RECYCLED SPOON ring

RECYCLED SPOON ring
Originally uploaded by SuzyQJewelry

This is what I´m up to now. I´m giving silversmithing a serious try and attend classes three days a weed since August.

Since then I´ve been slaughtering the silver teaspoons I got from my grandmother 20 years ago, never used.

This is an adjustable ring with a nice beautiful pattern. The spoon blade will come soon....

I sell my new jewelry here: www.susannasegerholm.etsy.com

PINK DECADENCE - pink topaz earrings

Pink extravaganza made for the coming spring. I will celebrate the return of the sun and the meltdown of all snow. Cocktails, sweets and a pink dress will go fine with these earrings, don´t you think?

They are quite dainty even though they are long. Not even an inch wide. But they are long so you will still make a statement wearing these.

More pictures in my shop.

New tutorial - Taj Mahal earrings

I have released a new tutorial in my Etsy shop. This time it´s a tutorial for my top selling earrings "Taj Mahal". You will find the tutorial here...

It´s a lovely design, which easily can be turned into a pendant. Only make them with 16 or 14 gauge wire instead of 18.

Keep track of Etsy treasuries you are featured in!

Attention Etsy sellers! Lovely Craftopolis now offers an easy way to keep track of the Etsy treasuries you are featured in. Just type your Etsy username and voilá - you can see the treasuries you are featured in. This also includes the Treasury West.

You can also see who hearts your shop and items and features in Etsy gift guides.

Taj Mahal earrings

New pair of my top seller - Taj mahal earrings - listed in my Etsy shop. This version has 14k goldfilled and freshwater pearls. I´m also going to post a tutorial for these earrings any day.

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.