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This is the last *ever* Lady Luck Rules OK swag bag and to bid you all a fond farewell every bag contains our signature piece the Lipstick Lighnting Bolt logo charm necklace. We've also made *new* jewellery & reworked best sellers for those of you who have lots of our pieces already. Each bag will contain at least one of the following: a minnie mouse style bow headband, an I heart vintage badge set, a rockin' pair of Music Lover earrings or a super cute Heart to Heart bracelet in gift box. Every bag will have a teapot necklace in a new colourway! The bag will also contain a surprise selection of fun rocker jewellery. To make sure you can wear everything, we'll ask you whether you have pierced ears or not.

Go shop The Farewell Swag Bag!

Part jewellery sample sale, part super fun bric-a-brac jumble sale - Superette will open its doors again on Saturday 27th February for a fun filled day of discounts galore! Come along and load up on grab bags of jewellery parts, chain, findings, fabric and charms. Lady Luck Rules OK jewellery at *super* discounted prices - is there something on our website you've had your eye on but would like to see it in person first? Then come on down! We also have a stack of magazines for 50p each including old issues of Nylon, Vogue, the Face and ID. The freebie box has been filled up again and everyone who makes a purchase can have have a rummage in there too. Rumour has it there may even be some tea and cake...x

We decided to make some ace sparkling Glitter Tattoo Hearts emblazoned with the names of some of the performers and presenters of this years BRITs, including Lady Gaga, Cheryl Cole, Pixie Lott and Alexa Chung. Alexa's been known to rock some fab vintage style outfits around London Town, so we made her a totally unique Bronze Glitter Heart (the only one in existance!) to go with her collection of blouses and blazers. We also popped in lots of our golden Love Token charm necklaces: Music Lover, Call Me, Baby I Love You and Fang Necklaces will be adding a little Lady Luck Rules OK magic to the BRITs!

It wasn't all work and no play however as we grabbed some time to sample the yummy veggie sushi from Toshi at Donkey Monkey Cafe, and managed to make a few sparkling purchases before dashing back to our stand with heart shaped cookies just in time to meet Tinker the dog who was definitely the dreamboat of the day! We also got to meet several recipients  of our much missed Personalised collection, including baby Florence and her mum who both had tattoo hearts! Better snap up the last of our Personalised Stock for Valentines Day, cos once it's gone it's gone!

We were super excited to be asked to make some jewellery for the burlesque beauties from The Double R club who were providing the entertainment for the afternoon, so we decided to make some unique Glitter Double Heart Necklaces  for the girls with their stage names on - the very first time we'd made this product! Double R's hostess Elisabeth had the room wolf whistlin' away as she introduced the performers and explained the golden rule of burlesque - the louder you cheer, the more comes off!

We managed to snap Ginger Blush and Princess Angelique wearing their custom goodies - thanks girls! Ginger Blush performed a classic tease to a swinging Sinatra soundtrack, and Princess Angelique's exotic act featured an Indian inspired fan dance. Judging by the amount of customers pouring over the pasties that were for sale afterwards we're sure their fab performances gave lots of girls the burlesque bug!

The highlight of the day had to be Emerald Fontaine in a fantastic Marie Antoinette inspired dress and wig carrying a cakestand full of fondant fancies and some champagne for her act 'Let Emerald Eat Cake'. Emerald's costume was amazing and full of surprises including  drawstrings on her dress to playfully show a little leg and a crinoline so wide it hid a champagne fountain under it! Emerald's deliciously decadent act had her passing out glasses of champagne and cakes to the lucky few at the front, as well as sprinkling the crowd with fake money that appeared as if by magic from a secret purse attached to her bustle. She also pouted and posed for some great shots for us wearing her Double Heart Name Necklace- Thanks Emerald! We can't wait to see more of your performances very soon!

We had a blast with our next door neighbour Zeena Shah who was laden with teeny golden charms including our dreamy valentine's treat Heart to Heart. She soon fell head over heels for our Bicyclette necklace too and snapped one up and popped it straight on. We love your styling tip Zeena, more is definitely more when it comes to golden charm necklaces! 

However it was glitter that was really the star of the show on Sunday, with lots of girls going ga-ga for our Broken Heart necklaces and Go Go Glitter Earrings - a great way to get a little burlesque style without getting chilly in your lingerie! We also surreptitiously sold I'm Nuts About You squirrel necklaces and brooches to some dreamboats buying secret gifts for their sweethearts!  But don't get tears on your pillow if you missed us, as this weekend we'll be at Laura J London's Vintage Valentine's Fair in Islington. Pop into the chic boutique from 11am- 7pm to snap up something for your sweetie or a treat for yourself!

Calling all daydreamers! If like me, you're often found gazing out of windows with your head in the clouds (especially when there's work to be done) then oh boy, do we have the competition for you! We're head over heels for all things heart-shaped at the mo, and we want to get you in the spirit of love with these dreamy limited edition hot pink flock LOVE tote bags - we've only made 5 of them!

To be in with a chance to win one of these lovelies all you need to do is tell us about your ultimate Valentines dream date! Maybe you’d love to be strolling arm-in-arm through Paris with your sweetheart, doing the twist with John Travolta a la Pulp Fiction or maybe taking to the skies in a balloon with dreamboat Johnny Depp?

