Mosaic Earrings!

It's quite exciting over here in Trouble HQ because I've got a new line of mosaic jewellery now available - mosaic earrings! These are still in the very new stages - I've only made 5 pairs so far and I'm now waiting on more backings to arrive before I can make some more. But thought I should share them with you.

None of them are yet in my Etsy shop but feel free to drop me a line here if you are interested in any of them. They will be £22 + postage.

Pendant and Earring set - £42 + postage

What do you think? I'm excited - almost excited enough to re-pierce my ears so that I can make myself a pair!!

Mosaic Mania!

Despite the ankle surgery and spending most of my time presently lying on my bed I have managed to get up for a few things...

I've had a few custom orders in the past few days - one from a lady who ordered a pendant from me and as soon as it arrived ordered another one! That's got to be a compliment and a half, right? I can't show a picture of it yet as she ordered it as a present but her feedback was lovely:

"I am thrilled to bits with the necklace, it is simply beautful. Could you possibly make another one as quickly?"

So I've spent a fair amount of time in the garage over the past week making some mosaics pendants. What do you think of my new designs?

Of course I haven't just restricted myself to pendants... I've made a few new rings and a pair of cufflinks as well:

And the good news is that the physical bricks and mortar shop up in Highgate has sold a few of my pendants too so I'm going to have to restock there as well! Here are two of the pendants I'll be sending up to them later on this week (the others aren't quite finished yet...)

I've also been having requests from all sorts of people in the past few weeks about making mosaic earrings. I have to say I've been a bit dubious about them as part of me thinks they'd just be too heavy. But I've been convinced to give them a go. I haven't actually made them up into earrings as yet (I'm going to need to go into a craft shop to buy the fittings in order to do that first) but there are designs for 2 pairs ready to put together properly and see what they're like...

So it's all go on the mosaic front! So much so in fact that I need to put in some orders for new stock! Hmm... best get on with that. I have ambitions of moving onto bigger and better places this year and I'm going to need a fair amount of stock ready by August at this rate. Off I go to check out my suppliers...!

Etsy Treasury

I've been over on Etsy almost all day today. I finally got around to taking some photos of jewellery this morning and spent quite a long time editing and trying to get some listings up. As a bit of a break from photo editing, I had a bit of a browse in some of the shops belonging to members of the new team, British Emporia, that I was invited to join yesterday. British Emporia is still in its very early days (as in it only came into being yesterday) and at the moment all the members are crafty folk I already know from the Etsy community which is great - lots of friendly faces. Anyway, I decided that I would make a treasury today as I haven't made one for ages.

I do have a bit of an issue with finding the time to make treasuries and I'm not sure if I am the most talented when it comes to colours and finding things that work together. But here's today's attempt. If you click on the picture, you'll get sent to the treasury on Etsy from where you can browse the individual items and see some other things that these lovely shops have to offer.

I managed to post up a few listings today as well... 

What do you think? (Click on the pictures to go to the Etsy listings) 

I've got a few more photos up my sleeve to list over the next few days, so please go over and have a look over the next few days! http://www.etsy.com/shop/creatingtrouble 

Mosaics for Men?

At both of the craft fairs I've been to recently people have asked whether I make any other kinds of jewellery with mosaics as well as pendants. The one that people keep coming back to is cufflinks - can I make some mosaic cufflinks as it's really hard getting presents for men?

I've been a bit dubious about making things like cufflinks or earrings as it involves making the exact same design twice. This doesn't sound that hard but sadly glass has it's own mind and will do what it wants, not necessarily what I want it to do! Even when I make a design more than once, it is always slightly different so I worried that it wouldn't look right. However, I finally came to the conclusion that people don't walk around with their wrists together comparing whether they are exactly the same and it's a hand-made, unique gift so... why not? 

It took a fair amount of sourcing to find suitable bezels for the cufflinks, but I think I have finally found some. I only got five pairs to start with as I wasn't sure how they would turn out and I obviously haven't made all of them yet - it takes a fair amount of time to make a design, cut the glass, make sure it's the right size, cut another piece because the first piece wasn't the right size, go and find a plaster as you've cut yourself again... sand down the pieces so they are smooth, attach them, wait 24 hours for them to dry, grout them, polish etc etc... and even longer to make two of the same! What do you think of those that I have made?

