Getting busy….

Here in the UK the Autumn nights are drawing in and Winter is peeking around the corner.  As much as I want to curl up every evening with a book and a glass of red I am making an effort to *up* my game as a maker and seller of quirky jewellery and costume items.  ”How so?”, you may be asking….

Well, photography is not my strong suit but I’ve been reading up and taking notes from various sources (ok, yes, that means I eventually read the same stuff over and over….) and recently I was inspired by some photos that were taken by a member of a craft forum I belong to, using just angle poise lamps and tissue paper as filters for the brightness of the bulbs along with his digital camera.  The pictures were great and it has inspired me to have a go this weekend.

Alongside this I have been spending a bit of money on some items to help display the jewellery I make.  I’ve got three nice picture frames and with a little shabby-chic paintwork and the addition of an inner of wadding and cream fabric I’ll have something new to place/pin items to, both for photography and for general display purposes when I’m at an event.

And I’m seriously considering buying a plain dress form too (although goodness knows where I’ll put it in the house….) so that I can get better photographs of costume items.

I’m determined to crack the photography problem!

 

Akasha Queen of the Damned Headdress

Here’s the one good pic so far.  I’ve had to do some bits and bobs to finish it off but over-all I’m pretty happy with this!

September Sneak Peek

So it’s been a long time coming but here are pics of some new items made since the school holidays ended.  The new term of school means earlier nights for the children and more motivation for me to get going with new ideas.

Autumn colours are always a big favourite of mine anyway, and are so fitting at this time of year.

First up, a bead headdress

Next up, a button brooch

Thirdly a necklace

And last of all for tonight another headdress, this time one with lots of extra bling and ornamentation taken from my extensive stash

I’ll be adding them to the Etsy store momentarily so you’ll further pics and better description there.

Tonight I started work on a purple headdress that will have many many peacock feathers once it’s done, but tonights job was to get some extra embellishments sewn onto a medallion.  I’ll keep you posted!

Fun’s over

Back to work…….

Sneak Peek

Two gorgeous headdresses have been awaiting their debut:

I am off to eat a scrummy curry I’ve made and then I shall pop over to Etsy later and get them described in full.

Headdress Drama

Yesterday produced a flurry of Etsy activity that was….interesting.

The upshot is that this piece sold to someone going to The Secret Garden festival in the UK.  What was even better about it was that the customer was on Etsy looking for inspiration for something she was making and decided to buy my headdress instead.  Yay!

So first of all I get an email asking how quickly I can get it sent to her as she’s in the UK and she assumed I was in the US.  Nope, I’m here in good old Blighty.  I can send it today (yesterday IRL).  Ok, customer doesn’t have a Paypal account……  That’s ok, I can send an invoice and she can send via Paypal without setting up an account.  DOH!  There are to-ings and fro-ings that I won’t go into but eventually the sale is made, the price is paid and I get it in the post at 3pm guaranteed to get to her the next day (today).

As would be expected her last email to me was to check that the item was as good as it looked – I assured her that it would be better than it looked in the photo as photos are not my strong suit……

The feedback was worth all the online fretting – “She just arrived and she’s GORGEOUS, thank you so much!!”

Ah, I love a happy customer…….