Zibbet's new look - and free trial!

Zibbet.com relaunched today, with a new front page, a sleek new look, and an improved search engine.

It is stupidly cool. As a buyer, I would be hooked on sight. As a seller, I am thrilled to have such a sexy venue for my wares. I feel as though we now have a visual indicator that Zibbet has raised the bar for itself and is openly competing with other such beautiful venues as Etsy and Felt.

Here's a link to Zibbet's new front page.

And ...
to celebrate the relaunch, Zibbet is offering a free sixty-day trial to the first 100 people who sign up for Premium Accounts. The normal cost of a Premium Account is $9.95 USD per month (unless you got in early like I did), which is cheaper than ArtFire!

To obtain the 60-day trial, click on the image below, which will take you to Zibbet, then click 'sell' in the top left-hand corner and sign up for a Premium Account using the coupon code '60FREE'. 
Easy.

Christmas in July sale on Zibbet

I am participating in the 'Christmas in July' sale on Zibbet!
Artists from around the world are putting items on sale or offering free shipping as part of this promotion. For my part, all the one-off pieces in my Silverlight Jewellery Zibbet shop are marked down by 15%.
Here are some of the lovelies on sale:

Old Copper Gadgets - a vintage cluster necklace

Halo - vintage brass cross with amber

Locket And Key - vintage brass ball-locket with rusty old key

The Golden Acorn - vintage cluster necklace with faux pearls

Orange Squash On The Verandah - Dahling!

Vintage Rose In Bloom - vintage magnifying-dome necklace on Singapore-style brass chain

Imperial Red - wire-wrapped glass bracelet in deep scarlet and black

Zibbet has one of the loveliest, friendliest communities of sellers I have ever come across. Really nice people.
To find other artists who are participating in the Christmas in July sale, simply search on Zibbet using the term 'XmasJuly' - you'll find all the handmade gorgeousness that is on sale. Have fun!

Twitter!

My second big step into the world of social media (this blog being the first): I joined Twitter last night.

Wow. It is huge. 
Hundreds of thousands of people, all talking.

You will see, in the sidebar on the left of this blog, a little 'Follow me on Twitter' gadget. I have spent most of today playing around with my account, following people, and trying to get my head around how the whole thing works. It really is enormous. It feels like I'm wasting time, but I remind myself that once I have a grip on Twitter, I will not need to spend all day on it. And yes, I will be tweeting special discount codes for my followers.

One of the first things I did this morning was go to Zibbet's community and search for 'Twitter'. I found a handful of discussion threads with advice on how to use Twitter. The Zibbet community is very helpful and friendly. I found some information that I'm very grateful I found now, rather than later on in my Twitter career. As a result, I've signed up on bit.ly, and am planning to sign up on HootSuite to manage my tweets.

But not tonight. Tonight I need to go and do some of the work that has been piling up while I have been getting to know my new, little, blue birdy friend.
So, here's to Twittering success, and many happy tweeple for all of us!

Whiteleaf update and new pieces

I'm very happy with the way my new brand is developing. There are a whole lot of new product lines that I want to introduce: pottery raku vessel necklaces, multistrand hemp bracelets, agate tusk necklaces, and others.
Below are a few of the newest pieces that I am particularly proud of.

 Relics. This necklace is one of my more unusual pieces. It features a sea glass 'tusk', hand carved vintage stone beads from Israel, an old ring, and a bronze casting of an antique coin.

Bronze leaf earrings. Light, bold, and earthy. And, of course, hypoallergenic.

Baneberry earrings. I made them, then, because I didn't know what to call them, Googled for plants with white berries. The first plant that came up was the baneberry plant (actaea pachypoda), and it was perfect. I could not have made earrings that look more like the baneberry if I had tried!

Lily Pad necklace. A gorgeous wee frog on a beautifully detailed and realistic lily pad.

These earrings haven't got a name yet, and haven't been listed yet. I love the fat, glistening glass pearls, like dollops of butter that are about to melt. Golden yellow and copper ... gorgeous combination.

Nettle earrings. Another botany-inspired pair of earrings. Dark green, irregularly shaped glass pearls with antiqued-brass coloured leaf charms. As a vegetarian with vegan sympathies, I don't like to use real pearls, so I go out of my way to find irregularly shaped faux pearls that will imitate the organic beauty of freshwater pearls.

Earth Dancer earrings. These, and their companion Earth Jester earrings, are a one-off design. The iridescent pumpkin-shaped beads photographed so well. I was pleasantly surprised.

Featherdown earrings. Another one-off design, featuring rhyolite rounds and antiqued-brass coloured feather charms. The soft, feathery markings of the rhyolite were difficult to capture on camera.

A Silverlight Jewellery sale on Zibbet!

In preparation for the rebranding of my Silverlight Jewellery line, I have moved a lot of stock which will not fit in with the new branding to Zibbet, where it is now on sale!

Every piece is a one-off design, never to be repeated; and every one is marked down by 30%. 
So if you - or someone you know! - has been eyeing up one of my pieces for a while, now's the perfect time to get it.
Here's a link to the shop: http://www.zibbet.com/SilverlightJewellery
If you've purchased from me before and have a 'free shipping' card, remember to use the code on the back to get your shipping costs refunded.

All my random styles are there, from vintage to steampunk, simple to O.T.T.
Here are some of the lovelies on sale:

Arigato - abstract, Japanese-inspired pendant on satiny black cord

Blue Poison - unusual, steampunk necklace 

 

Little Brass Locket - simple, long vintage necklace

 

 Jungle - nature-inspired, loaded charm bracelet

Memories Of Autumn - vintage, sombre charm bracelet

The sale will run until Thursday the 8th of July, or while stocks last.

Have fun!

Perseverance: the new black.

Annie is the jewellery maker of Ferosh Kitty Designs. Recently, she was Zibbet.com's Featured Zibbeter. On reading her interview, a particular sentence caught my eye: "And I’m a believer that perseverance is the new black!"

I love black.
Black is only one colour (in fact technically it's not a colour; it's the absence of light and therefore the absence of colour); it doesn't have shades or tints the way green and blue and other colours do; yet it can be dangerous, formal, mysterious, intimidating, enigmatic, aggressive, clean, precise ... think black cats, ninjas, hit men, top hats, limousines, formal calligraphy, the night sky ...
Black does not compromise. You can't negotiate with it. It is what it is, and if you want a lighter or darker tone then you're just going to have to look elsewhere. Black just is. When all other colours have faded away, all that will be left will be black.
(Literally.)
'Perseverance is the new black'. I like the nod to fashion there. It seems appropriate for artists to talk about perseverance in visual terms. 

Perseverance is a common trait of those who change the world. Research Thomas Edison, Sir Edmund Hillary, Marie Curie, or any other important person, and the chances are high that perseverance was the key to their achievement.

As Calvin Coolidge famously said, 

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

(If, like me, you love quotes, here is an excellent trove of perseverance quotes. You're welcome. :-D)

Perseverance is the new black.

When all other skills and abilities have faded away, perseverance will still be there.
If you want to achieve something great, perseverance is not just the new black: it's the one and only black.