Cloud Seven Design

Spring is....

2010-08-30T10:46:00.000+10:00

Bright days, blooming flowers, butterflies, colour and sweet smells.
This is the inspiration behind my new range (I should really give it a name).

Click Click

2010-08-25T14:46:00.002+10:00

I don't know about you but my thing when I was younger was buttons and brooches. But I didn't wear them on my shirt or I didn't wear them in my hair, I wore them on this hand molded, well loved felt bowler hat that I wore everywhere! Now if I still wore this hat I would definitely have one of these beauties on it.

Look retro is cool, cameras are cool so I thought I would mix the two and viola camera brooches made from acrylic, photos and resin and it's the resin that gives this brooch a sense of 3D making it even better.

New brooches online soon and you can win (Yippee!!)

2010-08-23T15:42:00.000+10:00

Unlike the old perception that only old ladies wear brooches, now even young ladies and celebrities are seen wearing pretty brooches on hair or clothes.
To celebrate our new range of brooches available soon on our madeit store we are having a competition to win this lovely swallow brooch.

How do you enter? It’s simple. All you need to do is invite your friends to drop by Cloud Seven Design and “Like” us.

But I’m going to need your help keeping track so write us a simple post on our facebook page letting us know to add you and your friend to the draw, and this will ensure that you are not accidentally overlooked.

That’s it! That’s all you need to do .. so let your friends know about Cloud Seven Design and you or your best buddy might be the lucky winner of this lovely Swallow Brooch.

We're at the Yamba festival markets this weekend...........

2010-08-21T09:50:00.000+10:00

Come and say "Hi"

Oran Suta's Monsterchild.com

2010-07-26T08:11:00.000+10:00

Just another really creative souls in the world Oran Suta's Monsterchild.com

"A wee tad of colour" jingle jangle earrings - by cloudseven on madeit

2010-07-22T20:18:00.000+10:00

These are my favorite earrings, I love the pattern "A wee tad of colour" jingle jangle earrings - by cloudseven on madeit

Cloud seven design and Maelstrom made design - one in the same

2010-07-19T13:30:00.001+10:00

Some of you know and some of you might not know that Maelstrom made design and Cloud Seven Design are one in the same. Call it my need to satisfy my creative split personality. I have never known how to join them into one outlet so this is where I am going to start. Please join me for all of cloud seven design's mutterings here.

Cheers Lou

Cloud Seven on SALE

2010-07-09T12:51:00.000+10:00

Cloud Seven Design cloudseven on madeit is Massive 40% off all Resin Moroccan inspired necklaces. They were $35.00 now $21.00

http://www.madeit.com.au/storecatalog.asp?searchtxt&show=current&userid=15533&searchtype=0&search=Search&catid=686

cloudseven on madeit

2010-06-23T12:30:00.002+10:00

Lots and lots of new lovelies on cloudseven on madeit

Have a look on the otherside.

2010-06-03T14:57:00.000+10:00

I want to just let you know that I have another blog about the other style of jewellery I make. Its all about using found products mainly on the beach or in the bush and turning them into jewellery.
Please join me here as well, I would love to share my discoveries and the beautiful place that I live in with you.

http://www.maelstrommade.blogspot.com/

x

Brighten up your day

2010-06-03T13:56:00.000+10:00

It's really miserable and grey today so what a better day to post some bright new earrings on my www.madeit.com.au/cloudseven shop.
These little babies go back nicely with the rings already listed.

Have a look, let me know what you think!

Missing somewhere in Northern NSW

2010-06-02T13:53:00.000+10:00

Well it has been some time since I have blogged but we have moved from Mount Tamborine to be closer to the beach at Wooloweyah in northern NSW.
I love it here I have a great new space to work and a lot of inspiration around me, hence I haven't been blogging.
I have also set up a new shop site on madeit.com.au and it is going fabulous have a look if you get the chance, the web address is www.madeit.com.au/cloudseven hope to see you there.
Chat soon x

Facebook | Cloud Seven Design

2010-01-01T14:46:00.000+11:00

Want more go here....

Facebook Cloud Seven Design
xx

One happy little girl

2009-12-29T16:08:00.000+11:00

Earlier I posted a number of items that I bought for Christmas from some fabulous etsians. I just wanted to share some of the pure delight my family had from these gifts.

The ring I bought from Silver Garden is devine and my husband loves it!

The necklace my son gave my daughter is adored by her I just wanted to share a photo of one happy little girl.

Thanx

Its raining, its pouring, Louise has been exploring.....

2009-12-29T15:51:00.000+11:00

....with these new necklaces.
Definately cloud seven up here this week. We can barely see the neighbours house due to the clouds around us. But to be honest, part of me loves this weather, it almost gives you the permission to do nothing.

I am literally housebound and there is only so much Thomas the tank engine any mother can take, so I have taken the time to toy around with some materials I have hanging around and meshed some previous ideas and here we have it.

