Northern Dawn

Original Art - Golden Retriever

2009-07-11T13:49:00.000-07:00

I did a little coloured pencil painting today of a Golden Retriever Puppy. All puppies are irresistable and who could not melt at a Golden Retriever Puppy:

Isn't he just gorgeous. It's in coloured pencil and is ACEO sized at 3.5" x 2.5". I am not going to sell it as an ACEO though, I am going to add to the collection and do a selection of popular dog breeds and use the images on cards to sell in the shop.

This one took me about 3 hours to do, so if I get off my bum and knuckle down I should be able to do at least a couple a week, so should have built up a decent selection in a few weeks time.

Twitter

2009-07-11T03:20:00.000-07:00

Well I have given in and just joined Twitter. I have read so many posts on the Etsy forums about how useful it can be for promotion and they keep on about it on the radio, so I have joined the masses!

I have just added a widget thing in my sidebar so you can click on it and follow me on Twitter. I am at Northern Dawn Twitter. Someone had already taken Northern Dawn, so my username is RaggraCrafts, which is name of where I live and as it is pretty different, I figured no-one else would have it, and they didn't! So I now need to work out how to work it efficiently and not just spam it or put exactly the same on it as the blog!

You may also have noticed my other Widget from Etsy. It displays the latest additions to my shop with a link to it.

The McEtsy Team

2009-07-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

Another of the many features of Etsy is the ability to join Etsy teams. When making my favourites post yesterday I came across a link to Team McEtsy. Team McEtsy was specially created to promote the work of Scottish crafters. So, of course, I applied to join. I received an email today and will be added to the list shortly. It is a really great opportunity to connect with other Scottish crafters, even if it is only virtually. Maybe in the future, 'real life' meetings may also be organised that I can get to and participate in. There is also a McEtsy blog, which features work from fellow scottish crafters.

Etsy Favourites - Scotland

2009-07-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

Today I followed the Shop Local link on Etsy's Buy page and searched for Scotland. The Shop Local feature lists the latest 100 shops to update at that particular location. So here are my 5 favourite Scottish shops:

Ali Bali Jewellery

Handmade and designed Silver Jewellery, made in Edinburgh. Most items are made from eco friendly recycled silver. This shops contains all types of Jewellery including Wedding Jewellery and this seller takes customer orders. One of my favourite items is her silver crocheted cuffs. You can visit her blog at Ali Bali Jewellery Blog.

Starry Blue Sky

Fantastic Photographic Prints, again from an Edinburgh seller. The shop features gorgeous images with a dreamy quality that makes them look more like a painting than photographs. She has some fantastic collage prints. I just love the dreamy affects and fantastic colours. They create a lovely, modern look that would complement any home. You can also visit the Starry Blue Sky Blog.

The Dog House

This shop features hand printed bags, t-shirts and bandanas with the seller's own greyhounds as the subject. I love dogs and the products in this shop are just perfect for any dog lover, particularly the Greyhound owner. I am seriously tempted by a canvas bag. As an extra bonus 5% from the sales goes to a Greyhound rescue charity, Gracehounds. The Dog House also has a blog: Max & Molly Designs.

Numpty

This shop features modern, funky cufflinks, earrings and hair barettes. The subjects are things such as aliens, lego and minis. Very cool and different. Perfect for anybody that loves something modern and different.

Fuzzy Dragons

Fantastic fantasy and animal art prints and ACEOs. Her preferred medium is coloured pencil which is a medium I also use so am always interested in coloured pencil artists work. The art is lovely and bright and features some lovely subjects such as dragons, horse and flowers. You can also visit the Fuzzy Dragons Blog.

I hope you will take time to visit at least a couple of these shops as they really do feature some superb stuff.

Sooner or later I will work out how to add photos to go with these favourites as photographs are so much more descriptive than my lame descriptions! - ETA: I did it, just saved them off Etsy and added them here, I will of course, notify the sellers and if anyone isn't happy, i'll remove them.

