Cinnamon Jewellery

The winner of my blog Giveaway for a pair of  Gelert Design  Brass Resin Earrings is.................... (fanfare of choice in your head, work with me!) .......................... Dottie Designs ! I used a random number picker and Dottie was the one! Congratulations Dottie!! Here's what you've won!

As I received two Sunshine Blog Awards this week I've been busy choosing 24 of my favourite blogs to pass the award onto. The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blog world. The rules for accepting the Sunshine award ~ Put the logo on your blog or within your post Pass the award onto 12 bloggers Link the nominees within your post Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award Here are my 24 choices ♥ Vintage Milly Beads By Laura Birgitta Designs Cam Creations Crafty Chicita Flutterbies Gallimaufry Jive's Jools Linda G. Jones Blog Marice's World My Beady Eye Soapy Chica Turn Left At The Pigs Willow Wire Creations Chinook Jewelry Talulah Blue SteamPunk Glass Pretty Goods Midsummer Stitches Jewellery Designs By Sarah Birt A Simple Melody ARE Jewellery Dee's Unique Handcrafted Jewellery Experiments With ...

Yesterday I was very pleased to find I'd been awarded three, yes three! blog awards! Two Sunshine Blog Awards from Sue of  BlueBoxStudio and faeryatrix  and an I Love Craft Blogs award from Hilary of haptree and me ! I guess I'm going to be busy deciding who to pass the awards onto, only 24+ blogs to choose! I'll post who I've chosen tomorrow. I'm gonna need a big bag of Maltesers for energy before I start :D New Earrings I'm just about to list these on Folksy ~ I can't believe after making wirework jewellery for 2 years this is the first time I've made these twisted coil links! I really like the look of them so no doubt will make some more! These are made from 16g Sterling Silver wire and yes, it's another spiral design. I love spirals, can you tell? Don't forget! Enter the Giveaway below to win a pair of Gelert Design Brass Resin earrings.  The winner will be chosen on Saturday!

As I didn't have time to do a Folksy  Finds last Friday I thought I'd make up for it and do one mid-week! This time I've indulged myself and gone for my favourite colour ~ Purple ♥ The links to the Folksy shops are below the photos ~ 1. Lavender ~  Fleurs De Perles 2. Purple Leaf Ceramic Pendant ~ Dottery Pottery 3. Purple Circles and Squares Cushion ~  Handmade By Louisa 4. Glass Pearl Bracelet ~  Laura Cameron 5. Purple Spot Overnight Bag ~  PIDGEONSTITCH 6. Purple Tree ~ Sascalia I love all of these picks because they're purple ♥  and I've made a promise to treat myself to a print from Sascalia when I reach 50 sales in my Folksy shop! Don't forget to enter my blog Giveaway for a chance to win a gorgeous pair of Brass Resin earrings by Gelert Design . Just visit his shop, pick your favourite item then leave a comment saying what you'd like to see more of in his shop. The winner will be chosen on Saturday ...

I donned my reporter's hat recently and asked Dave of Folksy shop Gelert Design  to answer a few probing questions. He willingly obliged plus answered the all important curry question. Dave then very generously offered a pair of his Coldcast Brass Earrings as a prize for a Giveaway! Enjoy his interview then enter the Giveaway! Details at the bottom.................. Please introduce yourself. What type of craft do you specialise in? Gelert Design, but you can call me Dave :-) Born and raised on the edge of stunning Snowdonia, I've moved around a bit and finally settled in Bristol with my incredibly supportive and patient partner Eva. I'm not sure I do specialise to be honest. Perhaps you could say that I'm primarily a sculptor? Certainly I don't wan't to just be known for making fridge magents!:) I'm forever getting excited by new ideas or new applications for what I'm making. Apart from cards made from my paintings, everything else I do...

Browsing eBay and some of the UK bead sites I was amazed at the variety in price of Sterling Silver fish hook earwires, ranging from 38p a pair to 95p each! I used to use them in my jewellery a few years ago and also sold them on eBay but now I make my own. As a result I have rather a lot taking up space in my beadbox (one of many!) So I've decided to sell them on Folksy for what I think is a fair price of 35p per pair. I'm selling them in packs of 10 and 20 pairs. All are .925 stamped with coil detail and measuring 18mm from top to bottom. Visit my Folksy shop  to grab a bargain!

The new Folksy IndieSmiles columnists have been busy! There are now several articles by Amanda (Chicita), Amy (AmyOrangeJuice) and Nat (HarveysCraftyCards) on IndieSmiles ! Covering topics including approaching shops and galleries with a view to selling your items, setting up a craft fair, Folksy seller interviews and what lies behind a shop's name, there's a lot of interesting stuff to read. Don't forget to leave a comment! Grab A Link! IndieSmiles are offering a new way to advertise your shop. For just $1.00 (approx. 64p) for two days a link to your shop will appear at the top of an article. A great idea if your shop has been featured in the article or if the article relates to you and your creations! Grab A Link Now!

I'm a natural brunette, very dark brown with a red tint in the sun which is great, I love having dark hair. It only becomes a problem when you get a bit older and the dreaded greys start to appear. I think I was 28 when I first noticed the "odd" grey hair - you know the ones with a different texture that stick straight up. So out came the tweezers. But now I'm in my 40's, (I can't bring myself to say which one!) I'm fighting a losing battle. I have a lovely 61 year old blonde friend who doesn't appear to have any grey hairs - she does, I keep telling her, you just can't see them yet! After telling myself I should just go with it and go grey gracefully and do I really want to get to 65 and still be dying my hair dark brown I decided I couldn't stand it anymore. I'm no hair dye virgin, I started colouring my hair when I was 14 with Toners (does anyone remember them?!) Little sachets of temporary colour that you left on for 20 minute...

