Tuesday 22 December 2015

Cat basket


3 days to Christmas!

My Etsy shop is on hold until Boxing Day. It is too late to send out parcels now, even to the UK, so I thought I ought to focus on getting the family Christmas organised! However, I have plenty of plans a-brewing for next year, and am really looking forward to getting on with some brand new ideas and projects – so stay tuned!

In the meantime, how about I inflict a picture of one my cats on you?  This one is from Christmas past…


Saturday 12 December 2015

Quick update


12 days to Christmas!

The mad burst of activity I had when trying to get everything made for Christmas has passed, and everything is now up on site. I will continue to renew listings that have expired though, so you will still see some activity going on.

I’ve been so busy with the shop, my own Christmas preparations have taken a back seat and I now need to focus on that, or my family will getting beans on toast for Christmas dinner!

However, I’m still making things, will continue making blog posts and am planning products for next season, and I promise I have some fabulous ideas for next year. It will be amazing!

Now, where is that shopping list…  

Saturday 5 December 2015

Nineteen days


19 days to Christmas!

Instagram is back up, or at least for now, so lets hope it continues. I had got used to making regular-ish posts (I don’t do regular. You’ve noticed, that, right?) and I missed not doing them.

My 2-piece set is now up, and really, it works just as well as a summer necklace as a Christmas one. More details can be found here.





Friday 4 December 2015

No Instagram and last ordering


20 days to Christmas!

If you’ve been following my new Instagram page, you might be wondering about the lack of updates. Apologies for this, but Instagram appears to be down in my area, and even now I’m still not able to log in to my account. I hope to be up and running again in the near future.

My last recommended ordering times for Christmas delivery (including  my turnaround times) are as follows:

Friday 11 December for Australia and the USA
Mon 14 December for Europe
Thursday 17 December for UK.

Tuesday 1 December 2015

22 to go


22 days to Christmas!

I have so far added six of my new pendants to my Etsy shop, and will continue to add the others over the next week or so. I have also got a cute 2-piece Christmas set to add to my range, so look out for that, too!

Friday 27 November 2015

Pendants preview

27 days to Christmas!


Pendants are really popular, and I already have several in my Etsy shop. I’ve just made a somewhat varied load of pendants on chains, and have them awaiting their turn for posting. In the meantime, I thought you might like a little preview of the upcoming selection:



The pendants are mostly hand painted Peruvian beads, except the Santa and fox pendants. These are locally made and absolutely one-of-a-kind handmade fimo clay charms.

All pendants will retail at £9 plus P&P.

Happy Christmas shopping!

Sunday 22 November 2015

Only 32...


Did you realise that it is only 32 days until Christmas? Isn’t that exciting?

I bought a nice jar to help with storing my growing selection of jewellery components...




I then stuffed it with blank wooden bits and bobs that are awaiting their fate as to whether they will be painted, glued, varnished, or some other concoction I can come up with!



I’m getting on with my new Instagram page, and am gradually learning how to use it. If you want to drop by, look for: @rosebayjewellery

Wednesday 18 November 2015

I have Instagram!


I have an Istagram account! I’m not sure how to write down the address but if you have Instagram yourself, look for me under the name of @rosebayjewellery. I’ll get the kettle on for you!



Wednesday 4 November 2015

Christmas angels


I’ve been experimenting with some little angel earrings using glass beads. They came out really cute, and I might have to make some new colours in addition to the current red, blue and pale green that I've already made.



 They can be found in my Christmas section.


I realised today that its only seven weeks to Christmas. Is everybody ready? I wish I was!

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Latest additions




I’ve been adding some adorable fimo earrings like these to the shop, and there will be more coming soon. 




I added a really big bronze tone Steampunk dragonfly (a friend referred to this item as ‘a bigass dragonfly!)



And I added my first snake necklace to the site, too. This one is made with a cute ceramic bead from Peru, but I also have glass and metal snake necklaces coming soon, too. So many pieces to add, and so little time…! 



See you soon!

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Resin and roses


All my new resin pendants have now been added to my Etsy shop. I got lots of hits on them, so thank you to everyone who did check them out.

I have been working very hard to make loads of new products and will be adding these as soon as I can. I try to add at least one new item every day, so don’t forget to come back often – I promise it will be worth it!

