I have been puting together some leather bound small notebooks with hemp paper. I have made a few designs and will be adding more. They are 7.5cm x 8.5cm. Ideal for pockets or handbags. The hemp paper is a really good surface to write or sketch on. The pads are hand bound with leather thong which wraps around the pages to keep them together.
I will be putting them on Etsy/Folksy this weekend.
Today I went to see the owner of a local shop which sells spiritual items, jewellery etc, to see what they thought of my silver rings and pendants. They seemed to really like what I had created. The jewellery ranges they sold however were mainly bought in from the Far east. So it was difficult to see how I could pitch my prices.
I individually hand make my items whereas the Far Eastern stuff is often produced by casting into moulds by low paid workers. They woman in the shop said that the designs sent to them to were sometimes the inverse of the symbols they were meant to represent. This was because they would create a mould for multiple castings and not take account of the fact that the pattern was flipped. Jewellery is produced to order, but the technicians don't always have the knowledge to verify if Celtic, Norse or whatever symbology are reproduced correctly.
I'm trying to create honest handmade items of the best quality I can in the hope that people will see something of the effort and care I put into them. I know economic times are difficult but there is still a place for things of beauty which don't fall into the catagory of an essential item:)
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