Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and New Year!

Well, this will probably be my last entry before Christmas day. So I would like to wish all my blog followers and anybody else who comes across my blog before then, a very Happy Christmas and New Year. I hope Santa brings you lots of nice things and that you eat and drink lots!

I wrote the following for somebody else's blog recently when asked 'What does Christmas mean to you?" Anyway, it didn't get published (I didn't think it was all that bad) and it took me all morning to write so I will leave it for you here....

"Christmas is a time where the world unites in happiness and any negative feeling or actions are put aside. A time when neighbours become neighbourly and enemies become friends. It is a time where family and friends come together and celebrate the things that they are lucky to have. It is about looking back on the past year and looking forward to the coming year with renewed appreciation. Christmas is about children, the excitement of the days before and then seeing their happy faces when opening presents. That’s the magic that Christmas brings."

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2010 and let's hope it is a good year for the crafting world!

Mick x

A lock of my son's hair set in jewellery...

I made this last week and it is a lock of my son's hair preserved forever in a piece of jewellery. The hair is set in resin on a sterling silver bezel and I am sure you agree that it makes a very unique keepsake.

I think it will join the growing number of pendants that I have put into his baby memory box. It will probably make a young lady very happy when he is older and he opens his baby box to find a hoard of lovely pendants! I hope if that happens it is given to somebody very special.

Hair keepsake pendant

Anyway, unintentionally this pendant has given me an idea. If think I will start promoting this service on mum and baby forums and magazines...what better satisfaction than preserving something so special into a piece of handmade jewellery.

I've already made a start and added a page to my website that can be seen here...Lock of Hair Preserved in Keepsake Jewellery

My latest custom order - Preserved Gold Cross

This is my latest custom jewellery item that I finished last week. A lady wanted her broken gold cross preserved into a resin pendant. The cross is over 70 years old and very fragile, so as you could imagine I had to take special care with this one.

This is the cross before I started to work on it...

 

A broken gold cross pendant

And this is the cross embedded into a teardrop pendant. It has been finished with a 9ct gold 8mm jump ring...

Broken cross preserved within keepsake jewellery

What a beautiful way to preserve a piece with sentimental value!

Is having a craft stall like giving birth ?

I wouldn't know because I'm a man but this is how I see it...

I had a stall at a local school at the weekend and although it went really well, lots of sales, nice comments and possible orders, I still find it a painful experience. I am not really a selling kind of person; I love being in my own world making my jewellery but as soon as I have to share it with anybody else, my body turns to jelly.

I haven't had a stall for six months and I think the painful memories of the last labour must have been forgotten (Its funny how the brain does that to you). Anyway I crouched there behind my table (they didn't supply chairs) and thought 'what am I doing here?'. Sandwiched in between several 'bought-in jewellery' stalls and another selling 'bought-in babies clothes', sweat pouring down my face because we were all stuck in an unventilated class room, all kinds of people fiddling with my bits and I thought....is this what it's like to give birth ?

(Apologies for the lack of pictures, but I was so overwhelmed by the occasion)

I'm not one to blow my own trumpet but...

I have to share this comment mailed to me this morning from a very happy customer.

  

"Shpangle jewellery allowed me to create a piece so personal that it holds far more sentimental value and is cherished above any pretentious and expensive piece. Not only did it allow me to create a piece that I had envisioned for a long time it was made quickly and with great care, allowing my full input at each step. The end product was exactly as I imagined and when presented to its recipient, it brought on a flood of joyful tears. It really is the only way to get a perfect piece of jewellery."

Custom made daisy flower bracelet

It brought a tear to my eye when I read it. This is what crafting is all about isn't it!