A little turned large-ish update :)

It seems every post I get to make on here lately is a brief apology for not posting much... and this one isn't going to be much different I'm afraid!

My final year of uni and all the work that comes with it is swamping me right now - essays, lab reports, lab work, etc! It's a nightmare... but I do love my course, haha!

On the crafty front, I've barely picked anything up in the last month (?), which is a bit rubbish really! Especially when I see fellow crafters making lots of lovely things... I have to keep reminded myself that some people do this for a living and can afford to be 110% committed to it, whereas for me, if I want to pass my degree I've got to put things down every now and then!

Buuuuut, the holidays start soon and though I've got several exams to revise for and a mountain of written work to get done, I will be making some time to do a bit of jewellery making, and hopefully some painting too! I'm also hoping to spend a weekend selling some of my jewellery in my local hospital (a strange setting, I know!). Basically, my mum is a cancer patient and has spent a lot of the last year in a hospice and I'm hoping to get lots of bits sold so I can donate my profits to them as a bit of a thank you for taking such good care of her.

So, just to round off... here's a little snippet of what I have made sort of recently!

This is one of five pairs of 925 sterling silver and amethyst earrings. Obviously, because they're made with natural stones, the patterns in each pair vary slightly. This pair are probably my favourite out of the lot, but their colour hasn't come out too vividly on a quick phone picture! The purple in them is so rich - I love them!

I'll be putting them on my Folksy shop before I go to sell them at the hospital (I'll be putting my shop on holiday mode when I do my hospital sales - if I get the chance to - and I'll update on here before I do, so as not to confuse business)... so if anyone does want a pair, keep your eyes peeled because I'll be updating my blog and shop shortly with these beauties! And I'll get a picture of all the pairs together, so people can message me if they have a preference when ordering!

I'm waffling now, so I'll round it up! I hope everyone has had a lovely day today, in the sunshine! And I hope to give you some more to read soon :)

Folksy Friday - Paris, London, New York

I'm spending pretty much all my time at the moment doing university work, either I'm sitting in lectures, flitting about the lab or sitting around at home working on one piece of work or another... So, with all this work, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about going on holiday!

This week, my theme started out as big cities, but I narrowed it down to Paris, London and New York and found some really great items!

As with all my Folksy Friday posts, each picture links back to the seller's original page so do check them out!

A very late Folksy Friday - Colours of the Rainbow

Well, I started searching for items for this post at about 11 this morning, but ended up spending most of the day sleeping... And before anyone says it, I'm not just a typical lazy student (ha ha!), I've had food poisoning and was awake all night with it, so today I was falling asleep on my feet!

Anyway, enough feeling sorry for myself!

Here are my choices - Colours of the Rainbow... And, as usual, each picture is a click through link to the item in the seller's shop :)

Urrrrh...

Well, I think it's safe to say I've been an exceptionally lazy blogger lately!
I just don't know where my time is going! My head seems to constantly be in one book or another, or some other chaos is stealing my attention.

I've barely made any jewellery lately either, which is just rubbish!
So from today, I'm going to get back into it properly! At least one blog update each week, not including a Folksy Friday post, lots of updates on all the pretty things I will be making and also, lots of interesting bits about what's going on in the life of me ;)

So, I'm going to get started on a Folksy Friday post in a minute, so anyone who happens to be reading this, check back soon!

Folksy Friday - Birds, Bees and other Bugs...

I seem to have been rushing around doing all sorts this week, but I decided I'd take some time to do Folksy Friday again!
I've been a bit of a lazy blogger so I hope you like :)

My theme this week is Birds, Bees and other Bugs...
Each picture links to the item in the shop, so give 'em a click and check out their shops!

Folksy Friday...

So this is my first Folksy Friday and as some of you may know, I've been looking forward to this all week!
Everyone's getting ready for Valentine's day, so this week, my theme is 'Love is in the Air'! Maybe you'll find something special for your loved on in one of these fab little shops!

Each picture links to the item in the shop and I highly recommend you check out the rest of these seller's shops too, not just the items I've posted here today!

A Little Birdie Told Me...

Just uploaded my lovely little birdie necklaces to Folksy! It's really made my day actually - I've been stuck in the lab all day and it's really cheered me up taking photos of this, haha! Simple things eh :)

So here it is people, I hope you like it!

http://www.folksy.com/items/1264609-A-Little-Birdie-Told-Me-

I'm happy with the pictures but I'm still not sure they do the necklace justice! The largest bead is a really gorgeous fire polished one, so has an amazing finish that shines different colours in the light but that was basically impossible to capture in the picture!

If any of you have any tips on getting good pictures of your products, I would love to get a few comments about that here! Share the knowledge people!

<3

My new creations!

This is just a short post, but I had to put a little something!

I've made a couple of new pairs of earrings lately, using some semi-precious stones and sterling silver. They're absolutely gorgeous, even if I do say so myself! I've also got a new necklace to show you all:

This is just a quick picture I took on my phone after I'd made it, really just to send to my mum, but I thought I'd upload it here to give you readers a sneak-preview of what I've been up to lately!

I was going for a sort of natural look with this piece and I think I've achieved what I set out to, with the antique brass pendant, and the greens and the browns in the beads. Also, there's a really nice combination of glass, wood and metal that I think really suits it all well! This picture doesn't really do the colours justice, but still, I just love this little piece! I've only got four of them, but I'm undecided as to whether or not to keep one for myself... I love that little bird, he's adorable!

I'll be uploading the items for sale later today I think, or at least some time this week depending on what the rest of the day holds for me - it's the beginning term at uni though, so things haven't gotten too crazy yet... at least not now that exam week is over!

Folksy Fridays...

I've been checking out some other blogs today and I'm suddenly wishing it was Friday (probably an unusual thought to be having on a Sunday night)... But not because I'm not looking forward to Monday, instead because I want to do a 'Folksy Friday'.

Some of the blog posts I've seen are just lovely and I've seen some really great shops as a result!

Roll on Friday! Hopefully I'll have a few more followers by then too, so that the shops I find actually get some valuable promotion too!

If anyone has any tips for me, when it comes to Folksy Fridays, please leave me a comment!

Hello Readers!

Hi all,

I'm new to all this blogging stuff so I'm not really sure where to start! Maybe a little bit about me and why I decided to make jewellery could be a good start?

Well, as you've probably seen by now, I'm a Molecular Biology student who's pretty much decided to take jewellery making up as a hobby. I'm in my final year now, so for me that means long hours working in a meningitis lab then coming home to a mountain of revision and lecture notes. As I'm sure you can imagine, there are only so many hours a person can spend in a lab without going mad... so that's where it all started out.

On the verge of a breakdown from stress, I decided I needed to find some sort of hobby to give me a break from all my Uni work... As I said in my profile, I used to paint a lot but being away from home, living in a student house, I don't have a whole lot of space for that so I needed to think of something a little more compact. Eventually, I settled on making jewellery.

I think what finalised my decision was the fact that I'm allergic to nickel... For me that means, I'm a young woman with a tiny jewellery selection because I can't buy anything from Topshop or New Look or those sorts of places because virtually everything they sell is full of nickel and I can't really afford to be buying everything in silver! So, I scoured the internet to learn more about the craft and quickly ended up with a little shop on Folksy selling the pieces I've made.

So far, life's been too hectic to really promote my shop but I hope to make some more sales in 2011 and eventually make enough stock to attend a craft fair or two later in the year!

If you've made it this far, thank's so much for reading! I promise posts will get more interesting as I get more into blogging and of course once I crack on making some more little creations!