It's All About Love!

So, it’s mid January, and St Valentine’s Day is merely a month away. I always think Valentine’s cheers us up as one of the first Spring rituals, so the seasons are moving on. But who was Valentine?

There are several stories associated with this day, not least the fact that there may be three St Valentines, all of whom were martyrd for their cause, and all could be associated with the Romance to which we attach his day. One popular theory is that Valentine was a third century priest, who, during the reign of Claudius II who had banned marriage in the belief that unmarried men made better soldiers, defied this ban and continued to perform marriages, and was put to death.

Another story was possibly of the same person, who, while in gaol awaiting his death, had fallen in love with the gaoler’s daughter, who visited him, and before his death wrote her a letter signing it, ‘from your Valentine’.

The date could be from the date of his death, or it could coincide with the Roman festival of fertility called Lupercalia, in an attempt to ‘Christianise’ a pagan rite. Over the centuries, St Valentine’s Day has held a strong association with love and romance…and of course, marriage proposals!

The strong symbol of romance is of course the heart, and this, along with flowers is widely recognised as the ideal gift for Valentine’s Day. (along with wine, chocolate and so on) We see many, many hearts along our High streets at this time of year, but a handmade heart just cannot be beaten for a personal, extra special and unique gift for your loved one. Here is a selection from Folksy. I hope you like them.

Designed By Linda

Leisure Time Collection

renphotography

Signature D

Funky Mosaics

CanUKnitit

NOfkantsCurios

Wisteria Cottage Crafts

The Quilted Teacup

Bonny Lass

JOYSofGLASS

Beadstorm Jewellery

Creative Treasures

Brickdust, Beads and Baubles.

Well here we are in 2013, Christmas and New Year Celebrations are over, and my blog has yet again been abandoned. I do have a good excuse though. We have had building works done, turning our shower room into a wetroom, with a wider door, a new cupboard built in the bedroom to house the boiler, which had to be moved out of the bathroom, new front door, new steps and wheelchair ramp. This meant that a lot of my craft stash had to be sealed in boxes and put away for the duration, especially my polymer clay, as I didn’t want it textured with the layers of brickdust that I knew would get everywhere….and boy! Was there a lot of dust!

 

I did play with my seed beads some of the time, but everywhere was in such a muddle, it didn’t inspire much in the way of creativity.

 So what have I done since my last entry? Well I had a very successful run on beaded Christmas baubles. I’d seen these a few years back and always intended doing some of my own, so this year I purchased the baubles with the intention of attempting to develop my own designs. Next came the seed beads and dagger beads, and the first one turned out well, so well I put it up for sale, did two more and put those up for sale. These got a very good reception, but didn’t sell straight away, but once one went, the others followed, along with three commissions, and finally, a slightly larger one with Russian leaf design sold just after Christmas.

I have been promised some commissions throughout the year on these, but they were so successful I really do wish I’d got going on them earlier. I will be making these through the year ready for sale from August.

I also made a lot of beaded earrings, and a beautiful bridal necklace and earrings set.

 I’m also in the process of designing and making a bead embroidered necklace for the fashion colourworks beading competition, using the Spring 2013 colour pantone. I can’t show you progress on this one as it is for competition. Suffice to say it contains many characteristics of my previous work, with celtic knotwork, flowers, leaves, lots of sparkle and colour, and a polymer clay cabochon that looks a lot like Charoite as the centrepiece, one I made from leftover Mokume Gane projects done in the autumn. I’m calling it Beltaine, to keep with the ‘ancient British feel’ of my work, with emphasis on the May Queen too. Once the competition is done, I’ll show it to you all. I have now ordered the beads and stones I need, and it is waiting to be done, except I forgot the delicas, so while I finish off my Amazonite one, work on some new polymer clay jewellery and objects, and get my Folksy and Etsy shops going again, I’ll have to get them on order.

 Enjoy the photos and do come and visit my shop..

                                 Oh and one last point, here's my beautiful new wetroom!

Autumn Leaves

It's been an age since I last posted, only really because I've been so busy, learning new things, making new things, and doing my best to keep up with the Folksy Daily Listing Club...oh and making quite a few sales! Yayyy!

I absolutely adore leaves, especially in the autumn months. Even at my age, I find it difficult to resist wading through and kicking up those lovely brown crunchy leaves when I find myself ankle deep in them along the footpath. They do give me a childlike kind of joy.

I suppose my love of leaves, and indeed trees, come from the happiest times of my childhood spent at my grandparent's bungalow in the heart of the New Forest in Hampshire. Their garden was surrounded by trees, beeches, maple, sycamore and great big horse chestnuts, and an old Elm that eventually succumbed to Dutch Elm disease and fell on a corner of the bungalow in a gale. In secret corners of the garden I would find leaf skeletons, which always fascinated me.

