TEAM STELLA

StellaErwins.com

Stella Erwin's is getting ready to celebrate 5 years of business.  It was been a wonderful journey made possible by Team Stella.  Below is a little bit about each member. 

Jessica

Keeping Stella on the move has been Jessica's motto from the very beginning.  Early on she incorporated efficiencies to production, shipping and storage.  A place for everything and everything in it's place describes her perfectly.  Countless hours have been saved just by knowing where everything is located and making sure it gets back to it's spot. She also set up all of Stella's social media and provides support when things get busy or I am traveling.

In addition to her work at Stella Erwin's, Jessica has a whole other separate career.

Jeff

Jeff and I met working together in my career before Stella Erwin's.  On the production side of things, Jeff drills all of our glass and assembles and welds our wind chime suspension system.  He provides consultation around new products, designs and equipment.  

Jeff has a ton of hobbies including making beer and wine!  

Nancy

Nancy is Stella Erwin's glass beaded artist.  All of the stunning glass beaded barware and pens are her designs.  She is about to gear up for the holiday production with lots of new and festive glass beaded products.  She is also working on a new line of twisted metal bird feeder hangers to be released later in 2018.  

Nancy is a talented stained glass artist.  At the 2017 Texas State Fair she won an award for a piece of her stained glass art!  

Anna

Occasionally, Stella Erwin's needs seasonal help.  Earlier this year, Anna, who is studying in the medical field and happened to be completing an internship in the area, provided some "just in time" assistance.  She assembled wind chimes for the spring line and put together enough hardware packets for bird feeders to take us through the busy spring and summer months.  

Speaking of our 5 year anniversary...........It 's coming up in July and yes there will be sales to celebrate.  Stay tuned here for details or look for us in the following places:

StellaErwins.com

https://www.facebook.com/Stellaerwinsfeeders/

See you soon

Julie

StellaErwins.com

THE SALE - ULTRA VIOLET

THE PLACE - StellaErwins.com

The Coupon Code: UVSTELLA20

You already know how much fun we've had with Ultra Violet this year, especially with OOAK glass beaded barware and stained glass wind chimes.   The good news is - THE SALE is for all our yummy Ultra Violet products and just about everything else in the shop including:

• Vintage Glass Bird Feeders
• In Pink - http://etsy.me/2BzDGEm
• In Blue - http://etsy.me/2Gw4kl6
• In other colors - http://etsy.me/2j7msav
• Glass beaded pens - https://etsy.me/2q6CPrS
• Glass beaded barware - http://etsy.me/2nnRb5A
• Tumbled glass wind chimes - http://etsy.me/2CYe70t
• Stained Glass wind chimes - http://etsy.me/2BfO0kA
• Covered "squirrel resistant" bird feeders - http://etsy.me/2ELcAMh
• Hand forged steel hook - made by a real black smith

The details are below but the most important thing is the discount code to use @ StellaErwins.com.  When you are ready to check out type in  UVSTELLA20 (at the coupon code link) for 20% off all the goodies listed above.  You can use it for every item purchased and every trip to Stella Erwin's during April.

UVSTELLA20 - 20% discount- cut and paste it, write it down, bookmark this page or memorize it - it will not be widely published and is the only way to get THE SALE discount!

Here's the fine print - the coupon code only works @ StellaErwins.com - our Etsy shop.  The Amazon Prime listings have a built in coupon.  Non-Prime Amazon inventory is the same as that @ StellaErwins.com.  If you've never shopped at Etsy use this opportunity to give it try.  They even have guest checkout and you can use PayPal. 

Coupon code - UVSTELLA20 good through April!

Thank you so very much

Julie

StellaErwins.com

Ultra Violet Barware Collection

www.StellaErwins.com

Ultra Violet, Pantone's 2018 color of the year is breathtaking and the inspiration behind a OOAK glass beaded barware collection at www.StellaErwins.com. The artist created a stunning and limited edition collection of swizzle stick sets, appetizer/martini pick sets, wine bottle stoppers, canape utensils and bottle openers.  

