Bead soup

Hello lovely people and welcome to my Bead Soup Post, firstly I would like to thank our fabulous host Lori who has been totally amazing managing to set this all up even with every thing she is going through she is an inspiration to us all, and second I would like to thank my wonderful partner Kristina for sending me such a lovely soup and being a wonderful partner!

As seems to be tradition with these soups I got most of the work done last minute even when they are put back, quiet literally I finished my pieces at midnight and have only just finished photoing!

So I should properly start off by showing you what I got sent....

Aren't the colours beautiful! My first thoughts were to wire wrap the focal and hang it off a simple chain but that did not work (my wire wrapping skills are not as good as I had hoped) so in frustration I put it back in the bowl and started playing with the clasp instead....

Never one to do some thing easy and liking to be different I decided to use the clasp as a focal, I flipped it over, hammered a texture onto it, then popped it into the liver of sulphur and buffed it up, added a few amazonite beads, a lampwork spacer by the very talented Laura Sparling and a tiny ball chain (here is another photo as I don't really like this one on the white background)....

So back to my focal and I just kept thinking how lovely it looked with the light shinning through it and it would be such a shame to put it on a necklace as you would not get to see that, this thinking lead me to the idea of making it into a sun catcher!!! Then I saw the beautiful card that Kristina sent with my soup and inspiration struck....

How cute are these owls! 

Well we have been having a problem with mess maker having night terrors, to the point where bedtime is just full of stress for all of us, so maybe instead of a sun catcher how about a dream catcher?

I sawed out a little owl shape and added the detail using a mini flat head screwdriver and a hammer (this was a lot of fun and I will defiantly be doing this again!)

I talked the idea of dream catchers through with mess maker and then she informed me of how this will work (she has such a great imagination and loves explaining things)! If she has any nightmares then the owl with catch them and fly them away while she sleeps and if she has any good dreams they will get caught in the bead so they stay with her and she can have them ones again, how sweet is that! 

We will be trying it out tonight, It will hang from the bottom of her bunkbed so in the morning it will still act as a sun catcher, keep your fingers crossed for us please. I also made up these too...

I used one of the green spacers and the lovely stripy green bead in this bracelet along with a butterfly by Mandrel beads and clasp and wingding by The Fab Genea, I made the copper hoop from Cindy Wimmers missing link book and gave it a salt water patina and then added a little hammered copper lentil bead, I do like this bracelet it's very me, an eclectic mix of lovelies that is great for fiddling around with. I also made a pair of earrings....

With the headpins and a couple of the spacers, simply hung on my fancy ear wires and I still have plenty of leftovers to play around with, Please do go visit my increadbly talented partner Kristina, I just had a peep at what she had made and WOW you will not want to miss it!!!

I hope you all have an amazing day and enjoy the hop!

J - Jewellery

A - Z

Jewellery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jewellery or jewelry is small decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes, and the term is restricted to durable ornaments, excluding flowers for example. For many centuries metal, often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewellery, but other materials such as shells and other plant materials may be used. It is one of the oldest type of archaeological artefact – with 100,000-year-old beads made from Nassarius shells thought to be the oldest known jewellery. The basic forms of jewellery vary between cultures but are often extremely long-lived; in Western cultures the most common forms of jewellery listed above have persisted since ancient times, while other forms such as adornments for the nose or ankle, important in other cultues, are much less common.

These is so very much I could say about jewellery, from how much I love Roman designs and carved gems to my most favorite designed of all times ever, Rene Lalique. But instead of ratling on forever I just though I would tell you how i got into jewellery making and then show you some pretty pics....

I gave up my job as a supervisor in a pharmacy to raise my daughter full time in 2010. I soon found that I then needed a hobby something that was not baby centered and that would keep me busy at nap times and in the evenings, I have always loved making things and while browsing the net I stumbled across a blog called how to jewellery, I fell in love with some of the designs, and from then on I was hooked! I then found more stunning blogs and amazing designers and decided to start my own blog as a way of documenting my makes and conecting with other creatives, so here I am four years later still enjoying making jewellery and still learning.

Yesterday I got my package back from the Assay office so I thought I would share some of my new pieces....

Titanium Druzy necklace set in sterling silver, with a sparkly chain.

Moogin lampwork cab (my favorite artist for lampwork cabs) set to form a clasp, byzantine bracelet.

