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!

Packaging

Hello and welcome to June at Northern Dawn! Can't believe its here already. Things will be a bit quiet on here over the next 2 weeks. I am getting married on the 13th so there is a lot going on at the moment. This weekend I am having a dress fitting so Northen Dawn is closed from Thursday 4th June to Sunday 7th, and then again from Wednesday 10th to Monday 15th inclusive. Of course, you can still place an order, they just won't be processed while i'm away.

I have recently been looking into suitable ways of packaging my Jewellery and have invested in some lovely black flocked velvet boxes, which come in a variety of sizes and will be perfect for my earrings, bracelets and cascade and pendant necklaces. I am unsure of how to package my necklaces that are beaded all the way along their length though. I have ordered some black velvet drawstring pouches which are very cute, so they might be used for those necklaces.

I am also thinking of a way to make my packaging a little bit special. Rather than it just arriving in an envelope, something different to make it stand out. One of my bead suppliers, Jilly Beads, always includes a little packet of complementary beads and I think this is a really nice touch. There are so many people out there creating and selling handmade Jewellery something different is certainly required to stand out, so this is my current challenge!