Thank you Card

2009-07-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't done particularly well with the to do list! I blame my husband, who only had a half day and I never get much done when he's about, calling me to do this and that or look at this etc.

I did make two prototypes for my Thank you Cards as I wasn't sure what design I wanted.

I went for this one in the end, mainly because I don't have enough ribbon to do all of them with the ribbon wrapped around the card!

They're made with Ivory Linen card, Frosted Gold Pearlescent Card and embossed in Gold. The ribbon is Ivory Organza. They have Ivory paper inserts. They are 5" x 7" cards.

To Do List

2009-07-07T13:31:00.000-07:00

I have finally got my Wedding photographs through from the official photographers and they have put them online and issued us with a username and password and printed them on little cards. I am planning on putting them in my Thank you Cards in case some of my guests want to look. My hot air gun has also been repaired so tomorrow will see a start in on Thank you Cards. It's unlikely I will get them all finished (I have 22 to do) but a start is better than nothing.

Tomorrow I am working from 7am to 11am so have plenty of time for working on Northern Dawn bits. Seeing as I am adding to the blog every day I thought it might be interesting to put my To Do Lists on it (and it also gives me something to write!). So, anyway, tomorrow's list:

Hour or two on Pet Portrait commision
Start the Thank you Cards
Start writing the HTML & CSS code for the Northern Dawn website
Create a necklace from my Pan Chang knot.

Hopefully by tomorrow evening I'll be able to cross these items off. It's going to be a busy day!

Pan Chang knot

2009-07-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

I was practising a new Chinese knot today called a Pan Chang knot:

A Pan Chang knot represents birth and death due to its endless pattern and indicates that life can exist forever. It is also known as the Mystic Knot, representing the mysteries of the Universe. The Chinese word for the knot shares the same sound as the word for happiness so this knot also represents happiness without end. It is thought to bring great good fortune to the wearer and beholder.

It was quite a complicated knot to tie and had to be pinned to a corkboard during its formation to get the shape and overs and unders of the cord correct. It can be tied using one cord or two, though it is easier to use two different colours when practising to help with tightening it, hence the gold and red cord. This knot was tied using 1mm silk cord and i'm not sure what to do with it yet. Its not very big, I think a Pan Chang knot tied with 2mm cord would make more of a statement, though I will definitely do something with this one. I will of course put it on the blog when I have.

NaBloPoMo

2009-07-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

No I haven't gone bonkers and started writing in a foreign language!

NoBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month. All it means is I have signed up for adding to my blog everyday for the next month. Because the month can start whenever you like, mine started on 4th July, so will end on the 3rd August. Really every month should be NaBloPoMo, but it is sometimes hard to find time to blog, or to find something to blog about. Hopefully I'll manage and not bore all my readers to death.

Anyway, that's it for today - see you tomorrow.

An early morning beach walk.

2009-07-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

This morning I got up ridiculously early so my husband could drop me off at the pub to pick up my car on his way to work, so I decided to take the dogs for a trip to the beach. We got there about 6am and left about half 7 and didn't see anyone until we left the beach!

It was a bit misty when we arrived

But Jerry still wanted to play in the sea
Leave nothing but footprints......
.... is a hole or two ok?
We found a bit of shipwreck
And Jerry did his bit for the Earth and recycled someone's rubbish as a dog toy
Resting after climbing up the dunes
Even I took my boots off for a paddle!
And whenever I stopped, Jerry tried to dig around my feet. Ouch!
Tom thought if he went out far enough he might get those seagulls
And by the time we left, the fog had started to clear a bit
There's something very special about splashing through the shallows of the sea on a deserted beach accompanied only by the dogs. If you ever get a chance, give it a go.

