The end, The beginning

Well, suffice to say, after writing this post I never fully got my mojo back.  

Jewellery by Vanya has come to a natural end so last week I closed the shop for good. 

Living in a vibrant city and working in a creative industry was a dream, memories were made that I will cherish for life.  I am so so thankful to all of you who supported my business along the way, thank you for all the purchases, thank you for the sweet emails and cards, thank you for spreading the word, thank you for the extra special commissions.  Just, thank you.

The beginning? This Summer I will become a mum, an even bigger challenge to look forward to, filled with, well that I will find out soon enough.

Colin and I are already in love with this tiny wriggly creature in my belly and I cannot wait to welcome him/her into this world, full of opportunity.

xxx

Artwork above from Freya's etsy shop.

Honeymoon

source

We are finally off on our honeymoon, yey!  We are flying into New York and out of Los Angeles, with a stop off in Austin, San Diego and Palm Springs.  I can't wait to soak up the atmosphere of these places, any recommendations for good coffee/food/green spaces/music/cocktails would be greatly appreciated.

We're off on Saturday so to guarantee delivery before I go, please place your Jewellery by Vanya orders before 12pm Thursday 6th September.  Thank you.  The shop will still be open whilst I'm away.

xxx

The Push PR Press Day...

Hello everyone, it's Jade, just thought I would pop by and let you know what's been going on in the studio lately...

So last week, in preperation for today, Vanya had organised a selection of her jewellery into 3 catergories ready for the A/W 11 press day: Garden Party, Hippie Luxe and Boudoir.
Then when I came in last tuesday we played around with how we could set up the jewellery, using props like vintage trinkets and frames Vanya has collected over time.

Boudoir Set-up

Garden Party Set-up

Hippie Luxe Set-up (AW 11 Collection, Coming Soon)

We took these photographs, which we sent along with the props to Push Pr, ready for them to set-up this morning. Our plan was that it would not only make it easier for the girls at Push Pr, but also ensure that the vision we wanted to portray was correctly communicated.

When we got to The Soho Hotel, where the press day was being held, a nice gentleman let us in and directed us downstairs to the room in which the Push Pr team were all set up. Not only was the room gorgeous, with modern colourful wallpaper and huge paintings scattered on the walls, but you walk into a girls dream, with tables of neatly set out jewellery, shoes, bags and rails of gorgeous clothes.

We instantly spotted the Jewellery by Vanya set-up, which was the first stop on our journey through the themes Push Pr had cleverly catergorised.

The Garden Party...
Beautifully layed out on a table of other garden party goodies, such as fruit punch and cakes, Jewellery by Vanya's set-up stood out and looked both delicate and pretty, perfect for any garden party in the sun...

 The lovely table layout for The Garden Party section.

The Jewellery by Vanya set-up within the Garden Party section.

As we carried on round the room we soon came to the second section and second set-up Vanya and I had practised the week before.

Hippie Luxe...
Again beautifully displayed, among a number of other brands, alongside shoes and other jewellery, on a gorgeous darkwood table, there sat the Jewellery by Vanya set-up we had so proudly photographed for the Push Pr girls to immitate, and what a lovely job they had done!

 The awesome Hippie Luxe table set-up.

The Jewellery by Vanya Hippie Luxe set-up.

These gorgeous items are sneak peeks from the up and coming AW 11 collection, and will be available to buy on the website after summer.

Boudoir...

After anther short wonder we soon found ourselves in the second press room, home to the gorgoues Bridal Boudoir section. Here we found the third and final Jewellery by Vanya set-up, which stood proudly in a corner, almost alone, which gave it the space it needed to shine...

 

The lovely Boudoir Jewellery by Vanya set-up. 

Both myself and Vanya were really pleased with the way we had planned the set-ups, and how the Push Pr girls had then put them together for the press day! Hopefully there will be lots of fab feedback from Push Pr.

Keep your eyes peeled for another post soon letting you know...

But what do you think?? 

Jade xx

Goody Bag Winner!!!

Thank you all so much for your wonderful entries, I had a lovely time reading them all and was very pleased to see such a wide range of favourites.  There is only one winner though I'm afraid and it is......

...comment 26 which was made by...

Well Done and thanks to you Some Style!!!  I have yet to choose what will go in the goody bag, I want to look over the most popular faves from the entries, but rest assured at least one of your favourites will be in there. 

Thank you again to all that entered, look out for more giveaways and special offers here on the blog, on facebook and twitter.

Have a great weekend!! xxx

Goody Bag Giveaway

Like I said in my last post, I am most grateful for all your support over the last few months and to help say thank you I thought I'd do another giveaway.  This one is a biggie. 

For the chosen winner I will put together a goody bag of Jewellery by Vanya items worth over £100!  You could treat yourself and keep them all or save them for Christmas presents for friends-totally up to you.

All you need to do to enter is leave a comment here on the blog or on my facebook page naming your favourite item from Jewellery by Vanya (this will help me choose which items to include) and I will pick a winner at random on Friday 8th October at 12.00 midday.

