Dalkullan Jewelry

Been away for awhile

2012-01-23T08:03:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to craft jewelry for about a year due to illness. It's great to be back at the jeweler's bench, it was like I'd never been away when I picked up my torch again. There's something about solder as it melts under the flame of the torch that is very refreshing to my spirit. It's very enjoyable to be hammering, sawing and filing away, so grateful to be able to create jewelry again!

I'm working on new designs -- incorporating new gemstones, new settings, and I'm signed up for classes to learn new techniques, which I'm really thrilled about. Here's a picture of my latest design, an almandine garnet ring, and my first listing at Dalkullan Jewelry which employs a prong setting.

Some of the new techniques I'll be learning are keum boo, a way to combine 24k gold foil permanently to sterling without using solder, engraving and carving metal, and enameling. Whew! I'm going to be busy! :)

It's great to be back, I've missed my blog and hearing for you, my wonderful blog followers! Thank you so much for stopping by!

Harvest day in the garden

2010-10-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

This year I wasn't able to get outside and garden as much as I would have liked, in fact, the garden had to run on auto-pilot this year. That, coupled with the dreaded Japanese beetle, resulted in a pretty small harvest from the garden.

But we did get some lovely grape tomatoes, which were kind enough to seed themselves around the compost pile. The compost pile is always a source of surprise plants. :)

Now that it's Fall and the beetles are gone, the roses are blooming again. And there's always the hope of next year, and hopefully a glorious garden. And now, the glorious colors of Autumn.

Thanks for dropping by, wishing you a blessed week!

A Walk in the Woods in Autumn

2010-10-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple pictures from a walk I went on Saturday. The leaves were starting to turn on the trees, it was a perfect Fall day, sunny and crisp.

Those red berries looked delicious, but I doubt they're edible. At least, I didn't sample them to find out.

Hope you get a chance to take some walks in the forest this Autumn too, and enjoy the beauties of God's creation. :)

Tropical Leaf sterling silver earrings

2010-10-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited about my newest listing at Dalkullan Jewelry . It's a pair of earrings, called Tropical Leaf sterling silver earrings. I crafted them using a technique invented by Charles Lewton-Brain, a master gold and silver smith.

I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Lewton-Brain at the 2010 Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee. He's a very nice gentleman, and it was great to see him in person, and exchange a few pleasantries. He's also one of the founders of a wonderful website for jewelry artisans, called Ganoksin , which means 'orchid'. If you've never been to Ganoksin, it's definitely a website you'll want to visit. There's tons of information on jewelry fabrication, including videos, and it's all free!

Back to the Tropical Leaf earrings --- I started by cutting out the basic leaf shape from sterling sheet, then folded it in half after first annealing the metal. Annealing means to heat with a torch, then quench, or cool, in water. This makes the metal soft (for metal, that is) and bendable. After folding it in half, I began repeated cycles of hammering along the non-fold edge, alternating with annealing the metal.

After a course of hammering, the metal becomes work hardened, and becomes stiff and brittle. Annealing changes the molecular structure of the metal, making it maleable again. When I'd completed this cycle 4 times, I carefully opened each leaf, and it arced into a lovely leaf shape along the spine. I used pliers to carefully manipulate the edges of the leaf, creating extra folds.

The next step was melting the end of a 20 gauge sterling wire to form a little ball at the end, then soldering it on the front of the leaf, to create a stem, which is also the earwire. Some more shaping, filing, sanding, polishing, and patinating, and the earrings were complete.

If you're interested in learning more about fold forming, Mr. Lewton-Brain has written a wonderful book on the topic, called Foldforming it's available at Amazon, among other places.

Twitter Tips -- how to get people to follow you

2010-10-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

So you've followed some people on Twitter, and now you're hoping they'll follow you back. I've got some ideas that could help to make that happen.

1.) Tweet about more than just your shop. If all your tweets are buy buy buy, unless you're Jim Cramer, people are might get bored pretty quick. Interacting with people is enjoyable, there are a lot of wonderful Tweeples, give yourself the joy of meeting some of them. :)

2.) Retweet other people's tweets that you find interesting. It shows that you're not just on Twitter for what you can get, but that you're also interesting in helping others. Good in life, and also on Twitter. :)

3.) Thank people for RT's. It only takes a minute, and it's polite and friendly. If I RT somebody a couple times with no response, I learn my lesson, and stop RTing them. RT's are helpful because they get sent to all your followers, and also the followers of the person who was kind enough to RT, potentially resulting in a lot of new people reading your tweet.
4.)I know there's a lot of opinions out there on this one, but I almost never DM, or direct message. If I'm tweeting with someone and want to make it more private, I'll DM, that's about it. I almost never read the DM's because they could be scams or what's worse, a virus.

And here's my Twitter pet peeve, people who put up quote after quote after quote, especially when the people they attribute the quote to aren't the ones who actually said it. "Dance as if nobody who could commit you is watching ~ Mark Twain" Funny, I agree, but not something Mr. Twain ever said.

Please leave a comment, and be sure to add your own tips, I'd love to hear from you!

Here's today's mystery photo. I have no idea who the gentleman in the photo is, he just walked by as I was taking the shot. The question is -- where was this photo taken? Here's a hint, it wasn't anywhere in Europe.

Extra hint, it was taken in southern California. :)

Some ways to find people on Twitter to follow

2010-10-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of different ways to get more Twitter followers. There are apps to do so, but I've never used any of them, so I can't comment on that. I like the direct, hands on approach. It takes longer, but in my estimation you end up with followers who are more interesting, and are real people, not bots. What good is having 10,000 followers, if they're mostly bots?

Method 1.) Put up a thread in the Etsy forums, under Promotions, and ask for new followers, and offer to follow them back. This results in followers who are already on Etsy, have an account set up, and know the mechanics of purchasing on Etsy. All big pluses.

Method 1.a) Search the Etsy Forum for old threads asking for Twitter followers, go down the list, and follow them -- hopefully they'll return the favor. This method involves less time on your part than the first Method, but the disadvantage is that you're not directly interacting with people on a thread. Of course, add yourself to the end of the thread, which will put it temporarily at the top of the Promotions group, which could result in a lot more people following you.

Method 2.) Do a search for #FF on Twitter. On your Twitter home page, about halfway down on the right hand column, there's a box with "search" in it. Click on the box, and enter #FF, and it'll pull up all the latest Tweets with the hashtag #FF. That stands for "Friday follows" and each Tweet will have a bunch of Tweeps listed. Click on them to follow. I like to actually go to their home page and make sure that I want to follow them. Sometimes they tweets about things I don't want to read about, or they only tweet things for sale.

Method 2.a) Like method 2.) but this time search for #etsy. Or you could search for anything you think might be helpful, like #jewelry, #knitting, #vintage, etc.

Method 3.) When you're on a blog or Facebook, look and see if they have a Twitter account, and if they do, follow away.

That's my ideas for finding new people to follow. I'd love to hear your tips on finding new people to follow, just jot them down in the comments! Next time, I'm going to blog about how to get people to follow you!

Here's the mystery photo of the day. I'm looking for what city this picture was taken in, but if you're really feeling sassy, tell me the intersection and the name of the body of water shown. Bonne chance, mes amis!

Some Twitter tips

2010-09-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Twitter can be a wonderful way to drive traffic to your Etsy shop. But if all you do is tweet about your shop, you probably won't get many people reading your tweets. So, what to do? No worries, here's some ideas about using Twitter:

Try to be interesting. This is a difficult one, at least for me, to accomplish. Coming up with something witty or humorous in 140 characters or less is a challenge, one that perhaps not everyone is up to. So when words fail, go with pictures, which bring me to my next point.

Use Twitpic to post interesting pictures. I enjoy seeing beautiful things, and you most likely do too. Put some up, then tweet about them. I always enjoy beautiful flowers and cute baby or animal pictures, for instance.

Retweet other's tweets that you find particularly interesting. That is a friendly thing to do, and maybe they'll reciprocate and retweet some of your tweets. Then you'll reach their followers, too.

I always try to thank someone for a retweet, RT in twitterspeak, of my tweets. It only takes a minute, but it's polite and friendly to do so. I make a mental note of people who don't do this, and stop RTing their tweets. Nobody likes to be ignored.

How do you know if somebody has RTed you? Go to your Twitter home page, and on the left hand side, under "Home" you'll see @yourtwittername, which in my case is @DalkullanJewel. Click on it, and you'll see all the tweets sent to you specifically.

There's more than just RT's here, there are also all the tweets that were directed at you. You'll probably want to reply to them, too.

Here's today's mystery picture. Can you guess what it is? I took this picture while on vacation with one of my beautiful daughters a couple years ago. Happy times!!!

This is the first post of a series on Twitter. Stay turned for further developments. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Great Shop Promo Advice from BrickHouseFabrics

2010-09-16T06:15:00.000-07:00

I was doing some reading on the Etsy Forums the other day, when I stumbled on this fount of great advice on promoting your Etsy shop from Barbara of BrickHouseFabrics .
Brick House Fabrics is an online fabric store that specializes in novelty home decorating fabric, and they carry fabrics that showcase a person's loves and interests, including Braemore, Covington, Duralee, P.Kaufmann, Ralph Lauren, Robert Allen, and have Laura Ashley, Schumacher, Thibaut, and others.

Barbara was kind enough to let me blog about it, so the following is a quote from BrickHouseFabrics:

................................................................................................

" BrickHouseFabrics says:
The first thing I would do is to step back.
Renewing does not work for me, and it is only good for people on etsy. Here are my basics:

My basics for being found on the net, and places I use:

The shop title is searchable. Fill it w/ keywords about your product.

Get your announcements set for search engines: fill the first paragraph w/ keywords about what you make/sell. Move everything down below it- no one googles hello, or welcome.

Titles: the title should be what a person would google to find the item. 54-56 characters are pulled by search engines. Fill them w/ keywords. The first 2 words are the most important. Remove words like and, the, or, they lower searchability.

Reuse the keywords in the first sentence of the listing.

Give measurements in both inches and metric. I use an on-line metric convertor:
http://www.worldwidemetric.com/Measurements.html

Write the description as if there weren't a pic. Take the pics as if there weren't a description.

The thumbnail is crucial to being successful: the average buyer on the net spends 3-5 sec. before clicking or moving on. Take pics of everything about the item.

Use an photo editor: pic nik, picassa, photoscape are all free.
And use a tripod! It eliminates a lot of issues!

Artists- most people show a picture of the item very cropped. Take another one of the item on an easel- table or full sized, to give a sense of scale, and to let the buyer know exactly what they are gettting.

Make certain, if you sell internationally- to have a disclaimer that the buyer is responsible for all customs fees, duties, and import charges that are levied at the time of delivery.
I have it on every listing, and add a link to http://www.sloanefox.freeserve.co.uk/importukduty.htm

Make certain your policies are filled out, and your profile, and location.

Join twitter; even if you don't tweet- you can use twit pic to upload a keyword filled message, and link it back to the shop w/ Bitly. That message is searchable, and the link is good.

Upload items to Kaboodle.

Do a Squidoo lens about your shop:
http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-use-the-etsy-module

Then do another about your things, your craft, whatever, and link it back as well.

These are all fast, free ways to do some promoting.

