Etsy Treasury - The Aloha Way of Life

Thats me down in the bottom right corner. you can visit the the actual treasury here Thanks so much SurfhoundSoapCompany

More Maui Jewelry Coming soon!

This Tuesday is 10 cent Tuesday for us sellers at RubyLane. It's only 10c to upload a new item for sale rather then the usual 30c ...5c for charter shops. I've got a number of new pieces I've started already adding an more still to add so I think I am going to use until then to make some more and then get as much up on Tuesday as I can. (Hopefully life doesn't call my attention to elsewhere that day) I believe I am a charter shop so 5c an item is pretty cool. I'll take whatever savings I can get in this economy!

"Violet Butterfly Bracelet" coming Tuesday to Jonara Blu Maui

Interviewed by Lahaina.com

I was super excited last week to be interviewed by Jaime of Lahaina.com and to have it posted on their blog. Please check it out and leave a comment if you can!

5 Questions with Jamee Jones of Jonara Blu Maui

Vicky Dianes 'Exposed' Etsy Treausury

I seem to have done a disappearing act again...me and the fam have been quite busy packing to move into our new house about 3 miles up the volcano. And then there are the moving sales that need to happen to get rid of all the things you don't want to pack. It is a lot of work but it's a form of recycling and it helps fund all the new little household items you want like fresh paint, new toilet scrubbers and shower curtains ;-)

I have some fun news though that I just had to take the time to blog about...
I have been honored to be chosen to be part of a Vicky Diane Exposed Treasury. From what I have learned she will do this for different Etsy teams and she just did a second one for the CreateAbility Team...this is a team for Etsy artists who have disabilities or care for someone that has disabilities. As many of you know, my 17 year old son has been chronically ill since April of 08. We still have hopes that he will recover, but for now I am happy to be part of this loving, hardworking group of talented people.

Please check out Vicky Diane's Designs they are definitely 'Sexy and Unique' just like her tag line says!

Also visit the CreateAbility Exposed Treasury created by Vicky while it's still up and active and please leave a comment and visit the shops of the wonderful people in it.

A Sneek Peek at some New Summer Fun Bracelet Additions

Coming soon to Jonara Blu Maui

Tahitian Black Pearl Jewelry: Wear a Piece of Paradise

It has been my pleasure to make friends through Twitter with Tahitian Pearl Jewels. They have some of the most scrumptious jewelry! There is no middleman. They farm their own pearls in Tahiti and send the pearls to their other base in Oahu, Hawaii where they assemble the jewelry. Because of this they are able to have very competitive pricing.



This bracelet caught my eye right away. I'm a big fan of organic looking pearls..so keshi pearls are a definite favorite of mine. I've never seen Tahitian keshi pearls before so I was really excited about this. It goes so well with the nugget shaped 14k gold spacer beads. This beauty is called "Cora" from the Ariitea Collection

Here is a little bit from their 'about' page:

Our journey in the Tahitian pearl business started in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia, specifically in the island of Ahe.

We come from a family rooted in the tradition and craft of Tahitian pearl farming, and our experience comes from generations of collective knowledge mixed with new technologies and techniques.

The color of Tahitian pearls are mesmerizing. I love the teal color this one named “Pehe” picks up. It looks amazing w/ the white gold and diamonds.



If you are in the market for some Tahitian pearl jewelry I suggest you check out Tahitian Pearl Jewels. You can even follow them tahitipearls on Twitter..they are often there hanging out with the rest of us and are available for questions and friendly service :)

A Jonara Blu Maui Giveaway!

Kim at CraftyMamaof4 has featured my Etsy shop on her blog! And we are having a give away!

Winner gets these earrings:




And the winner and 4 runners up each get a Jonara Blu Buck worth $5 to use in my shop. These are totally transferable..so they can also be given away as a nice gift :)

Here is the link to her blog post about the giveaway: Jonara Blu Maui - Etsy Showcase

CraftyMamaof4 does features on lots of Etsy shops and giveaways on her blog so keep and eye on her blog to join in the fun!

Luv from a customer...

It was certainly nice to wake up to this nice note from a customer this morning:

Hi! I received my freshwater coin pearl necklace, earrings, and
anklet in the mail yesterday! They are absouletly gorgeous and I just had to tell you "thank you!" I can't wait to wear the pieces at my beach wedding!


