Shell pendant

This used quite a bit of me thinking out of the box since I tend to do quite straight forward designs. Combined several different materials, including swarovski crystals, a red lucite rose as a focal point, turquoise, amazonite, coral, silver plated beads and a dragonfly charm. The large white leaf is made of shell, it's beautiful lustre can be seen when there's sufficient light.

More Swarovksi dangles

So I used tarnish resistant wire since I'm using Swarovski crystals to preserve it's look for years to come. I made a few of the earwires to look feminine like these here and used clear, green, and citrine colored crystals to complete the ensemble. It's up for sale in http://www.etsy.com/shop/TrinketTrove

Earring trees

I made these quite awhile back for my own use, and decided to make a lot more in different colors and sizes. It helps to organise your earrings and rings not to mention make it fast to locate that pair of earrings for the early morning mad dash to work!

Loopy loopy earrings

So I spent hours just replicating 1 design in different combination of beads and colors. Felt like I accomplished quite a bit. I'm satisfied.

swarovski earrings

These were made with tarnish resistant gold wire for the earhook and wirewrapping and differently sized Swarovski crystals. Once coming up with the prototype, it would typically take about 15mins per pair.

Handcraft I bought at Crafty Art Market at Jaya One PJ

So, I had fun last Saturday, and while selling some of my jewelry and earring trees, I bought a few from the other team EtsyMalaysia vendors too.

Beautifully painted pebbles, they were so eye-catching i had to have them.
http://www.mettaville.blogspot.com/

A tile with a burst of colors like stained glass.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/funkytiles


A cool earcuff with a Swarovski crystal.
http://www.jpbeads.blogspot.com/

Checklist for Bazaars

I've learnt from the few past experiences I've had in bazaars but yet to put them into practice. I think you'd agree with me if I say, too much things to do, too little time! Here's my checklist of what to bring for the next round (Feel free to share yours too):

1. Business Cards
2. Float money / small notes (I'm thinking 20 x RM10, 30 x RM1, 4 x RM5?)
3. Various labels / or stickers to promote my store
4. Boxes / shelves to use as display
5. Price tags
6. Receipt book (mainly for my own tracking or if a customer wants it, a receipt)
7. Lights to help highlight my feature product (if logistics permit)
8. Small shopping baskets / trays
9. Necklace display / jewelry stands
10. Table cloth
11. Small notebook to jot inspiring ideas and customer feedback
12. Guest book

and lastly...
13. My products!

Crafty Art Market

Twas a wonderful experience last Saturday at the Crafty Art Market for Malaysian Etsy vendors. Setup was at 9am, and while my neighbouring vendors were done in less than an hour, I took more than 2 hours with my fiance's help! I seriously need to figure out how to do this more quickly for the next bazaar. Or should I just reduce the number of items I have on display?

 I had displayed all the standard categories for jewelry:

Earrings

Necklaces

Charms / Pendants

Bracelets

Rings

Others:

Earring tree

Wine Glass charms

Earring trees in different sizes and colors

In addition, I made earring trees. Your jewelry tends to last longer if you take care of them, and how many times have you rummaged through your treasure trove of accessories and had difficulty finding a pair of earrings for instance? So the trees function as display stands, both to help organise and take care of light jewelry, particularly earrings and rings.

 I made mini jewelry baskets for my shoppers convenience

Wirework necklaces - one of my bestsellers

Tips on how to care for your wire jewelry

Couldn't resist it, I had to get these fabulous colored wires because of their gorgeous colors from nottoto.

I also asked her (Anne's her name, Toto's the name of her pooch) how would anyone care for their wire jewelry, and she was kind enough to share the following information:

The colored wires are enameled copper wire and indeed tarnish-resistant, and shouldn't change colors at all. they are made from a core of copper, coated with a colored enamel coating, and then coated again with a clear enamel for protection. so they should always stay the color/s they are now.

For silver filled wire, and the solid copper wire, they are not coated, and since silver and copper are both reactive metals, eventually they will patina. ways to keep this to a minimum is to keep them clean and dry when not worn, and wearing them will actually minimize a patina because of the gentle friction. the best and safest way to remove a patina is with the sunshine polishing cloths, but they don't really get into little nooks and crannies. for copper, a mix of lemon juice or vinegar plus a little salt works well, and then buff clean to shine again, and for silver, if i need to use a liquid, i use Weiman's liquid silver tarnish remover. i don't know if vinegar/salt works for silver, but it is worth a try, just to minimize needing a chemical. to avoid using a chemical though, use some of the advice below and mainly keep clean, dry and in baggies, because many of the impurities that cause tarnishing are in the air, soaps, cleaners, water, etc...

It is recommended that you clean it with the same care of opals and pearls. My 'philosophy' is to take care of all jewelry as though it's precious jewelry, regardless of the materials they're made from.

here's what i recommend

• no chemicals
• no bleach or chlorine, no swimming pools, these quickly destroy any jewelry
• gentle cleaning only with a non abrasive gentle liquid cleaner
• rinse well, dry well
• keep cleaned pieces dry and in individual baggies
• don't toss in a jewelry box so things don't scratch each other
• no perfumes, lotions, oils, instead, wash clean of these things
• no household cleaners
• no abrasives, except my sunshine polishing cloths,
• no toothpaste as abrasive

wear with gentle care - if you wouldn't do it wearing the most expensive diamond, don't do it with any jewelry on - like washing dishes, scrubbing, etc...

