Who Loves Pink?

Pink topaz is my favourite gemstone.

Amazing stones by ForTheLoveOfBeads

http://www.etsy.com/listing/91382353/pink-topaz-oval-shape-checker-cut

If pink is your favourite colour, then pink topaz is the obvious choice. I love it all, from the palest pink:

Pink topaz flower necklace

http://www.etsy.com/listing/83425500/pink-topaz-necklace-flower-wrapped-gold

To the deepest hot pink:

Hot pink topaz emerald cut necklace

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80802021/pink-topaz-necklace-silver-emerald-cut

It pairs beautifully with citrine:

Gorgeous earrings by TaylorMadeJewelry

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75083617/citrine-sapphire-pink-topaz-and-gold

And I love how pink topaz complements amethyst as well:

Elegant earrings by LeBijouPrecieux

http://www.etsy.com/listing/69294116/ready-to-ship-february-birthday-purple

And then there are the stones that make you want to cry:

Keishi pearl necklace in gold with pink topaz focal

http://www.etsy.com/listing/83393619/hot-pink-topaz-necklace-with-keishi

What is your favourite gemstone?

The Joy of Custom Orders

When you design jewellery, custom requests are inevitable. They take more time, and they often result in a lower profit because of it. But custom orders are a unique challenge, and I welcome them because for me there is nothing more fulfilling than creating something for a customer that is unique to them. Something that matches their taste, their wedding dress, their frame or their style. It's a challenge, and it's an exciting one.

I recently was contacted by a customer who was getting married in Hawaii. Her dress was floor-length, strapless and gauzy. The best part? This incredible dress was swirls of royal blue, purple and hot pink. Just perfect for a Hawaiian wedding on the beach. Obviously, the traditional pearl earrings just wouldn't do. So together we designed a pair of long, bright earrings dripping with colourful gemstones including swiss blue topaz, hot pink topaz and amethyst. The size suited her 5'8" frame, and really complemented her amazing dress:

Wedding jewellery can be so different, as unique as the brides wearing them. This necklace I made for a friend of mine who was married last year. It was a Fall wedding which included browns and oranges and leaves - no flowers. My friend had very little input on her jewellery, so when she came to see it for the first time, it was a bit nerve-wracking. After all, this was her wedding jewellery! Luckily, she loved it:

A wedding is a great reason to buy a custom piece of jewellery, but sometimes you just want something that suits your style exactly. Another customer contacted me about a pair of earrings in my shop, and asked if I could make a matching necklace. I had just enough tiny orange-pink sapphire stones to create this matching piece for her:

When a designer offers custom pieces, it's a way of saying, "you don't have to fit into my jewellery; my jewellery will be made to fit you." Another of my customers has small wrists, and needs to have bracelets made quite a bit smaller. No problem. This is one of her most recent purchases (oh, and she had me make a matching necklace and earrings too):

Sometimes buyers like what they see in my shop, but they want different colours. I had made a necklace similar to the one below, but in more subtle shades. My customer preferred bright, so bright is what we did!

And nice, bright matching hoop earrings too:

Finally, the best part of offering custom orders for me is when a customer helps me come up with a really great design. I had made some rainbow hoops a while back, with all different gemstones including ruby, amethyst, citrine and tourmaline. I didn't know if they would be popular, but I had so much fun making them because it took me back to the days of drawing rainbows and unicorns as a child. Fun, colourful and cheerful. A lovely woman contacted me and asked if I could make a rainbow bangle, and this is what we came up with:

I liked it so much I added another one to my shop! I really enjoyed choosing the stones that blend from one colour to another, and the best part is that this bangle will go with any outfit.

When I opened my shop, I wasn't prepared for so many of my requests to be custom requests. But I'm happy that it's working out that way, and grateful to my customers for inspiring new designs.

My only regret? Why, oh why did I not learn how to make jewellery 13 years ago when I got married? I could have become my own happy customer.

Have a Successful Jewellery Party

Who doesn't love a party?

That was my thought when I decided to pursue jewellery parties as a supplement to my online sales. You know when you think something will be really easy and then it's actually not?

Well, these are that easy.

Not that they don't take any work. They do. Jewellery parties take planning, hard work, creativity and some investment. But once you have your jewellery displayed and the guests start to arrive, you will have some fun.