Also remember- the net works off of new. Once a month change the announcement, or titles, or shop categories. If you do a lens, or publish anything on the net, make certain to tweak it, or add to it, even a RSS feed, anything to keep those bots happy and coming back for more!

..................................................................................
Here's another sample of just one of the gorgeous fabrics available at BrickHouseFabrics:

Wonderful advice, and all things you can do for free! I'm a major fan of Twitter, I've found great info there, made some internet friends, and bought some lovely items from people I would probably never have know about otherwise.

Hope you've found something in this post to help you achieve the success with your Etsy shop that you're working towards! Wishing you prosperity and the joy of creativity.

Crouching Bunny, Hidden Rodent

2010-09-10T06:20:00.000-07:00

My darling hubby took some pics in the garden this weekend, and I thought you'd like to see them. He focused on the animals that enjoy the backyard. We have a lot of different kinds of plants, and having a varied habitat attracts a wide range of insects and other animals. At least, that's what I try to tell myself when I don't manage to get out there and weed, lol.

Here's the famous "Crouching Bunny, Hidden Rodent. He gets those beautifully shiny eyes from all the flowers he eats. Lots of vitamins.

Do you like Autumn Joy sedum? The bees and butterflies sure do. Here's a little bee enjoying his morning nectar. In my opinion, nectar's got nothing on a steaming cup o' joe, but to each their own.

This amazing butterfly has such beautiful markings. I would have thought it was a kind of moth, but I would be wrong. I never have figured out the distinction between moths and butterflies, outside of the fact that butterflies don't wreck havoc with my winter wardrobe.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my garden.

Pocket Shop Widget!

2010-09-07T05:47:00.000-07:00

If you're like me, you're always looking for new and fun ways to market your Etsy shop. And the kind folks at CraftCult have come up with a great new widget.

To see what it looks like, take a peek to the right of my blog, it's the black widget that looks like a cell phone. Pretty cool, yes? And getting your own is as easy as pie, and completely free (yeah!).

Just click on the "Pocket Shop" logo at the upper right of the CraftCult page.

Then you just follow the simple directions -- enter your Etsy shop name, pick your preferred background, follow the detailed instructions, and when your done, just cut and paste the code and follow the directions to install it in your blog. It's really easy to do, honest! :)

Pocket Shop is compatible with the following blog formats:

Blogger, Typepad, Tumblr, self-hosted Wordpress blogs, and your own website.

I really like my new widget and hope you'll have fun with your new "Pocket Shop" too!

My Latest Projects

2010-09-01T06:03:00.000-07:00

I've been working on some new additions to Dalkullan Jewelry lately. That, and a secret project, which is going to be a gift -- I'll be blogging about that after I've given it to the intended recipient -- don't want to spoil the surprise. :)

I'm planning on doing more jewelry in solid 14K yellow gold. Here's a picture of something that's currently available at Dalkullan, my Hammered 14K Solid Gold Earrings. I completely handcrafted these earrings, and its a lot of fun to anneal and shape the metal using a couple of my favorite hammers.

I'm working on a couple of pierced earring styles in solid gold, one will be set with gorgeous Tsarovite Garnets. Tsarovite Garnets are an incredible green color, simply gorgeous gems! I'm very excited to be offering these lovely and luxurious gems at Dalkullan.

There is also a genuine Ruby and Pink Sapphire ring, set in opulent 14K yellow gold on the drawing board. I'm thrilled with this ring, in fact, I'm making the first one for myself. Ruby is my birthstone, and I've always wanted a ruby ring. Maybe you've always wanted one, too. ;)

If solid 14K gold and genuine Rubies are out of your price range, no problem. Here's a pretty ring, with a lab created Ruby, set in handcrafted sterling, at a very affordable price. The Ruby and Sterling Ring.

There are other new adornments on the way at Dalkullan Jewelry so be sure to check back for the latest info.

Thanks so much for dropping by, it's been grand having you here!

Buying American Made & Vintage

2010-08-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for a new toaster for the past couple of years. I wanted to buy one made in the United States, and believe me, the search was a long and fruitless one. I was willing to compromise on one made in Canada or Europe, but definitely not one made in China.

I was surprised to find that even high end toasters, that try to give the appearance of being made in Europe, are actually made in China. You have to look hard to find the "made in China' label, but it's there. A $300 model at a famous kitchen wares store, and you guessed it, made in China.

Then I had the happy thought of buying vintage. There must be a lot of old toasters out there, from back in the day when we still made toasters in the U.S. And what better place to find vintage items than dear Etsy? A quick search revealed a lot of excellent toasters, reasonably priced, which were indeed made in the United States.

I decided on this beauty from Bliss Vintage:It was made in the 1940's, and as we all know, they don't make 'em like they used to. This toaster is a shiny chrome wonder, and makes excellent toast. And it was made in the U.S., in Elgin Illinois, which is only a few miles away from where I live.

Christine, the owner of Bliss Vintage, was a joy to interact with, so friendly and kept me informed all along the way. My toaster arrived quickly, and beautifully packed for its travels from Canada to the U.S. My toaster had returned to its' roots, back to Illinois, after its' adventures.

I have a wonderful, American made toaster, beautifully styled and classic. And while enjoying a crispy, buttery slice of toast with my morning coffee, I have the satisfaction of knowing I shopped successfully, getting what I wanted instead of just settling, and purchasing from an independent business person.

Don't you just love happy endings?

We're having a sale at Dalkullan Jewelry!

2010-08-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

I've never had a sale at Dalkullan Jewelry before, and decided now is the time. Well, I've had sales, as in sold jewelry, of course, but I've never marked down my prices on certain items before. I'm taking Dalkullan Jewelry in a different direction than I was charting originally. I'm going to be focusing on fabricating jewelry from precious metals, and incorporating precious and semi-precious gems. I'm very excited in the new work I have in my shop, and in the lovely creations still on my jeweler's bench and my sketch book!

This new focus brings with it a great opportunity for you to own some gorgeous handcrafted jewelry at a very favorable price. I've marked down all the beautiful flameworked bead jewelry, 9 different colors and styles of earrings, all with sterling handmade earwires. The entire Lifesaver Line, shown in the picture above, is marked down from $25.00 to $20.00, and the shipping to U.S. and Canada is free. They'll arrive in a jewelry box, gift wrapped, and ready to give to that special someone, or for you to treasure.

This is a one of a kind earring, and it's on sale, too. I bought these lovely flame worked beads at the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee a couple years ago, and thought they'd make a gorgeous pair of earrings. Hope you agree!

Don't you just love that shade of green? So fresh and spring-like. And they ship free to the U.S. and Canada.

There are more earrings on sale, just drop by Dalkullan Jewelry to see them all.

Happy shopping! Wishing you joy today and always.

Back to School Doldrums

2010-08-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

Things have been a bit on the slow side at Dalkullan Jewelry. I noticed this last year, too. I call it the back to school doldrums, when internet traffic to my etsy shop slows down.

There aren't any major holidays that involve jewelry coming up soon. Mother's Day, June weddings, and Christmas are all a long ways away. I think a lot of people are focusing on school clothes for the kids and trying to get back into the regular routine again. That's my theory, anyway.

I'm working on some secret projects. Dalkullan is going to be offering more jewelry in 14K solid gold. I love working with gold, it's wonderfully malleable and the soft gleam of gold is like no other metal. The fact it doesn't tarnish is also a big plus.

I don't have any photos of my secret projects to share -- yet -- patience gentle reader, all will be reveal in time! But here's a lovely ring, with pink tourmaline I hope you'll enjoy:
I've been mulling over the idea of buying some ad space on a blog. If anyone has any experiences they'd like to share on this, please do! I'd love to hear from you!
Thanks for stopping by, you're always welcome. :)

Some advice on naming your Etsy shop

2010-06-28T05:13:00.000-07:00

If you've ever wondered why I named my Etsy shop Dalkullan Jewelry, here's the story (If you're wondering what that has to do with the title of this post, have patience, gentle reader, all will be revealed shortly):

Dalkullan means "a girl from Dalarne" which is a province in Sweden. My Aunt was born in Dalarne and moved to the United States, where she opened a Swedish import shop, which she named Dalkullan. To honor her memory, I chose Dalkullan for my shop name. The photo above shows two Dalkullans wearing the tradition clothing of the region.

As a marketing strategy, my Aunt had a great plan, since she was selling principally to other Swedish speakers in the Andersonville section of Chicago. As a marketing strategy for online retailing, I probably should have chosen another name for my shop. But hindsight is always twenty/twenty, as the old saying goes. If you're trying to pick a name for your new shop on Etsy, you'd be better off picking a shop name that is easy to remember, and says something about your product.

If I could re-name my shop, I'd pick "Heather Braun Studios" because I would like to build product recognition and brand my jewelry under my own name. I'd like to make it easier for my customers to find my shop, and with the thousands and thousands of jewelry shops on Etsy, picking an easy to remember name is important. Outside of Swedish speakers, I suspect "Dalkullan" isn't all that memorable.

Just something to consider, if you're thinking about opening an online shop on any venue, not just Etsy. And it's also a good idea to use the same name for all your online venues, such as Twitter, Facebook, etc., because that helps people to identify with your product and find your shop more easily.

Thanks for dropping by! :)

Bead & Button Show Class

2010-06-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I attended the annual Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee. Very exciting place to be, if you are at all interested in jewelry. I don't do much beading anymore, I've been making jewelry through fabrication techniques, but it's amazing to walk around the colossal show floor and see all the gorgeous things for sale.

What does fabrication mean, you might be asking. Fabricating jewelry involves the traditional jeweler's tools of saw, torch, files, etc., all the fun stuff that gets your hands dirty. Nothing like using a torch and heating metal and seeing that magic moment when the solder flows like a skinny silver thread.

Which brings me back to the B & B Show -- I took 2 classes there in goldsmithing. Not that we worked in gold, we used silver, but when you make an object that's smaller than the human fist it's called goldsmithing, and when it's larger it's silversmithing, regardless of what metal you're using.

The first class I took was taught by Leslie Frumin, and it covered making silver leaves. Here's a picture of the leaf I made:
It's made out of sterling. We started with a photo of a leaf, transfered the design onto metal, and began sawing away. After a whole lot of hammering, bending and soldering, voila! a lovely oak leaf emerged. A quick dunk in a patinating solution, and the amazing color you see above emerged. The addition of some fresh water pearls, and the project was completed. It was a fun class, Leslie is a sweet lady with a great sense of humor. And I walked away with a lovely new pendant. What's not to like? :)

Hope everything is going great for you, and thanks so much for stopping by!

Sapphire Trilogy Ring

2010-06-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a new ring design for the past few days. It's a sterling band, with three tube settings I crafted from sterling, and then set with 3 colored sapphires. The sapphires are all genuine, and so sparkly and pretty.

I've recently bought a new camera, the Nikon D3000, and it's a sweet piece of hardware. My photography looks so much better. It's a digital SLR, the first I've ever used, my old camera was a trusty point and shoot, which met a tragic end when it leapt to its death off the desk during a download.

The ring is a sleek, minimalist design, that showcases the dainty little sapphires. They're 2 mm in diameter, and as you can see, they're one each in pink, yellow, and white. I'm going to do some more work with sapphires -- they're a really hard and strong gem, which takes some of the pressure -- for me, not the stone, :) -- out of stone setting.

