Soldering atempts and new earrings

I´ve been spending my weekend struggling with my torch. Here´s some of the result. Some of it I won´t show :)

I´m proud of the sterling guitar pick for my nephew who´s in a band. The jasper pendant.... hm....I´ll keep out of all close ups. Soldering the bezel to the backplate wasn´t totally succesful, but it´s ok.

The swirly earrings - Rose - are listed in my Etsy shop though. Because they are made in my familiar technique and totally ok.! :)

AUDREY - swirly pearl earrings

Romantic = check

Swirly = check

White pearls = check

Oxidized = check

Yepp, they do look like I´ve made them. Feels like I´m caught making the same design over and over again. But I guess it´s like that sometimes. Certain designs need your attention for a while before you feel finished with them.

You can find more pictures here: www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com

Made it to Etsy frontpage today!

The things that make you happy! I thought my days at the frontpage of Etsy was over, since I´m not that active anymore. But look what lovely friends send me today - a screen cap of the frontpage with my Little Mermaid necklace.

Still celebrating.... :)

New tutorial - Find your signature style!

I have finally written down the step-by-step method I´ve been teaching in Stockholm - FIND YOUR SIGNATURE STYLE!

About the tutorial

This tutorial describes a step-by-step method that will help you find your own signature style. It is also very useful when building collections.

The jewelry making world is ful of fun techniques and beautiful materials. It´s easy to get lost and never find your own style when options are unlimited. But with this method you will gather all your loose ends together and finally find your own path.

When I´ve tought classes this method it is always a reward to see the processes this method starts.

But remember this instruction only offers a path to follow. Only you know where it will lead.

Material needed:

• a nice sketch book
• piles of magazines
• catalogues from various stores

Tools:

• scissors
• glue
• your head and heart
• pens to write and colour with

You can buy the tutorial either at my Etsy-shop: www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com or at www.jewelrylesson.com

I´m power teacher of october 2009!

I´m so honoured! I´m among several teachers at Jewelrylesson.com to become Power Teacher of the month now in October.

Lot´s of thanks to Eni Oken, my own Power Teacher. I bought my first tutorial from her years ago and started my wire wrapping career. When I found her site and saw her jewelry I was totally blown away by the beauty of her designs.

She´s also an amazing business woman. Jewelrylesson.com is an amazing meeting point for all wire wrappers and lovers of jewelry. At that site we can connect all over the world and share techniques and support each other. Lot´s of love to ENI OKEN! :)

Other teachers to be Power Teachers of October are BobbiWired, Shaktipaj, Gailavira, Pat Capo and Jewelrygal.

Little Mermaid - wirewrapped necklace with turquoise, aquamarine

I really don´t have the time, or enough material at home, but I felt I just had to play with wires again. This pendant is made of left overs, both chains and bits of wire. It´s all made with stones in soothing turquoise and sea foam green. And the size and shape of the pendant is perfect for a shirt with a button open or a v-neck top.

The pendant and chain is adorned with a collection of stones - turquoise, alexandrite topaz, chrysocolla and malachite. Attached to the pendant you also find jade and a beautiful shimmering aquamarine. From the extension chain hangs a lovely faceted chrysoprase briolette. It´s a collection worthy a little mermaid!

The patina gives the necklace a nice feeling of old times.

Size: pendant, including bail, 6cm. Chain 42-46cm
Material: turquoise, alexandrite topaz, chrysocolla, malachite, jade, aquamarine, chrysoprase, oxidized sterling silver.

You´ll find it listed in my Etsy shop: www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com

There will be no tutorial...or there already is...

I was so happy about the possibility to post my tutorials at http://www.jewelrylesson.com/. I admire Eni Oken, both as a designer and business woman. And my tutorial there has been a success.

So I felt very inspired to make another one, as I wrote in my previous post.

But today I found a new tutorial listed on exactly this design. It´s hard to claim a design as your own, I know that. But the similiarity is so strinking! I made this pair of earrings in March and sold them on April 14th 2009. Now there is really no point in making the tutorial. So interested in making a pair like this - just go ahead and buy it - it´s already there...

Feeling a little pinioned today... :(

New tutorial

I´m working on a new tutorial. It will be a on how to make my Anne Boleyn earrings. The technique can be used to make connectors and various earwires, even for long earrings. It should be up and listed in about a week. I also applied to Jewelrylessons.com to perhaps reach another audience than the regular one through Etsy.

Find your trademark!

