tumblr competition

recently i held a tumblr competiton, to win this:

and it went down quite well, i ended up getting nearly another one hundred followers! i'm still pushing because i really do love making my jewellery and i hope people like it too.

i have been working on some more new pieces recently, as usual, and i need to get them photographed properly for my etsy. but for now:

these are they.

what do you think?

order

wow, it has been a while hasn't it? i apologise. life has sort of been in the way a bit recently and i've only sort of started coming back to the whole jewellery thing.

so...

i have an order to send out tomorrow:

which mightily cheered me up as this morning i was declined for a nursery job i applied for. so if anyone else would like to cheer me up, feel free to take a little browse though my etsy and see if there is anything you would like.

thank you!

finished some new pieces

after buying more chain and picking up some findings from my store supplier a week or so ago i worked on finishing a couple of pieces that i had scattered around my "design bank." i think i've fallen slightly in love with the gun necklace though and am sad i didn't pick up two of the charms so i can make one for myself. i'm tempted to keep it but as most of my pieces are one off designs i think that a lot about most of my pieces and i would never sell any if i kept them all for myself!

i've fallen a little behind on posting things to my etsy recently but it's because i have been so busy with work and my photographer has been working 15 hour days himself recently that i haven't been able to get the pictures together for them yet. but saturday, saturday we both have off so you can find all my recent new pieces for purchase by the afternoon. if not, if there's anything in particular you would like, just e-mail me at ditzymakesjewellery@live.co.uk and we can sort out payment anyway and getting them in the post.

but for now...which new piece is your favourite?

big wardrobe

yesterday i joined big wardrobe.

it's actually really amazing. i spent hours and hours just browsing through every thing. basically it's a site where you can swap or sell items of clothing that you don't want anymore. and the site regulates what you can put into your "wardrobe" which i think is a good thing. it makes sure nothing rubbish goes on the site.

it's free, but only if you want to be a swapper, as a seller it costs £18 for the year but that's only £1.50 a month. not bad really when there are no extra charges to upload items, except if you want to add additional photos, but i rarely saw an item with more than one. you can add items to sections such as "vintage" or "worn once" and you have a box to describe in your own words the look and the quality so you can properly SELL your pieces.

as well as browsing categories you can also look at other people's profiles and wardrobes and add them as friends, so there's a proper community feel to it. it's definitely something i shall use regularly for clothing needs.

find my wardrobe here!

working on some new pieces

so i received the supplies i was waiting on the other day and got started straight away on creating. until i ran out of chain. so i need to pick up some more tomorrow with a couple of other things from my store supplier. i have made two of the mirror as i wanted to keep one for myself, but this one i'm thinking of editing somehow. i have ideas which i will figure out within the next week. so what do you think? do you like?

treasury

today one of my items (the chrysanthemum stud earrings above) featured in a treasury on etsy. my first ever treasury feature. as i think you can tell, it has made me quite happy! it's nice when people do genuinely appreciate my work. i know i have far to develop, and learn still, so it makes it all the more nicer, that so early on in my "career" people like what i create.

i know i've been a bit quiet on the whole making front at the moment. i've hit a wall with my current supplies and am waiting for more to arrive for some inspiration. they should hopefully be with me in the next week or two and i will try my hardest to create something new between now and that time.

new supplies

i ordered new supplies a couple of days ago and i am so very excited for them to arrive, though i have a while to wait as they're coming from china. i always love finding new interesting little pieces so when i stumbled across this store on etsy i couldn't help spending all my money! give it a couple of weeks to see what creations i make out of them...

bespoke order - wedding necklace

this is a piece i have had completed since the end of last year. a request mentioned in passing conversation with a friend about her wedding, to which i delved a little deeper, and the outline was "something simple and delicate."

so something simple and delicate is what i tried to create. the piece has a snake chain of 18 inches with a medium sized pinkish pearlescent bead and two glass iridescent swarovski crystal beads. my friend was happy with the piece and i shall be personally delivering it to her tomorrow in Leeds as it is her hen do and i didn't trust it going in the post without getting horribly kinked, like snake chains tend to do. i really hope she is happy with it in person!

the wonderful lady who i am talking about has a food blog here. please check it out because it is glorious.

