A Foxy Update and A Big Thank You!

Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment on here or on my facebook post giving feedback on my little fox pendant designs. I've had over 100 comments on facebook, which has been amazing! I have lost count of the exact numbers of votes, but the Sleeping Fox was the clear favourite, with many people suggesting that I added both to the Woodland Collection - so that's what I'm going to do. Top of my list tomorrow morning (got to take photos for a magazine project today!) is to make silver versions of the pendants ready to add them to the website. I've also got brooches of all of the Woodland creatures pendants on my to-do list.

But for now, on to the important business of the winner of the silver Fox pendant of their choice! Thankfully I was able to copy and paste the names of the commenters from facebook! The name that was pulled from my little basket was....

Pamela Jones!

Congratulations ! I will message you through facebook to confirm which fox you would prefer and get your details.

I have a little something for the rest of you as well to say Thank You for your help

I've never offered such a large discount on my website before, and probably won't again! The pendants are usually £32, so the offer makes them £24. It only runs for a week, so if you fancy your own Fox pendant (they will be on the website on Thursday at the latest) or maybe a Lovebird in time for Valentine's Day then now is the perfect time! Click here to see the Woodland pendants.

One more week to go!

And all of a sudden here it is, the last full week before Christmas. It's Ben's birthday tomorrow, with his school choir's show for parents on the same day, plus lots of other Christmas activities at school and pre-school. There has been a disco, party, wear-a-Christmas-jumper day, etc etc event for one or other of the boys almost every day this month - so much so that if there hasn't been something written on the family calendar for a particular day I've worried that I've missed something out!

New sparkly earrings, perfect for Christmas!

It's also the working week for UK orders on my website. Everything in the Unique Collection is ready to ship out, and many items in the Golden Collection and Simply Silver Collection are available as well - if in doubt email me on admin@joannetinleyjewellery.com!

For full details see http://www.joannetinleyjewellery.com/a-christmas-gift-for-you/

 There's also a little incentive for you to order your last Christmas presents - spend £30 or more before midday on Friday amd receive a voucher for 15% of your order value to spend before the end of the year. Afterall, after treating the people on your Christmas list you deserve a treat as well!

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....

Happy 7th Birthday!

Ok, I do know that you're a little older than seven, and so am I, but 7 years ago on 1st September I had my brand new website, lots of creative ideas bursting to get out and I made the phone call to HMRC to register as self-employed. In my mind there should have been fireworks and a fanfare in celebration instead of a simple request for my National Insurance number, but never mind!

In the last seven years Daisychain Designs (as it was until this July!) has grown from a kitchen-table business built around a very young family to a busy full-time business based in a fabulous new studio. I am very lucky to be able to have created a business doing what I love. I've had an exciting summer moving into my new studio, and I've got equally exciting plans for my 8th year in business including new workshops, both online and in the studio, exhibiting at the British Craft Trade Fair and expanding my wholesale jewellery collections. You may have noticed that I now have a "Wholesale" tab on the website menu that leads to the new Joanne Tinley Wholesale website. More immediately I've got my first Craft Show of the season coming up at Southampton's beautiful Tudor House - more about that tomorrow. (And the present is just below too...)

Like all good birthday celebrations this one comes with presents and a big thank you - Thank You for helping me to make my business a success. Thank you to those of you I teach - as you know it is my mission to pass on the addiction of jewellery making on to as many people as possible, and it's going well so far! - and thank you to those of you who buy my jewellery and jewellery supplies. It is always a delight to send parcels all over the UK and to places as far flung as the States and New Zealand, and I know that I will never get bored of it!

As a thank you I have some lovely discount codes for you - but you only have a week in which to use them!
Use the code "happy7thworkshops" to receive 10% off the workshops running this term - see www.joannetinleyjewellery.com/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

I'm off to make a cake now - I've got the perfect excuse!

Enjoy the sunshine with free shipping this weekend!

The Spring sunshine is a time for a new injection of colour into your life! For me Spring means fresh colours, natural materials and textures - and long dangly earrings that can no longer get caught in woollen scarfs and bracelets that shorter sleeves show off to better effect!

