This is Halloween

Or rather, that was Halloween! Blink and you miss things these days! Well, in our case, a horde of children descended on our house to go trick or treating in our neighbourhood (how nice that it was a Saturday night!), that’s my excuse anyway.

But I thought I would show you a few scary bits and pieces that I celebrated the season with! I took part in a Halloween jewellery swap. My partner and I had to make each other some Halloween jewellery. I had actually ordered a rather snazzy lampwork sugar skull focal just before I went away on my big adventure, but sadly it didn’t survive the trip in the post (which was literally just across town), so the artist, Pauline Delaney, kindly offered to make me a new one. Complicating it all was the fact that the first skull was sent in good time for me to receive it before I left on holiday but then took more than a week to travel across town (happily Pauline is local). So I didn’t find out until I got back from my trip, and then it took a little while for Pauline to make and send the replacement.

Anyway. It all got sorted nicely and my skull arrived in the mail. The next challenge was to work out what to do with it. I have to admit to having a bit of designers’ block on what to do. I pulled out lots of beads but couldn’t come up with something I liked. So I turned to Pinterest and went looking for inspiration. And what do you know! I found it! After seeing some skull beads (mostly in earrings I admit) with tasselled skirts, I played around and came up with a sari silk tassel to match the flowers on the back of the skull, flowing from a Fallen Angel Brass black tulip bead cap. The accompanying beads went into a wire wrapped necklace along with a few Czech glass flowers, and Vintaj Arte Metal chain.

While I was in the mood for skulls, I also put together a few pairs of cute earrings, featuring some tiny dyed howlite skulls with floral skirts. A pair of these plus the necklace went off in the mail to my swap partner Janeen, who lives in California.

And on Monday, Dia de los Muertos, aka Day of the Dead (the Mexican holiday which celebrates and honours the dead), I received a marvellous necklace and earrings from Janeen (she received her package that day too!). The necklace she sent me features polymer clay skulls by Staci Louise Smith, and I love it! Thanks again Janeen!

FLASH SALE in my Etsy Shop!

I’m off  on my big US holiday next week so I thought I’d have a quick sale in my Etsy shop before I close it until October. Use the code USHOLIDAY15 to get 20% off any purchase until midnight on Saturday 8th August (that’s in US eastern time, which is 2pm Sunday 9th August in Melbourne, Australia and 5am Sunday 9th of August in the UK). I’ll ship on Monday.

We’re All Ears: Floral February

This month’s We’re All Ears inspiration over on the Earrings Everyday blog comes from a series of mixed media collages featuring watercolour paintings with fresh flowers by Malaysian artist Limzy. Aren’t they stunning!

The first pair of earrings was inspired in part by my favourite series of books (and now TV series) Outlander (or CrossStitch as it was called in Australia and the UK) by Diana Gabaldon, about an English woman who travels back in time to the days of the last Jacobite rebellion in Scotland in the mid-1700s. Her journey back in time is triggered as she reaches to pick blue forget-me-nots at the base of a standing stone in the Scottish Highlands. They are on handmade copper earwires from Rebecca Anderson and feature Czech glass flowers and waxed linen.

The second pair is a dainty pink pair for my daughter’s best friend. It’s fun to think that over the next few years as my girls get older and start wearing earrings, I’ll be making earrings for them and their friends too! This pair is on sterling silver for sensitive young ears and again feature Czech glass flowers.

Pop over to Earrings Everyday for links to other participants in the monthly blog hop!

Facebook auctions are live

In the last few months, a number of Facebook groups devoted to buying and selling jewellery and supplies have popped up. This week marks the debut of the Aussie Artisan Jewellery Buy and Sell group, which as the name suggests, will provide a marketplace for Australian jewellery designers to showcase their wares.

It’s a straightforward concept with an auction approach to selling. The designer lists each piece with a starting price and a Buy it Now (BIN) price and gives a time and date for the auction to finish. Then potential buyers can bid until the auction ends or the BIN price is reached.

Here are the pieces I’ve listed today. If you click on them, it should open up the appropriate photo in Facebook! They are available until Sunday 15 July at noon Australian Eastern time. And the prices are listed in Australian dollars, but don’t let that stop you from bidding. One other thing—I will always post at the most inexpensive rate available, but due to the fragile nature of the components, I have to package them as securely as I can.

Last market for 2013 is tomorrow

Tomorrow’s table at The Handmade Show is my last one for the year, so if you live in Melbourne, come on down and finish off your Christmas shopping! I have loads of pairs of earrings, necklaces and bracelets, and even a few pairs of cufflinks for the sharply-dressed man in your life!

The market runs from 10:30am – 3:30pm and there are stallholders selling all sorts of handmade goodies including candles, cards, clothing, children’s toys, Christmas decorations and more. Activities for the kids include free face painting and a lolly-guessing competition. Cafe Handmade does a mean bacon and egg sandwich, among other delicious offerings. Musical entertainment will be provided by Marisa Rae Quigley. And there’ll be giveaways for market shoppers, including some for the kids.

