Last Week for the Sherwood Saturday Market

To all my local lovely customers and friends: This Saturday is the *very last day* for the Sherwood Saturday Market where I'm a vendor. The weather is supposed to be 80 degrees and gorgeous, so come and down and say "hi", get in all your final market shopping, and get a jump on your holiday shopping. Most of the things I sell at market are one-of-a-kind pretties and are NOT available online, so come on down and take a look. Hope to see you all there!

Japanese Flower Necklaces, Vintage Style Poppy Pins & Collage Pendants

Here's a few of my favorite new items from the 2010 Market Season.

First up are some handcrafted crocheted Japanese style flower necklaces. I love, love, LOVE these!! Each one is made completely by hand and is one-of-a-kind creation. They are crocheted with delicate premium yarns, hand stitched with embellishments and a proper backing, and then featured on a hand-patined necklace with various old-fashioned crystals, pearls .. or if I have them.. matching vintage beads. I could make these all day I just love them so much!!

$35 and up from Jeweled Elegance.
Stock is varied and limited. Email for current offerings.

These bright red poppy bobby pins are sure to brighten your day! Each one is delicately embellished with tiny black beads at the center. They come on a pretty vintage label.

$10 each from Jeweled Elegance.

And last, but never least, I adore how each of these vintage image collage pendants features a different word. I make these completely by hand starting with a blank plain piece of wood. Many steps later ... voila!...a beautiful classy inspirational pendant. These also are one-of-kind and come on high quality, lead and nickel free, hand-patined vintage style metal chains.

$20 each from Jeweled Elegance.
Stock is varied and limited. Email for current offerings.

Now ... off to make more flower necklaces! :)

2010 Market Season Booth Pictures

Here's what my Saturday Market vendor booth looks like this year. Every year I change it up a little bit, keeping it fresh and trying new things to see what is most effective. This year I focused on "Verticality". Keeping more things visible to people causually walking by vs. them having to come up and really look over the table. I tilted all my display boxes up so that 50% of the inventory could be seen from far away.

And I got a wonderful new glass fronted display case! I am starting to do more and more crochet jewelry and although I wanted to bring a few pieces to market, it's an outdoor venue and I wasn't sure how to protect them from the elements. Most things I bag to protect them from the elements, keep sterling and other metals untarnished, and basically keep the piece in "new" condition until it is sold. Crocheted pieces don't always fit nicely in bags, so I liked the idea of the case. I modified it with a false backing to incorporate ribbon straps with sewing pin "hooks" (to hang necklaces) and built in anti-tarnish strips to protect the metal. I'm very happy with how it turned out!

If you are in the Sherwood, Oregon area on a Saturday morning ... stop by and say "hi"!

Crazy Busy Spring

Wow are things busy around here! Market season starts in just 3 weeks, and I'm working hard to meet that deadline. In three weeks, I will have:

* designed and printed new better-visibility sign/price tags for my market booth
* constructed new ribbon display boards for my market booth
* finished several of my new "Twig" necklaces
* finished my new line of Japanese inspired "Bloom" crocheted jewelry
* finalized TWO new crochet patterns and posted them online
* completed at least two lacy crocheted capelets for Spring
* gotten my lettuce, pea, cucumber, and pole bean seedlings settled in their permanent garden beds
* prepped the house for company arriving in the beginning of May

and last .. but unfortunately not least....
* somehow convinced the sun to come out for an extended period so I can take some good, well-lit photos of all the aforementioned things!!

All this busy time in the studio means I haven't had much time for online activities, but I'll be back to regular blog posting on May 1st. And have lots of cool photos to show you and things to share then!

Sherwood Saturday Market Opening Day!!

This weekend was the opening weekend of the local market I vend at. I had a fantastic time and it was so wonderful to reconnect with all my vendor friends, catch up with all my long-time customers, and meet so many lovely new people!Now, this weekend was super stormy, rainy with strong tree-whipping winds. Given the weather and the fact that the local newspaper failed to run their usual article on the market opening, we still had a fantastic turnout and everyone had a blast! As any true Northwesterners will tell you, a little rainy weather is no reason not to get out and about. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it traditionally rains 1 or 2 days out of every three, so you can see where the mentality comes from :)
I made some booth changes this year to try to make set up and take down a little easier on myself. Here's one of the decorative plates I'm trying out. This one is full of Little Tweet package toppers. Love these cuties!And here's the day's best seller. A sweet little bird necklace with blue terbium glass. I have a limited supply of this particular cut and color of glass, so I only have ONE more of these to put out for sale next week.
Ah, and here are two of my new favorites. Asymmetrical necklaces with awesome nature embellishments. The green one has large jade gemstone beads and a lovely red ladybug. And the lighter one has red mountain jade gemstone beads and a cute flower / leaf combo. All feature vintage style, but lead and nickel free, brass.

