Bittleboxart

04/16/2022

I had written a very lengthy post regarding my recent experiences with Etsy. I guess I must have said something to cause FB to not publish my post. Really? So I'll try again and you be the judge. Etsy has banned the sale of Amber beaded necklaces, bracelets and anklets, which you would think wouldn't effect what we make, but it did. Etsy's bots simply see the word amber and deactivate the listing. It's been a bit of a nightmare for us since we put Baltic Amber into almost everything we make. After a lengthy review process they reinstate the listings once they realize it isn't an Amber beaded necklace, bracelet or anklet. Ok... I can live with that and not use the word amber but now I just renewed one of our products (no amber in the wording) that we make multiples of, such as some of our EDC line of Pocket copper or steel pieces, and it was deactivated after selling out. Seems there's something called "word residue" which are words imprinted into the invisible data code that goes into a listing... so even though I have removed the word amber from all our listings and you can't see it... it's still there and the bots see it. Crazy. I'm sure you're wondering why would Etsy ban something as wonderful as Amber... it's because Etsy lost a lawsuit brought upon them due to, sadly, an infant choking on an Amber bead bracelet. I'm only bringing all this up because it really makes me realize that Etsy could pull the rug out from under us for the most senseless reasons. We do have our own website... bittleboxart.com but the cost of having a checkout with payment processing just isn't something we can justify since we have no way to bring in customers to that website right now. I'm going to start out slow with just our EDC items that we make multiples of and price them a little lower than what we sell on Etsy. Etsy just recently raised their transaction fees by another 30% so we can sell on our site for a little less if we just don't have a checkout with payment processing. For now we will just have to rely on customers using PayPal which we can simply invoice the purchase. Not as convenient I know but it' a start :). Thank you for taking the time to read this and with any luck this post will actually get posted. Thank you to all of you who have supported us for so many years .. we LOVE YOU! Please excuse all my typos and misspellings :)

11/29/2019

photo by Kate T. Parker https://katetparker.com/

10/14/2019

10/17/2017

I love rocks!!! I was still in a stroller the first time I went to a gem show. My mother loved gemstones, she was the first to teach me of their beneficial properties and I was hooked. I still remember the thrill I felt from the first batch of stones I removed from the Rock Tumbler I got on my 7th birthday. It was about 15 years ago that Lea bought a rock tumbler and rock cutter and the thrill returned. Seems only natural to include some of our stone slices into our OPEGs :)

10/11/2017

Wow … time just slips by and I realize it's been a while since my last post on FB. We started building our own website, bittleboxart.com, a while back and it's taking a long time since I seem to much prefer creating OPEGs over sitting in front of a computer :). We just went live today with about 1/2 of our Etsy store items also on our website, everyday I'm getting more up so within a few days it should be close to matching our Etsy offerings. We are offering most all of the same items at the same prices that we have on Etsy but with a substantial savings in that the shipping will be FREE. Since we won't have to pay the transaction/commission fees that Etsy charges, we can pass that savings onto the customer in the form of free shipping. This is great for our U.S.customers but not something we can afford to do with international shipping rates, so our international customers will still need to go through Etsy. Over the past few months the new CEO of Etsy has been implementing some changes that many Etsy sellers, ourselves included, are finding to be purely for the monetary benefit of Etsy and not in the interest of the buyers or the artisans. It's becoming commercial with many manufactured products created in China. While we certainly have no ill feelings whatsoever towards the citizens from other countries, we do have issues with factory produced goods being sold on what was intended to be a website for artisans to sell their handmade creations. While we plan on keeping our Etsy shop, we believe it's in our best interests to be prepared with our own website and have a venue for our regular customers to save on the costs of shipping. It may take a long time to get established since it's hard to attract visitors to a new website and neither Lea nor I are very good at self promoting … we just want to create what we love instead of spending time tweeting, pinning and instagramming :). We welcome any feedback and suggestions you may have regarding our website … we want it be clean, easy to navigate and free of ads or pop ups.
Anyway … we are happily enjoying the Fall season with the tree leaves now turning beautiful shades of Red, Yellow and Orange. We live in such a beautiful place … we are so grateful :)
Peace and Love to All …

04/24/2017

Spent a wet 2 days on Mt. Ida digging those amazing Arkansas Crystals for our Orgone Generators. Lea stayed home since the dogs, cats, fish, parrot and turtle don't camp well. I pitched a tent at Lake Ouachita … an amazing lake that covers some large veins of crystals … not surprising that the lake is crystal clear :). People come from all over the world to scuba dive this lake … can you imagine how great the energy must be? I spent my time at Ron Colemans mine digging for treasure … found a lot of wonderful crystals encased in clay that will now soak for weeks. It rained almost the entire time so I got pretty muddy … the sun came out briefly for a fellow miner to take this photo of me :)

10/28/2016

Ahhhh … for the love of a fidget toy :). Most of us mindlessly fidget with something while we ponder a project, listen to a lecture, or work through a problem. Research suggests fidgeting distracts part of the brain that's become bored so the other parts can pay attention to what we’re reading, hearing, or seeing. Works for me :)