So do visit nottoto to see what other supplies she has plus she has great after-sales service. I'm a fan and loyal customer!

New Pendants

When you have to much stock in jewelry supplies, it's time to stop buying more and start getting to designing items. Here are some new pendants I made 2 weeks ago, I used the parrot clasp as a bail so you would be able to use it with a chain, cord, ribbon or whatever you fancy as a necklace. I used 30ga wires to assemble the components together.

BEFORE

AFTER

Materials: Chain, bicone glass beads, tarnish-resistant wire, aged brass leafs and findings

Materials: Off-white lucite rose, aged gold disc , swarovski crsytals, tarnish-resistant wire (Sapphire), aged brass leafs and findings

Materials: Off-white lucite rose, aged gold disc, red coral, peridot chips, swarovski crystal, tarnish-resistant wire, aged brass leafs and findings

Bazaar @ Cineleisure again

Off I will go again for the weekend bazaar tomorrow and day after at Cineleisure @ the Curve in Mutiara Damansara. Setting up a temporary booth takes a lot of work I admit, but once you get into the hang of things, everything flows into place nicely. I'm still waiting for things to flow. Having a checklist for setup helps, so here's mine (for now):

• Tool box with pliers, scissors, glue, debur tool, pens, ruler, wire cutter.
• Cellophane tape
• Duct / Masking tape
• memo pads
• little price displays
• Price tags
• Calculator
• Receipt book
• Sketch book
• Namecard
• paper and plastic bags
• Earring display stand
• Necklace displays
• Trays
• A4 Poster
• My finished jewelry
• Some findings and loose beads (to do on-the-spot requests for new jewelry, customize size to fit customers and repairs)

Hmmm... did I miss out anything?

The last time I was there, the setup was next to McDonalds, I think it should be there again. See you there if you're free ;)

Wedding season is drawing near

As the warmer season draws near in certain parts of the world (over here, it's summer all year round), so is the wedding season. So to celebrate the idea of romance, passion and all things love, I created a range of earrings to suit the mood (matching necklace and bracelets still in progress :)).

I used tarnish-resistant gold-tone and sterling silver wires to create sets using swarovski crystals in different colors and lucite roses. Tell me what you like or don't about it. It would be nice to hear your thoughts...

Wire jewelry fit for a bride!

What a great experience I had last weekend! i did a setup at the weekend bazaar in Cineleisure@theCurve and got some favourable response. Met a lot of nice folks who were doing their thing too, and equally as many great customers :)

Had a customer (Esther's her name) who's getting registered this week and was looking for a necklace and bracelet set to match her gown. So she got a piece of wire jewelry that I put up for display and I custom-made a bracelet on-the-spot for her (on-the-spot was more like 3 1/2 hours actually). I used a small cream lucite rose, tarnish-resistant half-hard gold wire to form the daisies and the frame of the focal flower, textured gold metal beads and aged brass findings to give it character.

Congratulations Esther, and wish you and your other half a wonderful life together!

If you want to shorten your URL...

Have you noticed how some other websites have shorter URLs? For instance, I usually copy the long link for my FB page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Trinket-Trove-Handmade-by-Jessie/148058104975 , which will take up a chunk of your space for your tweets.

Instead of that, you can shorten your URL by visiting http://bit.ly/ . Sign up for your free account, and you can get a complete history, real-time stats, and saved preferences.

So, with my shorten FB URL, http://bit.ly/cyFcId, I'm able to tweet it with a relevant remark or promotional message.

Trinket Trove at the weekend bazaar in Cineleisure this weekend

Since I've got way too much things and stock on hand now, I've got to find a way to clear them. So, I'll be parking myself for the weekend (Sat - Sun) from 11am - 10pm in Cineleisure @ Mutiara Damansara (near the Curve) to showcase my stuff in real person. So, if you've got some time, come on over, and check it out.

BTW, if you've got existing jewelry that you want to repair or you have some loose beads you're thinking of making into earrings perhaps, bring them over and let's see what I can do for you. I'll bring my tools so if I can, your things will be fixed on the spot.

See you there!

Jessie

Added more of those odd looking beaded rings...

So I had some time of during the weekend and went crazy with beading more rings.

I used garnets, amethyst, rose quartz, swarovski crystals, turquoise, and various types of seedbeads.

With a ring mandrel as a guide, I am able to custom make from US size 2 - 15.

Had some camera problems but uploaded the images nonetheless.

The turquoise ring stands out by far, but the other darker ones exude some mystery. Well, that's what I think anyway.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

It's the second day of Chinese New Year and I'm at my parents place having glorious home-cooked food. Meanwhile, after helping out, I managed to spend a bit off time coming up with some Tree of Life pendants.

Weird stuff

They're just quirky looking rings. All made with natural stones like onyx, pearls, azurite, amethyst, swarovski crystals, and more. Pretty goth stuff. Only some people would be able to pull them off, do you think you can?

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TrinketTrove?section_id=6754876

How time flies...

Where has all the time gone? Starting something is easy, maintaining is another. I've been spending time doing more jewelry, but the administrative part of writing descriptions, taking decent photos, pricing, uploading, updating my blog, etc. etc. etc, takes the fun out of the creative part.

Oh dear... but anyway, here are some stuff I came up with a few months back...

I use swarovski crystals, metal charms, natural stones such as onyx, turquoise, pearl, etc. to make the necklace pop! These are chunky stuff that would make anyone do a double take on you.

Ah well, it's only complete if I end it with a sales pitch. All available at www.trinkettrove.etsy.com