Lampwork murrini headpin by the amazing Jen Cameron of Glass Addictions (I completly LOVE these) set in a sterling silver ring.

Have a fab day wonderful people x

How to sell your Handmade Jewellery

Now this has become a subject of much interest to me this year. When I started making jewellery it was just something to do in my spare time, I had given up work to raise my daughter and needed something to keep me busy. Soon I amassed quiet a collection and rather then stop making it I started to sell a few pieces to family and friends with quiet some success. 

Then began my love of art beads and my love for jewellery just grew, as did my collection, so I decided to open a ETSY shop, Unfortunately without much success! I did not know the first thing about selling online, but this I plan to change!

So to date I have had 5 sales on my ETSY shop, now I am so grateful for those sales and I can not put into words the elation I felt when my phone pinged to tell me I had actually sold something, but 5 sales in 4 years is not what I would call a success, BUT 3 of those sales were in 2013, so what happened in 2013 that was different to the other 3 years? 

Well I started to show my work off more, I posted a pic of a pair of earrings on a facebook competitions, and then within days that pair sold and so did a similar pair, now any normal person would have seen this link and continued to post pics but not me as I have always been a bit slow on the uptake of things, but this year I am all about trying to promote and encourage sales! 

Now I got those two sales because I had my logo on my photo so people knew who made that item and because I am easy to find on the Internet, if you type Silver Niknats into goggle it shows up my blog, my ETSY shop, my facebook page, my flickr account and so on. 

TIP-As a massive Internet buyer I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to find a pic of a beautiful bead (or piece of jewellery) and not know who made it or worse finding out who made it and not knowing where to buy their stuff from!!! Putting a logo on your work and being able to find an Internet presence is so important (so I have learnt something at last).

My third sale was a commission, The amazing Lori Anderson of The Bead Soup Blog Party had one of  her beautiful necklaces published in Belle Armoire Jewelry and as I had sent her a button that she used in the piece, she kindly named me and my shop in her article!!!

Which prompted a lovely lady to contact me to ask if I could make some for her, not one to say no, I made these up for her...

Not actually jewellery but still enjoyable to make, and still a sale (note the logo)! So getting into magazines helps, even if it is scary (note to self try to get into magazines, doh)!

So how do WE make more sales? The Internet is FULL of suggestions, seriously I was so overwhelmed with the amount of information on this subject that I started over thinking it almost completely gave up! 

Then I came across Marie Forleo and this Video, it really struck a chord with me, so much so that I have watched it twice (it takes me a little while for me to remember things), and I am hoping it helps you too!

I know that there is no magic way to quickly improve sales and I know it will take a lot of hard work but I will post more hints and tips (that I hope some of you may find useful) along the way, so why not join me if you have any hints or tips please feel free to leave them in the comments and here is to better sales in 2014!

A-Z Blog Challenge part J

J

of course has to be for....

Jewellery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jewellery or jewelry is a form of personal adornment, manifesting itself as necklaces, rings, brooches, earrings and bracelets. Jewellery may be made from any material, usually gemstones, precious metals or shells. Factors affecting the choice of materials include cultural differences and the availability of the materials. Jewellery may be appreciated because of its material properties, its patterns or for meaningful symbols. Jewellery differs from other items of personal adornment in that it has no other purpose than to look appealing.

The word jewellery is derived from the word jewel, which was Anglicised from the Old French "jouel" circa the 13th century. Further tracing leads back to the Latin word "jocale", meaning plaything. Jewellery is one of the oldest forms of body adornment; recently-found 100,000-year-old beads made from Nassarius shells are thought to be the oldest known jewellery.

So to show you what I made....

My very first ring! 

I stumbled across a great site called Jewelery Lessons and saw this tutorial for Rivoli button ring by Diana-E made from a crystal button and some wire and I happened to have those things on my desk I was just missing a ring mandrel (the reason I have not tried ring making before), but with a bit of luck I managed to find something the same thickness as my finger that would work (the handle of my hammer) and bish, bash, bosh job done!

It was really easy to make and of course I had to make a few slight changes (I have never been good at following tutorials and ALWAYS end up changing something) It's very bling and quiet hard to photograph well but I really like it!

Now here is my Esty lotto wish list....

These pieces are beond beautiful!