The entire collection can be found at this link: http://etsy.me/2nnRb5A

As a thank you for visiting the blog please use this 20% off coupon code at our Etsy shop - STELLAS20 - www.StellaErwins.com

Appetizer picks - https://etsy.me/2Ioztqz

Martini picks - http://etsy.me/2tmOXcl

These picks come in sets of 4 and can be used for appetizers, in martinis or as fresh fruit kabobs.  They are stainless steel and about 6" long, with skewer length of 3.5"

Each set is $39.99, including shipping @
www.StellaErwins.com 



Swizzle sticks are just the most fun thing.  They really dress up your drinks, bar or table and add a little bling to any party.  They are stainless steel and 8" long with a stir length (below the beads) of about 6"They are sold in sets of 4 for $39.99 or 2 for $24.99 - includes shipping

 https://etsy.me/2H4B0CP

 http://etsy.me/2nnRb5A

Wine Bottle Stoppers come in 2 finishes, with 2 pricing points - high end stainless steel at $44.99 and silver plate at $29.99.  Bottle openers are silver plate and sell for $29.99.  All include shipping and are about 5" long.  They fit standard wine bottles.

http://etsy.me/2oN7SYL

https://etsy.me/2pZv8Te

http://etsy.me/2tnMIoR

http://etsy.me/2Iv6XED

Finally, we have a very limited number of canape utensil sets with fork, knife and spoon.  They are $59.99 and include shipping.  All of the Ultra Violet barware collection comes with luxurious velvet bags and polishing cloths.

Check out the entire collection at this link - http://etsy.me/2nnRb5A to mix and match.  There are lots of complimenting pieces.

Use the coupon code - STELLAS20 - for 20% off Ultra Violet Barware at our Etsy shop - www.StellaErwins.com

Thank you so much for reading.  We will be back soon!

Sincerely,

Julie

www.StellaErwins.com

Ultra Violet Stained Glass Wind Chimes

From: www.StellaErwins.com

Stained Glass wind chimes make the most beautiful sound when the breeze moves around them.  It's a lovely bell tone, soft and soothing.  This season www.StellaErwins.com created a collection of mobiles inspired by Ultra Violet - Pantone's® 2018 color of the year.  There are 14 OOAK wind chimes in different color pallets with names that invoke lush images like: Intrigue, Drama Queen and Desert Sunset.  The link to the Ultra Violet Stained Glass Wind Chimes is here: http://etsy.me/2BfO0kA

In addition to Ultra Violet this "Desert Sunset" piece includes Muskmelon (orange), Hot Pink, Poinciana (red) and pale translucent pink.  

Desert Sunset - http://etsy.me/2BfO0kA

"Drama Queen," is the color pallet, of the next piece which includes both vintage and stained glass in Chili Pepper (red), Kalamata (kale green), Bronze Mist, and Ultra Violet.

Drama Queen - http://etsy.me/2scpCkL

Mystery and "Intrigue," are the inspiration for the next chime which combines Turkish Sea (teal), Calliste Green, Pale Gold and Ultra Violet.

Intrigue - http://etsy.me/2sewsWT

The production process is labor intensive taking several weeks to complete.  The glass is tumbled to remove sharp edges.  Precision holes are drilled and the glass cleaned and inspected prior to installation.  The suspension system is a vintage bed spring, small hook and chain.  Finished hardware is powder coated for a stunning finish that also prevents rust.  Below are some of the finished stained glass pieces

Thanks so much for reading

Sincerely

Julie 

www.StellaErwins.com

P.S. As I was writing this entry, the Desert Sunset Chime sold - exciting for me.  A replacement OOAK chime will be coming soon.  Still, this is a limited edition collection.  So shop soon.  xoxo 

Covered Bird Feeders

www.StellaErwins.com

It feels so great to have the 2018 spring line of Covered Bird Feeders ready for you.  The glass started coming in last summer, about the time the hardware was being powder coated.  There are only 8 in the spring collection, making these pieces very OOAK - perfect for the person who loves to have something no one else has.  

The Glass

Tops to the bird feeders are repurposed lamp or ceiling shades from early last century.  Herringbone and Iris in pink and soft beige, Ribbons and Bows in blue and beige and stunning florals are all part of the 8 piece collection - which can be found at this link: http://etsy.me/2tS7lbh

White floral & depression console

White floral top close up

Ribbons & Bows w/ Indiana Carnival

The bottoms include carnival glass in blue, green and violet, a depression era console bowl, beautiful embossed white ruffle and a stunning opalescent green with drape design. 

Hardware & Powder Coating

The hardware is adjustable and powder coated for a stunning finish.

High Point, our powder coating contractor for many years has this to say about the process: "Powder coating is a type of coating that is applied as a free-flowing, dry powder. The main difference between a conventional liquid paint and a powder coating is that the powder coating does not require a solvent to keep the binder and filler parts in a liquid suspension form. The absence of solvents and VOCs is what makes powder coating a more environmentally friendly option to traditional wet paints."