Whether your tastes run to the one-off pieces in the Unique Collection, such as the earrings above, or the timeless elegance of the sterling silver and 24k gold designs in the Golden Collection, this Bank Holiday weekend brings FREEPOST on all jewellery orders above £25, UK or International.

No codes are needed, free post will automatically be applied for you, and the offer runs until midnight on Monday 6th May. Have a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend!

The earrings shown above, L to R, are: Ebony and Silver, Tropics and Luna

So excited!

Today's the day when lots of hard work behind the scenes by me, my lovely friend Nicky and the equally lovely people at Big Front Door will finally pay off! Hopefully - I am keeping my fingers crossed as when I'm doing something like this I always have a last minute panic that some gremlins are going to get involved.

Anyway, what have we been doing? Only building a brand new fantastic completely new look website, that's what! I am so excited it's ridiculous! I've pressed the buttons to tell the web and google and any one else who needs to know that my website is moving, so sometime before tomorrow morning this front page....

will be replaced with this one..... (maybe with a different photo as I've got a loop of gorgeous photos in a carousel)

I'm having giveaways and competitions and lots of lovely things to celebrate over the weekend, so do come back for more information - or even better sign up for my newsletter or follow me on Facebook by following the links on the left to get the information as soon as I write it!

500 sales! Thank you!

Oh wow! I've just got to 500 sales in my Daisychain Extra shop! I'd been planning a giveaway as I knew I wasn't far off, but in the end it took me by surprise!

So, to celebrate and to say thank you to all of you who have helped to make my clasps a success, everyone who places an order before the end of Monday 17th will be entered into a draw to win two special clasps - a sterling silver Little House clasp and a new, as yet unseen design. Orders already placed this weekend are also in the draw as they're the ones who got me past 500 sales!

And don't forget to enter "NEWTERM" at checkout to get 15% off!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/daisychainextra

 

New Sale Offerings

1.  Jade Leaves Bracelet £36 £28.80

2. and 3. Home Is Where The Heart Is Bracelet SOLD

4. Lotus Flower Necklace £75 £60

5. and 6. Bright Jade Bracelet £36 £28.80

Well, not completely new as you have seen them on here before, but these are pieces of jewellery that I have for sale but I haven't uploaded onto the website. You can see more pictures of them and more information about them by clicking on their names - this will take you to the blog posts where I originally showed them off. The prices below the pictures are those in the 20% off sale. After the sale (if they don't sell!) I will be adding them to my etsy shop at the non-sale prices. Postage in the UK is £2 and postage for International sales is £4, and you can see more about my shipping information here on my website. If you would like to buy any of these pieces please email me (address on the left in my profile!) and I'll send you a paypal invoice.

I have extended the sale for a couple of days as I didn't realise until today that there was an error on my site - I put 5th June into the system for the end date, thinking that that meant midnight tonight but it actually meant midnight last night. Apologies for the confusion, but it's all working and showing the correct prices!

Jubilee Jewellery Sale

I've mention on here before that I'm making some changes to my website. I use zencart, a free ecommerce package, and I've made all the changes to the template and layout myself. It's done me well for several years, but I've been conscious recently that it doesn't look quite how I want it to look - not as polished as I'd like, and a bit too mixed up too with one-off pieces competing for space with the made-to-order designs that I make, and tuition information added to the mix as well. I'm going to turn the website into a space for the made-to-order designs as these are the ones I supply to galleries and also tuition information, and I'm going to move the one-off pieces of jewellery over to my unused Daisychain Jewellery etsy shop.

However.....it's going to take me ages to transfer everything over, even considering that I've got the descriptions and photos already! So, to reduce the number of items I've got to move over, I'm having a sale on all my jewellery, just over the long Diamond Jubilee weekend. All jewellery is reduced by 20%, and the discounts have already been applied to the website. I've also got some pieces such as the jewellery I've made for recent blog challenges that are included in the sale, such as my Home Is Where The Heart Is bracelet, although I haven't added them to the website yet. I'll post about them on here again over the weekend so that you can see them again, and if you're interested in them please email me about them!

