New shop - old favourites

I have now opened a Dawanda shop to hopefully draw in some European customers to K S Jewellery Designs. The first pieces I have listed are some of my Textured Disc Earrings. These are proving to be some of my best sellers, so over the Christmas period I made some more and spent some time with my new camera taking photos.

Here is where I need your opinion... in my Etsy shop my thumbnails (i.e. the little pictures that show up in the galleries and lists) are the cropped photos showing more detail of the texture but... in my Dawanda shop I have chosen the first photo to be the one that shows the full view of the earrings.

What I can't decide is which is better - the 'cropped' or the 'full view' thumbnail? The cropped shot is supposed to be a bit more 'arty' and attract your attention amongst all the other jewellery on offer from other sellers... but maybe they are too abstract and potential buyers dismiss them not really understanding the item for sale.

FLOWERS - Fine Silver Textured Disc Earrings

PUDDLES - Fine Silver Textured Disc Earrings

PEBBLES - Fine Silver Textured Disc Earrings

LINES - Fine Silver Textured Disc Earrings

LEAVES - Fine Silver Textured Disc Earrings

DIAMONDS - Fine Silver Textured Disc Earrings

CIRCLES - Fine Silver Textured Disc Earrings

We have a winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered my latest blog giveaway for this Fine Silver Butterfly Pendant. In total, including extra entries for following my blog and blogging about my giveaway, I put over 100 names in my box!

The lucky winner is....

.... Jo (from the blog entitled 'Given to distracting others')

Congratulations Jo - please can you contact me with your details of where to send your prize.

Blog Giveaway - 100 Etsy Sales!

At the end of last year I celebrated lots of things, including my Blogiversary (a year since I started blogging). Now I am delighted to announce I have another thing to celebrate... my 100th sale in my Etsy shop! So to mark this occasion I have decided to have another giveaway.

One lucky winner will receive this Fine Silver Butterfly Pendant from my new Bug range of fine silver handmade charms and jewellery.



To enter this giveaway - simply leave a comment on this post with your details
To double your chances - be a follower of my blog
To triple your chances - blog about this giveaway and send me the link

The winner's name will be drawn on Friday 15th January 2010 - please remember to check back to see if it's you!

Good luck!

BUGS - Fine Silver Charms and Earrings

Before Christmas a customer of mine challenged me to make his wife some fine silver textured disc earrings with a butterfly pattern. This took me on a little journey into making more discs with other insects and began my new line of 'Bug' charms and jewellery.

In my Etsy and Folksy shops you can buy any of the following charms for your own jewellery creations ...

... or I have also made some earrings using the charms.

Click on the photos for more details.

I had lots of fun with my new camera today, not only trying out a new very shiny surface to display my jewellery on ...

... but also trying to capture the winter background of my garden in the snow. It has been a beautiful sunny day here - very bright and VERY cold!

SALE - Coiled Jewel Bangles

In January I shall be reorganising my Etsy and Folksy shops. A lot of the jewellery currently for sale will be removed and reallocated to other selling venues. This will make space for my new jewellery pieces.

Before then I shall be putting some of my pieces up for sale... starting with these Coiled Jewel Bangles. These have been reduced from $65.00 to $45.00 in my Etsy shop and from £40.00 to £30.00 in my Folksy shop.

Happy, Happy, Happy and Happy!

Happy Christmas (a bit belated), Happy Birthday (mine, on Boxing Day), Happy New Year (nearly) and finally... Happy Blogiversary (it's been a year since I've been blogging. Wow, doesn't time fly).

So to celebrate I made these 'Littles Earrings' (fused and hammered fine silver earrings with coiled jewels).

Rubellite Garnet & Amethyst Littles Earrings

(custom order for Christmas)

Kyanite Littles Earrings
(I made these to go with the top I wore on my Birthday)

Garnet & Rhodolite Garnet Littles Earrings

(Another pair I made for myself to wear over Christmas)

And to celebrate my Blogiversary... another Blog giveaway to follow shortly... watch this space!

Snow

It's amazing how a little bit of snow can make things look so beautiful

We took the kids sledging but I got distracted by the scenery

Time to go home for hot chocolate

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.