Wednesday Already??

Well it's not been the best few days for me, but I'm getting back on track!
It's a lovely day outside, if a bit windy just now. I live about a mile from a air base and the tornado's have been out all morning, you only usually see them once but it's been about 7 or 8 times today so far, they must be making the most of the good weather too :)


I've attempted to make a pineapple and ginger cake too, it's on the oven just now so we'll see how it comes out, probably a little burnt, I'm not used to electric ovens!! But nothing a bit of icing won't hide :)


So the July Jesters. Everyone seems to be doing really well, my sales have dropped off, even the views aren't as high as they were so i need to get back to promoting it again and hope things pick up, although that seems to the the same for loads of folksy people.


Anyway here's my listing for the day



I love ribbon and have been playing around with it for a while. I think i still need to refine the length and the placing of the ribbon to get it to lie exactly how i want it to, but i think on the whole it works pretty well, chuffed with it :)

As usual there has been some lovely items posted today, here's a few of my faves from today (and there goes another tornado!!)



These gorgeous earrings by Damselfly Gemma (which would go great with my necklace!!)


Next up is London Fogg



It's no exaggeration to say i want just about everything in their shop, i love steampunk (i blame back to the future for my love of it!) but have never braved making some steampunk jewellery, maybe i will give it a go

And my final choice for the day is from Ickle Imogen



Another shop i could quite happily spend all my pennies in, some great stuff!!


Right off to see if the cake has worked, wish me luck!!


Laura x

Rainy Sundays

I've had the weekend in Edinburgh visiting my parents, it's a rainy one here today! Driving back home in a bit though so glad it's not too hot, i'm getting the usual one tanned arm you get while driving :)

Played about a bit with the blog layout, not sure how much i like it but will give it a go! And got my July Jester listing up and here it is :)



There is as usual some fab listings over on Folksy today, think these so far are my faves:



Gorgeous little pic by Pavlova, love the retro look of this :)



I'm a lover of the polymer clay and this bracelet is so cute (as is the necklace from yesterday)from Buttons and Beads gifts



Gorgeous patchwork bag  by Aiden :)

Well that's me for the day

Have a good one everyone!!

Laura x

Sweetie Time...

Here's today's listing :)



Another cute Jelly Baby necklace :) This time featuring Baby Bonny.

I love these and making them is one of the most fun items to do. They were my first experiment with making silicone moulds and i'm prettu happy with how they turned out, so now moulding is a bit of an obsession, look out for more to come

Oooh did you know Jelly Babies were origionaly called Peace Babies? They were launched at the end of the 1st World War and didn't become Jelly Babies till 1953. There's a fact for the day :)



I've also come across some really cute blogs, if you're a fan of Kawaii this is a good one to check out, her photo frames are amazing!!  http://petitecafeotete.blogspot.com/

Off to annoy the dog now, if you have a dog try giving them a coconut, Oscar goes daft over his :)

Laura x

Folksy Friday and July Jesters part 2

So I'm going to combine the 2, my second listing for the July Jesters and my first ever Folksy Friday.


First up my 2nd listing of the Jesters 

a cute cherry bracelet :) Check it out at
http://www.folksy.com/items/623725-Cherry-Bracelet?shop=yes


So on to Folksy Friday

For my first one I've picked the theme of ribbon and lace and these are my top picks:

Candyfloss Created gorgeous lace and ribbon cuff

I love this, it's something completely different and utterly gorgeous (and on my fave list for payday :))

Check it out at http://www.folksy.com/items/454773-Victorian-Lady-Collection-Regal-Lace-Wedding-Bracelet

Second up is CocoAngelRose's utterly beautiful brooch

Can be found at http://www.folksy.com/items/321669-Frippery-Brooch-Pin-No-25

This would be a great addition for any outfit or bag and i have my eve on it to jazz up my black dress

And lastly this cute tag by Just for You Cards

Def one i would want to have as a keepsake, it's lovely!!

