personalised jewellery for mums

Posted on March 3, 2018 by Gemma ILLMAN

Personalised Jewellery for mums

Looking for a special gift for mum? You may well be considering an item of personalised jewellery. Here are a few options for you to consider.

A handwritten message

Children love to leave little handwritten notes for their mums. This one was left as a little surprise from my client’s son and his dad on the bottom of her shopping list! She loved it so much that she decided to have it transferred into a handmade silver pendant. I think that’s a fantastic idea and really special.

A special print

There isn’t much more personal than your own child’s little hand, foot or fingerprints captured in a personalised piece of jewellery that you can carry with you everywhere you go! You can even have your child’s name stamped in their own handwriting if you like!

Start a story

Charm bracelets are a great way to tell a story and are by far the most personalisable jewellery available for mums. Add to them whenever something significant happens in your life, a new baby, a wedding, starting a new job.

If handmade and customised jewellery is a little out of your budget, you can purchase pre-made beads and charms to personalise the bracelet yourself. You can purchase special beads for significant events, however personalisation could be something as simple as choosing your mum’s favourite colour combinations.

Personalise your packaging.

This is something you can do yourself. As lovely as it is to receive an expensive gift, most mum’s don’t expect their children to spend their hard earned pocket money on personalised gifts! Why not think about adding a little note to your jewellery gift. This could be handwritten or you could create your own little packaging slip. Alternatively here are a few that you are welcome to print off and use.

Printable gift box inserts

Best place to buy fingerprint jewellery

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Gemma ILLMAN

How to choose the best place to buy fingerprint jewellery, that is right for you.

I guess if you are here it’s because you are looking for a piece of fingerprint jewellery and you want to know where is the best place to buy it. As this is such a personal purchase, the best place to buy fingerprint jewellery will really vary from person to person depending on what your requirements are. There is no one place that is ‘the best’.

Whilst I would love to shout from the roof tops ‘PICK ME, PICK ME’ that wouldn’t be the right thing to do. There are hundreds of fingerprint jewellery artists to choose from and we all have our own individual strengths so it’s important to choose someone who fits your needs. For a lot of people I am absolutely the best place to buy fingerprint jewellery, my feedback is testimony to that, but I am not the right fit for everybody.

Here are a few things to consider when choosing the keepsake artist that you want to work with.

How much do you want to pay? I’d recommend you read my article about differences in prices for fingerprint jewellery and decide what is important to you before you choose an artist.
Choose someone who does this for a living, not a hobby. There are plenty of self taught hobby artists out there offering this sort of jewellery. Some of them unfortunately don’t have the necessary equipment or experience to create a professional quality piece that will last you a lifetime. Also, if you have any problems with your jewellery at a later date you know that an established business is much more likely to still be around to help you. I have been running Lasting Touch as a full time business since 2013 and I’m not going anywhere. I absolutely LOVE what I do.
Choose an artist who is willing to answer your questions. Chat to them on the phone, by email or on social media. A good fingerprint jewellery artist will be happy to discuss your requirements and put your mind at rest if you have any worries. Choose an artist who gets you, who understands what your needs are and who will work with you to meet your individual needs.
Look for reviews. Past customers experiences are one of the best ways to find out if a keepsake artist is likely to be the one for you.

Who I work well with…

My ideal customers are family people, just like me. I understand the needs and pressures of family and working life and I can work with you to try and be available at the times that suit you. I understand that if you are taking prints from small children you need to catch them just at the right time so if you need extra time to return your prints all I ask is that you let me know.
I’m a good listener and I love to hear the stories behind the pieces I am making. It doesn’t matter whether its a simple or more complex piece of jewellery. On the other hand, if you just want to place your order through the website and don’t feel the need to communicate with me personally, that’s fine too.
I make lots of memorial pieces and I am very sensitive when it comes to accommodating the needs of bereaved families. Whether you need advice about choosing the right jewellery, help collecting the prints or you just need more time in between communications that’s fine. I am happy to work closely with funeral directors to arrange for fingerprints to be collected if you don’t feel able to do it yourself.
People who love handmade. My pieces are made to a really high standard, but they are handmade and that’s what my customers love about them. They are perfect in their own way, but they aren’t factory perfect!
Value seekers. Its really important to me to be able to provide amazing value to my customers. I am not the cheapest artist and nor would I wish to be. The standard of product and service I provide is way above that of the cheapest artists. I want to work with people who appreciate the value in what I do. I’m really happy to discuss discounts on large orders or add extra value wherever I can but I won’t compromise on quality or service in order to lower the price.

