Because lately I've started to also make jewelry using my beads and I wanted to start selling some of my artisan jewelry to support my hobby, I decided to open up another Etsy-shop so my beadshop wouldn't get cluthered. It's called Made by Marieke. The only problem is I acted a bit stupid so instead of made... I registered designedbymarieke instead of madebymarieke. So to make a long story short, the shop is called Made by Marieke but can be found at designedbymarieke.etsy.com

Omdat ik de laatste tijd ook steeds meer sieraden maak en ik mijn kralenwinkel op Etsy niet ook nog extra wil gaan vullen met juwelen, heb ik besloten om een extra Etsy-winkeltje te openen om mijn handgemaakte sieraden te verkopen om zo ook mijn hobby een beetje betaalbaar te houden. De shop heeft de naam Made by Marieke gekregen, alleen om met onze toekomstige Koningin te spreken... ik was een beetje dom en heb tijdens het aanmelden niet made maar designed by Marieke geregistreerd. Kortom de shop heet Made by Marieke maar is te vinden via designedbymarieke.etsy.com

Penny from Clay Beads And More used one of my blue trollbeads for her lovely treasury on Etsy. I'm truly honored to be part of such a lovely collection of handmade items in blue!

Penny van Clay Beads And More heeft één van mijn blauwe trollbead-stijl kralen gebruikt voor haar treasury op Etsy. Ik voel me echt vereerd want ze heeft er echt een prachtige collectie van gemaakt!

Zondag 15 december a.s. kun je mij en mijn kralen en sieraden vinden op de kerstmarkt in Santpoort-Noord. Dus ben je op zoek naar een unieke sieraden of bijvoorbeeld kralen voor je trollbeads of pandora-armband, kom dan gezellig langs. Je kunt dan tevens eens zien hoe mijn kralen gemaakt worden want ik geef ook demonstraties.

De markt is geopend van 12.00 tot 18.00 uur en mijn kraam kun je vinden in de hoofdstraat voor het postkantoor.

Sunday 15th of december you can find me with my beads and my jewelry at the Christmas-market in Santpoort-Noord, so if you happen to be in the neighbourhood and you like to buy some lovely unique beads or jewelry or watch me lampworking, come visit me in my booth in the hoofdstraat in front of the postoffice.

I made some sets of pandorra/trollbead-style braceletbeads. They are listed in my Etsy- and Artfireshop.

Ik heb een 2-tal pandorra/trollbead-stijl kralen gemaakt die nu te koop zijn via mijn Etsy- en Artfirewinkel.

The shiny bead is made using a silverglass called Aurae which produces a beautiful shine with hints of purple/pink/blue. The two mirror dotbeads are made using white and violet.

De glimmende kraal is gemaakt van een zilverglas genaamd Aurae wat een prachtige glans met paars,roze en blauwe tinten vleugen geeft.

This set is made using ivory, beige and violet opaque glass with small raised dots using light silver plum.

Dit setje is gemaakt van ivoor, beige en violetkleurig opaak glas en enkele kralen zijn voorzien van klein dotjes silverplum.

My new website is online... far from finished because there isn't a gallery-page yet and there's only the dutch version at this point. Tomorrow hopefully I will also be able to finish the English pages (except the gallerypage) and upload those as well.

Mijn nieuwe website staat online... tenminste dat deel dat op dit moment klaar is, want er is nog geen gallerij-pagina en daarbij is alleen het Nederlandstalige deel klaar. Hopelijk lukt het me om morgen het engelstalige gedeelte (exclusief gallerij-pagina) af te maken en dat er op te zetten.

Link:
www.mariekuniek.com

Selling through shopping sites such as Ebay and Etsy to me have already proven to be much more successful than maintaining a shop on his own domain. This is mainly because these sites already are known to a large audience. The only drawback, the fact that you have to pay to use these sites do not outweigh the many benefits you have there. That's the main reason I'm concidering to close my personal webshop and instead open one on another shoppingsite. II already made the first step... I'm also on Artfire now.

Verkopen via winkelsites zoals Ebay en Etsy hebben al bewezen voor mij veel succesvoller te zijn dan het onderhouden van een webwinkel op eigen domein. Dit komt voornamelijk doordat deze sites al bekend zijn bij een groot publiek. Het enige nadeel, het feit dat je moet betalen om van deze sites gebruik te maken weegt dan ook eigenlijk niet op tegen de vele voordelen die je er van hebt. Vandaar dat ik aan het overwegen ben om de webwinkel op mijn eigen domein te sluiten en hiervoor in de plaatst een extra winkelje te openen op een shoppingsite. De eerste stap heb ik in ieder geval alvast gezet...ik heb een nieuw winkeltje geopend op Artfire.

It really can be worthwhile to visit a thriftstore every once in a while. This afternoon I visited a local one and found some lovely treasures. An old letterstampingbox with letters made of rubber which can be put in a holder.

