Reflections of 2013...looking forward for 2014....

Boy last year was tough for me and filled with the highest highs and the lowest lows...

Such an awesome day at the beach with Blockie
Steve (Poppy) and our Granddaughters.

.
The highs included some wonderful quality time with my family and the wonderful camaraderie I have experienced with my friends from Set up Shop.
I decided to suspend my jewellery biz for a while so I could regain my energy and devote my time to the essential things only.
I have found that I was taking on more than I could possibly manage with poor health, thinking at the time that "I would be well tomorrow" and things would be back to normal. Well that didn't happen, so thus the decision to prioritise my activities.
I couldn't ignore my farm responsibilities nor my part time guest house bookings job, or my grown children, grandchildren, husband, siblings or my frail and ageing parents.
So I have made the heartbreaking decision to keep the jewellery biz on ice until I know I am ready. I will be making sporadic posts here and on my face book page and may even list some jewellery for sale. But no pressure, no hurry...

solar powered farm shed powers the irrigation system

I would like to spend some of my time reading and studying anything and everything that takes my fancy. I want to enjoy making again and letting my creativity take its natural course once more.

I so enjoyed making this silver and cube set as a gift

oops should have flipped this - oh well!

some of the copper and bead wine glass initials I made for loved ones for Christmas

blockie Steve working in new kitchen (sneak peak)

We are still in renovating our kitchen mode so I will be posting some before, during and after photos soon. It is now fully functional and just needs a few finishing touches. I love, love, love my new kitchen!
We have had to break from the kitchen lately as this time of the year we are gearing up for the grape harvest, with keeping weed, pests, diseases under control as well as frequent irrigation with a week of above 40 degrees Celsius putting the vines under particular stress.

One think I can say, our life is never boring, and I am so blessed to have such an awesome family.
I wake up every morning and see the rabbits hopping about and as the sun goes down they are always lots of kangaroos around (even though they knock our drip irrigation lines out of place by lying on them LOL).


I am not expecting Big things for 2014, but hoping for small accomplishments along the way and enjoying what life brings me. I do hope you can take time sometimes to just absorb and appreciate the precious moments and also be excepting of the less enjoyable things too as it is all part of the tapestry of life.
                                                           
                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One Stage ends and Another Begins....

What a month it has been, the Set Up Shop course was a real eye opener and has really opened my eyes to the prospects of a fantastic career as a jewellery artist.  The bonus in all this is the camaraderie I found with the other girls in the course, its a kinship I haven't felt since I was a girl swapping clothes and having make-up afternoons and just giggling for no particular reason....you know the feeling.
Well no time to rest on my laurels, blockie Steve and I are off to Adelaide this week to look after our adorable little granddaughters while our daughter Natalie and her hubby Stuart go on a well earned holiday for 10 days. Some of you may remember this time last year they had a horrific house fire which left their beautiful artisan built 1950's home burnt almost beyond repair.
Their home is not yet finished due to many pitfalls and poor management of the rebiuld process. Hopefully all will be well soon and they can then begin healing.

We are so looking forward to celebrating Chantelle's 4th Birthday and feeling hers and Eliza's cute little arms around our necks.

My little cuties love dressing up

So my jewellery biz will be taking a back seat for a bit, although I will take tools, wire and beads to fill any orders that I will receive while I'm away. With technology at our fingertips dealing with emails will be a snap with my laptop, ipad and iphone.(how could we manage without these things now!)

all packed with all the bits and pieces to make these and more

Reflecting on What a Week its Been with the Girls from Set up Shop

SUPER BUSY GETTING  MY NEW COLLECTION OUT

Hi y'all, I have been super busy again this week, but busy doing my crafty biz course and just loving it.

I don't think I have ever been so mentally tired before, but enjoying learning all the tricks of the trade with a bunch of fantastic, talented girls from all over the world. We have shared out fears and triumphs and even had a virtual Friday night drinkie or two or three. (I think some of them are still partying LOL).

Jess deserves a mention of course as she is the clever crafty gal who is teaching an mentoring us

http://epherielldesigns.com/

The Hand Made Directory has now been moved to its own section click below or navigate there from the bar on the right
http://femininefushion.blogspot.com.au/p/hand-made-directory.html

Harvest time Sale

Phew! I haven't been posting lately as it is that time of the year again - harvest time on our fruit block and I have been as busy as a bee...I will take 20% off all items in my store! Get yourself a lovely hand made piece at competitive prices.

                                               Harvest time Sale 20% 0ff everything in my Shop

What Value can be put on Hand Made?

