Being Thankful

I've just got back from a great day out in London visiting the Cockpit Arts studio. We had a great day out - so many studios, so much to see! It was great talking to other artists and seeing where they work, a real treat after our hard work putting the Sorting Office Open Studios together last weekend. I will have some photos to show you in a few days, but I need to get them all together first!

In the meantime, as our Open Studios last weekend and today's trip out have most definitely put me in the festive mood I thought I'd continue the Thanksgiving celebrations from across the Atlantic with a Daisychain Extra discount code for you......

Remember that the designs in the shop are the last ones I'm doing - once they're gone that's it!

And if you prefer to wear jewellery rather than make it, remember that there's a discount code running on my website as well....

Last Ever Daisychain Extra Shop Update!

I had meant to post this yesterday to give you a little more notice but I spent the whole day on the computer editing photos and writing descriptions, and by the evening I just had to have a break! The hours spent on the computer have been worth while though, as the last ever shop update for Daisychain Extra is ready to go at 1pm! All the stock has been checked, the last pieces given their patina and polished, holes drilled etc etc.

I have some new pieces to offer you, including the pieces above. The heart toggle clasps are my favourites, especially because they use my favourite hammer with the lines radiating out of the hole for the toggle. Other pieces are variations on old favourites, sometimes with a new texture. I've got lots of lovely new pieces with an embossed linen texture, such as on the daisy and bird above.

This really is the last time I will be putting new stock in the shop and once it's gone, it's gone - so get in there quickly! Everything will go live at 1pm today.

New designs - and some news

I've been polishing copper and editing photos in between teaching this weekend, preparing for a Daisychain Extra etsy shop update later this evening.

There's a lovely collection of flowers and leaves, some old favourites, some new designs and some new twists on old favourites too. I'm really pleased with how these leaf clasps turned out, especially with the different textures, and there are different sizes available.

And I've made some baby daisy connectors to go with the clasps - and some more clasps too!

However, I have some news about Daisychain Extra too - this will be one of the last shop updates as I have made the decision to close the shop. I have a few more designs that just need polishing and a photo shoot, and I need to go through my stock to make sure that everything is listed, but then that will be that. I have enjoyed making the clasps and creating new designs has been fun, and I was delighted to get to 1000 sales, but I want to, I need to, concentrate on my jewellery. That is where my heart lies, and that is what I really need to spend my time on.

So, thank you to all of you who have helped make my little shop a success. Get them while you can folks, as once they are gone, that will be it!

Shop Update

The sawing, filing, hammering, soldering, oxidising, polishing and photo editing is done!

Lots of lovely new designs of clasps, charms, bracelet bars and pendants will be in the Daisychain Extra shop from 7pm tonight!

Visit www.daisychainextra.etsy.com to see all the goodies!

P.S. Don't forget that the 7th Birthday discount codes run out this Sunday -
Use the code "happy7thworkshops" to receive 10% off the workshops running this term - see www.joannetinleyjewellery.com/workshopshttp://www.joannetinleyjewellery/workshops for details of the workshops on offer.
Use the code "happy7th" to receive 15% off Daisychain Extra Supplies - visit www.daisychainextra.etsy.com
Use the code "happy7thjewellery" to receive 20% off jewellery - visit www.joannetinleyjewellery.com

On my desk...

It's going to be a day of hammering, soldering, oxidising, polishing and taking photos today! This is the sight that greeted me this morning - lots of Daisychain Extra designs laid out on my desk.

I took this photo just before I left yesterday with the intention of posting it on here last night, but to be honest by the time I'd sorted the boys out, got everything ready for school today and done all the other household bits and pieces I sat down - and that was that! It was Ben's first day in the Junior section of his school yesterday. He was a bit nervous on the way but as soon as he got there and saw his friends (he's still with the same classmates) he was all smiles, and last night was so excited at the thought of going back to school today that he couldn't sleep! Jamie starts preschool in a couple of weeks too, just two afternoons a week, and he's so keen to go that I had trouble getting him to walk on the way to the childminders (who he also loves going to!) past it this morning! I'm so lucky that I have boys who want to spend time as a family but also enjoy school/childminder. It definitely helps with that working mummy guilt thing I'm so good at!