Hope you're having a great week, and thanks so much for dropping by.

A Gift For My Daughter

2010-06-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

My lovely daughter Angela graduated from the teaching program at San Diego State University last month, and received her teaching certificate in bi-lingual education. To commemorate this very happy occasion, I decided to make her a one of a kind ring.

It's the most elaborate ring I've made yet, and is completely hand fabricated. I started with some silver wire and tubing, and 3 royal amethyst stones, each 2mm in diameter.

It required many soldering operations, creating the dainty leaves, and melting silver to form the tiny spheres. After I'd put the ring together, there was the matter of cutting the dinky little seats in the tubing and setting the amethysts. Thank goodness for magnifying visors!

It's so gratifying to put a design on paper, and then to actualize it in metal and gems. I'm very thankful to have a skill that I can use to make a unique and lasting gift for my loved ones. A special ring for my beautiful and brainy daughter!

Ups and Downs

2010-05-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

Running an online shop can have its ups and downs. Getting on the Etsy Front Page for the second time and having 5 orders in quick succession (for me, I'm not a major force on Etsy, lol) was quite exhilarating. I was hoping that things were really starting to gel, and that getting a couple of orders a week would be the new norm.

Sad to say, that hasn't been the case. Since then, things have been exceedingly slooooowwww at Dalkullan Jewelry. It's times like these that try women's souls, or okay, maybe it's not that bad, but at least try one's patience. But when the going gets tough, the tough make lemonade, or something like that.

While maintaining the requisite stiff upper lip, I've been working on some new designs. I'm not ready to list them yet, but here's a sneak preview of a new earring design. It's got carnelians, lapis lazuli, and turquoise cabochons.

It's really hard to hold the earrings securely to set the stones, so I'm going to try sinking the backs of the earrings in thermoplastic mounted on wood in a vise. Then a setting punch and a chasing hammer to smooth the bezel cups around the stones. That should get the job done. Afterwards, I'll just pop the earrings out, and polish them up bright and shiny.

Thanks for dropping by!

Copper Flower Necklace & Earrings

2010-05-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

I just finished making a necklace in copper. Copper is a lovely metal, soft and easy to work with, and it has a pretty, warm color. The affordability factor is also hard to beat!

I call this set Copper Flower Necklace and Earrings, and it's completely handcrafted.

I made the clasp, chain and little copper balls using wire wrapping techniques. The central motif of the copper flower I sawed from copper sheet metal.

After filing, sanding polishing and drilling, I added the flamework cobalt blue bead with a copper wire wrapped tendril. Don't you just love the mix of cobalt blue and copper?

The little horse in the picture is from Sweden. I inherited it from my Aunt, the lady who ran the original Dalkullan, which was an import store. I named my Etsy shop after her store.

Thanks for dropping by, and hope you have a great day! If you'd have any comments, I'd love to hear from you! :)

Second time on the Etsy front page

2010-04-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

Dalkullan Jewelry had the wonderful experience of being on the Etsy front page for a second time! My lovely Hammered 14k Gold Earrings were in a Treasury that was featured.

Christine of dollcloset was the curator of the Treasury. Christine makes beautiful things for American Girls size dolls, drop by dollcloset for a fun shopping experience!

I didn't make a sale of the earrings, but did get 3 sales of other items, and the gold earrings garnered a lot of clicks and hearts.

As luck would have it, I was without computer access at the time, and missed all the excitement. It was quite a wonderful surprise when I could finally log in, though!

Thanks for dropping by!
Heather

Hidow Fiber Farm

2010-03-09T08:48:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon a truly amazing shop while on the Etsy Forums. Veronica Dowling is the owner of Hidow Fiber Farm, a gorgeous shop that truly exemplifies the finest in handcrafted excellence. The following is excerpted from the shop profile for Hidow Fiber Farm:

"Hidow Fiber Farm is located on over 100 acres in the Thumb area of Michigan. Our farm has been in the Hirons family for over 125 years. Grandma and Grandpa Hirons only had girls, so when we bought the farm the name changed to Dowling. The name of Hidow was thought up by Grandma, it was her way of combining the family names to represent the farm, we have kept it in her honor.

"Currently on the farm we have Huacaya and Suri Alpacas and a flock of Shetland sheep. Our animals are organically raised with love and care.

"I am currently trying to clear out the fiber stash in my closets, fiber is an addiction! you can NEVER have enough. But shearing season is coming soon and I need to make room. Not only do I have fibers from my own animals, but over the past year I have also picked up some interesting fleeces from other places. If you are looking for something in particular, let me know, I may have it in the closet.

"Each step in the process adds to the value of the fibers so I price accordingly. If you are on a budget, try buying unwashed raw fleece, I will be happy to tell you how to wash it. If you don't want to bother washing it yourself, then look to my washed fleeces and if you don't want to card, let me know and I will be happy to hand card a few ounces for a special order."
This amazing needle felted Sheltie figure is a one of a kind work of art, which Veronica created using alpaca from her own animals with a bit of Icelandic Sheep fiber for accents. Since Veronica also breeds and shows Shelties, you can be sure it's an accurate depiction of this most adorable breed of dog. Veronica has a lovely selection of needle felted animals, including a cuddly bunny, just perfect for Easter! She is also a talented photographer, and has some gorgeous fine art photo prints in her shop. The Burgundy Lily at the start of this post is just one of Veronica's prints. Be sure to click on the link and read the beautiful story behind this stunning photograph.

Hidow Fiber Farm is a wonderful source for wool -- all you knitters and crocheters be sure to enjoy the woolen eye candy at Veronica's store. Just imagine the lovely things you could make from this marvelous wool.
For those of us who are looking for goods all ready to wear, Veronica has a cute hat, felted from fiber from one of her own alpaca, Sid. Here's the beautiful Needle Felt Woman's Hat, and also a picture of Sid. How cool is that?

For the ultimate in handcrafted goods, just stop by Hidow Fiber Farm!

Promoting Your Shop Via Facebook

2010-03-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

Facebook is a useful social networking site for promoting your online shop. I've had a Facebook business page for about 7 months, and found it to be an effective and cost effective (free!) way to get the word out about Dalkullan Jewelry.

After I set up my FB business page (it's also called a fan page, it's the same thing) I fanned myself. Yes, I know, a bit pathetic, but then I can see everything that the future fans are receiving, which I find helpful. I like to know what my fans are getting on their personal page about my shop. And at least I had one fan, lol.

The next step was letting all my Facebook friends know about my business page, so they could fan me if they liked. I actually set up a new personal page to use to create my business page from, instead of using my Facebook page I'd set up a couple years earlier to keep in touch with family and friends. I want to keep my personal and business doings separate, but that's just me. And I like to use a picture of my jewelry for my profile picture on my business page.

I started putting up a link to my FB fan page on the promo section in the Etsy Forum, and got some fans that way. I also have a link in my profile at my Etsy shop. Having a contest, in which each fan who got a friend to become a fan could each win a pair of earrings, was a successful way to add fans.

Gradually people will start fanning because they see your work on a friend's page, and it appeals to them. Also mentioning the fan page on your blog and using twitter to promote it are good ways to garner new fans.

So, now you have some fans, what's next? Here's my list of FB does and don'ts. This is just my opinion, please comment and add your own!

1.) Try to post only once or twice a day. People are following other businesses, and their friends and family, and don't want you to monopolize their news feed.

2.) Try to read and comment a few times a week on the businesses you are following. Nobody likes to feel ignored. :) It's fun to see what others are doing, and being an encourager is always a happy thing!

3.) Remember, it's very easy to block someone, so it looks like you're following them, but you actually don't receive any updates from their page. The more spammy stuff you post, the more likely this unhappy event will occur.

4.) Your page is promoting your business, keep it professional. There are those who are offended by swearing, off-color comments, etc.

How effective is FB on getting sales? I don't have a lot of sales, so I've got a pretty small data pool to extrapolate from. But I have made sales to my Facebook Fans, and I've made purchases from businesses I'm a fan of. Businesses I heard of only because they had fanned me, and I fanned them back.

Facebook is free, it doesn't take a lot of time, and it is a useful marketing tool. I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking to increase their online sales.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Wishing you happy crafting!
Heather

More Info on Treasuries

2010-02-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

Here's some useful info from MaryMary, an Etsy staffer, about how to get your Treasury on the Etsy front page. I cut and pasted it from a thread on the Etsy Forums, "When Do Treasuries Show Up On The Etsy Front Page"

"Not all Treasuries are featured on the homepage, but we do try to mix things up. Some tips to keep in mind if you are making a Treasury with the goal in mind of it being featured on the homepage are:

* Use all 16 item slots, including all 4 alternates spaces.
* Make sure all 16 slots are from different sellers.
* Try not to use an item from one of your own shop/s.
* Include a variety of represented categories throughout your collection.
* Include a variety of price points throughout your collection.
* Use items with clear, crisp, and most importantly, inspiring photos.
* Try not to use the same sellers or friends frequently when you make new collections. We are trying to use more community made Treasury lists moving forward and will be looking for lists with broader variety. For example, using items or sellers that have been featured on the homepage recently isn't a best practice for having your list featured on the homepage. "

Very interesting info, because getting on the Front Page can be a major boost to your shop. Having other people put your items in their Treasuries is a great promo for you, it's free, people will see your item who wouldn't ordinarily view it, and maybe they'll visit your shop, too.

The best way to get in Treasuries is to have great photos. I've found making a light box and getting a couple of full spectrum light bulbs to illuminate it to be a big help; then I'm not dependent on the weather for when I can take photos. There are a lot of great tutorials online about taking good photos.

Wishing you every success with your online marketing, and happy crafting!

Heather

My Promotional Efforts -- Part Two

2010-02-11T07:32:00.000-08:00

I have an earlier blog posting about how to make an Etsy Treasury, take a look at it if you'd like to find out how to make one. It's on Monday, Nov. 9th in this blog.

How do they work as a promotional tool? That is difficult to fully answer, because a lot of promotional efforts are impossible to really define as far as how much traffic they bring to your shop, and how many sales result from that traffic. I operate under the assumption that getting your shop better known is always a plus. Treasuries are free, you can list one of your own items in them, and sometimes they're picked for the Etsy Front Page.

I wouldn't spend too much time on Treasuries, because there are better ways to promote your shop. But they're fun, you might get on the Front Page, and sometimes a person you put in your Treasury will reciprocate and put you in one of theirs. Taking really good pictures, using a tag to state the color of your item, and relisting often will get you in Treasuries. Of course, outside of making lovely things that people want, taking gorgeous pictures is the biggest thing in online promotions. The most beautiful bag or ring won't sell if you only have one blurry, badly lit photo of it at your shop.

I've only had one sale of an item while it was in a Treasury, and that Treasury was moved to the Front Page. But I've seen a slight increase in traffic, and gotten some hearts for an item while it was in a Treasury. In my opinion, Treasuries have value as a promotional tool, worthy of some time, but not a major source of traffic or sales. Treasuries are free, and you get the happiness of helping fellow Etsians by promoting their shops in your Treasury. And while putting one together, you'll have the happy experience of seeing a bit more of the beautiful handcrafted and vintage items on Etsy.

Thank you so much for stopping by, wishing you many sales, and happy times with your craft!

