Post earring love
This post is dedicated to pretty post earrings. These are some of my most popular.
Find them here (pink hearts), here (pink round), here (light blue round), and here (grey round).
Photography inspiration
A little while ago I had purchased a new camera and I was also looking to upgrade my lenses. I had been admiring Maria's photos (her Etsy shop is here) for awhile, and decided to ask her what lens she was using to take her stunning shots. Long story short, she volunteered to take some photos of my earrings for me. They turned out beautifully and inspired me to think a little differently about my own product photos. The images below are all by Maria, and my photographs have improved significantly since I became newly inspired and also purchased a new lens!
Gold leaf and berry sparkles
I made these earrings as a custom order sometime around Christmas. They came out so pretty, I made a few extras but never got a chance to list them in my shop because of the crazy as usual holiday season. I only have two pairs, and might just have to make some more.
Introducing Color Story Collections!
I am so excited about this! I am trying something new where I'm making a small collection of one, two, or three of a kind earrings and necklaces in a limited color story. This keeps me the freedom to experiment more, offer a variety of items, while being able to see what sells out quickest and might be worth making in a larger batch. These items are all in one Etsy listing and will be removed from the drop down once they are sold out. The items that sell quickly will be considered to be made again as permanent staples in my shop. This also allows me to make some earrings and necklaces that can be purchased as a set! If it goes well I will be doing this more often with different color stories, shapes, sizes, etc. My first collection is a variety of baby blue, aqua, and salmon pink jewels all with gold leaf and glitter called the Cotton Candy Collection!
Of course, this isn't available for wholesale since most of these items are one or two of a kind and the collections are experimental in nature. I do always love hearing what my wholesale customers like, though, and keep those thoughts in mind when I'm deciding what to add to my wholesale linesheet.
I had so much fun taking photos of this collection. I am so pleased with them!
craft show stuff
Over the last few months, I've been thinking about getting into the craft show scene again. I did some when I first started out a few years ago, but having a job and doing shows was just too much. I stopped doing them, eventually lost my job, and starting out making jewelry full time. Now that I'm pretty established, have my shit together, and a healthy stock of inventory, I've been mulling over the idea of doing some shows again. I want to start small, and do a few here and there. Nothing crazy.
My old display was all black, which is not the look I'm going for anymore. It's too dark for my light, fun jewelry. I am going with white and pops of color this time around. I realized that I need to figure out exactly how I would set up a booth, and went to Pinterest and Flickr for ideas. Honestly, I didn't find a damn thing I liked. Nothing even close.
So I decided I'd buy some old frames, paint them, and try to hang my earrings on ribbons that I strung across the backing of the frame. I wasn't sure if it would work, or look right, but turns out it does and I really like it. It's simple and light, just what I was looking for.
My next step is buying some more, larger frames and doing this to them. I'm also on the hunt for some candy colored glasses dishes. Hopefully I'll find some, but I can never find exactly what I'm looking for when I have something in mind. I'm also hoping my brain gives me some other ideas, because having 10 frames sitting on a table would really be overkill.
plants and cats
This week I finally made a terrarium. My houseplant collection has grown significantly over the last few weeks. I figured it was about time to finally make all of my terrarium dreams come true. It was more annoying to make than I thought, even with the large opening in the vase I used.
Whenever I photograph jewelry for the shop, I end up getting distracting and taking photos of the kitties instead. Warning: this post has a billion photos in it (that's probably more fun than words anyway). No photos of Stella though (the other kitty) :(
Oh, and the jewelry. I guess I should share that.
I also got a dresser from the Salvation Army for the living room last week. Oh, and that poodle. It was $1.99 at the Goodwill... how could I not?
I plan on painting the dresser. I like it as it is, but it just doesn't go right with the room. You can see the paint swatches that I have on it, I'm thinking about a dark, emerald-ish green or a light to medium blue shade. I won't paint it until I narrow it down. These decisions take time.
new in the shop
I've been busy making a bunch of larger earrings for my shop. People have asked for them many times throughout the years, but I never really got around to making them. It's about damn time, I think! The only thing that sucks about making them is that they must be made in smaller batches due to their size. I will be making less of each for now, and the designs that are most popular will probably be made over and over, like what I do with everything else. I do have more room to work with though, which can only be a good thing!
These little babies are new too. I seriously love them. I made myself a larger pair in the 8mm style (they will be available in the shop later this week as well). Should I make more like this? Multicolors and varying sizes of glitters? I really think I'm onto something here and will be making a few more colors of these.
new size
I've had a lot of requests for larger sized earrings, and though I've made this size in the past, I never made many and they have never been entirely filled with glitter. They are much more difficult to photograph for me, because of their size and the fact that they don't seem to look as nice in my usual setup. I'll be experimenting with photographing them a bit differently in the future, and if they sell, making more and more colors. Right now they are available in silver and gold:
In the shop
New in the shop today...
