In Store Shopping – All Set Up

 Today, I spent the better part of the morning setting up my booth at the Makers Market, in The Junction section of Toronto.

Like I said in my last post, my space in the store is small but it sure is mighty. I have a 2 foot wall space near the door, all set up with my products and display items on shelving.

The top shelf, which is above my head by just a smidge, holds an earring display on a turntable plus a taller mannequin especially for longer necklaces. 

The next 3 shelves hold other necklaces, bracelets and some more earrings.

The lowest shelf holds ring dishes, silver cleaning cloths and packaging for customer purchases. (Remember to pick one up for your treasure.)

 Find everything at: Makers Market, 3069 Dundas St West, Toronto, ON 

 Store Hours:             Daily 11 am – 6 pm

Perhaps I’ll see you there when I’m doing a restock. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.

 

 

New! In Store Shopping Available

Starting Monday February 17^th, Family Day here in Ontario, my jewellery will be available at the Makers Market Store, 3069 Dundas St West Toronto, in The Junction.

My space in the store is small but will be mighty. I have a 2 foot wall space near the door (outlined in the photo below), where the hearts are.

 

The store will be providing the shelving unit, shown below with the Lego on it. That's very nice because I won't have to worry about any furniture schlepping. I just need to bring my display items and of course the actual jewellery.

 

I will be loading my jewellery into the space on Monday! I’m so excited and hope you will be able to visit. There are 180 amazing vendors to explore.

Store Hours:             Daily 11 am – 6 pm

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.

Changing Up My Light Box

 Light boxes are important for taking product photos worthy of online posting. I made this box 10 years ago, back in 2015.

 

It served me well enough for the longest time until it got crushed during house renovations last year. Nothing like having a fluorescent light land on foam board to cause some damage.

 

 

That one was made with tabs that fit into slots, which caused the bottom sit 2 inches up from the table surface. I used to put thick stone tile samples underneath to keep the bottom from bending. The slots also had a tendency to come apart, making the box collapse at the worst times.

 After trying to use it for several months I finally built a new one.

 

This time I used packing tape to butt the edges together. Where it was needed I added extra tape to hold the edges firmly together and prevent gaps where light could sneak in. I made it much larger to fit larger items better. I have some ideas running through my brain that may (or may not) happen in the next year.

 Here’s hoping this light box lasts at least as long as the last one.

 Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.

Trying New Methods – Wire Weaving

 I’ve been spending quite a lot of time trying different metalwork techniques. During this exploration period I tried my hand at wire weaving. This necklace is the result. (I should learn to start with smaller projects right?)

Of Love Necklace

The way this necklace was constructed it could also be called wire twisting.

 The necklace uses glass pearls, clear rhinestones, acrylic flowers with rhinestone centres and a seed bead flower constructed on a brass form. There are some brass and clear rhinestone connectors and even a butterfly included, with brass wire used for the weaving / twisting. 

Pearl and brass chains are added to each end to give the necklace its 16 inch length. A 3 inch extender chain is included.

 Much as it was fun to try, I don’t feel this freeform type of wire weaving is something I will pursue further. The necklace is available in my shop

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Searching Etsy

Do you have an affinity for a particular type of jewellery? Get tired of searching through an Etsy vendors site? Use the Etsy search bar for that vendor to narrow down your search. For example, on my site, there are sections for pearl jewellery but you'll also find pearls used in pieces under other sections. Using the search bar there are over 20 items that come up, both in the pearl sections and in other sections. Some examples below that show the variety available. Give it a try!

Important Note!

During the ongoing Canada Post strike I am using ChitChats to ship parcels. For anyone local to Newmarket ON I will deliver your purchase.

Field Flowers Bracelet

Planets and Galaxies Necklace

Meant To Be Earrings

Better Than Grapes Necklace

Mallorca Pearls Stud Earrings

Hearts and Pearls Bracelet

Pearls and Rhinestones Stud Earrings

Nesting Earrings and Necklace Set

Sea Treasures Bracelet

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Honey Do List, March Challenge

Sarajo Wentling hosts a blog hop challenge on her site every month. The inspiration is a photo taken by her husband Eric. The challenge is meant to inspire Sarajo to design outside of her comfort zone and use up some of her stash. Happily she shares and invites us to join along

This month’s inspiration is this photo of a rusted, crusty window with lots of heavy streaks of rusted iron and copper minerals, blackened areas and even a bit of what looks like very white snow around the edges of the glass panes

Photo courtesy of Eric Wentling

The brown colours on the lower window panes and the light yellows on the top ones seemed like a perfect fit to me.

 

Daisy Burst Necklace

Going through my stash I found the perfect stoneware pendant with a pretty daisy on it, created by Leslie Watt. The background is glazed in brown with the daisy in white and the perfect yellow centre. Digging further I found the perfect brecciated jasper rounds, a great complementary colour for the pendant background. Since the jasper rounds were so large I only used a few and needed something to balance them. Some glass rondelles filled the bill. I used a pale ivory waxed linen to string everything. To keep the necklace from being too heavy I added length with an antiqued brass chain and lobster clasp

Daisy Burst Necklace

I was in the mood to continue this colour exploration and made another necklace. This time I used a large mandala inspired polymer clay bead from Staci Louise Smith. There is a different pattern pressed into the front and back along with different colours on each side. For fun I added an antiqued brass key to swing from the bottom and used a very large antiqued bronze open loop as the bail. To bring out both sets of colours in the focal I decided to use gemstones again, this time surreal jasper ovals with streaks of different colours and hand carved yellow jade. Everything is strung on waxed linen again, with a chunkier antiqued bronze chain to add length

Iron Age Necklace

And here’s the reverse side of the pendant

 

Iron Age Necklace

I had a great time making these necklaces and hope you like them too.

You can find both in my online shop. Please check out all the other creations here

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Art Elements March Theme - Nests

The Art Elements team have changed their monthly challenge format, going with themes now instead of component of the month. Using a theme allows participants to select their favourite art medium and create using it. The only rule is to use the theme in the creation.

For March Cathy Mendola selected nests as the theme 

I followed my favourite medium and created jewellery for the challenge. Inspired by a pretty little charm of a bird in flight I created this pendant

Nesting Pendant

Created by Melissa Trudinger, the image of the bird is sealed in resin and has the added touch of a polymer clay textured back with the word Soar impressed into it

Reverse side of pendant

The birds nest holds 6 tiny Swarovski pearls in the duskiest of greens that matches the background of the bird photo. I used 22 gage brass wire that I antiqued with gun blue before making the nest. The same wire was also put to use to make the bail. I hung the pendant from a silk and lace neck cord

I had such fun with the pendant nest that I decided to make matching earrings

Nesting Earrings

The tiny earring nests are made with the same wire and Swarovski pearls as the pendant. They were a little more difficult to make because of the ½” size but still satisfying

I had a great time making these and hope you like them too. You can find both in my online shop.

Please check out all the other creations:

Guest Participants-

Alysen

Anita

Divya

Kathy

Kym

Mona – You are here

Rosantia

Sarajo

Tammy 

AE team members-

Caroline

Cathy 

Claire

Jenny

Laney

Leslie

Lindsay

Marsha

Niky

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day