Hope to see you there!

Saturday 14th December
10.30am – 3.30pm
St. Anthony’s Parish Hall
164 Neerim Rd (cnr Grange Rd), Glen Huntly

Market this weekend

Just a quick post to say I’ll be at Bend and Snap Market in the Melbourne CBD this Sunday from 11am-4pm. It’s a quirky little market in a big gallery space behind the 1000£ Bend Café on Little Lonsdale St. If you’re a Melbourne local, I hope you can come along to see me, and get a bit of Christmas shopping done too.

I’ve only got two more markets left this year after Sunday. I’ll be at the Carnegie Primary School Xmas Craft Market on Friday 6 Dec from 3:30-6:30 and at the last date for The Handmade Show on Saturday 14 December from 10:30-3:30.

Here’s a new necklace and earrings I’ll be selling on Sunday. The pendant is from one of my favourite bead makers:  Natalie Fletcher-Jones of Peruzi, combined with lovely aqua-blue Czech glass and antique silver-plated chain.

Open for Business!

Last night I took a big step into the unknown and pressed Publish on my Etsy shop, Boho Bird Jewellery. It’s something that, to be honest, I have been procrastinating about for months. So it was kind of a relief to put it all out there! At the same time, I am really really nervous—will people like my creations enough to actually buy them?

Currently I only have 12 items listed, I’ll be adding to that over the next couple of weeks—I just need to take some more photos. I’ll try to upload new items every week, Please come and visit—after all, there are only 7 weeks left until Christmas!

If you would like to see my work in person, and you live in or around Melbourne, I will be doing several more craft markets between now and mid-December. You can see the list here.

It’s less than 10 weeks until Christmas …

… are you making your Christmas list yet?

I’ve got a few markets between now and Christmas if you want to do some Christmas shopping.

Tomorrow is the first of three stalls I will have at The Handmade Show, at St Anthony’s Parish Hall on the corner of Neerim and Grange Rds in Glen Huntly. I’ll also be there on 16 November and 14 December. New to this market is the ability to pay by EFTPOS, through special arrangement with the market organisers. If it looks like a good option for me, I’ll sign on for my own EFTPOS setup.

On Sunday 3 November, I will be at the Fitzroy Lions Market, which is at the Fitzroy Victoria Bowling and Sports Club, next to Edinburgh Gardens. I don’t know much about this market, but hopefully it will be a good day with lots of happy shoppers.

And on 24 November, I will be back at the Bend and Snap Market behind the 1000£ Bend Café on Little Lonsdale St in Melbourne CBD. I didn’t have a great day at this market last month, so fingers crossed next time the Christmas crowds will be out in force!

It looks like my girls’ school will have another twilight craft market in late November or early December, and I will do that one this year too. I’ll be selling jewellery appealing to the primary school set, as well as some easy and inexpensive Christmas stocking stuffers like earrings and cufflinks.

And I promise my Etsy shop will be open soon! I have just not had enough time to work on it recently! In the meantime, if you see something you like, drop me a line via my Facebook page.

A gift for Lill

Last year I received a gift from an old friend of my parents. Lill, a textile artist, went to Ghana as part of an artists’ tour, and she brought me back some wonderful Krobo glass trade beads, recycled glass beads and brass. I’ll be writing more about these soon, but in the mean time, here’s a picture.

In thanks I made Lill a necklace. It’s a very late thank you, as I dithered over what beads to use—Lill wears colourful and chunky jewellery. In the end I chose a pendant that I received in a Bead Swap-USA exchange. It’s a fabulous and unique pendant from US artist Meg Hannan, who uses fabric to create pendants in a millefiori style that she calls Fabric Jewels. Here’s a close up of the pendant. Gorgeous, huh??

I strung it with a selection of glass beads including Czech glass and cultured sea glass in colours I pulled from the pendant.

My parents gave it to her a couple of weeks ago when they visited her. I’m glad you love it Lill!

Boho Bird Jewellery is on Facebook!

I finally got a page for Boho Bird Jewellery up and running on Facebook  a couple of nights ago, and I’m astonished to see more than 60 likers already! It’s made me realise that I need to get an online shop going, so I need to really get my Etsy page up and running.

In the meantime, you can buy anything in the albums Bracelets, Necklaces and Earrings on Facebook, simply by commenting SOLD under the item you want to buy, or by sending me a message. And you can like my page directly from this blog, using the LIKE button on the right hand side of the page.

I have just put my application in to have a stall at The Handmade Show again in October, November and December—fingers crossed! I didn’t sell a lot at last week’s show, but I did sell a few pieces and made a small profit after the stall fee. There was a slow trickle of people through the venue, and hopefully that will improve over time as the show gains traction.

Here is a picture of my table this time around. I was quite pleased with how it looked and I got quite a few compliments from shoppers as they browsed the stalls.