You can find it at http://www.folksy.com/items/549813-Beautiful-Vintage-Gift-Tag-Wedding-Anniversary-Keepsake-

There is so much lovely stuff on Folksy and these are just a few of my faves :)

Laura x

July 1st

So day one of the July Jesters and this was my listing:

I'm working on the mix up between the kitsch and the more grown up, this is one of the grown up ones :)

Pretty quiet day today, have made some bits with buttons and am just going to finish them off

Hope all the other July Jesters had a good listing day. I'm hopefully gonna have more time tomorrow once I'm out of my interview so look out for day 2 and hopefully my first ever folksy Friday :)

Wednesday's Stuff

Well what a difference a day makes! Yesterday was horrible, and i got no sleep last night, but today has turned around. I got a phone call about a job, someone i didn't know but who said i had come highly recommended to him, whoop!! It would be a 7 week contract running the electrics side of a venue, yay!! Hopefully i 'll know by then end of the week if it's going to happen but i hope so!! Yesterday i thought the phone was never going to ring and there it goes today :)

Well 3am insomnia has some benefits, I've started putting together my first ever folksy friday with the theme ribbons and lace (all coming about cos i found a cuff i really love and want to buy!!) and i made some more bits. Sold 2 things tonight, one my little pony necklace and one charm bracelet.

so all in all a much nicer day :)

The Glums

Today is a bit of a downer. I now work freelance and I knew going in to it it would take a while to get going but it's starting to get to me now waiting for the phone to ring or a email to come in. The industry I work in isn't exactly huge, and now I'm not living in a big city or even that close to one, it's even smaller. I know I'm doing all I can, just have to keep applying for things, keep sending out my CV and hope the phone rings. It's a wee bit soul destroying and financially very scary, too much work has always been my problem before, not having enough is a new one on me. But I decided this was going to be the year I made the changes so here they are. And it gives me time to focus on Little Red Star. There is so much more I want to do with it and to expand it, so I guess one good thing about my current situation is that it gives me time to do that. I've never really blogged or used twitter before so all that is new to me, but it's proving itself just now. It's interesting to see on the folksy forums that there is a lot of people coming out of work for whatever reason and are giving their crafting a go full time, I really hope they all do well with it, there are some amazingly talented people out there. 

So now I guess it's time to do some more promotion, look for more places to send my CV too and go in search of some biscuits, they always help with the cheering up :)

Analytics

Do you use it? I get a little obsessed when I remember about it, there's something lovely about seeing you're site visit percentage increase by over 2000% :)

So was having a wee look through it, I've started using facebook and twitter a lot more for promoting my jewellery and I wanted to see how it was doing (somethings working cos my sales are steadily going up, yay)
and it threw up that on Sunday 30 people from wedding ideas mag came my way. After a bit of searching I found it was the result of this http://tinyurl.com/28dewpe  So thank you whoever you are :)
It's really nice to see comments from people you don't know and it just goes to show where your work can be found.

So now I'm off to see where else the visits have come from, if you haven't installed it I would def recommend it :)

Laura x

Where's the sun??

Well it's not in Fife that's for sure!! It's so windy outside it's crazy!! Before the wind got too bad I did manage to get some of the newest makes photographed in the garden (the light inside is a bit rubbish and i hate working with artificial light unless I have to, I find the daylight bulbs a bit off too, think I'm just too fussy :)) so at least i can get a few new things up on folksy. I've been neglecting etsy a bit too, and ironically have just had some sales through it. So maybe it's time to do a bit more with that one too.

The most recent stuff is a bit of a return to the kitsch, I've got some strawberry shortcake charm bracelets, sesame street charm bracelets, my little pony necklaces and care bear necklaces and earrings coming soon. I like the mix the shop is developing between the fun and the kitsch and the more grown up looking stuff, caters for every occasion :)

Check out the Little Red Star page on facebook and see some of the other new listings :)

Look what I found!!

While I was sorting through some of the bits I've finally got round to moving in I found this wee guy. When I was wee I used to sit and draw for hours and make things out of fimo (back in the day when no one else seemed to know what it was!!) and I remember making lots of wee animals. I was also obsessed with horses and i think i must have made this when i was 7 or 8, so he's about 20 year old!! My mum used to keep them in her unit but somehow I've ended up with this one again. I'm sure there's a pig lurking somewhere too. What do you think?

June's ramblings...

So I'm nearly all moved in, by the end of the week all will be done, thankfully!!

Today I've been making the most of the sun and the Internet and getting some new bits and pieces ordered and working on the website. I'm also going to start actively using twitter more, my brother is a bit of an addict so am gonna follow his lead. The website is taking shape, currently it just re directs to the folksy page but in time it will stand alone, all very exciting

A few etsy sales so that's good. Been buying some stock, watch out for care bear and my little pony items!!

