In case you missed it, here's what's new in my shop this week!  By popular demand, I now offer something other than satin cords and hand crafted chains!  I've added a selection of silver chains and clasps so you can customize your own silver chain and add it to your order!  Now you have 3 strands of chain to choose from, which can be cut to any size, and 4 clasps so you can pick your favorite.  I hope to add more chain options in the future as well.

This unique, one of a kind summer necklace is also available in my shop!  The pink flower is made out of silver wire and pearlescent pink drop beads and topped with a white pearl.  Two different sizes of leaf shaped dream catchers, woven in green, are attached behind the flower for a bit of overlap that has an elegant and natural look.  A single green glass leaf bead is attached with silver wire to the end, adding a bit of color.  This necklace looks fabulous with the flower shaped earrings I listed in my shop last week!

Another new design to my shop this week are these quartz hoop earrings!  Crafted from silver wire and smokey rose quartz beads, these drapey earrings look very romantic and dreamy.  I intend to list more earrings in this style.  You can look forward to a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes!

And of course there are a few new journal designs available this week!  This gothy black journal features subtle script and ink blotches on both covers and the pocket.  If you're looking for a brighter journal, there's a beautiful full size butterfly journal available in my shop!  Two new minis are available this week, but with a matching full size journal in my shop.  If you're looking for a nice little birthday journal to go with a gift, look no further than this candles mini journal!  Perhaps you'd rather have a mini journal that inspires happiness and joy, then grab this cute red mini journal featuring words and phrases of encouragement.  If you're looking for more journals, both full size and miniature versions, check out this section of my shop!

Don't forget that today is the last day to enter my giveaway for a $20 gift card to use in my shop!

Interview Feature: SilverRoseSewing

Today’s feature is with a fantastic shop, SilverRoseSewing! Silver offers adorable plushies, currently available is the teddy bear, dog, cat, and kangaroo! I was lucky enough to win her giveaway for a custom plushie and chose a modified kangaroo plushie. Silver was so nice to adapt her patterns to my request and I can’t wait to receive my plushie!

How did you come up with your shop name?
I used the name Silverrose on another blog site, but originally it came from combining my favorite band (Silverchair) with my middle name (Rose). It feels a little silly going by a different name, but I wanted something that would be separate my shop from me as a person.

Why did you start your Etsy shop?
I started sewing in late May of this year. I had been out of work with a back injury since January, and when I was cleared to come back to work, my company laid me off. I worked for a corporate child care and the company decided to shut the school down this year. I knew I would be let go eventually, but I hadn't realized it would come so soon. After being at home for 5 months, 2 months of that spent on bed rest, I was getting really bored of just watching daytime television and reading books. I couldn't imagine doing the same old thing for another 4 months until I could find another teaching job. So I decided to try to sew my own clothing. I had a pretty good time with it and I seemed to have a knack for it. My boyfriend suggested I try to make something different and some former coworkers thought I should sell my work. I decided to try to make teddy bears, because that's what I would want to buy! The first few tries were not good, because I was using someone else's pattern. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted my bears to look like, so I modeled my own pattern after my first childhood bear. It worked! I found Etsy browsing online and jumped right in! I've only been doing this a little over a month, but it's been a lot of fun.

How long have you been a crafter?
Only a little over a month now. I've always enjoyed creative endeavors, like dancing, singing, etc. But creating my bears is a very fulfilling way for me to use my time between jobs. I get to be creative, put different patterns and colors together, and it makes me feel like I've been productive for the day. I actually started my blog before I started crafting on Etsy. I was feeling pretty down about what had happened this year with my injury and my job, and I read Julie Powell's book "Julie & Julia." She talked about how blogging gave her a positive experience and feedback and I thought, hey, maybe I should do that! And it all snowballed from there.