Secondly I found this totally amazingbox with softpastels which didn't come cheap thriftstore-wise but sure is cheap if you would want to buy a similar one new. This one also looks like it hasn't been used a lot.
Both sets look like they haven't been used a lot and I surely will change that ;)

And last thing in the picture is a lovely craft-encyclopedia that's filled with knowledge on al kinds of crafts, which only cost me € 1,90. I'm totally happy with my buys!!

Het loont soms echt de moeite om af en toe een kringloopwinkel te bezoeken. Bij mijn rondje van afgelopen middag heb ik aantal super aankopen gedaan

Kortom, ik ben blij met wat ik allemaal gescoord heb!

Yesterday I had booth on a craftmarket called "Hip en handgemaakt in Deventer" wich took place in Deventer (wich by the way is one of the 5 oldest cities in the Netherlands)

My daughter (the one in the jeansjacket behind the booth) and me had to get up real early because we had to drive for 1,5 hours to get there. It was a wonderful day with lots of sun but also very wet rainy moments (as you can see on this particular picture).

I brought my hothead with me so I could give some demonstrations and although most of the time it was too windy, I did manage to demonstrate how to make a small spacer with dots a couple of times.

A lot of people came by to look at my work and I did sell nicely and to be honest we were so busy I didn't even had time to look at all the other booths and meet their owners other that the ones in front of mine. I did feel a bit sad about that because it always is nice to meet fellow artists/crafters. Ah well better luck next time ;)

I don't know why but browsing through my archives I discovered I mentioned that I like making little lampwork angels here , but I appearantly I have never written on this blog the special purpose I now have making and selling them...

It all started with my youngest nephew, who's suffering from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. I'm not going to talk more about him or his condition here, because it's way to personal. I also suggest you should visit the website of Duchenne parent project to learn more about this disorder, because they do a much better job on explaining than I can.

What I do want to talk about is raising money for Duchenne Parent Project, to help them in their search for a cure or viable treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and that's where my angels come into picture.

In my webshop I sell these little lampwork angels:

The "standard angels" have bodies made from ivory and decorated with a colored border, dots or lines depending on my state of mind while making them. You can order a boy or a girl (with sweet little ponytails). There also is a version (which is just a little bit more expensive) you can personalize a bit more, because during the ordering you get the possibility to give specific instructions like for example you would like to have an angel with blond hair and a green body with white dots...

They are made into pendants and finished with a small carbine closure, so you can either use them as a pendant or attach them to a zipper for example and on top of that they are delivered in a small handmade origami box to make them into a wonderful present!

My idea is that my angels should be given to someone you think could use some angel-luck and top of that I will donate 5 Euros to Duchenne parent project for every angel sold so that makes them pretty special don't you think?

So go to my shop order an Angel and start spreading some Angel-luck!

I also will put them in my Etsy-shop later today.

Today I've worked on a major update for my Etsy-shop. I added a lot of Trollbead/Pandora/Biage style beads and this one:

Now I also need to make some new things for my other shop as well!

One of the things you need to think about when you are selling beads is what kind of packaging you will use to get your beads to your customers in one piece.

At a bead-forum-meeting last year I received a swapbead from Dorith, wich she put in a lovely tiny handmade origamibox. Ofcourse at home I had to figure out how this was made and when I was shopping in Amsterdam a few days later, I bought myself some origami paper in a Japanese store. I started making these boxes and thought it would be a nice way to package my Gardian Angel beads.

Well to be honest I thought it would be nice to use similar boxes for my other beads as well, but since origamipaper isn't cheap I didn't concider it to be an real option because spending that much on packaging would mean spending less on glass and I guess you are able to figure out what I prefer to spend my money on...

Anyway since I also have a part-time job as a secretary and I am the one to open all snailmail, a while back it hit me. Looking inside the envelopes I discovered the're not all boring grey. Sometimes compagnies use envelopes with lovely colors like green, blue and red inside and sometimes they even have nice patterns. So that's when I decided to cut those not so boring envelopes and recycle them into nice boxes... Taadaa....

As of today my webshop finally is open for business, although at this moment it's only in dutch and Euro's. So if your not living in Holland and see something you would like to buy, please use the contactform in the shop to ask me about it and we will figure something out!

This morning I listed this adorable little keychain wich would make a wonderfull stockstuffer or if your living in Holland shoe-present for "Sinterklaas" in my Etsy-shop

Hanging at a waxed cord there's a little girly-tag wich is my own illustration topped off with a small lampwork bead made in my own glass-studio.

For this example a red/white dotted bead is used but it's also possible to combine it with other beads like green with white raised or flat dots, transparent or non-transparent red, green, white or ivory bead. Just let me know what your choice would be when you order.

Dutch people can also order by sending me an e-mail, I will send back price-details and shipment will take place after I receive payment.

And when your interested in buying some of my work go shop at:

These rattles I designed to be one of the standard items in my shop. They will also be available in my Etsyshop but I need to order more rings and bells to make some new ones first..

I also have some more idea's for items decorated with these little gnomes-faces.