Saturday, January 31, 2015
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Lights! iPhones! Jewelry! Part II
In
this blog we are going to share some of the time and energy-saving
tips we learned during our Lights! iPhones! Jewelry! photo shoot to
start getting our jewelry up on our Etsy store:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PartnersInCharms. In that blog we talked
about what equipment we used and how we set it up. If you haven’t
had a chance to read it yet, you can check it out here: http://partnersincharms.blogspot.com/2014/03/lights-iphones-jewelry-part-1.html
Our
tips…
Make
sure to sort your jewelry into types before shooting begins. This way
you can take all your earring photos, then your rings, etc. It saves
a ton of time because you don’t have to switch your set-ups as
often.
 |
We sorted our jewelry into trays and holders by type: rings, necklaces,
bracelets and earrings.
|
Keep a
set of basic tools handy in case a piece needs to be tweaked – like
tightening up a loop or adjusting a jump ring.
Have
extra hangtags and earring cards available in case you have to
replace a label after shooting.
 |
| Hang and earring tags, pen and basic jewelry tools were kept close at hand. |
Since
we didn’t have any museum clay available we used a small piece of
polymer clay to help with getting great shots of our rings.
Stef
found that a pop can was a handy way of getting a nice smooth line on
necklaces, especially those with ball chain.
 |
Our treats became tools when Stef discovered a great way to smooth out
jewelry chain with an empty pop can!
|
Watch
what you wear. We found that the bright pink top that Stef was
wearing reflected in some of the images, so wear white or a light
neutral color.
You
may want to have some props ready at hand such as velvet or leather
necks or small clear bottles that you can rest a bracelet against.
To get
an angled shot, we just left the iPhone on the Cloud Dome and then
picked up and angled the whole thing to get some interesting images.
 |
| By keeping the iPhone attached to the Nimbus Cloud, Stef was able to get some great shots of our beautiful rings that are always a challenge to photograph just right! |
Keep a
flat area of space clear where you are taking the pictures so you can
put your Cloud Dome down as you change out your pieces.
Make
sure your lighting is right. Take the time to adjust it to the best
possible, because this will save time when you are editing photos
later. If you are taking photos over a long period of time, you may
need to adjust your lighting as the day goes on if you are relying on
any natural daylight.
Periodically
clean the surface that you are photographing on. It is just amazing
how dust, fibers, cat hairs, etc. seem to come out of nowhere and you
don’t catch it until you go to editing and have 50 pictures with
one silly little bit of dust right in the middle of your image.
One
thing that we didn’t do that would have made photo editing easier
was to put a white tablecloth down on the table so if shots caught
some of the background, it wouldn’t be the dark brown table.
We
found that once the camera phone was attached to the Cloud Dome, the
rubber bands that held it on made it very difficult to access parts
of the screen to focus the image. We solved this problem by using a
stylus. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but something with a
fine tip to get in there close to the rubber bands.
 |
| Using a stylus pen to get even greater precision in our photos. |
Treats!!!
We are NOT photographers so this is not our favorite task in getting
our jewelry out in the marketplace, so we made sure we had plenty of
healthy (ha!) snacks to keep us energized!
Keep
the box your Cloud Dome comes in. It has a great foam lining that
kept the cats entertained and away from “helping” us while we
took shots!
Bella
and Yoshi both found the Cloud Dome box to be a super comfortable
place
to
curl up!
To sum
up – we had a blast and time seemed to fly as we worked together.
The Cloud Dome equipment with our iPhones really made taking that
many images possible. You can check out the Cloud Dome equipment at
http://www.clouddome.com/.
Here
are some of our completed pictures. Be sure to check out our Etsy
shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/PartnersInCharms! Lots of wonderful
jewelry items to choose from!
We
want to thank Cindy Lichfield, Cloud Dome inventor, for all of her
fabulous support! You can contact her at:
http://www.clouddome.com/store/contactus.shtml
Happy
Beading!
Kathy
and Stef
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Lights! iPhones! Jewelry! (Part 1)
After deciding it
was time to get all of our jewelry--well some of our jewelry at
least--up in our Etsy Store
(http://www.etsy.com/shop/PartnersInCharms), we planned a photography
day at Stef’s house. We had just received Cloud Dome’s newest
creation – a Universal Disc for the Cloud Dome that was especially
made for the original Cloud Dome and a Disc designed especially for
working with just smartphones– and were anxious for a chance to see
how it worked.
Remember that
neither of us is anywhere near being a professional photographer and
so that is the beauty of the iPhone/iPad used in connection with the
Cloud Dome equipment – you can get good results being a total
rookie!
Since we knew we
were going to go at it intensely this is how we set up:
Equipment:
Large table that we
could easily move around
iPhone 4s
iPhone 5
iPad Air
2 Nimbus Cloud
Domes for Smartphones (we each have one which was very helpful)
Nimbus Large
Earring and Necklace Stand
Nimbus Dome
Photography Base
Nimbus Cradle with
Tripod mount
Cloud Dome
Universal Disc for
Cloud Dome
Background Pad
Lighting
Trays of jewelry
separated by type to photograph
Empty trays to put
jewelry pieces in after they had been shot
Props and display
pieces
Small piece of
white or neutral color polymer clay or museum clay
Basic jewelry tools
Pop can (more on this later)
Cloud Dome box (more on this later, as well!)
