New Daisychain Jewellery website party - Pinterest competition winners

Only a week has gone past (ok then, eight days!) since my last blog post but so much has happened! I think the next few days are going to be days of multiple posts to try and catch you all up with life at Daisychain HQ, but my priority tonight is to announce the winners of the Pinterest competition that has been running over the last two weeks to celebrate the launch of my lovely new website. To remind you, the rules of the competition can be found here.

So, without further delay the winners are....

First prize of £50 gift certificate for the Daisychain Jewellery website - Kira Withers-Jones with her pin of my Luna earrings.

Source: daisychainjewellery.co.uk via Kira on Pinterest

Second prize of £30 gift certificate for the Daisychain Jewellery website - Linda Landig with her pin of my Dusky Rose pendant.

Source: daisychainjewellery.co.uk via Linda on Pinterest

Third prize of £20 gift certificate for the Daisychain Jewellery website - Sarah Goulding with her pin of my Ever Decreasing Circles pendant.

Source: daisychainjewellery.co.uk via Sarah on Pinterest

Congratualtions ladies! Emails will be on their way to you tomorrow. And a big thank you to everyone who took part in the competition!

Luxury and Roses - and a giveaway!

Rose Red stud earrings

These are a few of the new designs that I've been working on recently. The earrings are ones that have been sketched out in my book from months but only got made when a customer asked if I had a pair of stud earrings to match the Rose Red pendant. I made a pair for her and then these two pairs! They are both made using sterling silver (of course) and beautiful rose-cut garnet cabochons.

Rose Red drop earrings

Luxury Necklace

I love this necklace - I only managed to get one of these unusual smoky quartz beads. I knew I wanted to make a necklace to match my Luxury earrings, but it took a while to get the balance of rubies and silver just right as I knew I wanted the necklace to be a delicate design. The cut of the stone, by the way, is known as a cushion cut, and it's more usual for a set stone rather than a stone drilled to become a bead. But, as I said, there is only one of these, so if you'd like it you'd better be quick!

Anyway, the giveaway! Would you like a new pair of earrings? Yes? Well, if you would like to be in with a chance of winning a pair of Rose Red earrings then all you need to do is join my mailing list and then leave me a comment letting me know that you've done that and also telling me which design of earrings you would like - the studs or the drops. If you want to see more pictures of the designs so that you can decide, take a look here!

If you are already on my mailing list then you are already in the draw cos I'm nice like that, but if after joining the list you would like a second chance at winning then all you need to do is buy a piece of jewellery or book a workshop place. To be in with a third chance, either blog or tweet about the giveaway and let me know that you've done that by leaving a comment.

The draw is open to those of you overseas as well, and closes at midnight GMT on Thursday 25th March - good luck!

And the winner is.....

Kathryn Abrahams (aka Lazy Daisy Glass) - congratulations Kathryn! I'm not sure whether it was your blog comment entry or your newsletter entry that won, but I'll be in touch later today to get your address and your goodies will be with you soon! Thank you everyone for your lovely comments, and I'm sure I'll be doing another couple of giveaways before Christmas!

I set the photo studio up this morning in the hope that there would be a break in the clouds - and not only did the sun shine but I managed to get the shots before the sun went in again! I'll try and edit the photos this evening and post them as I'm really pleased with these earrings!

A Flock of Lovebirds

Well, I think I might be waiting a bit longer for the sun to come out! I'd better go and collect my daylight lamps from my friend's house (she's been taking taking some photos for me) so that I can use those instead! Meanwhile, this is what I've been working on today, well, mainly this evening in fact as I picked B up early from his childminder today as he'd been poorly. He was okay about an hour after I'd got him home, so I think it was just too much running around and excitment and eating his food too fast, but we'll have a quiet day at home tomorrow just in case.

First, a flock of golden lovebirds with their gold wings attached, cooling down and waiting for their polish and finish and chains attached. 5 of these are flying off to new homes (one of them literally flying to the States) on Friday, but the 6th is still looking for a new home - any takers?


