silly season

Well, silly busy season....first craft fair is over and I'm preparing for the next one! This coming weekend, the Crowthorne Craft Fair at Wellington College, Crowthorne is on from Friday until Sunday. It was excellent last year, with a good buzz and people enjoying seeing the fabulous skills on display. Between now and Friday I have four classes, my engraving course, and about a hundred little household tasks. So, busy it is! I'm going to try to get some items up on Etsy and Folksy today as well. I have so many ideas for new items, it's hard to focus on the things that need to happen now...must concentrate and write down all my new ideas for testing after the busiest time of the year.

Also, aside from all that, an amazing new shop has opened over in Oxford called Comma. The website is coming soon, but the shop is already there! If you're in the area, you should definitely give it a look! Especially since it says Hello in giant colourful letters in the window :-)

back to the bench

I'm going back to work at my bench today for the first time since I hurt my hands. They are mostly better now and my other half got me some fingerless cycle gloves. They have padding over the palm, so should help me to keep it painless. I've got oodles to do and now of course I'm well behind because of all this nonsense. I did get to sort out my spreadsheets and update my Folksy and Etsy in the meantime though. I picked up the flyers for the Caversham Arts Trail last night and will be distributing them around. If you'd like one, let me know. I'll put a bunch over at South Hill Park as well, so you can pick one up there. Here are some pics of items added to Etsy/Folksy:

end of financial year

So today I got around to doing my stock take, which means taking everything out of boxes, counting, and then putting it back in the boxes. So I've been relisting items on Folksy and Etsy since I now am sure of exactly what I have! I still have a bit of commission work to do, having been rather slowed down for a week because of my bruised hands. They are healing quite well, but man is it a pain to have big, painful scabs on my hands! I'm going to get back to the bench tomorrow and see how it goes. Today it's all paperwork and relisting. I'll be listing some newer items soon too. I've added the 18k yellow gold crossover post earrings for the first time. I only have one pair, so while the craft fairs and shows were on it didn't make sense to also put them in my online shops. I guess I could put up a gross photo of my bloodied hands, but I think you'd probably prefer a picture of the gold earrings, so here they are:

brrrrrrrrrrrr

Happy 2010! It's a new year and after a very lovely holiday it's back to normal. All the snow has melted around here, but it's still pretty darn cold. My fingers are freezing and my toes are numb. Much tea and thicker socks are needed! And back to the bench I go. I have several custom jobs to work on and a batch of items to send off for hallmarking today. It's all systems go and my teaching starts next week as well. I'll be posting more photos of custom jobs soon as well as attempting to put new items on my Etsy and Folksy sites. For anyone around this area, I have a bunch of work available over at Norden Farm now, so if you're over that way have a look :-) For now, here's another photo of all the snow that we had over Christmas!

today today...

is my last craft fair of the year - get ye down to Farnham for mulled wine, mince pies, and an amazing array of homemade goodies perfect for those last-minute presents!

In other news, I'm shifting around my online presence a bit. I'm moving off some sites and possibly on to others. I have now stopped using DaWanda because it wasn't working that well for me and I just don't have the time to keep on top of Etsy, Folksy and also DaWanda. Plus I think DaWanda works better if you're also fluent in German and French so you can use the other parts of the site. So hey ho, I'm focusing on Etsy and Folksy. This way I have shops that are in good shape and I can offer PayPal or Google Checkout and dollars or pounds. So hopefully this will make things a bit neater and easier to manage!

In the meantime, I'm working on finishing custom pieces before Christmas - hopefully all will go well and it'll all be finished by this Saturday - here's hoping! And here's a photo of one such custom job....

custom order

Just a quick post of a photo of a custom order - similar to some of my existing earrings but with a hammered finish on the outer circle.

happy october!

It's October already! There's a chill in the air and I'm looking forward to a possible halloween party and cosy evenings near a fireplace. Well, ok, it's only quite mild out, so maybe the fireplaces will have to wait a bit longer! Also, I have to admit I really like my winter coat, so I prefer wearing that to my summer/autumn light jacket.
Anyway, enough of that. I've had a flurry of posting on Etsy & Folksy. Lots of earrings (see photos of some below) - since I retrieved a bunch of items from Slough (since they're in the process of finding a new curator) I have lots of little earrings. I've added some of those, more to come. I've also got a bunch of rings which I'm going to polish, photograph, and put up on Etsy & Folksy at reduced prices.
Yesterday I organised a whole bunch of boxes and items and I'm definitely getting into craft fair mode! The first one of the autumn is a mere 16 days away - 17-18 October Festival of Crafts in Farnham ! I have a mere FOUR tickets left for free entry. They are actual paper, so I can only post them to you if you're interested. Just send me your address if you are...

oh boy...