I happened upon this blog entry from Simone Walsh, who is a very talented jewellery artist in South Australia. It is well worth a read. So many hand made artists and designers are under valued and under rated. We can not compete with the mass made industry and rely heavily on our customers appreciation of uniquely made items which are not available elsewhere in the same quality or design.
Please read on....

What it means to truly support indie designers

24 March 2012

Handmade (but unfinished!) sterling silver jewellery
pieces fresh from the bench.

Recently I read an article about handmade jewellery which indicated that a price of $19 was ‘decadent’ for a pair of simple handmade earrings.

It made me think about how designer/makers who are just starting out very often don’t have a handle on how to price their products to work towards building a successful and sustainable business.

I also thought about how some non-designers simply don’t appreciate what goes into this sort of business, particularly when they are so used to buying very cheaply made mass-produced imports, many of which are created in pretty terrible circumstances.

A decadent pricetag?

I did a rough calculation based on that ‘decadent’ pricetag of $19. I factored in very conservative overhead costs, a rough estimate of material costs and a margin to sell the design at wholesale. Designers of course need to earn a living as well as cover their costs, so I added in the average Australian income (which even designer/makers are as entitled to earn as anyone else!).

What I came up with was the fairly staggering figure of 100 sales at retail or 200 sales at wholesale every single week to simply cover costs and make the average income.

Someone in a one person business who handmakes what they sell would surely not be able to keep up with that volume of sales, even if they were able to attract enough customers. Probably the only option would be to outsource work to a country where labour costs are vastly lower … which of course significantly changes the nature of the business and takes away a large part of what made it special in the first place.

Apart from showing that $19 is really not a decadent price for even a very simple handmade item in Australia, it’s also a good illustration that making very basic designs which are assembled from mass-produced components is very unlikely to build a successful indie business.

Celebrating and supporting local makers and designers

While the article I read praised the ethics behind buying handmade and encouraged readers to support Australian designers, the writer undermined this by having an expectation of pricing which no Australian designer could possibly make a viable living from.

Being truly supportive of independent designers means embracing the fact that that they need to generate enough income from their businesses to get by in their local economy – otherwise they will simply have to find other work and these businesses will disappear.

Such designers should be celebrated for their skills and knowledge, the uniqueness of their products and for keeping these sorts of creative, micro businesses alive in your community (and all of the benefits that come with doing so).

Celebrating cheapness instead will ultimately kill off indie design businesses. Please don’t do it.

2013 it's time to look Ahead!

Christmas and New Year is now a distant memory - how quickly the cogs of life turn!

Valentines Day is but a month away and inspired me to release some new fun heart jewellery and some old heart jewellery in honour of that special day for the romantics!

Cute Alice inspired ceramic jewellery  great to wear for Valentines Day
https://www.facebook.com/FeminineFusion/app_135607783795

Ghostly wire dress tutorial

http://pinterest.com/skeetermeat/repurpose-recycle-reuse-new-life/

 I came accross this captivating garden sculpture and hunted around for the creator, hoping to find a tutorial, well I found it - this following link for the tutorial is the basis for the wire dresses...

http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/halloween-decoration-how-to-make-human-size-ghosts/index.html

I would love to have a go at this tutorial myself and enlist on the help of my creative son James...

It would be great to hear from anyone who does create their own version of the ghostly dresses.

Can you believe it its nearly December?

This year has gone so quickly and has many ups and downs. On the up side, we didn't get torrential rain at the wrong time to ruin our grape crop so a good average yield was had, you have to be glad about that!
Our oldest son Adam has had an exceptional year with his career and setting a new home with Jodie his lovely partner. James our youngest son has outdone himself with a distinction in his singing exam at uni despite a few dramas earlier in the year and our beautiful daughter Natalie and her supportive hubby Stuart have managed to cherish and grow our precious granddaughters despite their horrific house fire earlier this year. They have only moved back into their house recently although some finishing repairs are still needed. It is looking fantastic and the new decor really respects the style and era of their well built home!
Our own home got flooded from an under slab plumbing leak but has now been all fixed with new cupboards in the laundry, timber floating floor renewed and new carpet in the spare room. Woohoo!
So we have all survived this year and are grateful for the good times we have had together as a family. Eliza's   2nd birthday just as one example. Fancy dress Disney style and I have never seen so many little Snow Whites (Chantelle being one) with the birthday girl as Cinderella!  Even the adults joined in! 

I do wish Natalie and her little family a much better year next year and hope she continues to have the tenacity to carry her into happier times to come with her lovely husband and adorable daughters.
Blockie Steve and I are so looking forward to Christmas with our family to continue the good times and I look forward to growing my fledgling hand made jewellery business in the new year.
I hope you have all great year and look forward to the next with enthusiasm as I do.