My Promotional Efforts

2010-01-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

I've been selling on Etsy since April 2009, and I've tried several different promotional methods. Here they are, in no particular order:

Etsy Showcase
Ad on Craftopolis
Twitter
Facebook
Renewing listings on Etsy
Etsy Forums
Etsy Storque
Etsy Treasury
I've also been chosen for the Etsy Front Page and a Gift Guide.

Some are/were very effective, others not so much. Let's start with the one I'm not going to use anymore.

For me, the Etsy Showcase was not worth the money. I didn't get any sales; I did get a slight increase in site traffic, but not enough to justify the 15 dollars spent. One thing in its' favor, it did bring some new people to my shop, but again, only about 10 or so, nothing dramatic. This is the only promotional method I'm not going to try again.

The ad on Craftopolis ran from the weekend after Thanksgiving for 2 weeks. There was an increase in traffic to my shop, and some were new views, from the ad. It was $28 dollars for the two weeks. I don't know if any sales resulted from the ad. I had 1 sale during the time the ad ran, but I don't ask my customer's about where they heard of Dalkullan. Those two weeks definitely saw an increase in site traffic, and hearts. I'd like to run an ad on Craftcult and compare the results. If you have any experience on advertising on either site, or other promotional methods, I'd love to hear from you!

Renewing listings is something I do when I haven't listed anything new in the last couple of days. It puts your item temporarily at the top of searches, but that certainly doesn't last long in jewelry-world. The 20 cents doesn't sound like much, but they can certainly add up. I look at it as part of my advertising budget, and try not to do it too often.

Etsy Forums are a good way to meet people on Etsy. I've found a lot of gorgeous shops that way, and also learned a lot. You can start a thread, or just post to one. It gets your shop some recognition factor. It's a good place to start a thread in the Promotions section asking for twitter followers and also blog followers or Facebook Fans. Always try to be polite and upbeat on the Forums. There are some real sour lemons there, and some bullies, I can't imagine they're doing their business any good with that kind of attitude. But to each his own.

The Etsy Storque has some very informative articles, some lovely finds from various shops, and you can leave a pleasant comment and also hopefully garner a little buzz for your shop. If you're fortunate enough to get an item picked to be in the Storque, you're one lucky person! I'm still hoping to attain that happiness. Someday! :)

And the Forums and the Storque are free, which is a big plus. I'm going to leave the other methods for my next blog post. Thanks so much for visiting, and wishing you all the best!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

Wishing you a very Happy New Year!

Changes are occuring at Dalkullan Jewelry, I've opened a shop at 1000Markets! If you don't like the hassle of having to join Etsy, you'll love 1000Markets. There's nothing to join, no PayPal transaction -- unless you prefer to use PayPal! All major credit cards are accepted, and it's backed by the guarantee of Amazon.com Hope you'll come and visit, I've only got 8 items listed, but more are on the way.

Santa was very good to me this year. A new jeweler's bench, lovely new Flex Shaft, and a propane/oxygen torch system. I'll be posting about my new workshop setup in the coming weeks, with some pictures.

Thanks so much for reading my blog, I really am humbled and so thankful for your interest.

All the best,
Heather

Sterling Celtic Earrings

2009-12-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

My latest design at Dalkullan Jewelry is inspired by Celtic symbols. I'm part Irish, and would love to visit the ancestral homeland someday -- some of my ancestors are from County Cork. But in the meantime, I have a lovely new pair of earrings to remind me of my heritage.

I made numerous drawings of the design before I settled on the one I finally crafted in sterling. I'd originally thought to put a cabochon in the center of each of the 3 silver swirls per earring, but that would have been too heavy. I toyed with the idea of using nephrite jade for the cabochons, but genuine jade is a darker green than I wanted for my design.

Aventurine is a lovely, spring green, with some darker inclusions. It reminds me of green connemara marble. It has such a wonderful contrast with the brightness of the sterling, I think they go very well together.

This is the first design I've crafted where the earwire is soldered to the earring -- it just flows from the main part of the earring. It's a graceful look; I like all the swirls and curves to the design.

If you would like to add Sterling Celtic Earrings to your jewelry wardrobe, I'd be happy to craft a pair just for you!

Universal Wish List

2009-11-30T16:28:00.001-08:00

That sounds like wishing for the universe, but that's not what I'm getting at. It's a wish list you can use to gather together your coveted items from all over cyberland. At Amazon.com they've come up with a way.

Just go to Universal Wishlist and after a quick click and drag, you're gold! You just add their little icon to the menu bar of your web browser, and when you're on a page with something you're hoping Santa might put under your Christmas tree this year, just click on the icon. Voila! It's entered into your Amazon wishlist.

So you can just go to, say, hmm, let's see, oh yes! Dalkullan Jewelry , and when you've found that must have piece of jewelry, just click on your new icon, and it's in your Amazon wishlist. What could be more simple and more fun. :-)

Of course, getting friends and family to visit your wishlist and actualize your wishes is another matter....... Sorry, I don't know what to do about that one! But you have all your future purchases together at one handy location, isn't that neat?

Wishing you happy shopping!

Iolite Flower Ring

2009-11-25T05:56:00.000-08:00

Iolite is a beautiful gemstone. It's also known as dichroite, because of it's dichroic properties. Its color changes subtly depending on the direction that light shines through the stone.

Iolite isn't usually mined, but is found in gravel beds as a pebble worn smooth by water. On the Mohs hardness scale it's a 7 to 7.5, which makes it suitable for rings. Softer gemstones such as malachite aren't strong enough for the wear and tear of being worn in a ring, but as better used in earrings or necklaces.

I set the iolite cabochon in a bezel setting, which is nestled in a circle of sterling that I hand formed into a shape suggesting a flower. This is a beautiful ring, the violet blue of the iolite is prettily showcased by the gleaming sterling.

As with all my rings, I have completely hand fabricated the Iolite Flower Ring, and can make one for you in any size from 4 to 10, including half and quarter sizes. If you require a size outside this range, just convo me at Dalkullan Jewelry, and I'd be happy to discuss the matter with you!

My Star Trek Treasury

2009-11-16T15:51:00.000-08:00

Guess I'm a bit of a geek. Star Trek has been one of my favorite shows, alright, it is my favorite tv show. The original series, with James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock, Bones, and the rest. Oh wait, "and the rest" is Gilligan's Island.

The Treasury is called "To Boldly Go". If you like Star Trek, go take a look. There's some really creative and fun things there!

How to Make an Etsy Treasury

2009-11-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

Once the Treasury opens up, you need to be fast. I'd recommend you already have a title for your Treasury. A field will open up towards the bottom of the window, asking for the title of your Treasury. You have a limited window of opportunity to act -- he who hesitates is lost --- well, at least your chance of getting in this particular Treasury will be lost. If you suddenly find yourself in the uncomfortable position of forgetting the title you had in mind, just type in something generic like 'pretty stuff' or 'great finds' and then click on the "create" button.

You'll be stuck with the title you've entered, you can't edit it later on, which is definitely a drawback. If you have a tendency to clutch under pressure, you might want to write down your title.

If you're successful in entering your title, you should be automatically taken to the window to enter in the id numbers for your Treasury. Here's what you'll see:

The "listing id" is a number that every listing is assigned by Etsy, and it's unique to that item. You'll need 12 items, and if you choose to do so, 4 alternates. The alternates are the items in the far right vertical column, other people won't be able to see those items.

The "listing id" is found in the url for an item. For an example, let's find the listing id for my stacking ring set, "Pharoah's Favorites" . It has the following url:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33474546

The numbers after "listing_id=" are 33474546, and that is, not too surprisingly, the listing id number. You'll need to find them for each item you want for your Treasury, and then cut and paste them into the field for the listing id, and click on "ok". If all goes well, you'll see a thumbnail of the item appear in that section of the Treasury.

I like to think of a theme for my Treasuries, such as the shops of my Facebook Fans, hot color schemes, blue color schemes, etc. I'm sure you can come up with some wonderful Treasury ideas!

Just keep adding more items until you fill up your Treasury, and edit the two fields at the top with a little "edit" button next to them, if you feel so inclined. You can just leave them 'as is' is you wish, many people do. It's your Treasury, you're the boss, so have fun.

After you have all the items in your Treasury, you can move them around by just clicking and dragging. You can put things in the alternate row and move them out of it, too. It's fun to get things looking just right. Kind of like rearranging your furniture, without all the heavy lifting.

You can also get all ready to go before you get your Treasury, by saving the listing id numbers and Treasury title in a file, or email them to yourself, and then all you'll have to do is cut and paste them in when the happy moment arrives and you have your first Treasury!

It's a nice courtesy to send people a quick convo telling them you've put them in a Treasury, but not a requirement. It's also nice to send people who put you in a Treasury a little thank you convo, but again, that's strictly your decision. You might want to do a little P.R. for your beautiful new Treasury -- put the url up on your Facebook page, tweet about it, write it up in your blog, or utilize the "Promotions" section in the Forums.

I got the two pictures I used above from a very helpful guide on the Etsy Forums -- How to Make a Treasury (isn't that a great title, :-) which has a lot of excellent advice.

Hope you'll find this little guide of some help, and please feel free to add your own advice or ask any questions. I'd love to hear from you!

How to Find Out When Etsy Treasuries Open

2009-10-23T06:42:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of great features on Etsy. One of which is the Treasury, which is a collection of 12 items that anyone with an Etsy account can pick, and if you're lucky enough to time it when the Treasury opens to new items, you can have posted.

Trying to time it correctly is problematic. Just lurking on the Treasuries, waiting for the number of current Treasuries to drop below the magic number of 222 for the Treasury West, and 333 for the main Treasury, at which they open, is time consuming and nerve wracking. There's a better way, which I'll now divulge. (-:

Just go to http://www.craftopolis.com and click on "Treasury Clock". It will tell you how long before the Treasuries open. One work of warning. I spent a pretty boring and annoying time when the Treasury West was supposed to be opening any minute, because it was at 222 Treasuries. But since the next Treasury to expire wasn't going to do so for 4 more hours, I had a long wait. So open 2 pages on the Treasuries, and use one to click on the link "expiration" on the upper right of the Treasury page. Then click on the last page to find out when the next Treasury will expire. It could be hours away.

Once you've determined a Treasury will soon be opening, leave the page up on the Treasury you're waiting for, and don't refresh the page. Things will happen very quickly once the Treasuries do open. The page will update itself, so just sit tight. Of course, sometimes things don't work out, and for some unexplained reason even though you're diligently watching, the Treasury opens and closes and you don't get a chance to act. That's part of the game, and one must soldier on!

Why the interest in Treasuries? They're fun to make, you get a chance to help promote other Etsians, find out about some of the lovely things for sale on Etsy, and hopefully generate a little buzz about your own shop, too. And a major plus is that if you're very lucky, your Treasury could make it to the Etsy Front Page.

It's a nice courtesy to send a convo to the people you put in your Treasury. You can list one of your own items, and 11 other shops items, plus 4 alternates, which won't appear on the Treasury, unless something sells, then one by one they'll move over to fill in the blanks. Not everyone does send a convo, though, so there is another way to find out if you're in a Treasury.

Go to http://www.craftopolis.com and click on "Treasury Hunt". Then enter your shop name in the field provided, and you'll find out if you're currently in a Treasury.

