New Designs Added This Week

Another busy week making new designs. Here are the latest additions to my Etsy shop. Click on the individual titles for full descriptions.

English Rose Locket

Topaz Twist Earrings

Smoke Earrings

Starry Night Necklace

Heart of Steel Earrings

Caviar Necklace

Latest Additions

I've had a busy week or so adding new items to my Etsy shop. All but two pieces are new designs, and two have been reworked. The Midnight necklace has had the beaded chain replaced with a plain one as I felt the original one was overly fussy and detracted from the pendant, and the Coal earrings have been re made in gun metal as I feel it complements the Obsidian cubes better than the brass used for the original pair.

Here are my latest additions. Click on the title to see the full details.

Posy Necklace

Midnight Necklace

Coal Earrings

Captivate Necklace

Mercury Earrings

Mercury Necklace

Pop Art Earrings

Pop Art Necklace
Flying in Circles Necklace

Denim Necklace

Black Friday Sale

I am offering Free Shipping in my Etsy shop from Friday through to Tuesday morning. All listings have been adjusted, so there are no coupon codes to enter, just click and buy. Happy holiday shopping!

Here are my latest offerings: Click on the Title Name to take you through to the item listing in my Etsy Shop for a full description.

Cafe au Lait Earrings:


Lemon Bon Bon Earrings:


Petite Fleur Earrings:


Sage Earrings:


Rebel Earrings:


Gold Pearl Stack Earrings:


Pink Pearl Stack Earrings:


Green Pearl Stack Earrings:

Half Price Sale

I'm holding a half price sale in my Etsy shop. A huge 50% off everything for the next 48 hours. Sale ends Wed 10th Nov 10.00am UK time. I need to make room for some new designs coming soon.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Chameleonite

What better time to start your Christmas shopping!

Front Page

I discovered today that while I slept last night I was lucky enough to have my Spring Breeze Teal Lucite Flower earrings featured in this lovely Etsy Front Page Treasury made by EsmeDodsworthDesign.

Thank you Esme! :)

You can check out her lovely shop here:

Being on the Front Page resulted in the sale of my new Rosebud design earrings which I'm thrilled about, an enquiry about another item, and lots and lots of new shop and item hearts! :D

Friday Focus

As I haven't done a great deal of creating lately, I thought I'd share my ramblings on some recent thought processes.

I have been pondering opening a second Etsy shop for some time now but couldn't settle on what to sell. Jewellery is such a saturated market on Etsy with many hundreds of lovely shops that it's very difficult to be seen amongst the masses, unless you have a unique product, or your prices are extremely competitively priced i.e very low.

I have yet to discover and develop that elusive niche, and I refuse to be drawn into a pricing competition of drastically reducing my prices to compete with many who sell very cheaply with the main intention of amassing high sales figures. I know some people sell cheaply because it's just a hobby, indeed it's mainly a hobby for me too, in the respect that I don't rely on it as a source of income. But I'd rather sell less often at a price which I feel reflects the care and attention to detail that goes into my creations, and it is important to me to feel my work is valued and appreciated.

Having said that, sales are slow despite working very hard on promoting my shop. I did briefly consider selling supplies as a means of increasing sales and income, but very quickly decided against it because there would be very little creativity involved, and that too is very important to me.

So where is all this leading? Well nowhere really.... just yet. Oh I'm such a tease! ;)

It is true, I have come up with an idea, though by no means unique, and it may yet still reside under the umbrella of jewellery... I'm not decided on that yet. I will have to see where my creative muse leads me. It's something I became interested in many years ago and have rekindled my passion for. So I've ordered supplies and will be spending time with my new hobby, which may or may not be the focus of a new shop. It will keep my creative juices flowing if nothing else.

But back to my jewellery... here are my latest pieces:

Rosebud Earrings:


These beautiful earrings were made with faceted Vintage lucite beads, topped with antiqued brass petal caps with an olive green Swarovski crystal nestled in the petals of the uppermost leaf cap.

