Move Update

So it looks like we will have our last day in the shop this coming Saturday 15th June.  If you're around, pop in for some amazing price reductions and stock up on jewellery making materials!

There will still be a little bit of disruption to our schedule next week as we move the last of the kit and caboodle, and we are still without a phone line, though we hope to get the phone back up and working by Monday. Orders continue to take a bit longer to process but we are still offering free UK post to thank you for your understanding!

We are moving back online!

All change! Yep, it’s true, our little bead shop in Streatham will be closing soon after five wonderful years, and we are moving back online.

Whilst we will be very sorry to say good bye to all the new friends we have made during our time at the shop, we are very much looking forward to a new way of working that fits better with our aims and our families. 

Why are we closing the shop?  Well for some time we had lost that elusive balance…  The shop took up a huge amount of time – we won’t miss all that bagging up and pricing of tiny things that we spent hours and hours doing!  On a personal note, one that I think our jewellery-making friends will understand, is that whilst I have truly loved having the shop and sharing my passion for the craft, running both the shop and the website meant it left me no time whatsoever for my own jewellery making and that was certainly not part of the plan! Sometimes in life you have to design your own balance and for me this is it.

There is also a whole other discussion to be had, one that I feel very strongly about, which relates to the pressures facing small businesses in general but particularly those that have a presence on the high street – this is important for everyone who cares about diversity in their own town centres and local parades, and it really needs to be talked about, so please keep the mantra going:  

SMALL BUSINESSES NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

We think our last day in the shop will most likely be Saturday May 25^th (still a few bits of paperwork to go before we can confirm this) [It has been delayed! we will let you know a date as soon as we know.] and we should then spend the following week moving our stock – we won’t be able to ship online orders whilst we are moving but will let you know the moment we are back to normal schedules. As we have our stock scattered over two locations already, online orders placed now may be delayed by a day or two– thank you for your understanding!

And good news for our online customers - there will be a lot of new shop items and a huge sale coming to the website soon. These new items will be available whilst stocks last – in fact the plan is to gradually move away from having a permanent range. Our lines of supply have changed a lot in the past couple of years and we can no longer guarantee a steady supply of stock items. To negotiate these changes in production on so many items is more than we can handle! So our focus from now on will be on selling one-off pieces and unusual finds. The traditional ranges we have been selling on the website will continue to be available for a time.

This new arrangement will give us the chance to be at fairs and run the odd pop up shop, something we are really looking forward to. I also intend to teach again and possibly also continue the popular jewellery repair service we ran at the shop – lots of details still to be worked out, but if you want to check in with us or ask us anything, do email at mail@jasminstudio.com.

We hope you will keep in touch and visit us online! 

Thank you all, and much love,

Jasmin x

October Schedule

Due to unavoidable circumstances we will be running the following schedule in the shop:

Saturday 20 October -10:30-6

Sunday 21  - Closed

Monday 22 - Closed

Tuesday 23 - 12-2

Wednesday 24 - 12-2

Thursday 25 - 12-2

Friday 26 - 12-2

Saturday 27 - 10:30-6

Sunday 28  - Closed

Monday 29 - Closed

Tuesday 30 - 12-2

Wednesday 31 - 12-2

Thursday 1 November - 12-2

Friday 2 - 12-2

Saturday 3 - 10:30-6

If you are planning to visit our shop in that period please note the above opening hours - just a skeleton service in case you have any stocking emergencies! For those two weeks we will be running with a very limited number of staff, so we recommend you call in advance of your visit to check that nothing has changed!

We will close our eBay shop during this time. Website orders will continue to be taken, however it may take us longer to get these out to you.  We will not be offering next day delivery during this time.

Any hazardous liquids (e.g. resin) which require specialist courier shipping will be available to order after 5 November. If you need an urgent delivery of resin please see here for alternative stockists: http://brightenamels.co.uk/where-to-buy.php

We will try to deal with all enquiries as they come in, but some may have to await our return to normal hours. We regret we will not be able to accept any repairs or special/custom orders during this time, nor party or event bookings.

