Shrink Plastic Joy & Busy, Tired Times

Here I am at work on Saturday, basically the only time in the week when I have the time to post a full blog entry.

First, BIG twinklyspangle news! You will no longer be able to access my blog through http://www.twinklyspangle.com/ or http://www.twinklyspangle.co.uk/ instead these sites now lead to the draft version of my new website. The website will be ready to fully launch on September 1st 2008. Until then you'll probably see a variety of old and new goodies as we get things working, test things out and generally start trying to work through getting jewellery up there for sale. Meanwhile, you can still carry on purchasing lovely, delicate jewellery at my two shops:

• http://keepsakekatie.etsy.com/


• http://twinklyspangle.folksy.com/

I have been working on a new range of shrink plastic jewellery recently. One of the problems with shrink plastic is that it can look a little tacky and cheap. Now, I know I'm no fine jewellery artisan, but I do like to think that my designs mean you can wear plastic kitschyness with a little bit of class. So, shrink plastic was a difficult medium for me to tackle. I'll be launching a new range of rock, colourful bracelets and necklaces in my shops this week, but for now, here is a sneaky peak at the kind of thing I have been creating:

What do you think? The connector charm is coloured in watercolour pencil using my own, swirly, colour mixing designs. Then layers and layers of clear glossy varnish are applied, drying between coats to present a clear, glassy finish. They look pretty delectable, and I can't wait to start listing my fab new pieces. I've been wearing mine all the time, and I bet you will to!

Sadly, I am currently sans photographic equipment due to small accident involving my camera and a very destructive little fellow. My son loves anything with buttons and dials, and screens. He practically climbed up on the table to get it, and promptly knocked it on the floor. Cue much screaming. He was pretty sad too, although I consoled him before looking at the damage. One smashed lens, one broken flash and a pretty pissed off Mummy. I will be buying a new camera on Friday, so that will be fab listing day. I will probably run a little sale of some kind on some less recent designs, I'm trying to clear out my massive pile of jewellery making supplies, and I have a bunch of stuff I have only been able to create once, so a truckload of unique pieces will be appearing on Folksy soon - keep your eyes peeled!

I think that's it for today, I'm off to try and keep my eyes open whilst slumped over my desk at work.

Let me know what you think of my latest pieces, the state of the world, your boyfriends new haircut, or anything you like, really, using the 'comments' option.

Hectic Week

My Dad had my teenybobble this weekend, so I was meant to be relaxing. Getting up at 6am every morning is still a daily shock to my system so I had a great sleep on Friday night. I went to the craft shop on Saturday and got some new square bezels, and talked to the guy about putting up a sign for the craft fair that I am in the process of organising with a few fellow Etsians. You can find out more information, sign up, and find out the latest goss at the blog and our brand new flickr group. We are still accepting table reservations, although Jewellery spots are now filled.

Also, in regard to the craft fair, we are working hard to have some great promo bags to hand out to customers. Our minuscule advertising budget is being stretched to breaking point in order to buy up some cute reusable shoppers, but we need to fill them. I have offered myself up to be in charge of receiving the goodies, and we have had loads of interest so far. We really want to make these bags a great promotional tool for Etsians and Folksy users across the globe, so I thought you might interested in a few tips for sending in promos.

• Contact me directly for the address. I'm just reluctant to put it out here in the public domain, but send me and email to cakeadaykatie@hotmail.co.uk, flickrmail me or convo me on Etsy and I'll send you the address.


• Quality is preferable to quantity. We will be using every single promo we receive (provided it has not been damaged in the post or have some hideously obvious flaw) however, you will reach customers more with 10 fab samples, than 100 badly printed flyers.


• You may choose to include: a small sample (a teeny pot of something, some earrings or a charm, a little notecard, any tiny doodad!), a coupon for money off at your online store, a flyer or business card. If you do decide to use more than one of these options, please remember to keep everything nicely bunched together. A whole load of plastic isn't very economical, but a little paper bag tied with a nice ribbon, or some other way of packaging to make it like a weeny gift for the bag-getters could really boost your business.


• I will be photographing each batch of promos that I receive. Bags will be carefully co-ordinated to include a range of samples and business cards. Don't freak out if you can't afford or don't want to include a sample, business cards can be just as good!


• Any bags left over (although, let's be honest, who would say no to a free bag stuffed with goodies?) will be donated to the next UK Team craft fair.


• We don't need to receive the items until mid October, but remember, this is international shipping we are talking about. I wouldn't post any later than the end of August from the USA. A couple of people have said they are going to start filling a flat-rate small shipping box between now and then, with little samples and anything else they find that may promote their business, this is a great idea!


• If you have any further questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me. I check my email religiously throughout the day and night (I have a baby - I'm up at totally random times!) and I will endeavor to respond quickly.

I know this is a bit of a meaty entry, but just a couple more things! I have been designing and thinking hard about the direction that I want my jewellery to take this week. I have created these fab rocky charms, they look great as a bracelet, plus I used one to make this gorgeously girly-rock necklace. Check out that platinum chunky chain!

I'm going a bit wacky, and currently these are ONLY available in my brand-new Folksy store. I have yet to get a sale on this fab UK-based Beta site. If you are my first sale, I'll throw in a cute ring free of charge - so you should definitely get shopping!

Gorgeous New Designs

In the process of setting up my new website, I have the task of creating 20 lines for the site. It's hard work, creating things that I think will sell and also that it is possible to create and sell in a profitable way. But, I think I have struck gold with this:

Isn't it cute? It's great because it's totally designed by me, I even made the flowers using three different types of beads, petals, leaves and tiny contrasting faceted round beads. It's so colourful and cute, I have put it up for sale on Etsy for a super-cheap £8, but it will be £10 when my website launches, and this is the ONLY one I will be selling at this price (my beautiful prototype - ooohh I'm so proud!) so snap it up!

I have been working on my packaging this week too, here is an order ready to send out:

I would love to know what you think of the stickers being used like this, and how I have tagged the jewellery. I want to make it look funky and original, I'm not really sure about this lime green. A couple of people have suggested black, which might look better, what do you reckon?

On a totally unrelated note, here is a picture of me with my little boy in Brighton over the bank holiday. It was such a beautiful day, I got a great tan, and the tiny fellow had his very first dip in the sea.

You can see more photos of us beaching it up on my flickr account - including the little one's first dip in the sea and my boyfriends mad hair - fun!