With Halloween just around the corner on Monday, I hope whatever your plans are this weekend, you enjoy and treat yourself well!
Have a fabulous Friday!
Fab Spooky Friday!
categories: Uncategorized
Tag: online store
Jewellery for a brave adventurous princess
categories: editorial, Uncategorized
My niece CC was born 5 years ago this July, I had been debating what to gift her. Over the years I have tried to stick to educational, not traditionally “for girls” type gifts as she’s a brilliant young human being and I’ve always wanted to encourage that mind to grow. She’s part dreamer, scientist, astronaut and princess all rolled into one (among other things). I admire CC immensely. She has no biases and places no limits on herself. She is a marvel to watch. Not having children of my own, I hold adamantly to the rule that I need to follow her parents’ lead. I pay attention to how they speak to her and discipline her and try follow suit, consistency is magic for kids! This year, leading up to her birthday I was chatting with her Mom about gifts and party plans. Though I live far away I like to keep in touch as much as I can. CC’s Mom told me that CC had requested a princess dress for her birthday party so I asked if gifting her a set of princess jewellery would be acceptable. Mom agreed, jewellery would be perfect!
As you all may have noticed by now, I LOVE pearls. Diamonds just aren’t my thing. So I thought a set of classic pearls would be great for CC. A little bit of me, gifted to her. Something she can keep over the years. I made them slightly long so they should last the next few years and if ever it becomes necessary I can always adjust the sizing of them down the road. She can have this set of pearls forever, if that’s what she decides to do. This set is made with gold Swarovski crystal pearls in 6 MM with silver filled findings. A very classic colour for pearls in a classic, simple design. At the time I didn’t know what dress CC ended up picking for herself so I wanted a versatile set that would go with anything.
Mom reports that CC LOVED her jewellery and wore it all weekend long. Nothing makes an auntie happier than hearing that!
Tips and Tricks – Natural Silver Polish
I had my first art sale in over a year last month and when I took all my jewellery out to prep it I noticed the silver had tarnished. This is, of course, to be expected but I still had a brief panic about what to do. I do not like using harsh chemicals, all products in my home are natural so I decided to google natural silver polish options and found numerous articles about using baking soda.
My fiancé ran out to grab a soft toothbrush for me while I got everything ready. I laid out all the pieces that needed polishing on some microfiber cloths, set aside another cloth for drying afterwards. I prepared my baking soda paste (baking soda and warm water) and got started!
I was skeptical at first that it would do a good job, but with just a little light scrubbing…
Turns out I was very happy with the results! It didn’t scratch or damage the silver in any way, which was a concern since baking soda is abrasive. I polished up all my silver pieces in no time and got everything rinsed, dried and packed up for the next day! I’m always so excited when I find natural cleanser and options for household products so I thought I’d share this one with all of you!
To sell jewellery online…
categories: editorial, Uncategorized
When Robyn and I first decided we were going to make jewellery we set out to sell at local art shows, people could see our items in person and the jewellery would speak for itself. I’d make a piece, snap a picture, like what you see over to the right and then move on.
Over the last couple years we’ve both had a lot of positive changes in our lives but these have made it so that attending art shows in person is a much bigger challenge then it was before. Robyn started to focus more on our ETSY store during this time. She already had a good understanding of websites and of photography and I was happy to let her run with it as this was well within her comfort zone. Then Robyn got married and had a baby and I started to feel like I should pitch in more (a lot more) with the online store side of our business.
I figured out the ETSY store and website pretty quickly but soon realized I was going to have to start posting, and more importantly, taking and editing my own jewellery pictures. Oh man! Who knew that to sell jewellery online, you also had to be a talented photographer? I was feeling well out of my element on this one so I enlisted the help of a good friend and very talented photographer, Dano Tanaka (check out his work here: https://www.facebook.com/danotanakaillustrator). I bought a mid-range fancy new camera, a mini home studio and set to my task.
The image below is the result of the last few months of learning. As with anything else in life, I feel I have a long way to go and will enjoy continuing to improve this new skill and perhaps even apply it to other projects. However, I am pretty happy with what I think are noticeable improvements in the quality of my images. I’m grateful to Robyn and Dano for their patience and support throughout this learning process.
Roxy
Sending all our love to you – revamped shipping costs
categories: Etsy Shop
After uploading some new items to our Etsy store and then taking a look around, I noticed that the shipping costs on all the items were pretty inconsistent. I’m pleased to say that I spent a bit of time this morning and straighened that out! All of our items will ship worldwide, and buying multiple items means significant savings on shipping costs.
While we’d love to meet all of you and say thank you face-to-face, it’s impossible to jet around the world to do so. (I wish!) However, if you live in the Ottawa/Gatineau region we’d love to do just that. Use the coupon code LOCAL2OTTAWA and we’ll hand-deliver your purchase.
Treasure Hunt – using Etsy treasuries
categories: Uncategorized
I’ve been using Etsy for around a year and a half, and have been enjoying playing around with some of its features. There’s a great one called Treasuries, where users can collect images of favourite items and show off these collections to the Etsy community. Treasuries can be created by anyone – shoppers, sellers, and general Etsy fans alike. Anyone with an Etsy account can create them.
Treasuries will usually have a theme. Some will revolve around items of a certain colour. Others will be seasonal, showing Christmas- or Valentine’s-themed items. Still others involve themes like movies, or nature, or a time period. The Etsy user collects up to 16 different items to fit the theme. Add a great title, a description, and some tags, and you’re officially the curator of a treasury!
Curating (Etsy’s word for making a treasury) is a lot of fun, and a great excuse to window-shop and see what’s available on the site. I’ve found plenty of great vintage and handmade items while hunting for things to include in my lists, and I’ve even ended up making a few purchases, too. I particularly enjoy the challenge of coming up with unique and unusual themes.
To see some examples, peruse the list of treasuries that I’m curating. Give it a try, it’s a lot of fun!