And secondly, a pair of daisy earrings for Eve. If you read the comments on my blog you'll know that it was Eve's birthday last week, and these are her birthday present to herself. They will be on their way to you either tomorrow or Friday Eve, and Happy Birthday for last week!


Anyway, if you haven't yet entered my giveaway you have two hours left in which to do so! The draw for the butterfly pendant, jewellery making tool kit and felted bag will end at midnight tonight, and B will pull a name out of the basket tomorrow. Visit this post to find out how to enter, and good luck!

Giveaway time!

Okay, okay, so I get the message - my idea of a messy desk is clearly no where near as bad as yours! Thanks for the comments, they did make me feel better about the state of my desk, but of course I didn't show you the floor behind my chair or my paperwork.....but we'll leave that for another day as today is

Giveaway Day!

This is post number 200 of a blog that, when I started I didn't know whether I'd find enough to write about and didn't think that anyone would read. Well, I've obviously found somethings to waffle on about and share with you, and the stat counters tell me that there are readers out there all over the UK and around the world, so I've been storing up a few things to put in a giveaway for you.



The first is one of my new pendants. I really love using this techniques, the way it adds gold to my designs in a way that is still affordable. I've got a whole pile of sketches I want to work into designs, including some for personalised jewellery. Anyway, the first prize in the giveaway is the gorgeous butterfly pendant that I've made in the same style as the gold daisy and heart pendants - you can see all three in the picture above. The cupped disc is sterling silver and the butterfly itself is 24k gold. There's a hidden bail on the back, and it comes with either a 16" or an 18" chain. These pendants are on my website for £42 (well, £37.80 in the summer sale), so this is a very nice prize.



The next prize is something that will hopefully pass on the addiction of jewellery making!
I got this lovely set of tools as my subscription present from Beads and Beyond, but as I've got more pliers etc than I can count for the workshops that I run, I thought I'd pass them on to someone else. There's all the tools that you need to get started in here, and more, and the case isn't bad either! From what I've seen in online stores these sets retail for about £35.


And lastly, I've been making some felted bags recently, so I thought I'd throw in a pink felted bag of those too. I've made a couple for myself and I use them to hold the small knitting projects that I'm doing - but no, you can't have the knitting - that halfdone pair of Fetching fingerless mitts is mine! I gave the other 4 pairs away so I decided it was about time I had some!

So, now for the rules..... I've looked at a couple of other giveaways that recently have been on blogs I read, and based the rules on theirs:

To enter the giveaway either:

• leave me a comment on this post - it doesn't have to be about anything in particular, but do let me know your name!
• sign up to my newsletter (those of you who are already signed up have one entry into the draw automatically)
• make a purchase from my website (Have you seen I've got a sale on?)

So, you could enter the draw three times.
The other bits of info you need are:

1. The draw will end on Wednesday 29th July at midnight, and I'll post on my blog who the winner is on Thursday 30th.
   
2. I'll need to ask the winner to make a donation for the postage, so if you're not happy with that please don't enter!
3. You will need to email me to claim your prize as I can't get your email address from comments you leave. If you don't claim your prize within a month then I'll draw another name out of the hat (or bag or basket, whichever I decide to use!)

Good luck!

Messy messy messy

How on earth does my workbench get so messy so quickly?! I mean, all I do is work on several projects at the same time so that while one is in the pickle after being soldered or annealed, I've got another to file and sand. I suppose I could put tools away as soon as I've finished with each of them, but then I'd only have to get them out again 10 minutes later. Seriously, I do tidy up every day, but it doesn't take long for my bench to look like this:

If you look closely you can see the orders and commissions I've been working on over the last couple of days: a pair of cuff links (a wedding commission), a love bird pendant (the third of those I've made this week), a small daisy cuff (coming soon to the website), a larger version of my bloom necklace (another commission) and a pair of bloom earrings. I was merrily filing and sanding this little lot tonight and only realised how late it was when the news came on Radio 2!

