Work in progress - my new ceramic bead necklaces

Hi!

Lots of you said that you enjoyed seeing my behind the scenes/ work in progress photographs so I have been trying to remember to take photographs when I am making (I always seem to forget!) but I remembered this time (hooray!). I recently have been making some ceramic bead necklaces. I thought the cube beads were super cute and I am really pleased with how the necklaces have come out.

I made the necklaces in different colour combinations. Here is my purple, blue and aqua necklace. I can't decide if I prefer then on the white background or the wood background.

What do you all think?

Check out my full range of ceramic bead necklaces here

The Dorothy Days Xx

What I have been up to the past week or so....

Hello everyone,

Apologies for my blogging being a bit thin on the ground. It has been super busy here for last week or so meaning that blogging and social media has had to take a bit of a back seat. But.....hopefully it will all be worth it as I have had a super productive week and this has meant that I have loads of new items in my shop!

What I have been up to.....

1) I took some time out to visit my family. Family is super important to me so I travelled over to London to go to my cousin's birthday party and got to see loads of my family. It was so nice to catch up, see everyone and hear their news and is strange how we are all looking more alike as we get older! Eeek!!

2) I launched my new jewellery collection which is a range of one of a kind necklaces in glass, crystals and pearls. The collection would be perfect for weddings and special occasions as well as every day wear.

I am really pleased with how the collection looks and it is nice to have something completely different in my Etsy shop
 I ran my first ever giveaway on Instagram (also on Twitter) to celebrate the launch and gave away one of the necklaces which is part of the collection to this lovely lady who I hope will treasure the necklace for years to come.

3) As well as the new collection I have also been busy working on making and adding lots of new items to my shop including a range of bright coloured necklaces, wool ball necklaces and some vintage pieces.

4) All this listing meant that I hit a big milestone (YAY!) and I now have 400 different items listed in my shop! It has taken me a very very long time to get to this amount of items and is lovely to see lots of the pieces I have worked on available for sale in my shop.

5) I also met up with some other local Etsy sellers which was great fun. We met in a little local cafe and brought along our own craft project to work on. We also made team bunting for our Dorset Team 'Etsy Made Local' fair in December. I can't wait for the fair, it is going to be so much fun!

The Dorothy Days X

A glimpse inside my studio - The Dorothy Days

Hello everyone,

A few of you on Twitter have been asking about my studio and asking for some more 'behind the scenes' photographs. I thought this was a really fun idea and so when I was taking photographs the other day of products I also took some 'behind the scenes' shots so I could share them with you all and hope this gives you a little insight into how I create the products that you see in the shop.

I don't have a proper studio but instead everything you see in my shop is made in my home in the English countryside. I often take over the kitchen table, spread out all my jewellery tools and beads, stamps and tags and get making! This is also a great place for me to take photographs of my vintage items as the light is good and it is by the window.

First things first, I always start off a making or photographing session with a cup of tea! This is usually from one of my vintage tea cups (I have quite a large collection myself). My favourite tea at the moment to drink while I am making is Earl Grey

Because I sell quite a range of products (both vintage and handmade) I think it is important to me to have a motto so that my shop stays focused. I have used this motto as my shop motto for the past few years and it works well for me. 

Whether it is the garden, the beaches nearby or the rolling hills of the English countryside, it all inspires my work.

When I am making new pieces for my shop I like to get everything out in front of me, play around with different colours and combinations.

Here I am trying to work out some new colour combinations for my necklaces. I am a very visual person so playing around with different things and trial and error is how I work out what works best for my jewellery. I often will string up necklaces and then take them totally apart and try something different until I find something that works!

Some of the latest pieces I have been working on....

As well as making jewellery and tags, I also sell vintage. Here are some photographs I took recently when I was getting ready to set up a shoot for vintage tea cups. A lot of work goes into checking the condition of all my tea cups and researching patterns and shapes etc.

Hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse into what I do and 'behind the scenes'!

The Dorothy Days Xx