If you haven't made a Treasury yet, I hope you'll give it a try! I'll be posting next about how to make a Treasury. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Art and Gift Show

2009-10-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

I've just been accepted for my first Show, and I'm really excited about it. My parish is having an Art and Gift Show for Christmas shopping. We're a pretty big parish, around 4,000 families, so there should be a lot of people there.

It will be at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Batavia, Illinois. If you live in the area and are interested in selling there, you should contact the parish office, just google to find out the phone number, or send me a message. It's very reasonable to sell, they provide you with an 8 foot table, or two tables if you need them, it's indoors, in the Church hall, and only 25$ for the table, plus 20% of your profits after you subtract your overhead. It's going to be the weekend of Nov. 13 and 14.

If you'll be in the area, please stop by and say hello, I'd love to meet you! I will only be there on Sunday, between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

I'll have all my jewelry from Dalkullan Jewelry, plus I'm crafting a lot of new earrings just for the Show. I've never had to set up a display before, and would appreciate any ideas from you about cheap yet beautiful displays.

Thanks so much!

Lord Of The Rings

2009-10-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

Dalkullan Jewelry has expanded it's jewelry line, with lovely new rings, so perfect for stacking! With genuine gemstones, hand faceted (not by me), aren't they sweet?

Of course, the rings are completely hand fabricated by me. I started with sterling silver stock, and lovingly crafted each ring. I'll make yours for you, to whatever size you desire, and in your choice of the following gemstones: White Topaz, Sky Blue Topaz, Peridot, or Almandine Garnet, which is pictured above. Just specify which gemstone and which size ring you prefer in the customer comments section when ordering.

I hand set the gemstones in a sterling tube setting, and the bands are hammer textured. The two rings pictured are in size 7, and I made them for myself. The ring in front is the White Topaz, and in back is another view of the Almandine Garnet ring.

As always, each ring comes gift boxed and wrapped in lovely Swedish paper, making it perfect for gift giving. With Christmas coming soon, why not order your rings today?

Celtic Earrings -- Mixed Metal

2009-10-09T10:13:00.001-07:00

The new creation on the Dalkullan block, Celtic Earrings, are completely hand fabricated. I used my trusty shears to rough out the brass triangle shapes, and then trued up the edges starting with a coarse file, then finer files, and finally with sand paper.

The next step was doming the metal with a wooden punch and dap set. I didn't want to use my metal daps, because I only wanted a slight doming. My wooden dap set is made for watchmakers to smooth out the dents in watch backs, and has a gentle curve, Having a bit of a curve in the metal gives the earrings a
pretty look, don't you think?

Next I moved on to making the center motif, which I constructed from 20 gauge sterling wire, carefully coiling up 3 swirls for each earring. I soldered them together to form the motif, then hammered them on my bench block, and finally dapped them in the same dap I used on the brass triangles, so that the two curves would match exactly.

A final soldering mated the sterling motif to the brass triangles. I used a hand drill to pierce the holes for the earwires, which I'd made earlier, and then popped the earrings into my well loved tumbler for a few hours of polishing.

I'm planning on doing more Celtic designs, they're certainly classic, and I like the flowing lines and beauty of them. Hope you do to!

Sterling Buds -- Earrings

2009-10-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

The newest creation, Sterling Buds, is up at my Etsy shop. I took the photos of them using my new lightbox, which I made myself from directions I found online. It's turning out to be very useful, because today is cloudy and rainy, without the lightbox I'd have been stuck as far as photography goes.

I've been learning how to set stones, so far I've done bezel setting, which involved carefully pushing around the rim of the metal cup the cabochon is nestled in, to rub over the metal and hold the stone in. It's definitely harder than it looks to do, and takes a surprising amount of force. That's how the lapis cabochons in Sterling Buds were set.

Yesterday a box of supplies from Rio Grande, a wonderful source of jewelry making things, arrived. I'm excited about it, but also have a certain amount of trepidation, because I'm going to branch out into a new method of stone setting, tube setting. It involved drilling out the end of a tiny piece of sterling tubing, just the right size for the gemstone to sit down into the hole, and then rubbing the rim down over the edge of the stone. I'm going to be working with 3mm faceted gemstones, which are pretty tiny, so please wish me luck, and steady hands! I'll keep you posted how things are going.

Twitter Buttons and A Tale of Two Treasuries

2009-09-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

My jewelry has been selected for 2 lovely Treasuries on Etsy!

In The Forest

Dare To Dream

They're both gorgeous Treasuries, with beautiful finds. Drop by and take a look, and don't forget to comment and give them 12 clicks please. (-:

You might be in a Treasury right now, and not know it! To find out, go to Craftopolis and click on the link "Treasury Hunt". To find out when the next Treasury will open up, click on the link "Treasury Clock". "Gift Guide Search" will tell you if you're currently listed in any of the gift guides. Hope you'll find out some unexpected good news!

If you'd like to setup a link on your blog to get new Twitter followers, here's a great place to get free Twitter buttons. It's where I got the Twitter button on the right hand margin of my blog, and they've got tons more styles of cute little birdies.

Etsy Treasury!

2009-09-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

I am the curator of a Treasury at Etsy, entitled "Shadow and Light" that will available for the next 2 days. There's a lot of interesting and beautiful items in the Treasury, lovely embroidery, wonderful photography, and darling acorns crafted from felt. So many gorgeous picks, give yourself a treat and stop in and enjoy some delicious eye candy!

The color scheme is shades of grey, very atmospheric and mysterious. Hope you'll drop by, and please leave a comment if you like what you see.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=84252

Thank you!

Wrapped Sterling Earrings

2009-09-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Before I learned how to solder, I thought up a way to make post earrings using wire wrapping. I took a length of square sterling wire, and carefully bent it in half, so that the wire didn't have any twists in it, but lay nice and flat. It surprising how easy it is to introduce an accidental twist in square wire, it's definitely got a mind of its own.

I laid a length of round sterling wire in the center, between the two lengths of square wire, and left an inch or so of the round wire sticking out of the end -- this will form the post. The first pair of earrings I made I didn't leave enough wire sticking out, so that's something you need to be aware of. You can always cut off the excess, adding on is another matter.

To make things easier to handle, I first added some wraps using copper wire, adjusting the sterling wires and lining up everything carefully. These earrings are dainty little things, so this part takes a lot of manual dexterity, and keen close vision. I use a jeweler's magnifier, it's sort of a combo between clunky glasses with changeable lenses and a visor, and I can adjust the magnification up to 10 power.

Once I get everything arranged to my satisfaction, I start replacing the temporary copper wraps with half-round sterling wire wraps. Then comes my favorite part, forming the wire wrapped bundle into a hoop. I do this by bending it around a piece of dowel. Some filing, sanding, a final polish in a tumbler, the addition of sterling earnuts, and they're done.

If you'd like to own your own pair of Wrapped Sterling Earrings just drop by my Etsy shop, Dalkullan Jewelry.

Moon and Stars -- Sterling and Pearls

2009-09-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

Moon & Stars, in sterling with pearl dangles, is a completely hand fabricated design. I begin with a sheet of sterling, and punch out two disks. The next step is trickier, taking out the central disk, to leave the hole in the first disk.

I have a heavy sheet of plastic, with holes of various diameters cut out in it, and line up the correct size hole over a sterling disk, until I have it just right, then mark the location with a Sharpie. I use that mark to line up the disk in the cutter, then punch out the hole. I could also use a jeweler's saw to make the disks, but I prefer to use a disk cutter -- it makes perfectly round disks every time.

The next step is to metal pieces of sterling scrap for the round sterling balls. I put the scrap on a charcoal block, and melt the silver with a torch. It's a lot of fun, the metal gets shiny, and then begins to curl up on itself, until it forms a nice round ball with a flat bottom. If I want to make a completely round sphere of sterling, I'd just scoop out a little hemisphere in the charcoal block to place the scrap sterling in before melting.

I do the finishing of the disk before I solder the sterling balls on. It's much easier to file, sand, and texture the disks beforehand, which is something I've learned from experience. I used a coarse file to create the texture on the disks, suggesting the surface of a moon after oblique meteor impact.

After sweat soldering on the sterling balls with medium solder, I attach the two jump rings using easy solder. Since the medium solder needs a higher temperature to melt than easy solder, the sterling balls stay securely soldered.

The final steps are attaching the freshwater pearl dangles using wire wrapping -- pearls are too delicate to take the heat of soldering, and adding handcrafted sterling earwires. And voila! A new earring design is complete, ready to be photographed and listed at Dalkullan Jewelry.

I Made The Etsy Front Page!!!!

2009-09-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

I've been on Etsy since April 6, 2009, and in that time I've admired the lovely items on the most highly coveted piece of real estate on Etsy -- the Front Page.
I'd hoped to get there someday, but had my doubts, there's just so many very talented crafters on Etsy, and such lovely items.

Imagine my surprise and joy when I checked my Google Analytics numbers and saw that traffic to my shop had gone through the roof. With shaking hands and a pounding heart I clicked on the link to craftcult.com, which is a great site, and let's you know if you've been on the Front Page, Storque, or any of the gift guides. And wow! I had made the Front Page!!!!!!!!

This came at just the right time, because I'd been feeling at a low ebb, no sales this month and my last few photo shoots hadn't yielded any good pics. What a truly wonderful affirmation from the good people at Etsy. Thank you so much!

The earrings sold, and then they dropped off the Front Page, so I didn't get to actually see them there, that would have been very exciting. I wish that when an item sold they didn't lose all their hearts, because then all the people that were thinking about buying them might not be able to find the earrings again.

I photographed the Hammered Brass Earrings dangling from an amazing pottery piece that belonged to my dear Aunt, the lady that ran the original Dalkullan store that my shop is named in honor of. She kept that pottery piece on her desk always, and now it's been on the Front Page of Etsy!

I'm such a big silly, I didn't realise that my earrings were picked for the Front Page because they were part of an amazing Treasury curated by Octavia of DreambyDay, an wonderful shop at Etsy!

This sculpture, House Where Nobody Lives
is an original work created by Octavia. Please stop by her Etsy shop filled with lovely things, and take a look, then stay to buy! This is from the DreambyDay
shop announcement:

"A boutique full of wonderfully nostalgic pictures, original art, ephemera, and sundries that celebrate the art of daydreams and yesterdays."

Come and visit, it's a treat!

You can also find DreambyDay on Facebook
and read her great blog too!

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to read this.

Aspen -- Mixed Metal Earrings

2009-09-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

The idea for the Aspen earrings came to me when I was waiting out in the car for my husband to finish his appointment at the dentist. I had brought a sketch pad, and was doing some drawings, when I noticed a tree that had interesting leaves. A couple sketches latter and I had my new earring design. I must say, that was the nicest dental appointment I was ever involved in.

To make the earrings, I cut out the rectangular shapes from a sheet of copper. I made two drawings of the design on paper, cut them out, and using rubber cement affixed them to the copper. For each leaf and the twig, I took a center punch to make a little divot in the metal, then drilled a tiny hole with my trusty Dremel.

The next step is to take one end of the blade off the jeweler's saw, thread it through one of the little holes, re-attach it to the saw, and carefully saw out the shape, following the lines on the drawing. The blade has to be removed from one end of the saw, taken out of the hole, and then threaded through the next one, and so on, for each one of the holes.