Who I don’t work well with…

Cheapskates. Sorry I hate to say it but there’s the honest truth. I don’t work well with people who are only interested in getting their jewellery at the lowest possible price even if that means the artist working for below minimum wage! I care about my customers and I want to work with people who care about me too. This is my living and I need to charge a fair price. I do understand that budget can be an issue for some people, being a cheapskate is not the same as being genuinely strapped for cash. If you feel like you would like to pay a fair price but simply can’t afford to, do contact me and I will happily discuss some options with you.
People looking for mass produced items. My products are handmade, and as such will always have an organic feel to them. That’s not to say that they aren’t very well made, but they do not and will not ever look or feel as if they have come off a factory production line. If you are looking for a factory finish, you’ll need to find another artist or maybe consider ordering from my machine engraved range.

I really hope that this post has helped you consider what is important to you when choosing an artist to work with. If you’d like to work with me then please do get in touch. You can see my work at www.lastingtouch.co.uk

Thanks for reading

Gem
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Guest Post by Judith at Boy and Bear

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Gemma ILLMAN

Hello, I’m Judith from Boy and Bear where, just like Gemma I’m a keepsake jeweller. She has asked me to talk a little bit about the breastfeeding pendants I make so here I am with a little bit of background for you on how they came to be.

I am a mum of 2 boys, aged 1 & 3 and have breastfed both of them. When I thought about being a mother I never thought about how I would feed my baby, I just assumed I would bottle feed and that would be that. I felt a bit squeamish about breastfeeding bizarrely – I couldn’t tell you why. It wasn’t until I was around 34 weeks pregnant that I thought I’d give it a go. I attended a couple of classes at the local midwifery unit and put breastfeeding as my choice on my birth plan.

I went on to have a traumatic birth with my son which affected my mental health pretty severely and meant that I felt breastfeeding was the only thing I could do right so it became incredibly important to me. However, my son’s latch wasn’t great and caused some real pain for the first 10 weeks or so until we sussed things out which was very difficult for me but we persevered.

Unfortunately, for reasons we never really got to the bottom of, our son was diagnosed with failure to thrive and was admitted to hospital a couple of times within his first 6 months, a scary and unsettling period for first time parents.

After his initial admission I pumped for him, every 3 hours around the clock, to top up his feeds. Those few weeks were incredibly hard for me as I didn’t respond well to the pump and the lack of milk I was expressing was compounding my feelings of not being good enough. A month later he was admitted again and it was decided that we would top up with a high calorie formula and we combi-fed from then until he was 9 months old and had caught up.

I was diagnosed with PND and PTSD during this time too which led to me being unable to return to work so Boy & Bear was opened allowing me to have a focus away from my illness.

I’m quite a tenacious person and was determined not to give up so persevered through it all and when we came out the other side and hit 12 months I wanted to make something to commemorate our journey as I was beyond proud of where we had managed to get to from where we had come. These breastfeeding pendants were the result.

I made a gymnurstics pendant because that’s where we were in our journey, I was constantly having a foot in my face or a baby climbing over my shoulder, and I engraved his name and birthday on the reverse.

By the time we hit 2 years of breastfeeding I was expecting his little brother so opted to wait until he arrived to make something to commemorate that stage. I’ve moved my gymnurstics charm to my bracelet now and I have a copper tandem feeding charm instead.

Out of the designs available, the most popular is the International Breastfeeding Symbol. I often handcraft these for people who are gifting them to friends to commemorate the end or beginning of a journey to show their support. They do make the perfect keepsake for birth workers or breastfeeding support workers too – I don’t know how I would’ve made it through if it hadn’t have been for my peer supporter.

Well, that’s pretty much all there is to say about the origins of these pieces, I hope you found my story interesting and if you’d like to know more please feel free to pop over and see me. You can find me on facebook, twitter, instagram,or pinterest

J xx

Lasting Touch

Your loved ones prints captured forever in fine silver jewellery, stone prints or pottery keepsakes.

Author Archives: Gemma ILLMAN