I've been busy over the weekend making some jewellery for my Etsy shop, well most of it's for Etsy! I finished oxidising and polishing it this morning and as it was sunny took some photos too ~♥~ ~♥~ Rhyolite & Copper "RainForest" Bracelet ~♥~ ~♥~ Silver Groove Earrings ~♥~ ~♥~ "Eternal" Turquoise & Agate Sterling Silver Wirewrapped Earrings These were going to go on Etsy but I decided to list them on Folksy instead ~♥~ ~♥~♥~♥~ Enough of this shameless plugging, I'm off...........there's a KitKat Chunky (or is it a Chunky KitKat?) in the cupboard with my name on it!

IndieSmiles  has four new Folksy columnists! They are Amanda of Folksy shop Chicita, Amy of amyorangejuice, Elle of Elles Designs and  Natalie of Harveys Crafty Cards. They will be writing Folksy and craft~related articles and interviewing Folksy sellers so get in contact with them if you would like to be featured and increase your shop views! I've already read a couple of the articles and they are really interesting and informative. A great competition starts on IndieSmiles on March 1! If you visit IndieSmiles you will see a little bird with an empty speechbubble in the header. IndieSmiles wants to know what the birdie is saying! A special judge (yet to be announced) will choose the best entry and the winner will receive a cool handmade prize donated by one of the IndieSmiles columnists. Worth a go I think! Did you know you can advertise your shop on IndieSmiles for just $1 for a whole week? In case you're wondering why I ke...

This week I've gone all sort of woody, I don't know why! Here's some of the beautiful handcrafted wooden delights you can find on Folksy....... Links to each shop below the photos 1. Driftwood Wallclock by Knottyburr Wood Crafts 2. Yew Bowl by Bodrighy Wood 3. Twisted and Fractured Heart by Wood Jewellery 4. Wooden Beaded Necklace by Ravenwolf Design 5. Ilsa Earrings by mymiyel 6. Sycamore Sketch Book by Tree Gems I particularly love the Sycamore Sketch Book with the inset amonite slice ♥

Selling anything handmade online can be challenging with the handmade jewellery sector being particularly competitive. Take a look on Folksy and Etsy and you will see hundreds and thousands of jewellery shops. What a choice! From the traditional to the quirky, how do all these jewellery-makers attract sales? Getting the basics right obviously helps - well-made products, good quality materials and well presented photographs are all very important to getting those sales. But how do you make YOUR jewellery standout from the crowd? Being a jewellery designer myself that's a question I'd really like to know the answer to! I asked three  Folksy sellers who make jewellery that's a bit different from the "norm" what made them decide to step away from the more traditional types of jewellery. Fee of  Niche Handmade has been crafting for as long as she can remember and likes to try her hand at everything at least once! Fee uses vintage illustrations and turns them in...

Yes, I do infact have an Etsy shop. Something that I have to remind myself of occasionally. I opened it in September and had a couple of sales. Then I discovered Folksy . And we all know what that means! I've now become totally obssessed with my Folksy shop, the forums, making jewellery for my (you've guessed it) Folksy shop, reading other Folksy sellers' blogs, doing Folksy picks, promoting my Folksy shop, doing interviews with Folksy sellers.............anything and everything  to do with the "F" word. The time has come I feel that I have to return to the land of Etsy and MAKE AN EFFORT! I must admit I didn't have a blog when I started on Etsy and I wasn't on Facebook either so couldn't promote it that way. To be honest I didn't really promote it at all apart from in the Design Gallery on Lima Beads , where I got most of my sales (well, 4 out of a huge 5 sales!). Lima Beads is a great site by the way and you can post photos of your j...

The latest Folksy seller article titled "Clever Sew And Sew" is now on IndieSmiles ! It features Zoe of Top Floor Treasures , Kate of Bluebell And Rosie  and Gemma of SugarAndRhubarb . The cute photo of the embroidered picture on the left also in the article is by Folksy seller Kerry of  Hello Monkey . I asked Zoe, Kate and Gemma what was it about sewing they loved, where they buy their materials and whether they recycle.  I don't enjoy sewing and will avoid it if I can but looking at the beautiful things these three Folksy sellers produce it does make me wish I could get over my needle-aversion! Buttefly Pencil Case ~ Top Floor Treasures An English Romance Tea Cosy ~ Sugar And Rhubarb Westie Fabric Wall Hanging ~ Bluebell And Rose Creep Alert! IndieSmiles are running a competition for their columnists during February to see who can get the most comments for an article so if any of you lovely people want to leave a comment on IndieSmiles at the end of...

Zoe of Folksy shop Top Floor Treasures  has turned into an intrepid roving reporter and is doing a series of interviews with Folksy sellers and other arty~crafty types. You can read the second interview she did with me on her blog ! It was nice to be answering the questions for a change instead of asking them for the articles I write about Folksy sellers for IndieSmiles! Thanks Zoe!

What a lovely surprise when today turned out to be bright and sunny. I immediately thought "Get the camera out, get some photos taken before it rains again!" I made some earrings yesterday and finished oxidising and polishing them this morning so out came the props for my photos, in other words pebbles, back went the curtains and I started snapping! I've just finished editing the photos and thought I'd put them on here before they go on Folksy ~