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Shout About It - February 2019
After a long time pondering marketing, signage and all that jazz; I finally bit the bullet after an email offer popped up from my business card supplier. The offer was too great, after a quick design afternoon it was ordered. Looks good but a bugger to put up when you have limited space.
See you soon
SJJx
The Up's and Down's - January 2019
The past year has been full of up's and down's just as life. The closure of my stockist Place To Be was a sad blow to Newcastle as a hub of creativity and as a great outlet for handmade. Had a little break from Facebook posting for a while to see what difference it makes; found out - not much. Markets remained a constant, Leek Market seems to have grown in size and in brilliance; all down to the amazing team at Totally Locally Leek. My own hometown market; Uttoxeter Makers Market continues to attract the hardy local residents; however the market is continuing to be food heavy, which is pushing the designers and makers away.
See you soon
SJJx
Starting the Website - February 2018
I always knew that I wanted a website from the minute I started Sarah-Jane Jewellery back in 2016, however starting one is a minefield of the internet. After a great deal of research and countless night of wonder I chose Big Cartel. I knew that at first I did not want to pay for a website that my not get a lot of traffic and monthly plans were not for me, everyone offers different price points ranging from £5 per month to £20+ and i could of course gone out and found a fine website builder to do me an all singing all dancing affair for anything up to £1000.
It turned out it was easier than I first thought to get it started (wise words, as I type the site is not launched!); figuring out the page set up, items to sell, photos (how many days of bad light have we had in February - seriously), getting PayPal Business set up (Big Cartel only uses PayPal and Stripe in the UK so my beautiful Square reader has to just be used for my Markets) and constant tweaking. More tweaking will be on the way, for sure. The downside to a free site is I only get to show/sell 5 items, but I hope that I will be able to swap some round and change them as the seasons change.
I hope you like it - SJJ
The Curated Ear - March 2018
I have always had a little rebellious streak and when I had my chance I struck out and had a couple of extra ear piercings (my Father hated them and at all moments told me to take them out). As I started my working career I was forced to remove them and later on would not be allowed any jewellery at all, not great for someone of my background in Jewellery. After my redundancy my first thought was to get back to wearing all of my earrings and jewellery and doing what I wanted, I have even made earring ranges which started out just to fit my piercings; I have been contemplating getting more ear piercings and tested the waters with an ear cuff. The years of ugly large piercings are behind us and 2017/2018 is the start of The Curated Ear - the major player in this revolution has been Maria Tash who has a piercing studio inside Liberty's in London. The Curated Ear is about getting a bunch of piercings at the same time (and to complement your existing ones), which styles your ears in a deliberate way and adds to your own personal style. It is about how you wear other jewellery pieces, your own style, metals, colours and how the make up of your own ear (it's anatomy).
What would you do? Pinterest is awash with photos of ears, earrings daintier the better, pierced in every part of the ear possible. Tragus, rook, daith, surface tragus, anti tragus, lobe, upper lobe, helix, snug, anti helix, anti snug, industrial, forward helix and my new piercing of choice - flat. Anything is possible, go ahead and gets some piercings done - SJJ