An Amazing Family of Artists

Since selling on Etsy I've made lots of new friends in Distant lands. Including the wonderful owner of Bellacosaart and her mum the owner of ArtByDonnaRose

I really got to know these ladies when I fell in love with this picture


I was horrified to discover that it sold to another etsy seller BeadsYouNeed the upside of this is that this seller has actually purchased several of my items so I'm really pleased it's gone to a new home.
So where's this tale going, having lost this opportunity I got into talks with Bellacosaart and the long and the short of it is that she is going to create a commission piece for me in the new year.

I should have left it there but of course I had to keep looking so back to Bellacosaart I went and there it was another stunning picture, I knew I shouldn't but I wasn't going to miss out again and I mentioned the picture to my husband and yep he said he'd buy it for me for Christmas.
Yep this one's mine, all mine.


Gorgeous isn't I can't wait to put it on my wall.
Alas the story of Toni's passion for art did not end here. Yes I went and had a look at ArtByDonnaRose and fell in love with this picture.


The only problem being that it was simply too small for the room I wanted to put it in the long. So the long and the short of it is that I'm having another commissioned piece done. This will be a mass of hydrangea flowers, I can't wait.

I will definitely be posting my new piece here when they're done but in the meantime why not visit one of the three seller mentioned in this story of an amazing family and my love of Art.

So much talent in one family!!

Trading on Etsy

I have recently found that trading is rife on etsy and what a fantastic idea.

It's as easy as a dollar for dollar exchange of goods. You find something you like in someones store and ask if they'd like to swap it for something in your store for the same value.

All costs are compared and any difference is either made up with a little something extra or by a small payment to the relevant parties paypal account.

Etsy are haapy, they still get their commission and listing fees and you're happy because you got something you possibly could not otherwise afford.

Marvellous for all parties. So what have I been up to lately. Well trading of course. So far I've done 4 trades. I've received items from one of them already and thought I'd show what I traded and what I got in return.

In this instance the seller approached me because she liked this pair of earrings












and I got these


She's an absolutely lovely lady and I hope she likes her earrrings as much as I like my cards. Why not visit her store you might just see something you like http://magymai711.etsy.com

I'll show you what else I get from trading as it happens

Clearance Sale

***** Moving Sale *********************************************
25% off Crystal Jewellery, discount is already reflected in the published price. All discounted items can be found in the new Clearance section of my store.

We are in the throws of moving house and that combined with the fact that focus of my jewelry making has changed means that
now seems like a good time to clear out the old to make room for the new.
************************

WOW I've been Tagged

Until today I didn't know there was such a thing!!

I was tagged by GirlsBeadedSocks! Now I have to share six unique things about myself with all of you, whether you are interested in hearing them or not! Then, I am on to tag six other people and force them to do the same! Hey forcing other people to do the same is what I like!!!

1) I hate housework, cleaning, ironing, washing etc but absolutely adore cooking as long as it's something complicated

2) I had a hernia at the age of 11 and the doctor said I had a boys name and a boys complaint

3) I waited until a couple of years ago to break a bone and managed to break my wrist playing with the dog in the garden, I'd only had 1 glass of red and ended up with 3 pins!!!

4) I moved to Australia from England and married an American I met on the way to Vanuatu

5) I never thought I'd have children but now have 2, the first was born when I was 40.

6) My grandad used to come to tea every Wednesday when I was a child and he used to give me embroidery lessons. He did the most amazing embroidery, I never was anywhere near up to his standard

Checkout who I tag

tpdesign
Whimzypimzy
onegirliegirl
donnapool
knitsteel
motherspreciousgems

24 Hour Sale

To celebrate my 100th etsy heart I'm having a 24hr sale in my etsy store.

Come take a look you could snag a bargain. http://mooretaste.etsy.com

I'm sooo excited to have these hearts, a few weeks ago I only had a few, I realise that some people have thousands but to me 100 is a huge milestone.

Now for 100 sales. LOL

My First Ring

Yay happy days, today I finished my first ever ring. I've been meaning to have a go for a while but could never quite think of what I wanted to put on as the feature. I love what other people do but try really hard not to do the same thing.

The trouble these days is that you think you've come up with an original idea only to find someone else is already doing it. I've had to stop looking at other jewellery designers work because I kept seeing things I was planning on making.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the finished article, I topped it with a portion of cuttlefish casting. I did the casting ages ago and couldn't decide what to do with the result. This seemed perfect.