It has been an insanely busy past four weeks for me! I didn't get everything done I had planned to, but I got my website and blog freshened up, got to market with a full table of lovely wares to sell, and had a *great* visit with my mom. I wish she didn't live so very far away, but I am glad she got to spend a little quality time here with me and the kids. And she agreed to be a pattern tester for me! Whoo hoo!

Market Pics!

The last day of the Saturday Market I sell at was a fantastic success!! These pics are a bit late being posted, but the family was really hit hard by that pesky virus and we are just now getting back on our feet. My husband is still pretty ill but the kids are fully recovered which is great news! Me? I'm really tired but almost fully recovered and should be back up running at full speed by early next week. Yeah! Because I have a TON of things I can't wait to get crackin' on in the studio for the holidays. So excited! Wait until you see!

Remember the images from these posts?:
Hand Tinting an Engraving -- Marie Antoinette in Color
Hand Tinting an Engraving -- Further Explorations
Well, I bought a color printer!!! This is the first color printer I have ever had in my life and it is so exciting! And these are my first little efforts into printing. The printer came without an instruction manual, which is extremely annoying, because I'm sure the things I'm trying to do could be taught in about 10 minutes, but... I don't give up easily and am learning as I go. These framed pieces had a great debut at market and they went to a gallery the day after, so we'll see what happens!

Some of my reproduction vintage image tile necklaces from market. "Dream Bold" sold quickly, but "Dream" with the nest image is still available ($24). I just love the whole line of these pendants!

The Little Tweets have gone from 3D to 2D! I did these two mini-paintings on rough wood for some handcrafted cottage chic charm. I added real buttons for the eyes just like the real Little Tweets and drilled them so they can hang from a sweet lime ribbon. I really want them to sell as a pair, so they might be heading to the gallery too. Thinking, thinking .....

Oh, I also added a Little Tweet in red to my Etsy site! The listing is for one, but I had enough red fleece to make two. I'm thinking they would be super, super cute Christmas tree ornaments?

These are two Starfish Necklaces from market. I applied patinas by hand to the sterling starfish and then complimented them with various gemstones, beads and freshwater pearls. They turned out just fabulous! I called one "Sandy Starfish" and the other "Ocean Starfish" because of the colors the necklaces ended up. Hmm.. maybe I'm longing for a tropical vacation?? LOL! I'm going to try to get these added to one of my boutiques soon ($28 each). Still have a bunch of other things to catch up on first :)

That's all the news for now. I've got a bunch of correspondence waiting for me to answer and a pile of mail to go through still, but I still need a day or two more to rest so please bear with me!

Saturday Market Grand Opening!

Today was the grand opening of the local Saturday Market I am a vendor at. It was a beautiful morning, the market was filled with happy vendors, and we had an absolutely great turn out of happy market-goers! Even the predicted rain held off until the very last 10 minutes of market - yeah!! I had been worried it would be a very soggy day :)

I couldn't wait to run home and post some of my booth pics! I gave my booth a makeover this year and I really like how much richer it looks now. Here's a grand overview shot. I would love to have more tables, but with a car full of car seats and kid gear, everything has to fit in the space left in the trunk ....but boy can I pack that trunk full!


A shot of my necklace busts. One for vintage gem and filigree necklaces (more on these in a later post) and one for just .... cool stuff! Do you like the brocade linens? I just love how rich they make the display look.


Close up of the necklace bust for "cool stuff". Both of these sold quickly.


My new booth display idea. I found two of these French-style bulletin boards in "antique linen" on sale and bought some wrought iron stands to accommodate them. They are just perfect for displaying pins and earrings! And it was really nice having such a strong vertical element in the booth to help maximize my table display space.


A close up of some of my hand crocheted pins in their pretty boxes. And you can see some of my new pretty business cards in the corner there :) (Those pins may look familiar to some of you as being from my Etsy shop. I will be pulling a few items from Etsy and/or the website boutique every week to take to market, so if you are looking for something and it is missing, feel free to contact me!)


What a fabulous start to market! Looking forward to next week already!

