My First Competition

I decided to try a competition on facebook, to win the pair of earrings shown here.

34 people entered, and given that the whole business venture is still very new, I was really pleased with such an overwhelming response!

There were also some lovely comments posted on the facebook page about these earrings.   This has certainly encouraged me to do more competitions in future.

For more pictures and design ideas, visit the Inner Fyre website.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope everyone had a good festive season.  We saw it as a time for family and had a nice time with my parents and my brother's family.   It was only a couple of weeks ago, but it feels like a lot longer!

Since then I've had a couple of commissioned items recently that I really liked, so I thought I'd share them.  The first is a silver plated bracelet with black Swarovski briolettes.  I think it's pretty, and the lady who bought it said she really enjoyed designing it with me, which is always nice to hear.

The other one I liked a lot was the chandelier earrings in gold and brown.   I think the colours really compliment each other and it's a piece which makes a statement.

I'm in the process of creating a gallery of commissioned and sold items.  Hopefully it will inspire people to get creative with me  :-)

My First Craft Fair

I was recently asked to participate in a charity Craft Fair to raise money for the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in Farnham. Although I'd never done a craft fair before, I thought it was about time I did, and how can I refuse when the money raised is for such a good cause?

Everyone made me feel very welcome when I arrived, and there was a steady flow of people visiting all the stalls throughout the day.    I tried to explain to people who visited my stall that because I make the jewellery by hand myself, to just ask if they didn't see something they liked and I'd try to make it for them.  Or if they liked something but would prefer a different colour, I'd be equally happy to go away and make it for them.

One lady really understood this concept, and asked whether I could make some "treble clef" earrings for a music-lover.   I told her I'd never tried to make treble clefs before, but I was happy to give it a shot!  She was really happy with the result (and so was I!):

I was incredibly pleased with the amount of interest my little craft stall received, and happy that the hospice benefitted from it.  The "best seller" of the day, was the set of "Christmas Angel" earrings in silver (pictured).  (Two ladies both wanted the last pair at the same time!):

It was a great atmosphere and I may be inspired to participate in other craft fairs in future ... watch this space :-)

CraftsLink

I recently joined a website I found that displays and promotes hand crafted items.  It was called CraftsLink and it promotes and shares the work of artists from various niches, whether they are in business or doing it as a hobby.  I've since discovered it is a lovely community to be a part of, and it feels like it has potential for even better things to come.  

This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find that my profile on CraftsLink was currently their "Bio of the Week!"  Thank you to everyone involved in CraftsLink for being so supportive of my new venture.  I'm really happy to be a part of this community, and hope there are other crafters out there who are inspired to do the same.

If you want to find out more about CraftsLink, they also have a blog so you can keep up with the latest news.   There is of course also a Facebook CraftsLink community and Twitter too!  Keep up the great work guys  :-)

NCT Raffle Prizes

It's been over a year since I gave birth to my baby girl, and the time has gone so quickly.  The pregnancy itself was abnormally difficult, and there were long periods where I was bedridden and unable to move without help.  But of course, as every parent knows, it was worth it.

The National Childbirth Trust provided me with a lot of support during that difficult time, and I was pleased to be able to give something back to them recently.  I created these two sets of earrings for a charity event they held in Basingstoke, and the earrings ended up being raffle prizes.   I think everyone had a good time!  I then offered identical earrings at a discount on my facebook page, and was surprised at just how quickly both pairs disappeared!

If you like these, you can find them for sale on the Inner Fyre website's charity page.

Christmas is coming!

A friend of mine is literally counting the days until Christmas, and has been since about mid-September.  For a lot of people I think it's a magical time of year, and for others it's a time for family. 

This year, our daughter will be 15 months and walking around, which is very exciting.  We're hoping to get together with family over the festive season and not be blocked in by snow this year!

Meanwhile I've been making some wire-based festive earrings.  These photos show some Angels and some Christmas Trees I've made.

There are also currently a couple of other designs on my "Seasonal" Page.

These were fun to make and equally fun to wear  :-)

Compassion Fashion Project Celtic Choker

Some of you may have noticed Meredith's comment on the previous post.  She originally asked for a design with black crackle beads, but after some discussion changed her mind to black onyx, with a couple of black crackle beads included in her pendant.  I thought you may be interested to see the finished celtic choker with pendant and earrings, so here are some pictures of her set, which I sent off to her a couple of days ago. 

I really love the way this came out - good choice Meredith  :-)