A very merry day!

A big thank you to everyone who made it out to the Steveston Christmas Craft Fair today! Many pairs of earrings were sold, as was the Danae necklace, which was brand new and not even posted in the shop yet! All of the unsold items have now been relisted so if you didn't have a chance to see the jewellery in person, you can always look online.

The winner of the $20 gift card draw is Lori Dray, who has her eye on the lovely Emmanuelle earrings. Congratulations Lori! There will be another gift card draw at the next craft fair (to be announced) so be sure to clear your schedule!

The coming days will be spent cleaning my work space and then posting several new pieces including four pairs of earrings and a necklace. Here are two of the earrings, the Mina and the Elena:

Just in time for the holidays

I love it when there is a custom order and the customer gives me some general guidelines and then lets me go wild with the design. My friend Voula liked the stones used in the custom James necklace that I made for another friend's wedding so I worked them into a different design. Here are the signature three rubies and single crystal quartz of the new Voula necklace:



Don't forget the Steveston Christmas Craft Fair is only a week away on the 28th and all of the items in the shop at aileen.etsy.com will be at the fair. It is inside the indoor tennis court behind Steveston Community Centre (4111 Moncton Road, Richmond) from 10am to 4pm and there will be goodies... The first eight customers receive a free gift, valued between $20-50, and all visitors can enter their names in a draw for a $20 gift card. I hope to see you there!

Leaf pendant

Although the Steveston Christmas Craft Fair is only two weekends away, I am still busy making a few more pieces of jewellery before I begin my show preparations. Here is one of my brand new pieces, the Norah, which has black onyx, obsidian, smoky quartz, and hematite.

Love affair

For the last three weeks or so, I have been obsessed with smoky quartz. I actually am always obsessed with smoky quartz, but I just could not stop touching it and pairing it with other stones during this time. My love affair has resulted in four new pieces - three pairs of earrings (Astrid, Nigella, and Emlyn) and one bracelet (Hillary) - and all of them have smoky quartz in some way. Here are the Emlyn earrings, which also have iolites in the design:

Autumn hues

Just in time for Thanksgiving in Canada, five pieces of jewellery have had their prices permanently reduced! They include two pieces that feature gorgeous yellow-orange citrines - there are the Gloria earrings and the Dylan necklace as shown below:

Touch of pink

Eleven new items have been posted to the shop at aileen.etsy.com including two pairs of custom earrings (Ava and Sandrine) and the bracelet below. The Khairi bracelet has pink topazes, mystic pink quartzes, rose quartzes, and crystal quartzes, and it's very girly, no?

Treasury: Dana

Another pair of my earrings have been chosen for an Etsy treasury listing again! This time it is the Dana earrings, which has faceted round smoky quartz and red carnelian framed by upside down brushed sterling teardrops. This pretty listing was curated by ShimmeringSky, who is also from Vancouver:

Love and marriage

My dear friends James and Elisse got hitched on Saturday, September 19th and they had a lovely ceremony and fun reception. Elisse wore a crystal quartz and three-ruby necklace called James and bridesmaids Hannah, Pam, Sam, and Fumiko wore their specially designed custom earrings. Here is a shot of Elisse signing the register, with Hannah showing off her Mare earrings:


Until the end of September, three pairs of earrings using the wedding colours are being highlighted in the shop at aileen.etsy.com. The Lorna, Talula, and Demelza use spessartites, garnets, tourmalines, and beer quartzes, and earn double the entries toward the year-end gift certificate draw!

Custom work coming

The plan is to post some new items this week, but as I will be working on several custom pieces for a bride and her bridesmaids, the posting may have to be pushed back until next week. But as it is, I have some beautiful earrings and necklaces that are ready to go. And if there is a little bit of time, I am going to use the freeform black garnets from my last purchase too. I have already decided to pair them with some textured hoops and call them Claudia so I hope there will be time soon!

New inspiration

I stopped by Country Beads, my favourite Vancouver bead store, on my way to seeing Macbeth last night and left with some beauties. There are smoky quartzes, chalcedonies, iolites, pearls, and a sugilite. There is also a pair of ruby zoisite, which has grey instead of the typical green mottled background. And a pair of freeform black garnets. I can't wait to turn them into earrings!