So, if you fancy giving yourself (or someone else!) a treat then you can find my website here!

Moogin Special!

If you've followed my blog for a while you will realise by now that I LOVE Mindy Macgregor's beads. Actually, let's be honest here, even if you've only read the posts from the last week or so you must have realised how wonderful I think her beads are by now! I love them so much that when Mindy sends out her newsletters letting people know that she's just listed new beads on Etsy I know that if I go and have a look I will definitely end up buying at least one, quite often a set, as I know that if I don't buy them when I see them I may never see them again - unless I see them on Rebecca Anderson's blog that is. She loves Moogin beads just as much as I do and sometimes we end up unknowingly racing each other to buy them!

Anyway, I have been badly neglecting my jewellery website in favour of my Daisychain Extra etsy shop in the last few months, and I've been really bad at listing my new jewellery on there. So, I've been busy taking and editing photos today, concentrating on the jewellery I've made with Mindy's beads. I've listed six new pendants on the website this evening, and there are more to come over the next few days. I started with these pendants as I adore all the bright colours in them - they bring a touch of summer! The focal beads are some of the largest round beads I've seen, and the detailed patterning on them is beautiful. I've soldered, hammered and polished "bubbles" of sterling silver to go between the focal bead and the brightly coloured spacer bead on each pendant, and hung them from long chain.

And the special part? Well, apart from the fact that Mindy's beads are special in their own right, for the next week, starting today, I'm offering 10% off all of the jewellery I have made with Mindy's beads. The reason is simply that if you buy the jewellery, I can buy more of Mindy's beautiful beads and make more jewellery with them - everyone wins!

I've set up a separate section on my website here for all of the jewellery using Mindy's beads, and the discount has been automatically applied.

Thank you

Thank you to all of you for your support, your love and your encouragement this year. It truly has been a year of ups and downs. Jamie's birth at the beginning of the year was obviously the biggest blessing, and he and Ben have continued to be an absolute joy. Finding out that I had cancer 6 days after giving birth was not, however, part of the plan for this year, or for any year for that matter! The surgeons and all the hospital staff who continue to care for me and who got all of the tumour out (hurray!) are amazing, but I know that the only way that the family came through it all was with the support of our friends - and I include you in that. Thank you for your comments, for the emails and letters that I was sent while I was ill, and the prayers.Thank you for continuing to read my rambling posts!

Thank you too to everyone who has bought my jewellery on my main website or my clasps in my new etsy shop (64 sales in my daisychain extra shop in 7 months! So much more than I hoped for!), everyone who has come to a class or for tuition, or has tried one my magazine projects or downloaded one of my tutorials.

I have more plans for 2012, but in the meantime there is 

a thank you sale 

in both the daisychain extra etsy shop and on my jewellery website - 

10% off all clasps and findings and 15% off all jewellery. 

The jewellery website already has the discount applied, but to get the discount on etsy 

you will need to enter the code "XMASEXTRA"

New designs - and 10% discount this weekend!

Well, the challenge was met - there are now just over 100 fans on my business facebook page so as a thank you there is now a 10% discount on all Daisychain jewellery and jewellery making supplies from now until midnight on Sunday for Facebook fans. Just place an order as normal and let me know that you've liked my facebook page - if you use paypal I'll refund the 10% discount through that, and for cheque or bank transfer payments I'll email you the total due so you can send that through.

I've uploaded a couple of new designs this evening - a couple of sweet pendant designs. The Ruby Red teardop has a 5mm facted deep red ruby bead hanging in the middle of the curved teardrop. There are only 3 of these available as I only have 3 rubies of this size!

My favourite though is the Simply Wood pendant. I bought these wooden beads in Barcelona a few years ago. I used a few of them a while back in a bracelet for a present and had saved the rest for this design that I've had sketched out in my book for ages. I've cut out a silver daisy, hammered it so that it catches the light, domed it so that it has a bit more depth to it and riveted it with a simple silver wire rivet off centre on the bead. The chain runs through the bead, and I've added a 2" extension to the chain so that the pendant can be worn at different lengths according to the neckline of what you are wearing. I've got about 20 of these beads so it'll be a limited run, and I've got two other shapes of beads to rivet daisies to as well - but that will be a job for next week!

