Epic Fair or Epic Fail?

 

I was really excited about the spring fair; the Christmas fair was very successful. I made quite a few sales and had a lot of interest. On Saturday we arrived at the hall for the Spring Fair I noticed the size had decreased. In November the fair took up the main hall and both smaller side rooms. This time everyone was cramped into the main hall. The organizer told me there were more vendors which is unbelievable. In the winter we were placed by one of the entrances so we got a lot of foot traffic. This time we were in the corner between the Baptist Church stall and the hand-woven woolen items. You’d think that since both those stalls were heaving with people we’d still get a lot of traffic, but no. Funny enough everyone walked by looking up to the ceiling as they passed our stall.

I’d hoped that some of the happy customers from Christmas would come back looking for more treasure. The only recognizable face was our neighbor, who did mention that she loves her ‘Jacqueline Frosts’ and she still wears them.

As posted on FB and Twitter, I had a lucky dip on the day. Prizes included not only earrings but chocolate and stationary. The Lucky Dip did bring a bit of interest, especially from the older gentleman who luckily drew a bar of Cadbury’s chocolate. A few youngsters took a dip to get earrings for their moms for Mother’s Day which is in the end of March here in the UK. But no one made any purchases.

Needless to say Saturday afternoon I was crushed. I guess I shouldn’t have been though. I should explain that Wraysbury is a small hateful town which masquerades as a lovely quaint village. I would say racist but they weren’t particularly nice to Neil’s mother when she moved here 60 years ago because she was from Germany (and Jewish). There aren’t many minorities here, and the town is run by a few self-absorbed, close-minded, bossy people. If I had my way I wouldn’t live here; I hate it! And when I get to leave I’m going to post a seething rant on the “village” fb page to tell these people how I really feel.

I shouldn’t be upset that they weren’t interested in my earrings, although I am. What upsets me more is that they didn’t bother to look at the product because of who was sitting at the table. Unfortunately my circumstances will not let me travel to other places to do fairs and shows. So I’ll have to stick with the blog and social media for product exposure. And I’d really appreciate it if my loyal followers would share posts with their friends to expand my reach. Don’t share this one though, I don’t want people to think this is what it’s always like!

MacMillan Spring Fair and Coffee Morning

 

This Saturday is another MacMillan Fair and Coffee Morning in Wraysbury and once again we will be there selling our earrings. The morning really is a lot of fun! Local vendors, made up of local small businesses and non-profits, will be selling new and used merchandise. There will also be delicious cakes (biscuits, cupcakes, fruit cake and chocolate cake in December, both were yummy!) as well as coffee and tea.

The set-up is nice; there are tables and chairs set up so you can grab a cake and coffee and sit and chat with friends. In December the vendors' stalls lined the room and the tables were in the center. I didn’t go around personally and look at all the vendors but I could see another jewelry vendor, ladies accessories, plants,  stationary, baked goods, nutritional supplements and hand knit woolen items. There is also a raffle, the winners are announced at the end.

Like last time I’ll have some surprises on the day. Plus our prices are lower at the stall (no shipping!), so if you are local and have seen anything you like come along and check out our stock. I’ve also made a few pieces especially for the fair; they haven’t been featured on the blog.

 

 

First is this pair in Onyx, they are the same as the Garnet Queen which was released in February, in addition to onyx beads they feature a crystal chambala bead. Next there is this lovely wooden pair. These Retro earrings feature an oblong and a round wooden bead with bronze colored bead spacers.

 

 

 



I made this pair with the remaining crystal hearts from Love Hearts. Each earring has only one heart.

 

Finally this is the first pair I've made that feature Jasper and hematite beads. I will be using jasper beads in the future but I wanted to have something to show at the fair. Jasper is a very earthy stone, not necessarily beautiful like garnet or sapphire but it has it's own charm. I love trinkets made of this type of stone. My mother has a lovely box made of this stone.

 

 

 

 

MacMillan Fairs and Coffee Mornings really are a great way to spend the morning. And all the proceeds go to MacMillan Cancer Support. So please come down and support us on Saturday between 10am and noon.