I am very fond of roses  - you might have guessed this when I chose Rose Bay for my shop name – and love to have them at home. We planted a lot of new rose bushes back in the summer, and we hit on the idea of having a small display indoors whenever possible. Its starting to get a bit late in the season, but we can still manage a few. So how about this pretty vision of pink and yellow:




Hopefully by next year, when the new bushes have matured, we will see a riot of colour in the garden, and cute little displays indoors. I can't wait!

Saturday 10 October 2015

New line! Resin pendants!


I like to keep the shop, and my jewellery, fresh and new, and to this end, I am always trying new products. I have been experimenting with resin pendants, and this was the prototype.


I was so pleased with this, that I then tried a proper batch – most worked, a couple didn’t, but I learnt a lot from that. I do, however, now have some super pendants that came out really well, and I am slowly adding them to my Steampunk page on Etsy



All of the pendants so far are in the steampunk style, but I do have plans to add other designs to my resin pendants in the near future. So… watch this space!

Tuesday 6 October 2015

Behind the scenes...


For those of you who like my products, I thought you might be interested in some info on what goes on behind the scenes…?

In my naivety I thought all you had to do to sell stuff online is to make the item. Turns out, that’s the easy part… 

First off, you need to come up with a design, or at least an idea, of what to make, otherwise you sit there twiddling your fingers and waiting for inspiration to strike and more often than not, it doesn’t.  

Then you have to source the components. I spend a huge amount of time researching interesting beads, charms, and findings. You then have to order them, which can take weeks sometimes if they come from abroad, and often results in a cascade of wee packets tumbling through our letterbox – a phenomenon my husband refers to as ‘the avalanche’ and I jump up and down and pretend its Christmas!

Of course, nowadays I make or otherwise alter some of the parts I use, and this means less visits from the postman but that there are often hanging lines or trays of drying, painted, washed, glued, or otherwise setting, bits and pieces lying all around the house. We can’t eat off of trays in our home, as they’re all full of beads, chains and other jewellery-related paraphernalia…

Once you have your project in mind, and your components, you can begin the making process. When you have made your piece of jewellery, and worked out the selling price, there is still more to come. 

For sale online, every item needs to be photographed in suitable light, and in a pleasing way. Luckily for me, I can usually persuade my husband to do that, so at least that is one less job to fit in. 

Once I have my pictures, I can do an Etsy listing. Here I try to describe the piece as accurately as possible, with measurements, materials, and so forth, and try to mention anything else I think a potential buyer might be interested in. I also have to include tags so that my item can actually be found. 

Then, while I’m waiting for the piece of jewellery to sell, I wrap it carefully in plastic bags, or tubs for more fragile pieces, and store in large plastic boxes where I can easily find them.

Once sold, it has to be posted. Packaging tends to depend on what the item  is, how fragile it is and where it needs to go to, but usually involves pretty tissue paper, an organza bag, a business card and a wee handwritten thank you note. Everything is then popped into its postal attire, with lots of sellotape,  and I then take it down to one of the local post offices for despatch.

Afterwards I scurry home and notify the buyer that they can expect delivery shortly. (hopefully!) 

Of course, at some point I need to pay my fees for each item I list, each item I sell, and anything that goes through Paypal. Then there is the paperwork, the taxman, the advertising…

Time for a cup of coffee and start planning the next project I think…

Sunday 13 September 2015

Cross post


I’ve been on holiday this week so haven’t made as many jewellery items (or blog entries!) as usual, but even so, I have been doing the groundwork for new items. In addition, I’ve added a new category to my Etsyshop, called ‘Crosses’. These could be any type of cross, and include jewellery pieces that include a cross, too. I will also be having crosses in other sections if I feel they fit those categories better, so keep your eyes out for those. My big black Gothic earrings are one such example, and will likely stay in my Halloween/Gothic section.

Here is a preview of my ‘Crosses’ section – and there is more to come. Watch this space!


Sunday 23 August 2015

Help to prevent your jewellery tarnishing



All jewellery will tarnish eventually, even gold, though it’s likely to take years. You can, however, help to prevent it. First off, leaving it out all the time will guarantee a problem in that area, and do be careful of things like body lotions, hand sanitizers, hairspray, hand cream, etc, as they are likely to encourage tarnishing.

When you’ve finished wearing your jewellery, it’s a good idea to dry with a soft cloth before storing it. Keep it somewhere dry, as moisture can be detrimental. Storing in a dark place is advisable, and some people like to keep a piece of chalk in the box to help absorb moisture.

