Pirate Treasures Handmade Jewellery

Pirate Treasures is 5 years old!

2012-02-21T15:45:00.000Z

Hello again!
It's just occurred to me that the first incarnation of the website www.pirate-treasures.com went live 5 years ago (Well, 5 years last week, but I only just realised!). So to celebrate I have decided to give everyone 10% off their orders (excluding p&p) from now until midnight on Friday 24th. All you have to do is enter the code 5years2012 when you go through checkout.

I must have subconsciously remembered as I decided to revamp the homepage a bit. Well, the website as a whole now has a fancy frame border and the homepage has new photos. I think it looks pretty stylish. I will get round to taking new photos for the category pages too, but have to wait for a nice bright day!

My Twilight saga inspired jewellery range is nearly all sold out. When it's gone, it's gone - I won't be making any more and will be deleting the section from the website, so if you want some you'd better hurry! 10% of the money from the Twilight range is dontated to the British Heart Foundation, so it's all for a good cause - to keep more human hearts beating...

Latest makes on the website are:

< this necklace with a china owl, scissors and heart charms and beads, which can be found here.

A whole bunch of steampunk jewellery here
New necklaces, rings, cufflinks, brooches and earrings made with lovely mechanical watch and pocket watch movements and parts. I couldn't resist keeping one of the key necklaces for myself!

The Contemorary range has some new lariat style necklaces. I sold two the day I listed them, so have made some more!

Right now, there's red & black, green, pink, silver and brown in stock and I'm planning a purple one to make next. Some are on silky cord and some on faux suede. Some have beads and charms at each end and some have them interspersed at knotted intervals all along the length of them.

Well that's all for me for now, got to go and pack an order, plan the purple necklace and get pancakes made!

~Jane

Christmas Fairs and new to the website...

2011-12-13T15:37:00.000Z

Hello again,

The Christmas Fairs are over and were a success - phew! I did well at the school fairs, having booked double tables and spread my wares out. As usual I brought so much stock "just in case", but it means a wider variety to choose from!
I also had a table at the Christmas Concrete Market in Croydon. This was held at the Green Dragon pub on the High Street, though maybe a little far south of the main shopping area. It was a nice atmosphere with a lovely selection of sellers, but unfortunately not that many buyers came in. We still made a profit and enjoyed a huge sharing plate of nachos! You can read more about the Concrete Market here.

You can see my stall style has evolved into a more "vintage" style look with cake stands - very handy for a small table - and my new shelf unit my husband made for me, which has slotted in shelves and packs flat. I'm not sure I could manage it if I didn't travel by car though, as we had three large very heavy bags even with just this small amount!

It's been really busy on my website over the last month too. I have managed to make and add some new Steampunk jewellery, including cufflinks, necklaces and rings, some pretty vintage style lockets which I decoupaged floral pictures onto, some collaged/decoupaged pendants and the glasses chains have been selling as fast as I can make them!

Next on my list is to make and restock any repeatable designs which are running low in stock, then relax over Christmas! Hmm, maybe an oxymoron there, as there's lots to do and "relax" and "Christmas" don't always go together!! Still, I've made my Christmas pudding and bought Tesco's Finest Bailey's substitute drink so that's something crossed off the gigantic list!

Talking of which, I'd better get the Amazon order finished...

Christmas Showcase!

2011-11-06T17:22:00.000Z

Good afternoon,

Well it appears to be November already, I hope you're more prepared for Christmas than me! I can't believe how quickly this year has gone, I'm sure some months were missed out!

Anyway, to get us in the Christmas mood, why not take a look at this brilliant Christmas Showcase from the wonderwoman who brought us Support Handmade, However it's Made.

****SHHIM Christmas Showcase****

I'm sure you'll agree it's a great selection of British designer-makers (did I mention Pirate Treasures is included?!), the design of the showcase is pretty awesome - you can click on the gift tag photos to be taken straight to the seller's shop, or browse by category or view the designer's own page. You'd better get a mug of tea and some biscuits as there's so much to see!

I've made the decision to stop selling on Folksy once the last of my items delists at the end of the month. If you've read the previous posts or the Folksy forums over the last couple of months you'll know why. I'm going to try something new, but need to wait for a sunnier day than we've had recently to take some new photos! I'll blog about that when it actually happens...

So I've spent a few days moving the things from my Folksy shop over to my website http://www.pirate-treasures.com/ - there's some new jewellery in most departments plus the Emporium of Curiosities section where you can find cards, gift tags and ACEO art cards. To read more about the Emporium, have a quick look at my other blog here.

Well, I'm off to do a bit of stocktaking - not long until my first Christmas Fair of the year!

~Jane

What's new?

2011-10-23T22:50:00.000+01:00

Hmm, well I haven't appeared to have done a showing-off of the other SHHIM shops yet, but the official Supporting Handmade - However it's Made Christmas showcase will be online soon, so I'll remember to link to that if I don't do anything myself first. Anyway, int he meantime you can click the link above to go to the page and see the increasing amount of crafters/artisans involved!

I've still been hard at work on the website SEO, gosh it's driving me round the bend, but interesting to see how it changes the search results on Google.

So what's new for Pirate Treasures? I have three events booked - 26th November at Oasis Academy Coulsdon's Christmas Fair, 3rd December at Keston Primary School (Old Coulsdon) for their Christmas fair and Sunday 4th December at the Christmas Concrete Market at the Green Dragon pub on Croydon High Street - more about that here.

On the Pirate Treasures website this month I have added several new designs to the vintage inspired range - a cool new octopus charm bracelet and matching necklace. A sweet little birdcage charm necklace, vintage style chrysanthemum necklace and brass owl earrings.

The pirate jewellery range also has some new designs including a cameo charm bracelet, plectrum and charms bracelet and a matching ivory pearl bracelet, necklace and earrings.

Phew, well that's kept me busy! Next I'm going to be making Christmas cards and gift tags, so hope to show some of them next time.

Bye for now,

Jane

I'm back!!

2011-09-29T16:13:00.000+01:00

Oh dear, where did the summer go?
Well it's actually amazingly warm and sunny today, so feeling very summery although it's almost October - how strange!
During the actual summer, we spent a week in Italy staying in Lido di Jesolo and one day visiting Venice and the islands Murano and Burano, and another day at Verona and Sirmione on Lake Garda. Then a weekend at home followed by three nights in Paris - fabulous!

September has been a bit of a strange month.

It started out in confusion as Folksy announced their new "clarification" to what is in fact "handmade". Unfortunately they didn't make it at all clear and caused great upset and sadly a bit of nastiness on the Folksy Forums. I've been trying to stay out of it as I haven't decided whether to continue there or not. Basically Folksy want to become a little more upmarket and concentrate on their definition of handmade. However, they have handled it quite badly and many sellers are left very confused, as some of the rules are a bit ambiguous or contradictory advice has been given to different people. I understand Folksy's wish to move away from the hundreds of "bung it on a chain" charm necklaces on sale, but what constitutes "original design" has been interpreted differently and inconsistently. Unfortunately my best sellers were what is now classed as "unacceptable" to Folksy - I sold six pairs of owl charm earrings in the run up to last Christmas, but won't be able to do that this year as they use mass-produced charms.

However, the super-cool Shirley-Ann from http://www.diddybears.com/ has cheered us up by devoting some of her webspace and a huge amount of time and effort to put together a page Supporting Handmade However it's Made - click the link or the badge on the right to take you there, where you can see all the lovely shops selling jewellery, crochet, teacup candles, cards etc. You can also keep up to date with these designers on Twitter with the hashtag #shhim. I'm intending to do a Folksy Friday style treasury of SHHIM, but you know I'm a bit rubbish at blogging!

I've been busy doing lots of boring SEO work on my Pirate Treasures Jewellery website, tweaking meta tags, keywords and descriptions etc. It's ongoing, so I'll be doing that for the forseeable future!

Though I've also added another category to the site, the Emporium of Curiosities, which will stock cards, gift tags, art and textiles from my Folksy shop, which may be closing due to the aforementioned hoohah!

I've been adding new jewellery, a whole load of flower earrings, which I have previously had in my Pirate Treasures Folksy shop, on my old Facebook shop and at local events. There are a couple of glasses chains, in bronze and silver with glass pearl beads.

So, until next time, keep Supporting Handmade - However it's Made! Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter here, where I have tweeted more often in the last month than in the entire time I've been on Twitter!

