My New Vintage Line

I've been working on some new designs using vintage pieces and often taking what is old and making it new again.  These designs can be found in my Etsy Shop.

Pure Beauty Necklace

 This 20 inch vintage style necklace features a beautiful blue glass drop nestled in an antique style bead cap, surrounded by bead and brass charms and held together by antiqued brass chain with a swirly toggle clasp. To me it represents all things that are pure and beautiful: the sky, the ocean, a newborn baby!

Giving Pure Beauty as a gift? It will arrive at your door beautifully wrapped and ready for giving! And remember, there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs!

Prosperity

I've been thinking about the word Prosperity lately, maybe because it's graduation time; a time of promise, hope, and taking a path to one's dreams. I'm not talking about prosperity in terms of wealth really but in terms of other things that need to be in place in order to be truly prosperous...such as health, happiness, and approaching all of one's life with spirituality and creativity.

This 18" vintage style necklace with antiqued bronze accents, an up-cycled rich pearl, champagne swarovski heart crystal, and swarovski pearl accent means prosperity to me. It speaks of a richness that goes beyond financial gain and is more about the richness in one's life and one's heart.

Giving Prosperity as a gift? It will arrive at your door beautifully wrapped and ready for giving! And remember, there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs!

Simple Elegance Vintage Necklace

I love these vintage pearls! The focal point of this piece is a vintage moss green pearl surrounded by a long and ornate vintage bead cap. A chandelier wrapped with a lucite flower and pearl hangs from one side and a charm made of vintage pearls in moss green and white hangs from the other side. These all hang from antiqued bronze chain and are tied together with a swirly toggle clasp. The necklace measures 17" and is sure to be a favored piece to accent your wardrobe all year long!

Giving Simple Elegance as a gift? It will arrive at your door beautifully packaged and ready for giving! And remember, there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs!
 

Mad Money Purse Necklace

This little purse locket is for all of us that grew up with parents who, every time we went on a date gave us mad money in case we wanted to end the date. My dad gave all five girls mad money consisting of twenty dollars and change for the pay phone! He also put the fear of death into any boy that came to take out any one of his girls!

Mad Money started with a sweet vintage purse locket and I added antiqued bronze, swarovski crystals and pearls, and Lucite accents mounted on beautiful antiqued brass chain and tied together with a lovely antiqued Tibet bronze swirl hook toggle clasp.

Giving Mad Money as a gift? it will arrive at your door gift wrapped and ready for giving. And remember, there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs! All products are lead free!

Dad could have used this pendant...and a cell phone! :)

Dog Tags

This 17" necklace combines vintage and contemporary. The vintage bead cap holds a fiery 24mm Swarovski Crystal Vitrail Teardrop pendant and sits side by side with a perforated brass tag pendant. The whole piece hangs on antiqued bronze chain and is held together with an antiqued bronze toggle clasp.

This pendant was designed to honor the soldiers and their families who are separated by time and distance.

Giving Dog Tags as a gift? It will arrived beautifully wrapped ready for giving. And remember, there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs!

Sunset Vintage Wire Wrapped Ring

The fiery red and orange lucite ball, surrounded by antiqued bronze vintage bead caps, and all wrapped together in antiqued bronze wire could only be called Sunset. And it's the kind of sunset where the sun turns to flame before daylight turns to night!

Sunset is a size 7 but I can customize a size just right for you!

Buying Sunset as a gift? It will arrive at your door beautifully packaged ready for giving! And remember, there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs!

Vintage Luminescent Pearl Wire Wrapped Ring

This vintage pearl has the look of an opal when it catches the light revealing patterns of color and sparkle. It is nestled in vintage antiqued brass wire to complete the old world look. This ring is a size 7 but I can custom design a size to make it perfect for you!

Giving this ring as a gift? It will arrive at your door beautifully wrapped and ready for giving! And remember, there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs!

So for all you June babies out there...this is the ring for you!!
Enjoy!

Pink Gum Drop Earrings

These pretty little vintage style earrings feature the palest pink lucite balls that remind me of gum drops, some pink lucite flowers, vintage style bead caps,all wire wrapped together and finished with antiqued bronze vintage ear wires.



