6 Quirky Designer Brooches To Make You Smile

Brooches are making a huge comeback and coming into the cooler months, they are the perfect way to embellish your outfit. I'm loving these designs! They're great for wearing on your jacket, blouse, scarf or even your bag and will definitely add a touch of personality. Why wear all that black and grey on its own?

These whimsical brooches are all constructed from layers of engraved and polished acrylic for a bit of depth. Prices range from $25 - $30. All brooches available from the Mink Schmink online store  - Limited stock.

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Precious Limb Bangle by Emily Snadden

I read about the 2011 International Jewellery Design Excellence Awards today and found out that an Aussie got a Merit Award for her stunning "Precious Limb Bangle". Designed by Emily Snadden, it's design depicts the natural folds, creases and wrinkles typically found in the Australian salmon gum. Congratulations Emily!! We love seeing Aussies do their thing on the International stage.

It's a prestigious award since the entrants can only quality to enter if they have won an officially announced jewellery design competition over the past two years. With over a hundred entrants and the quality being so high, it really is a great showcase for the World's talented Jewellery Designers.

Bullfinches Necklace by Ilgiz Fazulzyanov

This year's "Champion of Champions" Award went to Russian designer, Ilgiz Fazulzyanov, for his "Bullfinches" necklace, which depicts the birds in snow. There's a lot of work in this piece and the craftsmanship is amazing. Birds and nature have been really popular in the last few years and I suspect we'll see a lot more of it to come.

This one was my personal favourite out of all the awards given. It's designed by South African designer, Kristen Malan, and it's called "Molecular Truth". Simply stunning.

Molecular Truth by Kristen Malan

Well, what do you think? Love it? Hate it? I have a feeling we'll probably see some trends trickling down from these designs.

A New Look For Mink Schmink

Welcome to 2011. Yep, I know it's March already. How time flies huh!?

It's been a long time since the last blog post and there's lots to catch up on. Our website has been streamlined and redesigned, our range has grown to include more designer goodies than ever, and we've even given our store a revamp to improve your shopping experience with us. And that's the short version.

Here are some pics to show you how the store looks now:

Our funky counter area

Colourful jewellery collections

Lots of goodies to look at

Our new fashion area with our wonderful change room built with 3 doors

Shiny shiny floor (hand polished with love!)

Cabinets filled with gorgeous goodies!

It's looking pretty snazzy don't you think? You can see more pics in our facebook album. It's not until we do a big revamp like this that we realise just how much work goes into the little details. We spent 2 days (and nights) doing this ourselves (I gotta give props to all the visual merchandisers out there who do this for a living - you guys have a challenging job).

We've had loads of positive feedback from customers since we did the revamp. What do you think? Any ideas on how we can improve it?