Another trick you could try is to store the jewellery in an airtight plastic bag, something like a Ziploc bag. But do make sure both the jewellery and bag are dry (or you will be trapping moisture in with your jewellery, and you don’t want that!) and then squeeze all of the air out before sealing. If you want to try this, I would also suggest wrapping the jewellery first in a soft cloth before sealing it up in the bag.




Monday 17 August 2015

New traffic?


It looks like I’m getting more traffic here lately, so, ‘Hello!’ For the benefit of the new folks – hopefully I won’t scare anybody away!  - I’ll share my thoughts for the inspiration behind my jewellery.

We all know that there is lots of jewellery around – but that’s okay, because there are lots of people who wear it, too! And I figure there is plenty for everyone. When you look at jewellery sites, what do you see? Beautiful creations, yes, some fabulous designs, yes, gorgeous-but-expensive items, diamonds, classy… yes, all of those. But it seems to me that often, one thing is lacking from the designs, and that’s a sense of fun. We ladies like to adorn ourselves, and why not? It helps to show our personalities, our sense of style, or our uniqueness. Why not wear something that also makes you smile? This is what I like to make. That’s not to say I don’t make simple, pretty, or classy stuff, I do. I love to put my own slant on Steampunk,


 




Gothic, 


 Seasonal, 

  
Pretty

 
Or just downright daft.

 

Many of the things I make are one-of-a-kind items. That’s because I enjoy making them, and wouldn’t if I had some kind of production line going.

I like to think you’ll have fun here with me, whether you buy anything or not. Its always more fun in numbers!


Friday 14 August 2015

Changing times


We’re in the process of updating all of our product pictures as we’ve changed the style, and made it more… focussed.This is why the actual products dropped off for a while – redoing 100 or so items takes a lot of time! We’re also adding more Halloween and Christmas items, so watch out for those. For a starter how about this lightweight wooden necklace in black and orange:


Yes, my mannequin is still pink.

I’m also introducing  flat-rate postage fees for simplicity, which will be: £2 for UK orders, and £5 for everywhere else, no matter how many items are ordered.  

Thursday 13 August 2015

Mannequins for scale


Photographs are really important, as it’s the first thing the buyer will see of your product. Good photos can even sell an item; mostly I’ve been really pleased with ours but one recurring issue I have is with scale. Those earrings might look cute, but how do you know that they will hang just under an ear lobe or down by your knees without any kind of reference?

I do, of course, describe all this in the listing but a lot of people just can’t visualise without an actual image to look at, and here is where my problem lay. I’ve tried using a ruler, or coins, etc, but it doesn’t work that well. Some sellers use a human model, but I know that squicks some people, as they don’t want jewellery somebody else has worn, and since a lot of my stuff is OOAK, it’s a bit awkward. So, I figured the best option was something like a dressmakers’ dummy, a dress form, or something like those that might be used in shop display.

The local shops had what I wanted but they’re quite dear, like, £30 ($50?) minimum, and usually a lot more.Not exorbitant, but more than I really wanted to pay. We went into Dunhelm Mill the other day, and they had this dress form half price, reduced because it was damaged. The poor thing was listing to one side (My husband reckoned she’d been on the sherry!) She was kind of pink and frothy but I decided I could change the outfit. Anyway, my beloved crouches down and dives under the frothy skirt (he has no shame, my husband!) and declares he can fix it. It wouldn’t be something the shop can do because it would mean cutting the fabric underneath to put in a new plate, so we bought it. Twenty minutes after getting home, the mannequin is repaired and looking good as new. Still pink, as I discovered the outfit was actually stuck on but by then I was getting used to it anyway. And it amuses me to see Steampunk or gothic stuff modelled on a pink pinny.

Say hello to Polly (we name everything in our house!) in all her pink finery. 


Since Polly, I have also added a head mannequin and, more recently, a hand. Neither of these are clad in pink, which is probably a relief for my visitors! At this rate I’ll soon have a whole girl!






Sunday 9 August 2015

New Look!


I think I lost my way a bit, and did lots of posts about nothing at all to do with making. So, I’ve deleted all posts that had nothing to do with crafts whatsoever, and I’ve given Rosebay Blog a makeover, to match the new look my shop has. I love the new banner, made by Mike, and I think it looks so much more grown up!