This weekend I held a class in Stockholm in how to find your jewelry trademark and the result from the participants were fantastic. Above you can see the clip book from Sussi Norberg, an interial decorator that also makes jewelry. Visit her blog Sussies värld for more pictures and of course to see her beautiful jewelry.

What I teach in the class is a step-by-step method to achive a recognizable signature, expressing the values and ideas you want people to associate with your jewelry.

If you live in Sweden, near Stockholm, and want to sign up for this class you do it here at Sirlig. Next class is 11 October.

First wire piece since April!

First wire piece since the end of April! I finally got time to make a tutorial I´ve been thinking of for a long time. And heres the necklace that came out of that. The tutorial will be listed in my Etsy shop this weekend or in the beginning of next week.

I named the necklace after my friend Anna who is getting married next Saturday. Anna is a classical pearl necklace with a swirly pendant. I think the bail suits it very well, it gives the necklace a bit of Art Nouveau feeling.

This is the kind of necklace that makes you feel very feminine. The whole pendant is made of 925 sterling silver wire and vintage pearls. All metal parts are sterling silver.

Size: adjustable necklace, 16-17.5"/40-44cm. Pendant measures 1"/2,5cm across.

The necklace is for sale and listed in my Etsy shop: www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com

Yes! My webshop is born!!!

I actually made it. My new webshop www.mioora.se launched today. You are all so very welcome to drop in and have a look. All opinions are welcome. I want to approave as much as I can.

And I definitely want to stock more designers. Arrrggghhh! The pain to order with my limited budget!!!! But hang on. Goodies are on it´s way. I will fill the shop with more necklaces, brooches and bracelets.

I´m so excited about this journey I´m on. Will be fun to see where it leads me. And I have listed a few simple pieces I´ve made too....

Welcome in!

Things are moving forward...

I have almost sold out all my previous jewelry and I can finally see the end of the tunnel for my new project.

I have a logotype for my new webshop made by lovely Frida Eklund Edman from Modelform. She also runs a shop with the coolest clothes for children http://www.modelmini.se/. And I love my logotype and the company profile she´s created for me. I highly recommend working with her.

I have decided to sell internationally with prices in Euro too. But my main target group is Swedes, that doesn´t enjoy browsing the web for finds and to purchase from abroad. I´m sure readers of this blog are not my target group :)...

Almost all jewelry I´ve ordered have arrived at home. It´s goodies from Maya Design, Polished, Shlomit, Untamed Menagerie, Joanna Rutter and Vera Vinn. Can you imagine the effort I have to put up, not to bling myself with all of it, like a christmas tree :)!

My premiere date is set to July 15th. If you´d like a sneak preview you can look into the blog I´ve started a blog for my new shop: www.mioora.blogspot.com it´s only in Swedish so far. Haven´t figured out a good way to deal with two languages yet. Perhaps have an english version in italic at the end of each post?

I´ve started to create a bit again too. Mostly I have recycled old and broken jewelry and mixed it with new chains, charms and beads. I will post pics when I have it.

To be continued...

Huge clearance sale and it hurts...

So I´ve done it. I´ve marked down everything in my Etsy shops 50%. I´m going to move on to new adventures and will hopefully not have the time to create intricate wire pieces.

My adventure is a webshop with jewelry, launched for Swedes at first, but perhaps with the rest of Europe as target in the future.

I will sell mostly other peoples designs. I´m tired of the jewelry webshops that are around here. They are either glam-girl, low-price, crappy material shops. Or they are more arts & crafts like in a sence they are almost pornographic in their love of the material that is used. And they often praise the "Nordic light and Swedish simplicity" too much for my taste.

My shop will focus on a pure love of jewelry. I will sell jewelry in many categories: classical, fun, expensive, colorful, simple or intricate. The thing they will have in common is they are very easy to wear, they are made with a glimpse in the eye and they are feminine.

Jewelry is supposed to be fun and make you feel like the girl you once were, standing in front of a mirror, all dressed up in your mum´s finest clothes (too big of course, but it didn´t matter).

So watch our for news here until I move on to a blog related to my new webshop.

BUT WILL I STOP MAKING JEWELRY?

No, don´t think anything can stop me from doing that (except time and a huge succes with selling jewelry made by other designers than me...). I will probably focus on making jewelry, that are less time consuming to create. So no wire designs at this moment.

To be continued...

