Friday 30 April 2010

Folksy Friday

today the theme for my FOLKSY FRIDAY is.......

These are a few of my favourite things

all items have been chosen from some of my favourite Folksy sellers

Cellulite Body Oil from Scentsible Aromas


Retro Flower Tree from Sascalia


Origami Shirt Greeting Card from Quirky Cards


Blue Iris Cushion from Broomhead Designs


Raspberry Grace Scarf from Silky Prudence


Galaxy Necklace from MornieG Jewellery

Thursday 29 April 2010

40% off sale

I've been rejigging my GroovyCart shop - taking new pics etc etc

Decided to have a sale - lots of items have been reduced by 40%

Visit the Sale/Clearance category in the shop or click here

blue & green parrot bracelet

my OH is a keen amateur photographer & I love using his pics in my jewellery.  I seem to spend ages loitering around while he snaps away - taking photos of everything from all angles.  I'm always looking at his photos - cropping, editing & saving a copy into my "photos for jewellery" folder.  I live in fear of forgetting to "save as".

We spent an afternoon at a wildlife park in France a couple of years ago and the parrots in the photos I've used in this bracelet were more than happy to pose for us!

I've decoupaged the photos into picture frame charms, added a couple of fun glass parrot beads, some shimmery cats eye hearts, little silver birds and some assorted beads.

This bracelet is available from my GroovyCart shop

Saturday 24 April 2010

blue skies resin pendants

I made some triangle resin shapes a while ago & put them to one side because I didn't know what to do with them.


I'd taken some blank silver triangle shapes, mixed some blue, turquoise and white resin & then added some drops of the different colours into the triangles. The colours spread and merged into each other to create the patterns you can see.

They sat on my workbench for ages until the other day. I was making something else & had some clear resin left over so decided to see what the triangles would look like embedded in the clear resin. I didn't know whether to leave them clear or use a different colour, paper or material as a background but opted to keep it simple.

They've been really difficult to photograph & I haven't really captured how pretty they are. The photos show them much enlarged and highlight all the little blemishes that can't be seen with the naked eye - can't win!

I've listed them in my GroovyCart shop at £9.50 each.

Friday 23 April 2010

Folksy Friday

today the word I put into search was HELLO and these are the items I've decided to showcase (I ignored everything hello kitty as it was too obvious)
hello there card from asking for trouble

hello my little friend from The Seven Seas

hello flower card pack from Bee & Buzz Boutique

hello sun from Cattoo

Thursday 22 April 2010

my crafty dad

Dad's 80th birthday has made me reflect on his life as a woodwork, technical drawing, metalwork and crafts teacher.

He trained at Shoreditch College in the early 1950's after completeing his National Service.  He always made lots of our furniture in those early day - they still talk about, and sometimes laugh about, his early work.  In fact he's made lots of furniture over the years until ill health forced him to give up.

Dad's always been experimental and has tried every new material that's become available since the 1950's - acrylics, plastic, fibre glass, resin.  He's still my first port of call when I'm trying to work out how to do something different or new.

He worked with fibre glass & resin in the 1970's. OMG, I remember the smell of that resin, it's one of the reasons I work with epoxy resin now as it's odourless - much more expensive but I can't bear the smell of polyester resin.  His pupils used to make fibre glass boats - they had to make their own moulds from wood before making the boat with fibre glass and resin.  The boats were finished with a wooden deck and small engine.

He also made surfboards for us to use on our family hoildays in Croyde Bay, North Devon.  In those days it was a sleepy village, no gift shops & not trendy.  We camped in Farmer Brown's orchard (one cold tap & no facilities - we used the public loos in the village)

He dabbled with jewellery occasionally too making animal shaped wooden brooches and pendants, abstract shaped metal pendants and brooches, acrylic cut into lots of different shapes, enamelling and other items that escape my memory at the moment.

Unfortunately in his late 40's he had to give up teaching due to ill health but didn't give up crafting.  He built (with help) a workshop in the garden and took up woodturning.  I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the online craft selling sites had been available then although he used to sell well at the local craft fairs.

Well, I've waffled on for too long now - hope you didn't fall asleep - but if you're interested I'll carry on with dad's story at a later stage and tell you about his post teaching crafting life

Dad's given up craft fairs these days so I sell some of his work for him from our All Wood shops on GroovyCart and MISI (same items - just have to remember to delete items when they sell)

Wednesday 21 April 2010

dad's 80th party

It was my dad's 80th birthday on sunday & we had a small celebration.   The sun shone & it was lovely to be able to sit in the garden all day.

His mobility scooter was used to have timed races around the garden - only one small "incident" but luckily he was indoors at the time so didn't see it - phew!!!