What I've been up to...Challenge 52 weeks 14-15

2011-07-24T14:16:00.000+01:00

Good Afternoon!

So, the fetes & fairs are over for the Summer (yippee!) and now I need to work on the website and a jewellery party I have booked for next weekend.

I got some lovely flower cabochons and ring bases through the post last week, so have been making some new accessories, as modelled by my Glamourous Assistant who has actually nabbed a couple of these for herself, so we need to make some more ASAP!

I decided to make a couple of really over-the-top pirate theme necklaces for the website http://www.pirate-treasures.com/, they took ages to make but I think they look pretty cool!

I also made another new pirate necklace, which has been featured on the Secret Carousel blog today. Secret Carousel is a great new website, which is a showcase and directory of the UK's alternative clothing & accessories online stores.

June was my best ever month for website sales and July has been pretty busy so far, so while it's a bit quieter in August I'll be closing the shop for a couple of weeks. I've been meaning to get a gallery of sold designs done and delete them from the main shop pages as it's getting a bit clogged up with 'out of stock' things. I also want to get a completely new category up and running - details of that nearer the time.
I'd probably get on with it so I can start September with new collections and exciting stuff...
~Jane

Summer Fair season - Challenge 52 weeks 11-13

2011-07-10T16:12:00.000+01:00

Phew! I've just done the last of my three Summer fetes. It was a mixed season...

The first fete I do is at my local Primary School where I also work at lunchtimes. I think this helps as the children know me and as I've been doing the Summer fete and the Christmas Fair too they know I'll be there! As mentioned in my previous post, I always have plenty of children's jewellery and reasonably priced items. We sold a staggering 140+ of the little seed bead bracelets and 5 of those hair clip bead strands - Rebecca was a bit disappinted we didn't sell more of them as she thought they'd be snapped up. Over all, we did really well here and also got a booking for a 'girls night in' jewellery shop at home party.

The next day we were at the Friends of Caterham Dene Hospital fete, which is only a couple of miles away. There were quite a lot of stalls there this year, mostly charity ones as that's the kind of fete it is. Unfortunately the four jewellery sellers were placed in very close proximity to each other! Mind you, I don't think it made much difference as no one seemed to be buying - or even looking - we watched so many people walk down the aisle of stalls without even glancing either way. I know we're in a recession, but to not even look at what stalls there were seemed a bit strange to me. With people like that it wasn't surprising we only sold 5 things the whole time we were there and made a loss as the stall was pretty expensive - ah well, at least it was for charity and we know now to visit it as customers next year! Look at our happy smiling faces - this was before the fete started!

Yesterday we were at a Girls' secondary school nearby. By Friday I had almost decided not to go as the rain had been so torrential all week and the fair was on the school field. However, the weather forecast looked pretty good so I thought we might as well give it a go as girls=jewellery! Or so I thought...
Again, it wasn't great. The pupils of the school were all there, but seemed to be working on their own class stalls so there weren't that many of them wandering around. Our stall was on the far side of the field in the corner, so we got the most of the wind, which resulted in some of the displays falling over on a regular basis! We put the side up of the gazebo which helped a bit. In the end we made a very small profit, but if you factor in the time we spent there and the time it takes to make the jewellery, plus the £10 I gave to my glamourous assistant then it was actually a loss!

So guess what fete we'll be doing again next year and which ones we won't! I don't think I'll bother trying to find any alternatives to do, I'll just use that time to make more website stock. In the warm and dry and non-windy house!

Challenge 52 - week 10 - fete preparation (part two)

2011-06-17T15:09:00.001+01:00

I'm getting there!
I've made four new flowery bracelets, which are always popular.
Over the last few days I've been making lots of strands of hair beads. I was given a bag of (unworn) glittery hair clips by a friend and had wondered what to do with them, whether to just sell them individually as a 'cheaper option' for the usual children with 20p in pennies clutched in their hand...but then had the idea of hair braid style strands.
A few years ago at the local school fete a hairdresser mum used to do coloured hair strands which she melted onto your hair with her straighteners (I used to go for blue or purple!) - this was really popular and she used to have a queue for most of the afternoon.
So I thought I would attach a strand of beads to the clips with a charm at the end to finish it off. I've made 15 so far and have more clips to use, so guess what I'll be doing in a minute?!

I've no idea how I'm going to display them, maybe just lay them out on the table. Unfortunately I don't have a TARDIS for a stall, I've got far too much stock for one table! Hopefully if the weather is dry and we don't have to put the sides on the gazebo, I'll bring the old pasting table with me too and put it on one side of our space at right-angles to the main table. My daughter Rebecca helps me on my stall and usually does the children's end, so she could have a table to herself. Hmm, better get some more cloth then - another thing to add to the "to do" list!

If you're in the area and fancy coming along, my fetes are
25th June - Keston Primary School, Keston Avenue, Old Coulsdon, Surrey
26th June - Caterham Dene Hospital, Caterham Hill (opposite Queen's Park)
9th July - Wallington High School for Girls, Wallington, Surrey

Right, I'm off to vaccuum the floor and make some more of those bead strands....
~Jane

Challenge 52 - week 9 - Fete preparation (part one)

2011-06-12T12:39:00.001+01:00

Over the last week I have started preparing for the three Summer fetes I have coming up. I have my boxes of stock for stalls and jewellery parties separate from online stock, so got them all out to do a stocktake. I should probably make tidy lists in Word and keep them on the computer so I can delete things as they sell, but I haven't got round to this so far and every year do a big long list on lined A4 paper. I do have a huge amount of things to sell!

I want to cater for all tastes and all ages, so make a lot of childrens' jewellery at as low a price as I can, as there are always little girls coming up to my stall looking longingly at the pretty vast array and then saying "what can I get for 50p?"...well I'm afraid I don't really have anything that cheap, but I've made a bunch of necklaces I sell for £1.00, which are a silver acrylic heart charm on a length of ribbon which is tied to just slip over their heads. I still get some children who try to haggle with me over prices, but I just smile back and say "no, the price on the label is the price I'm selling it for" and point them in the direction of the cheaper items!

I have so far listed all the necklaces I'm taking (though I'll be making a few more, better to have too many than too few!). I even have a bag of "spares" to replenish my revolving stand of childrens/teens type necklaces - plenty of skull & crossbones, Hello Kitty, plastic stars, silver hearts etc. Last night made 16 pairs of clip on earrings as I realised I only had a couple of pairs left and neither were very 'little girly'. I wonder how they'll do this year, there were quite a few girls without pierced ears who bought them last Summer.
It's funny, each year there's something different which is the 'best seller'. A couple of years ago I sold loads of little seed bead bracelets...oh I forgot I do have something for under 50p, I bought these in (I gave up making them as the knotting drives me mad!) and sell them for 20p each...so bought in another lot and last year hardly sold any, hmm, I must remember to get them out of the loft and see how it goes this year!

Next job is to stock take the bracelets....

Challenge 52 - Week 8 - Twitter & Favicon added

2011-06-01T16:40:00.000+01:00

Hello again!
We had another internet-free couple of days as there was either a fault on the BT line, or more likely the copper cables were stolen again. Apparently there were several cases in the South East of this over the weekend, we've had it twice this year! Luckily, BT were very quick to sort it out this time, so as you can see I'm back online.

I've done a couple of Challenge 52 type things today (making up for lost time!) - I put a 'Follow me on Twitter' badge on my website http://www.pirate-treasures.com/ and made a Favicon. If you don't know, a favicon is the little icon next to the URL of the website in the top bar - look at the little orange B of Blogger! I used http://www.favicon.co.uk/ to make mine; all you have to do is use a picture, photo or logo (made mine in GIMP) and upload it to the website where it will be transformed into a .ico file and resized. As it's soooo tiny I found it a bit difficult to make a decent one which still reflects my website, so just put a P and T in Vivaldi font on a cream background. It's a bit small to actually read, but it's the same style as my banner so will do! My website hosts http://www.create.net/ just add it as a widget and it appears like magic, so I'm afraid I can't offer any advice on how to add yours if you don't have a Create site - other than to get one!!
The Twitter follow badge is a bit of html from Twitter's official ones, just a simple one so as not to clutter up my homepage.

My next main plan of action for the website is to make a gallery (I've probably said this before) but that will take a while as there's loads of photos to add and I'm not sure how much webspace it will take.

