Holidays are over.

The school holidays went really quick and I'm now back to being at home on my own with my very daft Labrador. Which to be honest as much as I love the kids company over the holidays, I can get on with a lot more work when they are not here. 

Last year the jewellery sales have slowed mainly because of the financial climate and I think 2012 was the year of the Elf, lol. With that in mind I have decided to just make jewellery with my own beads, I also want to improve my lampwork and the elves will be ever present. Plus there will be more cloth dolls as I want to eventually have a soft version of an Elf. In fact I finally got a new sewing machine and I made my first cloth doll, I started it on New Years day and finished it the following day. I must say I really enjoyed making it and I now have so many ideas for more. 

In my last post I mentioned that I was firing coasters in my kiln one at a time and I couldn't show you what I had been up to. Well I gave them to my parents and they loved them so I can now show you, one is missing from the photo as it was still in the kiln at the time. I did really enjoy painting them and was very happy with the outcome and I will certainly make more. I would like to paint bigger items but I think that will have to wait for a long time as I will need a larger kiln. 

New Projects

Well I'm all ready for Christmas and this week is fairly clear of work and Christmas preparation. So I have been busy with some craft projects. One project was something I meant to start in the summer holidays but I have only just managed to get round to completing them. I was programming my bead cube this morning to fire some coasters that have been over glazed painted. Unfortunately the kiln is so tiny I can only fire one at a time so I either have to fire every day or twice a day. When they are fired I will take photos and show them off after Christmas  I can't show them before as they are gifts for my parents. 

But in the mean time I can show you another new project I have underway. 

These Green-men are Cloth Doll decorations, I bought a pattern from Colleen Babcock and they were very fun to make. I loved needle sculpting the faces and as you can see not one has the same face, which I like. Now there is only one thing, my sewing machine, its fifteen years old and apart from problems with the tension it does the job. But when I use it it smells like, well the only way to describe it is the smell of a party popper or a Christmas cracker when popped or snapped. So I think it may have had its day and its time to replace it. So you may see more of the cloth dolls from me in the new year. 

Christmas Robins

I have made Christmas decorations for sale this year.  Well not surprisingly they are made from glass. So my ETSY shop has glass Fairies, Angels, Snowmen and Robins.The Robins are in a brilliant Christmas Robin treasury by Nicola Dawber on ETSY.  Which is HERE if you want to have a look. Well as expected I had to have a go at making Elf Robins, I had great fun painting  them and sewing the eyes and beaks on the felt hats. I have a feeling you may see a few more bird and animal Elves next year.

Christmas Fairs and Something New

Its the Christmas Craft Fair season and I've just done my first one of two that I do every year. I only attend one or two Fairs at Christmas mainly because of family life and they are hard work. The Fair is admittedly the easy part, it is all the preparation before the Fair, pricing stock, checking stock , making new stock, printing out signs, sorting out displays and much more. Then I get to the fair and find the Body Shop or Pampered Chef nearby, which is frustrating but I will blog about that another time. 

So as I mentioned I've made new stock for the Fair, I have made some new Elves and the wooden Pig above which has been turned into a Blackboard  / Chalkboard. I had made some Chickens in the summer but they sold out completely, and I have ordered more so keep and eye out for some Chickens in the not to distant future. 

Halloween Elves

Yes its getting to that time of year again and I have made some Halloween Elves that have already been listed on Etsy. I had great fun with them, I already had the BOO! elves and the vampire elf Bite Me listed on Etsy. 

I thought it would be a good idea to make some more.  Well I had to make another vampire naturally but I didn't want to make wire wings as they can be a bit annoying to fix on. After a lot of thinking I settled on a design and made Count Dracula. I loved making him especially the bloody mess around his face and his cloak looks great even if it was a bit tricky to get it to stick on. 

I couldn't just leave it at the Count so I made a family set called the O'Lanterns, pumpkin elves.  Again I was so pleased with them as they turned out really well, also they seem to be popular on Etsy having been featured in a few treasuries. 

 Now I need to make a few beads and charms and make some Halloween Jewellery. Then it will be Christmas but as I have a few elves ready I have already started listing them on Etsy, which for me is unusually early especially as we haven't celebrated Halloween yet.

Busy Busy

 I wish I had a few more hours in the day to fit everything in its been a busy time. So I decided the other week to close down my Folksy shop and reopen with a new marketplace called Craft Cafe It does seem like a nice place.
Today I have realised apart from not blogging for a long time I haven't told you all about my new website. Its called the Creep Crew and it combines some of my Storm Glass Beads and some of the Cornish Dragon Gifts. I have made a couple of Elves to go on there and I will be making more beads etc.

I have been having some fun with the Elves this time, I made a couple of Knight and Princess sets, both have new homes now.

Thats it for now as I have to get to the post office to send some Elves to a new home. 

Office Work

I wish I could sit and create all day but in order to sell my work there is a certain amount of office work I need to do. I usually do the office work if the weather is so bad like this week cold and very very wet or it just needs doing.

So what does my office work consist of, well mainly it is taking photos of jewellery, beads, elves etc. then uploading them to the computer to edit them. Some get uploaded to Flickr, posted to forums and used for selling like in my ETSY listings which then I pin to my Pinterest boards. 

Blogging is part of my office work as it is part of my self promotion getting my name out there so people get to know me and what I do. That also means I have to update my Facebook page and of course Tweet.

I also have a side where I want to help out others, like recently I made my first Squidoo lens on Jewellery Parties, I could have written it on here I know but I thought I would give it a try. I hope to add to that lens with a few more hopefully about display, craft fairs, etc. I include going on to the forums I'm a member of as part of my office work, well it is a bit lonely working for yourself and going on the forums helps.

Office work doesn't just include the above its the accounts as well, and possible my favorite part, ordering. Yes ordering glass, beads, metal and elf bodies is all part of the office work. So for now I had better get on and update my other blog and order some glass and go and chat to some lovely crafters on my favorite forums.