If you didn’t have a chance to see my new range of pendants at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Stall on the Royal mile, I’ve posted up a sneak peak at some of the pictures over on my Facebook Page.

Why not head over and take a look.

Keep an eye on the website and facebook for more details.

I am looking for enterprising crafters who want to expand their business from spare time to part-time/full time. I’m going full time with my handmade jewellery business and starting selling from a street stall in Edinburgh city centre. In order to maximise the length of time I can be on the street I need to have a second person at the stall to allow for trips to the car for setup and bathroom breaks etc. You must be willing to exchange time working on the stall for the opportunity to sell your products. This is an ideal first step towards going full time or moving on to your own shop.

I’m planning to sell Tuesday to Saturday, plus public holidays throughout the year in any weather that is viable (anything but windy days really) from a high traffic pitch in the heritage area of Edinburgh. The passing trade is likely to be tourist heavy during the summer, with a stronger proportion of local residents outside of the festival season. I am also planning to have a pitch in/near one of the central parks for particularly nice days. There will be some days (particularly weekends) where I will be unavailable as I have some fairs booked for this year already.

I will be covering the expense of buying the covered stall and registering the licences and I have a car that I can use to transport you and the stall to our pitch. In exchange for doing a days work on the stall I will give you 25% of the selling space on the stall to sell your own goods and you will keep all of the profits from those sales. You will be an independent trader, not an employee, but will be listed as an “Assistant” on the licence to allow you to be on the stall.

Ideally I am looking for one crafter who is willing to commit to 5 days a week, but I understand that this sort of commitment on short notice is difficult. As an alternative, I would also consider crafters who are willing to cover 1-2 days per week on a regular basis and a pool of occasional assistants who can help out when regulars are unavailable.

I’m required to state the products that I will be selling at time of registration of the licence, so if you make something other than jewellery and are not on board from the start, you will not be able to join me at a later date. I cannot accept and food based crafters as that requires a different licence and I may decline if I feel that your brand conflicts with mine or competes directly with me (glass heart jewellery mostly).

I need to move quite quickly on this as it can take up to 6 weeks for the licence application to be processed and I need to submit the names of assistants at time of application. If I hold off too long we’ll miss the lucrative festival period.

If you are interested, please contact me with your name, craft and the days you would be interested in and we can arrange to meet up and discuss things further.

I’ve done a massive restock of my Murano Glass over the weekend.

Items back in stock include:

Rubino Red Large Murano Glass Heart Pendant
Clear Silver Lined Medium Murano Glass Heart Pendant
Midnight Treasure Black Silver & Gold Medium Murano Glass Heart Pendant
Midnight Treasure Black Silver & Gold Medium Murano Glass Heart Earrings
Amethyst Purple Gold Leaf Band Medium Murano Glass Heart Pendant
Aqua Blue Spiral Silver Lined Medium Murano Glass Heart Pendant
Pink Swirl Black Stripe Hand Blown Glass Disk Pendant
Verde Erba Green Murano Glass Heart Earrings

Unfortunately I’ve not managed to restock my chains and hangings, so I am currently out of stock of all the lengths of Sterling Silver Chain and the Black Satin Cords. Stocks of other satin cords are limited.

For a long time I have been listing the prices of my hangings and chains seperately from the pendants. This is because I prefer the look of the more expensive sterling silver chains and they add a reasonable amount onto the cost of your jewellery.

From now on, all pendants include a silver plated 18” chain for free with the order. You still have the option to upgrade to Sterling Silver or a satin cord if you are looking for something a little special, but now you can wear my pendants straight out the box.

I’m getting quite twitchy about it now. I’ve not done any jewellery making for over three weeks and I can’t wait to get back to it.

I’ve got a few ideas for some Swarovski pieces that I fancy working on. More like complete ranges of themed necklaces rather than the pendants I normally do. I’m just getting an itch to push my design muscle beyond making up more pendants.

The only problem is that I think they are going to come in a fair bit more expensive than my normal range, and there are better places I could be spending my money than holding onto more expensive stock at this time of year.

What do people think, are you a Swarovski fan?

P.S.

Really must get round to putting more of the Swarovski pendants up on the website. I’ve been very lazy about getting them up there.

Share your thoughts?

I’m doing a push to try and get my Facebook Page up to 100 fans before I reprint my business cards. When I have 100 members I can get a special page address that can atually be remembered by real live humans rather than only computers :-)

If you are interested in keep up to date with what’s going on at hearts of glass from the convenience of your own facebook page, why not sign up.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Gosh it’s been a jewellery filled week, and I’ve not even had a chance to post an update.

Had a great evening with lots lovely people down at the Coffee & Crafts Evening organised by 138th Guides down in Portobello. They managed to raise over four hundred pounds for St Columbus Hospice through various fund raising efforts, so a big well done to all the guides and people that came along. I’ve also sold the last of the Green, Yellow and Black hand blown glass at the coffee evening, so you’ll have to wait until I get more from the US if you were looking for one.

I’ve made up another bunch of jewellery, so there’s more Murano and Hand Blown Glass that needs to get photographed and added to the website. The Murano and Hand blown Glass sections are close to complete. Unfortunately there’s a lot of the Swarovski still to be added, but at least it’s mostly been photographed.

The craft fair in North Berwick was a lot of fun and all the stall holders were lovely. I’d particularly like to thank the Murano addicts from Silk By Kas (stunning painted silk at a great price) for all their purchases. I hope I didn’t take all your profits :-) If you saw me at the show, but didn’t get a chance to buy anything, I’ll be along in Gullane on the 28th November and 12th of December so you have another couple of chances to pick up presents.

I have also booked another fair in Edinburgh, down at the Arts Market in Dalmeny Street on the 5th of December . It’s my only fair in Edinburgh between now and Christmas, so mark it in your diary if you live in Edinburgh.

I’ve got a bit of a break in the craft fairs. Nothing on until the end of November, but at least it means I can concentrate a little more on the website and writing a few more articles.

Oh, and if you are generally interested in buying hand made goods in Edinburgh, Why not join the Facebook Group I run to keep everyone in the loop. Strangely enough, It’s called Craft Fairs in Edinburgh .

Phew… That’s enough for now :-)

Well…

That’s my first commision off to make it’s own way in the world. I’ve been working with Emma who commissioned the pieces for her wedding on and off since before christmas on ideas for these pieces and they are finally complete and handed over. There were a few supplier worries towards the end there, but everything has resolved in plenty of time.

I do hope my little children will be ok, it’s a cold hard world out there for young jewellery trying to make it on their own.

At least I know they are going to a good home :-)

Share your thoughts?

I’m really turned on by some of the shapes of Swarovski crystal at the moment. I’ve been doing quite a lot with elegant pieces that are silver and Swarovski designed to hang on a chain. This is not something that Swarovski has ever really done with their own jewelry, they really like the juxtaposition between the hard edges and the soft natural feel of the leather thongs.

I’m really wanting to play with the mix of Swarovski and more natural materials to create something that’s a little less formal and a bit funky to wear. I must admit though, I’ve never approved of Swarovski’s tie at the back leather thong idea. It just doesn’t sit well and a little more work on finishing it off could go a long way to making a much more wearable piece of jewelry.

Watch this space for updates.

Share your thoughts?