Anyway, back to work - I've got a Daisychain Extra shop update to finish work for - look out for the announcement on here and my Facebook page!

The Year's Best Beads, Findings and More!

Some exciting post arrived from across the Atlantic today! The Fall issue of Jewelry Stringing magazine includes the Beads 2013 Buyer's Guide, with (to quote the magazine's front cover) "100 of the year's best beads, findings and more" - and four of the pieces on show in the guide are mine!

There they are - in such great company too!

I entered them for consideration way back in the Spring. Each designer or business could enter up to five designs, and I was delighted when the editors asked me to send in all five of the designs that I had submitted - a copper Lovebird clasp, a daisy toggle clasp, a copper Poppy connector and matching Poppy earwires, and an Oak Leaf clasp. They didn't include the Oak Leaf clasp in the end, but I'm hoping that that one will find it's way into a project sometime. You can, of course, find all of the designs and plenty more over at www.daisychainextra.etsy.com.  I'm in great company too - many of my friends over at Art Jewelry Elements are featured. A certain pie bead is on show for example!


I've been working away on some new designs for the Daisychain Extra shop over the summer. They're finished and lined up on my desk waiting for their turn with the camera so they will be listed in the shop Wednesday or Thursday. Wednesday hopefully, but it depends on how long the photo editing takes!

May Component of the Month - Poppies at Sunset

It was Sue Kennedy's turn to design us something special for the AJE Component of the Month this time round. She did warn us that she'd been playing round with contrasting colours, so I knew that whatever she sent me was going to be a challenge - and I was right - an orange and purple lampwork flower! I forgot to take a photo of the flower when it arrived, but it's the one on the far right of the picture that Sue took of all of the beads for the AJE blog.

The flower sat on my desk for a good couple of weeks before I had any idea of what I was going to make with it. I've realised over the years that this is actually the best way for me to work - I'll push beads and stones around on my desk in little bowls, adding in and then taking away other components until everything finally clicks together. I used to worry that I was leaving things to the last minute, but in reality by the time I actually make what every it is that I've decided to make I've spent so long subconsciously thinking about it, working through potential problems in my head, that it tends to all go smoothly and quickly once I actually pick up my tools. 

Poppies at Sunset - not yet on the website but it can be yours for £30 plus a little for shipping if you email me quickly!

And look what I added to Sue's flower - more orange! Yes, the colour that I usually avoid using! I tried more purple, or even using a mix of the two, but in the end I decided that the orange really made the purple 'pop', and the patinaed copper toned down the orange nicely. The beads are dyed jade. Not something that I usually use but they went perfectly. The poppies you will probably recognise by now as being from my Daisychain Extra shop.

Poppies at Sunset - lampwork flower by SueBeads, copper poppy links, charms and clasp by Daisychain Extra

To see what other colours Sue put together and to see what everyone else made follow the links!

Guest Bloggers

Lorelei Eurto http://www.lorelei1141.blogspot.com/
Birgitta Lejonklou http://lejonklou.blogspot.com/
Heidi Post http://www.expostfactojewelry.blogspot.com/
Lola Surwillo http://beadlolabead.blogspot.com/
Kay Thomerson http://kayzkreationz.blogspot.com/

AJE Team

Jennifer Cameron http://glassaddictions.com/
Jenny Davies-Reazor http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog
Susan Kennedy http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com/
Linda Landig http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/
Melissa Meman http://melissameman.blogspot.com/
Rebekah Payne http://www.treewingsstudio.com/
Kristen Stevens http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/
Jo Tinley http://daisychaindesignsjewellery.blogspot.com/ (you're here!)
Francesa Watson http://francescawatson.com/
Lesley Watt http://thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com/

Shop Update!

The photos are edited, the descriptions are written - 

the Daisychain Extra shop update begins at 3pm BST this afternoon!

Poorly spotty boy

My poor Jamie is a poorly spotty boy - a chicken pox spotty boy. He seems so far to be having a fairly light dose of it though and is trying very hard to be his usual cheerful self. I've stocked up on children's puriten and I've been putting a couple of spoonfuls of bicarb of soda in his bath though to help with the itching - and of course cuddles with Mummy whilst watching Peppa Pig DVDs are a very good distraction!

