Front Page of Etsy...again!

Oh, my title sounds so cocky..."again"...I love it. Anyway, I was lucky enough to snag another spot on the front page of Etsy yesterday - the upper left corner again! Seriously - this doesn't happen to me...and probably won't again! I may as well enjoy it! Sooo happy!

More branding elements + RINGS!

I have more branding elements to share! This is all coming together so fast...I'm so happy! These are my new earring cards! Quite happy with them.

I still have to figure out some other packaging changes - but it should be fun and easy. Did I already say I can't believe how fast this is all happening? :) I can hardly wait to wrap it all up - I'm so ready for my new look and to share it with everyone!

I spent a nice long day in the studio yesterday making made to order items, but I'm hoping to get back in later this week and work on some new things that are cooking in my brain.

Last, but not least, I'm still on a big ring kick...here are some newly listed items...and one that will be listed later today...

Prehnite and Oxidized Sterling Ring - yeah...I'm in LOVE with this one...

Black Agate Druzy Ring

Amazonite Ring...look for me soon!

Front Page of Etsy!

Yesterday I had a lovely surprise - my Chalcedony and Oxidized Sterling Ring was on the front page of Etsy! See the screenshot below - the top left item. This is my third time on the front page and it is just as exciting as the first and second! It's so fun to watch your shop and items get so much love. Lots of fun. I'm a pretty happy girl :)

Showing off my gems

Well, I'm back from Tucson and it was a great trip. I even got to sit in the sun! It was fantastic. However, trying to manage the gem show is nearly impossible :), but I got a ton of new stones and met some new vendors that I'm so excited about. I uploaded a bunch of photos of my new gems to my flickr photostream, so check them out! Here's a photo of the whole load for now!

I also have some new items that I had been working on before I left for Tucson that I finally finished up yesterday. I've only added the Smoky Quartz Ring to my Etsy shop (because I love it the most!), but I hope to get the rest up tonight or tomorrow. That's all for now - just a quick little update...I'll be back with more soon.

New Jewelry in my shop!

I've been adding some new jewels in my shop the last couple days. Here's what's new...more to come too!





Oh! And, I also listed the cuff links and money clip that I blogged about a while back. Can't wait to do more men's accessories. So fun.

SMARTFISH

SMARTFISH is getting some blog love today. I first saw these adorable shoes via Mixed Plate and thought... "How perfect are these??!! I want to blog about these too!" Their shoes are handmade, sustainable and vegan. I love seeing CUTE leather alternatives for handbags and shoes.

So, after seeing them on Mixed Plate, I also saw them featured in the Etsy Finds email today. It looks like they are a fairly new shop, so I hope they have fun with their recent press!

I think these flats with the bows are my favorite...

Wheee!!! Tiny Etsy front page feature!

My Crescent earrings made it to the front page...sort of! In one of the scrolling Storque Articles at the bottom of Etsy's home page there is an article called "Basic Skills" and my earrings are featured! Hooray! It's so fun to see the amount of eyeballs that see your product if you are on the home page - it's overwhelming. New views and shop hearts come flooding in. I love it! There are so many Etsy lovers out there. Anyway, here's what the little article looks like. Click it to see all the products featured. My Crescent Earrings are shown again waaaay at the bottom of the article.

Ramping Up...for Christmas and 2010

Well, more neglect. I do apologize. However, I am still recovering. I even made a visit to the doctor! It turns out I have bronchitis. And, a case of pink eye...eyes...both of them. Which is why I went to the doctor in the first place. I thought only little kids got that. For some reason I was sort of embarrassed that I had it. :) Feeling better, but definitely not great. I had a busy week last week and it felt so good to be making so much jewelry! I'm really happy with the sales I had over Christmas. It was quite fun to be so busy.

A lot of bloggers out there are talking about this NY Times article about selling on Etsy. Even though I'm not surprised by anything in the article, it still got me excited about 2010. There's been a lot of sketching going on at my house lately. I've been making a lot of jewelry lately, but not many new designs, so I'm so excited for January. I hope to go nuts with new stuff!