I’m aiming to do some posts shortly detailing my crafting news over the last few weeks and I hope you will be hanging around for that. See you soon!

Thursday 5 March 2015

Marching on...


The weather has been so nice today, and its lovely to see the sun! Its still cold, but what can you expect for March?

I’ve been juggling my categories around for the shop, trying to make them more interesting. If you see headers disappearing and reappearing, don’t worry -–you aren’t imagining things! I’ve got stars running as a theme my featured jewellery, and I’ve started relisting Halloween and other items. I know its still early, but some people do like to look and buy early, too.

I’ve made this fun charm bracelet this week in cool blue.



 Very summery!

Friday 20 February 2015

Hearts and flowers


I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day? It intrigues me that other cultures celebrate events in different ways. I gather that, in the US, Valentine’s Day is used to share love with everyone, including friends and family. Here in the UK, it is a day for lovers and romantic love.

With this in mind, I’ve chosen hearts for my shop theme for this week. Not exactly radical, but it is appropriate. How about these semi-precious Turquoise hearts?




I hope your day was suitably romantic,  and yes, I did get some lovely roses from my thoughtful husband. Beautiful red ones...

Interesting new things added to my shop in the last few days are some pretty dragonfly earrings:


The dragonfly beads are table cut Czech glass in a lovely Picasso finish. 


And also a steampunk gas mask necklace. (Yes, really!)


You can’t say I’m not diverse, can you?

Saturday 7 February 2015

Shell out for summer


Summer is here! Well, no, it isn’t, but I’m pretending it is so that I can start posting pictures of my new ethnic shell bracelet. 




Anyway, how do I know you aren’t viewing this in Australia? It’s summer there, right…?

In other news this week, we’ve been constructing a wardrobe. Not from scratch, I hasten to add, but from one of those flat pack kits that have instructions that don’t really make sense…

And, because we had to dismantle our old wardrobe, we’ve been in a dreadful mess this week. I’m not going to horrify you with pictures of that spectacle, but we’re slowly getting reorganised and sorting things into the new-sized space.

A tidy room is a tidy mind, they say. Doesn’t seem to be working for me…

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Saturday 31 January 2015

Winter starfish


It’s so cold today. We had a light snowfall on Friday (yesterday) but it didn’t lay, and
there are more showers promised soon. I’ve been shivering while working on my new items – and that’s quite funny really, as I’ve now started on my summer jewellery! I’ve got some lovely ethnic and seasonal products lined up for you, and I’m aiming to start listing them this week.

So, ignoring the actual time of year, I’m going with Starfish for my new shop theme this week. Anyway, some parts of the world are in the throes of summer, aren’t they? 


These cute earrings are made from howlite.






 Hopefully it will be warmer when next we meet!

Sunday 25 January 2015

Steampunk bottles


I've just made a super new ethnic necklace, and just need to take some pictures so that I can list it. I changed the featured items in my Etsy shop to Steampunk as I’ve sold a lot of those items lately. How about these cute earrings? They’re made with real watch parts, and if you shake the jar gently, they do move around inside!



My husband and I went for a walk this morning – it was cold but crisp and dry and it was nice walking along the seafront. They have a new-ish craft centre down there, but its outdoors and was closed today. It’s still too early in the season, I suppose.

I’ve got some new jewellery ideas I want to try out tomorrow and I’m experimenting with wire work at present. I’ve had some interesting results so far, and can’t wait to try some other ideas.

I’ve also got lots of new products lining up for the shop and I hope to start listing them this week – so watch this space!

Friday 23 January 2015

Go and make something!


Turns out, making things is good for you.

The Daily Mail says that ‘People with creative hobbies do better at work’.

This article explores other reasons why making time to be creative is a good thing, and for the writers among you, how about a 12-day exercise programme from the Readers’ Digest to kick-start that creative process?

So what are you waiting for? Go Make Something!!

Thursday 8 January 2015

Christmas cake


One of the things I meant to share with you was my Christmas cake. I’ve been making them since I was 11, and that amounts to quite a few cakes! I know its getting a little late now, but I went to all the trouble of taking the pictures and it seems a shame to waste them! 


My bowl is vintage, circa 1930’s. Every year I’m afraid I’m going to drop it…













The finished cake! We like to go for the 'snowy look' on our cakes. In this one, it looks like the poor deer has just bumped into the tree... 



What did it taste like? Lovely! But very, very, rich…