Kittens and sale

I know I´ve been very absent lately. No blogging, no jewelry making. But I have two wonderful reasons.
One of my reasons are my kittens of course. They need a lot of attention being orfants. They´ve become very social and just adorable little kittycats with different personalities.
The only time they drive me mad is when all four of them are climbing my legs. IT HURTS!!!

The second reason for my absence is my plans to launch a webshop in Sweden. It takes a lot of work. I´ve realized I won´t be able to make the the timeconsuming style I´ve developed lately. No, if I find time to sit at the workbench (which I hope I will not the coming year - I so wan´t to quit my day job), I will have to make jewelry in a style more easily made. So look out for a new Suzy Q collection.

Eventually I will probably close my two Etsy shops. They are too associated with my wire technique. My new pieces will not fit there..
That´s why I have a huge sale this weekend with 50% off. True bargain prices for very intricate pieces. It feels a bit sad. Sort of the end of a period in my life. But I still have my skill and can start making this kind of jewelry whenever I want again... :)

Both happy and sad...

Both happy and sad...
Originally uploaded by SuzyQJewelry

I´ve not been around much. And the reason is our cat Leia (yes, my boys love Star Wars) died a week ago. She got got hit by a car and died. As you see on the pic she left four kittens for me to take care of.

Now my grief has turned into joy. It´s such a bliss to be accepted by these kittens as their new caretaker. They really cling to me wanting the attention a cat mother gives. So I nurse them with a bottle, wash them with cotton pads (imitating a cat tounge) and trying to teach them to be good cats. It´s like I´m thrown back to the days when my boys where newborns.

Today we have a funeral for Leia. My boys decided we will eat roastbeef and print some copies on our printer - the things she loved most....:)

And the kittens have jedi knight names too of course: Ashooka, Eyla, Anakin (the one you see on the pic with half black, half white nose) and Yoda.

Destashing - selling bead mixes

I have no room for more beads. And it´s a crime to have beautiful beads lying around for no use. So I´ve put togheter some bead mixes and listed them in my www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com shop.
Enjoy!

Bright sun brings urge for bright colours

I´ve been creating tiny intricate stuff for some time now. But the bright sun, inspired me to make some plain colourful pieces for my Suzy Q Trinkets shop.

Normally I don´t like to just string my jewelry. Bores the /&%¤ out of me. But these I actually enjoyed making.

Sometimes I get an image in my head and can´t get rid of it until I create what I see. And it was just like that with this simple design.

I saw a plain row of smooth beads only interrupted by one single silver bead.

Eventually I had made 5 desings out of that idea. All different, but with the single "interruption" in common.

I´m lucky to have two shops, one with intricate designs with only precious materials and one with more simple designs, sometimes made of vintage plastic beads.

See more pictures in my shop: www.suzyqtrinkets.etsy.com

Emerald Isle necklace

This months Team Wire Artisans Guild challenge "Emerald Isle" and my longing for spring really came together in this necklace. The image I got in my head when thinking of "Emerald Isle" was green meadows full of spring flowers.

I tried to work on a celtic inspired idea, but the meadow image kept popping up in my head. So here it is...

The original idea was to make a pearl chain. I have a strand of really beautiful spring green freshwater pearls. But somehow I felt this flat diamond cable chain suited the necklace better. Perhaps I will let the customer choose.

Material:
925 sterling silver and 999 fine silver chain, wire and findings. Peridot briolettes and a round smooth citrin bead. Oxidized and tumbled
Size: Chain measures 16". Pendant 1"x1.2"/2,5x3cm

See more pictures at www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com

Spring colour explosion!

The winter is finally letting it´s grip of Sweden go. The snow is melting with an amazing speed and out comes snow drops and those tiny yellow flowers I don´t know the name of.
All these spring feelings have made me long for strong colours. And is it just me or is Etsy flooding with lovely jewelry in strong colours?
Browsing around today I found some favorites I just have to share.

First Pinkdragonfly98:













Lulubugjewelry:











Missrubysue:

1400 hearts!!

Woke up feeling loved today. 1400 people have marked me as a favorite on Etsy.com. 1400!!!

I know Etsy is a big community, but I never thought I´d get that many hearts. I will celebrate by browsing aroung Etsy hearting other sellers. I want more people to feel like this :).

Let´s make this a "hearting" day!

What I´ve been up to...

Just wanted to show you some of the things I´ve been working on.

This is a commission order where the customers bought all the material. It was a challenge, but fun.

It was a long time since I made any of these bangles. It´s based on a tutorial by Eni Oken, a wonderful american jewelry designer.

