Summer’s Hot Trends for 2008

This is the time of year for accessories! For most of us, there are weddings, parties and barbeques happening, so here’s how to accessorise this season to make the most of your summer look.

This season’s hot jewellery trends are:-

Flower Power!

Since way back in the 60’s and 70’s when the flower motif was a massive design element, 2008 sees a return of our love for florals and not surprisingly they’ve made their way back into jewellery design.

“The flower motif is definitely one of the most popular motifs for jewellery this season, and is being used across the board featuring in everything from very precious designs in diamonds and gold through to fun, fashion pieces,” says the British Jeweller Association’s, Lindsey Straughton.  Floral patterns are not simply for the girls.  Designer Sally Lees makes limited edition cufflinks and her Floral Collection of silver and aluminium links printed with delicate English country-garden flower patterns based on roses and carnations brings a colourful touch to any well-turned cuff. RRPs range from £98 to £120.

Blooming marvellous! Smell the roses this summer with some lovely Floral Jewellery
And be bang on trend with this season’s latest look

The Circle

Here we go again with another vintage inspired design influence, “The Circle” is back and is big news in the jewellery world. Again , like the flower motif, the circle was a strong trend in the 60’s and 70’s and is now hot stuff for 2008 fashion.

Highly fashionable and certainly chic, choose a circle this Summer….

“Hearts have been a key motif in jewellery for the past couple of years and they are still very popular, but the hot money is on the circle,” says Lindsey Straughton, marketing manager at the British Jewellers’ Association (BJA) the UK’s leading jewellery trade organisation.

Jewellery featuring circles comes in all shapes and sizes and the ‘circles’ used range from the serenely spherical to the definitely distorted.  However according to Straughton, so long as the look is round it will be making a spin in the jewellery world in the coming season.

So whether you choose a large, statement chain featuring huge circular links or just a simple circular pendant, the circle is set to be a strong jewellery trend for the fashion stakes this year.

Pretty in pearls

Continuing strongly into 2008, pearls remain as a very fashionable look for this year and absolutely everyone should have some in their jewellery box! Long, short, black, white, round or baroque, there’s so much choice when it comes to pearls – and what better way to go than real Cultured Pearls as opposed to faux or imitation pearl beads. There’s lots of information about pearls on my website, so take a look at the Jewellery Info page to how pearls are farmed.

Metalics

Metalics are huge this summer and in terms of jewellery, gold is the new silver! Complete your look with lashings of lovely gold or silver metallic jewellery and once again be bang on trend. Lending itself very nicely to this metallic trend is Venetian Glass, often  smothered in precious metals, these beautiful glass creations bring metallics into classic, refined jewellery.

So there you have it, my view on what’s hot for this

Dawanda – No wonder I’m excited!

Selling my jewellery isn’t always straight forward! For those of you who know me and have seen me in action, you may think that I do ok, or maybe even a bit better than that. Some of you may even think that I can sell ice-cream to Eskimos (it has been said!) However, selling on line is a whole new ball game! It’s different. No matter how gorgeous my jewellery,how fantastic my photos how compelling my descriptions or reasonable my prices…… If I’m not being found it ain’t going to sell! To put this into perspective, a few years ago , I set up an e bay shop to sell my designer handmade jewellery – great, I thought, another route to market. Ten days later, with no viewings and lost in a category that contained about 16000 necklaces many of them mass produced, cheap and originating from China, a deflated me decided that e bay was probably not the answer to my business expansion.And that’s where I left it – my shop deserted , tumbleweed blowing around the entrance, dust gathering on the counter……. and then I discovered a new breed of on-line market places – Dawanda and Etsy. Clean lines, easy to use, exclusively for handmade goods, low or no listing costs and not a mass produced tatty necklace in sight- No wonder I’m excited! I have created new shops at both of these sites (-Just click on the links in the left hand column to my Etsy and Dawanda shops) and have started to list some of my luxury designer jewellery. Take a look, you might like it and if you are into making handcrafted items yourself, you might just love it enough to build your own shop. I’d love to hear what you think, leave a comment or drop me a line. x

Hello world!

Lovely Beads Welcome to my new Blog space which I have created because I want to talk to you! Many of you who know me will have gathered that I love to discuss all things gorgeous and glam and in particular, matters of the jewellery world. Being a jewellery designer is a fabulous job, I get to meet so many great people at my sales and love to see them looking wonderful in my creations. My thought for the day is…. now that Spring is starting (V. slowly) to arrive, what is going to be your fav accessory for the season? I’ve not been out and bought any new clothes for Spring yet, anyone found any real goodies? Would love to hear from you, don’t be shy,please leave your comment!!! x