It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Well it's been a while since our last blog and that's because we've been uber busy here making lots of new jewellery and preparing for the various sales and Christmas markets we're taking part in over the run up to Christmas... but more about that later.

Since we last blogged we've had three more very successful markets at Wilmslow Artisan Market , Altrincham Vintage and Craft and Castlefield Artisan  All three are fab and they each have a very different feel.  Wilmslow is sited on a busy and bustling town high street which definitely comes alive on market day.  There's a real continental market town feel to the day with huge support from local residents enjoying the full experience of the market and bringing increased custom to the existing shops and cafe bars too. 

Photograph by Lisa Reeves, wilmslow.co.uk
Wilmslow Artisan Market - the high street comes alive!

Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market is sited in the covered market on Greenwood Street next to the Victorian indoor market building, a traditional market setting which complements the craft and vintage theme wonderfully. 

Altrincham's historic market hall

On the third Sunday of the month the market is filled with vintage and artisan craft stalls each offering something very different and very individual.  The market has been taking place for several months now and has many regular return customers and is discovered by many new ones each event and is definitely well worth a visit!

Photo courtesy of Magpies Markets

Photo courtesy of Magpies Markets

Photo courtesy of Magpies Markets

 

Last, but by no means least is the Castlefield Artisan Market  A new market on the Artisan calendar, the December market will be the third and if the first two are anything to go by, it's definitely one not to miss!  Set in the wonderful Castlefield Basin area of Manchester this is a gem in the heart of the city.  It's situated in a lovely cobbled area under the railway arches and the first Sunday of the month it becomes a bustling 'town' filled with stalls selling a variety of delicious produce and artisan arts and crafts at their best.  Entertainment has been provided on both occasions by the fabulously energetic Cotton Town Hot Club and the November market saw the addition of Sax Solution.  They both help create a fabulous atmosphere and the next market is definitely one to put in your diary!

The Cotton Town Hot Club entertaining at Castlefield

We've introduced some lovely new items for the forthcoming markets and they're all on our web site Jacy & Jools now.  Also check out the lovely new items on our sister sites JJKitsch and The Make A Wish Company for the full range of our popular 'Make A Wish' bracelets.

We've have a new sterling silver variation of our JJKitsch 'Love Beads' bracelets, called JoJo bracelets they're available on Jacy & Jools now

Fuchsia jade with sterling silver beads and star

Semi precious turquoise beads with sterling silver beads
and open heart charm

Take a look also at the full range of our lovely new sterling silver charm necklaces - here's a sneaky peek at a couple













Now to Christmas, Jacy's favourite time of the year!  We're really excited about it and we've got a full calendar of events throughout the following weeks.  We start the run up to Christmas this weekend with Wilmslow Artisan Market on Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm on Grove Street, Wilmslow and Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market on Sunday, 11 am to 3.30 pm in the Covered Market, Greenwood Street, Altrincham.

The next Castlefield Artisan Market is on the 4 December in the usual place at the corner of Duke Street and Castle Street close to Dukes 92 and we're excited to be taking part in two Christmas Markets!!  The first is in Wilmlsow and we're there from the opening night Friday 25 November, when the lights are switched on, to Tuesday 29 November from 11 am to 8 pm.  It will be located on Alderley Road from Sainsburys to MultiYork and other attractions include an ice rink, Santa's Grotto and fairground rides.  The second is the Castlefield Christmas Market, just a stone's throw from its usual location outside Dukes 92.  This takes place on Friday 23 December, from 10 am to 9 pm and will be a fabulous traditionally themed Christmas market with entertainment, carol singing, sherry and mince pies.  An event for all the family with a great festive party atmosphere! One not to miss!!

We're also at Heyes Lane Junior School's Christmas Fair on Friday 2 December from 5 - 7 pm and we have the regular Wilmslow Artisan and Altrincham Vintage & Craft on December 17 and 18 respectively at their usual times/locations.

We hope to see you at one of the events, don't forget to come and say hello!

Copies of our flyers about the above events can be downloaded using the links below:
Castlefield Christmas Market
Wilmslow Christmas Market
Find us on the web
See us next!

Putting the custom into customer

One of the great things about having a custom jewellery company is that we get to work with the customer in the design process so they end up with an item that's exactly what they want.  Sometimes we start absolutely from scratch, as was the case with a recent customer who gave us a photo of a necklace they already owned and asked for earrings to match.  We produced a few designs and they chose two pairs they particularly liked and we made them both up for them.

Last week we received an order for a couple of bracelets, one from each of our collections on our Jacy & Jools and JJKitsch sites.  The customer loved the 'Peace Man' but wanted the feature bead in white turquoise instead of blue.  She was thrilled with the finished bracelet and tweeted us this fab picture of both!

