Back again! Two posts in one day, Not bad. I wasn’t going to blog till next week but had an email earlier tonight about an order for three gemstone and leaf cluster bracelets which arose from our little break in the countryside last week in the North Yorkshire Moors. It was Sues birthday last week so we decided to take off for a quite break and celebration with our  two young boys in tow. We stayed in a log cabin at Keldy forest near a place called Pickering which took me by surprise because it was beautiful and so was the whole surrounding area, little quaint villages and stunning countryside which I didn’t think existed anymore in good old blighty. Listen to me I sound like a travel guide, anyway as usually you get talking to people in your resort and this we did. Sue took a few pieces with her but it was one piece that got some attention which was the leaf & gemstone cluster bracelet shown below. Its amazing how chatty people get when you tell them you make jewellery, So we handed out a few cards and have ended up with a few sales with a few more on the way by the sounds of it. This is the beautiful log cabin we stayed in as you can see we had a rather early party guest.

Well here we are again another week that is just flying right by. Not doing as much blogging as I would like lately due to our two young boys that seem to be eating up our time. We have got lots of ideas and designs made or in the pipeline so its looking good for the future, Anyway lets get down to this blog which is about our bestselling Birds nest necklace and earrings. We have had a few designs of bracelets jotted down on paper for such a long time but as normal haven’t got round to seriously putting anything together, that was until we had a customer who wanted the necklace and earrings for her wedding but also a bracelet so we got down to work on designing a bracelet and these are two of final design drafts that we came up although it give us so many more. As you can see the first bracelet is designed for the more elegant look, very dainty not overpowering but just enough to have an effect when you are walking down the aisle. The second bracelet is a a dangle piece that is still very elegant but a a little more noticeable when walking along as the pearls swing around. All the pearls we used are very high quality with great luster and very few marks if any at all. We used a diamond belcher chain which gives it that dainty elegant look although I have tried it on a real thick chunky chain and it looks great so there’s another design for the future. Its amazing how many designs you can come up with when you have the same few materials.  Although I’ am a man and some women would say I haven’t a clue about weddings LOL, but I personally like women when they have all major jewellery pieces on by that I mean earrings,necklace and bracelet. I have seen numerous wedding photo’s were the bride just wears one or two pieces or even none and to me it just doesn’t look right, It can look lop-sided or incomplete but hey that’s just my opinion. OK enough of the wedding lecture  I’ll get off my soap box now.

Well we finally decided on our new boxes and gift wrap so we can tick one job off the list! The boxes we had before were only in stock for a year as the company we buy from has a range that they make each year but only lasts that time period so we had to find new packaging which wasn’t easy. We had the sales rep come round to the house so we could have a look at the boxes in the flesh and that’s where it got time consuming and different opinions came into view lol. I never thought chosen boxes would be so energy sapping my head hurt with all the activity going on. We finally agreed between us on a lovely black imitation range with a beautiful burgundy/purple satin foulard which looks fantastic together. Overall this just adds more quality and elegance to our ever growing business which is heading in the right direction.

We are very proud to have been featured in not one but two Etsy Treasuries last week!  The first called Light as Sea Foam was by RavensWhimzy and as you can see below featured gorgeous items in shades of aqua including our very own gemstone and pearl Sea Foam Necklace.

Etsy Treasury

The second treasury was called Golden Fantasies and was created by 650crissy This treasury featured our Golden Glow – Vermeil and Crystal Quartz Earrings alongside a number of other stunning products in gold.

Etsy Treasury

Many thanks to both of you for taking the time to feature our products.

Aah Sunday night and have managed to get a few minutes to write some words of wisdom i hope. Since we got back from Holiday it has been chaos with orders and getting back into work mode which isn’t easy for me at the best of times as Sue keeps pulling me up about all the tea breaks i have, I keep telling her that my genius comes from my thinking time. At the moment i have about ten projects going on at the moment which probably isn’t the best way to work but it suits me, and the one I am going to blog about tonight is my new white pearl cluster bracelet. I actually got the idea for this bracelet from our holiday destination which was Brittany which is in France for those of you who would not no that. I had been looking at photo’s with  beautiful soft sandy beaches with water crashing off the rocks which makes that white foam and is surrounded by patches of lovely clear blue/green water and then the darker blue water further out and having been there its even better first hand. I used two different sizes of AA white freshwater round pearls, The sizes of these pearls are 3-3.5 mm for the small ones and 5.5-6mm for the bigger ones which give it a fantastic style. I then added some 4mm AA aquamarine faceted rondelles which i interspersed along the bracelet which just made the bracelet glow and give it beautiful contrast to the pearls. I do like to add contrasting colours to my pieces but you have do it in the right way or it just looks a mess so for my second gemstone i used AAA blue Iolite Mystic quartz which were 6.5-7.5mm which to me just made the bracelet complete. I did add one last item to the bracelet which was a sterling silver Fleur de Lys charm which i thought was appropriate in more ways than one. This bracelet looks very suttle but has that eye catching look which i think is a must for pieces like this. I am working on the matching necklace and earrings for this bracelet so it will be a lovely set but that’s for another time and blog  so i bid you bonne nuit