Colourful little birdies, branches and swirls individually cut out and little stamped elephants, bird cages and bikes with a vintage flavour. I have strung all of these on silver I like the contrast that silver gives these little pendants. I will get online and upload these on my etsy site soon as well as a stack of other items I have been filling my wet days up here with.

Christmas is so close, have you got everything under wraps?

2009-12-15T09:32:00.000+11:00

The build up to Christmas this year has been interesting for me as the previous 5 or 6 years have been consumed by Christmas fever at what was my little home and lifestyle store here on Mount Tamborine. As I sold it in July I didn't even have the buying frenzy to stock up the shelves with essentially Chinese and Indian made imports.

This time has given me the opportunity to look outside the square when it came to Christmas presents this year. I made a deal with myself that everything I bought was to be handmade, well I must admit I only partially reached this goal (nevermind), but I did manage to buy some wonderful gifts from amazing crafters and artisans.

For example I got these gorgeous dolls from Sharlzndollz, Sharlene (the designer) makes a world of Paper Dolls and I say world because she has Babushka Gals, Fairies, Dancers and even Hero male paper dolls. These are just stunning and I know my little girl is going to love them.
Go to sharlzndollz.etsy.com to see all of her goodies.

Speaking of presents for her, this is another present we, well I mean my son, got her for Christmas. It's from another Brissie designer Epheriell and when it came I was so delighted. Unfortunately for us they have now taken off for a holiday for a year but have a look anyway.

http://www.epheriell.etsy.com/

I would go on with more but the other members of the family have access to the computer and the potential for them to discover the gifts is rather high.

I would like to add though other designers I really like are anna ruby king ( I used to sell these in my shop and they walked out), the vintage delights of ruby2gogo, cute little stiches of edward and lilly, cool recycled crockery of art decadence and to be honest so many more. If you have the time to have a look at some others go to BrisStyle and scroll down the page to see heaps more. There is just so many designers doing amazing things out there and trust me as someone who for the last 6 years has scrolled, searched and bought for a living its really worth taking the time to have a sticky at what local designers are doing.

Happy shopping!
PS. don't forget to get to have a look at my store too. http://www.cloudsevendesigns.etsy.com/ ;)

Name dropping.... look, sometimes you just have to do it!

2009-12-14T10:52:00.000+11:00

Its Sunday morning I've jumped out of bed like a gazelle on a fresh spring morning pouncing my way to my first real market day.....yeah, not really the truth be known I was awakened by the alarm screaming its annoying tune at 4.30am I contemplated just giving up the months work of preparation to get to this point and sleep the rest of the morning away, but just couldn't do it......

Its 5am, here I am with my devoted husband nursing a sore head (self inflicted I might add), lining up behind a row of sleeping marketeers waiting for the gates to open at 6.30am. The weather is teasing us and we still don't even know if we will be allowed in. We get to the front of the line and are asked for our name and what we are selling (eek) this isn't good.

No we're not on the list and yes we are selling jewellery and thank god for my husband's beautiful daybed we are now also selling furniture. Apparently there is too much jewellery at the market and they don't want anymore. This is it, time to pull out the big guns. In my sweetest squeaky voice I say "Oh, we are locals and Helen (I don't want to say her last name for privacy reasons) said all we had to do was line up at the back gate".

Well it seems Helen has some major pull on this little mountain, we were given the okay, are now on first name basis with the gate keeper and told to call (phone number personally given) to ensure that next time we attend we will have a hassle free admission.
We would like to in our loudest voices- THANK YOU HELEN!!!
xxxx

Cross fingers and toes please

2009-12-09T08:25:00.000+11:00

OK its my first foray into the markets this weekend under the banner of Cloud Seven Design, am I nervous? Hell yeah.

This is probably more due to the fact that if I arrive there at a sparrows fart and they don't let me in I (and my husband) will be spewing.

I am hoping that the Showground ladies will be customers of mine from illahie, my just recently sold fabulous business and they welcome me with open arms full of love and encouragement........maybe a bit extreme but hey who says you can't manifest wonderful things, but thats another blog altogether.

So the biggest market all year up here on Mount Tamborine, very exciting, a regular market day here sees a sea of cars as far as the eye can see so maybe getting there at 5.00am won't be a bad idea, even if I don't get a stall site I will be able to do some Christmas Shopping!

So if you want a lovely day out, on a lovely mountain, 5 degrees cooler than down Coast or in Brisbane, have a nice drive through the rolling hills passed the horses and the cows, enjoy a scruptious lunch, check out the wineries and most important of all get to the markets and buy something from me at Cloud Seven Design - its the big red tent you can't miss me!

Its the little stuff....

2009-12-04T15:03:00.000+11:00

You know I have been working my butt off lately(unfortunately not literally) making my jewellery and what not to get to the markets over the next few weeks.