So, if you see anything on our site and you'd like it slightly different, a different charm, size or colour of bead, custom size, whatever, please email and ask.  If we can find a way of doing it for you we will because at the end of the day we want you to love your Jacy & Jools or JJKitsch piece and we'll do everything we can to make sure it's just the way YOU want it!!

We've been really pleased this week to read some of the feedback about the Castlefield Artisan Market  There's been quite a buzz about it on Twitter since the first one last Sunday and the next one on 6 November promises to be even better.  On a personal note we were really thrilled to read Sophy Vanner's fab blog TheTrendClash where she had some lovely things to say about us and about the market in general.  We agree it's going to go from strength to strength and will be a great place to pick up some very individual Christmas presents.

With the forthcoming Castlefield Markets, our regular spots at Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market , Wilmslow Artisan Market and the Wilmslow Christmas Market we're all set for a very busy few months.  We're very excited about the forthcoming weeks and we've lots of new items to make and new ideas to try out.  We look forward to seeing our regular customers in the lead up to Christmas and to welcoming new ones too!

Castlefield, Corrie and the Conservatives

Human wall of police on
Deansgate

Sunday saw the first Castlefield Artisan Market take place and true to form in Manchester, the rain came! Along with the rain came convoys of police TAU vehicles and the largest police presence since the riots sealing off roads with human walls and policing the TUC rally and Conservative Party Conference!

Start of the rally near the MOSI

Despite all that, though the market was fabulous. It was reall well supported and there was a great atmosphere enhanced by the live music and dancing.  There were some lovely stallholders selling everything from fudge to flowers and photos to food.  We had an amazing day and even had a celebrity customer, the lovely Cherylee Houston, Izzy Armstrong to all you Corrie fans. 

It was lovely to see a familiar face there too - Gail was there giving out flyers for the next Altrincham Vintage and Craft Market  on Sunday 16 October, 11 - 3:30 in the covered market, Greenwood Street.

Thank you to everyone who came down. We met some lovely new customers and really enjoyed being there with our Jacy & Jools and sister site JJKitsch jewellery. We think it's going to be an amazing regular market and hope to see you there next time - first Sunday of the month!

We wish you a merry Christmas!

OK, so we're a bit early! We're already thinking about Christmas though and we're very excited to unveil our gorgeous 'Make A Wish' Christmas cards! They feature our very popular sterling silver 'Make A Wish' bracelets in various colours and a large choice of charms mounted on lovely pale pink card with matching envelope. At only £4.50 we think they'll make a super cute present for a special friend or relative.

Some of our new range of 'Make A Wish' Christmas cards

We'll be taking them with us tomorrow to the first Castlefield Artisan Market, 10-4 at the corner of Duke Street and Castle Street. See you there!

Close up of a 'Make A Wish' Christmas card

Tie it... wish it... wear it... then your wish will come true! x

Boogie Nights!

We've had another busy week this week busy preparing for the weekend. We're excited to be taking our jewellery to the first Castlefield Artisan Market on Sunday, 10 - 4 on the corner of Castle Street and Duke Street. We think it has the potential to be a fab monthly event and we're keeping our fingers crossed this gorgeous weather holds out until then.

Raffle prize packed and ready to go!

We 're also happy to be providing a raffle prize for the charity Chernobyl UK who support children and families in Belarus, the country most affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. They do amazing work and we are pleased we are able to do our little bit to help. They are holding a Back To The 80s Ball at the Cresta Court in Altrincham this Saturday, 1st October at 7pm and we've donated one of our Swarovski pearl bracelets which we hope will help them raise lots of money.

A mention for lovely Louise of Retro-Rimella  She's set up a new Twitter account @AltrinchamMrkt and is doing a brilliant job promoting the fabulous Altrincham Market, gathering support, encouraging some great ideas of what can be done to make the market the bustling hive of activity it once was and just generally create a buzz.  Please follow her and help make the market great again!

Here's wishing!

We're off to Prestwich today to the Vintage Life Extravaganza so we were up until the wee small hours making lots of lovely items to take with us.  Following the sell out success of the sterling silver version of our ever popular 'Make A Wish' bracelets we've come up with some new designs.  The sterling silver range are made with pink, pale blue, lime green and lilac cotton cord, with a gorgeous little charm and sterling silver beads on each end.  They are super cute and make a lovely little gift.

It's all about the label!

We're beyond excited about the arrival of our new Jacy & Jools branded fabric labels.  Specially designed for our sterling silver bracelets, we think our grey and silver thread bags in our brand colours, with pink and grey ribbon drawstrings will look uber stylish.  What do you think?