Those of you with time on their hands may have noticed that a) I haven't shown you the latest 24k gold and silver designs that I promised you and b) that this is post 199. If you have read all 199 of them then I am impressed - I don't think that even my Mum has done that! Anyway, I thought that I'd combine the two and over the next couple of days expect post number 200 with lovely pictures of my lovely new designs (can you tell that I'm pleased with them?!) and also a

Giveaway!

I haven't done one for a while, and I thought that this would be the perfect excuse. I've got a pretty nice things to giveaway too, so watch this space.

Amore

When I was looking through my stash of beads there was really only one choice for this month's earrings - hearts of course! These are Karen Hill Tribe beads, handcrafted fairtrade beads from Nepal with a higher silver content than sterling silver, and I've dangled some garnets below. If you fancy trying to win them, all you have to do is sign up for my newsletter by clicking here or on the brown box on the left of the blog. And if you decide that you just have to have a pair in time for Valentine's Day, there is a pair on the website too!


The winner of January's earrings is Alicia Shepherd - congratulations Alicia! I'll email you to get your address and get the earrings posted off to you.

P.S. The silver heart studs arrived safely with Stephanie, and from the look of it she likes them - have a look at her blog She's got some great music playing on there too.

Calling number 16!

I've just asked T to give me a number between 1 and 18, and he came up with 16, so counting from the first comments left on Monday's giveaway post that means that our winner is........

Stephanie!

Stephanie, if you could email me your address please then I will wrap the earrings up safely and pop them in the post for you.

Thank you everyone who left a comment - and for all your cures for colds! My favourite is still Kelly's chocolate one, but Vicky's idea of no housework came a very close second! Glueandglitter, my immune system is thankfully pretty darn good after so many years so teaching, so these must have been strong germs to get to me! The cold has almost gone now, thankfully.

I've just come back from a rare night out with the girls. These particular girls are friends that I used to teach with. Most of us have moved on from the school that we worked at together, either for promotion or for families. We don't get together as much as we'd like to, but it's always great when we do. I think we were definitely the noisiest table in the pub! I'm off to bed now, though, as B's waking up earlier than usual at the moment. I will be back tomorrow with some of the photos that I took today - it's been a day of admin and uploading projects!

P.S. A note for Vonnie - I accidently pressed the wrong button and lost your comment - sorry! You were still in the draw, though, as I gave you number 4, the number of the comment that I added to Monday's post.

Love is in the air!

I know it doesn't seem that long since Christmas but it's only a couple of weeks until St Valentine's Day! That means it's time for a Valentine's offer on the website - spend £25 or more on jewellery or workshop places before the end of 14th February and receive a free pair of fine silver stud earrings, a pair of heart studs shown above. Another reason to drop your loved one a subtle (or not so subtle!) hint!

I didn't want to leave my blog readers out, though, so it's time for the first Daisychain blog giveaway of 2009. All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post before midnight on Wednesday and you're in the draw! The competition is open to those of you who aren't in the UK too, and if you leave an anonymous comment please remember to leave your name so that I don't get confused. Good luck!

By the way, the comment doesn't have to be on any particular subject, but if anyone out there has discovered the cure for the common cold then I would be grateful if you could let me know!

New Year, new winner

I've stopped using the internet random number generator to choose the winner of the monthly earrings draw as, well, it just didn't make for a very pretty picture! So, last night I printed out all the names from my mailing list, cut them into strips and put them into my new prize draw drawing machine. Introducing...........

my pink paper and little basket! T pulled a name out of the hat last night, and the winner is Zoe Monk! Congratulations Zoe. I'll email you to get your address. The earrings that Zoe has won are these ones, and the earrings for January are the ones below - lovely pink jade and sterling silver -I thought we needed some bright colours during this dull weather! All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is to sign up for my newsletter by clicking on the brown box on the left. But I've also put a pair in on the website here if you can't wait!

A quick update

I've managed to get quite a bit of work done this weekend. T and I made a deal - he looked after B in the morning while I worked in my shed until lunch time, then we did family things - more of that later. I did manage to take some photos today but I haven't yet had time to smarten them up, so I'll post them tomorrow instead. In the meantime there's a couple of quick updates for you...