This is all good and well and the jewellery is really nice and all, but its the amount of hours that goes into making jewellery stand out. By this I mean the merchandising of our work and I mean our because most of us, crafters and artisans, it seems these days put a lot of effort into our tags, our gift wrapping and our image.

I must admit I am particular about this stuff, which is obvious given that I am blogging about it, because of my years and years and years of merchandising and retail. The people who knew my retail store, illahie home and lifestyle which I recently sold, know how image particular I am and I personally believe the same goes and should go for our market stalls and online stores. Unfortunately, as yet, I am not as good online as I am in the stall :s

So the point of this blog?? I guess I just want people aware that although you might look at an item and think "that price is a bit steep for a market ", think about all of the other things these crafters and artisans have put their time in, they haven't just gone to a warehouse or looked through a catalogue, they have sat and thought for possibly hours on that one detail to provide you with a not only stunning item but a well presented item too.

x

Hey look, I'm being blogged!

2009-12-04T10:19:00.000+11:00

As some of you might know I am now a member of BrisStyle. I have to say they are a lovely bunch of people who not only make beautiful things but so sweet that they took the time out of their day to make me feel very welcomed.

They even posted one of my necklaces on their blog brisstyle.blogspot.com thanks to you all, I am almost blushing.

If you get a chance to get to Brisbane this Saturday go check out their markets, they don't happen all the time so its a good opportunity to check out what these local etsians do first hand.

From little things big things grow

2009-12-04T09:32:00.000+11:00

I have to thank my children for my latest jewellery idea or at least their teachers.

There seems to be a tidal wave of French knitting at school at the moment. Perhaps because it's the end of the school year and it's one way of keeping a rowdy bunch of ten year olds stationary for any length of time.

Well my big 10 year old son has created the longest length of French knitting I have ever seen and apparently his isn't the longest!! But anyway this caused one of those light bulb moments in my head and voila necklaces- I love it!

I have been toying with making some necklaces and bracelets using the same method as you use when doing hairwraps. I used to make them for a store in Surfers Paradise eons ago (20 years in fact) when I was trying to make extra cash on doing hairwraps in Surfers Mall- yep I was one of those hippy types adorning passerbys hair, these necklaces sold really well so keep an eye out I might just find some time to get to them.

This is what I have been up to this week....

2009-11-23T22:05:00.000+11:00

......and its only Monday!

I have just put these babies up on my etsy site cloudsevendesigns.etsy.com.

I hope you like them!

Keep an eye on it

2009-11-18T14:57:00.000+11:00

Watch this space... these little beauties are going to be stunning pieces of jewellery available on my etsy site soon!

I just have to get off the computer to finish them- oops!

From sunny dayz at the beach come beautiful things

2009-11-18T14:41:00.000+11:00

I love making these pieces. It has probably more to with the time spent at the beach that I love more then the making of them, but its the colour that the resin brings out in the pebbles and the shell that I like, as though they are permanently wet if you know what I mean.

My kiddles are the ones I can thank for the one in the photo. I wear this all the time. I have a few different ones at my Esty site cloudsevendesigns.etsy.com thanks to mother nature and my kids of course x

Just to let you know, these beauties are hung on sterling silver.

Cloudy dayz

2009-11-06T15:57:00.000+11:00

Rainy ol' day up here on the mountain and it is these days that give me the excuse to escape to my computer and catch up on things that are on my never-ending "to do" list.

I had an email from a friend wondering where my jewellery had disappeared to. Normally I have them for sale on Etsy at cloudsevendesigns.etsy.com but have been on holidays and still in denial about being back. I added a few more pieces today with the help of my two year old's photographic input.

toowhit toowoo

2009-11-05T14:57:00.000+11:00

What sweeties they are ..... It's cute, friendly and funky, harking back to the collectables of an era long ago one that seemed a little less tortured perhaps..but thats a little deeper then what it should be, I just thought they were cute really.

Interruption

2009-11-04T15:56:00.000+11:00

This is something to get used to, as a mother of three small children, my life is a constant interruption, so I squeeze in small bursts of creativity and now blogging is a squeeze in as well.

I am just about to run out the door with a fist full of new rings to sell through the Last Tango Boutique, up here in Mount Tamborine.

Jodie, the owner has been a fantastic support for my creativity and I am so lucky to have her on my side.

The new rings have been created from an old typewriter my father gave to my children. Since they have computers for themselves the novelty of pushing down keys didn't really capture their attention as he might of hoped (oopsie, sorry dad). Anyway, I saw that beasts potential and started ripping off its keys and low and behold jewellery.

Something new....

2009-11-04T15:32:00.000+11:00

Ah, I guess this is the beginning of any blog mmmmmm, what to write??

I am not naturally one who can blurb, blog or chat about things that interest me or that I am up to, but here I am just about to jump into the deep end (please save me if I start drowning.)