The other thing I'm doing at the moment is stocktaking for the summer fetes I have booked, but more of that another time...

~Jane

Challenge 52 - Week 7 - more Pirates!

2011-05-22T14:51:00.001+01:00

Yes I know I haven't done a post called 'Week 6', but that was the Folksy Friday I did last week, my Challenge to myself was to try and do one Folksy Friday a month...let's see how far I get with that!

The last week or so has been really busy...

My brother and his family moved into a house 10 minutes walk from mine - he had been working abroad for 9 years, met his wife there and they have two small children. So that was a major event! I, Mr Treasures and my parents spent a lot of time going backwards & forwards to the house (which they had been renting out since buying it a couple of years ago) getting it as ready as possible for their return. Then we had to be there when they arrived from Heathrow Airport as they didn't have any keys themselves! Luckily it's been sunny up until today, so they have had a nice welcome and a chance to walk around and get to know the area.

This week it was my birthday, which has meant cake and Chinese food in between a trip to the gym - yes even on my birthday, have to keep up the twice a week as much as possible!

Then we went to see my daughter's AS Level play for Theatre Studies - Berkoff's interpretation of Kafka's The Trial, so confusing but well done!

Thursday we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides. Well obviously it was really good, though I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as the previous films, but Captain Jack Sparrow was his usual character!

So guess what? I've been making more pirate jewellery for the website! I have also been making a few different styles of designs for my Folksy shop, but finding the time has been a Challenge!

Check out the Folksy shop http://www.piratetreasuresjewellery.folksy.com/

and website http://www.pirate-treasures.com/

Well that's enough from me for now, I had better dash round with a duster as my parents are coming for a cup of tea after the Grand Prix which is just finishing!

Bye for now,

Jane

Folksy Friday - Pirates!

2011-05-13T19:49:00.000+01:00

This Folksy Friday is a little late due to Blogger being offline all day and deleting my draft! So this week I decided to do a Folksy Friday selection based on pirates because I'm a little excited about "Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides" coming out next week! As the first Pirates film was my inspiration to make jewellery in the first place I felt I ought to do something to mark the occasion. The first four are from my own Folksy shop Pirate Treasures Jewellery and the rest of the lovely goodies should be clickable photos to take you to their creators' shops. It was very difficult to narrow down the selection of piratical awesomeness, but I hope you like these ones...

Here's where they came from: 1) Gaia Noir 2) Sparrow Primitives 3) Dab and a dash 4) Socklings 5) Aunty Joan 6) Hop To It Craft Shop 7) Honeysuckle Rose Crafts 8) Magpie Accessories ...please go and take a look in their shops to see what else is on offer!

~Jane

Challenge 52 - week 5 - catching up (part 1)

2011-05-09T19:32:00.003+01:00

Only a day late! This week has been mostly about catching up and probably Week 6 will be too. I caught up with my 'ideas' list of making, but there haven't been quite enough hours in the day to get everything added to the website!

These are a few of the new designs on the website Pirate Treasures over the last week...

I've also been keeping up with the Mayhems on Folksy. Here's a couple of my listings from the week...

I'm planning on doing a Folksy Friday for my next blog post, I've got the subject sorted, just need the time to find all the lovely goodies to show!

Challenge 52 - week 4 - Pirates!

2011-05-01T22:12:00.000+01:00

I did indeed manage to catch up with my blogging and am now up to date, well done me!!

This week, as you may have guessed by the title, I have been making pirate style jewellery. I'm a little excited by the fact that Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides is released in three weeks' time! So I have been making pirate charm bracelets in a variety of colours...I have put them on my website Pirate Treasures Jewellery and one in my Folksy shop, where I added a matching necklace.

The Steampunk jewellery I made the other day is now dry, but I haven't

added it to the website yet. I should get round to that tomorrow morning, hopefully.

I hadn't realised that you only get 200 photos with the free version of Flickr, so I'll have to rethink my plans there - I've already added 193 and haven't finished! I might just put a selection, or only things made in the last year - if anyone reading this can suggest what they do please add a comment! I may also make a Gallery on my website. I had planned on using Flickr instead, but I haven't used up too much of my website space, so might be able to do something on the site to show Sold stock in case anyone wants to commission something based on a previous design, I used to have a slideshow of sold jewellery on my previous website and had a couple of custom orders that way. Something to work on when I have enough time!

Plans for this week are: make more pirate jewellery and add the steampunk things to the website. Shouldn't be too difficult!

Challenge 52 - week 3

2011-04-29T15:15:00.001+01:00

Yes, I realise I should have written this last weekend, but we were doing the tiling in the kitchen! It went pretty well and now everything is back in the cupboards and finished!

Last post I mentioned the commissions I was asked to do. One I am very excited about I will save for another blog post as I'm waiting for some supplies to arrive. The other was for a Steampunk necklace. I had to buy some new epoxy as when I had carefully designed and arranged all the pieces in postition I realised I didn't have enough to stick all of them (it tends to seep through the lid no matter how tightly you screw it on, so I bought some in a syringe this time). Well, I was having a bit of a steampunk marathon and made some rings and hair pins too. These are the pendants for the necklaces drying happily - I have given the potential customer the choice and will put the rest on the website afterwards.

I signed up to Google Merchant Centre to add my website's shop to the 'shopping' items for Google searches. I'm pretty high when searching for 'pirate jewellery' or 'steampunk jewellery' but need to go through all my meta keywords and descriptions on my website. I think when I first changed website hosts I was in such a hurry to get all the products up, I didn't add all the meta info for everything - that's another fun job to look forward to! Though Create are a really good and easy to use website provider it's not too much of a pain, just a bit time consuming.
Oh by the way, this isn't week 3 news but I had my first order via Google checkout yesterday, so I'm pleased I added it!

OK, I'll hopefully do another post on Sunday and that will bring me up to date!
~Jane

Challenge 52 - week 2

2011-04-17T19:58:00.000+01:00

Hello!
Well what's been going on this week?

If you look to the right you can see a cool Challenge 52 badge which Abi from Birdcage Creative made me, to include my website address.

This Challenge 52 idea has really made me determined to do the things I've been meaning to do for a while.
So this week I've made a Flickr account and am in the process of uploading hundreds of photos of my jewellery to it. The link is on the right of this page. I will put a link on my website http://www.pirate-treasures.com/ once I've got all the photos uploaded, and use it to show 'sold' items. In the past, on my old website I had a slideshow of sold items and had a couple of commissions from people wanting similar things. So having a whole Flickr photostream will let everyone see what I've made over the past few years and not clog up my shop pages with 'sold out' things!
Yesterday I set up a Google Checkout for my website to give customers an alternative to using Paypal as a checkout processor. I don't know if it will make a difference, but I know some people don't like Paypal - though my shopping cart only uses it to process the payments and you don't need a Paypal account to use your credit or debit card.

Apart from that, I've just done a little tweaking with the website, I haven't even had time to make anything new as the kitchen decorating is still going on. It's a kitchen-diner and we've had to use Polycell wall smoothing stuff (can't remember the actual name!) on the walls, then sand it off before it can be painted. I have painted two walls today (Homebase 'Putty' colour paint!) and will hoepfully get the rest done tomorrow so we can get the tiling done by the end of the week.
I have commissions from two customers to work on this week, so have ordered supplies of things I haven't got in stock. I plan to photograph the process of making them for my next blog.
Bye for now!!
Jane

New Kitchen & Folksy Friday - Kitchen theme

2011-04-08T08:09:00.000+01:00

I have just had a new kitchen fitted this week. It's not quite finished, there was a door and a shelf missing and we still have the tiling and decorating to do, but it's really brightened up the room.

So naturally I thought I'd do a Folksy Friday on a kitchen theme - if only I had enough money to buy new accessories! It's only a very small selection as I've been cleaning out the cupboards and putting everything back in them, which has taken aaaages...

Click on the picture to go shopping!

Shops are 1) Tigerlilly Primitives 2) EnigmaArt Decoupage 3) You Say That You Love Me 4) Candace Gray

Oh and here's a kitsch-kitcheny necklace from me!!

~Jane

Challenge 52 & April Show-ers

2011-04-05T16:13:00.000+01:00

OK, so maybe I need some sort of incentive/threat to get myself moving and remembering to blog...