The colour combination chosen by the customer is wonderful, beautiful rhodocrosite and rhodonite beads with blood red garnet. They mix so well with the oxidized silver.

Now I only have a few commission orders left. Then I´m going to list new pieces in my shop.

I am working...

No blogging in a long time. But I haven´t vanished. I have several commission orders and I´m working on starting a second business too.

Of course I feel blessed when having special orders. But my sketches are piling up and I feel I have a lot of creativity that needs to erupt soon.

Beware for new designs at the end of March :)

WHITE LILY - more innocent white jewelry

Today I´ve been struggling with making my tiniest earrings with this technique ever. Just be happy the ugly words I used while doing it are´nt wrapped into the design.

First I had the intention to make the swirls a bit differently. But I couldn´t manage to get the wires to fit into these tiny drop shapes. So I used a very familiar design in the end.

I´m pleased though. They look so fabulous on and I´m proud to have achived this even though they are so small. The drop are no more than 0.66"!

I named them White Lily due to their innocent appearance. Actually my name, Susanna, is hebrew for white lily. At least I´ve been told so... :)

Material:
925 sterling silver and 999 fine silver wire and findings. Oxidized and tumbled to a nice shine. Freshwater pearls and rock crystal rondelles.

Size:
1.77"/4,5cm including earwires. The focal part is less than 1"!

How to name your company or brand

Lately I´ve been reading a lot about how to name companies and brands.

I´m thinking about opening a jewelry store in Sweden and need a great name. I´ve browsed the web and found a bunch of things to consider when picking a name.

Here are some of the ideas I´ve found useful.

• Get an “umbrella” name. If you are going to sell jewelry, don´t have a name with jewelry in it. What if you want to start selling scarves too? (That means my current name sucks :)) The name should still work if you want to expand.


• Search the web to see if the company name is free as a domain address.


• The name doesn´t have to have a meaning. You can always fill it with meaning with an underline, that you can drop when your name is established. That means nonsense names are OK.


• Short names, and names with hard sounds are remembered more easily. Google, Kodak, Plurk are great examples.


• Make sure your company name is easy to spell.


• Brainstorm to find your name. Start with what you want your name to be associated with. Mix letters and give the words new endings like –ax, -ex, -or, -er, -ac, -oc.
  

Still can´t find a name? Try Breadline Design Naming Machine! :)

Dreaming of summer meadows

I´ve added a new necklace to my Etsy shop. This necklace really is an expression of my dreams of summer and spring.

Last night it fell another 4" of snow so the winter keeps holding a tight grip of Sweden. My kids love it though. The snow castles they´ve built in the garden are amazing. But yet, my cat and I agree upon one thing - it´s enough now. Let the spring arrive!

Well, back to the necklace, I´ve tried to wove all that longing for warmer days into this pendant.

It´s a medallion like pendant with a beautiful butterfly, surrounded by a swirly pattern set with spring colours. The pendant is very light weighted though it gives a dense expression. It looks gorgeous togheter with anything purple. And I guess a plain white shirt will go nice with it too.

I had many thoughts of adding more tiny pearls and beads to the chain, but I decided to keep it plain, not to loose the medallion feeling.

Do you agree with me on that decision?

Material:925 sterling silver, oxidized and tumbled to a nice shine. 925 sterling silver butterfly charm from Bali. Pink amethyst, peridot and white freshwater pearls.

Size:Pendant 1.2"/3cm, 1.6"/4cm including the bail. Chain is 16"/40cm

What´s up with www.suzyq.se?

"First I have to appologize to my English speaking readers. But I have to add a post in Swedish here. My Swedish homepage have stoped working due to the program that build the page. So while waiting for my new Swedish page/webshop, I´m re-directing the traffich to my blog. And here is some information about it in Swedish - you might catch a word or two :)"

Vad har hänt med www.suzyq.se?
Min svenska hemsida har upphört tillfälligt. Det webbhotell jag har stödjer inte FrontPage längre, så från och med nu måste jag hitta en annan lösning.
Och jag jobbar på en kombinerad hemsida/webshop på svenska. Med andra ord kommer det att bli möjligt att köpa mina smycken där också. Och kanske även andras...

Preliminärt kommer den nya sidan att vara klar i maj. Fram till dess kommer du alltså att hamna här i min engelska blogg när du knappar in http://www.suzyq.se/.