In the meantime, it's all Christmas prep for the next couple days. My dad is coming to town and we will have 11 over for Christmas dinner. Should be fun. Dinner menu follows:

- Pear, blue cheese, candied pecan salad

- Roasted beet soup
- Mushroom risotto
- Thyme popovers
- My FAMOUS Garlic rosemary mashed potatoes
- Panetone bread pudding with cinnamon sauce

I'll post recipes soon. Still perfecting a few... :)

The making of a Ruffle Ring

I've been making a few Ruffle Rings lately. I love making this ring. Each one is just a little different and I fall in love with each one. Yesterday while making some, I decided to take some process photos. It's harder than I thought! I really have a hard time breaking out of my groove to stop and take a photo. I really admire all those artists out there that do this and share their expertise with other artists. I think it's so fun seeing how people work - like all art, there isn't just one way to do something, so it's fun to see everyone's process - and secondly, I love to pick up some tips. So I hope I can help someone out there! Here's a peek at what it's like to make a Ruffle Ring:

First, I use one of these to hand cut 3 different size discs...

Like this...

Then, I hand form each disc until they are "ruffled" to my liking.

I then take my 3 ruffled discs, flux them, and stack them so that there are several contact points between all the individual ruffles - to insure they all stay firmly together once soldered. I use medium solder and place little pieces of it near all the contact points. Now, it's time to solder! I heat my brick up mostly and then watch for my solder to flow. I throw my perfectly imperfect ruffle into the pickle and make a ring for whatever size my order is for (oops, forgot pictures of that...sorry).

I sand down a little flat spot on my ring, again, for a larger (hence, stronger) contact point for my ruffle. Flux everything. Then, I use my third hand to hold the ring on top of the ruffle, place a piece of easy solder between the band and the ruffle and solder.

Once soldered, my ring looks like this. Yuck, huh? Back to the pickle for cleaning.

Now, it's been pickled and just needs to be finished. I use a radial sanding disc with a pretty high grit to give the ring an all over sanded finish. Because, although I love the ruffle, I don't want it to be too pretty. I like to add a little roughness to it.

And here is the finished product...

Oh, and of course, you can also find it here :)

13.1 miles...finished

Well, we did it! 13.1 miles yesterday. Everything went great - no need to walk, the knees held out, weather was fine - all in all, a great day. We ended up getting to the race pretty late. It's weird enough to drive somewhere just to run for 13 miles, but to get stuck in traffic for 45 minutes and watching people walk by while your stuck is even stranger. Well, we finally got to the start line and I tried to mosey my way over to the fancy port-a-potties, but no one would let me through! Needless to say, I had to start the race with a full bladder and after one mile, I stopped and waited in line for at least 20 minutes to use the potty. Horrible. I was so antsy! I just wanted to RUN! I watched the last of the last runners and walkers go by by the time my turn was up. It took me the rest of the run to catch up to anyone that was running my pace. I finished in 2:16, but next time I plan on beating 2hrs. Use the bathroom before the start is my new rule.

I'm pretty sore today, but happy :).

Have a happy Cyber Monday and don't forget to SHOP!

A treasury!

So, those of you who aren't regular Etsians, well, you should be, but anyway, the Treasury is an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery of handpicked items. Members can feature their favorite items, items selected on a theme or just whatever they like. If "popular" enough, your treasury can be featured on Etsy's home page. And, I made my first one today! It was pretty fun and I can see that it could get addicting pretty easily. Anyway, here's mine. Leave me a comment and click around on the images...it helps get it "hotter" (more popular)....

Thanksgiving and Sale

I don't know about all of you, but I'm recovering from yesterday's overload of food, but still feeling very thankful. Just 2 more days until we run our half marathon and then my thankfulness will really be over the top :).

I wanted to give you some promotional codes for your holiday shopping with Erin Jane Designs. Here's how it's going to work:

25% off your ENTIRE order on http://www.erinjanedesigns.com from now until December 19th! Type the code "HOLFACE09" in the "promo code" box on the homepage to receive your discount.

__________________________

Buy One, Get One half off in my Etsy shop from now until December 19th! - http://www.erinjanedesigns.etsy.com. Type "Facebook Holiday" in the "notes to seller" when you check out and you will receive your refund via Paypal.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and here are just a few more designs you'll find in my Etsy shop all ready for the shopping season!