We are very grateful for your understanding, and to make up for any delays we would like to offer free shipping on all UK orders placed during this time.  No code required.

Just a little note of gratitude to our small weekend team who have offered to keep things ticking along despite having lots of other commitments! 🙏⭐🌟

Amazing new cabochons in the shop...

Just arrived, new selection of cabochons for the shop:

Gorgeous!  

Holiday Timetable

Summer is upon us and we're seriously in the mood for a slowdown - we figured if we don't stop now, we will not stop until after Christmas so to save our health and to be fair to our ever-patient families we have decided to have an August that's full of rest.

You may order through the website as normal but orders will be sent only three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during August. 

Our Streatham shop will be closed from the 2nd until the 10th of August (we are back on Tuesday 11th) and for the rest of August we will be in the shop only half-days from 1pm until 6pm.

If you need us during this time please email us (mail@jasminstudio.com) and we will reply as soon as we are back in the shop.  Or leave us a message on 0208 0908 443 - and we will revert as soon as we can.

Have a great summer!

 

Anglo-Saxon Jewellery Day

We had a ball on Monday when all sixty Year 4 pupils from Immanuel & St Andrew's CofE Primary School visited the shop to put together their wonderful handmade beads. This was a hands-on art project that formed part of their studies in Anglo-Saxon history. At school they had made some very lovely beads out of clay, which were decorated in the colours of long ago; and in the shop, they strung their beads together and learnt how to secure the ends to make a wearable piece of jewellery such as might have been worn in Anglo Saxon days. So out went the lobster clasps, and in came the hooks and rings!

We discussed the materials and design elements that Anglo-Saxons might have used in their adornments, and some groups even had a chance to try out making their own clasps out of wire. Below, a lovely necklace in progress:

Of course it helps a great deal to have your very own in-house helper for all that setting up that is needed, so a big thank you to where it is due.

We had lots of fun, and hope to do it again next year! 

Christmas Opening Times

Please see below for our *revised* shop opening hours this Christmas:

Monday 22nd	Shop Closed - but we will be sending website orders
Tuesday 23rd	10:30am-6pm
Wednesday 24th	10:30am-4pm
Thursday 25th	Closed
Friday 26th	Closed
Saturday 27th	Closed
Sunday 28th	Closed
Monday 29th	11am-4pm
Tuesday 30th	11am-4pm
Wednesday 31st	11am-4pm
Thursday 1st	Closed
Friday 2nd	11am-4pm
Saturday 3rd	10:30am-6pm

For all orders placed online, the recommended last posting date for standard 1st class delivery within the UK is Friday 19th December, but if you add a Faster Post upgrade to your delivery, we can send orders up until Tuesday 23rd.  Please make sure all orders are placed before 2pm.  If you are close to us in South London, you can always mark your order for collection and pick it up from our shop in Streatham up until Wednesday 24th at 4 o'clock.  Orders for collection will be ready the following day, so please order early.

We would like to wish all our customers a very merry Christmas!   

A Momentous Week

This week has been quite something.  There has been a lot of hard work involved, but the team and I seem to have taken to this shop-keeping thing. We had previously managed to convince ourselves we were happy to hide behind the walls of our website, but really we do love discussing jewellery craftiness with our customers in person.  And we have been quite overwhelmed with the positive response we have had from our neighbours, new customers, and the local community here in Streatham.  

I think we are going to be very happy here.

We wanted to give a little something back to those who really paved the way for us to open a shop, our lovely online customers who have been loyal to our offering since we began four years ago, so from now until November 20th, we are celebrating the opening of our shop by offering freepost on ALL orders. Just use code VISITSTREATHAM at checkout.  And we hope we get to meet you, in person, soon!

Thank you.  x

We're Open for Business!

We are very excited to announce the opening of our shop!  Yes we now have a proper bricks and mortar shop which you can visit for all your jewellery bits and bobs. We are in Streatham, South London and our shop is literally seconds away from Streatham Common Railway station.  This little shop has been several months in the planning but we are glad that we can finally open our doors!

We would like to share some photos with you:

you will recognise us by the light blue shop front

we sell all our glass in individual pieces as well as the usual bigger packs

and we now stock a huge range of ready-made cabochons in a variety of materials... 