Avalanche of Activities

You ever have weeks where life is routine and uneventful ..well, ok, lets's say boring.....and you find yourself wondering if grocery shopping is a suitable topic for your weekly blog post? Well, this is NOT one of those weeks. Grab a pumpkin latte, indulge in one of those yummy Starbucks pumpkin muffins and hang in there! (and I'm not even going to count getting caught up from "the week of the flu", or the two major household appliances that needed repair, including one that flooded my upper landing)

First, I participated in the Sweet & Sinister Swap over at Artsy Mama. My swap partner was the talented Jeanetta at Splendid Things. She handcrafted everything you see here and even included some little trimmings in that box for the paper dresses I was making. My favorite of course is that Sweet & Sinister commemorative pincushion. Thank you Jeanetta!
And what did I send to her? Well..... if I have a failing in life it is that I can never remember to photograph my swap goodies before I wrap them. Never, ever. I suddenly remembered when I was wrapping the very last package, so here are pics of the sinister bat cookie plate and her dress for the Halloween ball (paper of course). I also sent a cute kit for making homemade ghost candies and a black cat candle holder. Making Jeanetta's dress was very inspirational and inspired a whole line of spiderweb couture dresses so it might look very familiar to some of you :)


This was also the final week of the 2007 Sherwood Saturday market. It's been getting quite chilly and damp in the mornings, so I was ready for it to come to a close. Until next year, market goers! Thank you for another great season!! Here are some farewell booth shots:


Also two fabulous blog events: Karla's Romantic Home Party and the Bloglandia Ball. I made it to everyone's beautiful sharing of their romantic homes. Still dancing to see everyone's beautiful ball gowns. My mouse-clicking finger is getting quite a workout this week! :)

And to conclude the week, I'm very happy to announce the winners of the earring giveaway! Thank you everyone for entering my contest! You are all such fantastic women, I wish I could give each and every one of you a prize! This was my first giveaway and it was such fantastic fun, I will be doing another one soon. The winners for each letter category, as chosen by a random number generator, are .....drumroll............


A. Tiny Keys: She'sSewPretty
B. Vintage Style: Old Agate & Turquoise: Sweet Cottage Dreams
C. Classic Everyday Pearl Drops: Lori
D. Peacock Feathers: Natalea
E. Magical Fairy Tale Stars: Reflections from the Stone Nest
F. Happy Ladybugs: Rosie

Winners, please send me your mailing addresses, so I can get your pretty lovelies sent out to you asap!

Market Day!

It's here! Market Day!! The day when all your hard work (hopefully) pays off :) We had an absolutely fantastic opening day for market. There was a wonderful article in the local paper announcing our opening day and it seemed like everyone came down to see what the market was all about.

Our new location next to the library had ample parking, live music and a great concrete "boardwalk" to stroll with over 40 vendors. I did really well (yeah!!!) and am now making new product to fill all those holes in my display. I have a small car, perennially packed with car seats and kid gear, so my market tent, tables, etc. are all on the diminutive side having to fit in the space left over. Which didn't bother me until I saw all the ultra cool booths that looked like swanky mall stores transplanted to the sidewalk. I consoled myself with the realization that I can break down my booth and be in the warm car with coffee and donuts in 10 minutes after the end of the market, while they will probably still be dismantling doors and shelving units.

And here are the surprise best sellers. These hairpins were just a quick thought one afternoon, but wow did they garner compliments and sales!!

This has just been a quick post to let you all know that market went well, and that I finally was able to leave the studio :) I love my studio, but it feels good to get out and enjoy the sunshine and flowers! I really appreciate all the positive, encouraging sentiments you all have been sending me for market! This week I will be trying to catch up (finally!) on all my e-mail, snail mail, blogs, comments, etc. while I simultaneously get the house ready for company this weekend, take care of two sick munchkins, and get the garden weeded so we can get our vegetables and herbs planted. This is what triple expresso mocha lattes are for, right? :)

The Countdown: 4 Days to Market .......

Has it really been two weeks since my last post? I have been designing jewelry, working on my display set up and labeling/packing product in the studio getting ready for the start of Saturday Market. Thank you everybody for your well wishes for market!! I know it's going to be a wonderful event and I'm really looking forward to seeing all my regular customers and chatting with all the creative artists that will be vending there. The market also offers flowers, plants and tasty farm fresh produce, so all-in-all, it is a great place to be! If you live in the area, please come down and visit!

OK, I said I wasn't going to add any product to the store before market, but I ended up adding a few necklaces today. I already have a list of people who would like bird nest necklaces, so I'll try to get those up soon too! The blue and rose "eggs" actually ended up looking the best, so I stuck to those. I love them! They are SO cute! I'm previewing a few necklaces in this post, but you can see all the new additions here.



I added two antique Chinese coin necklaces, a flame worked copper Celtic necklace, and the "Indian Wedding Cake Bead" necklace from the last post. And having decided that the pictures I took for the last post needed a lot of help ... I went and splurged and bought a tripod for my camera. What a difference! It's already paid for itself in time saved retaking pictures :) I wish I had purchased one a long time ago. If anybody who takes close up's of small objects is hesistating on getting a tripod, get one - you won't regret it!


