Jane Austen

"An artist cannot do anything slovenly. "

Jane Austin

I have just finished watching "Becoming Jane", such a beautiful film.

What is your favourite period drama?

Golden

1. Adorable Tiny Brass Metal Frames - Storybookcharm

2.Gold Garden Belt - Littlewhitedresser

3.Drew - Lovejune

4.Wheat Fields - Urbandesign

"Every moment is a golden one for him who has the insight to recognize it as such."

Henry Miller

Something a little Bit Different

My New Collection of Wire Wrapped Delights

I have been working on this new collection since last week and am in the process of listing them all in my shop today. All my newletter subscribers should all be opening my very first newsletter with a little treat inside!

The idea for these rings came from a friend who wanted a special commission for his wife. It has been a long long time since I worked with wire so I was a bit nervous at first. Lots of scraps of wire now sit in a pile on my desk from designs that didn't quite work, but that is sometimes the way!

I am really enjoying working with my semi precious stones and sculpting designs which compliment my other jewellery, plus I'm getting new ideas for earrings, so it is win, win, win for me. I am working my way along stedily to reach 100 listings and Tweeting as I go. I have found so many new interesting folks to follow. So I'm balancing my time between making, twitter, the forums and listing.

I ot some exciting news the other day, one of the galleries who I sell to is taking my jewellery to the Scottish Homes and Interiors Show! I'm hoping to head along and meet up with them and maybe make some new contacts. I aim to find another 2 new wholesale contacts before the end of September. Have you read this great article by Plumeadore? It's a must if you fancy giving it a try.

A New Look

So, what do you think of my new look packaging?

When I first opened my Etsy shop, 2 years ago now, I wanted my packaging to be simple and stylish. The kind of wrapping that was like a gift and something a bit special. So I hung my jewels from blank greetings cards, with my shop sticker on them, popped them into a plastic sleeve with another little sticker to close, and then wrapped each one in layers of tissue paper and ribbon. So many customers got back in touch to say how beautiful the packaging was or that they had sent the piece on to a friend and they said how great it was!

But things took a shift when I was filling my orders from the Etsy Weekend Deals promotion. All the jewels were made up and ready to package, and I realised that this system while fancy and smart was taking me ages to do and was there for costing me in time and materials!

So I decided to think of another way of packaging my designs which would still be a delight to open, have all my shop info, be protective to the jewels, be easy to put together and most of all be economical. This is where my new look idea sprung from. I found lovely boxes, designed an insert on Illustrator and printed them off on card. I spent last Saturday night printing out and cutting up 100 of them to go into each box and now they are ready and waiting. I love it when I find a solution to my business problems, and this one has saved me 20 mins per package!

This weekend I spent lots of time working on new designs, and had great fun creating some new earrings. I seem to go through phases, and for a while all my ideas were for bracelets, but I seem to have come round to dangly designs again. I am still working on getting over 100 pieces in the shop and balancing getting some wholesale orders away. I want to have a varied selection in stock for Christmas time and know from experience I need to be doing it in August.

What are your earlybird plans for Christmas this year?