If you are a jewelry artist selling online you understand the sense of relief knowing that the special jewelry pieces you created with your own two hands has arrived to it's destination safely, and then to hear how much they liked it is always an added bonus :) Thank you for this Angie from Florida :)

Here is what Angie purchased:





I just know she's going to look smashing at her Florida beach wedding!

Beach Glass and Marjories Cracked Plate Jewelry

I recently sent some beach glass pieces I'd collected over the years to and amazing jewelry artist and friend, Marjorie of Marjories Cracked Plate Jewelry She does amazing work with broken china and has recently added beach glass in to her line. I felt that my beach glass pieces had been ignored too long and deserved a better life! Marjorie waisted no time and has created some adorable pieces with them:

This is an earcuff..very beautiful and very hip!



and here is an adorable bracelet utilizing a few different shades of beach glass:



and here are a couple of pics of her specialty..broken china pieces..I love her work because it's such a different take on the fresh new 'vintage' concept of putting together age old items to create something new. Marjorie uses old china and the old art of crochet (if you noticed she crochets the wire necklace part)..her work has a very cool vintage appeal that is so popular in fashion right now.





If you are interested in seeing more beach glass jewelry check out Marjories shops...if she doesn't have any in stock at the moment be sure to ask her..I'm sure she'd make something for you! you can find the rest of her work here:

Marjories Cracked Plate Jewelry
Marjories Etsy Shop
Marjories Blog

And last but not least, Marjorie..here is that picture I was looking everywhere to show you..I finally found it!

I wanted to show Marjorie my 'attempt' at using my beach glass in a jewelry piece. This necklace was made and sold quite a few years ago. If I had to do it over, I would have used a larger bead above each pendant, but I loved the periwinkle color and how it played off of the green and blue glass so played a big part in my choice. I wasted soo much silver wire (didn't know about non-tarnish silver artwire back then) trying to make these and just never tried it again. Who knows..maybe I will try a ring or something. Marjorie..you are definitely an inspiration!

Jonara Blu Maui - Video

I just put this video together this morning...hoping to make a little introduction type of thing. I get so tongue tied and could not manage to say everything even just once with out a mistake..but oh well..thats just me lol!

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.

Gift Idea for Teachers

Yesterday a friend came by to look at jewelry for teachers gifts and a graduation gift. She picked out some really pretty matching bracelet and earring sets as well as some earrings for herself and some supercool earrings for a graduation present.


Her order ready to be picked up. I gave her extra raffia so that she could tie it onto the boxes later. If I did it now..she wouldn't know who's is who's ;-)


As we end another school year many with children find it a good time to show appreciation to the hard working teachers in their lives. Would you like to show your child's teacher how much you appreciate her? Most teachers love arts and crafts hand crafted beaded jewelry being a favorite. Teachers are some of my best customers! And how much more awesome would it be to purchase handmade beaded jewelry from Maui :)







Fresh and Funky Beaded Jewelry with an Island Twist! Perfect Gift Idea!
Jonara Blu Maui
Jonara Blu Maui's Etsy Shop

Wanted: Women to eat chocolate for a year

This CNN health report was sent to me by a friend this morning..I'm totally signing up! lol! Actually it's in the UK..but what a cool research study to be a part of haha!

More Beautiful Blue!

I've been busy creating more with the beautiful blue pearls I had..these will match lovely with the pieces in the Sapphire Dreams post I just couldn't stop working with them until they were all gone :o)


available here



available here



available here

Turquoise Medley

A fun bright mix of turquoise...




available at Jonara Blu Maui

Married on a Maui Catamaran - Robb and Erin

I had the pleasure of creating Erin's bridal jewelry as well as her bridesmaid's jewelry. Robb and Erin were married on a catamaran here on Maui..I can only imagine what a beautiful experience it must have been. I know the pictures they shared with me were amazing! They were also very thoughtful and sent me a few that featured the jewelry I made to share with everyone.











Thank you Erin and Robb and Erin's mom, Therese..for sending me these pics to share and for letting me be a part of your very special day!

here is a close up on the jewelry created for Erin and her bridesmaids

Success! On Jonara Blu Maui's second corporate order!

I finally got word back that my latest corporate order was a success! The person in charge of organizing this with my company had two, back to back, corporate events so I had to wait to hear from her until she got back from the second one. I knew all must have been okay with the last batch of bracelets reaching their destination since there were no complaints...but to get the final word back that all the women loved the bracelets I designed for them and that all went smoothly is a very big relief. There is always a worry that something will get lost or broken in shipping or who knows. Especially since these were shipped from Maui to their offices on the mainland and then again out to the Bahamas. The order was so big and done over a period of time that I did it in 3 different shipments..shipping each batch out as that set of bracelets was finished.