I just love the environmental aspects of this finish, not to mention it's resiliency with nature.  Three finishes are available - Textured White, Wrinkle Black and Cafe Noir.  You choose! 

embossed roses & green carnival

Squirrel Proof?

Nothing is really squirrel proof, but with adjustable hardware you can close the gap between top and bottom to a few inches to attract the birds you most enjoy!

And the tops do help keep your bird food dry.  

Ribbons & Bows over purple carnival

It's so much fun creating these pieces which are ALL available @ www.StellaErwins.com.  There are a few left from 2017 that are ON SALE and can be found at this link: http://etsy.me/2Cz5Ykf

Coming Soon 

The Ultra Violet Stained Glass Wind Chime Collection

The Ultra Violet Glass Beaded Barware Collection

The wind chime collection is currently in production and will be released the week of Jan 21 - NEXT WEEK!  Wow, really coming soon.

The Ultra Violet Beaded barware collection will be released in early Feb.  

All of our new collections are first announced right here in the blog.

Thank you so much for reading.

Sincerely,

Julie

www.StellaErwins.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

www.StellaErwins.com

I hope you had a marvelous holiday season that included a break from whatever your routine is.  Below are a couple of photos featuring my newest household member (Etta) enjoying the music of my son, the professional French Horn player.  It was the cutest thing, she watched and listened the whole time he was playing. 

Etta enjoying to a little classical horn

She adores the musician

Wow! It's 2018 and we are creating new lines at www.StellaErwins.com and introducing new inventory to our flagship bird feeder line. Our artists are busy busy busy working on fabulous new creations that include:

• Celestial Mobiles - hand cut glass sun, moon & stars suspended from repurposed vintage glass
• An elegant barware collection featuring Ultra Violet - Pantone's® 2018 color of the year
• Stained glass wind chimes
• Decorative plant (bird feeder) hangers in twisted metals accented with glass beads

Our goal is to introduce all of these during the 1st quarter - so stay tuned for updates.  In the meantime we are filling up the bird feeder and wind chime inventory that was depleted during the holiday rush.  Thank you so much for continuing to honor Stella Erwin's with your gift purchases.  

New in covered bird feeders is this stunning rose top over green carnival glass.  The listing link is right here - http://etsy.me/2Aqatea  It is OOAK and it was so exciting to find this stunning top.  We only list 10 or so covered bird feeders each year, so you truly get a one of a kind piece.  

We just shipped 17 new wind chimes and 6 new bird feeders to Amazon warehouses for Prime availability.  If you need a beautiful and quick gift you can find all of our Prime listings @ www.Amazon.com/handmade/StellaErwins.  

There is so much more to share but for now it's time to get back to making more pieces available to you.

Thank you so much for everything in 2017.  

Sincerely

Julie Jansen

www.StellaErwins.com

ULTRA VIOLET®

If you haven't already heard, Ultra Violet is the Pantone 2018 Color of the Year.  It is so luscious and this is what they have to say about it!

There is so much to see and read about Ultra Violet® including 8 color pallets that include the 2018 color of the year.  Each one is gorgeous and names like "Purple Haze," "Intrigue," and "Quietude," invoke our creative spirit.  I love this one - "Drama Queen"

This link will take you to all 8 pallets - https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2018-tools-for-designers

Stella Erwin's glass beaded artist is working on our "Ultra Violet® Collection," of Lampwork glass beaded: wine bottle stoppers, martini picks, swizzle sticks and pens.  They will be arriving in early 2018, along with vintage glass bird feeders and wind chimes using Pantone's Spring 2018 color selections - shown here.  There's Ultra Violet at the end of the 2nd row.

We are so excited about 2018 and have lots of new lines coming.  In the meantime, you can finish up your holiday shopping at: www.Amazon.com/handmade/StellaErwins

I wish you all the best in this holiday season.

Warm Holiday Wishes

Julie Jansen

www.Amazon.com/handmade/StellaErwins

Stella Erwin's, LLC

www.Amazon.com/handmade/StellaErwins

December 3, 2017

First things first - it's hard to believe we are in the last month of 2017 - hopefully a busy month for on-line sellers like us!  Stella Erwin's uses both Etsy and Amazon.  We've been on Etsy for over 4 years and on Handmade at Amazon since they started a little over 2 years ago.  The platforms are very different allowing for flexibility.  Why use both?