 

Wraysbury Village Halls The Green, Staines-upon-Thames, Wraysbury, Staines TW19 5NA

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/''/wraysbury+village+hall/@51.4582091,-0.6256265,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m8!4m7!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x4876709a5765227d:0x8fed39e7851187cc!2m2!1d-0.555587!2d51.45823

 

Aqua Marine

 

These are not Aqua Marine! Let me say that up front. These are beautiful blue glass beads that I got last year. A few weeks ago when I was having a creative streak I made these one evening while watching TV. I had just watched a video of someone making jewelry and thought I’d try this specific setting. Then I bunched the beads up together; I wanted a range of sizes and shapes of the colored beads. Once I was finished I knew I’d save these for March since this is really close to the color of March’s birthstone Aqua Marine. But again these are glass beads and not Aqua Marine.

 

Really I was messing around trying to come up with an idea for wedding earrings this year. I have given it a try but that will wait a few months. But I love blue! And these earrings are lovely.

 

As I said they are glass beads of different sizes and shapes. The clear beads are a mixture of glass and acrylic beads. All of the findings are silver plated and the fitting can be is kidney wire (as seen), fish hook or clip on (additional cost). The earrings hang about an inch from the ear.

Just one more week! Next Saturday (18^th) We’ll be at the Wraysbury Village Hall for another coffee morning fair. There will be tea, cakes and coffee on offer and lots of stalls selling fabulous merchandise (including us!) so come on down!

£6.00 including UK shipping, $9.75 including US delivery.
Only one pair available

Fiona

 

When you think of people do you think of a color? If you have a friend who always wears blue, when you think of them does blue come to mind? Well I have a lovely friend here named Fiona and when I think of her I think Purple. She’s a very colorful person, she doesn’t always wear purple but she does wear it often. She redecorated her home last year and what’s the feature color? Purple. I wanted to make a pair for her last year but I had no purple beads. She picked another pair I’d already made and she loves them. Since then I have gotten purple beads but I had no idea what to do with them.

I’ve been having another creative streak over the past two days. Sunday my husband turned on the soccer so I went into a different room to watch political shows from back home. I made a few pairs while I watched. Then Monday I was updating some old designs and while putting my supplies away a style came to me, and these happened.

 

One of many patches of crocuses in our yard

Monday was a lovely day so I went outside to take pictures of the new earrings. I was going to publish a different pair this week but when these came about I knew I’d have to do them first. It looks like spring in our front yard and these earrings match the Crocuses. And since February’s birthstone is Amethyst (which is also purple) I wanted to get these out before the month was over.

 

 




The purple beads feature a marble type effects, traces of white swirling around them. In the center there is a iridescent glass bead with a swirl effect on it. Those three beads are separated by small purple iridescent beads. The findings are silver plated, and can be replaced by kidney wires or clip on if you’d prefer. They hang about an inch and a half from the ear.

This seems like a good time to make an announcement. The journey is making another stop. Once again at the village hall in Wraysbury on Saturday March 18^th from 10am to noon. I’ll have the newest designs on hand as well as some old ones and some remixed designs. So put the date on your calendar and I hope to see you there. Remember, you save shipping costs when you buy in person. And there may even be a few surprises.

£4.00 including UK Shipping, $7.70 including US shipping

 

Jingle Bells

Silver Bells

 

1 PAIR REMAINING

This is another design I’ve wanted to do since last year. It isn’t artsy like the things I did last year but it’s fun. There is no better way to celebrate the holidays than to jingle your way through them. And there are three designs to choose from.

2 PAIR REMAINING

 

Last week I mentioned that these were for the UK only. That is only because I cannot guarantee they won’t get damaged in shipping. And what’s the point of wearing bells if they don’t jungle? But not to worry these aren’t irritating bells. They are very subtle yet absolutely adorable.

2 PAIR REMAINING

 

They are for the UK only and if you make it down the Christmas bazaar in Wraysbury you can pick them up for just £1.00. That’s right only £1!

