Jackdawjewellery.co.uk

[Jackdaw Jewellery]

Hi all,

I am new here and I noticed this thread and thought it was a great idea! My name is Christina Winstanley and I design and make jewellery from resin, charms, beads and anything else I can lay my hands on! I have been quite successful selling through local outlets and craft fairs. On this note I discovered etsy and more recently I set up my own website. The website is a shop template bought one from Lycos so hasn't given me the freedom I wanted to design my site but all in all I am happy with it. I am still waiting for that elusive first sale on there (well apart from my Dad's trial run!). I would really welcome any ideas you may have on my site. It does still need a lot more products added but there is a fair bit on there at present.

Thank you so much!

[Seahorse]

Hello and welcome.
Im about to start resin work,havnt a clue what Im doing tho!

[Seahorse]

Im loving the necklaces, I adore Alphonse Mucha(art nouvaeu absinthe)!

[Jackdaw Jewellery]

Oh cool Seahorse.

What do you plan on making?

[Poppy4lee]

Hello & - I love your jewellery!

[Jackdaw Jewellery]

Thank you very much Poppy!

[Seahorse]

Oh cool Seahorse.

What do you plan on making?

Hmm, either brooches or necklaces but I want to resin 3d objects in 1 go so I dont know how to suspend them in mid air with nothing touching it while it dries, if that makes any sense.
Reckon il have to do it in 2 goes but itl have to be resting on something.

Im using Envirotex light, heard of it?

Just ordered som mixing sticks and flat sided cups, but its going to take forever to get to me because of the strike.Absolute torture!!

[Jackdaw Jewellery]

Hi Seahorse,

Ok glad you mailed me!!! To be able to do what you want you are going to have to use a mold. You can pre buy these from a variety of places. First condition the mold with some mold release spray and give a good wipe with some kitchen roll or a cloth. Repeat this a couple of times. You will need to put down a thin layer of resin first. Let this harden overnight if your item is heavy (else it will just sink to the bottom of the resin and not be coated) or wait for it to start thickening. I really wouldn't recommend Envirotex Lite to cast things with. It is actually a coating resin and wouldn't really be suitable for what you are wanting to do. However...it is great for doing pieces say in bezel cups. Like the necklaces on my website. Infact it is what I use for that purpose.

To be able to cast pieces you should try Castin Craft Easy Cast resin. The only place that sells it in the UK is Ian Clarke Coatings which I assume is where you bought your Envirotex from? It is specially designed for the job and also allows a longer curing time for you to be able to work with it. I think you'd find if you tried to cast anything with the Envirotex it'd end up being slightly yellowish.

Make sure you get the ratios spot on too else the resin will remain tacky. It is also important to mix up the resin in a warmish room. If the room is too cold again it will not cure properly. With the Easy Cast is does recommend you place the bottles in some warm water for a minute or too first if they feel cold to touch. Don't go mad though, the resin just needs to be ever so slightly warm, NOT hot.

If you get bubbles in your piece you can either use a heat gun or simply breathe on the resin to make the bubbles pop. Like you would if you were cleaning your glasses, not blowing!

I really hope that has helped you out. I have done quite a bit of experimenting with resin myself. I can highly recommend Sherri Haab's book the Art of Resin Jewelry and she also has a website with some handy hints. Google her and she will come up.

Good luck! Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

[Seahorse]

Thanks for the info, il have a look.Ive PM'd you, thingy at the top right.

[Seahorse]

There are no prices!

[Jackdaw Jewellery]

Hey I have replied.

So no-one has any suggestions for my site?

[icecreamgirl]

Hello!!
Just had a wee peek..
Your site is nice, easy to use, the only thing i would say is i found the Logo hard to read, all the swirly writting but that's just preference i suppose..
Your stuff is nice, a good selection of different stuff, not all 'samey' like some.., i'm loving those crochet beads, am waiting for an order of them to come so i can make something!!!
Have fun on here..

[Jackdaw Jewellery]

Anymore for anymore?

I would love to hear what you think!

[mymiyel]

Hi Jackdaw!

Sorry I'm a bit late in replying to this thread! But I'm bored and have time to kill so I've been trawling thru the forum!

I think your website looks great. I especially like the homepage that explains the nature of a jackdaw - very apt name i think!

It's very user friendly with simple menu options and good pictures.

Have you had many sales from the website directly?

I love your resin necklaces - I've just bought some envirotex lite and want to try making this style of pendants. Any tips?

Anyway, hope my comments helped.

[Focus on Life]

The website is a shop template bought one from Lycos so hasn't given me the freedom I wanted to design my site but all in all I am happy with it

Hi there, just seen your pleas for more feedback. It seems easy to navigate, you can quickly get to what you want to find. I dont have a website myself so can only give you a very layman's opinion, nowt professional or high tech! - I like the idea of you giving the Jackdaw definition as a hook, for me it would've been nice to have a lovely real-photo image of a jackdaw as part of your logo to go with it perhaps? And you specifically mention the colours of the jackdaw, maybe it would have been nice to reflect the birds colours in your overal site design?

Having said that, you seem a bit disappointed in the lack of design freedom with Lycos so I dunno how flexible it is for you to adopt anyone's suggestions at this point, maybe for the future

Your jewellery looks lovely and congrats on having a website, the guys on here are the ones to advise a bit more on how to try and capture those elusive sales though, they know tons!

hth
Shaz x