See this lady? I don't feel that way about cooking. Cooking is alright every now and again, but I find it rather boring and I'm better at chatting to the cook and setting the table and things like that. Anyway, so it's a novel situation today because I have promised to make my husband a 13 course meal!!!!! That's 13 very small courses. Very small. There will be some weird things, some hopefully tasty things, and some things that I buy ready-made....because there's no way I can cook 13 different things for one meal. Well, I could, but it would take forever! ha! So, that's my story today. Tomorrow I'll be working on my lesson plans for South Hill Park. Oh yes and today I'll put some more earrings on Etsy/Folksy from the Lingerie & Lace collection. I was going to put a photo here, but I just realised I've never taken any photos of these earrings...so I'll add that later....

phew

As the culmination of months and months of work and planning, I've started adding pieces from my Lingerie & Lace collection to Etsy and Folksy. This collection of tactile silver jewellery is inspired by and handmade with imprints of luxurious lingerie. Each piece is unique – only yours.
Below are some photos of the pieces already up on the sites. I'll be adding more (including another type of ring, small earrings, tie clip and bracelets) throughout the month. Each piece comes out slightly differently, showing a different part or type of lace. It's a great collection for weddings, since the pieces can be 'matching' for men and women, but not the same, so it's not too matchy-matchy, if you know what I mean. Anyway....have a look and maybe let me know what you think?

things

This week is flying by faster than you can say September. I can hardly believe it's Thursday already! I sent out my newsletter on Tuesday. Of course I tested it and tested it and all was well. Then I sent it out and the main picture didn't show up! Argh! So I had to send another one after it with the photo...oh dear. Well, lesson learnt and next time I'll attach the photo with super glue...ha! Of course, the craft fairs draw ever closer, so preparation continues. I've also added a page on my website about commissions. Hopefully today I'll add a page about my latest collection. And hopefully today I'll also add a new pair of cuff links to Etsy & Folksy. I'm not sure what to do about Coriandr. I get the feeling that site isn't doing that well. For starters I can't find any sellers on there that have had more than a handful of sales. Also I had a pair of earrings on the main page and the views didn't even increase, which makes me wonder who is looking at the front page! I think it might be better to focus on the sites I know are working - Etsy and Folksy. For now I'll keep the Coriandr shop open, but maybe not for much longer, unless there's a change! What else...I'm still working on a tricky commission that involves lots of stones. I'm hoping to finish the first version of that ring today. It's been a busy week and I have some big-ish news as well, but I want to be 100% sure about it before posting, so that'll have to wait until next week!



ps. if you're in or near Reading, something different to do this Sunday in town:
http://thejelly.wordpress.com/

brainwaves

Before I fall asleep at night I think about jewellery. I either go over the design and building of a new piece I'm working on, or I think about new designs. I find it useful to turn the design over and over in my head, mentally building it so I can spot potential difficulties before I actually sit down at my bench. Last night I was thinking about these earrings, of which I've only made one pair. They have sold now, so I was thinking about making some more and creating a necklace, bracelet and smaller earrings to go with them. I will get around to that this year, I hope, but I have a lot to do still with existing collections! I need to make sure I have enough for the craft fairs and I need to replace a whole bunch of different items that have now sold out. I might manage to sneak in a small version of these earrings and put them on Etsy to see if they go down well, though :-) So, it's going to get busier and busier until Christmas!

ps. I'm posting some new earrings on Etsy today - new design and texture!

it's friday

It's nearly the weekend! I hope everyone has fun plans. Congrats to Dr H, who won the free earrings I was offering earlier this week. They'll be in the post soon :-)
I'm off to stock up on boxes! I need to buy a decent stock of boxes so I don't run out halfway through the craft fairs.
In other news, I have some new earrings which I will be putting up on Etsy soonish. I say soonish because it seems to me that Etsy is in super slow time, seems like this is mega holiday time! Well, I'm pretty sure it is. Plus next weekend is bank holiday weekend here in the UK, so it's down time. In any case, those earrings will be up on Etsy, Folksy, etc soonish.... !!
Have a lovely weekend...