 Will ship to the US as an add on item only (not on their own) $2.00 + shipping (approx. $5.00 for shipping depending on the size of your order)

Thank you so much for making this The Dangling Journey’s best year so far! Now #TDJ will be taking the rest of the year off to celebrate the holidays and to prepare for the coming year. I already have few ideas lined up for next year. I am going to try to do a few fancy things. But don’t let that stop you from stopping by the blog, the Facebook page or twitter to see what we’ve done this year and possibly a few previews for next year.

 

In the meantime I hope to see many of you at the Wraysbury Village Hall this Saturday November 26^th from 10am to noon.  Here are some directions to the Village hall:

From M25 take junction 13 (Staines), take third exit on the roundabout to B376. At the mini roundabout take the third exit to Wraysbury Rd. At the “T” junction (at the Chemist) turn left. Make the first right at the end of the village green. The village hall will be 160 meters on your left in. There is a dead end after the hall so you can’t miss it. There is a parking lot across from the hall and street parking on the street.  

U-N-I-T-Y!

Umoja and Ujamaa

 

I wanted to have a more inclusive line this year, last week I released my Hanukkah earrings so this week I am presenting my Kwanzaa earrings. Like Hanukkah there is a special candelabra that is used to celebrate the holiday. So last year I thought about making the Menorah and Kinara for the holidays but I just couldn’t figure it out. Then my mother shared the symbols of each day with me and saw that I could make two of the symbols.

 

Kwanzaa or first fruits of the harvest is a holiday celebrated by some African-Americans from December 26^th through January 1^st. It is based on seven principles of African heritage which are:

Ñ Umoja or Unity

Ñ Kujichagulia or Self-Determination

Ñ Ujima or Collective Work and Responsibility

Ñ Ujamaa or Cooperative Economics

Ñ Nia or Purpose

Ñ Kuumba or Creativity

Ñ Imani or Faith

The designs I made for Kwanzaa are Ujamaa

 

 

And Umoja which was in the preview I sent out on Friday.

 

Since this is pretty much a solely American holiday I don’t expect to sell any in the UK. So I’ll only give American prices. But don’t worry members of my British audience, next week’s earrings are a UK exclusive. Oh, and did I mention #TDJ will be making another stop? This time at the MacMillan Christmas Bazaar in Wraysbury. So if you aren’t too far away you can swing buy and pick up your earrings for Christmas. I’ll have the entire stock on hand so you can pick up Christmas presents and earrings to wear around during the holidays. Come by and say hello on Saturday November 26 from 10am to noon.

Ujamaa $3.00 including shipping

Umoja $3.50 including shipping

 

The Journey's First Stop

What can I say?!

Saturday was the Wraysbury Indoor Car Boot Sale. We’d seen an ad for it a few weeks back and both of us got very excited. There are stalls or tables for rent at church fairs and things but they are always SO expensive. My church fair runs £25 for a table – I know it’s for my church but considering how much you’ll probably make it doesn’t seem worth it. So when we saw this one for £5 we jumped at it. All I needed to do was sell one pair and the stall would have paid for itself.

 

Neil decided to get rid of some “brick a brack”, he brought along a collection of pottery he’d collected, some cool shot glasses I think I sister would love and even a cool glass fish that looks like it belonged in my Aunt Pearl’s crystal collection. Then Neil decided to make some marmalade, he’s done a lot of stalls at fairs and such and he said it’s always a draw. It is yummy!

 

So we went to the indoor car boot sale. There were over 20 vendors there. Some selling old rubbish, some selling cool vintage tools and stuff, some selling DIY essentials, some selling DVDs. The lady next to us was selling natural household products that I think my friend Pam would appreciate like laundry detergent, deodorant, smoothie and drink mixes. None of the vendors sold too much. In the end one of the vendors started giving things away to the other vendors. The man next to us yelled out he’d take any offer on his cool vintage tools and stuff. I really wanted the set of optics he had for sale but Neil wouldn’t let me get it; he said “I can’t afford to stock it”.