He was a woodwork & craft teacher for many years and his reaching such a milestone birthday has got me thinking about what he's made & materials he's worked with over the years.  I think that's probably the subject for another blog - I will try and write it tomorrow

Sunday 18 April 2010

Mums Making Money

Mums Making Money is a small auction site - run by a mum for other mums. You can list items for free (or small fees for Buy It Now or other features).



I've got a Just K Jewellery shop on Mums Making Money.  Recently I've been thinking about what I sell & where - I seem to use quite a number of different selling sites to gain as much exposure as possible.  I've decided that as Mums Making Money is an auction site I'm going to use it as my "outlet" store for all the unloved items that haven't found a new home yet. 

Just K Jewellery on Mums Making Money

All listings will be for 1 week and most will start at just 99p.  There isn't an automatic combined invoice function so you'll have to wait for me to send you an invoice if you're the winning bidder on more than one item.

There's a few items listed already & I'll be working through all my stock over the next few weeks - adding new listings as I go.

Mums Making Money Home Page

Mums Making Money fan page on Face Book

Helen works really hard on MMM - promoting the site & the individual sellers. 

Saturday 17 April 2010

MISI Makers

Following on from my first Folksy Friday - and enjoying browsing Folksy for the items to feature - I thought I'd do the same for MISI.  I know quite a few people already do this but it's the first time for me!

I've chosen the theme of SUNSHINE as it's a lovely sunny day.  So I put the word sunshine into search and chose these items from what came up...

from Lilley - these fun little ninja's

from RosyTint this fab Tea Cosy


from Jess this little sunshine flower brooch


and finally
from Little Birdie this sunny bracelet


have a lovely weekend everyone

Friday 16 April 2010

FOLKSY Friday

I've chosen Orchids for my first Folksy Friday
necklace from from Gossimar Wings




leather pendant from from Tanglefrost


orchid fragranced soap from Sud 'n Soothe


tea towel from Papa Totoro Textiles

Thursday 15 April 2010

Sunflower jewellery for Rich's Fund

I made some sunflower themed jewellery that I'm selling in aid of The Richard Meese Memorial Fund
click here to visit the Richard Meese Memorial Fund
alternatively you can visit Just K Jewellery on MISI

Sunday 11 April 2010

black & white toile resin jewellery

I found some pretty black & white toile and made a selection of resin pieces a while ago.  As usual with me they went into the "made" pot while I moved on to my next idea - does anyone else do this?
I found them the other day when rooting through the pot looking for something else and decided to make them up into some jewellery.

there's a pretty heart pendant, a pair of little earrings and two rings

I've listed them for sale in my GroovyCart shop

Saturday 10 April 2010

a very messy workroom

I've just been reading a thread on the FOLKSY forum about messy workrooms and decided to embarass myself into having a clear up...
this is my resin table - I'm amazed I manage to make anything!

and I thought having shelves would help me be tidy - lol!

It's actually much worse than this in real life coz it's only a small room - and I've got just enough room in the middle of the chaos for my chair

Wednesday 7 April 2010

resin animal hair clips

two blog posts in one day - now I need to go and lie down in  a darkened room.....
I had listed these little resin animals in my BEADS shop on GroovyCart.  Then I found some more hair clips with flat pads (thought I'd sold them all as destash in Karen'sBeads on MISI) so decided to make them up into hair clips.

Pictures could be better - that'll teach me to do something in a rush - I'll retake the photographs tomorrow.  I've listed all the hairclips in JKJ on GroovyCart

what's black and white and read all over...

these earrings.....

I've embedded newsprint from a ladies glossy magazine in the resin hoops - this was the 2nd attempt as rogue air bubbles got trapped under the paper the first time.  I've listed them in my MISI store

Sunday 4 April 2010

sweetie resin cabochons

all the hot cross buns have now been eaten - and very yummy they were too!

I've just listed these polo mint and love heart resin cabochons in my Sweet Shop Beads shop on GroovyCart.  By listing in this shop I don't have any listing fees and can therefore sell them for slighly less than I would charge in Karen's Beads on MISI.  If they don't sell fairly quickly here then I will move them across to Karen's Beads.

Thursday 1 April 2010

hot X buns and little resin animal cabochons

I decided to make my own hot X buns this year as the ones you buy from the supermarket don't really taste of anything.  Rather a rash decision but I bought the ingredients at the weekend meaning to make them earlier this week & freeze them.  Did I?  of course not - so had to make them today.  Takes forever but eventually got there.  I haven't made hot X buns since I was a teenager ???? years ago.
A rather mixed batch of sizes and shapes - the ones around the edge are somewhat scorched - but they tasted OK.  I debated whether to post a piccie as my baking tray has seen better days.  Now that I've got the strong flour & tin of dried yeast I might even be tempted to have a go at some bread!

Back to resin - I've embedded some more of my little resin animals in clear resin cabochons and made them into cufflinks and rings.

available from Just K Jewellery on GroovyCart