New website and a cocktail ring

I did it. I'm live!!! My new website that is LOL. I almost hyperventilated when I turned it on, but I did it!!! I'd love to hear what you think - go to Annette Piper Dip. Gem. Handcrafted Jewellery and check it out. (Hopefully I haven't made too many mistakes on it!)

It has been a bit of scramble with taking new photographs or re-editing good older pics, writing descriptions and loading stock onto the site, along with doing shows, having the children on holidays and making orders and new stock. Yes, I feel a little in a whirl!

Now begins the slow process of building my rank up in the search engines and getting 'noticed' all over again. *sigh*. Maybe I should ask Designing Hilary for some tips - she recently had a wrist slap by google for being naughty for repeat content and as a result her page rank plummeted ... but I see it is making a return to the higher numbers. Good girl!

I have the Coolah Spring Gardens Festival this weekend and will be at the Pilca Butta homestead on both days if you happen to be wandering around the vicinity! I really must get organised for that. I note I have been tagged AND received an award too - I will post on those next time (never enough hours in the day!!!).

After MANY requests for rings, I took the plunge a few months ago and started with delicate little gem rings which have been really well received. Then the requests escalated to not just 'rings' but to 'cocktail rings'. OK. I took up the challenge and have a made a couple to see how they're received. One is pictured above and I just love the amethyst focal stone which is surrounded with more amethyst - light and dark for gleam, sparkle and interest, all put together with argentinium sterling silver. The rings are very comfortable and sit snugly along your finger yet still make quite a statement.

Till next!

Quirindi last week, Merriwa this week...

I feel a bit like that old saying about tours "if it's Tuesday it must be Rome" LOL. Although I'm not quite going to such exotic locales, doing two, two-day shows a week apart is surprisingly tiring - I keep feeling like I've forgotten something and my to-do list never seems to finish!

Last weekend was Quirindi and I had such a wonderfully warm welcome from the organisers and lots of ladies I met on my recent appearance there in July. I was tickled pink when one woman told me that she saw the advert for the Quirindi Show - it mentioned 'jewellery' and she had hoped it would be me! :) There were only a few other exhibitors selling items that were non-sideshow alley and they were lovely, friendly people.

Lots of beautiful pieces (a lot of them new, including the piece featured in my last blog post)have found new homes where I am sure they will be loved!

This weekend I have Merriwa Show and get to see all my lovely clients from that district and maybe some new faces too. This is the 100th anniversary of the Merriwa Show so it promises to be a big weekend. I hope the weather holds out! Once again I will be located in the Fairfax Pavillion so come and say hello if you're at the show.

I am very behind on my blog reading however I was doing a scan of the Small Business Diva's blog and found a wonderful quote I would like to share: “Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous - not just to some people in some circumstances - but to everyone all the time.” Thomas J. Watson, 1874-1956, Founder of IBM. Something we can all aspire to.

I must also say thank you to Elaine from Commotion from the Ocean of Life blog for her award (received while I was on holidays thus my tardy response!). This blog is a great read and one that I love to catch up on. Thank you!!!



The rules of this award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated.

So, in the interest of sharing the love downunder, I've picked some Aussie blog favourites:

1. Tickiboo
2. Ickle Kids
3. La Toriana
4. My Day Off
5. Marnie B
6. Small Business Diva
7. Australian Women Online

Ooops, almost forgot today's jewellery picture! This is a beautiful banded agate and freshwater pearl bracelet that tinkles as it moves. I've used Argentinium sterling silver to help prevent tarnishing and keep the silver wonderfully shiny. A timeless combination of black and white means this one will be worn for many years to come!

Till next :)

A productive week

I have had FUN the last week - lots of lovely new pieces made with such varying stones as sodalite, bronzite, carnelian, brown zebra jasper (looks just like a chocolate milkshake LOL ... really, it DOES!!), pyrite, glaucophane, rough and super smooth rock crystal quartz, chrysocolla, amber and sunstone.... Yep, pretty happy with my productivity this week :D

I finally got around to sending a newsletter out to clients too - I am so slack in that department! For some reason I think they are following my blog, but I am sure most of them don't even know it exists!! I have already received some contact from people who have received the newsletter, so it was definitely worthwhile. I need to get over the feeling that I should leave people alone - I know I need to be reminded to have a look at my favourite sites occasionally, so I'm sure others are in the same position and perhaps even welcome my contact!