Smoky Quartz goodies! (and giveaway and special offer!)

I love smoky quartz. It's one of those stones that goes beautifully with anything, from rich reds like garnet to cool blues such as turquoise, and looks just as good on it's own with silver. The pieces below are ones that I made before Christmas, but it's taken me until now to put on the website as, well, I have been just a little bit busy! Anyway, here they are. I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them - although I can't decide whether the sweetness of the Dainty pendant is my favourite or the elegance of the long earwires on the Smoky Leaf earrings wins! What do you think?

Smoky Leaf pendant and earrings

Dainty Pendant - smoky quartx and garnet

Sorry this is such a short post but the boys and I have been out almost all day, first of all to our local park to feed the ducks, have a picnic and play in one of the three playgrounds (have I mentioned before how lucky we are to have such a great, large and beautiful park within easy walking distance? I really must take some more photos to show you), and then at a brilliant birthday party in the garden complete with magician and bbq - yes, the fantastic weather continues! I'm still getting very tired in the evenings, which is as much due to being a new mum as to recovering from surgery.

I'll finish by reminding you that these earrings:

can be won by one of the lovely people leaving a comment on this post, and that you still have until midnight on Monday 2nd May to use the code "Easter11" to get 10% off jewellery on my website!

More pendants - and an Easter offer!

Daintier pendants this time, but each one lovingly made with semi-precious stones and sterling silver, and each one unique - so if you see one you like, don't hang about! Especially as to celebrate two four day weekends in a row (it'll probably never happen again so make the most of it!) and gorgeous sunshine, if you enter "Easter11" at checkout you'll get 10% off all jewellery orders until midnight on Monday 2nd May.

From left to right, Simply Turquoise, Russian Circles and Turquoise Circles.

The Russian Circles pendant is my favourite of the three, although the two turquoise pendants would go with more of my wardrobe! The stone in the Russian Circles is a Russian Blue Pietersite - it has beautiful velvety colours that you really have to see in real life to appreciate properly. I can see this being worn with a crisp white shirt and a pair of jeans - and getting lots of compliments as you wear it!

Now that I've shown these off T and I are going to sit in front of the television with our dinner and watch the new Doctor Who. We had to record it while we put the boys to bed, so if any of you have already watched it be warned - nasty things will happen to anyone who lets us know any spoilers! Altogether now.... da dalanar da dalanar da dalanar da dalanar da dalanar da dalanar da dalanar da dalanar ooo-eee-ooo oooo oooo.......... (my singing is no better in real life, sorry!)

New Year Sale!

In keeping with the best New Year traditions, I'm having a sale on my website for the month of January - there is currently 15% off all jewellery, including my Keum Boo designs that feature 24k gold.

The website has automatically adjusted the prices, so *puts on her best marketing voice* now is the time to go and buy yourself a treat or stock up on a few presents for later in the year!

Cuteable

I had a lovely surprise this morning - my Golden Lovebird is featured on the Cuteable blog! This is one of the blogs that I check out regularly as there are always so many lovely things featured, so I'm really pleased that one of my pieces has been included!

The items in this particular blog post were chosen by Belinda from Shop Handmade UK, and if you wander over to the Shop Handmade UK blog you'll find a nice discount code waiting for you! Thank you Belinda!

Last day!

Just a quick post before I take B to the farm to feed the cows and goats and bounce on the trampolines....

Today is the last day of the 10% off sale on my website - it ends at midnight tonight, so if you were planning on getting your Christmas present shopping started early, you know where to go!

I'll be back later with some photos. Have a good day in the sunshine!

Happy Birthday to me! (& special offer reminder)

Is it a bit egotistical to say happy birthday to yourself on your own blog? Well, never mind, it's my blog and my birthday so I shall say it if I want! I am now officially starting to slip past my mid-thirties - how on earth did that happen?! The problem is that I still don't feel grown up most of the time!