Does your shop reflect your personal style?
Definitely. Each of my bears is very different, and it depends on what kind of fabrics I see in the store that catch my eye. At first, I started out using buttons and very nursery-like fabrics. I'm slowly trying new ideas, like Asian brocades and Indian sari fabrics, making the facial features out of felt and so on. I'm still playing around with my signature facial features, so each bear is truly unique. I'm going to try to make an "emotion" line, of plushies with surprised, happy, glum, sleepy, etc faces. And I might try to make some minis that are smaller, since my current design is fairly good sized. My next project is going to be a rainbow bear...I've always loved using rainbows and I'm really excited to see how he turns out!

Where do you draw inspiration from for your products?
Mostly from colors, textures and patterns I see at the fabric store. My initial inspiration was Pookie, my first and favorite bear. He has such a simple and cuddly design and he's just the right size! I don't really like working with typical "teddy bear" fabric, I'd rather explore colors and patterns. I like that my creations are a bit whimsical. I had a bear made for me when I was 10 that had a floral pattern and I just loved that idea. I guess that's where my love of using patterns comes from.


Is there a piece in your shop that was hard for you to part with?
Probably Ruby the kangaroo. She came about by accident. My boyfriend wanted me to make my puppies with a 3D nose, and my first try just looked like a kangaroo! I thought it was so cute that I made her with a pouch and a long tail. She was so adorable, I didn't want to let her go, but I know I can make more. I'm sure she'll be very much loved in her new home.

Care to share an idea or item you hope to have in your shop in the future?
I'm excited about my rainbow bear, which will have his different parts (ears, paws, tummy, and feet) in different primary colors to look like a rainbow. I'm hoping to work on a koala to go with my Ruby kangaroo. And I have a couple more brocades that I haven't used yet that I am excited about. I'll also be making a cat and maybe a dog for a local animal shelter out of their signature bandannas to put up for their auction in September. That should be really fun, but it won't be in my shop.

What’s the most important piece of advice you can give to other shop owners?
I'm just starting out, so I think I'm the one who needs advice! I thought when I started that my items would sell right away, but that is definitely not the case. It is slow going and it can be frustrating trying to get yourself out there in such a HUGE community of crafters. I think the best thing would be to get to know some other Etsians and start networking so you can help each get seen. I think my favorite thing so far is getting a "look" for my shop and blog, so when someone sees my pink banner, they recognize that's Silver Rose! A great artist, Brixton Studios, made my banners for me and she did a great job. I think that's my favorite investment so far. :)

Want to be featured on my blog? Send me a convo on Etsy!

Interview Feature: MissCristal

Today’s interview feature is with MissCristal! Her shop offers wonderful, bold jewelry and she’s also popular for her fantastic Bargain Belles! To kick off the interview, MissCristal shared a bit of background about herself.

I was born in London, first child of a Spanish mother and Irish father who had just moved back to England after living the good life in Denmark, so that makes me a bit of a mongrel. I've been living in Spain since I was 7. I studied Comparative Literature and Literary Criticism in Granada (Southern Spain) and did a postgraduate in Communication, I also have a course in Business Management. I founded my own publishing brand (Parnaso) in 2004 and have been working in publishing and as a critic and translator since then. I currently live in Mijas Costa, Málaga, also in Southern Spain, next to the Mediterranean I adore. I turned to jewelery making as a way of getting a bit of extra income, since the current recession in Spain is making it a lot harder to earn a living. I am currently 28, have had a stable relationship with a historian-turned graphic designer for the last 8 years, and two lovely kitties I'm quite mad about.

How did you come up with your shop name?

The most important thing for me was having a name that made sense both in English and in Spanish, since I'm catering to the Spanish and the Anglosaxon market. Jumping from one language to the other is second nature to me, and Miss Cristal just sounded right in both. Hence the spelling of “Cristal” (in Spanish) instead of “Crystal”. It was also a case of finding something for my website that wasn't already taken. And that's where www.misscristal.com started. Funnily enough www.misscrystal.com was already taken... by a dominatrix.

Why did you start your Etsy shop?