Firstly, the last day for orders of made-to-measure items that require hallmarking is this coming Tuesday, 9th December. This includes items such as cuffs and bangles (like the one above), although it is always worth double checking with me to see if I already have what you need in stock. The relevant products will have this information on their pages. The last date for all other items is still Wednesday 17th December.


Secondly, if you fancy a new pair of earrings for the New Year then have a look at the ones above! These are the pair for the December newsletter prize draw, gorgeous garnet briolettes wired onto sterling silver hoops. In case you haven't noticed, I'm enjoying using briolettes in earrings at the moment, and I was really pleased with these when they arrived from my supplier this week. If you'd like to try and win a pair then all you have to do is add your details to my mailing list by completing this form. If you can't wait until the New Year then you can also find them made to order on the website for as long as my supply of briolettes lasts!

Fancy some new earrings?

Just a quick post tonight to let you know that the random number thingy as come up with number 64 which counting down my newsletter mailing list means that the winner of the October earrings is.....

Veryan!

Congratulations Veryan, I'll email you for your address.

If you fancy trying to win the earrings for November then click on the brown box to the left to join my mailing list. This month's earrings are crystal and sterling silver, the type of earrings that go with everything!

And the winner is...

Kitsch Kitty! Congratulations Lucy - I'll email you for your address and get the earrings posted off to you asap. B's at his childminders today, so I used a random number thingy on the web to 'pick out of the hat' for me.

I'll be back later with some photos!

Wednesday already?!

What do you mean it's Wednesday already?! This week is going far too quickly, but then most weeks seem to be like that at the moment! Mind you, it's far better to busy than quiet when you're self employed. I've spent part of Ben's preschool session this afternoon having a coffee and a chat with T's brother who dropped in while he was working in the area (he lives north of Birmingham so it was an unexpected pleasant surprise) and the rest improving my indoor photos, so I'll have some goodies for you to look at tomorrow.

In the meantime, though, I thought I'd remind you that you've still got a couple of hours until the competition I posted last week finishes. Click here for more details. You don't need a blog to be able to leave a comment, just make sure that you leave me a way of contacting you if you win!

Post number 101 - competition time!

I've realised this morning the post yesterday was my 100th! Who would have thought that I could talk that much? Well, apart from T and the friends I spend ages on the phone with?

Well, I can't let this go unmarked. I logged on to the computer to tell you that the random number generator picked Gill Utting (I've emailed you, Gill, to get your address) to win last month's earrings (if you can't remember what they looked like, not that I really expect you to, look here) and to show you a picture of the earrings for this month's prize draw, but I think I will have to have two competitions now...

Competition number one - October's newsletter prize draw. If you would like a chance of winning these lovelies (oxidised sterling silver, pale green freshwater pearls, garnet and moonstone) then all you have to do is sign up to my monthly newsletter by clicking on the link to the left - the big brown one that says 'newsletter' on it.

Competition number two - to celebrate my 100 blog posts (and the fact that someone actually reads them!), leave me a comment to tell me what you're celebrating - it could be a special occasion, it could be that fact that it's not raining right now where you are (it's been sunny here today too - yippee!!). I will get either the random number generator or B to pick a winner for the earrings below. You have until midnight next Wednesday 15th October! Both competitions are open to those of you from abroad.

P.S. The second earrings are a preview of the new ideas/experiments that I've mentioned - more coming as soon as I've taken more photos!

And the winner is.....

I wrote everyone's names on bits of paper, put them in B's builder hat and he picked one out for me. Well, I had to explain the concept of picking just one out first and we got there in the end! So the winner is.....

Katy!

Thank you for your lovely comments everyone, and Katy, I'll email you to get your address, and then the earrings will be speeding their way too you!

It's been a busy week - but that seems to be the norm, so I don't know why I bother saying it anymore! I went to the Design Edge trade show at Sandown Park on Monday and had a great time. I saw some fantastic gifts and jewellery, some of which I'll tell you more about later this week, and had a chat with the show organiser about having a stand next year. I left feeling very positive about my work and moving more into wholesale orders. Don't worry, I have absolutely no plans to stop the work I'm doing now, the plan is to increase the whole sale side of my business.