Well luckily Abi from Birdcage Creative had a great idea with a great name and invented Challenge 52, where she will aim to make/design/blog or otherwisely be creative every week. She has invited others to join in, so that's probably the poke with a blunt stick I need! But as I have two blogs, I might alternate some weeks if I don't manage to get things done for both of them - sounds like I'm chickening out, but hopefully I'll keep it up! Yes I know I attempted the One a Day Challenge last year and that tailed off, but once a week might work out better.

Also, I'm joining in with the daily listing club on Folksy this month, called the April Show-ers. I'm alternating between Pirate Treasures Jewellery and The Emporium of Curiosities each day, so that will make 30 listings in total.

So far for Pirate Treasures I've listed three Pandora style bracelets. They are very popular with my local customers - I daren't think of how many beads one of my friends has bought from me, she has an adiction to them! I've sold quite a few on my website but haven't listed any on Folksy before.

Right then, as we are in the middle of having a new kitchen fitted and it's fish & chip shop dinner tonight, I can use the extra not-having-to-cook time to go and make some more jewellery! Look out for a new necklace later this week...

~Jane

Ooops!

2011-03-04T20:46:00.000Z

Oh dear, I've really been neglecting it this time! My excuses range from "couldn't remember how to get photos off my phone" to "I've been busy with another project". Tut tut, not good enough!
OK, so the photos I didn't get off my phone (which I have now done) were from a couple of Christmas Fairs - yes that long ago! One craft fair had loads of lovely stalls but virtually nobody came to it and the other was my local primary school Christmas fair, which was well attended. Here's a photo of me at the rather quiet fair...

The "other project" is called The Emporium of Curiosities and is my arty alter ego. You can read my blog here and visit the Folksy shop here. I will also be launching an Emporium section on the website (http://www.pirate-treasures.com/) very soon, I've been working on making stock for that this week - gift tags, cards, ACEOs (collectable art cards). I will blog about that when it's done, but it will also be on the Emporium blog (gosh I can't keep up with one blog, why did I make two?!) and I've been trying to remember to Tweet lately as well.

Jewellery I've added to the website lately has been Vintage style necklaces and a couple of pirate themed items, a matching red and black necklace and bracelet.

In case I don't post as soon as I intend to, why not 'like' my Facebook page (link on the right) if you don't already as I'm much better at putting updates and photos on there!

~Jane

Children in Need & November Sparks

2010-11-19T17:46:00.000Z

Today is BBC's annual Children in Need fundraising day, so I have decided to donate 10% of any sales from today until midnight tomorrow night. I should have Blogged earlier, but I Tweeted (a miracle!), put it on Folksy and Facebook, so that should do.
Have a look at this blog to see more Folksters' Children in Need plans - and why not get some Christmas shopping done at the same time!

I'm joining in with Folksy's "November Sparks" listing club for the last half of the month. Here's a few of the things in my Folksy shop

~Jane

Website relaunch!

2010-11-07T20:56:00.000Z

OK, so I didn't update on the October Folkfest very much, did I? I did manage to list almost every day, and those I didn't I usually did two the next day. It resulted in a few sales from happy customers - my owl earrings proved popular!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to move my website to Create.net - I moved my supplies website there in September and have been really pleased with it. So the decision was made not to wait until my renewal was due in February and try to get it done before Christmas. Although it meant I was website-less for a week (it felt like ages!) while the domain name was being transferred, I was working on re-photographing all the jewellery ready for a fresh look when the new one was ready to go. I still have some more photos to take - it's been too gloomy for good photography - and some items to upload, but it's nearly there and I'm really pleased with it. The new header on the website and Folksy shop and indeed this blog was designed by Alex at Aleximo Croissant - I emailed her my ideas and a few photos and she turned the ideas in my head into reality! I'd love to hear anyone's comments and suggestions on any improvements I could make to the website too...

~ Jane

October Folkfest on Folksy!

2010-10-07T15:11:00.002+01:00

Hands up who knows about Folksy ? If you don't, then you're in for a treat when you click the link! Folksy is a great website where UK artisans can set up their own shops to sell their handmade items - from jewellery to ceramics, crochet to greetings cards, candles to hand carved rubber stamps and practically anything in between. Also, there are some great shops where crafters can buy materials to make their lovely goodies.

Each month this year there have been listing clubs, where Folksy sellers set themselves a challenge to list a new item each day. I've joined in this month, which has the cool title of "October Folkfest"! So as it's the 7th today, I have so far listed seven new items in my shop: here's a selection...

These can all be found at http://www.piratetreasuresjewellery.folksy.com/

Have a look around Folksy , it's an ideal place to do all your Christmas shopping and support British artisans!

Giveaway winner!

2010-09-18T13:46:00.000+01:00

Thanks to everyone who entered my first giveaway. Here are all the names of the entrants in the bowler hat....

Congratulations to Kim, your name was pulled out of the hat and a pair of earrings will be made for you over the weekend!

Thank you everyone who took part, I might do another when I get to 500 Facebook 'likers'!

How to enter the Givawy!!

2010-09-10T20:14:00.005+01:00

I'm having a Giv*aw*y to celebrate having over 200 Facebook 'likers'! Please excuse the asterisks, I've had a massive sudden increase in Facebook likers since mentioning the word in a status update (it must have set off alarm bells and flashing lights at Giv*aw*y HQ) and it appears there are serial contest enterers who will 'like' a million pages in the hope of winning something and may or may not be actually interested in the prize they've won....
OK, so if you want to be in with a chance of winning a custom pair of specially selected handmade earrings, I need a little market research and patience so please read on!

Now, here’s what we’re gonna do…

1) ‘Like’ my Facebook page if you don’t already here

2) Visit my website here and have a browse

3) Come back here and leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite item. I'll be adding some new designs this weekend so you may want to wait a couple of days!

4) On Saturday 18th September at 11.30am I will put all the names in a hat (literally, I have a lovely bowler!) and draw the winner

5) I will post the results on Saturday afternoon, so please come back to check if you're a winner sometime over the weekend as Blogger messaging system doesn't always work and Facebook page owners can't contact 'likers', so I might have to put a post on here to ask the winner to email me their details.

6) The winner will receive a specially made pair of earrings based on the style of design they chose as their favourite, or in the same category (eg ‘pirate’ or ‘vintage’).

Good Luck!
Jane

Fetes & Fairs & Festival stalls!

2010-07-16T11:51:00.002+01:00

OK, I've seriously neglected my blog this time! But I've been really busy over the last month as it's Summer fete season...

And what a hot few weeks to be standing in a playground/field under a gazebo! The first on we (daughter & I) did, we kept sides on the gazebo as it was a little gusty and I thought it would keep the sun off us; well it did that, but was rather like a sauna! Anyhow, we had a good and successful day, thanks to the great turnout at Keston Primary School.

The following day we had a stall at a hospital charity fete in Caterham. Unfortunately it coincided with the England World Cup game and went very quiet from about 2.30. There was a tent with a television and beer, but what with the score being less than great we didn't get any more customers after that!

Last weekend was the worst of all - a so-called Community Festival which was from 10am-5pm. We didn't bother with sides or back to the gazebo as it was really hot (still) and we'd had enough of baking! Well, the community didn't seem to know anything about their festival and we could have counted the number of people who ventured across the huge field to look at the stalls on our fingers. It seemed a combination of apathy, the heat and lack of advertising were to blame. I heard one woman say to her daughter "it's too hot to look at things, let's get an ice cream". Ah well, I know it's not worth attending next year!
In between them, I did my first jewellery party at someone else's house. I was a little nervous as I'd never done one before for people I don't know, but the ladies all seemed to enjoy themselves and spent a nice amount of money, which gave the host a decent 10% commission to spend on jewellery for herself and me a good profit! I've got a booking for another party in September from one of her friends, so I'm hoping this will carry on and I won't have to bother with too many stalls at fetes next year.

At least one thing with not selling very much the last two fetes means I have plenty for my next jewellery party!

In between all that, I had my first sale on Folksy and quite a few sales on my website, so all in all a busy month...

Oh and I can recommend http://www.sewandsoaps.co.uk/ for personalised t-shirts, polo shirts and hoodies etc. Sarah made me a screen-printed t-shirt and an embroidered 'zoodie' (zip-up hoody). It was too hot for the jacket but the t-shirt looked really good and professional!