There aren't really many efficient online shops for handmade items. I started with my own website for my Spanish customers but was looking for other venues that could give me more exposure; I tried Dawanda and really liked their European flare and friendly style. Unfortunately, their movement is very limited in comparison to Etsy. I actually registered in Etsy in 2008. For some reason I couldn't register my credit card, so just left it and forgot about it, until I had another go at the end of last year and finally got the system to acknowledge my existence!

How long have you been a crafter?

I'd like to say “since I was born”, but I have no idea if I was crafting at the early age of one! I've been artistic for as long as I could remember, I started writing stories as soon as I could jumble words together on a piece of paper, and I usually illustrated them. I continued to write and paint inconsistently, until I went to University, studied Theory of Literature and realized anything I wrote was doomed to wither under my snobbish, critical gaze. Even so I still wrote poetry, more for the love of performing at readings than for pride in my art. For some reason there are very strange people out there that like it, and I had a book published last year. I painted on and off, more as a therapeutic resort than for actual art, and as my job got more and more stressful (I'm a publisher in a country that doesn't read that much), I took up jewelery making, which has an incredibly relaxing effect on me.

Does your shop reflect your personal style?

Very much, yes. After going through a very goth phase I've gone back to colors with a vengeance. Most of the stuff I make comes from a personal desire to wear a kind of jewelery I can't find in the shops. I have countless pieces I've made and never listed in my shop or offered for sale: if a piece doesn't do anything for me, if it doesn't make me feel fantastic, I don't think it'll do anything for other people, either. I adore all things baroque and extreme: I love corsets, tutus, high heels and big hair, I like dressing up and building personal styles. I usually wear several very long necklaces at once, in variations of red and black.

Where do you draw inspiration from for your products?

I think there's a part of my brain concentrated exclusively on whatever artistic project I'm on that activates itself at around 2 o'clock in the morning. Inspiration gives me insomnia. It usually stems from anything, anywhere: from a pair of earrings I see on someone on the street to the color of the sky that day. I wish I could grab things magically and twist them into exactly what I want; unfortunately things never come out quite as I envision them, but that's part of the fun!

Is there a piece in your shop that was hard for you to part with?

I have a few pieces I've made that I've kept for myself, such as a HUGE long red necklace made with multiple strands of beads and hand-painted pieces. It's enormous and weighs a ton, and it always gets a few gasps. I don't think I could part with that, but on the other hand I can't picture anyone wanting it, except for Lady Gaga, maybe. There are some other pieces I couldn't sell, such as a very long striped red and black necklace I wear with everything, or my strand of Haitian pearls, that I bought to tear apart and use the pearls for other pieces, but love too much.

I was very nostalgic recently to part with my Green Delight necklace, it was one of my first listings on Etsy and one of the first necklaces I made with hand-painted beads. It wasn't hard, though, since I knew it was going to a good home and a wonderful customer.

Care to share an idea or item you hope to have in your shop in the future?

I wish I could! I have tons of ideas, but many of the items I make appear out of nowhere, and are unexpected even for myself! I'd love to train in lampworking and/or in metalsmithing, and plan to do so as soon as I have the time and money. I'm trying to focus and make a few simpler items for customers who aren't extravagant color freaks like myself, and I've been experimenting with wire-building, using sturdy wire to make chokers and cuffs. I have a fantasy of constructing a glass bead corset out of strong silver filled wire. Some day it might happen!

What’s the most important piece of advice you can give to other shop owners?

Don't try to do what everyone else does, that never works and it's very unsatisfying. Be flexible and stay open to constructive criticism, but learn to ignore silly, empty criticism too. If you believe in what you're selling, sooner or later it'll sell; if you don't, it won't (that's one lesson I learned the hard way). And don't be afraid to give up. Sometimes it's a good thing.

If you want to find out more about MissCristal, you can find her on Etsy, Facebook, Twitter, at her own website, or her blog!

If you would like to be featured on my blog, please contact me at my Etsy shop!