Thursday Favourites - Handbags

2009-07-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

Its Thursday again, so its also Favourites day. Today I had a look at the hundreds of categories listed on Etsy and chose Handbags. I need a new handbag, so who knows, maybe I'll be shopping at one of these shops soon:

Timberlineltd - This shop creates gorgeous handsewn bags, pillows and purses. They are created from Pendleton Mill Wools and western tapestry fabrics. The items all have a fantastic Western / American Indian feel about them and are truly gorgeous. Really quite different.

AllyBu - Handmade fabric handbags, hobos and totes. Most of the fabrics are lovely floral pieces in fantastic vivid colours. The hobo bags are lined and contain pockets so are very practical as well as pretty.

Fabrichandbags - The bags in this shop are totally up my street and this shop is very likely to have me spending some money in it! It sells fantastic Boho / Hippy style fabric slouch bags in a gorgeous mixture of bright colours. I also liked these bags as they have a zipped closure.

StudioOneDesigns - This shop sells more traditionally designed leather and suede handmade and designed bags. I fell in love with a very pretty pink suede one. This shop is based in the lower Himalayas.

Peace4you - Peace4you makes very cool bags from recycled materials such as tent canvas! They call this upcycling and have some very nice bags in their shop. Due to the nature of the materials that are 'upcycled' the bags have a practical feel to them. All the bags are handmade and definitely for you if you want something different that is also ethical.

A work in progress

2009-07-01T06:23:00.000-07:00

The weather here has been absoloutely fantastic today so I put my shorts on for the first time since we moved here nearly three years ago, and sat in the sun. Of course I couldn't just sit there so I took my cords and beads with me and got started on a Knotted Necklace.

This Necklace uses one of my favourite sort of knots, one that is so simple to make, yet creates such a fantastic effect. The knot is called a macrame knot and half of the knot tied over and over makes a lovely twist effect. This is one of the reasons I love knotted Jewellery, it is peaceful and easy to make (well sometimes its not, but normally!) but so pretty to look at.

Its not finished yet, it will have a pendant added to it, between the beads, but it's getting there.

The knot creates such a lovely effect I am already planning a bracelet I can make, just using the knot and maybe a couple of beads.

Nature's backdrop

2009-07-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I had an inspired moment and went outside to take some photographs of my Jewellery.

Rat Earrings hanging in our Sycamore Tree
Aqua Berry Charm Bracelet on a lichen on the dry stone wall:

One of the most important aspects of selling Jewellery is the photographs. The photographs are all you have to convince buyers it's your Jewellery they want.

One of the things I have problems with is finding a nice backdrop to photograph my Jewellery against. I don't have a lot of room in my house to set up an area specifically for photography and I need to photograph my pieces on a windowsill to get the benefit of natural light. I have, until recently, been simply photographing my creations on a plain, white piece of board.

On a gorgeous day the beads just look glorious, really vivid and shining, when photographed outside and the background colours of muted blues and greens are a fantastic complement and are bright, but not overpowering. I am really pleased with some of the results of my outside photography so will spend a little time re-photographing the items and amending the listings of my etsy shop.

Recycled Jewellery Boxes

2009-06-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

After finding an advert in the current Make Jewellery Magazine, I have been looking at the website of the Tiny Box Company, which sell gift packaging and Jewellery Boxes. They use recycled materials as well, which is a bonus, not only from my own point of view but as an additional selling point. The range is huge, so I am going to have a good look through the site and order myself a few boxes, but it looks very promising.

Thursday Favourites - Polymer Clay Beads

2009-06-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

As promised yesterday after discovering fellow sellers on Etsy had 'favourited' me I went on a search this morning for something special. After quickly realising I could quite easily spend 3 whole weeks solidly searching and always finding something different, I decided to narrow the search slightly. I decided first I would search for 'beads', as these are an essential part of my own jewellery making and great fun to look at, then I narrowed the choice down to Polymer Clay Beads. I am fascinated by Polymer Clay and it is definitely something I would love to learn how to use and I was not dissapointed today in my search - the variety of beads and jewellery produced with this medium is astounding.