The cast feature isn't 100% symmetrical but I don't think it matter this time. Hope you like it.

New Press

I'm all excited this week, I got a new hydraulic press. What on earth for you may well ask yourselves, well all sorts of things says she.

The initial use is to make cutting beautiful clean edged discs from metal easier. I can do it using a bit of brute strength and ignorance but with littlies around that's not always as easy as it seems.

I'm also planning to use it to emboss silver with some of my etched designs, making them not only repeatable but also enabling me to make all my design mistakes on brass rather than silver. A much cheaper alternative me thinks.

I don't have a picture of the press yet but I will try to snap one later today. I have however already listed a few items on my etsy store using discs cut using it so why not pop over and take a look.

Have a great day everyone

New Etsy Treasury

Just a flying visit to my blog today, I scored my first Treasury for a while today so thought I should promote it just about everywhere. So here's a link, I hope you take a look and support the store holders I've included.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=8408

I don't know how they do it

Keep their blogs up to date I mean. What with running around after a 2yr old and a 1 yr old, trying to get myself noticed on etsy and getting things made to sell. I never seem to find the time to update my blog.

Part of the problem is that I never really know what to write about.

I've just ordered a heap of design stamps from the US to use on my decorated links. I love making them and the new stamps will really increase my options. I'm also looking for some kiddies pictures to put in some resin pendants. I thought I had what I needed but unfortunately the quality just wasn't there so I've got to have another look around today.

I've recently listed some of my pierced, resin filled pendants but I'm not sure how well they're going down. We can but hope. Here are a couple of pictures, the first is the pendant I mentioned in my previous post that was my contribution to a swap I ran on a beading forum and the second is one that I've recently listed on etsy, I really hope you like them.

Where does the time go

Yes I know, I've been really slack updating my blog, what with my sons first birthday and running a pendant swap on a forum I belong to the time just runs away.

The swap's been really successful. I think I'll ask a couple of the ladies if I can do a bit of a feature on their work. I'm pretty sure they wont mind. They certainly turned out some beautiful pieces.

I'm all excited at the moment, I just bought a disc cutter, which for those of you that don't know is used to cut perfect circles from metal. My husband and I had a play with some copper last night and it's so easy to use.

Can't wait until I get a bit of, 2 kids asleep time, so that I can have a go at a piece of silver that I etched ages ago and put aside for just this time.

Well I'll close now, hopefully I'll post a couple of pictures soon of my first creations using my disc cutter.

Oh by the way, I didn't manage to get my first etsy sale in July but hey there's always August and I've been listing regularly and snagging treasuries all over the place so hopefully at least I'm getting my store name out there.

My workspace

Good morning all, it's rather cold here at the moment but the sun is shining and all is right with the world.
I though today I'd take you for a bit of a tour around my work area, these pictures were taken quite a while ago and it's by no means this tidy now. That's what comes of using things and buying more tools etc etc. Anyway, I hope you find this interesting
My beautiful work bench made by my wonderful husband for my birthday last year


In addition to the things shown above I have cabinets and shelves of beads findings etc. I originally included the pictures here but thought they'd bore you to tears.

The little white box under the desk lets me use all the tools that I've 'temporarily' borrowed from my husband. He bought them when he still lived in the US so we have to change the power used.

Here's a picture of the first thing I made at the bench, infact I think it's the first piece of jewellery I made solely out of metal. It's only really a practise piece for textures and no where near good enough to wear but you'll get the idea





I'll publish a few of my more inspired (if you can call them that) pieces over the next few weeks

Well that's all for today
Enjoy
Toni

At long last

Well at long last I've started working on my blog.

I've been a real slacker, with 2 babies it's pretty hard to find the time to make and list things on etsy let alone keep a blog up todate.

I've made myself a bit of a promise of late, to keep my etsy store stocked and uptodate and to work on marketing it. It's easy for me to sit on my behind and say sob sob poor old me I haven't sold anything but there's nothing I can do about it.

Well balderdash, of course there's something I can do. Market myself and my jewellery. I love making it and use every spare moment to make something new and pick up new skills so I should jolly well find some spare moments to sell it and that's what I'm doing!!

I've recently jointed an Etsy Street Team called etsymoms and they're really supported and have heaps of information so...............

Wish me luck, lets see if I can't sell something before the end of the month
Bye for now
Toni