Closing Down My MADEIT Shop

It really has been far too long since I blogged. When I look at the last post, I can't believe that it was in November last year. We all know that I am actually quite hopeless at blogging, and my new years resolution LAST year (2010) was to blog a bit more often. A resolution I promptly broke within the first few months. So here I am now, feeling guilty that my blog has remained unloved for so long.

But I haven't just been sitting around neglecting my blog. Quite the contrary! I been keeping myself busy with my jewellery making and experimenting with new techniques, which as always, has been a lot of fun. I've delved a bit into metal work now and even playing around with a little wirework too. Nothing official has been produced yet though, as I do stress they are all just experiments at this stage. I still love making chainmaille pieces and will quite often get the beads out too and see what I can concoct with them. I've also been playing around with iPhone photography and using Instagram as a means of posting these images. I do enjoy a bit of photography, so it has inspired me to use the old DSLR for more than just taking photos of my jewellery! I post most of the Instagram photos on a Tumblr blog, I'd love for you to check them out!

I have also placed some of my pieces into a local gallery and gift shop in my town called Urban Cow Studio which displays works from over 150 local artists and designers. I am very proud and honoured that my work is a part of this amazing establishment. I also intend to approach more local businesses in the warmer months.

My Etsy store is still up and running, but I do have to announce that I am to be closing my Madeit store within the next few days. I choose to close my Madeit store as I am wanting to take a new direction with my jewellery making, sales and promotions, and would like to focus on having just the one online venue, working on my website and getting my stock into the real 'bricks and mortar' stores. I'd also like to focus on more markets too. For now, I have simply transferred any remaining Madeit stock to my Etsy store, so if there was an item you may have had your eye on, it will still be available on Etsy. In the coming months you should hopefully start to see some different varieties of jewellery. So it is farewell to Madeit. I have done well on Madeit and met some lovely sellers through the website, but the time has come to call it a day. I hope to see you all over at Etsy, or you can find me on Facebook for frequent updates on what's going on.

All I Want For Christmas Sale!

The All I Want For Christmas SALE

is now running in my Etsy and Madeit stores!

Saturday 13th November - Saturday 20th November

Get 10% OFF the final purchase price (excluding shipping)!

Just add "10% OFF" in the Message to Seller box on Checkout and I'll refund the 10%!

It's GIVEAWAY Time!

Yes, it's Giveaway time again!

I've decided to have a giveaway on my new website, and up for grabs is this Set of 3 Scale Flower Magnets. These magnets are handcrafted using Anodized Aluminium Scales and Bright Aluminium Rings with a Ferrite (ceramic) magnet attached to the back. Although Ferrite magnets are not as strong as the Rare Earth magnets, they are frequently selected for their durability and their high resistance to demagnetisation. These little guys will hold up to 3 sheets of A4 paper.

So, come and check out my website for more details!

http://www.greenstarjewellery.com/giveaways.php

My New Website!

www.greenstarjewellery.com

I had always toyed with the idea of starting a website. I've always been intrigued with web design, but have never had the drive to study and learn all that is involved. Many, many years ago, I got my hands on a copy of FrontPage Editor and created a cute little website that I uploaded onto Geocities (when they still existed... or do they still exist?) and a few years after that, I got a copy of Dreamweaver and also tinkered around with that, although I never came up with a finished product. Recently we got ourselves a new iMac that came with a copy of iWeb. I STILL haven't ventured into this program (I have evry intention of doing so though), but took a slight shortcut and decided to use Yola.com as a quicker and easier method of creating a website for myself. So last week, I decided to buy myself a domain name (through Yola) and Yola would host the website for me. I paid $20US for the domain name and Yola host it. You can also get a free website through them, or you can pay extra and get all the works! It was incredibly easy to design and within a few days I had a basic website that I could publish live to the web! It still needs A LOT of work done to it, but for now, I think I'm pretty pleased with the end result!

What do you think?

Celebrating 100 Fans on Facebook GIVEAWAY!

So we finally hit the 100 fan mark on Facebook and to celebrate, I'm giving away this cute little chainmaille keyring! It's my way of saying thank you to all you folks who love my fan page.

This little keyring sells for $20AUD and is handmade using Bright Aluminium and Rubber EPDM rings.

All you have to do to be a part of this giveaway is:

1. Go to my Etsy or Madeit shops and choose your favourite item.
2. Go to my Facebook Fan Page, become a fan and post your favourite item.

That's it!

The giveaway runs from Sunday 15th August until midnight Wednesday 18th August. The winner will be notified via a message on Facebook.

SO! Head on over, time is running out!

What I've been Doing Lately.

I have been busy doing so much lately. I've probably over-committed myself but I'm enjoying it! My last post mentioned that I had signed up to a Tumblr blog, which I am still posting regularly on. I've also signed my self up to Maillers World Wide, a forum for chainmaillers and folks who work with metal. It's been great seeing how much fabulous maille there is, the amazing artists and the inspiration in incredible! I've also signed up to Facebook. I swore I would never do it, but decided that a fan page would be another cool way of promoting my stores. So apart from all the social networking, I have been creating a lot of jewellery, maille and beaded, and also working on making treasuries. They are so much fun. Blue Maille (above) is my most recent.

So, I know I've been neglecting this poor old blog, but I do like to pop in and keep things up to date as much as I can!

Feel free to stop in at either of the my Etsy or Madeit shops, check out my Treasuries or even become a fan of my new Facebook page. I'd love to see you there!

Tumblr

So, I haven't been keeping up with my blogging on here. I generally have a bunch of things I want to blog about, but just haven't got the time to sit down and get it all out on here. You have no idea how many images are in my "Blog" folder on the computer, all waiting to be published on here. Time goes by, and the images become old news, so I don't bother anymore. I know you don't have to write loads of stuff on your blogs to keep your readers interested, you can keep it short and sweet, or you can write the equivalent of a thesis if you want to! I prefer to keep mine short now. I see something and want to be able to blog about it quickly, so that's why I've chosen to open a Tumblr account. I can quickly upload images to the new listings in my stores, plus post images and links to other things I might come across while I'm browsing on Etsy and Madeit. It's all done so quickly! I will still blog on here from time to time, but if you want to catch more frequent and to-the-point posts, then Tumblr is where you'll find me! If you have a Tumblr account, please let me know so I can check it out! You can find me here:

http://www.greenstarjewellery.tumblr.com/