Adore y la Muerto Jewellery

We're delighted to announce that we will be stocking Adore y la Muerto jewellery. These amazing designs are totally unique with each one being hand made to order by Anna Borowski.

In the meantime you can see Anna's work and a preview of what's to come at Misi.co.uk

Silver Is The New Gold...

…It’s official. And that’s fantastic news for us.

We’re in the middle of a recession and buying trends have changed dramatically over the last couple of years, just as they did during the last recession in the 1990’s. Pundits are saying that 2010 is THE year for silver.

The shift from gold to silver is down to a couple of factors. Firstly, the demand for gold is strong and supply is tight so gold prices have risen since 2009. Secondly, silver provides value for money. If you’re standing outside a jewellery store with £100 to spend, you’ll get more for your money if choose a bold silver piece than a dainty 9 carat gold item.

Silver is a great medium to work with too. It’s malleable and soft so designers can create fabulous sculptural jewellery that makes a bold statement when worn. That’s exactly what consumers want right now, it’s the height of fashion.

So, until the price of gold starts to come down, silver will be dominating the jewellery market. That puts a BIG smile on the face of us here at Ciao Bambino. So much so, I feel the need to insert a smiley face here :-)

Create your own bold statement with our retro circles bangle (above). Available to buy on our website www.ciao-bambino.co.uk for £74.99

Bye for now,
Anna
xx

Preparing For our First Market Stall

This coming Friday we will be exhibiting our gorgeous sterling silver jewellery at All Saints School's annual pamper and shopping evening in Maldon, Essex.

This will be my first experience at selling face to face...removed from the comfort zone that is the website. It'll be a bit of an experiment and a huge learning curve, but I'm very excited about getting out there and being able to see and talk to our customers.

When I signed up to have the stall, I didn't have any display stands to show off our products. I've been busy this week creating busts, earrings cards and bracelet pillows to compliment our pieces. I think I now qualify as a Blue Peter presenter! I knew there was a reason I kept all those cereal boxes and reels of sticky back plastic.

The pamper/shopping evening itself includes Indian head massage, reflexology, spray tans, manicures and pedicures. Other exhibitors include Jamie At Home, Avon, Phoenix Cards, Usborne Books and of course, Ciao Bambino Silver Jewellery.

Wine and other refreshments will be available and there's a raffle with prizes donated by various businesses taking part. Entry is just £3 and the treatments are available from 6.45pm til 10pm.

All Saints School is at:
Highlands Drive,
Off London Road,
Maldon, Essex
CM9 6HY

Why not pop in if you're in the area, and don't forget to come and say hello.

Anna
www.ciao-bambino.co.uk

Sterling Silver Clip On Charms at Ciao Bambino Silver Jewellery

I can’t really say I was a big fan of charm bracelets, they always seemed a little old fashioned and certainly not something I’d wear every day...but I’ve changed my mind. The old fashioned charm bracelet has had a make over to turn it in to a versatile, elegant and very wearable collectable.

For a while now I’ve wanted to add clip on charms to Ciao Bambino’s jewellery collection, but it’s not been easy. There are plenty out there, but the quality wasn’t quite good enough. Finally this week, my supplier delivered. Thanks to the good relationship we’ve built up with them over the years, we are now able to offer you some exceptional charms beautifully crafted from 925 sterling silver at very reasonable prices.

My absolute favourite is the heart locket charm. I’ve not seen one anywhere else, well not as lovely as this one anyway. It’s simple design, exceptional quality and absolute yummyness makes it a perfect gift for a charm collector. It’s only £18.99 so it’s very affordable too.

We’ve added some of our collection to the web site already and we’ll be adding more later in the week, so bookmark the page and come back often to see our new additions.

We ‘re also waiting for delivery of some traditional style charm carriers. We’re expecting some sterling silver charm holder bracelets and necklaces with a loop so you can create your own pendant. If you can’t wait for those, then we already have the sweetie links bracelet which is perfect for displaying your collection of clip on charms.

Happy shopping!

Anna
xx

What Does The "925" in 925 Silver Mean?

This is a question we are frequently asked by our customers at Ciao Bambino. 925 is the number that is put in front the word “silver”. As a customer you need to know exactly what that number represents and that the piece of jewellery you are buying conforms to the 925 standard. So I’ll try to explain...

Pure silver on its own is too weak and malleable to be used for crafting functional, hard wearing jewellery and when it’s warm it gets bendy. A little like making jewellery from plasticene. To make it more workable and long lasting, craftsmen add a copper alloy to the silver to strengthen it so it can be used to make earrings, necklaces, pendants, bracelets, bangles and rings.

They use a blend of 7.5% copper and 92.5% silver (see what they did there? Genius).

You’d think that adding another metal to the copper would lower the quality, but in fact it enhances the properties of the silver and it's only a small part of the combination anyway.

You can check that the item you are buying is genuine 925 silver by checking the hallmark. More about hallmarking soon...that’s a whole other blog entirely.

So, to summarise, the 925 means that the jewellery you are buying is of the highest quality.

I hope that makes things a little clearer.

Anna
xx

www.ciao-bambino.co.uk

About Us - Ciao Bambino Silver Jewellery

I can’t believe I’m finally taking the time to blog. It’s not something I’ve done before, but I’m told on good authority that all good e-commerce businesses have a blog. So now I’ve taken a leap into the realm of social commentary, I think it’s only polite that we introduce ourselves.

The Business

Ciao Bambino is a family run independent retailer of contemporary and traditional silver jewellery. We run the business from our home in Maldon, Essex. We don’t have premises as such, we don’t need one. Our stock takes up little room and with the extra overheads we’d have to increase our prices and we’d lose our competitive edge.

One of the draw backs of working from home is that we’re often found working into the night. Currently, it’s 10.30pm and I’m sitting here with my laptop blogging away...but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it.

Our Products

We have an ever growing catalogue of earrings, necklaces, pendants, rings, diamond christening gifts, childrens’ jewellery, bracelets and bangles. All of our jewellery is 925 (or sterling) silver complete with hallmarks. The exceptional quality of our products makes them perfect gifts for loved ones and affordable treats for you.

The “Team”

There’s Andy, The Technical Genius. He keeps the website, server, e-mails and the technical gadgetry running smoothly. He also has a full time job, so any time he spends fixing Ciao Bambino is gratefully received. He usually comes home from his day job to the words “When you have a spare minute, could you have a look at (insert current technical problem here). It’s just not working right”.

Izzy (9 years old) is in charge of quality control. If it doesn’t meet the Izzy standard, it doesn’t make it on to the website! She’s also a great marketeer. Her school friends own a little Ciao bling and they’re great at spreading the Ciao love...

Olly (4 years old) is mostly in charge of sticky tape and bubble wrap. He also provides the soundtrack to our working day which is often Green Day, Linkin Park or High School Musical, eclectic to say the least.

Then there's me. I'm the creative brains behind the outfit...and Proprieter, Marketing Executive, Web Designer, Buyer, Receptionist, Mail Room Operator, Tea Lady...you get the picture.

We have other helpers around our busy times of year. They assist us with packing, running to the post office and making fabulous cups of tea!

So that’s us. Hopefully this is the start of a beautiful friendship with my on-line journal and I’ll find I have enough to say to keep blog happy for a long time to come.

Bye for now!

Anna

http://www.ciao-bambino.co.uk