I've also been busy with tuition so far this week. Sunday was a silversmith tuition day, and my student made a fantastic bracelet of stars cut from silver sheet for his wife. Lots of sawing, drilling, filing and sanding involved! Another student came over last night for some wirework tuition and we were going over everything from wrapped loops to earwires and even rings. She told me that she's been selling some of her work through a local library and that it's been selling really well - congratulations Ali! I love it when people coming to my workshops start selling their jewellery successfully! I'm really lucky that I'm still able to teach something I love without having to worry about the school paperwork, marking and targets etc. Teaching jewellery making is much more relaxing than teaching ICT!

The tuition is continuing this weekend too. I've been booked by Three Jays Beading to teach my sterling silver bracelet class in Devizes this Saturday. They'll be making bracelets based on the one to the left. If you fancy making your own have a look in the workshops section on my website as I'm running that class in Southampton in October too.

Competitions

Just a quick reminder, the deadline for the Anniversary earrings is tomorrow at midnight - see here for details.

And I've realised that I haven't shown you the earrings for this month's newsletter prize draw....so here they are. They are pink jade and sterling silver, and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning them is subscribe to my newsletter via the link to the left.

Good luck!

Happy Anniversary!

Two years ago today I phoned Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to register as self-employed. My full-time employment with my old school had officially ended on 31st August, and I was excited at the thought that all the wishing, dreaming, hoping and planning that I'd been doing for the previous couple of years was becoming a reality - but I have to say that the phone call was a bit of an anticlimax! It's not that I was expecting a fanfare when I registered, or that I was going to celebrate with a street party, but just having to give my name, NI number, date I started etc was just, well, too quick and easy!

It didn't take me long, though, to remember that official phone calls and form filling aren't the reason I started up Daisychain Designs - it's the excitment at making unexpected sales (one from Zurich and another from New Zealand were particularly lovely recently!), at meeting people by chance who have heard of my work and (I'm blushing now) admire what I do, at the eureka moments when a design I've spent ages perfecting comes together beautifully, at opening up parcels of gorgeousness (such as the beautiful focal bead from Mindy the other day!), at the satisfaction when a student is surprised and delighted at what they've created in one of my workshops. I can honestly say that leaving mainstream teaching and setting up the business was the third best thing I have ever done - falling in love with T and having B being joint first, of course!

Now, before I start gushing even more (although if you want to read lots more gushing go and read Kerry Bogert's gushing contest!) I have a couple of things that I hope you may be interested in. Firstly, you may have noticed that a link to sign up to my newsletter appeared at the side of my blog over the weekend. For ages now I've been sending out my newsletter using MS Outlook, and while that's worked well up until now, as my mailing list has been getting longer and longer it's become a rather inefficient method. I'm now going to be using a newsletter service to organise everything, so if you are already on my mailing list and would like to stay on it or if you would like to join up then please click on the link below or at the side. As an incentive (as if getting news of the events I'm attending, special offers and advance notice of new workshop dates and designs isn't enough!), each month I will be running a prize draw - and yes, that draw will be open to everyone, even those of you not in the UK - don't you just hate it when competitions are only open to those in a particular country?





Secondly, because it's always nice to get a little extra and because they seem appropriate (and I like making them) every order of £20 or more placed through my website during September will receive a present of a pair of little daisy studs (see right for an example). That includes workshop bookings. The studs are fine silver with sterling silver pins.



Thirdly (what a long post this is turning into!) I've got another little competition for you. If you fancy winning the earrings to the left then leave me a comment below to say hello. The deadline is a week today (8th September) and I will get T to randomly choose a winner. Again, you don't have to be in the UK to enter. The earrings are sterling silver, oxidised to give an antique effect, and freshwater pearl. If you fancy learning how to make a pair of these yourself, please visit the workshops section of the website!



P.S. Completely off topic here, and I'm probably going to jinx it now, but B LOVES his bed and has, so far, slept really well in it! There you go, jinxed it now, and we will have sleepless nights for the rest of the week!