Thursday Favourites - Handbags

Its Thursday again, so its also Favourites day. Today I had a look at the hundreds of categories listed on Etsy and chose Handbags. I need a new handbag, so who knows, maybe I'll be shopping at one of these shops soon:

Timberlineltd - This shop creates gorgeous handsewn bags, pillows and purses. They are created from Pendleton Mill Wools and western tapestry fabrics. The items all have a fantastic Western / American Indian feel about them and are truly gorgeous. Really quite different.

AllyBu - Handmade fabric handbags, hobos and totes. Most of the fabrics are lovely floral pieces in fantastic vivid colours. The hobo bags are lined and contain pockets so are very practical as well as pretty.

Fabrichandbags - The bags in this shop are totally up my street and this shop is very likely to have me spending some money in it! It sells fantastic Boho / Hippy style fabric slouch bags in a gorgeous mixture of bright colours. I also liked these bags as they have a zipped closure.

StudioOneDesigns - This shop sells more traditionally designed leather and suede handmade and designed bags. I fell in love with a very pretty pink suede one. This shop is based in the lower Himalayas.

Peace4you - Peace4you makes very cool bags from recycled materials such as tent canvas! They call this upcycling and have some very nice bags in their shop. Due to the nature of the materials that are 'upcycled' the bags have a practical feel to them. All the bags are handmade and definitely for you if you want something different that is also ethical.

A work in progress

The weather here has been absoloutely fantastic today so I put my shorts on for the first time since we moved here nearly three years ago, and sat in the sun. Of course I couldn't just sit there so I took my cords and beads with me and got started on a Knotted Necklace.

This Necklace uses one of my favourite sort of knots, one that is so simple to make, yet creates such a fantastic effect. The knot is called a macrame knot and half of the knot tied over and over makes a lovely twist effect. This is one of the reasons I love knotted Jewellery, it is peaceful and easy to make (well sometimes its not, but normally!) but so pretty to look at.

Its not finished yet, it will have a pendant added to it, between the beads, but it's getting there.

The knot creates such a lovely effect I am already planning a bracelet I can make, just using the knot and maybe a couple of beads.

Nature's backdrop

A couple of days ago I had an inspired moment and went outside to take some photographs of my Jewellery.

Rat Earrings hanging in our Sycamore Tree
Aqua Berry Charm Bracelet on a lichen on the dry stone wall:


One of the most important aspects of selling Jewellery is the photographs. The photographs are all you have to convince buyers it's your Jewellery they want.

One of the things I have problems with is finding a nice backdrop to photograph my Jewellery against. I don't have a lot of room in my house to set up an area specifically for photography and I need to photograph my pieces on a windowsill to get the benefit of natural light. I have, until recently, been simply photographing my creations on a plain, white piece of board.

On a gorgeous day the beads just look glorious, really vivid and shining, when photographed outside and the background colours of muted blues and greens are a fantastic complement and are bright, but not overpowering. I am really pleased with some of the results of my outside photography so will spend a little time re-photographing the items and amending the listings of my etsy shop.

Recycled Jewellery Boxes

After finding an advert in the current Make Jewellery Magazine, I have been looking at the website of the Tiny Box Company, which sell gift packaging and Jewellery Boxes. They use recycled materials as well, which is a bonus, not only from my own point of view but as an additional selling point. The range is huge, so I am going to have a good look through the site and order myself a few boxes, but it looks very promising.

Thursday Favourites - Polymer Clay Beads

As promised yesterday after discovering fellow sellers on Etsy had 'favourited' me I went on a search this morning for something special. After quickly realising I could quite easily spend 3 whole weeks solidly searching and always finding something different, I decided to narrow the search slightly. I decided first I would search for 'beads', as these are an essential part of my own jewellery making and great fun to look at, then I narrowed the choice down to Polymer Clay Beads. I am fascinated by Polymer Clay and it is definitely something I would love to learn how to use and I was not dissapointed today in my search - the variety of beads and jewellery produced with this medium is astounding.

So, here they are, my Five Thursday favourites:

Fimo Flora - The creations in this shop are just fantastic. All are handmade. The little characters are all very cute and very original. The choices range from elephants to peanuts and my favourite (for all those Winnie the Pooh fans) is the Heffalump. The prices are very reasonable as well. This shop is definitely one I shall be purchasing from in the future.

