Posted on

New Products, Photo Collaboration and Etsy Promotion

I have not done a blog post in three months because I have been extremely busy. First of all, I took the Venture School class through the Univeristy of Iowa. That class ran from March through the middle of May. It was very intense and I may have called some of you on the phone to do customer interviews for that class. Thanks to everyone who helped me with that. I learned so much that I am still trying to figure out what to do with all this knowledge. I have a million new ideas but it will take some time to implement all of them.

New Designs

I created a number of new products in the last several months. These were a combination of custom requests and some new ideas that I had. I have featured them in social media and in other places on this web site, but not in this blog.

Back in December, there was a convention for fans of the TV series Outlander. I did not know much about it, but I quickly learned. I was a vendor at the convention, and as part of that I designed this Outlander-inspired Key Ring. There are three versions of it – a nickel-plated steel version, a raw silver version, and a silver version with dark patina. After the convention, I designed a Scottish Thistle Ring, which is my interpretation of how the ring is described in the book. I also took the Thistle from that ring and modified it so it could be worn as a pendant.

Next I designed this new Braided Celtic Knot ring below. This is meant to look like the ring in the film The Fountain. You only get a brief glimpse of it a few different times in the movie, but I think this is pretty close. It is one of my favorite movies and the ring does have special significance in the film.

Finally, there are two new pendant designs. The first is just a variation of the Amulet of Mara pendant. Instead of a cabochon in the center, I made a version with prongs to hold a chaton, which is a crystal that is cut very similar to a round-cut diamond. The other new pendant is the Four Elements pendant. This was a custom request made from scratch. I took a Celtic knot I have used in one of my other pendant designs and modified it, so it divided a circle into four sections. Then I put a symbol for each of the four ancient elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water), and a colored crystal. I then used liver of sulfur to darken the piece. Finally, I polished away some of the dark patina to make the Celtic knot and symbols really stand out.

Photo Collaboration

I did another photo collaboration with Local Pittsburgh magazine photographer Julie Kahlbaugh (Instagram: @julieanne514) and model Alicia Kozak (Instagram: @itsaliciakozak). I had previously collaborated with Julie last year. Once again, the photos they created were amazing.

Etsy Promotion

In addition to this web site, I also sell on Etsy. You can save 10% at the D&O Celtic Jewelry Etsy shop with the coupon code “summer10”. This promotion goes through the end of June.

 

Posted on

Photo Collaboration With Katie C’Etta and Julie Kahlbaugh

Katie C'Etta Cross Celtic Knot Necklace

As has happened a couple times before, through my various interactions on Instagram I became acquainted with someone interested in working with me to promote my jewelry. When I was looking at Celtic-related hashtags I liked a few pictures by Katie C’etta. She reached out to see if I was interested in collaborating. I initially sent her a couple pieces of jewelry and she got them featured in Local Pittsburgh Magazine. I wrote about that in this previous post.

After that, Katie was very adamant that she could help grow my brand and wanted to do more. I was hesitant just because I don’t have a big budget for advertising. She worked with me to get a price that I could afford. So I sent her another few pieces. She got together with photographer Julie Kahlbaugh, a photographer for Local Pittsburgh Magazine to create the pictures.

They sent me several photos and I am kind of blown away by the results. They saw the kind of nature-theme I was going for in a lot of my own pictures on my site and took it to the another level.

When I’m doing pictures on my own, I’m trying to create something where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. For example, close ups of jewelry can be neat, and close ups of flowers can also turn out cool. Put the jewelry together with a flower, and it creates something better than either one by themselves. There is something about the combination of the different elements that really makes the picture special. Well, Katie and Julie took that idea and ran with it. The results were better than anything I’ve been able to do on my own. My favorites are the ones they did with the Leaf Knot Ring and the Round Celtic Cross Necklace. Check out the photos below to see for yourself.

If you are looking for creative branding ideas and stunning photos, I would recommend Katie and Julie without hesitation. We are already talking about doing more in the future.

Posted on

D&O Celtic Jewelry Featured in Local Pittsburgh Magazine

Katie C'Etta

I did a recent collaboration with actress and model Katie C’Etta. She had spotted some of my jewelry on Instagram and reached out to me about working together. After learning a little bit about Katie, I quickly realized it was a unique opportunity that I should not pass up.

Katie is involved in a lot of different things. She has three films in the works, has appeared in commercials and has modeled for many different brands. She also has her own blog where she features local fashion and other projects she is working on. You can see one of her short films on Vimeo. It is called Circles and was directed by Reese Hayes.

Katie C'Etta Local Pittsburgh Magazine
Katie C’Etta  in Local Pittsburgh Magazine

She featured the Dragonfly Necklace and Triquetra Bracelet in her Instagram account. It was also featured in a photo shoot she did with Local Pittsburgh magazine. The photo featured the Dragonfly necklace is on page 53. I’m told that Local Pittsburgh is the top local magazine in Pittsburgh. This is pretty exciting because it is the first time one of our pieces has appeared in a print magazine. The jewelry will also appear on actress Emily Goode in the upcoming film The Way That I Am, which is tentatively planned to be released in 2017. That will also be a first. I will share more about that as I learn more about the film and when it will be released. You can read more about Katie and track her budding career at her web site.

As I said, this was another collaboration that originated from Instagram. Instagram has been great for finding people like this that have a common interest, and that I can work with in a way that is beneficial to both of us. I wrote about what Instagram can do for budding artists and small businesses in this earlier post.