I can't quite get the colours right on the photo - these are a deep red with gold

Art-Deco Black and White

My personal favourites - shades of green with gold

I'm really happy how they have turned out. I'll be taking these ones with me to my craft fair this weekend where they'll be available for £20 a pair. If you'd like a pair yourself, just send me a message through the contact form saying which pair you would like. I also do custom orders so if you would like different colours / a different design, please just let me know and I'll see what we can come up with! 

Wonder Hill Market

Roll up, roll up for this Sunday's Wonder Hill Market. It is normally held on the last Saturday of the month near Borough Market at London Bridge but... they are also holding fairs over the next few months at Keston Lodge in Islington. And guess what? I'm going to be at Keston Lodge this Sunday (10th June) from 12 - 5pm for the Wonder Hill Market. It's all about supporting local artists, ethical shopping, vintage and upcycling and I'm really happy to be a part of it. So, if you're free this Sunday please, please come along and say hello to me and the other artisans.

Click on the picture to go to the Wonder Hill's website to find out more

Details are:

Sunday 10th June

12 - 5pm

Keston Lodge

131 Upper Street

Islington

N1 1QP

Looking forward to seeing you there... 

A Glamourous (Craft) Fair

Sorry I've been more than usually silent this week. I genuinely haven't been looking at my laptop, let alone responding to e-mails etc. Why? Because I've been manically busy! Today (Saturday 28th) is a milestone - in about 2 hours I will be in Islington's Library Bar setting up for A Glamourous Affair - my second ever craft fair. I'm a lot more calm and collected about this one - probably because it's in my own area and I don't have to trek across London to get there, but also because I still have lots of necklaces etc from the previous craft fair. In fact, I haven't actually made anything new for this one. Instead I have been working on making my stall look better. It didn't help that I got confirmation 2 days ago that I would be having a round table. A ROUND table? But my stall is set up for a rectangular one! Oh well, I'm just going to have to adapt.... What I have now got is bunting with Creating Trouble written on it, a mirror and some jewellery boxes. I had run out just before the last fair and hadn't realised until it was too late to order.

So why have I been so busy? Well, first of all, I am back at work with all the stresses that involves (getting up early etc!), secondly my social life seems to have gone into overdrive the last few weeks (in a good way: I've been very cultural and artistic!) and thirdly I have 2 commissions on the go, of which one of them is for 10 homemade bags. So I have been spending most of my time trying to get those done! I still have another week...

Anyway, off to do some last minute bits and get my gear ready. If you are around in Islington, please come along to the Library Bar from 12 - 5 and see what there is in store!

Upcycled Jewellery

Almost a year ago a friend of mine broke her favourite mug, and instead of throwing away the pieces, she brought them all over to me to see what I could do with them. It resulted in a lovely mosaic necklace (you can see the original post here). Being a bit of a hoarder, I didn't throw the leftover pieces away once I'd made the pendant - I kept them despite moving house in the interim. Originally she wanted to make some other necklaces for her family but somehow never got around to it. This week I was thinking about what designs to make with my new haul of pendant bezels and remembered the mug. After a lot of searching, I finally found my broken china and glass bag of goodies.

And got to work with smashing it up some more... Woah! I had totally forgotten that porcelain is much tougher than glass so you need a lot more muscle to break it into pieces. And once you DO manage to break it... the pieces fly even further afield! One bit managed to totally clear the kitchen counter and land next to the sink on the other side of the kitchen. That's a jump of nearly two metres. But I did manage to cut some successful pieces and was quite pleased with what I'd cut.

Next came the sanding process... ARGH! I sand every piece of a mosaic pendant so that there are no sharp corners for fingers to catch on. Because the porcelain is so much tougher than glass, it was really hard to sand down - and to actually soften the edges took much much longer than it does normally. But eventually they were sanded down properly, attached and left to dry for 24 hours.

And here they are - grouted and finished. 3 new pendants based on one broken mug by Cath Kidston. What do you think?

p.s. Sorry about the photos -  I've been a bit excited about using Instagr.am this week...

Having a great week...

