Beta Testers Needed

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banner reads Testers needed - custom-color kit ordering on new website. Graphic shows clip-art hand holding a phone and a computer monitor, both screens displaying the new B3 website

Seeking Folks to Test the New B3 Website

UPDATE: Responses are now closed. If you’re selected, you’ll be contacted via the email you provided! There will be several rounds of focus groups in the winter and spring. Thank you!

After years of procraftination, I’m finally tackling the new Blue Buddha Boutique website!

Before I get too deep, I’d like to ask for your feedback – specifically on the kit customization wizard.

If you’ve ordered custom-color kits (or think you might in the future), and you’re interested in previewing the website and offering your feedback, I invite you to take the 8-question survey below to see if you qualify for the upcoming focus group(s). It should take less than 5 minutes to complete. Thank you!

Thank you for voting CHAINED as Best Jewelry Book!

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CHAINED is an 2022 Interweave Readers’ Choice Award Winner

Woo, hoo!!!!!!  A few months ago, I asked for your vote in the Interweave Readers’ Choice Awards … and I’m so excited to announce that thanks to you, CHAINED was voted one of the Best Jewelry Books!

ReadersChoice-thankyouThank you sooooo much! I really appreciate everyone who took the time to cast a vote, and I’m honored that so many people have found my book helpful.

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than a dozen years since the book was released! Even though it has been out of print for a few years, I still receive regular messages from people thanking me for the book, or asking a question or two. It makes me so happy to know that the projects continue to bring joy and inspire people!

If you don’t have a copy of the book and would like one, or if you’re simply feeling more digital these days, the Kindle version of CHAINED is still available for purchase. (That’s an affiliate link, so, full disclaimer, I will receive a few pennies from your purchase!) You can also pick up used copies of the book at that same link.

Thanks again for your support. You’re the best!

maillethankyou

 

The Only Guide to JPL5 You’ll Ever Need

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Jens Pind Linkage Kits & Tutorial by Blue Buddha Boutique

JPL5-now-availAt long last, JPL5 instructions are here! This has been one of my most-requested projects, and I’m excited to have put together a thorough guide so you can conquer this weave!

First off, if you’re intimidated by JPL5, I recommend checking out this video that shows how to weave JPL5 from a starter piece. You’ll probably be surprised at how easy it looks!

If that has you excited to create JPL5, hop on over to grab instructions (and/or a starter piece) from our Etsy shop. You can also buy JPL5 kits in 4 colorways and choose from dozens of colors to create your very own custom-color JPL5 kit.

PDF + Video Tutorial

JPL5-VidPDFv2Blue Buddha Boutique’s full JPL5 tutorial contains:
• 3 pages of step-by-step photos for creating this weave in 5 colors
• 2-page “quick start” chart to create JPL5 in 2-, 3-, 4- or 6 colors
• cover page with ring sizes and “weave overview” summary
• link to a private, 20-minute video that demonstrates every step, including how I hold the weave in my hand, plus a “checking your work” and troubleshooting section to keep you on track
• left- and right-hand PDFs and videos included
• PDF includes links to video at each steps, so you can jump to the exact spot you need

 

 

Doing JPL5 in Other Numbers of Colors

I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend learning JPL5 with 5 colors. Once you are comfortable weaving in 5 colors, you can try doing JPL5 in 2 or 3 (or any other number) of colors. The PDF tutorial includes a “quick start” chart that shows steps 1-19 in 2-, 3-, 4- and 6-colors. Check out how the chart works:

I hope the comprehensive PDF tutorial and videos make this weave easy—and dare I say, even fun?—for you.

I love to know about your successes, so please feel free to tag BlueBuddhaBoutique on social media and share what you’ve made. Or simply send your pic to [email protected]! Happy weaving – you got this!

Here is the full lineup of JPL5 offerings from Blue Buddha Boutique:

JPL5-MatsJPL5-CustomJPL5-VidPDFv2JPL5starter+ringsMAIN

 

 

Fraud email from company with similar name

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graphic that shows a cell phone on the left open to an email of an order confirmation. The text on the right reads: SCAM ALERT - THIS IS NOT ME If you receive an order confirmation from "bluebuddhaboutique" via "commentsold" for something you did not order, this is NOT my company

If you received an order confirmation about an order you did NOT place, and the order is via commentsold on Facebook, that message is spam. It is also not my company (I’ve never sold through commentsold), but likely instead refers to another clothing company with an identical name.