Snacks and drinks!
We set the table up
so that we could both shoot at the same time. Since we had divided
the jewelry into types – rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings--we set up two stations to photograph.
 |
| Setting up the table with lights, Cloud Dome equipment and jewelry organized by type into trays. Oh, and of course coffee and pop to keep us going! |
I took pictures of
earrings, while Stefanie worked on taking images of bracelets and
rings.
 |
| Stefanie attaching her iPhone to the Nimbus Cloud Dome |
 |
| Setting up the Nimbus Cloud with the Nimbus Large Earring and Necklace Stand. The iPhone goes into the elastic triangle band to hold it in place, but I needed it to take this photo! |
Once all those smaller jewelry items were shot, we worked together on the larger
necklaces, with Stef doing the camera work while I removed and
replaced product tags.
 |
| Stefanie arranging necklace on Cloud Dome Background Pad. |
 |
| Taking picture using the new SmartPhone attachment for the Cloud Dome. Love it!!! |
 |
| Here we are using our iPad and the Universal Disc for the Cloud Dome. This is great but we really found it was much easier to use the iPhone which also has a better camera. |
Altogether we
probably put in about 8 hours of work, taking about 300 pictures of
approximately 125 pieces of jewelry! Incredible!!!
Good news is that
we got that much done. Bad news is that now we have to edit the
images in Camera+ and PhotoShop Touch and write great descriptions to
post them to Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/PartnersInCharms)!
Some images that we have edited and are up on our Partners in Charms Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PartnersInCharms
Be sure to watch for Part Two of Lights! iPhones! Jewelry! where we will share some of the time and energy-saving tips we learned from this fun experience!
We want to thank Cindy Lichfield, Cloud Dome inventor, for all of her fabulous support! You can contact her at: http://www.clouddome.com/store/contactus.html
Happy beading!
Kathy and Stef
Friday, February 28, 2014
No More Hoarding!
The nippy weather has made
us stay inside and gaze at all the gorgeous beads and findings that we have
accumulated over the last 10 years of jewelry making. So many beautiful designs
created and even more to come, but the reality of it all is that we have way too
much stuff! The pictures our just a very, small part of Kathy’s stash, so you
get an idea of how bad it has gotten!!!
 |
| Just a small part of the shelves of beads, findings, and tools at Kathy's house. |
We adore lampwork beads – but
hundreds of them kind of puts us into the realm of hoarders. Vintaj and Nunn Design
marvelous metals are now taking up about 10 boxes between us! We won’t even
tell you how many seed bead tubes we have because it is rather embarrassing.
The truth is we have never met a bead we didn’t love; but before they come to
film us for the reality show, Hoarders, we have to get organized and let some
of our darlings go to other good homes. So – drum roll, please – we have opened
a second Etsy site called Partners In Charms Stash at http://www.etsy.com/shop/PICstash.
 |
| A peak inside the boxes! Top row, left to right: Red Czech glass flowers, Vintaj Arte Metal charms and findings, Lucite white and green flowers and leaves. Bottom row left to right: Gunmetal beads and findings, shades of blue Swarovski crystals. |
PIC Stash will be stocked
with all kinds of fabulous beads and findings, most of which we have used in one
or more of our creations. Better yet, you can get inspiration on how to use them
by checking out our Partners In Charms Etsy shop
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PartnersinCharms or on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/partnersincharms.
 |
Okay, this is where it really gets
scary - boxes of bags of beads that need
to be sorted. There are a lot of them! Please
help us with our addiction!!!
|
Happy beading!
Kathy and Stefanie
Partners In Charms
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Time for our Bead Soup Reveal!
The day is finally here for us to reveal what we created with those lovely components we received from our partner Kate. Here is a reminder of what we started with.
Kate sent us some really wonderful things to work with. We were so excited about the color palette, as well as working with the gorgeous ribbon. We created a few different pieces, using up just about all of the soup.
Our first piece is this necklace, using the focal piece and the toggle that Kate sent. We wove the blue ribbon through a piece of large round chain, and added a few dangles on the sides, finishing it up with some strung beads. We had to think a little bit about how to use the adorable silver bow focal piece. The holes were at the bottom, and we didn't want to attach it upside down. We tried a few different things, but ended up wiring it onto the necklace, and then draping some fine chain from the holes.
We're very pleased with how it turned out!
Next, we decided to use up what was left of the beads, incorporating some chain and a closure we already had, to create a matching bracelet.
And finally, to finish off the soup, we created a simple pair of matching earrings.
These pieces really feel like SPRING to us!
Please go check out Kate's blog, mulliganstewjewelry.blogspot.com. It is truly amazing what she was able to create with the soup that we sent her!
