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.

What I've been working on - multi-coloured necklaces

I've been working like crazy to get ready for the 6 markets I have between now and Christmas.
Every year I say to my self "next year I will start earlier!" and do I?

Anyway, better late than never and this week I made some bright stone bead necklaces - these are my signature Many Treasures necklaces, short and mid length.

Which one is your favorite?
I love #4.

Joining in with Made by Hand on the delightfulblog Christine Lowry Designs

Welcome back! I'm having a sale.

Going away and off-line for a whole month is hard when you are running a business, so as a little notice that I'm back and I'm in business, I'm offering 20% off across the board in my etsy shop.

amethyst and pearl necklace

You just need to enter the discount code WELCOMEBACK1 at checkout.

Have you done your Christmas shopping yet?

What are you waiting for!

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

My Creative Space - getting my mojo going.

It's been a little quiet creatively around these parts lately.

Why is that?
Is it because I don't have any really awesome events on the horizon?
Or because I'm feeling a bit jaded?
Or is it just "that time of year"?

So I got out some beads I haven't seen for a while - my stash of freshwater pearls.

And they became ocean treasures earrings!

And necklaces -

I went back to my odd/unused bead box - the box that has some of the "what was I thinking?" beads in.
And constructed some more mixed treasures memory wire bracelets.
Lovely and bright!

I'm joining in with My Creative Space at Village Voices over on Kidspot - come on over and have a look!

Why blog? and a giveaway

Why blog?
Wow! I really opened a can of worms in my head when I asked myself that question.

Because I can?
Because it's there?
Because everybody else is?

I lead me on to think about the many billions of blogs out there. Most of the blogs I am familiar with are to do with crafting, art or creating stuff.
But there are all sorts - travel blogs, foodie blogs, political blogs, financial blogs etc etc and many more, I'm sure that I have no idea about.

There are more blogs out there than we will ever need!

So why me? And why you?

I guess I started blogging as an extension of my on-line business.
Over on etsy (where I have 3 shops now!) we're told that you can't just load you items in your shop and expect them to sell - oh, no - you have to promote yourself.

"Have a blog", they said - those gurus of the etsy forums.

Let people see the person behind the goods, let them get to know you - "connect with your customers".

And so we all rushed over to blogger or wordpress or wherever and blogged our hearts out.
But was anybody reading our blogs?
Why would anybody read our blogs?
We networked and read other people's blogs and we commented like crazy!
We joined memes.
We joined blog rings and jumped through hoops!

Why do we continue to blog in this world of 140 character grabs, flickr photos, facebook friends, and tumblr (plus no doubt many more I have no concept of!)?

Here's what I have gathered.

1. Blogging can be the centrepiece of all your on-line marketing and your social media activities.

2. You can explain more about yourself and your creative processes. you can post works in progress and get those appetites whetted.

3. You can share.
You can share tutorials, display ideas, successes and failures.

4. The posts you write are enduring. Facebook and twitter scroll through pretty quickly and if you want to find something again is pretty much impossible.
You can refer back to blog posts or refer others to them.

5. You can use photos to tell your story - a picture tells a thousand words so they say.
" Ok, you say you can have photos on facebook too". But on your blog you can post several pictures, you can have a coherent storyline - or not, depending on what your post is about.

6. You can hold giveaways or competitions.

7. You can link to all your other activites - you on-line shop, your fabebook, your twitter, your flickr etc. They can all be in your sidebar or wherever you want to have them.

Do you blog?
Why do you blog?
What do you blog about?

Oh, and my giveaway!
Please leave a comment of you'd like to be in the draw for a beautiful pair of planettreasures earrings.
The winner will be drawn next Tuesday 9th October.

 thanks for reading : )

My creative space

 Hi and happy Thursday to everyone!

 How has your week been so far?

I have been doing some serious creating, realising it's only one week until the start of the spring fair season.

With that in mind I have been making some spring themed jewellery like these bird's best necklaces.
Now I realise that the bird's nests are not new, and I didn't invent them, but I had a stash of czech glass pearls that I wasn't using plus a few other round stone beads that needed a purpose.

 These wire-wrapped pendants are perfect beacuse they use 3 little round beads and wire (that I already had).
Also although there are plenty of these on etsy I haven't seen them out in the markets here, so they will be a bit of freshness on my stall.

 Next up - I've had a few requests for stud earrings.
The other week when I was in sydney for my wedding anniversary I had a bit of shopping time and as luck would have it our hotel was almost next door to the most fabulous button shop "Buttons buttons buttons". I always love having a poke around in there and picked up some sweet little buttons to use for earrings.

What do you think?

And that's about it for now...back to my creative space to do some creating, however if you'd like to see more creative spaces or join in then pop on over to Our Creative Spaces.

See you next time!

This week's adventures and achievements

I went for a beautiful, if somewhat scarey bushwalk up the escarpment near Wollongong.

Actually going up was OK, it was coming back down that was bad for me - I was petrified I was going to slip again.

path along the escarpment

view to the north from Sublime Point

view to the south from Sublime Point

Anyway all was well and I was able to do another couple of small walks on Tuesday to some small waterfalls in the mid Blue Mountains towns of Hazelbrook and Woodford.

transit of venus track at Woodford

horseshoe falls at North Hazelbrook

And I made ten bright bracelets -


What did you do this week?

Tuesday's treasuries (on Wednesday!)

Well I am a bit behind with my treasury posts!
Weeks behind as well as a day behind.

I would like to thank these lovely people for chosing my bits and pieces in their collections!

Mandy of Radicalglass put a tshirt fromBoosTees in this dark one -

and one of BoosTees new brooches in this one -

I think this pendant of Mandy's is gorgeous and would fit in her dark night treasury -

strike from the left by radicalglass

Got style? Got beauty? Got minimalism?
Then you might love this treasury, which included Freda Owl tshirt by BoosTees -

artsyfartsymemories has a far from minimalist store - it is so pretty and full of shabby chic goodies, like these adorable tags. Yum!

key gift tags by artsyfartsymemories

Great shop name too!

Sharonclancydesigns obviously had purple and yellow on her mind when she created these two beauties -



Many thanks Sharon for including BoosTees mitts.

Sharonclancydesigns sells the most luscious jewellery.
These are my weakness being earrings and in my favorite colour!

appetite for apatite earrings by sharonclancydesigns

And she obviously has a penchant for puns!

Finally I have been playing with the new treasury east, and having a bit of fun too!

Starting with one following on from my blog post - Mad about orange!

and my daughter's love of bare tree branches -


This one was inspired by Tractorgirls cushion -


Finally - I was searching for a colour description for a headband I had knitted.
My twitter and facebook friends made several suggestions - one of which was the name of my friends kitchen wall colour!
Savannah clay.

So my savannah treasury was born.

Where do you find inspiration to create treasuries?