New pieces!!!

So, for all of you people who are fans of our photobucket, Facebook account (ya know, all 9 of you - here's the link if you want to add us: Ampersand Designs on Facebook) and other various social networking sites we're starting to add images from our new pieces onto the internets. Over the next four weeks we'll be posting new pieces to our online store and I guarantee you'll fall in love with them - we have! Here's a little glimpse of what will be up soon:

Our first official photoshoot!

So friends of ours are starting their own business, Ljubi Fashion House, and set us up with the first few hours of their photo shoot today to get free shots of our jewelry on professional models. Spiffy, eh!? So we'll be getting those photos some time this week (as well as posting all new items on Etsy this week including SEVEN new couture necklaces) and will post them on here!!! Remember the deadline for ordering custom pieces is December 3rd (9 days from now!). In the meantime here are some candid shots from this morning:

Threadshow redux

Here are some more pictures from our show last Sunday:

Surreptitious use of office color printer

What happens when you don't have the resources at home to print gorgeous press releases? You turn to the Ricoh color printer at work and you do it as stealthily as possible because your boss charges 40 cents per copy and his office is right by the printer. So, press releases were printed out and yesterday we realized we had to print out the images for our custom orders so we could get the completed pieces to our customers in a timely fashion. And I'm all stressed because my boss hadn't left his office all day and the door's open. Finally! He goes into the conference room for a meeting and I'm like a mad woman - all flailing arms and tripping over my comfy boots looking generally stupid until I realize I have to do a test because I only have two sheets of label stock and Michelle told me I couldn't screw up - the PRESSURE! So, five minutes later, almost biffing completely on the thin carpet that seems to be in every office building I've worked in as of late, I get one sheet printed out in glorious color.
Do you think Betsey Johnson went through this crap...?

Thread Show Part Deux...

So we found this video from last year's Thread Show. Its pretty interesting to get the feel for what we are about to get ourselves into! I think we are mostly just excited to meet with other people doing the same thing we are trying to do... launch a brand.

Ok, so the shopping part is not so bad either... :)

Manpersand...

Ever since we started this label, Laura and I have had many discussions about doing a men's line. We have no idea what this would entail since most men's jewelry reminds us of Liberace or pimps... but the most fun have been the discussions about what we would name the line. The big winners that have gotten the most giggles from us have been MANpersand, Guypersand, and my personal favorite... AmpersMANd. Until I found this image on this fantastic blog written by someone obsessed with ampersands, http://ampersand.gosedesign.net/. We might just have to look into using this as a logo... so glorious...

Excavating Treasures

IIDA had an event tonight in San Carlos that we were a part of - Excavating Treasures. We went into it thinking we weren't going to make anything (not that it would've mattered because it was a free event and we were working out of someone's cubicle) and we ended up clearing about 20 pieces and making almost as much as we did in Vegas - WEIRD! It was fun, there was a guy with ridiculous eyebrows and free wine - always a good combo. Videos are below :)


The dude with the eyebrows! How? HOW!??!?!

Thread Show!!

Ampersand Designs in goin' NATIVE! We are going to be showcasing at yet another fabulous show, this time at Thread Show in San Francisco! We are super excited to meet other local jewelry and fashion designers as well as the store buyers that will be attending this event. If you are in the San Francisco area, this is a totally rad event featuring everything fabulous on the SF Fashion scene. Come check us out!!!

(P.S. Its in the same location we had our Senior Prom! How random is that?!?!)

Fairest of Them All is BACK!

Our Fairest Of Them All has been reposted on Etsy as we now have ONE LEFT!!! Click on the image above to go buy it!!!

We're featured on Stylelist!!!

I love waking up on a Sunday, checking my email and then seeing that Ampersand is getting bigger and bigger as we speak. This morning we were featured on AOL's Stylelist and Boydie Beener gave us an awesome write-up. Click on the picture above to be redirected to the site.

In honor of this I present to you one of our favorite singers (as it's rare that Michelle and I can agree on this) with a song that is quite fitting given the past two weeks:
Peter Gabriel - Big Time