The next step is smoothing with needle files, to make each leaf as pretty as possible, and all-over sanding to take any burrs off the edges and remove all scratches off the front and back. Then the earrings had a few hours of mixing it up with steel shot in a tumbler. And out they came, all shiny and pretty!

I made some sterling earwires, balling up one end of a wire with my torch first, then cleaned up the wires, shaped them, and put them through the tumbler too, until they were polished and work-hardened. You don't want your earwires to be easily bent, but to stay nicely in shape.

Here's a photo of the Aspen earrings posing on the rim of a glass. I think they turned out really cute, hope you do too!

If you'd like to see more pictures of them, or of my other creations, please stop by my online shop, Dalkullan Jewelry.

craftyGAgal

2009-08-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

Meredith Crosby -- craftyGAgal is a wonderful, kind, friendly, and amazingly talented person. Here's a little more about Meredith, from her etsy profile:

I am a Mom to twins boys who amaze me more each day (and at 7 yrs old that is a lot of amazing days), wife to my best friend, etsy lover, a yarn junkie, a beadaholic, a coffee addict, and ALL Round Good Southern Gal who happens to have a bad case of Crafter's ADD! I suffer from chronic pain due to a failed spinal fusion and hurt every minute from the second I open my eyes BUT everything happens for a reason......and now I am here! I craft to keep busy am hoping that it will turn out to at least fund my crafting habit. Wanna know anything, and I mean anything, else- just ask. I am "convo" friendly and love to chat chat chat.

The following are questions that Meredith asks people she profiles on her blog, and she was gracious enough to let me use them, and to answer them for me.

1. What kind of handmade items do you sell in your etsy shop?

Handmade Stained Glass Jewelry, beaded and gemstone jewelry, and coming soon- crocheted items. I also have another etsy shop with a partner http://dylanblue.etsy.com

2. Explain your craft/art for people who may not be familiar with it?

Stained Glass Jewelry is a multi-step process. I do the complete stained glass process myself. I cut, grind, wrap in copper foil, apply flux, solder, clean and finally polish EACH hand chosen pieces of glass. I use the copper foil method and always use LEAD FREE Solder.

Beaded and Gemstone jewelry is a little more simple..I try to let the beads/gems speak to me, and I try to listen.

3. What is your favorite part of the creative process?

My favorite part is when I am all finished and I can see the effort of my hard work. I also like Shopping for supplies & stash.

4. If you have to pick one item in your shop as your Favorite which one would it be?

My favorite, like everyone else,if I HAD TO PICK, would be http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27357768

WINDOW TO THE SOUL Amethyst Gemstone Necklace with Handmade Stained Glass Purple Pendant because it is the first time I've mixed mediums, both stained glass and gemstones.

5. Where do you hope to see your etsy shop in 1 yr?

I would love to be making money.... to make a living doing what I love. Simple!

6. Is etsy the only place people can find you online?

For right now etsy is the only place that I have stuff for sale (besides my other etsy shop I mentioned above). I also love blogging- http://southernhandmadegifts.com , love being a social media butterfly- love Facebook, Twitter, and about 50 more I am members of.

So please visit Meredith's etsy shop, follow her on twitter, become her Facebook fan, and visit her blog. She's a great person to know, a truly caring and kind person, with a wonderful talent.

Etsy Gift Guide

2009-08-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

A pair of my wire wrapped sterling earrings were picked for an August Etsy Gift Guide -- Shades of Peridot. Peridot is the birthstone for August, and my Silver Cherry Tree leaves come already wrapped in beautiful Swedish paper. If you know any ladies with an August birthday, they'd make the perfect gift!

I crafted the Silver Cherry Tree Leaves earrings from sterling silver, and embellished them with genuine semi-precious Peridot and the soft gleam of freshwater pearls.

Please drop by my Etsy shop, Dalkullan Jewelry, to see more pictures of these gorgeous earrings, and also my complete line of handcrafted, original designs.

Moon and Stars -- Mixed Metal Earrings

2009-07-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Just listed these at Dalkullan Jewelry.
The lovely color variations on the brass disk are the result of heating the brass.
I made the shiny balls by melting sterling with my trusty torch, and then soldered them onto the disks.
I've been thinking about this design for months, but needed to get the right tools, and hone my torch skills, so that I could make them. Thanks for dropping in and taking a look!

Runway Crochet

2009-07-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

I'd like to introduce you to a wonderful person, who also is a talented crochet artist, Runway Crochet. You can visit her at Twitter , become her Fan at Facebook,
or follow her blog.

Runway Crochet's fine merchandise is available for purchase at her shop at Etsy.

She makes the most amazing crochet clothing, jewelry, and accessories, and also has a lovely stock of vintage, including dolls in native costumes.

I recently had the good fortune to win Runway Crochet's contest she was running on her blog, and was awarded 10 pairs of the cutest baby shoes imaginable. Actually, they're cuter than my imagination could conjure up!

Aren't they adorable? All the different styles, so beautifully made, and they arrived so carefully packaged.

These little baby sandals are so sweet, with their little ribbon ankle straps!

I'm sending them to my son and daughter-in-law for their new baby, who is do to make his (or her) appearance in the world at the end of August. He certainly won't lack for beautiful little shoes!

I bet you're dying to see some of Runway Crochet's awesome creations for adults, so here's a little sample of her artistry.
Isn't it gorgeous? It's Runway's Circle Shrug, and think of all the lovely combo's you could create with it. Perfect with your little black dress, also to keep you cozy over a summer dress in those air conditioned restaurants, and obviously it looks stunning with just jeans and a t shirt.

Here's a little about Runway herself, from her Etsy profile:

"
What kid didn't toy with the idea of fashion design using paper dolls by tracing them and creating fashions out of different papers, crayons, markers, pencils and a pair of scissors? I sure did but, when it came to going off to college, fashion was not one of the subjects I studied. As the matter of fact, my high school sweetheart accused me of not being "in style" at the time. I guess some men do pay attention to those sort of things more than you'd think.

It wasn't until a few years after I graduated that I actually started to teach myself how to crochet along with learning a few other crafts and needle arts. A gift from my father, Reader's Digest Guide to Needlework was the book that started it all! Besides that, there are so many wonderful books from published crochet designers out there with so many gorgeous things to drool over – I can't imagine not wanting to crochet some of them, and create a few original designs of my own. Otherwise, I'd be bored stupid!"

Hope you'll visit Runway Crochet and check out her wonderful shop!

Sterling Disk Earrings

2009-07-28T13:23:00.000-07:00

These earrings were fun to make, with the added plus that I learned a lot. They're the first pair of post earrings I've made, and soldering on the wire took a bit of doing.

But, first things first. I started by using my trusty disk cutter to punch out .5 inch circles from sterling stock, and then textured the disks with the sharper end of a riveting hammer. My sweet hubby was kind enough to file and smooth the rivet hammer so it makes a nice impression on the metal. And first impressions are so important, don't you think?

I marked the center and drilled a hole part way through the back, to provide a little pocket for the tip of the earwire to fit. This makes a stronger join than just soldering the wire tip to a flat metal surface. I fired up my little torch, and soldered on the earwires to the disks, and also melted a couple pieces of sterling into nice round balls.

Alas, the little round balls didn't stay round for long! I put them on my bench block and pounded and textured them, too. Then they were sweat soldered (that sounds a bit disgusting, but it's just melting the solder on the back of one piece, laying it solder-side down on another, and then heating it to soldering the two together) and I followed up with a bit of filing and sanding.

Then a few hours jostling in the tumbler, and they were ready for their photo shoot. Hope you enjoyed reading about how the Sterling Disk Earrings were made, and thank so much for stopping by!

Hammered Brass Earrings

2009-07-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished project. I decided against adding the bronze dyed freshwater pearls, I think just the two metals look so lovely, and the simple elegance of the design doesn't need any more adornment.

I textured the brass part of the earrings with a ball pein hammer, and then annealed the metal. Annealing is heating with a torch until the crystalline structure of the metal becomes malleable again. When metal is worked, it becomes harder and brittle, but annealing it makes it easy to bend again. Then I did a final dapping, to shape the earrings. With the addition of handcrafted sterling earwires the earrings were finished.

The background in the photo is a pottery piece I inherited from my Aunt, the same Aunt from Dalarne in Sweden that Dalkullan Jewelry is named for. My Aunt owned an inport shop in Chicago called Dalkullan, which means 'girl from Dalarne' which she was, and I chose the name to honor her memory, and my Father's, who was also from Dalarne.

Fabricating Metal Earrings

2009-07-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a new earring design, and it's one that I'm fabricating from sheet metal and wire.

The picture to the right is a piece of brass sheet metal, and you can see the holes where I've punched disks out. Using a disk cutter, I slide the sheet metal into it, strike a couple blows with a household hammer on the cutter, and out pops a lovely round metal disk. It's a lot easier and more accurate than the way I used to make circular metal disks, using a jeweler's saw.

Next I cut an addition hole out of the first disk, this one off-center. Then I hammer the metal with the ball end of a ball pein jeweler's hammer, to texture the metal. And finally I give the metal a rounded form, using a dapping block and punches.

A dapping block is a heavy piece of steel with hemispherical depressions tooled into it, and the corresponding punches are bars of metal with spherical steel ends that mate up with the holes in the dap. Using a dap makes it possible to evenly round a piece of metal.

The earring still needs to be filed and polished, and have an earwire attached.
I'm going to use a sterling earwire, and maybe a bronze colored freshwater pearl. As you can see, it's a work in progress, but I hope you've enjoyed getting a little glimpse into how I make jewelry.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Lifesaver Earrings, Part Two

2009-07-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

All the different colors of the Lifesaver Earrings are up at my Etsy shop now.
The final two colors are Sea Mist Green and Sky Blue.
It's definitely a challenge to solder close to glass beads. Too much heat too fast and the once lovely bead is a pile of glass fragments. I also learned that quenching the earring instead of letting it air cool can result in fractured beads. It's fun to rise to the challenge, though, and I've learned a lot about soldering near delicate beads in the process.

If you'd like to own a pair of the sweet and colorful Lifesaver Earrings, just drop by my Etsy shop. Or you might be able to win a pair for yourself, and also for a friend. Visit my Facebook business page to find out how.

2009-07-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nesting In The Front Yard

2009-07-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

For the past month or so we've had a family of hawks nesting in a tree in our front yard. We saw them scouting out the area last year, and they began building a nest, but deserted it after a few days, dashing our hopes of seeing them raise a family. This spring they returned, enlarged their nest, and started their brood.

There are five babies in the nest, and they've been growing at an incredible rate. This picture was taken just a couple weeks ago, and now the little hawks are a lot bigger.

Both parents were taking care of the young ones at first, but lately I've only noticed the mother feeding the babies.

They were just puffs of light tan fluff at first. Sorry this picture isn't clearer, but I took it through a window using the zoom feature. The nest is a collection of twigs, and doesn't look very sturdy, in fact, there's been a steady decrease in the size of the nest as twigs are knocked off during storms, but amazingly it's held together.

We had a terrible thunderstorm, very windy and rainy, and I watched helplessly as the mother hawk defended her babies from the elements, shielding them with her wings. Every time thunder would boom, I could see her tremble. Thank goodness they all came through that storm in good condition, and the nest held together.

