Friday 30 April 2010

New Ideas and a Thank You

First of all, i'd like to say a big Thank You to Beccy from AloeVera.net for the absolutely top tip about Networked Blogging. I have added the widget to the right hand side of my blog - and hope to see more followers through that!

Next, a little bit of info about an idea i've had, inspired by an Etsy Virtual Lab that I attended yesterday. I'm going to try a "project a day". Goodness knows how long i'll be able to keep it going - there isn't always a lot of time in this house! But my idea has gone one step further, in the hope that I can maintain a little bit of structure to the project. I'm going to allocate a colour to each day of the week, and the project that I make that day will be in the allocated colour. I suppose that gives me a bit of a starting point.

So now to choose my colours. I bit more thought is required I think...

Thursday 29 April 2010

Fabby little flowers...

I've been spending money I don't have on Etsy, and bought some absolutely gorgeous lucite flowers recently. They arrived yesterday and inspiration struck so as soon as Austin fell asleep in the afternoon, I set to work with my new materials. Of course typical of me, I ended up making a necklace with materials that I already had here! But it was the arrival of the new pieces that set the train of thought up for the design, and I will use them in something eventually.




The design is listed on Folksy: http://www.folksy.com/shops/Starstruck along with some other pieces that i've made recently.

I do love those little lucite flowers. I have loads of them now, all different shapes, sizes and colours. Some are even 2 tone - I really want to use them in something. AND....I have new things arriving soon! A little musical charm that I am assured actually works, and some little tiny charms that have already inspired the title of a new design: Strawberry shortcake. No idea what the design will be yet, but I know what it is going to be called!

Wednesday 28 April 2010

Etsy and/or Folksy?

I've had an Etsy shop for a while now, but it's only ever had 1 item in it - needless to say I didn't make much! So this week I decided to add some more of my work. However every time I worked out the £ to $ conversion my irritation mounted. And so started my quest for an Etsy equivalent that allowed me to price things in sterling. That's when I discovered Folksy.

Folksy seems a lot smaller than Etsy, so less competition I guess, but less consumers too. And it costs more than Etsy, ok, not a great deal more, but every penny counts at this stage! Nevertheless, I've opened a shop and am gradually listing bits and pieces. It will be interesting to see which shop gets more views, and more importantly, which shop makes the most sales!

So I'm interested to hear any thoughts on the matter - which one do you prefer? Etsy or Folksy?

http://www.folksy.com/shops/Starstruck
http://www.etsy.com/shop/StarstruckDesigns

Before I go I'll apologise for the lack of any photos. I'm blogging from bed, on my iPod touch, whilst feeding the baby. I am woman hear me ROAR...!

Monday 19 April 2010

Crystal Bouquets Updated

I've been working on the website today. Couldn't really do much more as Austin decided he wanted to spend as much time as possible in my arms, and protested rather loudly if he found himself anywhere else! So it was down to some 1-handed web design, wow that takes some time!

I had a couple of new bouquet designs that needed to be uploaded, as well as the Mini Lotus design in a different colourway, and a buttonhole and corsage to match the Posy Bouquet. You can view these designs in all their glory here: Crystal Bouquets


Of course, as with all of my work, these are created with gorgeous Swarovski crystals, the Mini Lotus also uses cream Swarovski Pearls. I think these bouquets are fab for bridesmaids, and can consist of any combination of Swarovski colours. You can also see it in teal shades on my website.

I do have a couple of other pieces that I really want to upload to my Etsy shop, but I can hear the baby boy waking up again so that might have to wait until tomorrow...

Thursday 15 April 2010

First necklace made!


Now that my chain has arrived i've been able to complete the necklace design that I started a few days ago - Woo Hoo! I'm quite pleased with it actually, although not so impressed with the photography, I really need to make some improvements there! Anyone with any tips, they would be much appreciated.

I found the little wired flowers a while ago and have been itching to make them into something. I was thinking that they would be great for little flowergirl clips, but do rather like them in this asymmetric focal piece. I've used a combination of violet and tanzanite crystals with lilac pearls, and I thought the heliotrope heart worked beautifully with the other colours. The rest of the necklace is a silver chain, with a couple of crystal and pearl accents at the front. It is about 15" long and closes with a bolt ring and a 2" extension chain. The extension chain is of course finished with a matching crystal drop.

Now to get my thinking cap on for the next piece!

Ooh, new goodies.

Having decided to make a start on some new ideas I was very disappointed to find that i'd run out of the silver chain that I needed for a necklace design. Of course I didn't realise I was out until half way through making the piece, which was incredibly frustrating! I immediately placed an online order for some more chain, and of course a few new pretty things "fell" into my basket just before checkout.



I have no idea what i'll do with them yet, but its lovely to have new things to daydream about!

Whilst frantically searching my office for silver chain, I reached the conclusion that it really needs a sort out. Well, actually it needs unpacking - almost everything is still in boxes since our move in October last year. The problem being that the boxes have all been opened and rooted through when i've been looking for one thing or another and now everything is a mess, and nothing is in the box that it was originally in so the box labels are pointless. Definately a job for the "to do" list.....

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Starstruck Designs is back!

This year I will be celebrating 8 years of Starstruck Designs. Eight years of making fabulous sparkly things!

Since 2005 things have been forced to slow down a bit, initially due to the birth of my beautiful daughter, then because my time was eaten up with the opening of the bridal shop Aliya Rose, and most recently with the birth of my gorgeous son. In fact he is currently sleeping in my arms and I am typing this 1 handed!

However its time to get things up and running again. Although i've still been making client pieces, there are so many other things that I want to do. It will be a slow start, afterall, typing with 1 hand is one thing, but making a tiara requires both! So watch this space for updates of my progress, sneaky peeks of new designs, and possibly details of some rather exciting extras!

In the absence of any new pieces to photograph, i'll leave you with a couple of snaps of my beautiful babies:

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