So, here they are, my Five Thursday favourites:

Fimo Flora - The creations in this shop are just fantastic. All are handmade. The little characters are all very cute and very original. The choices range from elephants to peanuts and my favourite (for all those Winnie the Pooh fans) is the Heffalump. The prices are very reasonable as well. This shop is definitely one I shall be purchasing from in the future.

Jelly Beads Designs - This shop is full of handmade polymer beads in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. These include animals and characters, but also food and shapes. A lot of the beads are flatback but can also be purchased with holes and can also be glazed or left natural. They are also very reasonably priced and all beautifully photographed.

Tiny Ark - I found this shop by looking for rat beads and found some little mouse buttons instead. I liked this shop because it was a bit different, as it sells lovely, original buttons as opposed to beads. I have seen buttons used on jewellery though so felt it warranted inclusion. There are buttons of all shapes and sizes as well as animals such as some very cool bees. They are also machine washable so very useable.

Creative Spirit Too - I always thought of polymer clay being used to create beads in the shapes of animals, flowers, food etc. This fantastic shop showed me that it can also be used to create fantastic focal pendants and 'normal' round beads. The creations in this shop are just beautiful and I will definitely be shopping here for some beads to complement my knotted jewellery.

New Forest Beading - This is another seller who uses polymer create to create beads and pendants instead of objects. The pendants in this shop are highly detailed pieces in fantastic colours and would be perfect for one of a kind jewellery for someone very special.

So that's my five for today. I had great fun with this and hope anyone reading will find something useful. I have tried to find five shops that show the amazing range of things that can be done with polymer clay. Etsy is not just about buying handmade items, its also a fantiastic place to buy supplies for creating your own special pieces.

There will be five more on a different theme next Thursday.

Aqua Berry Charm Bracelet & Earrings

2009-06-25T03:44:00.000-07:00

I have had the idea in my head for a while now to make a charm bracelet using some of the lovely round beads I purchased recently, so on Tuesday I got down to making it:

The random shaped beads are glass pressed and the rounds are 8mm and 4mm, all in various lovely shades of Aqua, Blues and White. They are all hung on silver plated head pins on an antique silver curb chain. The clasp is a bolt clasp.

This braclet is about 18cm long and is lovely and heavy when worn. It's the perfect complement to bright summer clothing or to brighten up more formal wear.

It is currently For Sale at Northern Dawn on Etsy for $24.00.

I made these Dangle Earrings using the same materials and beads as the Charm Bracelet, however have listed them separately as I don't feel they make a set, but would of course be perfect worn together.

The Earrings have four 8mm rounds in Aqua, White and two shades of Blue with twin 3 - 3.5cm tails of antique silver curb chain falling from the middle. The curb chain falls straight and neatly due to the addition of the 4mm White and Aqua beads at the ends.

The Fish Hook ear wires are stirling silver.

They are For Sale at Northern Dawn on Etsy for $19.00

Both of these pieces are perfect for Summer, a fantastic reminder of Sunny Skies and Blue Seas.

Sharing Hearts

2009-06-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

One of the sections on Etsy is somewhere you can 'heart' favourite shops. I checked mine today for the first time for a couple of weeks and was delighted to find that three people heart me. So I thought I would say thank you publicly to those three people:

JJM Jewelry - This shop sells jewellery supplies, clasps, beads, findings as well as handmade jewellery. They also have a sale on at the moment. I will definitely have to have a good look through this shop as some of the beads look brilliant.

Blue Girl Jewelry - Hand crafted and wire wrapped Jewellery at a very reasonable price.

Sassa Lynne - This Etsy seller is another British seller and sells hand dyed yarns and threads as well as hand dyed scarves and other fiber art supplies. The items in this shop are truly unique, being created from random dye pots, so would be a perfect investment for someone making individual textile based art & crafts.