I had planned a Daisychain Extra shop update for tonight, but that's (obviously considering it's so late!) not going to happen until tomorrow now. The photos of new designs are edited, the descriptions written, but my poorly boy has obviously taken priority over finishing the listings! I'll be listing some old favourites and some new designs tomorrow evening - the collage above is a taster of what's to come!

Instant Downloads!

It's been a busy few days - but then again, when aren't I busy?! Not that I'm complaining - it's good to be busy when you're self-employed! We took advantage of the sunny spring weather at the weekend. I was teaching on Saturday so T and the boys went on a bike ride round our local park. Well, T and Ben rode their bikes - Jamie sat in style in the trailer attached to the back of T's bike! Sunday afternoon was spent putting new felt on the roof of my workshed, pressure washing the decking and generally tidying up after a long drab winter. Next up, pots of colourful flowers and maybe a lick of paint on the garden furniture!

Etsy have been doing some Spring cleaning and organising too. Virtual products such as my Macramé, Art Beads and Wire ebook can now be downloaded immediately after purchase - so now whether you order your copy through my website or through my Daisychain Extra shop it will be sent to you for you to enjoy 6 great projects straight away!

Life begins?!

So here it is, my 40th birthday! Heavens, I just got a chill seeing that typed up in black and white on my computer screen! I still feel 27 years old but according to my passport and my Mum I definitely am 40 years old today. Any you know what? I actually feel relaxed about it. That probably is partly because I'm still relaxed after T took me to Barcelona for the weekend while my parents looked after the boys. We had a fantastic time - Barcelona is such a beautiful city with so much to see and do that despite visiting four times now we still haven't seen everything! Don't worry, there will be photos later, and I'm going to write a new "Barcelona bead shops" post too.

Anyway, my birthday - fancy helping me celebrate? For the next 40 hours, use the code "BIRTHDAY" to get 15% off orders in my Daisychain Extra and of course on my own Daisychain Jewellery website too. So, if you've been waiting to treat yourself, you have until 4pm GMT on Thursday 18th April to make it an extra special treat!

P.S. I have decided to delay the changes to the Daisychain Extra shop that I wrote about here because of this sale, so the shop will be closing temporarily on the evening of Thursday 18th April - but don't worry, when it opens again there will be lovely new designs along with the old favourites!

Non-stop Mayhem!

Or, as those of you without young children will probably call it - the school holidays. I do love having Ben and T home more and the mornings are definitely more relaxed without the school run, but this school holiday has left little time for any Daisychain business other than filling orders. Blogging and work on new designs etc will have to wait until school starts again next week! I have had time to plan out the next few months for the business though, and I'm going to be making a few changes that will hopefully make things a lot more efficient.

One of those changes, probably the most visible one from the outside, will be that I am changing my Daisychain Extra shop from one with a few ready-to-ship items and mainly made-to-order designs to one with just ready-to-ship items. At the moment I rarely have time to build up much stock because as soon as I make something it flies out the door to the post office - which is a good thing for orders but not so much for my creativity. So, each week or so I will be doing a shop update that will be partly current designs but also new designs -and I will be able to spend more time creating new designs as making stock and listing it all at once if more efficient than making smaller batches a little at a time.

I hope that all makes sense! Basically, what it will mean for you is that everything that you see in the Daisychain Extra shop will be available and ready for dispatch and you won't have to wait for me to make it for you. It will also mean that there will be more new designs available more often as I will have more time to make them.

I will be putting my Daisychain Extra shop in holiday mode for a few days as from Monday 15th April (next Monday) and open it up again with a shop update and new designs, so if you need to stock up on any of the current designs you have until Monday!

P.S. Orders placed from now until Monday morning will be processed on Tuesday as T is taking me away for a long weekend for my birthday!

AJE March Component of the Month

As I think you may have guessed by now, it was my turn to design something new for the AJE Component of the Month challenge, and I sent out lovely copper hollow beads to my team mates and to some of the AJE blog readers. Normally we have the challenge reveal on the last day of the month, but as we thought we'd all probably be a bit busy on Easter Sunday we'd do the reveal today instead.