Here is a shot of more things left to do before Saturday. It's a very long list, but I'm working hard on it! The top has handmade beads made from shimmer fabric and wrapped in brass and seed beads. The bottom has my Tudor hoop earrings. I LOVE making Renaissance inspired jewelry. Aren't the rich colors of the pearls, combined with the antiqued copper, just lovely?

These are a brand new concept and I'm hoping to get some good feedback on them at market. I'm going to call them "Wine Goblet" earrings. They are handmade beads out of a fabric printed with vintage wine labels and I've capped them with crystal that has a two-tone wine and green Coke bottle finish. We have a lot of vineyards around here and they would be just perfect as gifts, I think.


The lovely Karin at Creative Chaos gave me a thinking blogger award! (Thanks Karin!) Now it's my turn to pass the award on :) I'll have to give it some thought. There are so many wonderful people out there, it will be hard to narrow it down to just five. Well, time to return my nose to the grindstone! I'll try to answer everyone's sweet comments and lovely e-mails as soon as I can!!

The Countdown: 19 Days to Market ........

There are only 19 more days to the start of market! I have literally been locked in my studio the past week creating product and dreaming up new packaging for the 2007 market season. No internet, no mopping the floor, nada ... nothing except beads :) My booth is 10ft square and given that jewelry is very, very small ... I have a lot of creating to do! For the next 19 days I will live in my studio, but will be giving periodic updates of what I'm working on. The Jeweled Elegance web boutique will not be updated with any of the new product until after the start of market, but everthing will be available for purchase. Right now I have barely anything finished ... but lots of things in the works :)

Above is my only completed piece so far. A gold/white lampwork glass and wedding cake bead Y necklace all done in handwrapped copper and handmade chain. It would be a great bridal piece, but I can see it glowing softly against tanned skin and think it would be a lovely summer necklace. You can also see my new necklace/bracelet tags in the photo. I developed and started using them about a month ago and they are WAY better than the old ones - trust me on that!

And bird fever has struck! I have been weaving nests with little pearl eggs in them and will make them into necklaces. On the right are lots of little handmade polymer clay eggs ready to be added to some of the nest charm necklaces to make Y necklaces. I have baby blue, soft green and Tahitian black pearls, so have a lot of nests to weave! I even made myself a huge nest egg ring .... which was promptly claimed by my munchkins as pirate treasure. I'm sure it will surface again in time :)

This is an example of technique for some of the new market pieces. The top chain link is bright, shiny copper. The bottom link has been hammered and then flameworked. Yes, put in a hot burner flame and then doused in cold water ... and it produces this really attractive finish! The one on the bottom looks like an antique find from a long forgotten copper mine. I find flameworking copper to produce patinas fun and addictive. I have produced red, gold, brown, black and even a silvery-grey patina, but it's a little like raku .. a mystery until you clean off the carbon film. (And I always stay safe with eye protection, fireproof surfaces, etc. Hot metal can burn and hot beads can shatter.)


Turquoise is a natural with copper and I've been making lots of different shapes of hand hammered and flameworked turquoise and copper earrings. I'm hoping to get some niobium in copper for the earwires, but they'll be sterling if I can't get the niobium in stock soon enough. In this picture, I'm trying to show the rich flameworked patina of the earrings contrasting with the bright, shiny finish of the necklace chain at the top. It is storming today and the light is very grey and dim, but hopefully you can see it :)

Now ...... it's back to the studio!

Saturday Market Update

We are having a great time here at the Sherwood Saturday Market! Above and below are some quick shots of our lovely market display. We have almost an entirely different line of jewelry at our market booth, so if you have a chance, come down and see us! You can see our new line of paper jewelry, our beloved vintage copper earrings (based on a Gilded Age painting), and our very popular Ancient Scroll earrings. Ancient Scroll is entering it's third production cycle and we hope to bring it to our website soon. Each one is completely unique and one of a kind, so we are working on how to standardize the glazes, shapes, and pearl embellishments. And don't forget to join us for the Antiques and Art Festival on September 23. We will be in the same space as our regular Saturday Market booth, so we will be easy to find.

If you have been waiting for new jewelry on the website, our apologies! We have been really busy with Market and custom orders but hope to have all of our fabulous new designs uploaded for your enjoyment in the next week.

Jeweled Elegance Goes to the Market

This Saturday, May 6, is the opening day of the Sherwood Saturday Market. We are proud to be market vendors and hope to see you all there at our new location: the new city walkway adjacent to the Sherwood Library and City Hall, just off of Pine Street. The market runs from 9:00 to 1:00 most Saturdays and is located in Old Town, Sherwood, Oregon. If you are in the area, stop by and say hello!