It's been a great week here at Trouble HQ. I've been making pendants like a mad woman - my poor flatmate must be despairing at all the mess I've been making in our flat. It's a bit of a disaster zone in our kitchen at the moment! There is a reason for it - I'm gearing up for the craft fair I'm doing in March.

This week I've got lots of lovely parcels - look at my lovely tiles, millefiori, pendant bezels and glass pebbles!

And I also went to my favourite glass shop and came out with these pieces:

So obviously I've been using some of my new goodies in this week's designs...

Rather weirdly the photo of the last pendant appears to have reversed itself somewhere between taking the photo, editing it, giving it a border and arranging it with the other two photos and uploading it. I have no idea at what point that happened...or how for that matter. So you just need to remember that the millefiori star is actually on the right hand side, not the left. 

 Also this week - I sold 3 pendants! Hurray! They were some of the ones I'd made last week and were new designs. In addition to that, I've had loads of compliments so, all in all, it's been a productive and positive week so far! Happy days.

Busy bee

Exciting news! I'm going to hopefully achieve one of my New Year's Resolutions in the next few weeks. I'm going to do my first craft fair. I've been making mosaics for 2 years now, have been on Etsy for a year... it's about time I pulled my socks up and actually went properly out into the wide world and did a fair (or two). So, if you are in South London on Sunday 25th March, then come along to the Balham Bowls Club where I will be along with a number of other artisans showcasing their work. You can find more details here: http://www.emmabarrettdesigns.co.uk/upcoming-craft-events/

Anyway, obviously the fact that the fair is happening fairly soon means that I have been as busy as a bee for the past week or so trying to get some things ready to sell. I've been mostly concentrating on mosaic pendants recently - my fingers are now shredded to pieces with tiny (and not so tiny) cuts. I thought I'd share some of my designs with you - hopefully some of you will give me some feedback! 

Oh, and if you particularly like one (or more) of these, then just let me know and I can list them in my Etsy shop for you.

Love the Weekend

It's been a good weekend - well apart from the fact that I haven't left the flat in days and am going a little crazy... But I was really excited on Friday when I checked my e-mail and discovered that I had sold 2 (yes, 2) mosaic necklaces! How great is that? So a massive thank you to Julia from MyApplique who bought them (check out her Folksy shop - it's cute!) Part of me is a little sad to see them go - the mosaic one is one of the very first necklaces I made, and the Red Reflection one is my favourite design. But I'm glad they're going to such a nice person. Just in case you've forgotten what they look like - here are the two necklaces in their boxes about to be put in the post:

Posting these turned out to be harder than expected. I don't have business cards yet (because that would make me feel like a grown-up) so up to now I've been printing off a small card with the Creating Trouble logo on it and using it instead. Except for last night my printer decided it just didn't like me. At all. After about an hour or so messing around with it, Andy decided to try printing with the same printer from his Mac. And of course, it liked him. Admittedly we only managed to get one piece of paper out of it in full colour, and normally my cards are a LOT smaller than half an A4 sheet, but at least we managed to get something!

It was such a palaver (love that word!) Andy decided to design and order me some business cards. They should be arriving on Wednesday or Thursday and I'm really excited to see them!

AND... I follow quite a few other blogs and tend to comment when I see something I like or get asked a question. This weekend Kate from Scientific Culture posted a picture of one of her yetis and asked what people were up to this weekend. Apparently my comment was the most interesting response (it involved turning into a Yeti to be able to move) and she's sending me one of her cute badges! How cool is that?

Go & check out Scientific Culture on Etsy - really cute badges & more!

I'm getting a Yeti Thumbs Up badge... it's so cute! And in fact has quite a lot of character so I think he deserves a name... Any suggestions? Thank you Kate for deciding to send me a badge :-D

Mosaic Pendants

My grout arrived! I'm still fairly new to Mosaics so I was a little worried about mixing up grout myself - last time I tried to mix up some grout I managed to make a watery mess. So with a little trepidation I found myself a pot and poured in some of my anthracite (dark grey!) unsanded grout and started adding the water...

And it worked! Hurray!

So then I let myself loose on the pendants. I still find the sound of scraping over glass more than I can really cope with - the sound is like nails down a chalkboard. But it luckily didn't last too long and, once they had been shined up a bit I think they have turned out alright. In fact, I quite like my pendants... now I need to find some decent silver chains to go with them.