Good Luck

xxx

A Huge Great Big Massive Thank You

Hello everyone, you may have noticed my extreme lack of blogging lately and and it’s all down to my lovely customers placing so many orders over the last few weeks and making me such a busy bee.  I’ve had some amazing press this year and when Birds in Love featured in Grazia magazine last month the orders came flooding in, along with some really kind comments from you all.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am as you are letting me keep my dream job, not only the money side of things either, when someone takes the time to let me know how much they like my designs/website/packaging, it brings such a huge smile to my face.  Massive thank you’s and virtual hugs all round!!

PS. Pic is of me enjoying a coffee break in the sun last Saturday.  That chunky cardie is from Top Shop and is soooo snuggly.

xxx

Happy Friday Folks

Just thought I'd share my first (of hopefully many) bit of press coverage.  My Large Leaf Pendant is featured in the July issue of She magazine!  Yey!

Also, a while ago I did an interview for the lovely Jessica from The Embellished Life, go and have a nosey if you like.  Unfortunately the giveaway to go with the interview has ended, but next week I will hosting one of my own so keep your eyes peeled.

Aaannnnd, the Sunday Upmarket has continued to be a success so touch wood I will be there every Sunday now.  Stop by and say hello if you're in the area.

Have a lovely weekend xxx

More New Designs

Good morning, I just wanted to update you with some more new items available on my website and etsy shop.  I've been wearing the filigree locket necklace like mad lately, it's so summery.

I will be taking a stall again at the next Tik Tac Toe event which is on Sunday 9th May at Carnivale in East London.  It was a really good day last time with live music and lots of cake so pop by if you're in the area.

xxx

Artist Spotlight at Simply Hue

Today I just want to say a big thank you to the lovely Vicki from Simply Hue for featuring me in her 'spotlight on artists' series.  You can find out a little bit about my background and inspirations over there so please do have a look.  I am truly grateful for her kind words and support.

You can also have a go at winning the above necklace from my shop.  All you have to do is visit Simply Hue here, have a read and leave a comment.  Vicki will contact the winner on Monday.  Good Luck! xxx

Treat Yourself

At long last I have finished my packaging design.  It's taken so long because I wanted to try and get my business cards made for me but I haven't been able to find a printers that can do what I want (problems with inkjet, lazer and thickness of cardstock).

Anyway, it is ever so slightly time consuming but completely worth it in my opinion.  I hope it makes recieving a package from me an extra special treat.  

First of all I use recycled kraft boxes and line the lid with an image of 1970s floral wallpaper (top image).  I then hook the item onto a card stamped with my logo and tie cream ribbon around it (i'm afraid the ribbon in the picture is white as i'm waiting for supplies).

I then place the box, along with a business and thankyou card into a canvas bag made from vintage curtain fabric.

Pull the drawstring and voila, popped into a jiffy bag and a pretty package is on it's way to you.

I hope you like it, I really wanted to present my jewellery in a luxurious and special way that reflected my work and wasn't too wasteful.  You can re-use everything except the thankyou card as it will have my 'not so great' handwriting on it.   

If you would like to see more images, close-ups and descriptions you can visit my flickr page and any feedback or comments will be most welcome.

how do you display your jewellery?

The other day I told you about an event coming up where I will be selling my jewellery.  It's called Tik Tac Toe and will be at Carnivale in Whitechapel, East London on 3rd April.  It's my first ever stall so it would be great to have some friendly faces come by. 

This will be the first event that will hopefully continue on a monthly basis and will be a whole day into evening thing with an acoustic band in the afternoon along with market stalls, cakes, tea, food, board games etc and then a headline act in the evening along with happy hour, and Djs.  The stalls will be open from 2-6pm.

As it's my first time, I have been collecting inspiration from other displays.  I'd like to go with something a bit vintagey looking with natural fabrics and woods to compliment my jewels.  I love Anthropologie's visual design so will be making a visit this week, I'm hoping they might let me take some photos to share with you too.

Here are a few images that will hopefully show my thought process.

     Rust

Emma Cassi

Source unknown (sorry, big blogger no-no)  If anyone can let me know where this came from I will change it.

I also really love this stall.  It would be amazing to have a space like that and make it into a mini room complete with lamps and pictures framed on the wall.  It's so effective.

Rosie Music's beautiful illustrations.

 

  

I found it difficult to get into my work yesterday, my head just wasn't working properly so I did a bit of window shopping on etsy.  I do need some new illustrations to put on my bedroom wall and I came across these beautiful prints from the lovely shop Rosie Music.  My favourite has to be Sunday Morning, what could be better than a lazy morning full of coffee, kittens and the boyfriend (not necessarily in that order).

New Jewellery Packaging Ideas

 

I have recently been working on some new packaging and business card ideas and thought you might like a sneaky peek.  It's not yet properly finished but I'm not far off, hopefully by the end of next week I can post full photographs of it all. 

first blog post

So here goes, I'm a bit late to the blogging game as I only started reading them a few months ago. I have become fed up of forever emailing friends and family links to things I have found in the blog world so I thought this would be a useful space to collate all that inspiration. It's looking very sparse around here at the moment but that will change soon.



I also thought it might be nice for those interested to see the experiments and progression of my jewellery line. I have just started working on it full time so there is still so much to do, it sometimes becomes a little overwhelming. Anyway I will leave you with a few images of the fruits of my labour so far.

By the way I am very aware that I am talking to myself as I have no followers yet. I hope very much that will change soon.xx