It's a treat to watch the little hawks growing, we can see them from our bedroom window
and also from the front yard.An added bonus is I've noticed a decrease in the chipmunk population, which were really becoming a terrible bother. Chipmunks are cute, but they can be destructive, especially when they start tunneling under your sidewalks and patio.

We aren't sure what type of hawk they are. My husband has narrowed it down to two, Sharp Shinned Hawk or Cooper's Hawk. They have a call that sounds like the jungle bird noises from the old Tarzan movies, at first I thought it was a person making the noise, not at all what I thought a hawk would sound like.

This is the size the little hawks are now, about half the size of their mother. They've got some real feathers, but they still have a lot of their baby fuzz. They like to flap their wings and hop about in the nest, and the mother leaves them alone for increasingly longer periods.

I'm looking forward to seeing them learn how to fly. Judging by how fast they're growing and how many feathers they've got, I would imagine they'll be flying in the next couple weeks. The hawks are a noble and majestic bird, and it's been a real pleasure to have them nesting in our tree. I hope they come back next year.

Flamework Beads

2009-06-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

I bought the lovely flameworked beads that I use in the Lifesaver Earrings line at the recent Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee from Isis Beads. Isis Ray, owner of Isis Beads, was at the Show selling her handcrafted beads in person, and she had an amazing array of beautiful wares on hand. Deciding on which ones to buy, when they were all so tempting, was far from easy.

I also bought some other beads from Isis Ray, and will be making earrings and also a bracelet from them in the coming weeks.

Here is a great explanation of how flameworked beads are made, written by Isis Ray:

"Flame-worked beads are made by melting glass canes in the flame of a torch and winding the liquid glass around a steel rod, which has a clay based releasing agent on it to keep the glass from bonding to the steel. The rod must be evenly rotated to center the hot glass, and the correct temperature of the bead must be kept even without losing the desired shape, all with a light touch so that the thin clay coating doesn't break. The finished beads are held at 950 degrees F in a kiln to anneal, or align the glass molecules. They are allowed to cool very slowly before being removed from the steel rod, which forms the hole of the bead.

Each bead is a bit of magic, made with glass and fire, hands and eyes, but coming from the heart. I draw on a background in Fiber Art to make beads with a balance of color & light, design, pattern and proportion. "

-- Isis Ray

You can reach Isis on the internet at http://www.IsisRay.com and by email at
isisbeads@centurytel.net

After the beads used in the Lifesaver Earrings were formed, Isis added an additional step, of etching them in an acid solution, which gives them a matt finish, very much like sea glass.

Sailing 101

2009-06-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

I spent Monday and Tuesday taking a sailing class with my husband. We sailed out of Burnham Harbor in Chicago aboard a 33 foot Hunter sailboat, the KnotACare.
We had to run the inboard motor to get out of the harbor, but once out on Lake Michigan we turned off the engine and got underway using sail power.

This is a view looking over the bow of the boat. That black triangle in the left corner is part of the entryway to go below decks.
The boat had two cabins, a galley (kitchen) and a head (bathroom). It also had air conditioning, which to my dismay I found out wouldn't work once we left the dock, since it operates off of ac supplied by a plug in to the electrical supply on the dock.

But once we got underway, we left the 100 degree heat of Chicago behind, for the pleasantly cool breezes on the lake, and the A/C wasn't needed anyway.
The round metal object (winch) in the foreground with the sheets (ropes) tied around it is used to position the sails, which is called 'trimming' the sails. There are a lot -- a whole lot -- of terms associated with sailing, it's almost like learning a foreign language, and I've got a long way to go yet.

I was a bit apprehensive about getting seasick. I went whale watching once off the coast of Cape Cod and spent most of the time deathly ill.
But the fates smiled on me during the sail, and I felt fine.

The boat in this picture is the Sea Witch and she has a lot more sails than The KnotACare. The KnotACare had two, the mainsail, which provides most of the propulsion, and a jib, which helps out on propelling the boat, and which also is adjusted when the boat is moved in different positions relative to the wind direction.

The mainsail is also adjusted, or 'trimmed' during the sail. This is done manually, by pulling on the ropes attached to the sails. After awhile, this gets a bit hard on your hands, not to mention your back and arms. I was surprised just how strenuous sailing is, and gained a whole new respect for the men who used to sail the tall ships during the days of shipping by schooner.

One surprise to me was the presence of flies out on the lake. At the harbor there were hardly any, but once off shore, they were a constant and annoying companion. Why they're out there I haven't a clue. The second day of the sailing lessons we brought bug spray, and solved the problem of the biting black flies.

It's so beautiful out on the lake. This is the view looking back to Chicago, that thin hazy layer was really there, it's not an artifact of photography.
The water was that lovely blue, and the sun sparkled off the surface.

There was Captain Jim, our instructor, my husband and myself, and another student on the sail. We learned to trim the sails, steer the boat, and how to care for the boat and what the rules of the road (they call them that, even though you're on the water) and some of the laws concerning boating. And also practiced rescuing a man overboard, which thankfully was just a seat cushion overboard.

At the end was the much dreaded test, which we had to pass to get our certification. We each had to go through various maneuver's with the boat, taking turns skippering and also trimming the sails, demonstrate some different knots, and then take a 100 question written test. I'm happy to report that all three of us passed!

I'm looking forward to going sailing again. We've got one more sail with an instructor, to learn to dock the boat on our own, and demonstrate one more time our newfound sailing skills, and then we'll be able to sail alone. It's going to be a lot of fun to go sailing with just my husband, enjoying the serenity of Lake Michigan.

Fabulous Beaded Creations

2009-06-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

On display at the Bead & Button Show at Milwaukee were prize winning pieces in various categories. In the flameworked beads, this necklace was an hard to miss, it looked delicious, in fact!
By Debra Kallen, of Langley, British Columbia, Canada, and titled Xmas Garland.
It looks like strands of candy and popcorn, but it's all handmade beads.
Who wouldn't like to find that in their stocking on Christmas morning?

This necklace is composed of flameworked beads, with many different shapes and colors, just a lovely work. Unfortunately I don't know who the artist is, but it was a prize winner , and just stunning.

This miniature Bakery is so adorable! I just love miniatures, and this little shop looks like you could just walk right in and enjoy the beautiful food, doesn't it? Sadly I don't know the name of the talented artist who created this lovely Bakery, all from flameworked beads.

The tiny tea service, and all the beautifully detailed food is amazing. What little girl (or big one!) wouldn't love to own this darling shop.
I know I would.

I was completely bedazzled by the incredible skill of the ladies from Japan, who's legendary beadwork must be seen to truly appreciate it's beauty. My photos certainly don't do them justice, and after seeing them in person, I don't think it's possible to capture their delicate beauty photographically, because they're more remarkable than even professional photography shows.

The red beadwork is a covered box, as large as an ottoman, and all worked in the tiniest of seedbeads. The hours and hours of meticulous work it took to create this stunning work are numerous, I'm sure.

Lifesaver Earrings

2009-06-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a new line of earrings, which will be called Lifesaver Earrings. They'll be in lovely pastel colors, with hand soldered wires, using the skills I picked up in my recent soldering course.
I bought the beads at the Bead & Button show, they look a bit like lifesavers candy, and have a frosted appearance like beach glass. I'm really excited about the new earring line, and hope you'll like them too!
The earrings will be in my etsy shop this week, and I'll put some photos up here, too!

Dalkullan Jewelry Wins A Blog Award

2009-06-10T05:17:00.000-07:00

Thank you very much Glenna from Your Fabric Place blog for giving me the One Lovely Place blog award! I'm really happy that you thought enough of my blog to do this, thank you!

Here are the One Lovely Place blog award rules:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

These are the 15 wonderful blogs I've selected, in no special order of preference:

1.) SleepDreamPlay
2.) NomadCraftsEtc
3.) TeddyStartedIt
4.) ThePaperButton
5.) AllThingsTangled
6.) CabinandCub
7.) AudreysCountryCrafts
8.) TethyisDreams
9.) HighHopesStamps
10.) SumpinElseCustomGifts
11.) LittleDickensDesigns
12.) EviesToolEmporium
13.) JulieAnnArt
14.) Trudette
15.) Angela-SummerTravels

Soldering Class

2009-06-09T06:34:00.000-07:00

Last week at the Milwaukee Bead & Button Show I took a class in soldering. I've done some soldering before, I've made a couple pairs of earrings for myself and one of my daughters, but wanted to improve my technique. And this was definitely the class to do just that.
The class was taught by Mr. Joe Silvera, you can reach him online. He crafts amazing jewelry, and also teaches jewelry making classes. Joe is very patient, encouraging, and explains things clearly. He provided a lot of demonstrations in different aspects of soldering, which I really enjoyed. It's always fun and relaxing to watch someone else work, and to learn something too is a definite plus.
We melted sterling wire to form little balls of silver, learned to solder jump rings closed, and to solder jump rings together. In class we completed a pair of soldered sterling earrings, with a hammered and soldered motif at the bottom. Unfortunately I was a couple hours late to class, but I did manage to finish the project during class time. Overall I'm pleased with the outcome, I met my objective in learning more about soldering, and saw some wonderful demonstrations. The hammered motif on the bottom of the earrings has some symmetry issues, but the soldered joints look really good, and they're strong, which is what I was focusing on. With more practice I feel confident that I'll soon be incorporating soldering into my designs for my shop, and that's exciting! There are so many ideas I have which I really need to solder to execute. Jewelry crafting is a creative adventure, one that I'm enjoying immensely.
The earrings were a lot of fun to make,and I'm looking forward to crafting my own designs, and perfecting my soldering technique.

MZ Glass

2009-06-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

There were so many venders with so many beautiful beads at the Milwaukee Bead & Button Show, it was pretty overwhelming. Very exciting to be there, and just drink it all in. I walked around for a couple hours, seeing what was available, and enjoying being in the same room with hundreds of people who all shared the same interest -- beads and jewelry. The picture on the right shows only a fraction of the vendors at the show.
My strategy was to only buy beads that I had a definite plan for, and not succomb to the temptation I'm sure everyone who's ever shopped for beads has experienced -- the urge to buy beads because of their beauty, and hope to devise a design for them later on. I've heard it referred to as 'releasing your inner magpie', something I've done on more than one occasion.
After my first circuit of the marketplace, I got down to business. Beautiful, handcrafted beads, made by the vendor herself, was my quest. And I found just that in MZ Glass, Margaret Zinser's amazing flamework beads.
Margaret is a wonderful person, warm and friendly, and it was a pleasure to meet her and to chat. You can reach Margaret through her website
and view and order online her gorgeous flamework beads.
Her work is also featured on the cover of "The Flow" magazine. I bought some lovely beads, just what I was hoping to find, which I'm going to make into earrings, and will have listed in my Etsy shop in the coming weeks.

