Made With Love by Kat

I've been hard at work for the last few days making things to go off to the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester as part of their Fairytale Christmas sale in their craft shop. I've gone a little bit out on a limb as I've been using some fabulous but not-at-all-cheap stones, along with some really beautiful handpicked pieces of vintage jewellery to rework. I've also wired everything together using 14 carat goldfill wire - much nicer than gold plated which I hate and never use. When I saw my bill when I'd finished filling my trolley on the semi precious beads website I nearly had a heart attack - I hope you all think it's worth it! As ever these are all one of a kind designs, and won't be available in my Folksy shop unless someone specially requests them before Monday. If there is a piece here you've fallen in love with and you want me to set up a listing for you email me at made_with_love@rocketmail.com Speaking of Christmas, I will also be at the Christm...

Woop! The thousands of press releases I've sent out over the last few weeks seem finally to be working - look at this lovely article on Greenmystyle.com: All through october anyone who makes a purchase will be entered into a prize draw to win a made With Love goody bag worth £50. Yep £50! What better excuse to start your Christmas shopping early and maybe bag a little pressie for yourself in the bargain! You can read the whole article, here Visit my shop here to buy and be in with a chance of winning the fabulous goody bag.

Lots of lovely press coverage in the last few weeks in Make Jewellery, the Manchester Evening News and Large Manchester. I've pasted a copy of the Large Manchester feature below - the others will follow when I've worked out how to get electronic copies of them. Unfortunately Large Manchester printed my website address as madewithlovebykat.co.uk, not madewithlovebykat.com but hopefully people will have the sense to Google me if they like what they read. The days are ticking down to the official website launch - hopefully it will all be finished by Saturday. Keep your eyes peeled for a special celebratory competition!

Owl On The Sill . A little over a month ago I bought a beautiful pair of earrings from this gorgeous, gorgeous shop. There's so much more that I want to buy, but it appears those mean mortgage people need paying, so no treats for me at the moment! But doesn't mean that you shouldn't though! Buy things for yourselves! Buy things for your friends! Buy things for me! (Email made_with_love@rocketmail.com for my postal address, all presents happily received.) Just look at all the gorgeous things you could buy: Fiery Blue Moon Earrings - £17 Scarlet pendant - £14 Such a gorgeous necklace! If anyone is wondering what I would like for Christmas or, y'know, as a token of affection, this would do very nicely. Bubblegum Chalcedony and Tourmaline Earrings - £16 I think maybe these are my favourites, although it's so hard to choose. Purple Petal Hobo Bag - £25 That's right, she makes bags too. This is sooooo sweet. p.s - I've been usy working on my website which is near...

I'm currently working on a "proper" collection. It will be around 12 pieces created along the theme of the ballet (something that is a constant fascination to me), particularly the Sugar Plum fairy. In fact, the collection is going to be called Sugar Plum. It will be available in about a week though my new website and my Folksy shop . In the meantime, just to whet your appetite, here are some pictures that I have been using as inspiration...

I'm currently working on building my very own website. Hopefully the frontpage will look something like this...

The sun is out, everyone's feeling romantic and you too can buy wedding jewellery as featured in County Weddings . Yes, that's right, the lovely people at the posh wedding magazine have featured me on all their websites . Hurrah! Champagne all round! You can read the article here

Budget? What budget? Here's how to make your craft stall (see my last post) for less than a fiver*. To make the display board You will need: Foam filled board, available from most craft shops. Although for some reason we just had some at home under the bed. Vintage style fabric - I bought mine for 70p out of the offcuts bin at Nortex Mill on Chorley Old Road in Bolton A tinfoil roll middle (the bit that looks like a giant loo roll) A heavy recipe book stand, preferable iron. These are actually quite expensive, but if you can't borrow one you can justify it to yourself because it'll look lovely in your kitchen. A roll of gaffer tape Glue or double sided sticky tape Feathers and paper butterflies to decorate - make your own or cheat by buying them from a craft shop, look in the "make your own cards section" To make: Cut the foam filled board into the desired shape. I rounded off the corners, but a big rectangle will be easiest. Place it on top of your fabric (iron t...

It's the Lancashire Life interview this afternoon - hopefully after years of interviewing people hopefully I shouldn't be too bashful and inarticulate when it comes to talking about myself. I was practicing this morning in the shower, and if they ask about my influences I shall talk about the faded glamour of F. Scott Fitzgerald novels, the pictures I get from galleries and theatres in my job - at the moment I'm particularly influenced by the ballet - and pirates. Grown up whimsy, in a nutshell. If they ask about anything else... I'll have to wing it. Fingers crossed! In the meantime, I thought I'd share this with you: It's called Wonderland and it's available at http://www.folksy.com/shops/madewithlove

Time for the June giveaway! Anyone who makes a purchase throughout June will be entered into a draw to win a lovely set of three luxury handmade feather and button gift tags (pictured in the last post below). See them here.