I'll put some pics up of the new makes soon but for anyone interested check out www.littleredstar.folksy.com

Laters!!

Well the attempt to keep this regulary updated failed :) although i didn't have internet for a while so that's my excuse!!
So things are plodding along, on a big folksy list mission today. I decided I was going to focus on folksy as oppsed to etsy, then sold some bits on etsy, typical!!
I was also approched by a PR company through etsy about taking part in a blogging thing, i need to go over the onfo propery and make sense of it but it seems if i donate a item to them to use as a prize in a blog giveaway they will give me free PR for 4 months. Sounds great, just have to get it checked out
In other news, i won a runners up prize for one of my charm bracelets! The bead shop scotland ran a competition on their facebook page to find a winner and 2 runners up with scottish themed jewellery. So i sent them a pic of one of my irn bru charm bracelets and got runner up! I was amazed cos the winner and the other runner up were amazing, nothing at all like my kitsch-y stuff. The prize was a massive box of beads, most of which have now been put to good use. So thank you very much!! And check out the bead shop scotland for their amazing range!
Well i will try and upload some pics later of the new stuff, just trying to get it all sorted just now.

Jelly Babies and other sweets...

So the last few days have been spend making molds and starting to cast from them, the first of the Jelly Baby range is under way. So far there's charm bracelets, brooch's and necklaces. I now have one of each moulded so can really start having a play. And the good thing is i have a custom order for them already, yay! :)

The business cards turned up, I'm loving them, they look fab. For any one needing any go to moo.com, they're a good price and look great. I shall definitely be ordering some more of them :)

The etsy shop is getting updated, once I've got the listings live I'm going to get working on better descriptions, just want to get them live first. Still selling some bits through eBay so things are still on the move.

I was back in Edinburgh at the weekend and paid a visit to the bead shop so I've lots to be playing around with!!

Moulding fun

I keep putting it off but tonight is the night to make some new moulds. My first batch were more of an experiment but they suprised me by turning out pretty well, most of them anyway!! so tonight is the night for some more. I've been collecting various bits and bobs and some of the more experimental fimo bit's i've done will be getting cast, so wish me luck :)

The latest...

It's been a busy old time in theatre land so pretty quiet in the jewellery land! Although I have a few more bits and pieces made that I just need to get photographed. Working on the Etsy shop, still got more to get up there and doing all the wee bits and pieces like ordering the business cards (moo.com is great!!) and getting everything catalogued. It's getting there!!

The first of the jelly baby range, a bit of a bugger to mould but we got there :)

The first of the cupcake bracelets.

They come in a range of colours and are developing all the time :)

The Cupcake kilt pin brooches.

cupcakes are becoming a bit of a theme!!

The Ribbon and Dice necklace. Fiddly to make but looks amazing!!

The start of the earrings using some old beads I found in a pile of old jewelry

My computer keeps freezing or i'd add a few more, I'm slowly getting things up on etsy so check out www.etsy.com/shop/littleredstar

Well Hello...

So here's the first Little Red Star blog post.

I've spoke about it on other blogs and social sites so thought it was time that I set one up just for the jewellery. This is the place where you can find examples of my work and thoughts on what I'm up to.

But first I'll tell you a bit about it all :)

I'm 27 and live in St Andrews, Scotland.

I am a trained Lighting Designer and have spent the last 6 years working is various roles in theatre, most recently as a Technical Manager

I have always had a big interest in design and have spent most of my life involved in it in some way

I decided 2010 was to be the year of change for me, and in March Little Red Star was created, bringing together a hobby I have taken part in for some time.

I have been selling the odd bits and pieces on ebay and to friends and family but now is the time to step it up a bit

I like making things and the idea of creating something from nothing, be it with light or polymer clay!

I make the things I like, things that are fun, cute, a bit kitsch and always colourful and things, most importantly I would buy myself :)

Cuteness is a big theme for me and I love all things Kawaii, which comes across in my work.

I use a range of different materials, some old, some new. Polymer clay is a current fave.

I like scouting around junk shops and car boot sales for things i can reuse in my jewellery, i have got some fab bits that in time will become something special

I hope you like it and any feedback would be greatly appreciated :)