Phew…

After months of dilly-dallying and being completely lazy, my shop at etsy is up at last. There will be updates to items for sale coming up soon – may not be until this weekend as I only take pictures powered by natural daylight – something that I am sorely lacking mondays – fridays.I spent the weekends taking pictures, its ridicullious. You can see me by my windowsill, snapping away…

This weekend have been spent stringing up necklaces as well…I’ve had my pearls in its loose form for ages, and have not bothered stringing them up.Phew. I spent all Sat afternoon stringing pearls, and only stopped when I realised that I had attached the same clasp to both ends of the necklace. Hm. By that time I have been stringing necklaces for about 4 hours nonstop. And now they are up for sale. Hooray!

This should work as a sideline to my winter market stall. I must also say – not doing well on that end as well. Due to the cold (and pure laziness) I have only signed up for two markets. Most of my items are going to go as gifts anyway – and now that I am working with women again , I can bring it into work again and make a killing .

I won’t ask you to browse the shop yet, as I have not had all my items uploaded. But if you’re wanting to buy from me – just let me know, my readers get 10% off everything. Love from me to you!!!

crocheted hair slides/brooches

black pearl necklace on a toggle clasp

Last sunday we again did the craft market route – this time in Leeds City centre. I was initially assigned a 1/2 stall (I only paid for 1/2 stall anyway), but protested when I realise the person who was sharing my stall was selling earrings for £1.50 – the usual crapola earrings available world wide. So yeah, two weeks in a row where I paid for 1/2 stall but got the whole stall! But to be honest, its looking likely that I would eventually need a full stall.

Hmm…still space for more display units. Will be doing that for the next one…and just pray that I still accidentaly get assigned a full stall!

My south sea pearls collection. I changed the clasp to toggle-styled to give it a modern twist. Yes folks, pearls are no longer for grannies! Well, not mine anyway

The whole pearl corner

I like the effect of draping the table with sarong…the red brings out the black undercover as well. It’s not easy setting up a market stall you know!

My new product – knitted hair slides and brooches. No, I did not suddenly learn how to knit, but I did hand sew the sequins and fixed the slides and brooches to the back! Love em…on sale for only £2.50 cause I’m cheap like that. Just got more in, this time they will be crocheted instead of knitted.

Hmm. I made less than the week before, but to be honest, I expected to do worse. It was enough to pay for an early dinner for me and bacon. So I guess it’s not that bad. Not like I’m going to retire anytime soon, but hopefully they will do a good job of promoting the next one which is going to be indoors. With any luck business should be brisk. Now, I need to go back to the drawing board and get more stock in…three months and counting to christmas..falallalaa—-lala—lalaaa!!

Yeppers…am back in the scene. After my last market where the organisers did not spend a penny advertising it ( the whole place had about 10 stalls and a total of 30 visitors in the three hours), I am glad to say that the good people at artsmix did very well in getting press…read more about it here.

I’ve not been in the local arts market scene for nearly 2 years. But tought times calls for tough measures, so I am back in the market scene. However, September is probably not a good time for arts market – there was so much attention but there are just no one spending any money. Its too early for Christmas and too soon after back-to-school/summer holidays spending. I did make a slight profit -but just not enough. Hmm…I really hope the business will pick up nearer to Christmas with my soon-to-be expanded product range

My stall. I was only supposed to have half a shop, therefore the lack of items that is on display. There was a couple of people who did not show up – therefore me spreading out. I will be diversifying as well and getting more stuff in like hair barrettes, bracelets ect..

My professional looking display. It stocks 125 earrings, and its still not enough. I need more…..I am still keeping my old display units for intricate designs.

My fave!! I was really annoyed at this – everyone olod and young stopped to stare, smiling and touching them as well. But no one bought any. NONE. OMG. Horrible. I don’t think £5 is very expensive for them – I would buy it for £5 myself. Again, it might be the credit crunch, it might be the start of school. The good part is there was a number of enquiries asking if we’re back nearer to christmas..makes me think that it will be much better nearer to christmas.

I will be holding court again this Sunday, this time at a Leeds city centre location instead.If you are in Leeds, pop down to say hello at Chancellor Court from 11am-4pm (14th September). After this weekend I will be taking stock, and will only be starting up again end October. C’mon now, come get your sparkley bits!!

Last sat signified lunabliss’ comeback in the local craft fairs. Again,this was at the school where I first held court more than a year ago. After spending all Friday night organizing, decorating cupcakes and making hampers (with bacon baking all night) I was dead tired come Sat morning. DEFINITELY NOT WORTH IT!