Oh and I learned that shipping packages that large and expensive...it was cheaper to send it Registered mail AND it was watched much better in the shipping process. I can't remember exactly..but it seemed to save us about 20 bucks in shipping.

So since this was a success the company is looking to use Jonara Blu Maui again in 2008...I hope it works out!

Who IS Jonara Blu?

Part of my reason for starting this blog is so that my customers can get to know The Jamee part of Jonara Blu better as a real person. The Jamee part of Jonara Blu not only makes much of the jewelry but she is also the one whom you communicate with whenever you order something or have an inquiry. So for one of my first posts I'll tell ya a little about me....and since the other part of Jonara Blu is my sister and she's not here to speak for herself...you will just have to get to know her a little through me :)

People always call me Jonara...I don't mind at all...I think it's a really pretty name :) But if you wanna know the truth...Jonara is actually me and my sister's last names put together. Jones = 'Jon' and Aihara = "ara"....hence we came up with "Jonara".

I'm the 'Jones' part of Jonara...My name is Jamee, I'm 36 and have lived on Maui for 12 years. I was born and raised in California but came out here to Maui when both my husband's parents and my parents moved out here. We have one child...a 13 year old son named Cameron whom I homeschool. My husband's name is Paul...he owns and runs a window tinting and auto customizing buisiness. I guess you could say that while I make people jewelry, he makes car jewelry ;-) My sister, Kimberlee is 10 years younger then me. She is married and has two children, one 8 and one a year and a half.

I've always been involved in arts and crafts in one way or another. For me I need a creative outlet so I can deal with the rest of what life serves me. It was a little difficult being crafty while my son was real young..but I found an outlet through doing art with him whether it was finger painting, collage, even paper making (which is great to do on a hot summer day) or just glueing all sorts of strange things together. As he got older he became more interested in computer graphic type stuff..so we enjoy working on photography manipulations in photoshop.

Types of art I have done include: oil and acrylic painting, ceramics (low fire to make ceramic beads), abstract inkings, sketching, print making, mosaics, regular high fire ceramics (I'm brand new at this...taking a class right now), computer graphics and of course jewelry making :) I've been beading since I was about 8 years old. A baby sitter I had would bring her beads over and let me bead with her. Then one day she gave me her bead stash..she said she wouldn't be using it anymore. That was one of the happiest days of my life as a young one :) I used that bead kit till it dwindled down to absolutely nothing!

For the years to come I mostly did sketching and inkings. I found that I loved working with children and art when I had the opportunity to teach art classes to a 4th grade class I was working as a teachers aid at a grade school in Hunington Beach California. Once the teachers found out my interests, many of them had me designing their bulletin boards. That was an amazing opportunity and so much fun!

About a year after I was married..my freinds grandmother taught me to make earrings using seed beads and a peyote stitch. She hardly spoke a word of english but even so, it was quite easy to learn from her! This newly aquired skill awakened my need to bead again and so I finally discovered a local bead store and continued to bead off and on until I became pregnant. I was pretty much sick the whole time so beading was not an option :(

I didn't start up again until my son was probably around 4 years old. This is when my sister, Kimberlee, began beading with me. Soon we both started working for a local artist here who has her jewelry in local art gallaries. We did mostly stringing for her at first and later learned to make and paint ceramic beads as well as making polymer clay beads. Eventually we started working on our own as we wanted to explore new styles and work with components that this particular artist did not use. We were very confined to her style and not able to excersize any of our idea's with the types of components she used in her jewelry. We started out at the local swapmeets and about after a year of that we were up online at Ruby Lane as well as doing local craft fairs.

It's great working with my sister...it gives us an excuse to spend quality time together. Not that sisters need an excuse..but life does get so busy sometimes that it's hard to find time to spend with loved ones. We work excellent together and have similar tastes in jewelry. Our idea's seem to flow together and we can always pick up where the other left off. Kim was able to spend much more time creating things before her little one, Nakoa, came along. Now he pretty much takes up most of her time..however she still creates beautiful pieces whenever she gets the chance.

Being involved in this art with her and creating our own business from it has been a blast! It's awesome to be able to support our very expensive hobby by doing what we love best! And the best part of it all is the wonderful people we've met and the awesome thanks they've sent us. I'm always grinning from ear to ear when I hear back from a customer :)