I have had a look on some of the other shops on Etsy, but will pick 5 tomorrow to add to my favourites and then 5 next week and so on...

Packaging revisited

2009-06-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

I have been looking into my packaging a little further and as you can see, have taken some photos. The boxes arrived in the white outer boxes so I though these would look nice with the ribbon wrapped round them as pretty gift boxes. I have however found a problem in that they are not big enough to hold my necklaces with large cascades and round beads as the boxes aren't deep enough and the lids won't shut!

Back to the drawing board on that one then!

I'm back!

2009-06-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Well i'm back and now a married woman! We had an absoloutely lovely day - the sun shone, the food was superb, we had a fantastic suite booked at the hotel we were married in and neither of us cocked up our words.

It doesn't feel any different to be married to be honest, though it is strange to think I am now Mrs Williams and not Miss Young! And now have a husband and am someone's wife. The next job is to make a list and notify all the people I need to about the name change.

Here's a couple of photographs from the day:

Back to work tomorrow!

Packaging

2009-06-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to June at Northern Dawn! Can't believe its here already. Things will be a bit quiet on here over the next 2 weeks. I am getting married on the 13th so there is a lot going on at the moment. This weekend I am having a dress fitting so Northen Dawn is closed from Thursday 4th June to Sunday 7th, and then again from Wednesday 10th to Monday 15th inclusive. Of course, you can still place an order, they just won't be processed while i'm away.

I have recently been looking into suitable ways of packaging my Jewellery and have invested in some lovely black flocked velvet boxes, which come in a variety of sizes and will be perfect for my earrings, bracelets and cascade and pendant necklaces. I am unsure of how to package my necklaces that are beaded all the way along their length though. I have ordered some black velvet drawstring pouches which are very cute, so they might be used for those necklaces.

I am also thinking of a way to make my packaging a little bit special. Rather than it just arriving in an envelope, something different to make it stand out. One of my bead suppliers, Jilly Beads, always includes a little packet of complementary beads and I think this is a really nice touch. There are so many people out there creating and selling handmade Jewellery something different is certainly required to stand out, so this is my current challenge!

Land of the Midnight Sun!

2009-05-31T05:10:00.000-07:00

Well ok, not exactly, but nearly.

I had a rare night out last night (my Hen Party, I'm getting married in a fortnight) and we left town to head home at about 3.30am and the sun was coming up! Was a very strange thing, wish i'd taken a photo. It meant it didn't feel late when we got in and It was so hard to go bed - I felt raring to go and like it was morning again!

Just wanted to share as it felt relevant somehow to my shop name. Being up here in the far North means the Winters are grim, but the Summer more than makes up for it!

Future Website Planning

2009-05-29T02:49:00.000-07:00

Because Northern Dawn is a new venture for me a lot of its development and progress will be documented on this blog. It will be interesting for me to look back on and also may help others, who can (hopefully) get some ideas on how to start and develop a small craft business and (more likely) learn from my mistakes!

I make lists quite regularly. I have a small notepad by my bed that I will randomly write in whatever pops in my head - ideas for designs, a page for the website etc.

The most recent list involves plans for my websites. I currently have www.lauraspetportraits.co.uk which is for my Pet Portraits and has been running now for about 3 years. I also have my Pet Portraits blog at this URL. I'm not doing a lot with this as it ranks highly on Google and I don't want to muck about with it. I have recently got rid of many surplus pages so there's very little that needs done with it, other than the usual updating. The Pet Portraits blog will remain here as the work in progress blog and for any additional original Animal related art. Any other non-Animal artwork will be put on the Northern Dawn blog.

I also have www.laura-young.co.uk, which curently points at this blog and I have also just bought www.northerndawn.co.uk, which points at the moment to the Pet Portraits website, because I haven't done anything with it yet!

