Closing down

It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to close my jewellery business.

When Mr planet retired 18 months ago and we moved and travelled and lived in a caravan for a year, I thought that I would eventually start going to markets again.....but this is just not going to happen.
I still love designing and making jewellery (and other things) and I adore my beads, but the will to get out there and do the hard hard yards has just gone.
Before we moved I had some really successful outlets - The Nook Leura (a co-operative I was a member of), markets and festivals in the Blue Mountains, Sydney and other parts of New South Wales, plus a few other outlets.
I had an etsy shop which, to be honest was never really worth the time I put into it - selling on a big on-line platform is hard.

But, I have a huge amount of stock!
Silly me.

I am having a sale on over on etsy - 50% off.

I will also be destashing my supplies as I get time to list them.

I hope this will give me the time and inspiration to explore some other areas of my creativity as I have always been a bit of a dabbler, but trying to make and sell stuff kind of gets in the way!

If you would like to get some real bargains head on over to my etsy shop and use the code CLOSINGDOWN at checkout.

Anyone for Macrame?

Who remembers macrame?
Me me me!
I remember pot holders made of macrame (the hanging plant pot holders - not the ones you use to hot cooking pots!) and maybe belts - they were a very 70's thing weren't they?

Now macrame is making a come-back and I am especially liking macrame jewellery - it's bright and fun and funky, from simple little bracelets -

orange bracelet by alexandrajewelryshop

irish knot bracelet by elwynjewelry

To amazingly complex creations incorporating gemstones and other beads -

macrame necklace by mabutirit

I'm very taken by these sweet little czech glass earrings -

beaded macrame earrings by glassdancer

The possibilities for macrame jewellery seem endless!

blue bead macrame bracelet by spiritysol

butterfly necklace by spiritysol

Would you like to try it?
Here's a nice simple tutorial for a beaded bracelet - shamballa bracelet on youtube.

Or something a whole lot more complex - but very effective, by beading4perfection also on youtube.

There is a whole site dedicated to macrame patterns (of course there is!) - free macrame patterns.
I was just blown away by the number of different knots there are. It is fascinating.

Making jewellery using macrame is also called micro-macrame, because you use finer threads.

According to wikipedia macrame has been around since the13th century and was first of all used by Arab weavers to make decorative bits and bobs.
It was also a popular craft amongst sailors - something to do during all those long boring days at sea! They used to make hammocks with it, so that was pretty useful.

So - off I go to find some long bits of thread and knot, knot knot away!

What I make - blogtoberfest 2013

Hello, my name is Tess and I am the designer, creator and chief cook and bottlewasher of planettreasures.

Just thought I would show you a few things that I make.

earrings using Venetian glass

Venetian glass earrings

glass drop earrings

fabric stud earrings

chunky many treasures necklaces using a mix of gemstones

longer mixed bead necklaces

one of a kind necklaces

I make pendants encased in glass or resin

add charms for themed long necklaces

brooches made from dominos

sometimes I play with little glass seed beads and make bracelets

memory wire bracelets with gemstones and pearls

I am always making something different. I love a challenge!

You can see more here if you like - planettreasures.etsy.com and here madeit.com.au/planettreasures

Rocks and seeds - my creative space

I got my mojo going....so......
I got my rocks out!

And some seeds -

and here's what developed -

A series of simple long necklaces.

Look out for them soon in my etsy shop or at The Nook Leura.

Owls and trees and a bit of seed beading - my creative space

I'm still finding inspiration from Beadfreaky's lovely little ceramic pendants.

I bought a few of them!

Here I combined an owl pendant with some nighttime themed components.
Some gorgeous rainbow moonstone beads, silver beads that look like birds nests. Contrast comes from the blue agate beads and labrodite beads and chips. I found some glass star beads to continue the theme and add some depth.

Here I used a tree pendant for a woodland theme - brass bird components plus some beads in the same tone family. A wonderful mookite beads, some rutilated rhodonite (the slightly pinky flat ones), a couple of green ceramic bead tubes, accented with the bright green howlite composite beads and a few unakite beads (the pink and green ones).
I used a small portion of chain at the back for lightness.

I'm pretty pleased with the way these turned out - but time will tell if anyone else is!

I also wanted to do a small project that I could do while the tennis is on (yes, it's Wimbledon time again).
I had an idea for some circle earrings - I guess it was making the large loopy ones awhile ago that kept the idea in my head. You can see them here.

I thought I'd have to use different size beads for this, but I really don't like the really little size 15 ones - and I don't have a great variety of this size anyway. But realised that I'd have to use them and some size 11's plus maybe size 8's in order to get the circle thing going.
Now I realise that I'm not inventing the wheel here and that there is probably a tutorial somewhere about how to make circles - so off to the interwebs I went - and I didn't have to look far.

If you haven't already found it, Interweave Press's Beading Daily site is a wonderful resource - there are many free downloadable projects as well as tips, technique tutes and all sorts of other grand stuff.

I happened to spot a beaded toggle clasp by Melinda Barta in the free peyote stitch projects ibook - that would tell me how to do it!

Sure enough it told me what I needed to know - bead sizes, number of stitches, number of rows - easy! So I could also concentrate on the tennis (Our Sam won and then our Bernie : D )

This is as far as I got last night and I think they might need to be a bit bigger, but I'll see what they look like when I finish.

How has your creative week been?

Do you have any favorite in-front-of-tv projects?

Joining in with My Creative Space at Village Voices on Kidspot - hop on over and have a look.

Making my own Christmas cards? And other stuff - My creative space

Every year I say the same thing "this year I will make my own christmas cards"!

And do I?
um, no!
Except for the year I was learning calligraphy and I wrote in beautiful green and red lettering on my cards.

But this year will be different!
Oh, yes it will - because I found these cute stamps at the Museum of Contemporary Art the other day.
I did "um" and "ah" a bit, because they were a bit spendy, but they have such a nice handmade look to them, nice and simple and I think I'll be inspired to actually use them.

Do you make your own Christmas cards?

I also got into a frenzy of necklace making because I have a market this weekend.

I'm joining in with My Creative Space on Kidspot.
If you don't join in already you should go and have a look because it's full of lovely inspiration, it's so nice to see what other crafty peeps have been up to.

Wordless Wednesday - some new creations