In The Studio: Bubbly Baubles

Just sharing a little peek at some special pieces I've been working on especially for our December craft shows. They're tiny bubble necklaces filled with delicate and gorgeous feathers. Simple & stunning.

They'll be available at our shows this weekend, Urban Craft on Saturday (10am-2pm at The GCTC, Holland & Wellington) and Shanghai & Daily Grind Craft Shows (Somerset St. West) on Sunday! Pop by & say hello!

In The Studio: Holiday Prep

November and December are hands-down the busiest season for me--and indeed, for many small businesses and crafters out there. So although we're barely past Halloween, the reality is that I've been gearing up for the holiday season for weeks now. This season I'm not only gearing up to stock the 10 stores that carry our jewelry, and preparing wild amounts of jewelry for the craft show season...but also running four craft shows and producing Ottawa's first Craft Crawl. Thank goodness I have so many wonderful people helping me out; otherwise I probably wouldn't sleep for the whole month of November!

The busy season kicks off for me this weekend with Urban Craft here in Ottawa and Handmade Harvest, a fantastic show out in Almonte. Two shows in one weekend? Whew! I spent this morning preparing over 100 pieces of jewelry to ensure we have enough stock on hand for both shows! I also spent this weekend ensuring we had enough packaging ready for the whole holiday season, which meant preparing nearly 500 polaroids (pictured above). My little fingers are tired, but I'm feeling quite accomplished!

In The Studio: Limited Edition Lovelies

Hello loves! Just wanted to pop in and share some a little peek. I've been working on some new and limited edition pieces for Urban Craft this Saturday. The spread will include the beauties above, a special edition of our Casablanca style. If you're free on Saturday, join us for Urban Craft from 10am-2pm at The GCTC (Holland & Wellington in Hintonburg). We'll have over 20 fantastic modern, indie vendors for you to shop from! xo!

In The Studio: A Second Peek

Another quick little peek for all you wonderful people. We'll be releasing a slew of new cities this fall including Barcelona, Manila, Beijing, Victoria BC and so so many more. Here's a peek at some of the new styles which we'll have available for the first time at Urban Craft this Saturday (10am-2pm, The GCTC @ Holland & Wellington)!

In The Studio: A Little Peek

Just popping in to say a quick hello & give a little peek at some of the new styles I'll be debuting at Urban Craft this Saturday (10am-2pm at the GCTC in Hintonburg). I'm releasing a slew of new cities soon including Barcelona, Mombasa, Goa, Manila, Vienna, Istanbul and more & they'll be in the Etsy shop soon--just in time for fall! :)

In The Studio: Idle Hands Sneak Peek

Just a brief little sneak peek of some new pieces we'll have available at Idle Hands tomorrow! Idle Hands is a truly fantastic indie craft show featuring 40+ seriously talented designers, artisans and bakers. It's seriously one of the best-curated craft shows in Ottawa and I'm insanely proud to be a part of it.

Idle Hands: 10am-5pm at St. Lukes in Ottawa's Chinatown (760 Somerset Street West).

Music Monday: Adele's 'Hometown Glory'

The world is completely atwitter over Adele these days...and with good reason. She's got an incredible voice...amazingly composed songs and lovely lovely lyrics. I discovered her music while doing my master's degree in the UK, and her latest album, 21, has been in constant rotation here in the studio lately. I find that Adele does such an incredible job at distilling her feelings into each of the songs she writes. I recently found out that she's only 23 years old...can you believe that? What an incredible young talent.

I hope that if you've heard Adele's more popular songs (namely 'Rolling in the Deep'), but haven't delved into her library that you'll enjoy this song, Hometown Glory. Beautiful.

In the Studio: Our New Packaging!

Ladies and gents...it's finally here! I've been working on finalizing our packaging for what seems like forever (more on that in a later post). Without further adieu...our brand spankin' new packaging is FINALLY here!

Each piece of our jewelry now comes hung on a polaroid snapped in the city your jewelry is named after! I'm so thrilled to be able to share an extra little piece of each city with you in the form of a photograph, and I'm so happy with the way they turned out!

The pieces also now come in our new signature urbanite jewelry bag! Each drawstring cotton bag is hand stamped with our logo. It's also reusable and works great as a travel case for your jewelry. If you're like me and you're always losing things in your purse, tuck your lip gloss and travel perfume into your urbanite bag, slide it into your purse and go! It also works as a perfect case to protect your camera or Blackberry from scratches!

And...the icing on the cake: for so long everyone has been asking for the city stories to come packaged with their jewelry. We finally found a way to make that happen: each piece now comes with its city story printed on the back of the polaroid.

I can attest--these little bundles of joy are so much fun to open and I can't wait to get them (and the jewelry, of course) into your hands!

Contest: Name The Necklace!

Here at urbanite headquarters, we're pretty fond of travel (as you can probably imagine) and the stories and experiences travelers pick up as they traverse the globe. One of the things we love the most about naming our pieces after world cities is that people often purchase jewelry because of the city it's named after. They love that they can carry a memory of their favorite destination around their neck, or wear a pair of earrings that reminds them of their hometown.

Something we've always wanted to do is enlist our lovely fans to name one of our designs after their favorite city. And well, we finally found a chance to do so with a design that we're sure you're going to love!

We've been selling this necklace (and matching earrings) locally for a few months and it's been a huge hit. It reminds us of a very modern take on a crysanthemum (mum) flower. We love it and we'd love for you to name it!

How do you get in on the action? Simply comment below and tell us which world city you would name this necklace after & why.

• Does the piece remind you of your grandmother's garden? Maybe you'd name it after her home town.
  
• Does this necklace remind you of a designer's or aritst's work? Maybe you'd name it after his/her home city! Get creative!
  

The person with the best entry will have the necklace named after their city! The winner will also receive matching necklace & earring set of the pieces they named! The Fine Print:

• You can submit multiple entries with different cities, but each entry must include a different city and explanation.
  
• Submit your entry by commenting on this blog post with the city you would name the necklace after & why.
  
• Be sure to include an email address in your entry so we can contact you.
  
• The contest closes at 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, April 12, 2011. Winner will be announced by 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, April 13, 2011.
  

And while we're at it, a sneak peek at the matching earrings in gold (they'll be available in silver & black, too!):

in the studio: january bounty

eye candy for your thursday afternoon: a small sampling of the amazing supplies that have arrived here at chez urbanite this week! a bunch of new cities & styles coming your way soon!