Giveaway Bag Win & One a Day Challenge

2010-06-08T14:32:00.001+01:00

I won a Giveaway! A fabulous bag from NotJustHandbags which was useful immediately as I took it up to London on Thursday and it had plenty of room for lunch and drink and bits & pieces! Thank you Elissa!!

My 'making' for the last week were mainly of a pirate & nautical theme...

These two bracelets are on my website http://www.pirate-treasures.com/ and the necklace, bracelet and earrings below are in my Folksy shop .

OK, I'm off to make a birthday cake for my son now, I'm thinking chocolate...

~Jane

Folksy Friday - Cake!

2010-06-04T20:32:00.001+01:00

Well I've finally done my first Folksy Friday! I've chosen 'cake' as my theme since it was my birthday the other week, my daughter's yesterday and my son's on Tuesday, so there's a lot of cake about this time of year in our house!

The pictures should be clickable links to the items and if you hover over them it shows the Folksy shop they came from. That's just about worn me out, so I'll do my main blog post on the weekend!

New jewellery, birthday, broken computer, Folksy Friday features...

2010-05-30T22:36:00.001+01:00

OK, it's been 2 weeks since my last blog post but I've got some decent excuses this time!!

Firstly it was my birthday. One with a zero in it. Eeeek! I don't feel any older, especially not mentally, I don't think I've aged (or is that 'matured') since maybe 25, it's only the mirror that tells me otherwise! Anyway, I managed to make the 'celebrations' last a week - friends and family coming for tea and cake on my birthday, breakfast at nearby hotel with friends on Wednesday and lunch at restaurant with my husband, children and parents on Sunday. My husband Gary gave me a ring which he had handmade by a local jeweller, it was a a secret which he has found difficult to keep since he had the idea for it months ago! It's made of white gold and is an axolotl salamader with emeralds for eyes - lizards were a Victorian symbol of 'wedded bliss', so it's a very unique eternity ring.

The other major things which has interrupted everything was the computer almost died. Dramatic I know, but it certainly was at the time. We thought we'd lost everything, but clever Gary has spent a long several days working on it, took the hard drive out to put in another computer and bought a program which has recovered almost everything so it's all on discs and saved. Except the 'My Pictures' folder which I'm sure was there the other day and now seems to have emptied itself. I was going to add the photo of my ring just now and it's not there, so he's got some more work to do...that's all our photos which I was meaning to put on cds in case something like this happened. Go and do all yours now!! Oh, he's just found them on the other pc and put them on another disc to put back on this one - no idea why they wouldn't copy before, but there you go...

I've still been making things for the One a Day Challenge. Even if I haven't had time to make something one day, I'll make up for it so have seven in a week - I'm sure that still counts! Here's a selection:

I've also made these little rose stud earrings in black. They're all in my Facebook shop.

And now for some more Twilight inspired designs for my Facebook shop!

And pirate themed bracelets for my Pirate Treasures website

Now I need to do some more 'Thank yous'...

I was lucky enough to be featured on two Folksy Fridays this week (yes yes I really must get round to doing one myself!), so thanks to Adien Crafts for featuring my rose cameo and melaniezine for featuring my steampunk watch movement ring. They can both be found in my Folksy shop here .

A big Thank You is due for Tiny Oyster Designs who sent a surprise package to me this week. Look, it's a cute little Scoop!! Check out her Etsy store for loads of cool unusual creatures, one of which (Gregor the ghost) I got for my birthday from my children!

Right, that's all for now, let's hope I can get another post done by next Sunday!
~Jane

Shout outs & competitions!

2010-05-15T21:19:00.000+01:00

Tiny Oyster Designs is having a competition to win a fab 'Love Snog' - to find out what one is and enter the giveaway go here: http://tinyoysterdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/05/do-you-want-to-win-this-love-snog.html She makes interesting fun creatures, three of whom are in my house, but I have to wait til Monday for Gregor to come out of his hiding place!!

Thanks to http://craftyjemima.blogspot.com/ for featuring my Vintage pocket watch steampunk necklace on her Folksy Friday this week.
Very belated thank you to http://eclectic-creationsforyou.blogspot.com/ for featuring my

Steampunk Victoriana pocket watch face necklace ages ago on her Folksy Friday (I think I forgot to say thanks then!)
One day I'll get round to a Folksy Friday, I always mean to and then before I know it the time's gone again...

Keeping up with the One-a-Day Challenge!

2010-05-15T17:04:00.000+01:00

Yes indeed I have been pretty busy this week, with website sales and a couple of custom orders. I sold both versions of the chunky wooden beads bracelet I made last week (shown on my last blog post), one as the original custom request and another by someone else almost as soon as I'd put it on the website - so I've made a couple more! They are all slightly different, which makes it more interesting to make and to own!!

I've also added a Payvment Storefront to my Facebook page, which seems a pretty cool way to have an online shop. It's free and uses Paypal to take payments, so no listing fees and only Paypal's commission to pay. If you're thinking of doing the same, there's a link at the bottom of mine, click the 'Shop Now' tab on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/PirateTreasuresJewellery to set up your Payvment store.

I'm trying to make a few different designs which aren't available anywhere else, plus a good range of popular items. I've been making a few necklaces the last couple of days...

I have all my stock separated, as I think that's easier, rather than having the same thing listed on the website/Misi/Folksy/Facebook - what if I sold something simultaneously in two places?! The chances are probably pretty slim, but it happened on my website a couple of years ago before I had the Pro option with stock control. Two people bought what was a one-off bracelet within a couple of hours of each other, it was during the night as they both happened to be in the US so I only found out the next morning! I had to explain the situation and the one who paid last had to wait a few days before I could recreate it. That's why I now have different boxes for the different venues I sell on. Plus my craft fair/fete stall stock is all stored separately too. It may all take up more room, but at least I shouldn't be caught out again!

I was planning on making one of my pirate themed charm bracelets today, but the time has gone too quickly! Mind you, I did mow the grass, which took a while since I hadn't done it for a few weeks, so it has been a productive day. I needed to work off the chicken carbonara calzone and cinnamon waffle & ice cream I ate last night anyway! We went to the cinema to see Iron Man 2 and then had dinner in Frankie & Benny's. Both were really good! It's my birthday on Monday, which I'm managing to make last a week - I've got my parents and my oldest school friend (not oldest in age, oldest in length of time known!) coming over for tea and cake on Monday afternoon , going out to breakfast with friends on Wednesday and lunch at a restaurant with family next Sunday! Right, I'd better go and get on with the dinner, I'm doing chicken (and quorn for veggie daughter) fajitas and tacos - yum!

First fete of the year!

2010-05-09T16:19:00.001+01:00

Well we got the first fete over with last Bank Holiday Monday - what a lovely day it was too! No, not really, hailstones as we started to load the car, followed by heavy showers on and off for the rest of the afternoon - and it was freezing cold too! Well that's May for you, completely unpredictable! Anyhow, it meant we (myself and daughter) got to test out the capabilities of the new gazebo. It was thankfully waterproof and didn't blow away! I weighted the corners with some weightlifting weights, (which haven't been used for muscle-building for a very long time, they are most commonly used in the process of my husband's guitar-building) and the other good tip I got from Moonbeam Angel via craftsforum was to fill milk bottles with water - I bought some little bungee cord things with hooks (there's probably a proper name for them!) for about £2 in B&Q to secure them to the gazebo legs. I didn't need my own new table or the sack barrow/trolley thing I'd just bought as I was able to unload from the car on the green before parking it and though they said there were no tables, there was one for me in the end. Never mind, they'll be used elsewhere this summer and now I know everything can fit in the car!

A banner is next on my list of things to buy!

We didn't do too badly sales-wise despite it being fairly dreadful weather. The sun came out towards the end, but we were in a corner between the barbecue (which kept billowing smoke) and some kind of football shooting game (a bit of a concern with a table full of jewellery!) and didn't get any sunshine. My profits covered the cost of the table (the one I bought, not the one provided) and the trolley, so next time we need to make £80 to cover the cost of the gazebo and then we're in profit! Oh, except for the banner and business cards I need to buy next... still, they'll all be used again over the next however many years!

So I haven't been keeping track of the One a Day figures, I must go through my desk diary and get back on track with the numbers. The week before the fete was a rush at making more stock - better to have too much than too little!