My First Open House

I held my first open house in late Fall. I wanted to catch shoppers before they had completed too much of their Christmas shopping. I invited all of my friends and neighbours and told them that their friends were welcome as well. I printed invitations (Wal-Mart, 50 cents each) and handed them out. I purchased necklace busts, bracelet bars, a gorgeous iron earring tree, and velvet-lined trays. I made earring cards from DIY business cards that I bought from Staples. I made sure I had enough boxes, gift bags, business cards, ribbon, and cash on hand to make change.

My open house was small, but profitable. Because every guest was a friend, I felt comfortable and relaxed that night, and it was a dry run for future parties. It also gave me an excuse to test my display layout and see what worked (earrings attached to bright white earring cards) and what didn't (one overhead lighting fixture=not nearly enough light for an evening party).

I had a draw for a free pair of earrings, and on the draw sheets I asked guests to check off whether or not they would like to host a party. Once I had those slips, I knew who to approach and who was not interested.

I quickly learned that food was not the draw. Even though I had made some goodies, the focus of the party was the jewellery and no one even sampled the food. The wine disappeared though!

When everyone left, I was tired and happy. I had sold about ten pieces of jewellery, and it hadn't felt like work at all. It was like a girls' night in!

Party Girl

Since that first open house, I have held four more parties. Some have been at friends' homes, others at my Mom's (thanks Mom!) and another at my own home. Each time has been successful, and so much fun. I am so grateful to my friends and family for hosting, and for showing me such support.

My Mom's dining room a.k.a. "Nancy's jewellery shop"

My favourite earring tree, all decked out

One thing that I have learned is that each party is very different. At my first open house I sold almost all earrings. I thought, "okay, earrings will be my big seller". At my very next party at a friend's house, I sold all bracelets and necklaces and only one pair of earrings. At my first open house, no one went near the food. At my Mom's party, every plate of food my Mom set out was devoured. (Maybe that says something about my cooking?)

Also, just because you have perfected your jewellery display once doesn't mean that your work is done. Every time I threw a party, my combination of product had changed. My most expensive bracelet used to be $110, so I had made a little tent card that said, "Bracelets $65 - $110". Then I went and made a $195 bracelet and all of a sudden that card was useless. I also started making bangles and anklets, and didn't have any displays, so I just improvised (I've got a bangle display and a great foot on order now!)

For those who sell jewellery, I recommend trying an open house in your own home first. You can set up your display the night before, and perfect it at your leisure. There's less pressure because you will know most, if not all of your guests. There's no driving and no booth fee to speak of.

The only drawback? You'll have to clean your house.

Happy Selling!

My Recipes (they're good - really!)

Dump Cake

1 yellow cake mix

1 19oz. tin crushed pineapple, unsweetened

1 tin cherry (or any fruit) pie filling

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup chopped almonds

Spread pineapple in oiled 9x13 pan. Cover with pie filling. Sprinkle dry cake mix over top. Drizzle melted butter and nuts on top. Do not stir. Bake 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Top with whipped cream.

I got this classic recipe from my Grandma. She had written to my Mom on the recipe card: "Don't know if you have this. It's BIG and GOOD!" She wasn't kidding.

Herbal Iced Tea

4 teabags lemon zinger tea

4 teabags raspberry zinger tea

apple juice

Fill a pitcher halfway with boiling water and steep all 8 teabags for ten minutes. Remove teabags. Fill rest of pitcher with apple juice and stir.

This recipe is from Ina Garten - LOVE her recipes!

My Etsy Shop is Three Months Old!

So much has happened in the last three months.

I finally, after a year and a half of planning, researching and creating, opened my jewellery shop on etsy. I threw myself into my shop and barely came up for air.

Before I knew it, three months had gone by - how did that happen?

While jewellery isn't flying off the shelves, I am pleased and surprised with my success so far. I have met some wonderful customers; worked with brides, boyfriends and Moms; held several jewellery parties and grew my little shop to almost 300 pieces.

My photography has definitely improved. This is one of my earlier shots:

I thought this was pretty good. After all, it had only taken hours of work and countless shots. (No joke). I had no lightbox, no tripod and no daylight bulbs. But once I got those tools in place, things started to look up. This is the same pair of earrings now:

I knew that if I was to be successful on etsy or any other online venue, I had to have decent photos. Photography is still challenging for me, but thank goodness there has been some improvement. Where I used to take about 50 shots to get four good ones, I now take 5-10. What a time saver! I can't tell you how much this changed my life. Now photography is not the dreaded chore it once was.