I have subscribed to the RSS feeds on a lot of my favourite sites and blogs - it makes it so easy to keep up to date with them. (Both this blog and my website have the option either on the page or via the IE toolbar to subscribe to updated content through the RSS feed). My favourite shopping referral site is My New Shiny Shoes. I check my RSS feed for this store at least every second day and Michelle always has something worth looking at and investigating. She also has a free service that will help you find you that evasive, long searched for item, in an online store. As I live fairly remote from shops, I have requested and received help two times (and I have just sent off another request as well)! She seems to know HOW to find things - whereas I just seem to spend hours and hours searching and all to no avail!

I haven't taken pictures of all my new items yet, but above is a bracelet I made a couple of weeks ago, whilst in a very purple mood! Made with amethyst discs that have been linked together to form a handmade chain with argentinium sterling silver (fantastic material - it's tarnish resistant!), then adorned with little charms of purple freshwater pearls (also on argentinium). The easy to do up/remove toggle clasp is sterling silver.

OK, back to the bench for me.....have a great day!

Rose quartz 'charm' bracelet

Here is another bracelet in the "charm" style ... this one has the underlying structure of rosy-pink rose quartz linked together to form a handmade chain of argentinium sterling silver. The "charms" are vibrant purple freshwater pearls, glowing white freshwater pearls, peridot the colour of new grass, icy rock crystal quartz small nuggets and dark amethyst balls.

To add some extra interest I have added Karen Hill Tribe (handmade in Thailand of high content silver) charms. Near the clasp there is a little elephant, then a cute decorated moth, a horseshoe for luck, a jolly looking turtle, a rose bud and a fan. The colours are inspired by the season of spring (even though we are in autumn here in the southern hemisphere) as we could always do with a little lightness and brightness in our lives.

Rose quartz is a perennial favourite - its soft pink glow flatters most complexions and it is universally considered a stone of love. For a great read on the metaphysical qualities of rose quartz, visit the The Modern Goddess at her blog post here.

Till next :)

Aerobatics, a bracelet and Etsy considerations

How was your Easter break? As planned we spent ours at Parkes, with our faces pointed to the sky watching aerobatics. My face is sunburnt with "airshow" face as we call it in our house LOL.

Here is a pic of hubby in his plane as he is getting ready to take off. Nice plane, heh!? Its a Giles 200, the prototype in fact and it goes FAST. A high performance aeroplane that hubby is still getting used to!



Not much achieved in the jewellery stakes, although I DID take some bracelets to make whilst I was sitting around and waiting. I set them all up before I left so I didn't have to think - just do! I have included a picture of one of them at the top of the page. Following on from my last blog post, I tried to let a child's creativity out - throwing some colours together that I wouldn't normally try and I think it works in a slightly eclectic way! The main structure of the bracelet is dark navy dumorterite balls, which have been linked together with argentinium (tarnish resistant) sterling silver into a handmade chain. Then 'charms' of lilac coloured freshwater pearls, dark amethyst, dusky pink rhodonite and pale green aventurine. Finished with a little sterling silver toggle clasp. The combination took a while to get 'right' - I didn't want the green or pink overwhelming the rest of the bracelet, but on the other hand it was too plain with the blue/purple combination. The actual 'making' took about two solid hours, so these style of bracelets are pretty time consuming to do. I was completely out of this "charm" style, so I managed to get a total of three done over Easter. I will post pics of the others over my next couple of posts.

I have been seriously considering opening an Etsy store. I reserved my store name waaaay back when Etsy first opened, but I just haven't had the push to do it since I already have my own webstore. I always get busy and then it goes back to the bottom of the pile! I know of lots of people who have stores there, and they report varying degrees of success. There is so much talent there, I guess it may be easy to get lost unless you regularly put up new stock. Cigarboxbeads, an Etsy seller herself (she creates incredibly detailed beadwork), is currently featuring some of her Etsy finds on her blog - it is a great place to get an idea about the huge range that etsy offers without getting overwhelmed!

Have a great day!