I recommend checking your bank account to confirm no charges are processing, and also contacting commentsold – [email protected] – to report the issue.  (You can see their response to my inquiry below)

The other company that started doing business as “The Blue Buddha Boutique” does sell through commentsold, so you may wish to reach out to them. (I did contact them but have not received a response. As of the writing of this post, the contact form on their website is broken, but you may still be able to reach them on Facebook). Their info:

https://shopthebluebuddha.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BlueBuddhaBoutqiue/ 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/722029925310246/

After receiving dozens of messages from upset and confused people, I reached out to commentsold and received this reply from them:

screenshot of email that reads: Julie (CommentSold) Dec 15, 2022, 13:12 CST Hey there Rebeca, We identified an issue in our system where order confirmation emails were erroneously being sent. This issue has been resolved. Personal information was not compromised and no credit cards were charged. Sorry about the inconvenience that this may have caused your shop - Please let us know if you have any other questions about this! Take care, Julie CommentSoldI have tried to respond to all the individual emails and social media DMs I’ve received about this, and set up auto-responders to try to stay on top of things, but it’s been … a lot. If I somehow I didn’t reply to you directly, my apologies. Please know Blue Buddha Boutique is not a scam (even though the website is ancient right now! We’ve been around since 2003 and pride ourselves on top-notch customer service. Feel free to check out our many happy reviews on Etsy, and leave a comment below if I can answer any other questions for you about this spam email.

RM-sig

 

 

 

Hello? Is This Thing Still On?

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What’s Up With Blue Buddha These Days?

“So… you haven’t written a blog post in more than half a year, you rarely post in social media, and I think I only get your newsletter every 2 months or so … are you still around…?”

This is what I imagine a few die-hard B3 fans think as they occasionally check on the website, hoping for something new, but only finding the same ol’ stuff.

Yeah, I know the website is dusty and crusty AF and likely will be for another several months.

I feel a little bad for not having kept up Blue Buddha as much as I’d like to. The past few years have been rough for so many people, and I really wanted to be an inspiration for y’all, giving you tons of projects to keep you motivated and excited. Buuuut, that is not quite how things turned out. I’ll write/vlog more about that later. But for now, here’s a few things I want you to know:

The B3 Website

Jumpstart-mainI am planning on updating the Blue Buddha website! It’s an intense project, since I want to have an inventory management system in place to handle custom-kit orders. But, I do loves me a challenging organizational project! I spent a few months in 2020 updating RebecaMojica.com and learning lots of things that will help me overhaul B3’s site.

In the meantime, though, I won’t be updating the current site very much, if at all. (Sometimes it takes me so long how to figure out how to update something on the current site, it’s just not worth it!) If there’s something here that you want to make sure you have, download it now!

In the meantime, you can find all the latest product releases in the Blue Buddha Etsy shop. Check out the Announcement on the main shop page (above the listings) to see what’s new each month.

Classes & Videos

I’ve resumed teaching chainmaille online and conducting Group Craft sessions. I’m also adding more chainmaille videos – updating older PDFs with supplemental videos as well as creating new video content. Feel free to reach out at any time to let me know what projects you’d like classes and video for (yes, Moorish Rose, I know 😉).

Social Media

These days I’m mostly posting on TikTok, and would like to also post more often on other platforms. This is one of the most challenging business aspects for me right now. After I’d downsized Blue Buddha to be just me, but still had social media accounts on half a dozen platforms––often with separate accounts for Blue Buddha and Rebeca Mojica jewelry––I got a little overwhelmed and didn’t keep up. Then health issues caused me to focus on self-care. I pretty much disappeared from the public’s eye. Now, I have a better handle on my health issues and am working on the best way to authentically connect with as many people as possible in ways that leave me energized!

tiktok-rebeca-mojica

Other Endeavors

For a while, I thought with great sadness that perhaps I was done with chainmaille altogether, but that was depression and brain fog taking the driver’s seat. Despite my “being stuck” for so many months, I would receive random requests for things like copy-editing (something I used to do in a past life),  private chainmaille lessons, and small-business owners wanting to pick my brain about a variety of issues. So I launched a services page.

I’ll be spending a bit more time in this area. After chatting with various people, I realize that many of the life “hacks” I have developed––sometimes I feel like my entire life depends on a bunch of duct-taped hacks in order to keep me functional!––are useful and inspirational to others. Sharing what has worked for me might help others who are struggling with some of the issues I’ve overcome and continue to manage today. You’ll start to see some posts about this on the RebecaMojica.com blog (it doesn’t exist just yet), and can follow along if you’re interested – I’d love to have you along for the ride!

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! And thanks for all your support all these years. Truly and honestly, y’all are the best! ❤️

P.S. In a bit of self-promotion that I’m just gonna sneak in here, could you take a minute to vote for me as “Best Jewelry Instructor” for Interweave’s Reader’s Choice Awards? (Scroll down to #73 and check my name. You do have to give them an email address.) Thank you!