Apricot Blossom Earrings:


I used faceted crystals of warm honeyed topaz for these little beauties. I have layered them with antiqued brass caps and topped them with dainty topaz Swarovski crystals.

Either pair would be lovely to wear this spring, and are suitable for either day or evening wear.

Fifi Friday

Still feeling poorly so not done a lot this week. My energy levels are depleted and it's all I can do to take my dog for a very short morning walk, then it's back to the couch for most of the day, and early nights.

But I managed to make, photograph and list a pair of earrings. It was an experiment really, to see if I could find a way to use these gorgeous beads that I ordered which unfortunately came without holes. I fixed them with super strength E600 glue inside the lower petaled bead cap. They are very secure, and I'm really happy with the result.

Fifi Earrings:

Sunday - a Day of Rest?

Today is Mother's day in the UK, a day, as I'm sure everyone knows, when children show their love and appreciation of their mum. I received cards off all my 3 adult children, phone calls from the 2 who live away, a big box of chocolates from my daughter, and my son hoovered the house as a treat, which was lovely.

But Mother's day or not, I seem to have been busy all day. I was up early and out in the freezing cold garden photographing the earrings I made last night and edited them all even before walking my dog. After lunch I listed them in my Etsy shop, and set to work making a necklace, which meant more photos, editing and listing.

Here is what I made...

Ballerina Earrings: So called because they remind me of Pirouetting ballerinas.


Dew Kissed necklace:


Clematis Earrings:


I love these turquoise lampwork flowers. I first bought some last year and have just found them again in limited supply, so I bought quite a few for my bead stash. I also have them in a lovely shade of pale green.

I am fortunate to be currently featured in no less than 3 treasuries and an alt in another one. They are all beautiful and I'm delighted to have some of my items chosen. Thank you!

You can check them out here over the next couple of days:

Yay Spring:

Enigma Ring:

Raspberry and Chocolate:

I'm an alt in this one... Touch of Elegance:

Friday Focus

It's been an odd week with 3 days of having to wait in for a man in a van... actually that's not true, today's man arrived in a very posh car. My boiler broke on Sunday and a repair was attempted on Tuesday to no avail, so the engineer had to order a part and come back on Thursday, only he didn't come back, another man did. Then today an insurance surveyor called to assess my broken kitchen sink (don't ask!). He was the one in the posh car. Heaven knows what the neighbours must think with all these men coming and going... possibly that I've fallen on hard times?

But all this sitting around... (who am I kidding) I am so house proud I have to clean up before allowing workmen in. I actually got to play with my lovely beads and made two new pairs of earrings.

These are my current favourites... I adore them and will have to make a pair for myself!

Secret Garden


These pink earrings remind me of Peonies and are suitable for day or evening wear:

Peony

Spring is in the Air

I seem to have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to update my blog. I'm about to put that right with a gallery of my latest Spring Flower Collection. My flowers seem to be my best seller and after a couple of them were recently featured on the Etsy Front Page interest has grown (no pun intended) and orders have increased. So I figured I'd extend my range with some new designs. I can't claim they are botanically correct, but I have so much fun making them, and it beats gardening in this chilly weather!

Daffodils:



Nightshade Lily:


Bluebell:


First Dew:


Springtime:


Passion Blossom:



Tiffany Fleur:


Spring Green:



Summer Sky:



Lime Blossom:

Christmas Round Up

I've had a lovely, relaxed and peaceful Christmas. We've had quite a lot of snow so I haven't used the car since last Friday. The steep hill leading up from our close to the main road is like an ice rink and I've seen too many cars skidding all over the road to even attempt it. So Bailey's daily walks have been limited to the green at the top of the road.

But today the footpaths aren't even safe to walk on, so the poor lad has only been in the garden. It has rained a little tonight, so I'm hoping it will help to melt the ice. My son very kindly did the food shopping at 7.00am on Christmas eve morning... he caught the bus there and back, so I really have had a lovely stress free break.