And this is what I made....

This pendant is actually the third piece I made for the challenge. I kept thinking that I had to make something more elaborate as it was, afterall, a challenge with my own component, but nothing seemed quite right until I kept it simple. I've used a gorgeous lampwork bead by (of course) Mindy Macgregor (Moogin Beads), a palm wood square bead from Smitten Beads and a purple Czech glass bead. I've been wearing it strung on a length of purple silk from Marsha Neal Studios, but I think that this particular pendant will be better on a length of brown leather - which I haven't actually got yet, which is why I'm showing it to you like this!.

I'd love it if you could take the time to visit the designers taking part in this month's challenge - I am really looking forward to seeing what they all made with their beads!

The guest designers this month are:

Carolyn (Carolyn's Creations)

Jess Green
Niky Sayers

(Kathy  (Northern Light) hasn't been able to take part due to her mother's illness -
I hope she gets better soon Kathy!)

And the AJE contributors taking part are:

Jo Tinley (me!)

Jennifer Cameron

 Jenny Davies-Reazor

Susan Kennedy

Linda Landig

Melissa Meman

Kristen Stevens

Francesca Watson

Lesley Watt

Making Hollow Beads

 Have I mentioned before how addicted I've become to making hollow beads?! I think I may have mentioned it once or twice! The components I made for the AJE Component of the Month challenge for my turn this month were the copper hollow beads that you can see above, and if you'd like to see how I made them click here to see the post I wrote for the AJE blog today!

P.S. I'm currently working on a limited edition batch of these beads to go in my Daisychain Extra shop!

AJE earrings challenge reveal

It's my turn to write the AJE post for the earrings challenge reveal, so I thought that I ought to get my own reveal post up on time for once!

I've continued on my poppy and wood them. Afterall, I make so many poppy head pins, charms and earwires for my Daisychain Extra shop that I should make more use of them in my own designs! And I bought some beautiful wooden beads from Smitten Beads in the New Year, and I'm really enjoying showing them off in earrings.

Ebony and Silver use a pair of hollow silver beads that I made as a demonstration for one of my college classes. I've given them a lovely matt finish and teamed them with long ebony twisted beads - hanging from poppy earwires of course!

Out of the Blue has Czech glass turquoise faceted beads and ebony rondelles strung on poppy headpins that I've turned into earwires.

I've kept to a turquoise/aqua theme for the earrings I chose from the AJE Earring Challenge Pinterest board - click here to see!

New Daisychain Extra designs now available

It's been far too many weeks since I listed new designs in my Daisychain Extra shop, but there are lots in there now, from new toggle clasps with lovely textured daisies in copper and sterling silver....

 

to Lovebird bangle blanks like the one I used in the Art Jewelery Elements challenge last month.

There are also reels of 1mm and 1.2mm patinaed copper wire following requests from customers and leaf connectors to match the leaf rings used in the new Daisy and Leaf toggle clasps.

And if you'd like to find out how to make your own Daisy and Leaf toggle clasp (or to see just how much work goes into making a handcrafted jewellery component!) then please visit the third of my Soldering Tips tutorials over on the AJE blog today!

Daisychain Extra shop update!

I've spent the morning taking and editing photos of lots of lovely new products - 

there will be a Daisychain Extra shop update at 1pm today!

Happy New Year!

Ok, so I know that we're a couple of days in already, but I seem to have taken a while to get going this week! I'm blaming the cold that knocked me out for most of the first week of the school holidays, and the travelling around that we did at the start of this week. We spent New Year's Eve with lovely friends in Wales - great company, good food, lots of laughing and relaxing. My favourite way of spending New Year's Eve, although Jayne, if you're reading this, I'm holding you to your promise of never playing the Krypton Factor board game again!