I made a whole load of children's necklaces. Well, technically I didn't make the pendants, but cutting lengths of cotton cord and adding folding crimps and clasps takes an annoying amount of time when I only sell them for £2.50! I made Hello Kittys, Gloomy Bears, rabbits, little deer, Jack Skellingtons, skull & crossbones, pirate heads etc.

The past week I've been working on commissions I've had via my website http://www.pirate-treasures.com/ .

I still haven't put all my display stuff back in the loft and we're tripping over the gazebo in the conservatory, so I'd better get the chicken in the oven and tidy up...

~Jane

Better late than never!

2010-04-29T15:17:00.001+01:00

Well it's all gone very very behind schedule here at Pirate Treasures Towers - the making is as usual up to date, but the blogging is sadly lacking!

Firstly I was spending time caring for little Leo the gerbil (as mentioned in a previous post), he sadly died on 17th April and for his last couple of days needed help feeding and generally cuddling to keep warm. He was nearly 3 years old so an elderly gentleman in gerbil terms, he's gone to play with his brother Squizzle wherever gerbils go!

I've been busy booking a few Summer fetes to attend and have the first on Monday at Woodmansterne in Surrey - hopefully it will stay dry! I bought a pop-up waterproof gazebo and new (supposedly) 'lightweight' table, but they both weigh a tonne (well maybe not literally) and I didn't consider how far we might have to park the car and carry them from, so I think I'll have to go to B&Q to buy a trolley type thing later... that's all costing a fortune so I'd better sell loads!

I've had a few commissions to make, which I've sold/will be selling/have added similar desings on my website www.pirate-treasures.com I was asked to make some dangly pirate earrings with cameos and a bracelet for a bride with a pirate theme!

I've also been making lots of new things for the upcoming fetes...

Memory wire coiled bracelets always look nice & sparkly and the single coil ones are popular with little girls! When I checked through my box of 'stall jewellery', which I hadn't opened since the Christmas Fair, I realised I only had a few charm bracelets left, so I made one with white glass pearls and acrylic silver hearts and one of my frosty flowers ones which always sell well.

I have a bunch of other stuff made, but I need to take some photos and anyway it would be a giant post if I posted it all at once! So I will definitely blog again before Monday, and then afterwards to say how the fete went...

Scarves, decorating & jewellery-making!

2010-04-11T20:15:00.000+01:00

This week's excuse for lack of blog posting is because I have been decorating my bedroom. Actually it was just painting the walls and ceiling white, but it now has a nice fresh new look with new curtains and duvet cover!

This week I was excited by the arrival of my lovely new scarf, made for me by Fiona at Rainbowfizz Creations . It was admired by my Mum when I wore it yesterday (pic below) so I have an idea of what to get her for her birthday!

I've just added a few pairs of earrings I made this week and a Steampunk watch movement ring to my Misi and Folksy shops

This week I've also made some jeans/belt loop charms for the Men's range on my website...

...and I've just had a commission for some dangly Pirate themed earrings, so I'm making a few different pairs so she can choose which ones she likes best. Photos of them in my next post.

One a Day 75-80

2010-04-03T15:17:00.000+01:00

Yes I've done it! More than one blog post in a week!
I've pulled a muscle in my shoulder, no idea how, so am sitting in front of the computer while the ibuprofen gets to work.
OK, Monday and Tuesday I didn't really make anything because I was sorting loads of beads and things for my other website http://www.blackpearlbeads.co.uk/ . I have several large boxes of beads, findings, charms, bead caps etc which need decanting into little gripseal bags so I can sell them in manageable packs, but obviously this takes aaaaages and if I'm on a roll it means I have less time for making new things. Ah well, it's all part of working!
So Days 75 & 76 were sorting these:

Day 77 was hideous and rainy so I decided to brighten it up with a summery orange and yellow bracelet.

Day 78 I made a couple of necklaces for the Men's range on my website - long beaded ones with brown glass seed beads and wooden beads in a kind of Johnny Depp style!

Day 79 (yesterday) I made a couple of necklaces on tigertail wire with silver foil lined lampwork glass beads. I would love to say I made the beads myself, but alas I bought them from China! If only there were enough hours in the day for me to learn lampworking too!

Day 80 (today) I made a flowery bracelet in pastel shades using acrylic flowers and berry beads. I'll keep this for one of the Summer fete/craft fair stalls I do later in the year.

So that's that for now, my shoulder is hurting too much to make anything else right now. I need to rest it beacause I'm planning on painting my bedroom walls on Monday! I'm going to have a cup of tea, a Cadbury's cream egg and play Space Colony as I only need my right hand to control the mouse and it's my left shoulder I've hurt!!

Happy Easter!

~Jane~

One a Day 69-74

2010-03-30T20:09:00.000+01:00

Well I really shouldn't go around promising more blog posts should I?! What I need to do is put a photo editing program and install the camera software on the laptop, so when the main computer is otherwise occupied I can still put things in my shops and website and update my blog. That's a task for this week!
I didn't stick with an actual one-a-day last week as so many other things (none of them interesting) got in the way some days. So a couple of days I made more than one thing, which I think makes up for it!
The earrings are in my Folksy shop , the necklace and bracelet are on my website and the bookmarks I'm probably keeping for the next stall I do. I'm sure I'm missing something, if it comes back to me I'll add it later this week - I sorted out a lot of my boxes and drawers on Sunday since I want to keep all my new Folksy and Misi shop things separate, must have over-tidied!!

This was the first time I've made beaded bookmarks, I think they turned out OK. The wolf and heart one is for reading the Twilight saga!

One a Day - Days 62-68 and new MISI shop!

2010-03-23T20:25:00.000Z

Yes, yet again it's a weekly round-up! Hopefully I'll be able to do a bit more frequent blogging, well maybe twice a week, as the problems with my website appear to have been sorted out so that frees up some time (less emailing support and shouting at the computer!)and I can start adding more things there without the worry of it going wrong! Yesterday I added the first things to my MISI shop . I'm intending to sell different pieces of jewellery in my Folksy and Misi shops and my website - they will all have a range of styles from Steampunk, Contemporary, Kitsch and Pirate, but the one-off designs will be spread between them so there's always something exclusive somewhere!

The last week's makes...

One a Day challenge 54-61

2010-03-17T19:38:00.000Z

Here's a round-up of the last week's One a Day makes... As I wrote in my last post, it's been a busy week, but I managed to get quite a few things made. I've added some of them to my Folksy shop and will add some others to Misi before the end of the week! I can't remember which I made on which day, so it's just a collection of Days 54-61...

So a bit of a mixture of styles! I had the plectrums made with my 'Pirate Treasures' font logo and these necklaces have been popular on the website, I've sold out of the last blue and purple ones so needed some more. I love making Steampunk jewellery (I may have said that before) and whenever I get my boxes of watch parts out I look at new ways of putting them together.

Website headache, gerbil illness, Folksy & MISI!

2010-03-16T16:23:00.000Z

I was so determined to blog at least twice last week, but things just got in the way!

Firstly, Leo the loveliest gerbil in the world had a funny turn. We don't really know, but he may have had a stroke - his leg wasn't working properly and he was sleepy and wouldn't eat. We thought he wouldn't make it through the night, but he's made a speedy recovery and is more or less back to his old self and at nearly 3 years that's quite amazing! We haven't put him back in with his 'nephews' Danger and Milky Joe as they are a bit boisterous, he's living next door with a gate between them so they can still say Hello to each other!

The second thing that distracted me, and has been ongoing and giving me a headache for over a week now is my good old website host package Mr Site. Fellow Mr Siters (Pro ones at least) will know what I'm talking about if you've been on their Forum in the last couple of weeks. There have been endless problems, which when reported have been given replies either saying "it's all fixed now" when it isn't, or "we're working on it". This has led to mass frustration and Mr Site closing their forum, customers moving away and an all-round mess. I've only just renewed for another year, so I'm hoping they sort it all out pretty quickly. I've been pretty happy with them up until the last few months, so would like to stay with them if they can sort out their customer service and technical team. I'm sure to post on any developements another time.

Which leads me to the other thing, which was going to be some exciting news from my last post, but I've had such a mad week I haven't got it blogged...

I've set up shops on Folksy and MISI. Woohoo!! As yet I've only added a few things to my Folksy shop and nothing to MISI, but I've had a busy few days making new things, so I'll get that done ASAP and put links up. I decided I liked looking at these sites so much I might as well join in, then I can buy and sell there and it looks pretty cool too!

