Phew!

Like everyone else, I have been very busy recently. Good type of 'busy'.... with Christmas fairs and family gatherings and I even did my first jewellery party.

I have made loads of sales recently and am pleased to announce I am now 'solvent'! I'm not sure whether I have the correct use of that word but what I mean is that when I look at my outgoings (costs of materials, beads, tools, packaging, etc) versus my incomings (sales), I am finally making a profit (a small one, mind you, nothing for the tax man to be worried about!). However, as my husband keeps pointing out... my 'profit' is before I allow myself any payment for my time and if I did that I would be in a huge deficit. It's a good thing I'm having so much fun with this hobby!

I would love to show you some new designs but there has been no time to create anything new. Here are some of my recent custom orders (2 more to make today) and lastly some little 'Fun Flower Earrings' which I made for my Christmas fairs in a range of different colours (these are the frosted pink ones).

I am hoping to have some time over the Christmas break to create some of the designs that have been whirring around in my brain and finish my Hammered Petals and Flowers tutorial.

New designs - Hammered Petals and Flowers

I thought I would share with you some of my new designs which have been evolving at my work table recently. I also have a tutorial on these in the pipeline but just have not had the time to finish it yet.

Hammered Petals Necklaces (all of these are sold but the last 2 are in my Etsy and Folksy shops as ''Made to Order' items or can be custom made with a gemstone of your choice)

I'm calling these 'Funky Hammered Flowers' (with curled back petals)

'Green Aventurine Hammered Flower' (a large pendant with rectangular petals - there is something quite industrial about this design)

'Garnet Hammered Flower' (another big flower with shaped petals - the two photos show the stages of before and after I added some coiled jewels of rubellite garnet rondelles)