A while back a friend showed me her latest fidget gadget … a spinning piece of plastic she called a Finger Spinner … I had a hard time giving it back to her. Being someone who always has a pocket orgone generator in an idle hand, I was unwilling to give up the Orgone energy for a Finger Spinner. I always wear Orgonite but I still love to fidget with my pocket pieces … keeps me calm and focused … but I really loved this finger spinner my friend had. It was plastic, made from a 3D printer and used a center bearing at the axis to spin from and 2 other bearings for the balanded weight. I have a shop full of wood, woodworking tools and experience in woodworking so it didn't take long for me to figure out that I could design and make my own finger spinner out of wood with Orgonite as the balance weights instead of additional bearings. I made one for myself and got swamped with requests from friends and even strangers to make them one. Now I'm making some for our Etsy store in limited quantities … these are each individually made by hand so it takes time. These are pretty addictive and fun but at the same time providing a high level of personal EMF protection while transmuting negative energy into positive energy. I really love the combination of an Orgone Generator and an "Every Day Carry" fidget toy for the recreational calming value, helping me focus and the negative energy protection. We create this entirely in our shop with our own hands and woodworking tools, both power and hand. We use high quality skateboard bearings that we disassemble to remove factory l**e and re-oil to enhance spin time. The more you use it, the better it gets :)
Each piece contains 2 Orgonite discs, each containing small Arkansas Crystals, a Rhodizite Crystal, Elite Shungite, Black Tourmaline, Selenite, crushed Phenacite and crushed Petalite … all packed in Copper Nuggets in tinted resin with Mica. We initially hand rub Watco Oil into wood to preserve and seal the wood and after 2 days rub in lemon oil.

To spin this, simply hold the center buttons between your thumb and finger, then spin it using your other hand. With practice you can use just one hand using another finger to flick the Spinner. We did a little YouTube video that I'll post soon … in the meantime here's some photos :)

10/11/2016

I've been getting more into Violet Flame energy lately so you'll probably notice a little more violet colors in our shop :)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/484614969/orgonite-pendant-wand-orgone-generator?ref=shop_home_active_4

This Violet Energy, self clearing, Orgonite Orgone Positive Energy Generator hanging wand measures 2 1/2 long, 5/8 diameter and weighs 1.3 ounces or 36 grams. This wand can also be used as a pendulum or worn as a pendant. This unique design has a hole drilled through at the top allowing you to put a...

10/01/2016

About 2 or 3 months ago I found myself overly attracted to the subject of cosmology. I bought some books by Michio Kaku (love Parallel Worlds) and listened to as many podcasts related to the cosmos as I could find. I have no idea why the sudden obsession with cosmology but I rarely try to understand the whys for anything I become obsessed with :). Anyway I promise not to keep posting my celestial designs but here's one I created in a dome shape Orgone Generator. I always have felt that the universe was guiding me in my Orgone creations … now I'm sure of it :)

09/27/2016

Lately I've been playing with Silver Powder (actually it's a blend of Silver and Aluminum) and Silver Leaf in our Orgone Generators. When the fine Silver Powder is mixed with resin and it just starts to cure and harden, I can mix it with Silver Leaf and sort of sculpt with it :). I have less than a minute before it gets too hard to manipulate. It takes about 3 very thin layers and blue tinted resin to create a celestial look. I'm doing this in the top 1/4 of the piece so all the other good stuff like the Crystals, Shungite, Black Tourmaline, Selenite and Copper are below. It's taken some time and experiments gone awry to get the look I was after but the journey's been enlightening :)

08/08/2016

Remember that photo I posted in June of a bushel of dirty crystals? Well, it's been almost 2 months now and Lea's starting to pull some out that are clean. I quickly pocketed one that was double terminated, I'll take a photo of that shortly but I wanted to show what Lea pulled out to dry on the deck. Started to rain right after I grabbed a picture so I guess they want to soak up some more negative ions for a while :). There's a whole lot of small crystals yet to pull out of the water that are still soaking … it sure is fun to see them clean :)

08/05/2016

We recently acquired some powdered Silver metal (a blend of aluminum and silver). I love the Gold powder we use and I'm really liking this Silver too. It's a little tricky to get blended into the resin and copper nuggets but after some trial and error I've got it figured out now.
In other news, we've started a blog that pretty much revolves around Orgone but considering that Orgone means Universal Life Force Energy, that gives us a lot of very cool things to talk about. We only have a few articles posted so far so I'm waiting for a little more content before passing out the address to it … should be soon and you all will be the first to know … we will appreciate your support and requests for topics. Anyway I'm including a photo of a wand pendant I just listed in our Etsy store that contains the powdered Silver.
Those crystals shown in the last post are still soaking in almost daily fresh rainwater … should be ready soo :)
Hope everyone's having an awesome Friday filled with joy!