I'll blog later (or tomorrow!) with the next installment of my One-a-Day makes - a whole week's worth in one go!

~Jane

One a Day - Days 49-53

2010-03-08T17:38:00.000Z

Well I have been very busy making and pondering over the last week; the making you can see in this post and the pondering will be covered in another post later...haha, keeping you in suspense!

Day 49 I made a Twilight inspired necklace

Day 50 (Thursday) I did some aralditing cameos to settings, which is a bit of a tricky job as you have to be really quick before it sets hard ! I restocked a couple of pirate earrings for my website...

Day 51 and 52 I made pirate cameo bracelets in bronze and brown shades. These have been pretty popular on my website, so I decided to make two - one is more elaborate then the other and has twice the amount of beads. Mr Site, my website host, has been having a few 'issues' since introducing some new features so I haven't added all the week's new designs yet. I'll have a go later.

Day 53 I made a couple of pirate necklaces. I wasn't sure whether to add them to the 'pirate jewellery' or 'mens jewellery' sections of my website http://www.pirate-treasures.com/ ...hmmmm....I've gone for Pirate...

One a Day - Days 41-48

2010-03-03T17:26:00.000Z

Aargh! I'm getting a bit behind with the blogging! At least I'm doing the making though...

Day 41 was a piratey skull & crossbones kilt pin brooch, which I have sold a couple of on my website, so needed to restock
Day 42 I made a pirate charm theme bracelet with Pandora style beads - I'm sure I'll be making a few more variations on this in the future!

Day 43 I made a couple of Pandora style bracelets as birthday presents

Day 44 a simple vintage style puffed heart on a chain

Day 45 I had a bit more time to try out something different so made a 2 row tigertail bracelet with beads and charms

Day 46 I decided to do a pirate version of yesterday's bracelet for my website!

Day 47 I made a little bag charm for my friend Karen's birthday; she has read and loved the Twilight saga too, so I made an Edward Cullen 'Be safe' message charm!

Day 48 I made a charm necklace with one of my Pirate Treasures logo plectrums (I love them!) and cloisonne, millefiori and glass beads plus some Tibetan silver charms. I've just added it to my website's Contemporary range.

Today I'm making some more Twilight theme jewellery, but I need to wait for the diamond glaze to set in the frames before I can finish it, so I might make something else too for today's official 'make' and leave the Twilighting for tomorrow. Just so you know, I give a donation to the British Heart Foundation for all my Twilight inspired jewellery 'to keep more human hearts beating'!

Well I'd better get on with less interesting things like making dinner (stir fry) and vacuuming...

~Jane~

One a Day - Days 35-40

2010-02-22T16:30:00.000Z

Last week was really busy, so not a lot of creativity got done!
Days 35 and 36 were stock replenishment for my website of recently sold items - silver octopus necklace and angel wing earrings. I sold the last two pairs of earrings within a couple of days of each other and sent them flying off to USA and Portugal!

Day 37 was a fail as we went to my sister-in-law's for Friday/Saturday. We came back Saturday afternoon so I got busy and made two pairs of earrings and a phone charm in a Captain Jack Sparrow pirate style!

Day 39 (yesterday) I made a memory wire pirate bracelet with carved wooden skull beads, various brown wooden beads and some antique bronze spacers, finishing the end loops with a brass anchor and a bronze open star.

Day 40 (today) still going with the wooden beads I made a simple necklace for my Men's range (or unisex of course!)

All of these items can be found on my website www.pirate-treasures.com

One a Day - Days 32-34

2010-02-17T17:09:00.000Z

I'm still on the 'Lavender' theme - I love using a mix of purple and lilac colours together! I said in my last post I'd be making a matching bracelet - that was Saturday's (Day 32) make:

On Sunday (Day 33) I made two pairs of earrings, both flowery, one a bit more dangly than the other! I tend to wear smaller stud earrings myself so sometimes have to remind myself that lots of people wear longer earrings and not so plain and simple as myself!!

Day 34 (yesterday) I started a long beaded necklace using sturdy bronze eyepins and various beads again in the Lavender theme. I used 12mm foil-lined glass hearts (I love that colour!), glass pearls, some light mauve lustred glass nuggets, round glass beads, acrylic bicones and tiny flowers, bronze metal beads, seed beads, bronze beadcaps and daisy spacers.

I've added all the 'Lavender' collection to my website in the Contemporary section

Lavender & Days 30-31

2010-02-13T15:24:00.002Z

On Thursday night we went to see Mr David Viner play at the Kings Cross Social Club, the first time with his new band. Hearing 'Lavender' again inspired me to make a range of Lavender themed jewellery. I made a bracelet a couple of years ago on silver chain, but decided this time to make them on antique bronze.
So yesterday I made a bag charm and today I made a necklace - I'll add a bracelet tomorrow...

One a Day - Days 25-29

2010-02-12T16:08:00.000Z

Yes I did watch Twilight! I made a bag charm and a choker necklace...I hadn't used crystal glaze to cover pictures before, so it took a couple of goes - the first one had an air bubble I couldn't get rid of. Anyway, the end result is OK and I'm sure will improve the more I do. The words 'be safe' are written in Edward Cullen's handwriting font - you'll have to read the book if you don't know already!

Day 27 was a multi-strand bracelet. Day 28 a bracelet with white catseye beads, silver beads and beadcaps. Day 29 (yesterday) I made myself a Pandora style necklace just on black 2mm cotton cord - I have a bracelet with the same beads so made it to match.

I'll blog again over the weekend with details of todays make....

Days 23 & 24

2010-02-07T14:43:00.000Z

I'm keeping up with the blog, hooray!! The last few days has been Steampunk all the way - when I get into the Steampunk mood, I want to keep going! I photographed the ones I made on Friday and yesterday and have put them up on my website...
Day 23 - Cogs & Keys necklace and Watch movement ring

Day 24 - watch parts necklace and ruby watch movement necklace

Yes the ruby necklace is very similar to the one I made the other day, but I had an idea to fill in the gap above the movement with some seed beads and this time used glass bicones instead of faceted beads, again all tying in with the ruby jewels used in the watch movement.

I haven't forgotten about my Twilight theme, I'm working on that this afternoon and thought I might just have to watch the Twilight dvd at the same time for inspiration! I'm actually much more of a fan of the books than the film, but can't read and make jewellery simultaneously!!

One a Day - days 21 and 22

2010-02-05T21:36:00.000Z

Day 21 for me was Wednesday, I was really busy counting and bagging glass pearls (again) for my Beads & Findings website so I could only think about my Twilight themed creation and make something quick! It's a lucite rose on a snake chain - I didn't make the rose or the chain so it only took seconds, but it's been quite popular on my website and local sales so I needed to make a couple more.

Day 22 - yesterday and today I've been making Steampunk jewellery. I couldn't photograph today's as it hadn't dried, so I'll do that tomorrow. I made these two necklaces using watch parts - one a collage of coggy things and the other is a little watch movement in an antiqued setting. The rubies are still in place so I added Czech glass faceted beads to match.

One a Day - 17 to 20

2010-02-03T16:54:00.000Z

On the weekend I had a play with some ivory coloured glass pearls. I got a big bag of them for my Beads & Findings website http://www.blackpearlbeads.co.uk/ so decided to use some myself.
Day 17 I made two memory wire bracelets, the first was a very simple one and the second a bit more elaborate with silver plated daisy spacers and matching ivory seed beads in between the pearls. One end loop has a glass pearl and the other has a mother of pearl heart.
Day 18 I stuck to the same theme and made a matching necklace on tigertail wire.

Days 19 & 20 - I haven't made anything 'new' as such, but I made some more necklaces to increase stock of existing ones on my website's Kitsch section.

I started watching the new series Vampire Diaries last night, it was a soooo contrived and seemed to me to be "lets cash in on the popularity of vampires and make a show almost like Twilight, hmm, teenage girl starts new school, vampire boy can use his charms to make people do what he wants"...I gave up at that point as I'm a fan of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga and felt it was going to be so similar it would annoy me! So I feel like making something Twilight inspired today....

One a Day craft challenge - Days 12-16 !!!