The earrings measure about 2 1/2 inches from the tip of the ear wire to the antiqued bronze headpin and are a compliment to anything in your wardrobe!



Buying Pink Gum Drops as a gift? They will arrive at your door beautifully wrapped and ready for giving! And remember, there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs!

Mellow Yellow Vintage Style Earrings

These earrings began with a pretty yellow pearl,add to that a lovely yellow lucite ball, an oval crystal, a vintage bead cap, an antiqued bronze heart spacer, all wrapped together and finished with short antiqued bronze ear wires. 



The result is a beautiful pair of earrings you'll want to wear all the time!



Giving Mellow Yellow as a gift? These earrings will arrive at your door beautifully packaged and ready for giving! And remember there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs!

Sweet Lavender Vintage Earrings

These are vintage style earrings made with lavender pearls, vintage style bead caps, lucite lavender flowers, and tied together with antiqued bronze ear wires. They measure 3 1/4 inches from the top of the ear wire to the tip of the antiqued bronze head pin.



They look great with both vintage attire, or to accent your everyday outfits! Treat yourself to these wonderful earrings!


Giving these earrings as a gift? Sweet Lavender Vintage Earrings will arrive at your door beautifully wrapped and ready for giving! And remember, there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs!

Vintage Flower Earrings

I fell in love with these Lucite two toned flowers layered with other Lucite flower pieces and these elongated vintage bead caps. Put them all together and they create a pair of long and luxurious earrings that are a great look all year long...tied all together with antiqued bronze long ear wires.



Giving these as a gift? These earrings will come beautifully wrapped ready for giving. And remember, there is always FREE SHIPPING at Zur Designs.



These earrings are designed using lead free materials

I've been having a lot of fun creating these designs!  Hope you enjoy them too!

Wednesday Window Shopping on Etsy!

The theme of this week's window shopping trip is gifts for Dads! In the USA, Father's Day is June 20th so I thought I'd do some window shopping to help us get some ideas and showcase some of the wonderful handmade offerings for Dad you'll find on Etsy!

FAMILY Word Shape Masculine Photo Album for Father's Day

How about this really cool photo album from Simply Inviting Cards?


What would make a better gift for your family man this Father's Day than this retro-inspired, masculinized word shape photo album? Drawing inspiration from worn leather, old west saloons, retro-style background bursts, pinstripe button down shirts, and tobacco smoke-stained wallpaper matched up with my characteristic edging techniques, there's no reason this album doesn't say ''100% Man''!

Each spread of this photo album is decorated with an earthy and grunged up patterned coordinating papers and is finished with tarnished metal eyelets. Each page is lovingly distressed and aged by hand with walnut colored ink. At 6 in. by 12 in. (15.25 cm x 30.5 cm), this is also a one of a kind item!

Hand Painted Side Plate - Hungry Bear

Dad would really enjoy this hand-painted hungry bear plate from Jimbo Art!  As these plates are individually hand-drawn, each one will differ slightly from the photo. Can personalize the plates for Father's Day!!!

This plate is 9":

• Dishwasher proof
• Do not use abrasive material on surface
• Original artwork done by JimboArt; directly drawn onto late using specific on-glaze ink

This makes for a really unique gift that Dad will cherish for years to come!

Stainless Steel Snake Bracelet

How about giving Dad this really gorgeous chainmaille bracelet by Armored Hearts?

Stainless steel rings are woven in the Full Persian weave. Don't miss out giving Dad the opportunity to wear some metal fear around his wrist!

The beauty of stainless steel is the more Dad wears this bracelet, the more shiny it becomes!  So it's definitely a solid piece of jewelry that Dad can wear every day and think of you!! :)

Well, hope you enjoyed this week's addition of Wednesday Window Shopping on Etsy!  Dedicated to Dads everywhere!  Have a great week!

Handmade Headlines

I am getting really excited because I am planning to attend The New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF®)! The show will be held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and Passenger Ship Terminal Piers 92 and 94 beginning August 14th and running through the 19th.  