Sue loves to make wire wrapped jewellery and she has made another beautiful pair of Silver Wire Wrapped Earrings. The frame is all in one piece which she has hand forged into a pear shape to compliment the gemstone shape. She then tirelessly and carefully wrapped metres of silver wire around the frame and put her unique signature of coils spiralling up the stem of the ear wire. The frame was then oxidised then given a little light polish to brighten it up. The AAA Pink Mystic Quartz stone was then attached in the centre of the frame and sterling silver balls wrapped around the inside of the frame to enhance the design by having a contrast between oxidised and bright silver. Overall these earrings are stunning and are a great look for the summer as the Pink Mystic Quartz are absolutely sparkling.

Just a quick update on our slinky bracelet we have also put our etched name charms on this bracelet and it looks fab, this really does make a great treasured keepsake. I had a nightmare yesterday trying to get the photo’s of the bracelet, Firstly I lost all the etched charms down the skirting board as we live in a very old house nothing is very straight so there are slight gaps now and again but I managed to recover all but one.   Then I dropped the light stand and broke the bulb which to my amazement cost £25  as I later found out so it wasn’t a great start to the day but I managed to get some shots and felt better even though I only had one light stand.  I would like to thank all our recent Valentine customers for shopping at IndiviJewels and hope you like what you bought  from us and for the kind words in your feedback we do appreciate this as we like to know how you feel about our Jewellery. I will leave you with a couple of pics of the bracelet as I have got to go back to work now as I have nearly finished another etched bracelet that will be part of a wider range so really looking  forward to getting that on our site and blogging about it.

Hello folks it’s the boring jobs today like admin work but it’s gotta get done. We had the website re-skinned last December and now it’s my job to put in meta keywords and descriptions and then rewrite all our product descriptions which is taking forever.  Doesn’t really help that I know nothing about computers and how they work. I would rather be up the workshop but then again its blowing a blizzard outside with snow everywhere so maybe I will just sit here in front of my open fire and keep warm while my poor wife has to work in our workshop. Hope to post again later today with a new piece to show you but will see how I go with the admin work.

I would like to say a big thank you to all our customers who purchased pieces from us.  Each year we are selling more and more of our jewellery so it’s nice to know we are heading in the right direction. The personalised items were our best sellers and we are working hard on a number of new personalised pieces for this year as well as some new and exciting  gemstone jewellery. I have some new AAA gemstones arriving in the next few days so I’m looking forward to that. With Valentine’s Day just round the corner we are working hard to get some new pieces out in time, but time is the problem as you think you are  just  getting on top of things and then it’s all systems go and so far behind again!  Suzanne and I wish everybody a Happy New Year and hope to make our customers happy with some new designs.

I’ve got a backlog of blogs to write but the wife and I have just been to busy at the moment so I’m just going to write about the two gemstone bracelets I have made recently.  I have wanted to make some jewellery for a while now  with AAA gemstones that I had sourced. It’s always a bit of a risk picking gemstone colours from photographs but I think I got it right with both bracelets. 

The first bracelet I made was called Winter Berries which comprises of  Amethyst, deep red Garnet, and pink Sapphire and it took many hours to make as there was a lot of wire wrapping involved. The base for this handmade sterling silver gemstone bracelet is a sterling silver belcher chain, with each gemstone meticulously wired to each of the links of the chain upon handmade fine silver head-pins. The intoxicatingly dramatic royal purple Amethyst onion briolettes are hand wrapped onto the chain and measure 5-6 mm. The deep red Garnet briolettes also hand wrapped are interspersed along the chain and measure 5 – 5.5mm. The beautiful natural pink Sapphire rondelles are interspersed and are attached by handmade fine silver head-pins and measure 3 – 4.4 mm.  The bracelet is fastened with a gorgeous sterling silver lobster clasp with a lovely sterling silver flower accompanying it.

The second bracelet I made I called Fairydust as it is so delightfully graceful and elegant and waiting for a princess to wear, this was put together using Rose quartz, white round pearls and Pink Mystic Topaz. The base for this handmade sterling silver gemstone & pearl bracelet is a sterling silver belcher chain, with each gemstone & pearl meticulously wired to each of the links of the chain upon handmade fine silver head-pins. The intoxicatingly tender Rose quartz onion briolettes are hand wrapped onto the chain and measure 5 – 6mm. The beautiful white round pearls are attached using handmade head-pins and measure 3 – 4mm.  The pink Mystic Topaz are also attached using handmade head-pins and measure 3.5mm to give the braclet a contrasting colour. The bracelet is fastened with a gorgeous sterling silver lobster clasp with a lovely sterling silver rose charm accompanying it.