My First Craft Fair

I was recently asked to participate in a charity Craft Fair to raise money for the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in Farnham. Although I'd never done a craft fair before, I thought it was about time I did, and how can I refuse when the money raised is for such a good cause?

Everyone made me feel very welcome when I arrived, and there was a steady flow of people visiting all the stalls throughout the day.    I tried to explain to people who visited my stall that because I make the jewellery by hand myself, to just ask if they didn't see something they liked and I'd try to make it for them.  Or if they liked something but would prefer a different colour, I'd be equally happy to go away and make it for them.

One lady really understood this concept, and asked whether I could make some "treble clef" earrings for a music-lover.   I told her I'd never tried to make treble clefs before, but I was happy to give it a shot!  She was really happy with the result (and so was I!):

I was incredibly pleased with the amount of interest my little craft stall received, and happy that the hospice benefitted from it.  The "best seller" of the day, was the set of "Christmas Angel" earrings in silver (pictured).  (Two ladies both wanted the last pair at the same time!):

It was a great atmosphere and I may be inspired to participate in other craft fairs in future ... watch this space :-)

CraftsLink

I recently joined a website I found that displays and promotes hand crafted items.  It was called CraftsLink and it promotes and shares the work of artists from various niches, whether they are in business or doing it as a hobby.  I've since discovered it is a lovely community to be a part of, and it feels like it has potential for even better things to come.  

This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find that my profile on CraftsLink was currently their "Bio of the Week!"  Thank you to everyone involved in CraftsLink for being so supportive of my new venture.  I'm really happy to be a part of this community, and hope there are other crafters out there who are inspired to do the same.

If you want to find out more about CraftsLink, they also have a blog so you can keep up with the latest news.   There is of course also a Facebook CraftsLink community and Twitter too!  Keep up the great work guys  :-)

NCT Raffle Prizes

It's been over a year since I gave birth to my baby girl, and the time has gone so quickly.  The pregnancy itself was abnormally difficult, and there were long periods where I was bedridden and unable to move without help.  But of course, as every parent knows, it was worth it.

The National Childbirth Trust provided me with a lot of support during that difficult time, and I was pleased to be able to give something back to them recently.  I created these two sets of earrings for a charity event they held in Basingstoke, and the earrings ended up being raffle prizes.   I think everyone had a good time!  I then offered identical earrings at a discount on my facebook page, and was surprised at just how quickly both pairs disappeared!

If you like these, you can find them for sale on the Inner Fyre website's charity page.

Christmas is coming!

A friend of mine is literally counting the days until Christmas, and has been since about mid-September.  For a lot of people I think it's a magical time of year, and for others it's a time for family. 

This year, our daughter will be 15 months and walking around, which is very exciting.  We're hoping to get together with family over the festive season and not be blocked in by snow this year!

Meanwhile I've been making some wire-based festive earrings.  These photos show some Angels and some Christmas Trees I've made.

There are also currently a couple of other designs on my "Seasonal" Page.

These were fun to make and equally fun to wear  :-)

Compassion Fashion Project Celtic Choker

Some of you may have noticed Meredith's comment on the previous post.  She originally asked for a design with black crackle beads, but after some discussion changed her mind to black onyx, with a couple of black crackle beads included in her pendant.  I thought you may be interested to see the finished celtic choker with pendant and earrings, so here are some pictures of her set, which I sent off to her a couple of days ago. 

I really love the way this came out - good choice Meredith  :-)

Introducing the Compassion Fashion Project

I'd like to talk to you today about a project called the Compassion Fashion Project.    Their strapline is "Saving the World in Stilettos." I think this sums up really nicely what they are trying to achieve, which is to raise money for good causes, using fashion to do it.  Although based in the USA, their aim is to help communities all over the world.

I was originally approached to design a "one off" piece for a charity auction, but I preferred the idea of donating a design, such that money is donated to their causes for each piece sold.  When coming up with something for the Compassion Fashion Project, my inspiration was the word "compassion," which brought images of "people with a heart" to mind, hence I decided on a heart design.  Here is a picture of what I have desgined for them, which is a pair of earrings and a pendant. 

This design can be made in any colour, with silver or gold plating, people just need to let me know what they want and 50% of the price paid will go towards helping the CFP with their funds.  You can find more information from my website here.   You can also read the interview that I did with the CFP here.  There is also a picture of a pair of earrings that I made in this style, with silver plated hearts and dragon's vein agate gemstones on the CFP website here.

Breast Cancer Awareness

I think all mums like to get involved in things that are going on in their children's lives.  

My daughter's nursery are doing a raffle this coming Wednesday for the charity Breast Cancer Care (http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk).  So of course I was pleased to get the chance to donate a pair of earrings as a raffle prize for such a worthy cause.

Although October (or "Pinktober") is officially Breast Cancer Awareness month, for people suffering from this horrible disease, it affects them 365 days of the year.  And everyone seems to know someone who has been affected, even if they haven't been affected themselves.  So I've decided that for everyone who orders a pair of these earrings, (the beads can, of course, be changed if required,) from the "charity" section of the website (http://www.innerfyre.co.uk/Home/CharityPieces), 10% of the price paid will go to Breast Cancer Care.

New Website, New Blog!

Although I've been making jewellery as a hobby for a number of years, I hadn't officially set up as a registered business until last month.  And so far I've loved the journey - I've learned a lot about running my own business and what it involves, and it's given me extra motivation to be even more creative!

So far I've set up the website (www.innerfyre.co.uk), and the facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/InnerFyreJewellery), set up the Twitter account (@InnerFyre), and now I thought I would set up a blog too  :-)

My focus is on making jewellery which is based on wire patterns integrated with beads, creating pieces which are more unusual than the kind of things you might come across in the shops.   Whenever possible I try to create jewellery specifically with a person in mind, as the jewellery is much more personal that way.

I've called these earrings "fish" (hopefully for obvious reasons), and have pictured them here just to give an example of the kind of jewellery I make.