And take some time to visit the other blogs from the Bead Soup Blog Party. We have all been working so hard on our pieces, and can't wait to show them off!
Next, we decided to use up what was left of the beads, incorporating some chain and a closure we already had, to create a matching bracelet.
Agata Grygiel
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Ali McCarthy
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Alice Craddick
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Amy Severino
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Ana Krepel
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Andra Weber
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Andrea Glick
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Andrea Trank
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Anitra Gordy Boyers
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Annette Rivers
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Anu Tuppurainen
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April Grinaway
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Audrey Bélanger
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B.R.Kuhlman
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Barbara Bechtel
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Barbara Mason
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Becky Pancake
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Beti Horvath
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Billi RS Rothove
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Bobbie Rafferty
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Brandi Burdick
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Candida Castleberry
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Carol Dillman
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Carolyn Gebert
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Carolyn Lawson
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Caron Reid
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Catherine King
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Cathy Jakicic
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Chandra Merod
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Charlene Jacka
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Cheri Reed
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Cherrie Fick
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Cherrie Warzocha
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Cheryl Brown
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Cheryl Dunham
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Cheryl Foiles
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Cheryl Gangle
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Chris Eisenberg
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Chris White
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Christina Miles
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| Christine Murrow | ||
Cindy Ritchie
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Clare Etheridge
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Cory Tompkins
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Cris Peacock
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Cynthia Abner
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Debbie Rasmussen
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Debi Levine
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Deborah Brooks
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Deborah Read
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Debra Behrends
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Dorota Żerańska
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Elaine Robitaille
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Elsie Deliz-Fonseca
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Emma Todd
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Erin Guest
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Evelyn Shelby
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Evie and Beth McCord
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Francy Inman
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Ginger Bishop
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Gloria Allen
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Hajer Waheed
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Hope Smitherman
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Ilenia Ruzza
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Ilona Hegedűs
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Ine Vande Cappelle
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Jackie Ryan
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Janine Lucas
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Jean Peter
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Jean Wells
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Jeanne Steck
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Jelveh Jaferian
Johnson
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Jennifer Cabic
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Jennifer Reno
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Jennifer VanBenschoten
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Jenny Davies-Reazor
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Jenny Kyrlach
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Jenny Robledo
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Jessica Brower
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Jill MacKay
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JJ Jacobs
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Jo-Ann Woolverton
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Joanne Tinley
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Johanna Rhodes Nash
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Judy Robinson
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Juli Cannon
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Julia Gerlach
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Julie Bowen
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Julie Panusis
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K Hutchinson
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Karen Martinez
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Karen Vincent
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Karen Williams
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Karin Slaton
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Karyn Bonfiglio
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Kat Douglas
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Kate Dufour
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Kate Mulligan
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Kate Richbourg
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Kathleen Gallant
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Kathleen Lange Klik
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Katie Nielsen-Nunez
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Kay Bolton
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Kayla Potega
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Kelli Jacobson
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Kelly Patterson
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Kelly Ramstack
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Kiersten Kern
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Kim Sparks
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Klaudete Koon
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Klaudia Tóth
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Krista French
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Kristin Oppold
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Kym Hunter
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Lana Kinney
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Laura Guenther
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Lauren Fenty
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Leah Curtis
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Lennis Carrier
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Linda Murphy
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Lisa Johnson
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Lori Anderson
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Lupe Meter
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Lynn Jobber
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Mandi Effron
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Marcia Dunne
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Margareta Saari
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Marianne Baxter
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Marie Covert
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Mary Ellen Parker
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Maryse
Fritzsch-Thillens
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Megan Milliken
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Melissa Meman
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Melissa Mesara
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Michaela Pabeschitz
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Michelle Tucker
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Mimi Gardner
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Mischelle Fanucchi
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Monica Phillips
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Mowse Doyle
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Nancy Boylan
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Nancy Dale
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Pat Haight
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Patina Queen
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Patty Miller
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Pia Kaven
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Rebecca Anderson
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Rose Johnson
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Roxanne Blanc
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Sarah Goode
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Sarah Singer
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Sarah Strover
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Shalini Austin
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Sherri Stokey
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Sherry Baun
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Sheryl Stephens
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Silvia Sernicola
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Solange Collin
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Stacie Florer
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Stacy Alderson
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Stephanie Haussler
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Stephanie LaRosa
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Sue Burleigh
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Susan Bowie
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Susan Kelly
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Susan of Libellula
Jewelry
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Susan Sheehan
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Suzanne Fragiacomo
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Tammi Sloan
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Tammie Everly
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Tania Hagen
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Tania Spivey
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Tanya Goodwin
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Tanya Wiles
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Tari Kahrs
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Theresa Buchle
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Tiffany Smith
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Tina Holden
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Tracey Nanstad
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Tracie Dean
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Tracy Bell
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Tracy Kruse
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Veralynne Malone
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Veronica
Campos-Hallstrom
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