Bye for now!

Just thought I'd let anyone out there who regularly reads my blog. You won't hear from me until October. Silver Chestnut is closed for three weeks whilst I am on holiday.

See you in October with more news on what I'm up to!

Christmas already?!

No it's not Christmas yet, but I am thinking about it! Normally I don't start thinking about Christmas until about the end of November. I don't even start buying presents until mid December, unless I happen to see something I think someone will really like. So it's quite unusual for me to be thinking about Christmas in September. Here are some of things I've been planning...

Designs
I have started designing (and making) some more winter/Christmas themed items. I've also tried to design them so that people can wear them any time of the year, although I am considering making some snowflake designs. Here are two of the designs:

Frosted Leaf inspired by frost on leaves

Star Earrings

These are currently on sale in my Folksy shop if you fancy a look:
http://folksy.com/shops/SilverChestnut

Craft Fairs
I've been researching and booking craft fairs. I have 3 booked; 3rd November, 17th November and 15th December. I'm going to leave it at 3 fairs this year because there will be 2 weeks between each of them and the Christmas jewellery party I'm planning (see below). This gives me time to restock anything I've sold and make any orders I've recieved.

Jewellery Party
I'm planning a Christmas themed jewellery party for the beginning of December, to which I'm inviting some friends, family and long term customers of mine. There'll be Christmas music and decorations, with food like mince pies and biscuits shaped in Christmas themed things. As well as jewellery to buy for Christmas presents of course (or possibly as a treat!).

It's quite exciting. It's only just September but I am getting excited about planning and making stuff for the Christmas events. I'll blog about the events closer to the time to let you know more.

Are any of you planning things for Christmas yet? Have you started buying presents? Or are you like me and tend to leave it to the last minute? Let me know your thoughts!

Facebook Competition Winner

Yesterday was the end of my facebook competition. It closed at 2.30. Here's how it went...

I wrote all the entrants names down and folded them up....

 

Then I put all the names in my hat...

...and I picked out a winner!

And the winner is... (drum roll)...

Lena Wettach

If you would like to get updates on my work and enter competitions visit my facebook page and click the like button:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Silver-Chestnut/254701737935713

Facebook Competition

My facebook page recently got 100 likes. To celebrate I'm having a giveaway of these earrings.

To be in with a chance to win the earrings, you need to go to my facebook page, like the page (if you don't already) and share the picture of the earrings on the time line. Tomorrow I'm putting all the names in a hat and pulling out the winner.

If you'd like to take part, here's my facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Silver-Chestnut/254701737935713

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.