Another surprise is that I am doing more custom work than I thought I would. Sometimes customers are just looking for sterling instead of gold, or a longer or shorter bracelet. But other times I have designed a piece specifically for a customer. My most recent order was for a Toronto bride getting married in Hawaii. Her dress is strapless, gauzy, floor length, and swirls of bright blue, purple and pink. It was the most colourful wedding dress I've seen, and perfect for a wedding in Hawaii. The bride is 5'8" and wanted some really long, bold earrings. Together we designed these to match:

Swiss blue topaz, aquamarine, amethyst and hot pink topaz. She is so happy with them! Wish I could accompany them to Hawaii . . .

So in all, the last three months have been wonderful. My Spring goal is to work on my marketing and promotion. Like all etsy sellers, I am always looking to be seen. Now that I have a full shop, there's certainly lots to see!

Bring on Spring!

My Daughter - Future Artist?

Up until now, this blog has been about my slight obsession with jewellery design. But today I took a break from creating and tackled a more difficult project - weeding through my daughter's drawings and schoolwork from last year. Lauren is 5, and LOVES to draw. She is just like I was at her age. She draws almost every day which means that, between schoolwork and endless drawings from home, every year I end up with a pile that looks like this:

Each year I promise myself that I will go through her drawings throughout the year so I don't have to do this. But it never happens - life gets in the way. So at the start of each school year I sit down on the floor surrounded by my daughter's creations, and go through them one by one. It's a daunting task - not only because there's so many, but because I really find it hard to let any of them go. I am a tosser by nature. I love to be organized, I love the act of organizing, I actually look forward to cleaning out my closets. But since the first day my 18-month old daughter brought home a paper with a small scribble in the center, I couldn't bring myself to get rid of any of her work. I don't think anyone who hasn't been a parent would really understand such an attachment, but the act of taking anything that my daughter made and placing it in a garbage can was really hard for me. Still, the logical side of me said that we would soon need a bigger house if I chose to keep it all.

Well, after an hour or so of contemplation, I got the pile down to this:

This is pretty good; I think I'm getting better at this. Here are a few highlights from my budding artist:

Princesses continue to be a favourite theme, always with long dresses, long hair and long eyelashes.

Sometimes Lauren copies characters from her favourite movies, like this one from Monsters Inc. (the words at the top are, "I C Mom. I C Dad".

Apart from horses, giraffes are still her favourite animal.

Bugs were big for a while. This one looks rather surprised to have letters on her body.

And ladybugs - the perpetual favourite of little girls.

Finally, the ones that are impossible to throw away. There are countless drawings of

three people: a woman, a very tall man and a little girl. Go figure.

I love you too, little artist.

Finding My Own Style

When I started on this journey a year ago, I had no idea where it would take me. I wanted to make gemstone jewellery, and that's about the only direction I had. So I set out making anything and everything, with some vague idea about what I wanted my pieces to look like.

Teaching myself to wrap with sterling wire took some time and patience, but was relatively easy. Once I

knew it, I knew it. Photography was a bigger challenge, but again, with lots of practice and a few choice pieces of equipment, this became easier too.

What I didn't expect is the long road I would take to finding my own style. As I said, I was so excited about making jewellery that I just made anything. I used stones and findings that I liked, played around with them until I liked the design, and assembled it. Done, and onto the next piece.

But how was I going to make myself seen in the huge ocean of jewellery sellers? Any given search for "earrings" on etsy alone yields thousands of listings. How would buyers find mine, and if they did, why buy my jewellery over the others?

Developing my personal style evolved over several months. I honestly don't think that it's something one can force, or speed up. My style showed itself slowly, as I looked at the pieces I'd made. I compared the old ones, like the citrine and pink amethyst bracelet above, and the newer pieces, like these blue topaz earrings:

Suddenly I realized that, without intending to, I was developing my own style.

How do I define this style?

- tiny stones

- small organic-shaped pearls

- colourful

- feminine, elegant and delicate

- clusters of stones and pearls

- double and triple strands

What is your style and how did you discover it?

New Jewellery Line for Little Girls

So a couple of posts ago I wrote about my struggle over my line of jewellery for little girls. While I pictured myself using lampwork animal beads (too cute!), swarovski crystals, silver-plated chain, the U.S. government said, "Nuh-uh. If you do that, you have to send every item to a lab for testing". Oh.

So anyway, I have since decided to go to Plan B, which is to design birthstone and heirloom jewellery for girls using only sterling silver, genuine gemstones and freshwater pearls. Pricier yes, but exempt from testing. Rather than be an impulse Christmas present from Santa, my jewellery will be more a special birthday gift from Grandma, or a special flower girl gift.