NYIGF® is the nation’s premier gift, home and lifestyle marketplace, with 2,700 exhibiting companies featuring an extraordinary breadth and depth of design-driven home fashion products and complementary giftware. Some 31,000 attendees from all 50 states and more than 85 countries worldwide are expected.


What has added to my excitement of attending this incredible show is that the handmade industry will be represented at this international event like never before!  Beginning in summer 2010, NYIGF’s Handmade will present two distinct categories of handcrafted merchandise: Designer Maker and Global Design. NYIGF Handmade:Designer Maker will include some 360 designer-makers from across the United States and around the world, and Handmade: Global Design will include some 200 imported resources featuring traditional designs and craftsmanship and Fair Trade production from around the world.  


Both divisions will be located in new space at the Javits Convention Center.  Handmade Designer Maker will debut in the new Javits Center North, a wide open space that is 40,000 net square foot exhibit space at the North end of the Javits Center accessible both from the Street and from the North Concourse Lobby of the Center.   Handmade Global Design will present Within the Javits Center’s Hall 1D, a temporary home due to continued construction.  Having all the handmade products in one location is going to be wonderful and really easy and convenient for buyers!  Not to mention, the increased number of handmade sellers at this huge show indicates that there has been a shift in consumer thinking with regards to handmade and handmade artisans.  Traditionally, handmade products were not viewed as having an economic impact on our economy.  There has been a shift in thinking that locally made products are not only instrumental in building the economy but also preserving important aspects of our heritage.


This shift and many other new changes are all a part of NYIGF's three year strategic plan entitled “Focus Forward NYIGF 2013".  These changes, which will be implemented over the next three years, will position NYIGF as the defining marketplace for fashion-forward and design-driven home, gift and lifestyle resources and handmade will be a very important part of that!  

New HAF Etsy Team Treasury: Your Love Is Better Than Chocolate!!

New HAF Team Treasury

Your Love Is Better Than Chocolate!

Take a look at some of the wonderful talent you will find on Handmade Artists Etsy Team!!

Indie Junction Featured Artisans for the Week of June 6th!!

   
June starts off with a bang as we feature three new talented Indie Junction Artisans: Jana Webb of Janabolic, Libby Gardiner of I Heart Charlie and Pink Bauble, and Mary Judy of Mary Judy Ceramic Art Studio!
Let's start with Jana Webb, owner of Janabolic, which features handmade chainmaille earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and keychains all of which were created by opening, weaving, and closing hundreds of rings, one ring at a time.  Everything you see in Jana's shop can be customized to your specifications.  If you see something you'd like at a different length, color, or material, just send her a conversation!  Here's some things about the artist, in her own words: "A few things about me! My name is Jana, I have a great boyfriend, I have 6 little brothers and sisters, I like silly hats, I'm left handed, I've lived in Tennessee my whole life, I do a little of everything, but my favorite things are making jewelry, books, pin back buttons, knitting, and taking pictures, anything else you'd like to know? Just send me a conversation! (I'm also friendly :])"
Places to Find Jana:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Blog
• Flickr
• DeviantArt
• StyleHive

And of course here at Indie Junction!!
Now let's take a look at some of Jana's beautiful chainmaille:
  
Our next featured Indie Junction Artisan is Libby Gardiner of  iheartcharlie and Pink Bauble.  iheartcharlie offers an eclectic selection Hand Crafted Textile items and Photography.  All of iheartcharlie's items are either one of a kind or a very limited edition. Each item is created with attention to detail and care.  In the artist's own words: "...I reside in the beautiful Margaret River Wine region in Western Australia. My shop name is in honour of my 2yr old Kelpie x Border Collie Charlotte, aka Charlie. My passion is photography but I also indulge in all things creative. This shop was originally intended to stock my photography but some how the textiles have taken a life of their own and the design label 'iheartcharlie' was born.  iheartcharlie is an eclectic mix of all the things that have occupied my spare time over the last couple of years and continue to do so.  All of my textile creations are original designs created by me and have been individually hand crafted with care. "
And here's what she has to say about her shop Pink Bauble, a shop featuring a creative selection of handmade beaded brooches and keychains:  "The brooches and keychains listed in this shop were created over a 12 month time frame.  I've got a box full ready to sell and a few more waiting to be finished. After these have gone they will not be recreated. Consequently each on is an individual one of kind creation."
If you'd like to find out more about Libby and her shops, follow her blog and Facebook page!
Now let's take a look at some of the wonderful things you will find in iheartcharlie:
  
And in Pink Bauble...
  