Länksidan då?
Ärligt talat har den uppdaterats dåligt :)... Men jag vet att den är omtyckt och fortfarande har mycket besök. Jag tänker så det knakar...

Jag kan fortfarande kontaktas på info (snabela) suzyq.se.

Côte d'Azur earrings

Quote from Wikipedia about Côte d'Azur:

"The Côte d'Azur is one of the first resort areas in the world. It began as a health resort for ailing British tourists at the end of the 18th century.
With the arrival of the railroad in the mid-19th century, it became the playground and vacation spot of British, Russian, and other aristocrats, such as Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales."

Imagine all the beautiful clothes and jewelry women brought with them to wear at their walks at the beaches during those eras!! And the French Riviera have continued to attract the rich and beautiful. Just look at the Cannes Festival. A parade of beautiful clothes and jewelry.

With this pair of earrings I tried to make something small and dense - like some 19th century earrings. And the dangling part are no more than 1".

I can easily imagine a beautiful woman wearing these, sun tanned, with bare shoulders sipping a colorful drink. Perhaps a

Material:
925 sterling silver and 999 fine silver wire and findings. Oxidized, handpolished and tumbled. Beautiful sea blue apatite and fresh green peridot.

Size:
1.57"/4cm including ball post, the dangling part is 1"/2,5cm high and 0.70"/1,8cm wide

Visit my shop for more pictures: www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com

Grand re-opening of The Wire Artisans Guild Etsy team store

♥:♥:♥ VALENTINE SPECIAL ♥:♥:♥

HAPPY VALENTINE!!!
My husband surprised me with some hidden gifts. He´s off with the kids skiing, but he had hidden his gifts under my pillow. So sweet of him!!
I´m having a ♥:♥:♥ VALENTINE SPECIAL ♥:♥:♥ in my shop too. Some of my favorites has been put down 50%. So treat yourself!
♥:♥:♥ Love to you all! ♥:♥:♥

Link to my shop: www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com

One month with Google Analytics

Now I´ve had the possibility to view my visitor statistics on my Etsy stores through Google Analytics for a month. And I love it! It’s perfect to see the response to my shop activities.

I can see from my figures I´ve been having an average 100 visitors a day to my http://www.suzyqjewelry.etsy.com/ shop. And during this month a total of 2780 visits. I have nothing to relate to, but it feels like a good enough number for me.

My bounce-rate (the number of visitors who just visited the front page of my shop) are 40%. Same thing here, don´t know if the figure is good or bad.

The best part of the statistics is to see referring sites. A great way to note if a marketing or social networking effort paid of in visits. Hardly surprising Flickr and my Swedish web page are the major sources for my visitors.

The visitors I have almost covers the world map when I look where their IP addresses are registered, apart from the west of South America, Africa except South Africa and Zambia and most parts of the Arabic world. The biggest source are USA and of course Sweden.

Share your figures if you want to! I´d love to see which countries you attract to your webpage, let it be a blog, Etsy shop or ordinary home page.

I´m still amused by my only visitor from Zambia...:)

Lady Una - bangle

This is a bangle made for The Wire Artisans Guild challenge Stardust and our great re-opening of our Etsy team store on Valentines day.

The movie Stardust begins and ends with the beautiful Lady Una living in the magical world of Fairie. Lady Una is kept as a slave for Madame Semele. She gives birth to the main character, Tristan, but has to leave him to his father who lives in "the real world". Lady Una is very much a charachter in the background, but the end of the movie reveals her well kept secret.

The colours of Lady Unas teal dress and the yellow/red carriage of Madame Semele (Ditchwater Sal) inspired me to make this bangle.
I loved the movie. It was so full of both beautiful scenes and humour and of course all the elements to make it a wonderful feel good story. Don´t miss Robert de Niro playing the tough captain with a little secret hidden in the closet....

The bangle and focal, together form a clasp. One of the images show to open and close the bangle. The trick is to angle the focal. I managed to do it myself with one hand...But you can always ask someone else to help you with this...

Material:925 sterling silver and 999 fine silver wire and findings. Alex topaz briolettes (heat treated), ruby leaves and rondelles, citrine briolette and smooth rondelles and white cultured white fresh water pearls. Oxidized and tumbled to a nice shine.
Size:The bangle fits an arm between 6"-7"/15-17cm. It moves around a bit on a smaller arm.

Be sure to visit the grand re-opening of The Wire Artisan Guild Etsy team store on Valentines day: http://www.wireartisansguild.etsy.com/