bespoke orders

at the end of january i received a bespoke order enquiring about pearlescant elasticated bracelets with some form of cross involved. the customer needed two of the pieces, one for her priest and one for someone who shall be helping with her confirmation in march. the one very specific detail was that one of them had to be pink.

this wasn't a particularly challenging order as the customer wanted something very simple, but it was still fun nonetheless. i enjoy bespoke orders a lot as i am creating something the customer desperately wants and if i do well enough and they love it, then it makes me quite happy! it's a good feeling.

the finished pieces:

not the best photos but you get the idea.

if you would like to make a bespoke order, check out my etsy and the style of my jewellery, and e-mail me at ditzymakesjewellery@live.co.uk

in the middle of things

i'm working on a couple of projects at the moment that i'm sort of stuck in the middle of. i fell in love with the hearts so much that i just had to purchase them but now i need to find a way to use them. i'm thinking some stud earrings but need to find the pins that have a small enough backing, as the ones i currently have are too large.

and the new cameos? i'm content with the "must have" one but on the "celeb" one the glue went a bit funny and i'm not sure i'll be able to salvage it. at the moment i've hit a wall and i need to find my creative vibe again. i have an idea for a small quirky side collection, but at the moment it's a secret and i'll let you in on it when i've purchased the stuff for it!

i want some more time off of the day job to really sink my teeth into some more ideas.

barry m - nail paint

i have a new obsession:

i have found myself recently gravitating towards barry m's nail paint. i haven't particularly had long nails for that long, but now that i have finally gotten over my bad habit of biting i have found barry m.

i received the second from the right, colour - mushroom, from my best friend for christmas and after the first application i decided it was the best polish i'd ever used. i'm a low maintenance kind of girl. i like things that are easy to apply and good to go and these polishes offer a thick one coat application.

apart from the new one i bought yesterday, colour - peach melba.

after the first coat it was a little streaky and showed a fair bit of my natural nail underneath but it was made better by the second coat:

and it's something i can forgive seeing as it is such a light shade and it is a beautiful colour. and after the second coat it looked perfectly smooth and expensive looking. and next, the white is on my list!

and on jewellery... the button ring above is some thing i created this morning along with these two:

which will be avaliable on my etsy on sunday.

please tell me what you think...



twinnies! #girlsgottaste

on saturday night i went for drinks with friends, and my friend rebecca and i ended up wearing the same cardigan and the same boots for the evening. it was quite funny. though luckily becca used her cardigan as more of a "coat" with two thinner cardigans underneath. so it wasn't like we were both wearing it all night.

cardigan: H&M. boots: River Island.

i am also wearing one of my own rings and necklace in the photo, though you can't really see the necklace much.

but yeah #girlsgottaste ;)

a new collection

 i launched a new collection a couple of weeks ago on my etsy. today i posted new photos and a few new pieces to my store.

i'm quite proud of this collection. my previous was my first and even though i worked just as hard on that as i have this one, i think this one is more me, more pick up and go, more i love it so i want to wear it all the time. and i hope other people think so too.

the feedback i've received so far is all really positive. it mostly comes from tumblr and a bit from twitter but it's always so lovely and i really do appreciate all the feedback i get. it helps me learn and develop and make my business stronger. so please take a look for me, even just the views help!

ditzymakesjewellery

a new start.

hey.

i wasn't too hot at keeping up with my last blogger so i have decided to start again. hopefully this shall be slightly more successful. hopefully i'll dedicate more time and energy. hopefully.

so my name is lara and i am the owner/designer/creator and everything of ditzymakesjewellery. ditzymakesjewellery is a costume jewellery brand which brings you one of a kind pieces at a good value for money. everything is designed and assembled by myself with love, joy and care. it's something i discovered a love for about six months ago. i've always loved jewellery, for as long as i can remember, but it only clicked to start actually creating recently. i used to look at pieces and just think things like, "i love it but i'd take that bit off, or add this" and then it hit me. why not make for myself?

after therapeutically making pieces for myself and receiving the odd compliment here and there i decided that maybe i could sell some of my stuff. so i joined etsy and twitter and began.

i do it all purely for enjoyment and love to receive feedback from people and a sale is always a bonus. so please check out all my links and let me know what you think:

my etsy shop.
follow me on twitter.
follow me on tumblr.
become my fan on facebook.

and finally follow me here. i'll try and keep you interested and bring you my outlook on style and everything sparkly.