So, this means that leaves often feature in my jewellery, and now I have mastered many techniques in polymer clay, I'm like a kid in a sweetshop. I have a small patch of woodland a few yards down the road, and my front window view is happily blocked by two big lime trees and three birch trees, so I have the pick of dozens of leaves. I found this wonderful technique of making polymer clay leaves right here and it really works well.

The first leaf I made using this method was a sycamore leaf. When I pulled that leaf off the clay...WOW! The incredible detail was amazing. Sadly I messed up the stalk, and it was far too big to use in jewellery, but that gave me the encouragement to do more. I made a couple of beech leaves for earrings, then dripped some gloss on the front while glossing the back, so they stuck to the table, so they went in the bin..but now, I have beech leaves, birch leaves and sycamore (what a job it was to find sycamore leaves small enough and within reach).

So here are some of the items I have made from them.

Busy Busy Busy!

It's been a really busy month, hence my blog being abandoned recently. I rejoined the daily listing club on Folksy and it has been a challenge to have something to list every day. I nearly made it to the end of the month, in fact, I would have made it if my camera batteries hadn't died on me.

I've also made a few sales through Folksy, two of them commissions. First was an opportunistic one for a glasses chain. You know what they say, the early bird catches the worm. The lady who bought it asked on the forum, I jumped in and got the commission. (Sorry to anyone who already had some made up). The second was the sale of my Ivy Leaf Necklace.

The lady concerned, who lives in North Carolina, asked about a matching bracelet and earrings. I had the clay, so I set to and made them, and she bought them all, the whole set, and is so thrilled, even if she hasn't yet got them to date. Apparently, it's difficult to find Ivy jewellery in the USA!

I've also been helping my partner set up his facebook page and Etsy shop for his own jewellery. Since he had a leg amputated he's been concentrating on various aspects of jewellery making, and is currently working with resin, but up to now he has made a vast collection of necklaces and bracelets. We didn't realise just how much he had made until we pulled out the boxes from under the sofa.

So, much photography and editing has been going on in the last few days, which is why the batteries ran out..just when I was ready to take photos of some more of my items ready to finish the month.

I still haven't completed the Amazonite bead embroidery collar mentioned in previous posts, but bit by bit I am working on it, and it should be ready for September listing, along with 'Iceni' which is being brought home from the exhibit here in Norwich. I've now filled in the leaves, outlined the shape of the whole necklace, and begun filling in between the leaves. Only the backing to glue and bead around after that and we're done! Unfortunately no further photos of progress at this stage.

Meanwhile, our Norfolk Jewellery Makers Group have been having meets at Hobbycraft every week. We've missed a few as my partner hasn't been well with several weeks of nasty effects of what we now know to be dairy intolerance, something which the doctor confirmed today as 'pretty conclusive', since we just cut out milk and the symptoms stopped. This has also kept me busy for the last few weeks, but now we can see light at the end of that particular tunnel.

I've got so many ideas for polymer clay and bead embroidery, I'm going to need a new notebook soon. I did however, learn to make butterfly canes, and here are the first canes, and a necklace made with beads using that same cane. I now have to order more (lots more) translucent clay to make more, as it's far better to pack the cane with translucent clay, which cures clear, than with black or white clay.

Oh and I forgot to mention. I found a technique for making bangles using a tin can, as that is about the right size for a bangle. I made two, which almost turned out ok, but I made a few mistakes around the edges so they are not as smooth and straight as they should be. Otherwise I'm pleased with the result. I think next time I won't make them as wide, these are 1 1/2 inches. I won't be listing these, as they are prototypes, but if anyone wants to make me an offer, please leave a comment below so I can get back to you. First come first served...

The Importance of Feedback, and What I've Been Doing.

 Any of you selling out there will know how much of a buzz you get when someone actually buys something YOU’VE made. That buzz continues if that buyer then takes the time to leave you some feedback.

It’s not just the buzz though. It validates what you do, it shows others that what you make is good enough, it shows that the posted item arrived safely and most importantly, that the customer is happy with their purchase.

I got twice the buzz this morning, when someone bought some of my polymer clay buttons last week, they left me lovely feedback in my Folksy shop, then gave me more feedback in her blog. It is a lovely thing to do and made me feel really proud. The blog post is here if you want to see for yourself. It’s a fantastic blog and the owner has already included quite a few of my pieces in her write-ups, but never as a buyer before.

I’ve been very busy over the last couple of weeks, hence the blog being slightly abandoned. I haven’t done much with my Amazonite necklace, that’s in the plans for this week, as I really need to catch up, but here’s what I’ve done so far.

