Just in time for Fall – my stained glass leaf necklace class.
September 25th, 6:30-8:30.
Location: Frill – Gifts, Home Decor & More
36 E High St East Hampton, Connecticut 06424 (in same building as Subway).
$35.00 per person. All materials provided.
In this class, participants will cut, solder and patina their stained glass leaf and choose a necklace in a plating to match. Attendees will go home with a finished piece of jewelry. A variety of glass colors, patinas (black, pewter, copper, antique brass and silver) and different chains to match will be offered, as well as some bead embellishments. The stained glass is lead-free, so even older kids are welcome! Class is limited to 10 people.
I’ve been making more of my tiny boxes. These little ring boxes are perfect for bridesmaids, friends birthday, hostess gift, co-worker leaving gift or member of the family. Use as a ring box near your bathroom or kitchen sink. Here’s a few of my newest ones below: you can find them on Etsy, too.
We’re getting to that time of year when it seems we’re all going to a wedding or some kind of life event. I’m starting to get more invitations in, one person sent me four to do!
I’ve made quite a few of these smaller boxes in the past couple of months. Mostly they’re in a clear textured glass with little or no embellishment. They are made with the invitation on the top and either a party invite /photo or textured acid-free paper on the inside of the lid. There’s no additional border; the edges of the box are in line with the edge of the invitation. If this is what you’re looking for, you can find them here.
Hope everyone has a Happy Valentine’s Day. I recently started selling at Frill – Gifts, Home Decor & More in East Hampton. She sold this cute little red heart yesterday for me. I also have my tiny boxes (3″x2″) for sale at her store, along with my angels. She’s asked me to make these hearts available year-round as well.
Small ring boxes are a perfect gift for someone special. Their small size makes them great to place on your desk, nightstand or bathroom vanity. I use mine to hold rings and earrings at the end of the day, so I don’t have to put my jewelry away right away but at least I know where they are!
I’m adding these little jewelry boxes to my Etsy listings of custom designs and ones that are ready to ship. The pink one above can be found here.
One of my most popular items are my Tiny Boxes, which sell great at Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and all year long for Weddings. Brides love to give them out as bridesmaid gifts – being a useful item, colorful, long lasting and truly unique. Each one is hand crafted and can be made to fit the personality of the recipient or done in the colors to suit the wedding theme. They’re even great for that hard-to-please new Mother-in-law 🙂
I’m making the leap to full time with Invite Boxes and Art Nites Classes!
After years of being an artist for other companies, I decided it was way past time that I take my art business seriously. I had tried it in the late 1990s and although I had a store on Amazon and sold on Ebay, it was hard for customers to find me. In recent years I’ve had a store on Etsy but never put up anything on it. The reason was fear that I would get too busy and not be able to handle my full-time job and a ton of boxes. Those of you who have followed my blog know that I don’t post often as when I do, I get lots of orders! So now, that’s great, bring them on 🙂
I am still doing my Art Nites classes as I love to teach. It’s so interesting to see how even in the first few minutes of a class, the individuality of each piece takes form. In the end, each painting is unique and that makes it so special. This summer I volunteered as a guest artist for a week at Camp Horizons – it was an amazing experience. I think my favorite memory of the week was when one camper shouted, “Thank you Anna!” as I left and when I looked over, lots of people were waving at me! The camp is connected in with the Color UnCorked at the Kerri Art Gallery; one of the places I teach classes at every month.
Sometimes I will make a box that will allow the customer to remove the invitation. It’s usually because I don’t have the invitation, or I have an imperfect one. I can still ship to the customer so that they receive the gift on time, and they save time not shipping another one to me. I make them with double panes of clear glass, and the customer can slide the invitation in.
The first time I made one like this was for a customer who said her brother was getting married–again! This was his third wedding and she said she didn’t expect this one to last either, so could I please make it so the woman can slide in a photo or something later 🙂
The next time was for someone who had red fingernail polish on when she slid the invitation into the envelope. It left scratches on the invitation and it was a type of paper where I couldn’t scrape at it without making more damage. We didn’t have time for her to send me another one before the wedding. A recent one was for a customer who was attending a wedding in Tanzania and didn’t have the opportunity to get a physical invitation until she arrived there.
I don’t make them this way all the time, because it’s more work for me and it may slide around later on. When I design one like this I have to align it correctly. I need to make sure it’s going to slide in nicely but not have so much room that it will move around each time someone opens the box and that it has enough room so the customer won’t damage the new one getting in! I’ve been making clips to hold the invitation on the inside of the lid.
So here’s how to remove and replace an invitation if you do get a removable insert box.
One of my most popular items are my 
Artist Anna Harding 