Coriandr and Etsy

(click on photos for a closer look!)
So yesterday I was all excited because one of my earrings was picked for the front page of Coriandr:

Today I'm keeping a close watch on Etsy because I have a pair of cuff links on the accessories showcase:

grumble

humph...the new feature for facebook is not working for me on Etsy. I saw a forum thread that lots of other people are having the same problem, so it's probably just a new item bug. Hopefully it will get sorted soon. I have listed about 15 products for free shipping to the US and UK this weekend on Etsy - so a good time to buy from MagpieNest!!
I'm also working on my mailing list - if any of you out there want to be on my mailing list and aren't already, please sign up here. I won't send out more than about 6 emails a year, so you're not signing up for heaps of emails!! :-)
In other exciting news, the skies are darkening and the temperature is dropping. Or rather, it has dropped overnight and it seems like there's a big storm coming. I heard rumours that there were big thunder storms and perhaps flooding somewhere up north and it's heading our way. Fine by me if it's today. Hopefully not tomorrow though, as it's my friend's big annual BBQ bash in his lovely garden. Let's hope it doesn't rain down on us tomorrow!!!

hmm and FREE SHIPPING to usa and uk

So there are some new widgets on Etsy! First of all there's a free shipping promotion just for this weekend. I'm joining the promotion!! So it's free shipping to the UK and USA this weekend - from now until Monday morning. Free shipping available on almost all my items, just not the very small ones. Contact me if you have any questions!! I'm working on adding this option, so will be adding it throughout the day.
Secondly there's a new connection with facebook. I'm going to be testing that today...I think how it works is that my activity on Etsy will show up on my facebook profile. I'm going to add something very soon, so I'll see how it fits together. I think it's a good idea, but I've yet to see how it pans out. In other news I am delighted that the fan we ordered has arrived. I am a lot more comfortable today at the computer than I was yesterday!! Such an improvement. Plus it's a quiet fan, so it's not making rattling noises, which is a plus.
And lastly, I'm in negotiations with a fabulous independent store in town to sell my new collection there and will be hopefully letting you know about that when I hear more from them!!

back in the swing of things

After a couple of weeks of holiday and a long weekend, I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'm feeding items back on to Etsy, Folksy and DaWanda. I'll be adding new items this week and next. Just letting you know I'm working on it :-)
I am amazed, but we are having a sort of heatwave here. It's nice that it's warm but it's not so nice to have it so hot when I want to sleep. Anyway, I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts. I've ordered a fan though, for the bedroom. Almost all the fans were out of stock, so I'm guessing that there are a lot of people with the same idea! Reminds me of several years ago when there was a really hot spell and we decided to get a small inflatable pool - they were all sold out, which is why we have a purple plastic hippo in the back which although it's supposed to be a sandbox for children, is also a good paddling pool for cooling your heels! ha!

spring, erm, summer cleaning

So I'm doing some sorting out of stock and boxes and inventory and so on. This means a trimming down of my online shops until I know what I want to put back into them and what new items I want to add. Hence a wee bit quiet on the online front. I figure this'll be a good time to do it - it's lovely weather and summer so people are out and about. It's a kind of quiet, outdoor time of year. At least, it is if the weather stays this way, which I'm really hoping it will. Wouldn't it be great if we had a whole summer of this? That would be so nice. Also very unlikely. Anyway...so I'll be blogging but my shops are getting a dusting out!

random stuff

So the work went really well yesterday - engagement ring is nearly done. I just need to do all the final polishing. The white gold is harder than I expected, as in I think it'll take longer to polish. It looks really good though, the ring is shaping up nicely and really has an art nouveau feel to it - which is what the aim was. After this I just need to get it hallmarked and get the stones set.
The pouch that I put up a photo of yesterday seemed to work really well, it did catch pretty much every last little filing. That was its purpose, so that's good.
I'm also going to finish a craft fair application and send that off tomorrow. I would do it today but the local post office is closed Wednesday afternoons.
As soon as I get the engagement ring polished I'm also going to add more things to Etsy. So, that's pretty much the plan for now.

tra la la

I'm having a pretty darn good week. I had some more sales on Etsy and DaWanda and in new countries, too! I get a bit giddy when I have a sale that is going to a new country. This time it was Japan and Norway. Oo er! :-) I sold these cuff links, which in a way are going home. They are made with Japanese paper that I bought either in Yokohama or Kamakura, and now they are going over to Tokyo. Kind of a nice idea :-)

dark at 4pm

oh yes, it's winter alright...dark by 4pm....
I've been putting up loads of new items on Etsy, Folksy and Dawanda...check it out :-)
Finished a ring for a friend today and have been working on two new necklaces...photos soon to see what people think of them...
hope everyone's having a good winding-down-to-Christmas week!!! Nearly the holiday....