OK, so I know that Folksy front page is supposed to be entirely random, but I still never see myself on there, which riles me as I see some other shops features LOADS of times. So imagine my excitement when I log on today and see my "The Loving Kind" necklace (hummingbird charm and rock crystal briolette, wrapped with goldfilled wire and hung from a goldfilled chain) right up at the top of the front page! So I saved the moment for posterity, like the big geek I am: After feeling smug for a while I refreshed the page to see what other folks were selling... and there I was again! I feel lucky, oh so lucky... So I refreshed again... and of course I was gone. Which just goes to show that you shoudl never push your luck.

I have been photographing and listing jewellery for the last four hours - really pleased with some of the new pics though. I'm also really excited because this morning I received a huge order of freshwater pearls in lovely colours - from white through peach, pink and lilac to deep peacock purple. I've teamed them up with some antique gold beads to make gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous bracelets for my new "Luxe" line. They're going to be £20 each, which is a little bit more expensive than my usual bracelets, but still much more affordable than SOME I've seen (some of the prices people charge are incredible!). And it's nice to treat yourself sometimes. Pictures and listing details coming soon - when I can bear to part with them!

Flowers, chocolates, diamonds... They'd all be appreciated, but for a really special Valentine's Day gift why not look a little off the beaten track? To start with the more traditional gifts, there are plenty of finds on Folksy incorporating hearts. This cute felt brooch is an inexpensive gift, perfect if you are in the early stages of your relationship and want to show your affection without going over the top. In fact, at just £3, why wait until Valentine's Day? You can buy it here . For a more serious gift, jewellery is always the best option. This silver heart necklace by Ali Bali Jewellery is contemporary and stylish: Or for a more vintage style, this resin heart incorporating an original print of tree branches and a vintage button is the perfect gift. You can buy it here . Of course, my jewellery also incorporates real vintage bits and bobs. I suggest this Fly Away With Me necklace , which is made from pink freshwater pearls, a brass swallow from New York, a gorgeous...

Haven't blogged for ages - mostly because I've become a bit disheartened with the whole hand-made "community" - yes that's right, I'm still waiting for my refund from My Vintage Charms. However- I sold three necklaces over the weekend, which is always bound to boost a girl's ego, so I have listed a few more items on Folksy: Buy it here Buy it here Buy it here I am also compiling my favourite Valentine's picks (hopefully the boyfriend is an avid reader of this and will come looking for hints!) which I will post up over the next few days. Finding stuff for the girls is easy, but what about the boys? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Ok , ok , so I told myself I wouldn't go all out making things for Valentine's Day. But I'm a soppy old thing, and so I wasn't surprised when I found myself sitting making this Cinderella necklace: Not only do the stones look romantic, they all have symbolic meanings. Rose quartz is universally acknowledged to be the stone of love, but a lesser known fact is that Roman ladies believed that amethyst would keep their husbands' love faithful. And in Eastern cultures pink pearls are believed to work well with the heart Chakra. You can buy the necklace from my Folksy shop. I also love the little swallows I've used. After my last post I was worried about the idea of birds and bad luck, so I looked up swallows in my Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. It turns out that having a family of swallows living in the eaves of your house is considered good luck - so i don't see why having a couple living in your jewellery box shouldn't be lucky too! Good news fo...

Someone on the messageboards at Folksy was discussing inspiration and people's plans for 2009, which reminded me that a couple of weeks ago I promised to post some pictures from the notebooks which I keep pictures in I like and which I think might give me ideas for new pieces of jewellery. So here's a sneak peek... Because a lot of my jewellery is made from vintage brooches, earrings, keys etc, what I make depends very much on what catches my eye when I'm rummaging through car boots, flea markets and eBay. As you can probably see from the notebooks and my previous posts, I love the idea of old carnivals, so I couldn't resist buying these multi-coloured cloisonne earrings: They reminded me of the merry-go-rounds in Victorian fairs, or of candy canes. I was also lucky enough to stumble on these gorgeous Coro enamel earrings: I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but hopefully it will be very special. I also found this tiny sparkling bow brooch,. It ne...

All my pieces seem to have become a lot brighter recently - maybe it's because the shortest day's been and gone and now spring's nearly here. Or maybe it's just my generally cheerful mood. I've had some pink chain stashed away for ages that I haven't used, so today I dug it out and made something new... I've also had this vintage cameo brooch in a drawer for months, but I got some gorgeous green Swarovski AP crystals, so I thought the time was right to dust it off...