I've had one day back at work this week, but I seemed to spend most of that tidying the workshop up after the pre-Christmas rush. At least that means that I'll be organised and ready to go next week. I like starting a new week, and the New Year, feeling organised. I've promised myself that I'm going to try and be more relaxed this year, as last year, last term especially, got a bit frantic. It took me longer than I thought it would to get used to teaching three college classes a week last term, especially as I hadn't been able to prepare for them at all, or prepare any Christmas stock, while we were away in  New Zealand over the summer, and there definitely were times when my stress spilt over into family life. And one of the reasons for leaving full time school teaching and setting up the business doing something I love was to have less stress in my life. We'll see how I do, but tonight is a good start - T is out, so I'm watching the end of series 1 of Downton Abbey (yes, I know I'm very late to that particular party!) while trying not to eat the whole tub of Belgium Chocolate ice cream!

Trying to be more relaxed doesn't mean, though, that I haven't got any plans for 2013 - quite the opposite! I'm just going to try and get less frantic about them and stop taking on more than I should - although that is usually easier said than done. I've got some new designs to take photos of to add to both my Daisychain Extra and Daisychain Jewellery etsy shops, and more designs sketched out. I've got a new challenge coming for you in the spring, lots of writing planned and new workshops planned. We've also got a fun new challenge planned for you on the Art Jewelry Elements blog, but you'll have to visit there on Sunday to find out more about that!

I'll be adding the first of the new designs to my shops at the start of next week, but in the meantime there are two days left of my New Year sales. This is your last chance to grab some of my more autumnal and wintery designs in the Daisychain Extra shop for a while as I'll be giving them a rest until later in the year - so if you fancy an owl or an oak leaf, get'em while you can!

AJE component of the month - Wisdom

It's time to show you what I've made with the AJE component of the month. With everything else that December brings I only just met the deadline for this one! I planned out what I wanted to make with Jenny Davies-Reazor's lovely ceramic labyrinth pendant a couple of weeks ago with the idea that I would bring everything up with me to the inlaws this weekend and make it up here. But you should know me by now - it's very rare that my jewellery designs stick to the original plan! I'd packed everything I thought I'd need to make a long necklace, and as you can see I ended up with a bracelet!

(not my best photos I'm afraid as I've had to take the photos on my iPhone in my inlaws garden!)

Jenny chose a labyrinth symbol for her component as, in her words, "As they are a path to the center, your center, your self...they can provide insight and at times inspiration", and so appropriate for the New Year when we try to have a fresh start. You can read more of what she wrote about labyrinths here. I always remember the labyrinth at the centre of the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, so I thought that one of my owl clasps would be appropriate as owls as the sacred symbol of the Greek goddess Athena, the goddess of learning, and a symbol of wisdom. I've also used palm wood beads from Smitten Beads and made some lengths of chain from hammered sterling silver rings. I think I might still tweak the bracelet a little as at the moment I think it's a little too big and I need to replace the last bead with a jump ring or two. Just taking the bead out would make it too small, but of course as I was originally going to make a necklace I didn't bring any jump rings with me!

You can see what the rest of the Art Jewelry Elements blog team made with Jenny's pendants through here. We're off to Wales to spend New Year's Eve with good friends so I'll be back again in 2013! I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve wherever you are!

 

Thank you!

Thank you to all of you who have helped to make 2012 such a fantastic year for Daisychain Designs!

I've just celebrate 700 sales in my Daisychain Extra supplies shop, I've been kept busy with my Golden and Bloom collections on my Daisychain Jewellery website and I've been delighted with how popular my private jewellery tuition and workshops have been. There are still a couple of places left for private tuition in the first couple of months of 2013, and details of the next group workshops will be available soon.

To say thank you, I have a sale on my Daisychain Jewellery website and Daisychain Extra and Daisychain Jewellery etsy shops. A 15% discount has already been applied to my website, and to get the same discount in my Etsy shops use the code "HAPPYHOLIDAYS" at checkout. You may have noticed that I've made a few changes to my website, and my one-off designs and jewellery supplies are now on Etsy while my website is kept for made-to-order designs and jewellery tuition bookings, but all three of my shops can be accessed from the front page of my website.

I will be taking some of my more wintery items, such as the owl clasps, out of stock at the end of the sale, although I expect I'll bring them back again next autumn, so grab them while you can!