It was a horrible poorly-attended fair. Only 30 pax actually managed to show up in the 3 hour space..and it cost me £10 which made it worse. We only sold two baskets out of 8 that I had made, 1 cake loaf out of 6 …but half of my prettily decorated cupcakes went for £0.40,which was quite cheap. Well, seeing that stupid bacon being cheapskate had not put enough dough in each cup (preferring QUANTITY) , I was surprised that any of the cupcakes went at all.Must be due to my decorating skills.

My pretty cuppas

Loafing around

Cakes and earrings

Pretty easter baskets – that no one bought:(

The chandelier that no one bought:(

Corner display

(and that was when my camera died on me…so ta da no more pictures!)

As the punters slowly trickled in, a husband bought a pair for his wife, which I thought was really sweet.My second customer was a little girl buying herself a basket..I actually felt bad like as if I was conning her out of her moolah.And then my neighbouring stall discovered me. She actually runs an accessories shop somewhere north of Leeds, and seeing that I was selling my stuff for cheap, bought some earrings and necklaces from me to sell at her shop. Me being really clever, went over to her stall and suggested a couple of designs that might go with her existing necklaces…and promptly sold another 3 pairs of pearl & crystal drop.

Then my neighbour from the other side (selling to-die-for bodyshop stuff – I bought a lipbalm) popped over and requested a made-from-scratch pair of seagreen crackle glass earring.And then suddenly I got loads of attention from kids re: cupcakes and started to do a suprisingly roaring trade – I think I sold more than anyone else in that fair.Seeing that there was only like 30 customers walking around.

I’m glad I was neighbours with the shop owner (which did not sell a thing by the way) – will try to sell stuff to her via her shop..as she charges £30 for a necklace whilst I only charge £10.But it is so tiring baking and going round to fairs, I think I’ll only do this again in Christmas. At least I recouped the £10 rental, most people did not even have that and it is sad.Oh, also realized bacon is a useless salesman. He tried selling off my baskets below cost to customers towards the end..after spending ALL 2 HOURS reading newspaper and chatting whilst I was trying so hard to make a living.GRR.

Waking up at 6.30am is never my forte…especially after making earrings until 1am the night before.Factor in the freezing cold of the morning,crawling out of bed has never been so difficult,the lure of the business that lays ahead did nothing to change that.

After we both managed to crawl out of bed at 6.45,I stumbled downstairs to make a flask of hot jasmine tea to bring along. We were supposed to arrive at 6.30am…got there at 7.30 and no one was there..other than the men setting up stalls for us. Bah..kena conned again.

After an initial flurry of confusion on where are our stalls ect…

We’re in business!

Due to the harzadous working condition that this designer had been subjected to (poorly lit studio aka living room),I noticed that crystals on my earrings are not always properly matched..one side green,one side blue.

So I set to work in the freezing cold…you try working without gloves at 1c and let me know how much fun that is..

As usual, I feel like a big fat wonton.I had my beanie on all day that when I eventually came home, I felt that I still had it on.

We stood around miserably as our neighbours started making brisk sales…whislt our stall was customer-less until noon…that meant 3 hours of standing around looking at other people making money..I nearly cried.

So, due to our business-less business, I started taking snapshots..which actually attracted customers to the stall because they were wondering what the heck was I doing..

Sorry,not very clear. My pearl necklaces saved the day

Modern variation of the classic pearl strand..My first sale was this in ah lien pink.

Floating pearl strands..very popular

Bacon bliss…bwahahahha!My Business Developement Manager

Earrings that did not do too well that day, I sold 6 pairs of my £8 earrings only..those of blood,sweat and tears

You can see the ahlien pink strand that was my first sale still there..

All in all, £100 gross profit of that day…could not find the organiser when we were clearing up, so did not pay the £30 rental! Hahaha..Yeah, I cheated,so what?

It was not really worth the biting cold…but it’s a good first proper try.What did I expect from a geriatic village?I told my mom that it’s filled with old people thus lunabliss is too hip for Morley,and she said that I should design to cater to the crowd..I explained that it was like selling earrings to my grandma and that shut her up.Hehe.

I miss my shareholders…*sniff*

We have a catalouge of our work here. Well, the girls do, I have yet to upload my stuff. If you are in Asia and would like to purchase some lunabliss,please contact lunabliss@gmail.com

Otherwise,I am available at lunablissuk@gmail.com.

Either way, quote that you came through my blog and receive a 5% discount!!