Gold initial necklace, personalised pendant, 14k gold filled

I started listing new items after a long brake. This is the first of many more personalized jewelry to come.

Gold initial necklace. A small gold disc personalised by stamping your desired initials on it. The disc is made of 14k gold filled and hangs on a delicate 14k goldfilled chain.

You can order this pendant is silver as well if you prefer.

So how do you feel about personalized jewelry? What would you like to see in my store? I'm working on the collection so now is your chance to influence how this line will look.

Symbols of love to make your valentine gift perfect

Now that the holiday season is behind us, we are on our way to the next special occasion on the calendar - Valentines day!
So how do you find the perfect gift that will express the way you feel? Jewelry has always been a great idea for a gift but to make it even more perfect, you want to get a jewelry item that has a symbolic meaning, that conveys a message from you to the person receiving it.

To do this you have 2 ways to go. Choose something that carries a special meaning to the person you love. If she loves a specific color, shape etc, pick something accordingly. This will say that you know her, know what she likes and  that you pay attention. What more could a women want?

The second way is to choose a jewelry item with a symbolic message of love and commitment.
There are all kinds of symbols that have become popular forms of expressing feelings:

Hearts
The most common and popular form of expressing love and emotions is through a heart shape. The message of this symbol is very simple - "I give you my heart" or "you have my heart in your hand".

Heart ring

Infinity symbol
When you give someone a jewelry piece decorated with an infinity symbol you want to express your endless love and say to them that you will always be there for them. Now that is a nice message to give or receive isn't it?



Infinity bracelet

 Circle
Circles are also considered to be symbols of infinity and love, simply because they have no beginning and no end. They symbolize a unity, a becoming of one. Another perfect message for loved ones.



Gold circle necklace


Roses and flowers
Flowers are always a wonderful gift to get the women you love. And they are also wonderful as inspiration for jewelry items. The best part about roses in jewelry pieces is that they stay forever.

Rose stud earrings

Bows and ribbons
These are actually symbols of gifts but when they are used to inspire a jewelry design, they can also express your love and your wish to give to the one you love.



Gold bow necklace

I know some people don't like celebrating valentine for various reasons but I personally like having a day to stop our everyday running and express our feelings to those we love. (Read more in my last year's post about Valentine). Remember, the gifts are only the way to express your feelings, not the main event. So don't forget to say and show that you care, with or without gifts.


Personalized gift wrapping

I always find that the way a gift is wrapped is a big part of the fun in receiving a gift. Who doesn't like receiving a beautifully wrapped box and wondering what's inside? All my jewelry are always nicely placed in a pretty gift box ready to give as gifts. But with Christmas just around the corner I discovered many Internet sites displaying great ways to personalize and upgrade your gift wrapping so I thought I'd share some of these ideas here.

 1. Photos - printing a photograph of the Recipient of the gift and placing it on the gift is a super cute and easy way to personalize your wrapping.  

Photowrapping

 2. Drawing your own wrapping paper. Instead of using a standard wrapping paper you can use a simple white paper and let the children draw some cute pictures on it. Or you can make your own drawings on brown paper with a silver pen. You can use stencils if you need some help.

  

Children drawing wrap

  

Hand-drawn gift wrap



 3. Another cool way to add color to your wrapping is using yarn to create a rainbow-like look.

Yarn rainbow wrap

4. If you are a bit more artistic you can weave a nice pattern around your package. It takes a little work but it looks awesome.

Weave-like gift wrap

5. Bows and flower are always a nice embellishment and if they are hand made, even better. Here are some cute ideas for bows and flower you can make yourself to add to your gifts. They are made of simple materials like magazines or cupcake paper.    





1. Cupcake paper flowers




3. handmade

flower



2. handmade

ribbon





I have found all these wonderful ideas while browsing around Pinterest. Feel free to check out my cool gift wrapping board there for more ideas.



Top 5

I was looking at my statistics for the month of November and noticed an interesting fact. It seems all the top 5 items that were most popular in my store this month, were rings! No earrings, necklaces, bangles, just rings. So thought I'd share with you what my top 5 popular jewelry items were:

5. Bubble ring.

4. Black rose ring

3. Square opal ring

2. Set of 3 hammered gold-filled rings

1. Branch ring

Wonder which items will be most popular next month.

Chaos, and my new year's resolution

I know it might be a little too early for a new years resolution, but I have made one anyway! I decided I need to get a bit more organized. Normally I work well in chaos. I always say that chaos has it's own internal order that others just can't see. But a few weeks ago I was visiting a friend's studio and it was so perfectly organized and so stunning that I got really jealous and thought to myself - "I want my studio to look like that too!"

 Of course that's easier said than done. You can't just take a chaos created in years of work and magically turn it into a well organized work place. So it's a work in progress. I've started with installing a new big table, buying new storage drawers from Ikea and now I am in the middle of going through piles of boxes and trying to organize what's inside them in a way that makes sense. In the process I have discovered a lot of supplies I have forgotten I even had, so I guess that's also a bonus!

Since I am doing this while also working on orders, stocking and preparing for the holiday season and life in general, it will take some time until everything is done. But I figured if I write About it, I will feel more obligated to follow it through. Hopefully it won't be too long until I can post some pictures of my new and improved studio. In the mean time, here are some pictures of some new items I've been working on and that are now available in my store. Enjoy!

Black Friday goes international !

It has been a while since I last wrote in my blog. I had a lot of things on my plate and I just didn't get around to it. But I am back now!

I wanted to share some thoughts about black friday. Black Friday is basically an American thing. A few years ago I didn't even know that it existed. As I live in Israel where most people are jewish, Christmas is not celebrated here and there is no shopping frenzy.

But as the world becomes more and more of a small global village, in recent years several shops here in Israel started having black Friday sales and this trend seems to be catching on. After all everyone loves a good sale and you don't even need a special reason for it right?

So far I have seen these sales mainly in electronics stores which is not very helpful since I don't need any new electronic devices right now (I always want new devices but I really don't need any). But who knows if this trend continues to spread, maybe I will also be able to enjoy great sales without having to travel overseas!

I am also having a black Friday-cyber Monday sale in my Etsy store. Use coupon code "cybermonday" when you purchase something from my store and you will get free shipping. No limit on the number of items you can buy, everything ships for free worldwide. Happy holidays and happy shopping!

Rose inspired jewelry

I am a big fan of flowers when it comes to sources of inspiration. There are just so many beautiful shapes and colors that I can always find new ideas for jewelry just by taking a look at the nature around me.

Lately I've been infatuated with roses. Unlike other more simple flower shapes, roses have a more complex form with many layers of petals.

When working in sterling silver, I choose to convey the depth of the layers by oxidizing some parts of the rose. This way I get some contrast that make the flower shape stand out much more.

Another dilemma when making sterling silver roses is whether or not to add color. Roses are of course colorful while sterling silver is not. Lucky for me I don't have to choose. In some of the jewelry designs I combined gemstones that add some color. In other jewelry designs I left in silver color alone thinking the roses were pretty enough and needed nothing more.

Take a look and decide for yourself which do you like best?

1. Silver rose ring
2. Dangle silver and red Agate earrings
3. Sterling silver rose stud earrings