I cannot tell you how hot it was in the workshop today! And cannot believe how hot it still is, I’m melting away at the computer writing this blog. Well I’m going to blog about a customer we had last week that was asking for a Hebrew initial on our personalised initial necklace which was quite exciting (I’m very sad) as we haven’t used any other language other then English so I was intrigued to have a look at Hebrew text which looked so Alien to me as I have never seen it before, Need to educate myself more me thinks! I wasn’t sure how it would turn out as the letter was very thick in places so it was a test of my etching skills to get it right. I really enjoyed working on something a little different and hope very much to do other languages in the future just need to get my website out there into the big wide world! I forgot to take a picture when I made it (Doh!) but this is the letter M that we etched, this is my print out version for transferring to silver.

Well here we are again! Tuesday morning and  just managed to get the little one off to sleep so thought I would grab my chance to jump on the computer and write one of my rare blogs these days. I’ am struggling to get my eyes to open today its funny how you get days like that. Well time is a wasting so let me crack on with our new personalised piece before the little one wakes up.  We have had  great success with our Mummy keyring that we have made a family love keyring. As its father’s Day this weekend we made the mock-up with a Daddy message but this keyring will be for anyone and everyone, family,friends, and maybe even work colleagues if you like them lol. Everything on this piece is sterling silver, the actual keyring is a beautiful solid silver oval screw shape, thought I would just add this as it seems some people use stainless steel key- rings with a silver tag but make out that the whole thing is sterling silver which isn’t the case with us. We have cut out a piece of  shaped silver from sheet which measures 50mm long,10mm wide and 1mm thick so its a nice sized piece of silver to work with and get the text that we wanted on it. As you can see from my expert photography the two key-rings look like a pair of scissors lol. We tinkered with the idea of adding a charm or two but thought against it in the end as we feel it looks just right on its own and in proportion to the keyring so for this one it was best decided to leave well alone.

Well what a wonderful Royal wedding we had the  privilege of watching. Thought the occasion was fantastic with the large crowds that gathered up and down the wedding route. I was trying to see what jewellery was on show and I have to say there wasn’t that much and to be honest some of the guests pieces were dreadful, should have shopped with us! lol. Right now to our new product, might as well join the bandwagon and make a piece to coincide with the wedding. This is a personalised necklace for all those girls who would love to be the next princess. We are currently working on a range for this piece but in the meantime would like to see how this takes with our customers before we commit to other pieces which we are very confident in as with past history. We decided to make a simple piece to begin with which started with a sterling silver disc which measures 16mm in diameter and 1mm thick. We then etched the word princess and a picture of a crown which will be standard and then the name of your choice in this case we choose Kate for obvious reasons. The disc hangs from a beautiful bail which makes it more elegant and appealing and finally we  have given the option of having an Amethyst or Rose Quartz gemstone to sit along side a luscious white pearl.

Well as we come to the end of another busy week it feels like I have more projects than when I started with LOL. We have been working on our new personalised piece which is the Mummy keyring which we are very happy with. As usual we are always playing catch up with different occasions through out the year so we were determined to get this out for mothers day. It took a few attempts to get the drawing of mummy but you have to be patient with etching as it can go wrong and can be very time consuming. We used a 30mm Heart shaped split ring which weighs 8.50 grams and is a solid piece of sterling silver. We thought Hearts and Mums go hand-in-hand so with Mothers day round the corner we thought this would make a great unique gift for mums the world over. The sterling silver disc is 26mm in diameter and is 1mm thick. We have given the option of having up to 40 characters in a child’s first print font  so plenty of room to fit those precious words for mum. As an option for customers they can have a child’s  drawing of a mummy which looks great and just completes this piece. The keyring is finished with a couple of sterling silver charms which are a key and a locked heart which we think adds to the theme of this design as you can see in the photograph below. We also applied a satin finish to keyring as it helps prevent scratching and keeps the piece looking better for longer.I look forward to completing the rest of the family, probably next year LOL. This is a beautiful gift and a wonderful keepsake for mums old and new.

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.

Just a quick post as we are starting to get really busy already with the run up to Xmas starting already. I received an email from one of my fellow Etsy chums who kindly put me on her treasury – http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c9abbeaf3d86d911c127495/charmed?index=1 – The piece that she had chosen was one of our top sellers which is our Personalised silver name charm with gold vermeil heart. I do appreciate it when people take the time to say a few good words about our designs it just gives you a little smile and a boost so thanks to wildstitches.

Just a quick update on our newest product which is our Golf ball marker. We have added some new designs that can be etched on to these fabulous keepsakes. Time is not on our side at the moment with our new son so jobs are taking a little longer than planned but we will get there.We have not forgotten the girls as we have this lovely golf chick marker. We have really enjoyed designing these golf markers, They make such a treasured keepsake and a unique gift.

Friendship bracelets are all the rage at the moment so we decided to design our own starting with a Beautiful children’s bracelet. These fabulous bracelets come with a choice of three different sterling silver charms, flower, heart or a star. The charm is stamped with the initial of your best friend and nestles between eight sterling silver balls. This bracelet comes in seven bright colourful cords to give a good choice and they look fantastic all stacked up on your wrist.

We decided to update one of our pieces which were the moonlight oxidised earrings. We thought we would bring abit of sparkle and brightness to this miserable summer so we have made a pair of sparkling earrings. We have kept the same design for this earrings but have changed the stone and have not oxidised them either. We changed the stone from opalite to grapefruit pink quartz and my are they really sumptuous. These earrings would be ideal for weddings either for the bride or bridesmaid in fact they would look good on anyone going to a wedding.