The Show Floor

2009-06-05T04:32:00.001-07:00

I'm heading back to Milwaukee today to attend the Bead & Button Show, this time to buy beads and supplies. I can't wait to see all the beautiful beads and jewelry. If you ever get a chance to go to the Show, don't hesitate, it's really something.
There are cases displaying all the contest winning jewelry pieces, and they are incredible. Photography really doesn't do them justice.
I'll be posting more on the Bead Show, and my class soon. The class was awesome, Mr. Joe Silvera and his assistant were just the kindest, most patient, and incredibly skilled jewelers.
Hope you have a wonderful day today, and thank you for reading my blog!
Heather

Making Metal Beads Class

2009-06-02T13:37:00.001-07:00

I'm really excited about the class I'm taking tomorrow. It's called "Making Metal Beads" and it's held in Milwaukee at the Bead & Button Show. I'm going to improve my soldering technique, and then I'll be able to incorporate that into my jewelry making.
It's a major step for me, and I'm eager to make progress in crafting jewelry. I've done some work with a torch before, I ball earwires and headpins with my trusty torch, and I've soldered a few pairs of metal earrings for myself and as gifts, but I haven't offered anything soldered for sale yet.
Making my own metal beads will open up a lot of design possibilities. It's going to be fun, wish me luck, please!
I'll be blogging about the class, and hopefully have some pictures to share later this week. Thank you for reading my blog.
Wishing you all the best,
Heather

My First Sale!

2009-05-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is my first sale, Silver Cherry Tree Leaves Earrings.
It's really wonderful to finally make a sale -- so exciting!
My dear daughter bought them as a gift. She's been my number one fan and supporter -- I really don't think I'd have had the courage to keep going on this enterprise without her encouragement and advice.

I've Got An Etsy Treasury

2009-05-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

After weeks of lurking around the Etsy site, trying to score the ever elusive Treasury listing, I've met with success! It's titled "Au Printemps" and it's got some really wonderful things from a lot of very talented Etsians. Stop by and take a look, but you have to be quick, because the Treasury is only going to be there for the next 2 days.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=58208

Hope you stop by and see it, you'll be happy if you do. (-:

Etsy Showcase

2009-05-14T06:33:00.001-07:00

Today I have a showcase running on Etsy.com, featuring the earrings pictured above. If you want to see it, go to etsy, click on showcase, then select 'gift guides' from the pulldown menu.
I'm hoping that buying this showcase time will increase my site traffic, and hopefully net me that elusive first (hopefully more!) sale. So far I have noticed more traffic than usual, but not a lot. It will be very interesting tomorrow to see what Google Analytics has to say.
It's hard to get noticed online. There are so many people selling stuff, and it seems like most of them are selling jewelry. I keep improving my website -- etsy is really tops in providing information on how to do that! -- and working on creating new designs.
I've got high hopes for the showcase spot. If the numbers look good from Analytics, I think I'll buy a slot on the main showcase. The gift one was $7 and the main one is $15, so it's a pretty big investment, but versus having a brick and mortar store, it's very cost effective. At least that's what I keep trying to tell myself. Having a 100% negative cash flow is worrying. I spent a couple hours in the middle of the night laying awake in bed wondering if I'm doing the right thing in pursuing this.
I just bought a tumbler, more sterling wire, and mixed stainless steel shot for the tumbler. It takes a lot of expensive equipment to be able to fabricate jewelry, and so far my husband has been very supportive, but I do feel increasingly guilty about the amount of money I'm spending.
Maybe the middle of a major recession isn't the best time to try and start a small business, lol.

My New Business Cards!

2009-05-12T08:06:00.001-07:00

I just ordered business cards for Dalkullan Jewelry. I wanted something bright and sunny, and also with a flower. This sunflower picture really fills the bill and I'm very pleased with the blue and yellow color scheme, just like the flag of Sweden.
Now I'll be able to put a business card in with every order I fill (when I start filling orders, I'm still waiting to make that elusive first sale.)
Having an online business is a lot of fun. It's exciting to think of people all around the world having the ability to look at my jewelry creations. I just wish I could get the word out more effectively, there's so many people selling jewelry online. I'm definitely going to have to work harder at publicity.
On the 14th, I have a showcase spot on www.etsy.com, and I'm hoping to make some sales then.
I've got new designs to list. One is a beautiful bead, Swarovski and pearl multi-strand necklace with a heavy sterling clasp and handmade bead cones. I created some lovely earrings to match. It's an elegant parure, and I'm hoping some discriminating lady will enjoy wearing it soon!

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T06:49:00.000-07:00

A bouquet for all you mother's on our special day. God bless you and keep you always, and bless your precious children.

Jewelry Fabrication -- Mixed Metal Necklace

2009-05-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

This necklace was completely fabricated by me. I started with copper wire and aluminum, copper, and brass sheet metal. It isn't my design, however, I got it from "Jewelry Artist" magazine, the August 2008 edition. "Jewelry Artist" is a great magazine for learning how to fabricate jewelry, every edition has projects for beginners, and advanced jewelry makers.

There was ample opportunity to practice with the jeweler's saw while making this necklace. I drilled a hole in the center of each flower, and threaded the coiled and hammered wire 'tendrils' through. I also handmade the copper clasp.

The individual flowers were also textured, using various hammers and surfaces to impress a relief into the metal surface. And I also patinated the metal, using a variety of techniques.

It turned out pretty well for a first effort with sawing metal and fabrication. The patinas on the copper flowers turned them a lovely shade of blue. To protect the patina, I used a light coating of carnuba wax.

Dala Horse

2009-05-07T06:49:00.000-07:00

I carved this little horse out of a piece of basswood. It's 4 inches high. The Dala horse is the iconic Swedish wooden horse, which is typically painted in bright colors, usually blue, red, or white, with details picked out in various colors.
The Dala horse is still made by artisans in Sweden in the Dalarne region.
The name of my online jewelry shop -- Dalkullan Jewelry -- means 'a girl from Dalarne', which is where my Aunt and Father were from.
I named my online shop in honor of my Aunt, who operated a successful Swedish import business in Chicago for many years, which was called Dalkullan.
I had intended to paint my little horse, but he looks cute in just natural wood, so I think I'll leave him as he is.

C. S. Lewis: Beyond Narnia

2009-05-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched a wonderful movie -- C.S. Lewis: Beyond Narnia. It's on dvd, I rented it from Netflix. It's a biography of C.S. Lewis, the famous author, and is filmed at the places he actually lived and worked at. There's Magdelene College at Oxford, where he taught at, his favorite pub at Oxford The Eagle & Child, and his last home, The Kilns. If you've ever wondered what those places looked like, this movie is an inexpensive way to find out.
Scenes from Lewis's life are acted out, and the acting is excellent. A very enjoyable and well done film biography of C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, and also a science fiction trilogy, along with many, many non-fiction books, mainly dealing with Christianity.
The Eagle & Child is where the meetings for the writer's group, The Inklings, were held, and there's a scene in the movie with an actor playing Tolkien is discussing The Lord Of The Rings. Lewis's marriage and the tragic death of his beloved wife from cancer is also portrayed.
If you're interested in Lewis, Tolkien, or just in fine, family friendly entertainment, you'll enjoy this movie.

Beaded Black and White Bracelet

2009-05-05T07:29:00.001-07:00

This is a bracelet I made for my own personal use -- the amount of time needed to make a bracelet of this type makes it's prohibitive to sell, I'd have to charge at least 100$ for it, to make even minimum wage for my labor.
The black and white 'tube' part of the bracelet was created by needle weaving size 15 seed beads in a pattern around larger white beads. Seed beads get smaller as the number for them gets bigger, and size 15 seed beads are very tiny, around 1 millimeter.
The large black and white beads are called Sputnik beads, and I think they nicely compliment the black and white bead weaving. I added a toggle with a shiny red bead, to provide a pop of color.

Crown Imperial Fritillaria -- Lutea

2009-05-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

This is the first year I've grown this plant. Last fall, I planted three of them. They are grown from bulbs, and the bulbs were huge, about the size of a medium orange, and an ivory color.
They're a very distinctive looking plant, the variety Lutea is a lovely lemony yellow, which blends well with the other colors in the spring garden. Crown Imperial Fritillaria also comes in an orange color, but I would imagine that would be hard to incorporate successfully into most spring gardens color scheme, although it would really snap with blues. There is also a red, which to me looks more like a red-orange.
The main reason I planted Crown Imperial was that it's reputed to be a vole deterrent. I've had trouble with voles, and other rodents, eating my bulbs. So I'm hoping it repels our resident voles. One thing it doesn't repel is squirrel. One climbed up the plant pictured above, soon after that photo was taken, and snapped the plant off at the base.

Praying Squirrel

2009-05-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

My husband won a squirrel feeder at a drawing at a local garden supply store (winning drawings seems to be a trend, lol), and mounted it on a tree in our backyard. It's ironic, since the squirrels are a nuisance, digging up bulbs, knocking over sunflowers to get the seeds, so feeding them intentionally is a bit of a stretch for us.
This squirrel was so adorable. He sat down on his little chair, you can see his tiny toes curving over his chair, then put his paws together on the 'tabletop' where the corncob is fastened, bowed his head, and looked like he was saying grace, before he began to eat.
I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch him in prayer, but did get this cute shot of him eating.

Star Trek Movie!

2009-05-01T05:37:00.000-07:00

The excitement is building, the Star Trek movie comes out in 1 week, 05-07-09.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqXd6haFYqU

Great trailer, I've got high hopes for the movie. I'll be watching it at an IMAX.
What can I say about Star Trek? Mr. Spock inspired me to get into science, like so many others I worked with at Fermilab. Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future, where man could travel through the galaxy, a place without prejudice, where the Earth was at peace, captured my imagination.
Of course, there was that whole Janice Lester thing -- women couldn't command a starship, but after seeing (and what's more to the point, hearing) Captain Janeway, maybe that wasn't such a bad idea. And I couldn't imagine anyone else in command but James Tiberius Kirk. You've got to love that name, the Tiberius addition was shear genius.

I Won A Raffle!!!!!!

2009-04-30T06:08:00.000-07:00

My church held a fund raiser for our new parish school, and I bought 20$ in raffle tickets, never expecting to win anything. Imagine my surprise when I got a phone call from the parish office, telling me I'd won a basket of scrapbooking goodies.
It's a bushel basket full of swag, all kinds of scrapbooking supplies, so heavy I could barely carry it out to the car. This is the first time I've ever won anything. If you've won a contest or raffle, please tell me about it, I'd love to hear from you!

What Exactly Is Sterling Silver?

2009-04-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

There is a common misconception about sterling silver that I'd like to address, and also discuss precious metal vs base metal in jewelry making.

I've started making jewelry in sterling instead of base metal. I like the look of burnished copper and brass, but many women prefer precious metal. And with the amount of time it takes me to make one piece of jewelry, it makes more sense to use sterling silver. My designs involve a lot of wire work, and putting 2 or 3 hours labor into a piece makes it deserve a higher price than I feel comfortable with charging for a jewelry piece made of base metal.
Here's an interesting fact about sterling silver. It isn't pure silver. Pure silver is called 'fine silver', and isn't used very often, because of its' softness. Sterling is an alloy of silver, and is sometimes marked .925 This signifies that it's 92.5 % silver, and the rest an alloy, usually copper.
Another type of sterling, is Argentium silver, which is never less than 93% silver, and has a bit of germanium in addition to the copper, which acts to retard tarnishing. Some of the silver wire I use is Argentium sterling, and I can see the difference in the length of time before it begins to tarnish.

I'm new to the blogosphere

2009-04-29T06:07:00.000-07:00

Just testing the waters on blogging, and hoping to put something online of interest to others. I want to provide some useful information on how to do things, like gardening, sewing, and jewelry making tips, with some cooking info thrown in for good measure.