Edinburgh jeweller

It’s a big birthday year for the Queen this year, she turned 90 in April. However, the Queen also has another birthday celebration, an official birthday which is today! Apparently we have been celebrating the official birthday of a monarch in the UK since 1748 and the Queen’s official birthday moves to whichever date is a Saturday between 11th and 17th June. I had to stop and think about the complete genius of this idea. Surely we should all follow the Queen’s lead and adopt a second birthday that is on a Saturday (I’ve chosen 9th July this year!). Anyway, I've been using this double birthday celebration as a great excuse to enjoy some of the Queen’s extensive and beautiful jewellery collection! The tiaras are gorgeous but as I can’t wear one everyday (hmm, can I?) I’ve been focussing more on other jewellery in her collection. The Queen was given this Cartier bracelet for her 18th birthday in 1944 The Queen’s platinum and diamond engagement ring The Queen wore a ...

I've been working on a new range of silver jewellery and it's nearly ready to launch (is anything ever really ready?!).  It comprises of three collections The be collection The bee range is a delightful play on words and is  perfect for those who like their jewellery to make them smile . A cute bee sits on a honeycomb textured front and on the reverse is your chosen word.  For example be loved, be free, be happy etc The totem collection I love that jewellery is personal and has a meaning to the person that wears it. With this in mind I have developed the totem collection. A totem is a symbol that you choose of your personal or spiritual identity. I currently have the following totems Bee - symbolic of achieving the impossible Hummingbird - symbolic of energy Owl - symbolic of wisdom and learning Butterfly - symbolic of transformation and change Shell - symbolic of affinity with the sea Flower - symbolic of growth and blossoming The pieces ca...

I love thinking of ways to add to my sweetie jewellery range on Etsy . I have just sourced some lovely Czech glass beads to add a smarties necklace and bracelet to my range of jewellery in time for christmas. The beads are really gorgeous, very shiny and brightly coloured. They are now available in my etsy shop so please take a look! Photos by Gary Ullah of Crafty Websites

Dolly mixtures necklace I have been working on some new mouthwatering jewellery pieces that I have recently added to my etsy shop . Here are some photos Dolly mixtures necklace £26 Dolly mixtures bracelet Dolly mixtures bracelet £10 I love wearing this as it has such uplifting colours Dolly mixtures earrings Dolly mixtures earrings £4.50 Available in purple, mint green, brown, yellow and orange/yellow Licorice allsort necklace Licorice allsort necklace £26   I have been selling the multi-coloured licorice allsort necklaces for a while now. I was commissioned to make a necklace of all one colour and now offer this on etsy. You can choose between orange, pink, brown and yellow. Flumps marshmallow stretch bracelet Spring time charm bracelet   Flumps marshmallow stretch bracelet £10 Spring time charm bracelet £10 Foam banana sweetie earrings Foam banana sweetie earrings £4 ...

Hatton Garden festival 2011 It was London Jewellery week last week. I've not been before but I thought I would go this year. I was nearly put off by the heavy showers and the tube engineering works but I'm glad I persevered! There was a lot going on in different locations. I went to Hatton Garden first. It was pretty busy considering the weather. The main street was filled with stalls selling jewellery, food, drink, beads - lots of interesting things. I really loved the town crier who was ringing his bell and shouting (probably crying is the correct term!) next to the latest demonstration. A really helpful touch. There were some things for kids to do - a big pirate ship to climb on which looked fun. There were also some tables where you could try things out. I liked that idea. I then went on to the main event - Treasure which was at Victoria House near Holborn. This was an amazing exhibition of so many artists. I absolutely loved floating around looking at all the beau...

In April I wrote a blog post called Pledging to by handmade . Basically, I decided to buy at least one handmade item each month in order to support a fellow artist/maker. It's been an absolute pleasure to do so and I normally manage to buy more than one thing! Here are some of the things I've bought since April along with the details of the makers. This is Ossie the owl brooch made by UK based Christel of  Little Feathers , @ASmallWorldGirl on twitter. It's a really beautiful thing, much more fab in real life. You can see the amount of work that has gone into the stitching and beading. At the moment I have it propped up by my bed. I think I'm going to put it on a handbag. Clearly I have been into brooches in the last few weeks! I bought this one to get into the British Etsy Team BNR. And also because I love it! BNR stands for buy 'n' replace or buy now replace. I wrote more about BNRs here . I love this brooch from CLS craft creations , also UK based. It...

I have this in turquoise, from 7071 design  I have read some very interesting and thought-provoking blog posts recently about the benefits and joys of  buying handmade  items. I would recommend the  mindful spending  posts on the fantastic  Scoutie Girl  blog. Serotonin necklace from molecularmuse I particularly love the idea of  creative tithing , choosing to spend a percentage of your income each month on handmade and/or locally produced items. This idea really spoke to me because I can see the benefit to the artist and to me. The artist has the thrill of knowing that someone valued their design and work enough to invest in it which does wonders for self confidence; I know having perfect strangers buy my jewellery on  Etsy  has always made my day.  And of course, as a buyer, I love having beautiful things that have been hand made and not manufactured. Feather necklace from MijuandYou So I have made a point of buy...