...a lot of which fit into our standard settings...

which are now also available singly or in our usual pack sizes

but wait, there's more.... a hint on the photo above!

yes, we have beads! 

very many beads!

 a huge range in fact

in several colourways and very many styles and sizes

as well as a collection of chains and strings, and bead strands

The shop sells a number of items either individually or in larger packs, and if you want to continue to take advantage of the wholesale discounts available through the website, you can also request that your website order be sent here and we will get it ready for you to collect the next day. 

So if you are anywhere near London, do pay us a visit.  We look forward to meeting every one of our website customers in person after all these years of being a web-only presence!

We are at:

4 Greyhound Lane

Streatham

London SW16 5SD

(practically opposite Streatham Common Railway Station)

 xx

Planning ahead, wholesale orders & lovely discounts!

Somewhat alarming considering the sunny last post, but our heating is on and in just a little while we will all be starting to get ready for Christmas.  Goodness, here we are - again!

The preparations start early for makers and sellers, and once again we anticipate a busy period.  To help you plan ahead and ensure you can obtain your materials in good time, we taking wholesale orders now.

Wholesale orders have a minimum order quantity of 100 pieces per item.  For those items where we have the 100-packs in stock already, they will be showing through the website, however where they don't appear on the website, please get in touch and we should be able to get them in for you.

To place a wholesale order we request a 50% deposit payable at the time of placing the order, and the remainder when the order is ready to be shipped.  This includes a non-refundable 12.5% fee to cover our costs in the event of a customer cancelling or changing the order (the fee will not be charged if the order is completed as agreed).

Some special order items can take as much as 12 weeks to restock so please bear this in mind when placing your order.

This year we have had supply problems with Diamond Glaze - we apologise for this, we have tried hard for very many months to get hold of some but the distributor has been unable to supply it.  Did you know however that Glossy Accents works just as well as Diamond Glaze?  Give it a try, we are sure you will love it!

Remember also that we have discounts available for other large orders.  For all orders over £100 (before P&P) you can use the code TENPERCENT at checkout and obtain a 10% discount on your order.  We also offer reduced rates for large orders of the same item (100pcs and up) - where these are not offered as 100-packs on the website, please do ask.  If we have them available we will be able to offer the discounted rate (usually 20%). Please note only one of the two discounts will be applicable to any order, not both.

Our flat rate domestic postage rate will not apply to wholesale and special orders; carriage will be charged at cost.

Happy planning!

Would you like to join us?

Welcome, January!

We do love the start of the year, all full of well intended resolutions and fresh plans.  At the moment however we seem to have more plans than hands, so we wanted to put the word out there that we could really do with some help - if you live locally to us in South London (SW16, to be precise), can spare 15-20 hours a week and already have an interest in jewellery making, we would love to hear from you.  We are looking for a bright and dependable someone to start as soon as possible, to be involved in all aspects of the business which will include preparing orders, office management, customer service and much more.

If you would like to know more, or know someone who does, ask Jasmin (jasmin@jasminstudio.com) for a full job description.  Closing date for applications is on Wednesday 16th January.

We look forward to welcoming a new member to the team!

The Shop is Open!

I'm happy today to be able to reveal the new look for our shop:

It's not wildly different to how it was before, but it does make more sense!  You can now navigate around our products more easily via some funky new categories, and you can even browse our items by size, so you can now go straight to other items in a size that will complement your piece.  Ideal if you have, say, a specific cabochon you want to use and need a tray to set it onto.

The work is not all done - there are a few small blips to iron out (apologies in advance if you bump into those!), but we are getting there.  

We hope you like our new graphics and new banner!  All lovingly created by yours truly.  And the ladybird - relevance? Well, the pictures in that area will be a moveable feast, but since my little girl, who is five, has recently declared that she wants to build a ladybird hotel as soon as they arrive this year, we thought they were a fitting symbol of our little shop's refresh just in time for the sunnier days that are just around the corner!