Snowy garden


Christmas tree and fireplace garland


Sepia Christmas


As far as my jewellery is concerned I haven't been very productive lately, but here's a necklace I made recently:

Lemon Sorbet Vintage Lily Pendant


I made these earrings today. Not very festive, and more reminiscent of balmy summer days by the sea. But I figured if exotic holiday adverts are shown on Boxing day, then why not. Anyway I have customers in Australia to think about!

Ocean Drops



Happy New Year to Everyone! xx

Recent New Additions

I've neglected my blog lately, along with several other little bits and pieces, so last night I wrote up a "to do" list, and writing up my blog was top of the list!

I've been busy increasing my shop inventory, and here are some pieces I made recently:

Pippin - Apple Coral Earrings


I love these earrings. They remind me of little apples, or maybe cherries? I was walking Bailey in the woods when I came across some lovely autumn leaves and decided to use one in the photos as it picked up on the colour beautifully. That's something that is becoming increasing natural to me since I started making jewellery and taking photographs; I notice ideas for props all around me.

Staging my photos has become one of the most enjoyable aspects of my hobby. They don't always work out how I had imagined; sometimes they look really awful, but every now and again I'm pleasantly surprised by the results!

Raspberry Earrings


These earrings use colour washed vintage lucite in a lovely shade of raspberry. I quite like the way this photo turned out. I laid a piece of plain card at an angle across the jacket of a book that matched the raspberry beautifully. I think the contrast works quite well.

Ebony Earrings


I love the simplicity of these black glass and silver earrings. I've recently begun to introduce simpler designs to my range. I particularly like the little silver bead caps. They are so versatile and are an effective means of dressing up an otherwise plain bead without stealing any of the limelight or making them appear over dressed. For these I have used a neutral background to help them to stand out.

Hearstrings Earrings


These earrings are fancier than the previous ones. They started off as a simple trio of glass hearts, but I felt they needed a little something extra, and I had a short length of delicate sterling silver chain that was too fine to use as a bracelet so decided to add strands of it as tassles which look rather festive. The background for this photo was a lovely bronzed marble effect from the inside of a book cover. It's quite reflective so I don't feel it's particularly suitable for use as a background, but in this particular shot it does seem to make the colours pop.

Harlequin Earrings


Back to my simpler style. Here are a cute pair of earrings with a twist. Each vintage bead is made up of two interlocking parts to form the whole bead. I think the effect is really striking! Again, I used the simple silver caps to finish them. Another plain background this time, photographed from directly above to show off the pattern of the beads.

Innocence Bracelet


Innocence Earrings


Here we have a matching set of bracelet and earrings using beads of the most gorgeous shade of blue. I used sterling silver wire to wrap couplets of beads together. Again, the silver caps have been used effectively in keeping with the simple design, as has the background for the photos.

Next we have a black and silver bracelet incorporating some pretty floral lampwork beads to compliment the focal flower bead.

Astrid Bracelet


Tangled Web Earrings


Admittedly there wasn't an awful lot of design introduced here. These were some charms I came across in a bead shop, and I fell in love with them! My intention was to somehow incorporate them into a more detailed piece with the addition of beads, but in the end I decided "less is more" so kept them as they were, nice and simple, hanging from sterling silver hooks. I suppose it is cheating in a way, but they look so effective I couldn't resist!

For these I felt a steel background tied in nicely so propped them against a solid steel bench block on a black background. When deciding what to call these earrings various thoughts came to mind; webs, lightening... even bicycle wheels. Don't think I'd get very far on them though! In the end I opted for tangled web.

"O, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive."

I wouldn't want to unintentionally dupe anyone into thinking I had made these charms myself. I don't think there is anything wrong with taking a charm and making a piece of jewellery out of it. It's really no different to threading beads onto a headpin or a pendant onto a chain. But they have inspired me to have a go at making some from raw materials, so they have served a purpose. Inspiration comes from the unlikeliest places!