Jewellery Parties Part 2

The jewellery party on Friday was a quiet night, but I did have 3 visitors. It was good to catch up with them because I hadn't seen them for a while, and they each made an order, which is good.

My next planned jewellery party is at Christmas. I've done a couple of Christmas themed ones before and they tend to be quite popular with people buying presents, and occasionally treats for themselves. I've got a few regulars that like to come and see what new things I'm doing. From doing this jewellery party on Friday it looks like I've got more people to invite to it. There were a few comments about Christmas presents. I do enjoy the Christmas themed ones, partly because I'm a big kid and I like having the Christmas music on and decorations up.

If you or someone you might know would be interested in hosting a Silver Chestnut jewellery party feel free to get in touch. As a host of a Silver Chestnut jewellery party, you would receive 10% of the takings on the night of the jewellery party. (Any orders made but not paid for will not count towards the takings of the night.)

Jewellery Parties Part 1

Some of you may be asking what a jewellery party is so I thought I better start with a short explanation for you. It's a social get together where jewellery on display to touch, try on and buy. It's a good chance for friends to have a good catch up and also browse some lovely jewellery. There is a host who is the person who invites their friends and holds the party, normally at their house. Usually the host gets a little gift for hosting and a percentage of the takings. There is also a sales type person who is the person who brings the jewellery along and can answer any questions about it, etc. Depending on the business this person will be an employee (such as sales assistant) or, as in my case, is the person who makes the jewellery.

I enjoy doing jewellery parties because it's a chance for me to talk to customers about what I do and a chance for the customers to see and touch the jewellery, which is a lot easier than seeing a photograph on-line.

Last week I had a Silver Chestnut jewellery party for some friends at my house. It was a fairly quiet evening, but it was good to catch up with friends and I made a few sales too. This evening I'm having another one for some ex-colleagues (not that they're not friends too!). I'm looking forward to it and I'll let you know how it went on Monday!

Polishing accident!

I thought I would show you one of the slightly more interesting things that happened this week as I was working on my jewellery. I have never seen or heard of it happening before so if  you have let me know.

I was making a ring and had come to polish it. At the moment I don't have the full polishing equipment I would eventually like to own, but I do have a hand held 'multi-tool' that you can add different bits to including a small polishing wheel (or pendant, which is the proper name for it). I was polishing the inside of the ring which I have done many times before on other rings. The ring slipped out of my hand and started spinning round the metal 'pole' that I attach multi-tool grips on to. This does occasionally happen as it moves very fast, but normally I just turn the tool off and take the ring off. This time I turned it off and somehow with the spinning and, I'm guessing, the heat, my polishing wheel has now been bent. :(

Luckily I do have a spare, so I could carry on.

Cuff Links

I have recently started making cuff links. I made some over a year ago as a present for my husband (seen on the left), but hadn't made any to sell due to my main focus being to make jewellery for women. Then after to talking to a couple of friends, both of whom are regular customers/supporters of Silver Chestnut, I began thinking that perhaps it could be a good idea to branch out.


So I set to designing some cuff links. After a mixture of drawing, doodling, crossing out, daydreaming, measuring and a few other things I finally got round to coming up with some designs. Some have been scrapped, some are a work in progress, but finally some designs have been made, polished and photographed. So here's to the first couple of cuff links for you to view.

Keep an eye out for more designs. I have some more in the pipeline. If you would like to purchase these cuff links or want to check to see I've made any more, why not visit the cuff link section of my Folksy shop:
http://folksy.com/shops/SilverChestnut?shop_section=cuff_links

Craft Juice

I have recently started using a website called Craft Juice. It's for people to list craft items on their website with a photo, description and a link to where it's being sold. Then people can vote for the items they like. The more votes people get the more advertising a particular item will get. An item needs at least 5 votes for it to get some advertising, which means it will be shown on Craft Juice's Facebook and Twitter pages. The most popular items get shown in the monthly newsletter.

It's quite a good way of getting some free advertising with links through to my Folksy shop. I've just listed two rings, which I've pictured here for you. If would like to vote on them visit the following links:







http://www.craftjuice.com/story.php?title=twisted-ring-with-amethyst-folksy

http://www.craftjuice.com/story.php?title=twisted-ring-folksy-1

Silver Chestnut is now full time!

This week begins a new chapter for Silver Chestnut. Yesterday was my last shift at 'the other job', which shall remain nameless. This now means that from this week onwards I will be working on Silver Chestnut full time. I'm quite excited about it and have got various things lined up to do, such as designs to make, potential outlets to visit, craft fairs to apply for, jewellery parties to plan.... The list could go on. I am looking forward to having the time to work on things more, getting into a routine and being able to plan ahead. (In 'the other job' we didn't get our rotas very far in advance so planning ahead was difficult.)

As I said, I'm quite excited about it, although there are some things that perhaps I'm a little less certain about. Most of these stem from the fact that I am now going to be (a) working from home and (b) working on my own. Some parts of this will be easier to solve than others. This is because, as mentioned previously, I have a few potential outlets to visit, so I will be both getting out of the house and being able to talk to other people. I am also in touch with another jeweller who will let me use his workshop one or two days a week, so I can use the equipment I don't have. Doing more craft fairs and jewellery parties will help this too. However, working from home and being strict with myself, so I don't end up watching TV or finding housework or gardening that needs doing, may be more difficult.

I realise that all jobs have a downside, and maybe being more disciplined and not doing the things around the house that I'm tempted to are the downsides for this job. But I think they are outweighed by the positives, like the joy I find in making things, polishing up a finished piece to see it shine, and seeing people react positively to my jewellery and actually want ot buy it or sell it in their shops. Essentially, finally having a job I enjoy!

If anyone has any advice on working on from home or on your own, feel free to pass it on to me.

reLoved Spoons

I wanted to share with you about reLoved Spoon collection. It was my first official collection.

The inspiration for them came from Welsh love spoons, which I have always liked as a symbol and gift of love. I also like the idea of recycling. After pondering how I could make my love spoon designs a bit different, I decided to combine the two ideas, so all of my love spoons are made from unwanted spoons, most of which I have bought from charity shop.





To try to point out that they made are recycled spoons I decided to combine the recycle with love to create a name for them, so we get re-love. I thought the name fitted quite well because they are spoons that are now wanted instead of unwanted, recycled and reused for something new. They are re-loved.




Currently the ones I have in stock are made from silver plated nickel spoons. Feel free to see my re-Loved section in my shop: http://folksy.com/shops/SilverChestnut?shop_section=reloved_spoons

More designs to follow!