The Holidays....are here!

I can hardly believe it! The holidays are here! I think they come earlier each year...

Today I saw a super cute idea that you must check out by Jordan Ferney for an advent calendar. December 1st is rapidly approaching and I want one too! I have a rough list of some things for Hubby and I to do. Most of my ideas have to do with eating and drinking so far...hmmm, oh well. Here's a little sample:

1. Make a GOOD spiced wine and drink it by the fire

2. Make massive amounts of my now famous peppermint bark

3. Find (or make!) a new ornament for the tree that will forever remind us of this past year.

Lots more to go and I won't bore you with all of them.

One another note, here are a few new items that I just put in my Etsy shop. Can you say holiday party PERFECT?!!

Front Page of Etsy!

My Crystal Quartz Ring made it to the front page of Etsy today! It's a first for me...I'm so excited!

Oh! And new items to share...

Here are a few new things going up in my Etsy shop. I hope to get them all posted tonight. I really want a packed shop in anticipation for the holidays coming up. I will also post my holiday code for discounts and let you know the scoop on that in the coming days...

Weekend Deals on Etsy - Buy one, Get One!

Gosh, I feel so car salesman-y.... But, I am holding a Buy One, Get One Free sale in my Etsy shop this weekend. For every item you buy, you get these earrings free. Just enter "weekend deal" in the "Notes to Seller" during checkout. So, get some holiday shopping done!

There are TONS of Etsy sellers doing the same all weekend long. Click Here for just a sample. You can also search "weekend deals" on the home page and get a ton more results of shop owners offering Buy One, Get One deals.

Have a great weekend!

New Goodies!!

I've spent the last couple days making bezels, setting stones, filing, sawing, polishing...Whee! So, here they are....Look for these new goodies in my Etsy Shop in the next couple days. I will hopefully have time to post them super soon. More jewelry tomorrow and a super fun weekend coming up. My mom will be here and it's my sister's birthday, so lots of good stuff coming up!

Oh, and check out the pink Opal ring in the middle...remember that stone?? Oh my gosh, I am in love with it...

Metalsmithing and other new endeavors...

Wow, I've been so busy! A couple months or so ago, I decided to give metalsmithing a try. I've taken a couple classes before, but never really applied the things I learned in my own studio - thinking I couldn't have all that fancy equipment in my house, plus I wasn't ready or willing to spend the money. But, in fact, you can do a whole lot with some pretty basic tools...and a whole lot of patience. To refresh my memory, I bought a few books for reference and gave it a go. Oh! And YouTube! Good god there is a ton of cool stuff on there. Tutorials galore. I started with just some basics - soldering posts on to earrings, soldering circles and hoops closed, etc...I loved it! It was so satisfying. Since then I've set a few stones and even made a few rings! I can't even tell you how much fun I've been having. The items I've been making have been taking forever though. I'm used to pumping out tons of pieces of jewelry a day, but with some of these new techniques that I'm still a novice at, I can only get a few done a day - at the most :).

I'm also getting ready to release a small holiday collection for Erin Jane Designs. I'm hoping to get my photos finished, pricing done and launched on the website in the next couple weeks. I haven't released a new line since last spring, so I'm pretty excited. You'll see a lot of examples of my soldering...I couldn't really get enough. I'll keep you updated and also post some teaser photos :). Some seriously cool stuff.

One of my favorite (and most time consuming!) items I did recently, is this ring. I'll be putting it in my Etsy shop SOON! Here is a photo after I made the band, bezel and backplate and pulled it out of the pickle - plus the crystal quartz stone I would soon set. Then, the after...bling!!

I'm also working on a necklace setting - it's still a work in progress. Ugh, and it might be for a while. I'm having such a hard time polishing these little guys. I'm learning that there are still so many tools that I still need to make the job easier.

More to come soon...!

July Jewelry of the Month

Here is a simply fantastic bracelet that I am featuring this month.  Oh, I love it.   The oxidized sterling silver and gold filled chains are just a gorgeous mix.  It's both sweet and tough at the same time.  Not too big, not too small...just perfect.

You can find it in my etsy shop and if you type in "blog" into the note to seller during your purchase throughout the month of July, I will refund the shipping!