We're very excited about these developments.  Ahh, there's nothing like a good spruce-up! :D

Uh, er, Happy New Year... *blush*

Hellooo!!  Yes, we are back to the land of blog!   We hope your 2012 has got off to a great start and that you're geared up for a busy year full of designing and creating.   

We have very been busy, and certain things, such as this poor blog and our Facebook page have been terribly neglected of late as a result.  Apologies if you were hoping to find some new projects, do check back soon and we will have some fab new ideas to share.

The good news is that the shop website is getting a refresh so it will be easier to find what you need.   That means there may be a little bit of downtime on the shop in the next few days, but hopefully it won't be too disruptive.

We are constantly looking for new and innovative products to enhance your makes so we also hope to be presenting a few of our finds in the coming weeks.

But for now, I'll leave you with a little graphic that we recently made for the website.  Make sure you visit the shop soon!

Christmas Ordering Deadlines and Faster Shipping Options

Christmas is nearly upon us so we want to let you know our last ordering dates to ensure you receive your items in good time for all your seasonal crafting:

UK Standard Deliveries (First Class & First Class Recorded):	Tuesday 20th December
UK Faster Post (Special Delivery/Next Day Delivery)	Thursday 22nd December
UK Saturday Delivery (Special Delivery with Saturday Guarantee)	Friday 23rd December
UK BFPO  - operational - static	Friday 2nd December Thursday 15th December
Western Europe	Monday 12th December
Eastern Europe, USA & Canada	Friday 9th December
ROW	Monday 5th December

We have now added new postage options to the shop so you can make your selection for faster shipping - just pop your preferred option to your basket and we will do the rest.  See all options here:
http://jasminstudiocrafts.bigcartel.com/category/faster-shipping-options

Please ensure we receive your order before 12pm and we will try our very best to get your order out on the same day.  Don't leave it until the last minute!  :)

Apologies also for being away from this blog forever - we have received lots of new and exciting items in the shop (all will be revealed soon!) and have been busy moving things around!

New Postage Rates to Europe

Great news for European customers!  We have tweaked our website so customers in Europe now pay less for their postage!

The standard cost to Europe is reduced to £3 for the first item (though some heavy items such as ModPodge will be £5), and each subsequent item is now £0.25 (£0.50 for heavy items).   Orders with purchased upgrades will be sent by registered & trackable delivery.

Countries included within Europe are as defined by Royal Mail here:  http://www.royalmail.com/gear/content/html/content/ctf/rm/europe.html

Postage within the UK stays at £2.50 for all orders, regardless of size.

And postage to the rest of the world remains unchanged at £5 for the first item (£7 for heavy items) and £0.50 (£0.70) for each subsequent item.  Orders with purchased upgrades will be sent by registered and trackable delivery.

100 Likers Freepost Offer

To celebrate reaching 100 likers on Facebook, we are offering Free UK Postage on all orders through the website up until midnight Sunday 4th, just use code "100LIKERS" at checkout.  International customers will receive a £2.50 discount on their order.  Stock up now for all your Christmas makes!

Visit our Facebook page @ Jasmin Studio Crafts.

Just Arrived: High Domes!

Very excited about these new cabs I have just received - these beautiful bubbles are high domed solid glass pieces that measure 25mm across ...and they are a colossal 11mm high!  They are just as clear as our popular 25mm glass pieces, so if you thought our usual cabs did wonders on your images, wait until you try these!

See these new high domes (left) compared to our standard 25mm cabochons (right):

We also have for sale high domes in 12mm and 15mm, and more sizes will be coming to the shop soon.  Three cheers for choice!

Summer Timetable for Posting Orders

I always try to send out orders reasonably quickly, normally within a day or two of payment, but now that summer is pretending to be here (it's cooold!) and school summer holidays start today, I figured I needed to set a formal timetable for posting orders.

There will now be three posting days per week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and orders need to be received before 12pm on each of those days for the order to be sent on the same day.  If at any time posting on that day is not possible, I will let you know and more than likely the order will go the following day.

We will also be taking a week's holiday from 15-21 August when I won't be able to process any orders, but we will be looking forward to opening the shop again after that with lots of gorgeous new products for your jewellery making!