Jelly Beads Designs - This shop is full of handmade polymer beads in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. These include animals and characters, but also food and shapes. A lot of the beads are flatback but can also be purchased with holes and can also be glazed or left natural. They are also very reasonably priced and all beautifully photographed.

Tiny Ark - I found this shop by looking for rat beads and found some little mouse buttons instead. I liked this shop because it was a bit different, as it sells lovely, original buttons as opposed to beads. I have seen buttons used on jewellery though so felt it warranted inclusion. There are buttons of all shapes and sizes as well as animals such as some very cool bees. They are also machine washable so very useable.

Creative Spirit Too - I always thought of polymer clay being used to create beads in the shapes of animals, flowers, food etc. This fantastic shop showed me that it can also be used to create fantastic focal pendants and 'normal' round beads. The creations in this shop are just beautiful and I will definitely be shopping here for some beads to complement my knotted jewellery.

New Forest Beading - This is another seller who uses polymer create to create beads and pendants instead of objects. The pendants in this shop are highly detailed pieces in fantastic colours and would be perfect for one of a kind jewellery for someone very special.

So that's my five for today. I had great fun with this and hope anyone reading will find something useful. I have tried to find five shops that show the amazing range of things that can be done with polymer clay. Etsy is not just about buying handmade items, its also a fantiastic place to buy supplies for creating your own special pieces.

There will be five more on a different theme next Thursday.

Aqua Berry Charm Bracelet & Earrings

I have had the idea in my head for a while now to make a charm bracelet using some of the lovely round beads I purchased recently, so on Tuesday I got down to making it:

The random shaped beads are glass pressed and the rounds are 8mm and 4mm, all in various lovely shades of Aqua, Blues and White. They are all hung on silver plated head pins on an antique silver curb chain. The clasp is a bolt clasp.

This braclet is about 18cm long and is lovely and heavy when worn. It's the perfect complement to bright summer clothing or to brighten up more formal wear.

It is currently For Sale at Northern Dawn on Etsy for $24.00.

I made these Dangle Earrings using the same materials and beads as the Charm Bracelet, however have listed them separately as I don't feel they make a set, but would of course be perfect worn together.

The Earrings have four 8mm rounds in Aqua, White and two shades of Blue with twin 3 - 3.5cm tails of antique silver curb chain falling from the middle. The curb chain falls straight and neatly due to the addition of the 4mm White and Aqua beads at the ends.

The Fish Hook ear wires are stirling silver.

They are For Sale at Northern Dawn on Etsy for $19.00

Both of these pieces are perfect for Summer, a fantastic reminder of Sunny Skies and Blue Seas.

Sharing Hearts

One of the sections on Etsy is somewhere you can 'heart' favourite shops. I checked mine today for the first time for a couple of weeks and was delighted to find that three people heart me. So I thought I would say thank you publicly to those three people:

JJM Jewelry - This shop sells jewellery supplies, clasps, beads, findings as well as handmade jewellery. They also have a sale on at the moment. I will definitely have to have a good look through this shop as some of the beads look brilliant.

Blue Girl Jewelry - Hand crafted and wire wrapped Jewellery at a very reasonable price.

Sassa Lynne - This Etsy seller is another British seller and sells hand dyed yarns and threads as well as hand dyed scarves and other fiber art supplies. The items in this shop are truly unique, being created from random dye pots, so would be a perfect investment for someone making individual textile based art & crafts.

I have had a look on some of the other shops on Etsy, but will pick 5 tomorrow to add to my favourites and then 5 next week and so on...

Packaging revisited

I have been looking into my packaging a little further and as you can see, have taken some photos. The boxes arrived in the white outer boxes so I though these would look nice with the ribbon wrapped round them as pretty gift boxes. I have however found a problem in that they are not big enough to hold my necklaces with large cascades and round beads as the boxes aren't deep enough and the lids won't shut!

Back to the drawing board on that one then!

I'm back!

Well i'm back and now a married woman! We had an absoloutely lovely day - the sun shone, the food was superb, we had a fantastic suite booked at the hotel we were married in and neither of us cocked up our words.

It doesn't feel any different to be married to be honest, though it is strange to think I am now Mrs Williams and not Miss Young! And now have a husband and am someone's wife. The next job is to make a list and notify all the people I need to about the name change.

Here's a couple of photographs from the day:


Back to work tomorrow!