 

I’d never been to a car boot sale before. The day before Neil started having reservations about it. Part of me wish we’d pulled out then. People go to car boot sales to buy old tat and rubbish. They don’t go looking for new things. I wanted so badly to start talking to everyone who walked up. I did talk to a few people, which made them walk away before they got a good look. Neil said English people do not like a hard sell. I don’t know what’s hard about being friendly and courteous. The clientele in Wraysbury probably aren’t interested in repurposed or upcycled jewelry anyway. I had several ladies stop and look, a couple even asked questions. One said to me "They are very nice but I wear the same jewelry every day" and "I don’t like to stand out anymore". And when I watched the ladies walking around the sale I noticed a lot of them didn’t even have pierced ears. 

So, what can I say? I took it as a huge blow. I’m trying to decide if I should even carry on doing it. But maybe it’s like Neil said; this was just the wrong market and the wrong audience. The Car Boot sale was heavily publicized on Facebook but that’s all. They didn’t even put up signs in the village or send out fliers. Also as the lady with the natural products said the village is very cliquey, which I have experienced myself and Neil has had to deal with his whole life. I think that played a big part in it too. She said I would do better at the Christmas market so I may give it another try; especially since I just invested in my Christmas designs for this year.

So we shall see how the journey moves on from here.

*** As a side note I just want to thank my dear friend Pam for being an inspiration to me. I hope your next journey is as successful as your previous one. Go with your heart! Thank you for sharing your beauty with us.

Loose Ends

Bits & Pieces Pt. 3

 

The fair is this weekend and I’ve been spending a lot of time getting ready for it. I’ve been putting all my earrings, or most of them, on a card then writing the blog post they are from on the card. I thought that I’d written up all the earrings I made so far but it turns out there were still a few that had been left out. That doesn’t mean they aren’t nice. 

Amelia

 

 

This first pair I’ve featured similar ones on two different posts; Beady Eyes and A few of my Favs. I’ve made this style in several different colors using different beads as the centerpiece. My favorite one is the silver one. I have to admit I’ll be sad to see them go but I can always try to make another pair. I may have made this style with different colors but I have to admit the marble effect bead is really nice.

Londyn

 

Next is this lovely little blue number. I made them the same time I made my wedding line  but when it came time to post the earrings I wanted to keep them all white so I didn’t post these. I had them sitting out ready to be written up and then I forgot I hadn’t posted them. I guess I thought I posted them with Something Blue. They really are sweet.

Dionne

 

Finally, this pair is fairly new. I made them the same time I made Karen’s Orbit, so I guess I thought I posted them together. When I went to check the other day and saw they weren't there I couldn’t believe it.

Taken from WPG's fb page

Hopefully the fair will be a success on Saturday. It's called the "Indoor Carboot Sale" and it will be at The Wraysbury Village Hall from 11am -1pm this Saturday (Sept 17th) admission is £1 for adults,  free for children. There will be food, prizes to be won and giveaways. I'm really looking forward to getting the foot traffic and having more people see the earrings in person. If you're in the area on Saturday please stop by, it would be lovely to meet some of the people who read the blog, or follow us on twitter, facebook or Google+.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odds & Ends

Bits & Pieces pt. 2

 

When I told my mother that I finally got a stall at a fair she told me to make as many earrings as I could and just sell them. I did have a day when I was pretty productive but mostly I’ve been trying to tie up loose ends. This week I’m putting up a few more pieces that I had laying around as well as some I made since last week.

 

The first pair I made last fall when I was experimenting with recycled materials. It combines my love of crafting with my love for music. I was making plastic circle designs and decided to try a G-Clef. This is the only pair of these I ever made. I think I had intended to make more but then I got caught up in my Christmas inventory and forgot about them. They are rather nice though!