So, what exciting things have I done so far today? Well, T is away until this evening for work, B is at his childminder's so apart from a phone call from T to wish me a happy birthday and tell me where he'd hidden B's card, a phone call from my parents and a few cards coming through the door it's been a pretty ordinary work day today. I've tidied the workshed (well, part of it, anyway!), started to move the website to a hosting company with better customer service (yes, that red error message at the top of the website will soon be gone - don't worry, it doesn't affect shopping security), taken some photos and finished and packaged up some orders. T is taking me out for a drink tonight while my Mum babysits (thanks Mum!), but I've decided that I'm going to pretend that it's my proper birthday tomorrow as T is taking B and I up to London for the day. While the boys go round the science museum I'm going to skip with glee round Hatton Garden and the jewellery quarter - woo hoo! I'm getting excited just typing the words!!


The photos that I've taken are the ones that you can see here - Treasured Shell cufflinks and earrings to match the Hidden Treasures and two new colours (turquoise and amethyst) for Fresh as a Daisy pendants. They are on the website now - and don't forget that:

Spend £30 or more on jewellery and get 20% off!

Enter the code 'easter' at checkout and the discount will be automatically applied for you.

This means, for example, that the Fresh as a Daisy pendants are currently £40 instead of £50! The offer runs out at midnight tonight, so don't miss out!

Happy Easter!

Due to the fact that:

1. It's the Easter weekend
2. We've got lots of lovely family activities organised for this weekend that I'm really looking forward to
3. It's my birthday next week
4. I'm generally in a happy mood

there is a special offer on my website this Easter holiday weekend!

Spend £30 or more on jewellery and get 20% off!

Enter the code 'easter' at checkout and the discount will be automatically applied for you.

It's the first time I've had such a good discount offer, so if there's something that you've had your eye on I'd get it now as I doubt I'll be offering 20% off again this year! This offer includes made-to-order and hallmarked jewellery, and ends at midnight on Thursday. The offer is open to UK and international customers.

I've just uploaded some new products to the website, including new charm bangles, this time in emerald and turquoise, photos of which you can see here. I'll be showing you some more new products over the weekend.

Happy Easter!

Rush Rush Rush

That's what I seem to be doing this week - rushing everywhere! It's partly because B and I have had a bit more of a social life this week (birthday lunch with a friend and her little boy on Monday for example - quite a relaxed lunch too considering pre-schoolers were about!), partly the usual rush on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to get lunch finished before preschool, and partly because I've got my last show of the year this coming Sunday.

I know I've got enough stock, but I'm having the usual last minute panic about needing more in different colours, different sizes etc. I had thought that I was getting over this but obviously not! I've also been busy designing and making more made-to-order items for the website, including the moonstone and sterling silver earrings above. These were textured with my favourite hammer - and if anyone had told me a few years ago that I would one day have such a thing as a favourite hammer I would have thought them slightly mad! I do love the texture this hammer gives - you can see it on my silver birch bangles as well. It's a hammer that I inherited, and I love the fact that it's got so much history.

The show that I'm doing on Sunday is the University of Southampton Christmas Craft Show. It's in the Staff Club on University Road from 10am-4pm, and it's usually really well signposted. It's quite a big show - my mum usually does half her Christmas shopping there when she comes and helps me out - and there's live music and good food too! If you're coming along please stop and say hello! And if you end up being tempted by the lovely sparklies on my stall and spend £30 or more I'll give you 10% off!

The necklace above is one of the items that will be on the stall if it's not bought off the website before then - the beautiful bead was made by Becky at Chameleon Designs. I've got another two beads of hers in the same style, and I just love them. The colours are just gorgeous and the beads are so tactile - have a closer look!

Right, that's it for now as I really must get to bed - B and I have to be in town early tomorrow to get him a new car seat and me a couple of last minute display bits for Sunday, then it's back here for lunch and Nicky's little boy is coming to play for the afternoon, then some friends are coming over, then I've got some soldering to do ........... and hopefully I'll get a couple of minutes quiet sit down too!