Posts Tagged ‘jewelry’
Taking Our Show on the Road!
Isabel Designs festival booth
This past weekend, Isabel Designs found herself exhibiting in Marlbank, Ontario at the Red Roof Women’s Festival. Our booth was made of things old, new, borrowed and blue. Not that we were headed to the alter, but it was the first time we took Isabel on the road, and our little store actually did contain all of these things. We had old drawers for shelves, an old screen door, and a well loved trellis for flaunting our wares. We borrowed a table from Dad and covered it with a blue tablecloth. A fancy banner, made by Noella, hanging under the canopy constituted our something new. All in all, I think we looked like seasoned experts – even if I do say so myself!
Sue and I had been – not so secretly – working on a few new products to introduce at the festival. After about an hour of selling, we realized we should have produced more pieces, so thank goodness we brought our tools and supplies with us! We even made custom jewelry and gifts on the spot for a few customers! To say that we were surprised and delighted by the reception we received over the weekend would be an understatement.
Thank you to all our new customers for supporting our work and Ovarian Cancer Research. And thank you to the Red Roof Festival organizers for putting on such a great event! (I was also a performer at the festival and had a blast sharing the stage with so many talented women. See my facebook for photos).
As soon as I catch my breath, I’ll be updating the website with new jewelry and gifts. For now, I’ll leave you with photos of our weekend and a peak at our new products: SunDrops TM, Heart Catchers TM, and Garden Whispers TM.
SunDrops TM
Heart Catchers TM
Garden Whispers TM
Eileen, Nancy & Chris on stage
Great crowd & amazing sunshine all weekend
Pearls
When I was a little girl, I was always drawn to my mother’s jewelry box. It was fun to try on her pretty things and play grown up. My favorite thing to do was open up a purple velvet case, that Mom always kept separate. Inside were what I came to name, her wedding pearls. It was a necklace which had been a gift from my Dad and which Mom wore on her wedding day. Luckily for me, it was my ‘something old’ and my ‘something borrowed’ on my own wedding day. As an adult, my memories are more about peeking in the velvet case, than seeing the necklace on my Mom. As my daughter prepares for her Prom, we have been hunting through an enormous number of stores looking for just the right outfit. As she tried on her dress with the necklace she had planned on wearing, she disappointedly remarked, “I don’t think it looks right”. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it earlier, maybe it was a divine reminder from above…. In any case, I offered for her to wear Grandma’s wedding pearls. It has been a long time since I opened the purple velvet case. The mystique and memories are always vivid. To my delight, they are the perfect compliment to my daughter’s dress, and the glow of happiness at the privilege of wearing them was evident. For me, it’s never about the actual value of an object, but the sentimental value that wraps itself around an object over time. Now my challenge is to make earrings to match!
memories from childhood
The Inspiration for Isabel Designs
Susan and I are really excited to be working at this project together. Isabel Designs was born one afternoon while we were wire wrapping and beading. It was obvious we were having fun and really connecting so we thought we should do something to keep up the momentum. Anytime Sue and I get together we inevitably talk about Mom, so using her middle name to identify our business seemed appropriate. Now every bead we string and pendant we hang gets wrapped up with her energy. Oh yeh, and for every sale we make on the website, a portion of the sale will be donated to Ovarian Cancer Canada for research and the cure!
If you haven’t visited the website yet, please go to http://www.isabeldesigns.com – and tell your friends to do the same! In the meantime, here’s a little information about our jewelry:
Each piece of jewelry is individually handmade using a combination of materials from both new and renewed sources. Many of our creations are inspired by abandoned vintage jewelry, reclaimed objects from our surroundings and natural beauties of the earth. We hope you like what you see.
Nancy
Photoblog