I have just started on this little adventure, and found that it's a lot of fun to design for little girls. After all, they enjoy beautiful, sparkly things as much as grown women do, and can appreciate jewellery just as much. Of course, because I'm focussing on birthstone jewellery, if I make one necklace, I have to make 11 more in all different stones!

Not sure how well they will sell, or if anyone will even look at them. But I'm having fun.

And I'm lucky enough to have a very willing, very beautiful model to show off my new designs:

It's All Coming Together

So today I picked up a very large package from the post office. Recently I ordered from an awesome etsy seller, a whole selection of display items for my jewellery. The order was delivered in about 2 weeks!


It was like Christmas morning when I unwrapped it - almost as much fun as a new gemstone order. I got eight plastic trays, eight dark purple velvet inserts, two long bracelet bars and 100 dark purple jewellery boxes. Everything was even nicer than I had anticipated, especially the velvet inserts. Because my colour scheme is dark purple, I just couldn't resist them.

I just had to lay out some of my pieces to see how they looked . . .



So now I have almost everything I need for my first open house. The iron earring display stand is on it's way, my business cards are designed and will be on order soon, my price tags have arrived and my packaging is complete.


Now on to the guest list!

My etsy shop is (almost) open!

I'm very excited. The other day I received the graphics from Lynda, of ExquisiteExpressions (http://www.exquisiteexpressions.etsy.com/), for my Etsy shop. She surpassed my expectations, and I would therefore recommend her to anyone starting or revamping their shop. I sent her some product photos and some notes on what kind of style and tone I wanted, and she nailed it. The day that I uploaded my banner and avatar to my etsy shop finally made the whole venture seem real. Never mind that I don't have any items listed yet (small detail). Check out my banner:

She captured the elegant, feminine and classy look that I wanted and maintained a custom look by using my earrings. The business card is just as lovely and I can't wait to get them printed:

The other shop that I have (sort of) opened is called MyFirstJewellery and focusses on birthstone and heirloom jewellery for girls. For these graphics I sent her a few photos of my daughter Lauren, taken a couple of years ago. She was spinning around in her fancy dress before we left for a family wedding. I thought these pictures would evoke the spirit of this shop perfectly. Here's what she did with the banner:

And the business card:

Wow. What talent. Paying for graphics was some of the best money I ever spent. After all, I know what I am good at, and it is not graphic design. I see sellers in the etsy forums all the time, asking why they have no sales, what can they do to improve their shops, and when I look, their shops have banners that are obviously made themselves or cut-and-paste banners with no originality. Now, I'm not saying that a banner will make or break your shop, but it IS the first thing that customers see. Why would you not pay the $20, $30 or $40 to have an expert make it right? I'm so glad I did.

Safe for Kids?

So for the last while I have been making cute little necklaces and bracelets for little girls as well as grown-up ones. My plan was to market these on etsy as well, under the name Jigglers (an inside joke between my daughter and I). So here I am, buying up silver-plated chain and charms, really cute lockets, some swarovski crystal and handmade lampwork beads, thinking I have a plan in place. Then I realized that children's items need to be tested for safety. Duh. Didn't know that part! From the etsy forums, which I have a new addiction to, I learned that any item marketed to children and sold to the U.S. must only use tested materials and/or be tested by a lab. Well, I bought these materials from other etsy sellers, who may or may not have intended them for children, so there is no way that they have completed this testing. And for me to send each and every necklace and bracelet to an independent lab for testing is a bit out of my budget, especially when I look to make about $10 profit, if any. (This was going to be more a labour of love than a money-maker for me).

Now, don't get me wrong. I am all for safe products for our children, and would not want to potentially harm anyone. I just see my dream of a cute, colourful little girls' etsy shop sort of blowing away in the wind.

So . . . on to Plan B. Now I am going to shift to sterling jewellery for little girls. No silver plate, no glass beads, no enamel, no Swarovski (which does contain lead). On to "my first jewellery", with only solid sterling and real stones, birthstone jewellery and sterling charm bracelets. (Sterling silver is exempt from this testing and deemed to be safe). Stay tuned for my first designs . . .

As for now, help me say goodbye to my old favourites that *sniff* will never be sold:

Picture-Taking - The Ups and Downs

Let me just say that I am no photographer. I never wanted to BE a photographer. However, when you plan to sell your wares online, excellent pictures are not just nice, they are imperative. My jewellery is going to be mixed in with thousands of other pieces on etsy (why did I have to pick the most saturated category?) and they need to stand out. So often I spend more time behind the camera than I do making jewellery.

