Online Website

Hello readers,

We're working hard on finishing our new website! Our website is expected to be completed by mid-end of July as there were some technical challenges that came up while integrating our new shopping cart... but I assure you it's worth the wait :)

Stay tuned!

Sincerely,
Priscilla

A symphony of jewels

photo by Priscilla taken at the Blim Market, rings by Silver Trumpet

"a symphony of jewels for all tastes"

The Silver Trumpet vintage inspired jewelry collection by local designer Andrea Halvorsen has been a great hit at OhKuol's for the past few years. Her most popular pieces include colorful cameos in ornate settings and many whimsical rings, bracelets, and earrings. If you're also a lover of Silver Trumpet jewelry, stop by OhKuol at 2439 Granville street for 20% off the collection during our closing/moving sale. 

sincerely, 

Priscilla 

Whimsical Charm Necklaces!

For the past week, we have been daydreaming about summer and making little charm necklaces with semi-precious gemstones. They are refreshing and whimsical, we think they're a ton of fun!

Labradorite Starfish Necklace

Blue Topaz Leaf Necklace

This one is an all time favorite for us, we enjoy making this one because sky blue topaz goes quite nicely with bright sterling silver. Summer is almost here, do you wear more gold or silver this time of year?

Seahorse and Company Necklace

Many of us might say silver because silver has a cooler tone. But that doesn't mean we should limit ourselves to silver during summer! Here's a summer themed charm necklace with a little seahorse, a clam, and a white freshwater pearl (June birthstone). 

Shop at our Etsy shop for more options! Enjoy the sun and we wish all our readers a lovely weekend. 

p.s. Remember to stop by our store to check out our closing/moving sale. See earlier post for more details.

Sincerely,

Priscilla/Vi 

A letter to our customers: Closing our door

Dear OhKuol customers,

We thought we should let you all know that it is confirmed that we will be closing our doors on July 31st. It is a little saddening, but we're excited to move on to bigger and better ventures! And at the same time, we will also be on the lookout for a new location!

We would like to say thank you to all our loyal customers, designers, family and friends, for supporting us through these past years.

In the months of June and July, we will be having a closing/moving sale in store! Please come by, update your wardrobe, and refresh your jewelry collection.

With items on sale from 20-60% OFF,

we're pretty sure you could score some sweet deals! Note that our store hours will be extended during this period. We'll be open from: Sunday - Tuesday: 12pm - 7pm and Wednesday - Saturday: 11am - 7pm.

In the meantime, check out our Facebook page for more of what's in store, follow us on Twitter for live updates, and subscribe to our blog for any future news!

To shop our in-house designed OhKuol Jewelry collection exclusively, visit our new Etsy shop.

Our new website is scheduled to launch by this summer in July. There will be giveaways for the grand opening of our online shop ;) so stay tuned!

List of Canadian designers in store:
Arjemco Jewelry

Black Drop Designs

Brynn Creative Designs

Fani Song Recycled Glass Jewelry
Heather Matwe Jewelry 
Irit Sorokin Designs 

Jen Ellis Designs

KV Bijou 

MuzuArtware Jewelry 

Odette Alfaro Jewelry
Silver Trumpet Jewelry
Sleepy Moon Designs
Street Cat Designs
The Tiny Fig
The Raven Iron
Threadly Intents Accessories
Type B Jewelry

Whisper Photography Jewelry

..& we carry VERO MODA clothing only. 

Hope to see you all sometime soon :)

Sincerely,
Priscilla & Vi 

Artisans, are you tech saavy?

by designomite on Etsy

Summer is just around the corner and business has been busy after a slow period that follows after Christmas. We'd love to take a vacation but our schedule is not permitting, yet. Besides managing the front end of things at the shop, we have also been doing some researching on effective online marketing for small businesses.

If you're already promoting your business online, check out this SEO guide. I think we've officially marked this as one of our SEO bible. In addition, we recently discovered Wanelo and Pinterest. I'll save the details so you will go find out for yourselves! They are great websites for artisans to promote their work. And they're free. Check them out if you haven't, you'll have fun, and you might get inspired :)


That's all we will share for now, don't want to cram too much in one post! So, we're curious, what's working for you and what's not? Comment below!

sincerely,
Priscilla

'Tis the bridal season

The Spanish Gown - designed and made by joanshum 

Found this too-gorgeous-for-words wedding gown on Etsy and it inspired us to write another post. At this time of year, brides-to-be are crossing off the final items on their to-do list before the big day.Congratulations if you will be a bride this summer :) Love and the wonderful things it brings is certainly worthy of celebrating.

Knowing that it's close to wedding season, we have stocked up on a couple of adornments that could potentially be exquisite bridal jewelry + bridesmaids jewelry + thank you gifts.

by Street Cat Designs

Hand crocheted crystal and freshwater pearl earrings, romantic and

also very glam. We'd recommend these ones for the bride.

by Arjemco

Rose gold mini heart necklace, perfect if you're looking for a simple piece that your bridesmaids would be able to wear again after the wedding.

Amethyst Teardrops by OhKuol

We actually designed these for bridesmaids, notice how elegant these are without being too flashy (wouldn't want a bridesmaid to steal the thunder.) If you chose a royal purple for your wedding color, these would be lovely.

There is more selection in store, you could check out our Facebook page to do a little more window shopping. Our local designers accept custom orders, stop by 2439 Granville Street and see if there is anything that catches your fancy!

So growing up in a big family, we are used to being invited to big and grand weddings, the biggest with over 600+ guests! At that particular wedding, we knew maybe 10% of the attendees. And that's overestimating. We learned that sometimes a big wedding may not be as cozy as small wedding. Remember, quality over quantity, and don't sweat the small things!

And we'll leave you with that. Happy wedding planning :)

cheers,

Priscilla & Vi

Chronicles of an Etsy rookie: $7 Etsy showcase

In case you missed our previous posts, we recently revived our Etsy shop. Being eager and feeling all gung ho, we decided to purchase a spot in the Etsy jewelry showcase, in hopes of making 1 or 2 sales. If you're wondering how the Etsy showcase works, basically it costs $7.00 to book a spot in the showcase for 24 hours. 

We had 2 sales last night and we thought it was from the showcase. We thought, "Sweet, this showcase thing works!" But we were actually discovered through Twitter, what a great invention it is. 

To sum it up, the $7.00 got us a handful of views and no sales. Although I've heard positive feedback about showcases, we weren't too impressed with our first experience. Next time, we would rather invest the $7.00 for renewing listings. 

Advice from one rookie to another:

• If you're going to do the showcase, try your best to fill your shop. They say the magic number is around 100 items.
• Renew the items lined up for the showcase half an hour before it's time for your first item to be listed.
• Put out your specials and marked down items so they're fast pick-me-ups.
• Or save your money instead!

On a brighter note, we are shipping out orders to Switzerland this week, very exciting!

Are you an Etsy seller and had success with the showcase? How do you make the best of out it? Share with us!

sincerely,

Priscilla & Vi