Amazon has a robust seller's platform, is known world wide and has PRIME.  With Amazon Prime, we prepare our handmade products for shipment and send them to an Amazon warehouse.  Amazon handles the ultimate shipment and our customer benefits from their Prime membership with 2 day shipping.   We have over 50 Prime offerings now including this vintage glass bird feeder

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076ZPF5QJ

These OOAK glass beaded items - a writers set and wine stopper, are also available through Prime.  And that's not all......there are OOAK glass beaded barware sets, bottle openers, pens and 5 remaining tumbled glass wind chimes.  

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0716P9TTG

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0745L7BFJ

Etsy has recently made changes that make it extremely easy to put things on sale.  Right now, Stella Erwin's has over 30 items that are 30% off.  They include: vintage glass bird feeders, candle holders, wind chimes and even some of our glass beaded pens and barware.  

Wind Chime in Red & Gray

Once the Etsy sale is set up, they create a shop section and put all of the sale items in that one place.  Here is a link to Stella Erwin's sale and photos of 2 items in that sale.

http://etsy.me/2AHaFKc

Vintage Glass bird feeder in pink

Whether you prefer Amazon or Etsy, we hope that you will find something at Stella Erwin's for that person in your life who "has everything." 

Have a great December and see you soon.

Julie

www.Amazon.com/handmade/StellaErwins

www.StellaErwins.etsy.com

Stella Erwin's, LLC

www.Amazon.com/handmade/StellaErwins

November 17, 2017

On December 1, 2017, Stella Erwin's will become my full-time love (work).  It has been an amazing 4 plus years and I am looking forward to putting tons more time into this growing handmade business.  It will be wonderful to be able to think through all the new lines planned for 2018 and beyond - for example:

• Hummingbird Feeders
• Celestial Mobiles
• Butterfly Feeders

This year we really expanded our glass beaded products.  Artist Nancy Rittenberry, created this set of silver, teal and green wine bottle stoppers for a custom order. 

Wine Bottle Stoppers from Stella Erwin's

We have a complete line of OOAK glass beaded barware, as well as stunning glass beaded pens and writer's sets.  It can all be found @ www. Amazon.com/handmade/StellaErwins - some of it is even on Amazon Prime.

Prime is fairly new for Stella Erwin's and we have a great selection of glass beaded OOAK gifts.  We also listed 8 wind chimes and 3 bird feeders as a Prime test.  There are 5 remaining chimes and 2 bird feeders.  If they continue to sell well, we will expand the prime selection in these lines for spring. 

Black Friday & Cyber Monday are just around the corner.  Look for specials beginning Nov 18 all the way through the mad cap shopping season.  First one begins tomorrow around noon CST - @ www.Amazon.com/handmade/StellaErwins - we would love to hear from you. 

We wish you all the best, during this holiday season. 

Thanks for everything!

Julie

Stella Erwin's

StellaErwins.com

"It Takes a Village"

Part I

There comes a time in life of any successful small business when it's no longer feasible for one person to do all the work.  For me that time arrived well before the available funds needed to hire hourly help.  Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some creative ways employed by StellaErwins.com as well as other Etsy sellers in "It Takes a Village" series.  

Part 1 - What to do with so much glass to drill and only a 12 volt battery hand drill.  

Stella Erwin's has two lines that require holes drilled in the glass - Porch Lights and Wynne Chimes (and no Wynne Chimes is not mispelled.) 

The Porch Light are handled in house with a hand drill, but the Wynne Chimes glass is drilled by my good friend Jeff Wynne.  The volume of glass needed for the chimes line is huge, limited only by the amount of glass that arrives broken or is broken in processing.  After finding the cost of a drill press to be around $900 the search began for an alternative.  Enter Jeff Wynne who already owns one!  

Jeff Wynne - creator of Wynne Chimes

That's him busy drilling holes on the pieces of glass that are first tumbled back at Stella Erwin's. Upon completion of the first batch of 100 or so pieces, Jeff was paid with a covered bird feeder from Stella's inventory.  Our current arrangement, which includes some additional work by Jeff on the chimes is 50/50 split upon sale.   These chimes have very little cost involved but are labor intensive. With Jeff's help we are able to keep things sustainable at Stella Erwin's by using even the broken glass.  

One of the newest in the Wynne Chimes line and just in time for fall. Beautiful amber and gold glass are featured in this piece. They are suspended by a vintage bedspring.  

Links to the Wynne Chimes and Porch Light sections at StellaErwins.etsy.com follow.  

Thanks for reading

Julie Jansen

StellaErwins.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/StellaErwins?section_id=15893443&ref=shopsection_leftnav_5

https://www.etsy.com/shop/StellaErwins?section_id=17678163&ref=shopsection_leftnav_4