No More Alchemy Stone Sales on Facebook!

We were originally quite excited when Facebook made it possible for us to add an actual Alchemy Stone shop as an adjunct to our Facebook page.

Since the majority of visitors find us through Facebook it only made sense that we should be able to offer the stones to people immediately as they discovered them.

Although we were happy to be able to offer stones on Facebook, the Facebook selling utility always had its share of problems!

The process of actually putting a stone up for sale was quite cumbersome and really not designed for somebody selling one-of-a-kind items, and on the other side of the coin, people who were potential buyers experienced issues with their payment, and were hesitant to actually trust Facebook with their personal payment information.

The long and the short of it was that while many of us use Facebook we don't necessarily trust them!

Anyway as of this writing we have removed all links to our Facebook sales page from the Alchemy Stones website because Facebook recently decided to integrate people's ability to sell things on Facebook directly into their "Facebook Marketplace." This means we no longer could have something that looked like an integrated shop, but instead ended up with listings for Alchemy Stones being mixed in with mattresses and used baby high chairs.

This does not in any way affect the fact that we still have a Facebook PAGE which we use to share new designs and announcements about events and new items. Actual sales, however, are now referred to our Etsy shop.

So, if you saw something in our Facebook shop and it is now gone, please have a look for it in our Etsy Shop instead!

Have a Heart!

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to talk about a special category of Alchemy Stones, namely our "Heart Stones."

A typical Heart Stone in the "original" format.

Although I am generally not a big fan of "seasonal art," we have always gotten many requests for an Alchemy Stone pattern painted on a heart shaped rock,  so I find finally arrived at some kind of compromise back in 2016.

You see, part of the challenge here is that heart-shaped rocks are pretty rare to begin with and to find actual heart-shaped rocks that are smooth enough and suitable to be painted on is pretty much a one-in-a-million proposition.

So when I talk about making a "compromise" of sorts, I started painting heart-related motifs on stones that were vaguely heart-shaped.

The basic format is a hed heart in the center of the stone, with a mandala like pattern built around it.

Even so, these were relatively few and far between and I would always save them up so that they would become available in the Etsy shop in mid-January and if there were any left over (or I found any more) they would be put up for sale in late April ahead of Mother's Day.

A "new" style Heart Stone

In the last couple of years I've relaxed a little bit on my own requirement for stones to be heart-shaped with the introduction of a second style of heart stone. These are basically an oblong stone featuring a pink white and red focused mandala at the wide end and a red heart at the narrow end.

Finding this kind of oval stone is a little bit easier, especially when we go on one of our entire weekend long beachcombing trips.

Even so we have seldom had more than maybe 10-12 heart stones available, because they invariably are the first things to sell when we go to face-to-face events.

In an effort to offer people more options with respect to heart-related stones, I also started painting "Pocket Hearts" in 2018.

Pocket Hearts have gone on to be the single most popular thing in the ever expanding Alchemy Stone universe, and the nice thing is that I am often able to make them in somewhat larger quantities because the patterns are relatively simple, and I am far less strict about how symmetrical and/or flat the stones have to be.

A group of "Pocket Hearts"

Pocket Hearts (as the name might suggest!) are always painted on fairly small stones and they all come in a gift bag with the small Alchemy Stone information pamphlet enclosed. They're entirely hand painted — just like their larger cousins — but just with a simpler design and a smaller size.

You can find all the Heart Stones currently available by visiting the Etsy shop and checking out the Heart Stones category.

Have a wonderful and loving Valentine's Day!

 

Happy New Year from Alchemy Stones!

Happy 2025, everyone!

We have turned the page to a new year, and hopefully it will be an exciting and prosperous one for everyone. Here at our place we're looking forward to lots of new creativity and look forward to meeting many of our customers at shows during the year.

2024 ended on a high note as we got to meet many of our Alchemy Stones friends while attending the Chimacum Arts and Crafts Fair in December.

While we live in a world where so much of our life takes place in the online world it is always very gratifying to spend time with people and getting to interact and put the stones directly into people's hands.

It was also very nice to meet many old friends that used to come and see us when we had the Red Dragonfly Gallery here in Port Townsend.

We look forward to making many new friends in 2025!