The Laura Young website is going to be turned into a 'gallery' site, containing simple galleries of my various creations - pet portraits, other art, jewellery, cards, maybe some photography. The won't be anything for sale on this site, though there will obviously be contact details if anyone's interested and links to where the items can be purchased from. This blog will be moved from this site to the Northern Dawn one, but there will be 'latest post' links from both this blog and the Pet Portraits blog on the homepage.

The Northern Dawn website is going to be my shop for everything I want to sell other than the Pet Portraits. It will be made with shopping cart software, so I can have recomendations for customers and maybe wishlists etc. Until I have set this up though, it will be a similar gallery style site to the Laura Young website with links to my Etsy shop and my Folksy shop for people who want to purchase. As well as finished products I am planning on providing kits for some items and also a project page and information pages about Jewellery & Card Making. This site will also be home to this blog, which will be updated with news and new makes.

All three websites will be designed to look similar so if people move from one to the other, they will know they're all connected. I am planning on a very simple, natural look using neutral colours, the same fonts and similar headers.

As well as my own websites I need to update my Facebook page and use that as a bit of an advertising tool and I am also going to look into Twitter, as this seems to be the 'thing' at the moment and is highly recomended on Etsy.

So, there you go. I will of course add updates to the blog as I go along. I will start working on all this towards the end of June.

Necklace design revision

2009-05-29T02:31:00.000-07:00

I have just made a small change to the fuschia bead necklace from my last post. I just tried it on to see what it looked like and decided it was too long (I guess I should have done this when I made it!) so have knocked 10cm off the length. I also took a photo of me wearing it, which was fun. I had to crop it to cut out the double chin!! I have amended the folksy listing and added the additional photo to the listing as well.

This has certainly taught me to try any creations I make just to make sure they sit right when worn and not just assume what's a good length for one necklace is a good length for another.

My Folksy Shop

2009-05-26T01:29:00.000-07:00

Just a small post to say I have now opened my account on Folksy and Northern Dawn now has a web prescence there as well! There are only two items in the shop, but more will be added:

Northern Dawn on Folksy

New Jewellery Pieces

2009-05-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

I have made a new necklace today and a pair of earrings:

Necklace:

It is a 3 strand necklace, made with wire. It has a trigger clasp and is about 60cm long. The beads are pink and fushcia glass chips and some gorgeous Indian glass beads as the centre pieces. The connectors are from a local craft shop and I just fell in love with them and they matched perfectly with the Indian beads I had in my stash, they made a perfect combination for a daring necklace with a bit of girliness about it!

FOR SALE: - £20.00

And a pair of Ratty earrings:

I have pet rats of my own and show them in my spare time. Next year I am going to start breeding them, so when I found these Chinese Zodiac Rat beads on the Jilly Beads website, I had to have them. It took me a while to decide what to do with them but as they are quite small they seemed perfect for earrings. They are simply hung on beading wire and the pink and white glass chips complement them perfectly, hanging off of an antique silver curb chain.

FOR SALE:- £13.00

Both of these items will be going on Folksy, when I have set up my account.

Etsy Shop

2009-05-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

I finally got an account set up on Etsy today. I found two other sites to sell handmade crafts, which I will also set up accounts with, Misi and Folksy. The two later ones are both UK based sites, which perhaps would be better than Etsy, which is American and has everything priced in dollars, but I thought I'd stick with Etsy as it is the bigger, better known site and has a wider, international audience. I will eventually try them all out and see which one I get on best with.

You may have also noticed that the name of the blog has changed. I had to think of a username and also a shop name for my Etsy account and spent most of yesterday afternoon inspriring myself using an online thesaurus. In the end I went for Northern Dawn. I think it sounds a bit mystical and wanted to have a sort of 'natural' sounding name. I have changed the name of the blog to fit in with this and will also eventually set up a personal website to showcase the Handmade Jewellery and other crafts, which will all go under the Northern Dawn name.

Anyway, my shop on Etsy is: Northern Dawn Jewellery.