                                        Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I have another outlet, I hope you will take a peek

Here are my latest designs and are available at my new store at
https://www.hand-made.com.au/FeminineFusion
These would be so nice to give as a gift or wear with your party dress or to dress up your jeans.

just a couple of listings for now and I still have my store at
www.madeit.com.au/FeminineFusion

black pearl and copper modern earrings

matching pendant

Christmas trees with natural brass wires

Christmas is Sneakily creeping up on us....

My Christmas Collection .... there will be more to come,

here is just a few examples

Christmas Trees with Swarovski Crystals sterling wires

Angels in ab crystal and bronze with natural brass wires

snowman with faux pearls and crystals sterling wires

Christmas is not Too Far Away now

Christmas is just around the corner and down a bit....

Just to get you in the spirit a little, I found this lovely little tutorial from 

sweetup-northmornings.blogspot.com.au 

for a vintage Christmas tree from old music sheets (but you could do it in any paper you like) I haven't made this one myself yet, so I would love to see photos of the ones you do. So get you crafty hat on and go.

 Happy crafting!

Vintage Paper Christmas Trees

More Butterflies

I have now released three of my "Butterflies" necklace collection the third being a large single blue one on copper chain with copper hand made clasp.
http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=606746

Spring is nearly sprung!

Yippee, the Creative Drought is broken. Here is the first of my Spring Collection "Butterflies"
"butterflies" FemineFusion at Madeit.com.au

100% of my jewellery sales will be going to the Hockley Fire For the next month. This is a great time to get yourself some hand made jewellery and know the proceeds will go to a good cause. http://www.madeit.com.au/FeminineFusion

Please help my Daughter and her Family

My daughter Natalie's house fire has devestated her lovely family of husband Stuart and two baby daughters Chantelle 3 and Eliza 18 months.We are thankful that no one is hurt physically but these things leave emotional and financial scars. Unfortunately their insurance was underdone and will not fully cover the re-building or restoration, so I am trying to get all those caring people out there to donate some cash to help them out. I opened up a fire fund account today at the Bendigo Bank so i am hopeful that help will soon be forthcoming.
Natalie and Stuart are the most loving and helpful people I know and never fail to help out anyone in need, even if it means going without, themselves. So now in their time of need, I hope you will find it in your hearts to give them a helping hand. Many items have been forthcoming and it is much appreciated, but they also need cash to help cover their funds shortfall. Thank you so much. The bank details are as follows.
bsb    633 000
account number 145964458
account name     SM & LJ Nicholson (Hockley Fire Fund)
Please leave your name as a reference and email me your donation and contact details unless you wish to remain anonymous. leoni.nicholson@bigpond.com
I will be publishing the donors here and on my facebook page.
cheers
Leoni (Natalies' Mum)

2 days before fire on Mothers Day

this was the sunroom with all the girls toys and books 

this is a pink clock in the girls room which was all pink 

Natalie n Stu's beautiful kitchen

Is Kindness Outdated?

reach out to someone in need today

Have you ever been in a really bad place (ill, sad, depressed, scared or worried) and have tried to reach out and come up against a wall of indifference? This happens to people every day when they seek advise from a doctor, friend, relative etc, It really isn't that difficult to be kind in your everyday life.
Kindness costs nothing and yet many measure how good they are in monetary and success values. How wrong they are, we are all flesh and blood after all. You only have to give a little kindness to reap the rewards one hundred fold, no matter what your belief system is. I think we should have a world kindness day if there isn't one already. I would love to hear your comments and experiences.

Bird nests

natural jade coloured gemstone'eggs' on twisted hemp  twine with solid copper rosebeads and toggle

Hello everyone,
I have broken the drought and started to play around with some jewellery ideas and here is a preview of cuteness to come. These just are dripping with charm. Let me know what you think of these trial ones I made last night. They have been hand worked in copper wire except the first practice one I did out of zinc plated silver wire. I so enjoyed making these that I am thinking of doing a range in copper and sterling silver filled wire in the coming weeks. Your input would be appreciated.
cheers :)

three little birdie nests all in a row

natural gemstone 'eggs' on organza and hemp with solid copper toggle clasp

fresh water pearl 'eggs' on solid copper snake chain with hand made toggle clasp

and that's the bloomin' lot!

FeminineFusion on madeit

FeminineFusion on madeit

Easter buns

Easter is not far away, so I thought it would be great to see what Easter bun recipes you use. I have found some great spelt Easter bun recipes which I will post after I have tested them.I look forward to your comments.

My latest listing, I told you I had lots of stock to last through the harvest season!

Pretty in Pink earrings