The stones and rivolis have all been attached and beaded securely in place, and the leaves have been outlined in gold lined jonquil seed beads. I've also added freshwater pearls to the leaf points, outlined the entire necklace shape, cut round to make it easier to handle and begun filling the leaves with colour,

So what distracted me from that? Polymer clay again. I’ve learned new techniques including mica-shift.

‘What’s that?’ I hear you say. Well dear reader, it is when the clay, which contains fine mica particles is embossed, then the raised parts shaved off (talk about patience!) and the ghost of the pattern remains. The mica particles shift to the sides of the impressions when the clay is stamped or embossed, so it is these that form the ghost texture.

There are a few pieces I’ve done. My first I’ve kept for myself, and the rest will appear in Etsy and Folksy over the next week or so. But for you, here’s a sneak preview.

My First, and a keeper, but shows the mica shift perfectly.

A pendant using two colours as well as mica shift.

Folded lace. I think that works quite well. 

Lastly, yet another tile bracelet. I love making these, and with the mica shift, it's especially effective.

Oh and I forgot to mention, I was on another blog this week too, one of the latest in a series of mini-interviews with Folksy sellers. Here it is

Etsy Treasuries

I’ve had a shop on Etsy since January, when I have to admit I was so demoralised by the number of things no longer working on Folksy since the changes in November, some of which are still not put right, and I’ve done ok on there. Lots more views of items, many many more favourites, therefore a better interest and two good sales of my bead embroidered cuffs, something for which there was very little interest on Folksy.

Promotion tools are far better too, with many options by which you can put yourself ‘out there’, within the site, and use to promote outside the site too. Take treasuries for instance.

I love making treasuries. These are basically a selection of up to 16 items usually within a theme, which could be colour, material, styles or whatever you want.  This treasury then appears in the activity feed of all in your circle, they in turn favourite it and it appears then in the feed of all in their circles, and so on.

Combine this with any teams you may be in and you’ve got a wonderful cross-promoting system going. I’m in the Etsy Craftyfolk team, and each week they have a little treasury competition, where the treasuries made in a given week have to feature the winner of the previous week.  There could be 20-25 treasuries at least in this competition, some of which may feature one of your items if they fit a theme, along with an item from the featured shop. Everybody favourites each other’s treasuries, and it effectively goes viral pretty quickly, alongside Facebook and Twitter promotions to bring in more views.

It’s even better when someone else has made a treasury and featured one of my items. My stats will tell me that one particular item has had a lot of views that day, and on checking further I find it’s in a new treasury. It brings visitors to the shop, creates interest, and on a good day…SALES!!

I don’t know if my sales on Etsy are directly as a result of appearances in treasuries or not, but as a promotion tool they really do work. Of course, you need a big circle to get the full benefit, and I have only 172 in my circle to date, but some of those have many more, so it spreads anyway.

Here’s my latest, featuring another member of the Craftyfolk team, MoreStashPlease, the winner of last weeks treasury competition, and this time every item in it is from a member of the team, and not just items across Etsy.

A New Project.

A few weeks ago, my partner gave me this gorgeous Amazonite pedant along with some amazonite beads. I made a necklace out of the beads, but this pendant, in spite of having a hole in it, is flat-backed, perfect as a cabochon on a bead embroidered necklace.


Now, I’ve only done one whole collar before, but a basic design was aready singing to me, and it kept me awake until the early hours when I gave up, fetched my notebook from the kitchen and sat up as the birds began to sing, drawing my design ideas. (Creative people will tell you this happens from time to time, and it’s always a good idea to have a notebook on hand in every room just in case).


Six pages of drawings later and I had a choice of possibilities, so I put the notepad away and slept like a baby.

The following day, with matches holding my eyes open, I sat at the table with my now drawn out ideas, but none felt quite right, so I drew the basic shape again, placed the pendant in the middle and drew round it, and created this… 

Now I’m in the process of transforming that design into a fully beaded collar. I’ve so far glued and beaded around the pendant and a few oval amazonite cabochons, and I’m in the process of attaching some Swarovsky rivolis. The overall colour scheme is white with some mint greens, sea-foam blues and pale greys, with a gorgeous outline of jonquil-lined gold seed beads.


I still have to cover the hole in the pendant. There is a choice of different ways to do this, and for now I'll keep it to myself, but I am sure it'll work well with the whole necklace.


When I find a beautiful slab of gemstone like this amazonite, I get excited as the whole piece starts to come together, transforming a vaque picture in my head of what I want it to be, into a real piece. It'll take a while to finish yet, especially as at the moment I'm not working on it every day due to working with polymer clay, which takes time and my table space, but it'll be worth waiting for.