Our third Indie Junction Featured Artisan is Mary Judy owner of Mary Judy Original Ceramic Art where you will find all original hand-built one-of-a-kind coLorful kooKy & fun ceramics! In the artist's own words: "I am an almost native of Colorado, living at just over 8,000 ft. I spend a LOT of time in my studio making the most colorful and kookiest ceramics. I am insired by COLOR, shape, form and movement. Always testing the limits of how far, how thin, how extreme I can make the mud.  Both fun & funktional, all of my work is one-of-a-kind, hand-built, original. All of it finished with non-toxic lead-free glazes -- making it safe to use for food or 10,000 other things."
Places to find Mary Judy:

• Website
• Etsy
• Artfire
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Flickr

Now let's take a look at some of the wonderful things created by Mary Judy:
  
Well, I hope you enjoy this week's Indie Junction Featured Artisans!  If you would like more information about Indie Junction simply click here. We're in the process of moving to our new home, so sign up at our wonderful new site and the rest of the community will join you soon! Indie Junction is a place where indie artisans across all genres form a synergy that helps each individual achieve their goals within the handmade industry.

Wednesday Window Shopping on Etsy!

This week is dedicated to some of the wonderful things for babies that you can find on Etsy!
So for all the new parents and for all expectant parents out there, congratulations!  And take  look at some of the wonderful, natural, handmade products out there for your baby!

Brown Shell Beanie by Hugga Beans

They have hats for newborns through adult, baby cocoons and slings, and tutus!  Wonderful shop!

• Etsy Shop
• Facebook Page

Midnight Newborn Cocoon Set by I'll Be Yarned comes with hat and cocoon in a gorgeous midnight blue color.


This shop features handcrafted crocheted items specializing in newborns: hats, slings, cocoons, and much more!  You owe it to yourself to browse this shop!  

For your baby girl, Pink and Ivory Stretch Flower Headband with Rhinestones from Celeste and Company featuring unique and trendy hair accessories!  Here you will find hair clips, hair bows, baby snap clips, beanies and more!!


Become a fan on Facebook for specials exclusively for Facebook fans!


Visit Celeste and Company for all the latest styles and you're baby will be "stylin"!!


There are so many more wonderful things for babies on Etsy!  And with handcrafted items, you know you are getting the best and most natural materials for your baby!

Check out these bamboo flannel wash cloths from Northern Mom, for instance! Here you will find wonderful and natural products for babies! These flannel washcloths are made from 100% bamboo with an Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified bamboo. The Oeko-Tex Standard 100 is a globally uniform testing and certification system for all stages of textile production. This certification ensures that products are free from harmful substances. There is no finer certification than the Oeko-Tex Standard 100. It goes beyond the organic label!  Follow Northern Mom on Facebook for updates on sales and specials!


And I could go on and on, listing all the wonderful products for babies that you can find on Etsy and have the peace of mind that whether you are giving a gift for a baby shower or buying things for your baby, you are getting the highest quality items matched with wonderful customer service to ensure that you start baby off right!!


Hope you have enjoyed this week's Wednesday Window Shopping on Etsy!  If you are looking for something for baby, you owe it to yourself to do some window shopping on Etsy for yourself!  The cute baby models alone are enough to make it an enjoyable experience and you will be impressed by the selection and the quality you'll find from all the wonderful sellers of baby items!!

Help Fuchst Bags Reach 550 Fans on Facebook and Enter Their Giveaway!!

Etsy Buy Handmade FuchstBags

My friend Mandy over at Fuchst Bags is having a special giveaway!  Her goal is to reach or exceed 550 Facebook Fans by June 15th!  Head over to her blog to see the rules!   One lucky fan could win a Kaftan/tunic top valued of $69.00! 

Hurry over and participate in this fun giveaway!  And visit Fuchst Bags on Facebook!