Monkeyshines Beadery
January 8th, 2006 | 
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Monkeyshines Beadery has more than enough wonderful items to lighten your purse, but we're gonna stick with her Firefly/Serenity stuff.
If you've seen Inara, Zoe, Kaylee, or Saffron wearing jewelry, odds are good that Jen at Monkeyshines has found near-prefect copies or made them herself. Each one is handmade so availability may be hit or miss but she more than makes up for that in quality. She also has a variety of attractive CafePress designs for shirts and sundries.
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I just bought one of the Inara necklaces for my wife's birthday, and it's really good quality for the price. Highly recommended.
I have both the Kaylee Firefly necklace and the Kaylee "The Message" necklace.
The Firefly necklace is just gorgeous; it's a simple glass bead on a leather necklace with silver findings and damn, I love the heart clasp. It looks good with a variety of outfits, I've found, and it's become one of my favorite pieces of jewelry. (It also seems to stand up to hard wear very well!)
"The Message" necklace is bone and wood beads strung on silk;as she says, it's not an exact copy of the piece in "The Message" but it's beautiful in its own right as well. The dragon pendant is really beautifully carved and detailed, it feels nice on (very smooth and nice to wear!). I'm wearing it at my birthday party tomorrow, so you can tell I'm pleased.
I also find the jewelry is a great way to have a little bit of Firefly joy around me at the office and that in itself is worth a lot.
Monkeyshines is great to deal with and you get stickers with your order too! I would have reviewed the "Out of Gas" necklace, but somebody beat me to it:)
So, yay for Monkeyshines!
Thank you for the link to my store! Wow. I just found your website and was pleasantly surprised. And thank you to MrBen and Jessica for the great feedback! I'm so glad you are enjoying the items I make – being able to do this keeps me close to our beloved crew, in spirit, even while we wait for sequels or more tv episodes (please! please!).
You are right – availability is hit-or-miss. I have a very small amount of time to make these items, and almost as soon as I make one, it sells! Which is nice, but I just wish I had time to make more.
I don't bother making items that can be found elsewhere – such as Zoe's necklace, or Inara's slave bracelet. And I do stick with the items that are easier to make. Some of the jewelry, like Inara's necklace from the ball scene in "Shindig," would just take so much time and expense to replicate exactly, I'd have to charge almost as much as the original sold for on eBay.
Stay shiny!
I bought a "Kaylee" necklace from Jen and it is absolutely gorgeous! The price is right and the detailing is amazing. I highly recommend checking out Monkeyshines and finding your ownself a little bit of pretty.
Does anyone know where Jen of MonkeyShines went? Her website is inactive and can't find her on FB. I wonder if she changed her business name or just discontinued the business. Any help would be gratefully accepted. Thank you
Marie, I stopped using "Monkeyshines" and am just using my name, now. You can find me at JLHjewelry.com or at JLHilton.com (that's my writing website — I've got a sci-fi romantic thriller coming out next year, so I'm kinda focused on that and writing a sequel, and not so much on jewelry right now).