I have seen a lot of improvement though, which keeps me motivated. (Look at my early blog posts if you don't believe me!) As soon as I got a light box, hauled out the tripod and the remote, and got to work, my photos started to look so much better. However, it was the addition of a crummy little worklight from Scott's garage that made the most difference. Now I can move it around the jewellery, taking shots at different angles, to see what makes the gems truly sparkle. I hope he knows he's not getting that worklight back.

So above are four shots I took the other day. I'm not sure which I will use; etsy allows five pictures for each listing, but one will be of my packaging, so I have four to choose from. I also will allocate one photo to show the earrings hanging, and one taken directly overhead. That's the other thing I spend an inordinate amount of time doing: sorting, deleting, editing and cropping.

I have a newfound respect for photographers. It is a LOT of work (at least for me), and truly and art form in itself. Now, back to the camera!

Fast-forward 7 Months!

I can't believe it's been seven months since I started this blog. When I first wrote, we were looking forward to Christmas - now summer is here and school is (gulp!) almost finished. Of course, having the G8 Summit here right now is forcing a lot of kids, my daughter included, to take a mini-holiday. We watched President Obama fly over us this morning in Marine One - very cool.

So while a lot of time has passed, my dedication (okay, addiction) to making jewellery has not ended. If anything, it has become even stronger. Every spare penny - and let's face it - there are very few pennies these days - is spent on gemstones and findings, and every spare moment is spent in my craft room. If I'm lucky, Lauren will be here with me, drawing and colouring and playing on the computer. If I'm not lucky, she is whining, "Momeeeee! Play with meeeee! from another room. Ah, the joys of working from home.

So my latest creations featured here are Swiss Blue Topaz and Moonstone earrings, and Rhodolite Garnet and Iolite earrings, both in gold vermeil. Because I only wear sterling and white gold, I never thought I would make yellow gold jewellery. But I learned quite quickly that some stones just look so much better with yellow gold: garnet, pink topaz, blue topaz, peridot, citrine - the list goes on. So I do some of each, and will offer to make the same style in the other metal, should my customer request this.

Right now (in fact, at any given moment), my work table is full of half-finished pieces. These pieces are waiting for a clasp, or a link, or a stone, or else they are just lingering there, waiting for me to make a decision. The funny thing about any project, I think, is that sometimes you can put something aside that's not working, only to come back to it a few weeks later and know exactly what to do! It's like your brain needed time to hash it out while you were sleeping.

I wonder if I'll write again before another seven months have passed . . .

I wonder, is there any way that I could just make jewellery all day and someone else can photograph it, do my accounting and filing and generally take care of everything else to do with my business? I guess that's called a partner. I find it a lot easier to spend hours on the development and creation of my pieces, but when it comes time for everything else, it feels like that dreaded "w" word - "work". Until now, it's felt a lot like "play"!

However, when I do get a decent photograph that accurately represents my piece, it is exciting. I know how important photographs are to selling online, so I refuse to post any jewellery until my photos are up to snuff. I already see an improvement over my first few sessions, but then I compared the recent ones to etsy sellers like PoleStar and realized I have a LONG way to go! I'm determined, though, so given enough time, I'm sure I'll get there!

As for the rest of the boring business details, I'm taking that slow. I had hoped to have my etsy shop up before Christmas, but I can see that's not going to happen. I don't even have my velvet bags yet, so I can't take a proper picture of my packaging. All in good time, I guess!

On a brighter note, I made a really pretty red coral necklace last night. I always figure a piece is a success when I feel a distinct desire to keep it for myself! I also started a couple of lariats, but am waiting for my headpins before I can finish. Must remember: don't run out of headpins! I did make a couple of bracelets that I'm happy with though. One is two different shades of blue pearls that I have had since Orangeville, and the other using the beautiful peridots I got from Bamiyan.

New Design

Yesterday I worked on a new design for my upcoming etsy business. Up until now I have only been working with gemstones. But I found some beautiful swarovski pearls in a powder almond colour and just had to buy them. Then I found a rhinestone pendant, also by swarovski, and the design just came together. Originally it was going to be a choker, but the asymmetrical design lent itself better to a slightly longer necklace. Now, I know there are hundreds, probably thousands of jewellery pieces being sold on etsy using swarovski pearls, but now I know why. They have a great weight to them, a beautiful luster, and are a real pleasure to work with. I find that this almond colour goes equally well both with sterling and gold-filled wire, which makes the colour very accommodating. Now I am on to making some matching earrings!