 

 

The next pair is also from my recycled material trial. It show my fascination with spirals. Really, if you look at my stock there are a lot of spirals, swirls and curls. I’ve done them with craft wire, sheets of HDPE that I treated and then curls and now these. I won’t say what they are in fear that people might cringe but let’s just say it’s something most of us use every day, at home they used to advertise missing people on them. Nowadays they are made of plastic, I guess the Amber Alert put made it redundant.

 

 

The next one I hinted to last week. I got these red beads a while back and I decided they reminded me of cranberry juice. So I decided to make a pair based on one of my favorite drinks, also it could be based on my mom’s favorite drink (minus the Cointreau). These are vodka and cranberry with a twist of lime or Cosmo (Cosmopolitan). Well, I guess when you mix up the vodka, cranberry, lime and Cointreau you end up with a lovely pink concoction but Vodka and cranberry with a lime twist is too long of a name for a pair of earrings.

 

 

On Thursday I was panicking about something so I decided to make some earrings to take my mind off of it. This pair I just made, however they are based on the first pair of earrings I ever made and the first to appear on the blog  you can read the story about them. Over the past year I’ve acquired a lot more hematite; some magnetic and some not, some blue and some gray, some shiny and some chiseled. These are a little different from the originals but they are in the same spirit.

 

 

Now, what can I say about these? A few months ago I purchased a kit of glass beads, I wrote about it wrote about it then . I really like making earrings that are a bunch of different sized beads that dangle. The great thing about this kit is that it consists of shiny and matte beads. I love using a mixture of both when make a pair with them. I like grapes, but only white (or green) grapes which these remind me of so I’m calling them a Bunch of Grapes.

I was inspired by the last two pairs on a walk with my husband  last week. We were walking through our village on our way to pick up our Chinese food dinner. I saw this adorable curl with a little “bump” on the end or along the curls. I think that eventually the “bumps” will blossom into flowers but I’m not sure. I asked Neil what it was and he didn’t know. I think however that the curls were on some kind of vine, and last week we also passed some vine weed which I thought was beautiful, I never would have thought it was a weed. So that’s what I’m calling them; Vine Weed.

 

This is your last chance to get these before the fair.

All pairs $8.08 or £6.15 Including shipping
   

To make a purchase please leave a comment with your email address. I'll send you an invoice through paypal. Items will ship once payment is confirm. Prices include shipping.
       

 

 

Bits & Bobs, Odds & Ends

 

 

Bits & Bobs, Odds & Ends Part 1

Great News!!! The Dangling Journey has just booked its first table at a fair. This is huge for us! It’s the biggest exposure we’ve had and hopefully will generate a lot of attention and sales. It also means I have to get to work creating more things to display.

Luckily I have had a backlog of things I made and never got around to posting either because I wasn’t excited about them or I made something else and forgot they were there. In any case it’s now their turn for the spotlight.

 

First up is this lady if the night. No, I don’t mean she’s provocative but to me this pairs seems more like something you’d wear in the evening. They are made form a funky black bead, followed by a resin spacer and topped with a bronze “disco” ball. They seem like a pair of earrings up for some fun. So I’ll call them Randy, get it?

 

 

Next are two pair I made back in the Spring. I bought packs of glass beads and made several pair including the three from my Something Blue post. These two pair feature a large blue bead with other beads dangling from the end. Both pairs have beads that complement the central bead, one pair has another blue glass bead as well. I’ll call them Big Blue.

 

 

 Finally the last pair is a pair I just made about two weeks ago. I bought all of the beads on different occasions but when I got the last set home I made these beauties. A lot of times I make earrings because something comes to mind when I see the beads. Next week I hope to feature my cocktail pieces. But these beads remind me of maraschino cherries, so I’ll call them Cherry. And when I saw the gold beads I had to put them together. They are really fun and hope everyone enjoys them as much as I do.  

 

These four pair will be making their way to our stall/table at the fair in Wraysbury Village Hall on September 17^th unless one of you would like first dibs. If so just get in touch.

All pairs $8.08 or £6.15 Including shipping
   

To make a purchase please leave a comment with your email address. I'll send you an invoice through paypal. Items will ship once payment is confirm.
       

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