.

Rest in peace my friend. You were truly a jewel.

-holly

 

Amber Rainbow Dangle Earrings Winner:

Lana B. from San Jose.... "Come on Down!" :D

Congratulations- Entry #861 of 982 entries was drawn as the winner by Random.org.

Lana has been notified, responded & her package will be on the way shortly.

---

Thanks to everyone for entering. A special thanks to those of you who faithfully Twittered your hearts out- I was left wishing we had several prizes to give out. 

We considered the first giveaway as a bit of a trial run. Going forward we'll be making changes in how we handle entries, collection of entries & verifiying them. It is also clear we should offer a way for non-bloggers to earn additional entries.

We aspire to host more diverse giveaways more often, with shorter turnaround times, but the truth is we first have to get up to speed & get a bit of a track record.

To those of you who love amber this is great news, as it means we are likely to have a few more beautiful pieces of amber to offer while we continue shaping the future of Jooled.

If you like the idea of just jewelry giveaways, please suggest a site to us or mention Jooled to your favorite online jewelry artist, shop or site.

-Jooled

Thank you so much for making Jooled's first sweepstakes a big success. We are in the process of verifying the entries & will be calculating the winner using Random.org late Monday afternoon.

As well, we'll be putting up a fresh new jewelry giveaway.

Meanwhile, please suggest the names of any jewelry sites / companies that delight you & whose goods you feel might be an interesting match for Jooled.

 

 

Welcome to my first jewelry giveaway! Enter our earring giveaway once daily through the form & learn how to earn extra contest entries below.

Sponsor: Amberjewelry.com

 

 

Jewelry Giveaway: Valued at $77.50, these contemporary designer Baltic amber earrings in sterling silver are handmade in Poland of gem quality certified Baltic amber. Did you know Baltic amber came in this many colors?

A pretty rainbow of dark glossy cherry amber, medium & light cognac colored amber beads followed by lemon, then champagne colors of amber. Appealing & versatile design, fabulous with an updo & lends fascination to the eyes. Difficult to imagine a skin tone or hair color these beauties won't complement. The last shimmering amber bead left to dangle & wag is slightly larger than the others. Clever construction yokes each sterling silver segment to the next & offers a bit of movement while keeping the amber beads gently oriented in the same direction.

Amberjewelry.com is the only retailer in the United States to have earned the prestigious status of "Recommended Company" as a certified member of The International Amber Assocation. Amberjewelry.com went online in 1995 & is one of the true internet ecommerce pioneers.

*In the spirit of full disclosure- I am personally associated with Amberjewelry.com, so I'm sponsoring the first giveaways while Jooled gets off the ground. I'll be featuring jewelry from companies all over the web!

Giveaway facts: No. of prizes: 1. Ends at midnight, August 15th, 2009. Random drawing. Winner will be notified by email & posted online. Must claim within 7 days of notification. Sponsor furnishes prize & priority mail level service with delivery confirmation within 15 days.

HOW TO ENTER: Enter through the form above once daily.

EARN ADDITIONAL ENTRIES by:

• following @Jooled_ & retweeting via Twitter leaving a link below to your tweet (3 x a day max for twitter)
  

• Additional entries earned by posting this giveaway to any of your social networks (try clicking on the handy share button below to view a list) & leaving a link in the comments below. Save & Close