2010-01-30T14:54:00.000Z

Hmmm, well I've been making one a day all week but haven't taken the photos to put on the Blog! As I said last time, I was away for the weekend (at my in-laws') last week, so wasn't able to make anything then which is why there are no days 10 and 11. I've put which day I'm up to in my desk diary, so couldn't jiggle the days and pretend that what I'd made on Monday was in place of Saturday - I'd get confused and it's probably cheating anyway! So it's not my inability to count, the Blog does jump from 9 to 12 on purpose!!
Anyway, here's this week's makes, some for the website, some for my stock box.
Day 12 - another pirate necklace for my website!

Day 13 - my friend Sarah came round to choose some Pandora style beads for a couple of presents and we came up with these two bracelets, one in shades of blue and one in amethyst and white-ish. The photo isn't great, I took it very quickly as I just remembered to do it as she was about to leave!

Day 14 - as well as challenging myself to make one-a-day I'm also challenging myself to make some different styles each week, including things I haven't attempted before (time permitting). On Wednesday I made this bracelet with jump rings and large seed beads. As you can see it's a pretty simple idea, but looks quite effective! I'll try it in some other colours as well.

Day 15 - on Thursday I made a long necklace from chain interspersed with faceted and black & clear two-tone crackle glass beads, with Tibetan silver beadcaps and spacers.

Day 16 - yesterday I made a similar necklace, this time with dark silver glass pearls and acrylic silver beads.

I'm getting into a nice habit of making jewellery whilst watching 'How clean is your house' and 'Relocation, Relocation' on More4! Though it's the weekend now so I'll have to find something different to watch today...right, I'm going to put the kettle on and decide what to make today!

Jane

One a Day - Day 9

2010-01-22T23:21:00.000Z

Just a quick blog with today's makes...added to my website Pirate necklaces
I won't be able to add any tomorrow so made two today!

One a Day - Day 7 & 8

2010-01-22T15:13:00.000Z

Hmmm, slight fail on Day 7 as housework got in the way! So Day 8 I made up for it by making a whole set of necklace, bracelet and earrings. I used millefiori coin beads and red seed and bugle beads, plus a couple of Czech glass bicones on the earrings.

One a Day - Days 4, 5 & 6!

2010-01-19T20:26:00.000Z

Well, it's not that I didn't make anything on Sunday or yesterday, I just didn't get round to photographing them before it got dark! So here's the missing Days 4 and 5 plus today's make... these aren't for sale on my website, they are going in my box ready for the next stall I do.
Day 4 is a long necklace with seed beads interspersed with faceted beads and crackle glass beads, with Tibetan silver spacers.
Day 5 is a child sized bangle with Pandora style beads and Hello Kitty charm.
Day 6 is an adult size Pandora style bracelet with a variety of red beads and a heart charm.

Now to plan what to make tomorrow....

One a Day - Day Three

2010-01-16T21:19:00.000Z

Today's make - a long lariat necklace. Made with dark silver silky rattail cord, knotted at intervals with beads (clear, white & silver) and silver heart charms. Contemporary necklaces
Modelled by Rebecca!

One a Day - Day Two

2010-01-15T20:36:00.001Z

Here's today's make - a St. Valentine's Day themed charm bracelet, full of hearts and red beads! It's on my website.

Tomorrow I'll be finishing a lariat necklace which I started this afternoon...

One a day craft challenge - Day One

2010-01-14T21:05:00.000Z

I've recently joined a craft forum and one of the members (her blog) has set up a challenge to make something new each day and post a photo on our blogs. What better incentive to make pretty things and at the same time keep up with blogging!
So here's the first two, which I added to my website this evening...
Jane

New jewellery at Pirate Treasures!

2010-01-13T16:06:00.002Z

Hello!

Well my aim of blogging on a weekly basis has failed already, but I intend to keep at it and try and do it more regularly, New Year's Resolution and all that!

Anyway, Christmas has come and gone, snow has come and gone and come back again...it's snowed again this morning. The main road isn't too bad, but living on the top of a big hill doesn't help when orders need to be posted - I can walk to the Post Office, but the Royal Mail collection van can't always make it up the hill!

So what have I been working on this month so far?

I have re-stocked on the popular brass lightning bolt necklaces, which can be found here kitsch necklaces and added a new pirate theme charm bracelet in the Pirate Jewellery section. I've made several new pairs of earrings for the Contemporary department - lampwork and millefiori glass hearts. I'll be making more heart-shaped design jewellery over the next couple of weeks, with it being Valentine's Day next month - plenty to buy as a treat or a present, hint hint!!

That'll do for now, Jane

First Blogger post!

2009-12-13T17:43:00.000Z

Hello! I'm Jane and I am Pirate Treasures Jewellery - welcome to my Blog!

I have been running my webiste http://www.pirate-treasures.com/ for nearly three years and decided it's about time I tried to keep up with a regular blog. It will just be an informal post about what designs I'm working on or have recently made...

OK, so what's going on right now?
I have just had a delivery of Vintage charms from America and will be working on some new necklaces and bracelets.
I'm planning some new Steampunk designs - I put a couple of watch movement necklaces on the website last week and will be making rings this week.
For those who want to dress up as Captain Jack Sparrow (or just in a general pirate style) for Christmas/New Year's Eve parties I have a selection of strands of beads which can be attached to your bandana, hat, clothes or hair; pirate necklaces - from replica Doubloon coins to fancy charm clusters, one-off design bracelets with beads, charms and skull & crossbones cameos.
There are a variety of styles in my Contemporary section on the website - glass foil hearts, lariat necklaces, beaded and charm bracelets in all colours, my popular Pirate Treasures logo plectrums with charms on bracelets and chains....
There's something to suit all tastes, so have a browse and do your Christmas shopping with me!

Over the last month I've been really busy with stalls at two local Craft Fairs and a Fashion Show. I don't do these very often, but it's almost Christmas and lots of people have been buying my jewellery as presents - as I have a huge variety it seems I can cater for most of the family! The kitsch jewellery range is of course especially popular with the children - at one craft fair we completely sold out of every type of skull necklace we brought with us. Everybody seems to love the Pandora style bracelets this year - I have my first jewellery party lined up for the New Year based on their popularity as a customer's friends all want one! I hadn't planned on doing parties as I'm not a very outgoing person and am not keen on drivng in the dark, but as long as I stay very local it will be alright!

Well, that will do for now - I want to get the Christmas decorations up this evening!
Jane

Pirate Treasures Handmade Jewellery

Pirate Treasures is 5 years old!

Christmas Fairs and new to the website...

Christmas Showcase!

What's new?

I'm back!!

What I've been up to...Challenge 52 weeks 14-15

Summer Fair season - Challenge 52 weeks 11-13

Challenge 52 - week 10 - fete preparation (part two)

Challenge 52 - week 9 - Fete preparation (part one)

Challenge 52 - Week 8 - Twitter & Favicon added

Challenge 52 - Week 7 - more Pirates!

Folksy Friday - Pirates!

Challenge 52 - week 5 - catching up (part 1)

Challenge 52 - week 4 - Pirates!

Challenge 52 - week 3

Challenge 52 - week 2

New Kitchen & Folksy Friday - Kitchen theme

Challenge 52 & April Show-ers

Ooops!

Children in Need & November Sparks

Website relaunch!

October Folkfest on Folksy!

Giveaway winner!

How to enter the Giv*aw*y!!

Fetes & Fairs & Festival stalls!

Giveaway Bag Win & One a Day Challenge

Folksy Friday - Cake!

New jewellery, birthday, broken computer, Folksy Friday features...

Shout outs & competitions!

Keeping up with the One-a-Day Challenge!

First fete of the year!

Better late than never!

Scarves, decorating & jewellery-making!

One a Day 75-80

One a Day 69-74

One a Day - Days 62-68 and new MISI shop!

One a Day challenge 54-61

Website headache, gerbil illness, Folksy & MISI!

One a Day - Days 49-53

One a Day - Days 41-48

One a Day - Days 35-40

One a Day - Days 32-34

Lavender & Days 30-31

One a Day - Days 25-29

Days 23 & 24

One a Day - days 21 and 22

One a Day - 17 to 20

One a Day craft challenge - Days 12-16 !!!

One a Day - Day 9

One a Day - Day 7 & 8

One a Day - Days 4, 5 & 6!

One a Day - Day Three

One a Day - Day Two

One a day craft challenge - Day One

New jewellery at Pirate Treasures!

First Blogger post!

How to enter the Givawy!!