Our favourite five most imaginative entries will all receive one of these awesome bags. Comment below by midnight Sunday 7th February and the winners will be announced soon after. We can’t wait to hear about your fabulous fantasy dates! Now, back to my daydream about a certain Mr Depp…

Our personalised jewellery range will come offline at midnight Sunday 31st January! You have only 4 days left to decide what to order, now really is your last chance. Can't decide what to print on your pendant? Check out the blog post below for some fun ideas! Let us know if you have any questions!

Just for Valentines day we have designed a set of complimentary sweetheart note cards which will accompany all our gold charm jewellery. Each necklace will be packaged up with one of the cards and there is a lil' space on the reverse for you to write your message of love! The following designs will come with one of these cute candy pink note cards: Baby I Love You, Catnap, Music Lover, Pony, Heart to Heart, Fang, Call Me and Bicyclette.

Each sweetheart has been lovingly drawn for us by super-cute illustrator Leah Stewart. Thanks Leah!

Firstly we thought we'd offer you a Valentine's special! How about the chance to have the option of a little heart so you can proudly tell the world what you love! We like I *heart* Tea, but you could choose whatever you like, Just pop an asterisk * in place of the heart when you order, but please remember that this option is only available on anchors, swallows, hearts, glitter hearts and double sided hearts for Valentine's Day!

Now, even if your current dreamboat couldn't be dishier, you might not want to wear your sweetie's name on a necklace or brooch. So what about getting the name of *your song* on a double heart necklace? Of course, the choice is yours, but some of our favourite love songs at LLROK HQ include 'Love Me Tender', 'Be My Baby' or my personal fave: 'She's a Rainbow' by the dashing Rolling Stones. Perhaps you're a gal who just can't make up her mind about her love life? You don't need to choose between two admirers with our double sided heart necklaces! Pop 'em both on there and enjoy yourself! I personally have a hard time deciding who my steady should be: Cry-baby from the John Waters film or the original dreamboat Elvis. What do you think?

No beau? No worries! What about showing love for your hometown, fave pet or family member? When an order came in recently for a glitter heart brooch with 'Glasgow' proudly emblazoned on it I couldn't stop myself for getting one for myself with my hometown on it, it's not left my cardigan since! Or how about embracing the season with some sweet sentiments? Fall head over heels for heart name necklaces with 'Dreamboat', 'Lover', 'Sweetpea', 'Kitten', L'amour' or 'True Love'. Double heart jewellery looks swell with 'Sweet Heart' or 'Hearts Desire' written on it!

Lastly, for all of you who aren't fans of Valentine's Day, what about sharing that cynicism with the world on a black heart? Pop a 'Lovesick', 'Get Lost' or 'It's Over" onto a necklace and just watch their faces! You'll be out there breakin' hearts with the best of them!

It's that time of year again when we Spring Clean the studio ready for our year ahead! We'll be hauling up all sorts of exciting bits'n'bobs from our basement inc. jewellery samples (inc. lots of slightly imperfect name necklaces & brooches), ex-display goodies, grab bags of charms/broken jewellery/fabric & random bric-a-brac. In addition we'll be selling a huge collection of magazines inc. Nylon, the Face, Vogue, ID, Street from Japan and lots of random arty/fashion zines/fanzines from around the world. Plus I'll be selling on lots of vintage goodies from my Pop-Up Tea Shoppe! We'll have piping hot free tea for everyone making a purchase! Arrive early to avoid disappointment! *CASH ONLY* Check out our yard sales in 2009 and 2008!

Oh yes, love-it-or-loath-it, Valentines day is peeking at us from just around the corner and we've designed a new folky friend as an antidote to sickly sweet gifts! Come say hey to our I'm Nuts About You squirrel made from solid walnut, lovingly sanded down and beautifully finished with 3 coats of varnish. He's available as a necklace with four chain options or as a brooch with a cutaway eye instead of a diamante to make him a super cool boys brooch too! He is presented on an illustrated note card and you can write your special message on the reverse... so it's a present-and-card combo time saver! Hurrah.

"I used to work for a jewellery design company, designing for lots of high street brands, including ASOS. I may have an interesting insight for you... we were actually encouraged to literally rip off other people's designs. All we had to do was photocopy the piece, make notes on it for the dimensions and colours and send it off to several production factories (mostly China) for them to compete by offering us the lowest price for manufacture on large quantities.

Occasionally we would also actually draw out a copied design, changing the details just a little. To avoid being accused of copying, many large companies use the '3 details' rule - you change 3 things about a design and you can basically get away with it a lot of the time.

Suffice to say, this job felt totally soul-destroying and I only lasted about 3 months. I've been an independent jewellery designer & maker for several years now."

Interesting, huh?

A big, big thank you to the people who also wrote blog posts about our unfortunate experiences... Indie Quarter - a UK blog dedicated to independent designers, makers, artists and crafters. Made in the Shade - a hip Scottish collective who showcase design, neo-craft and vintage lifestyle. We Make - a London group who showcase the talents and crafts of designer/makers. Strikk - a beautiful knitwear brand. Lucy Loves - A super-cute UK fashion blogger. Who Wore What When - A super-cute Scottish fashion blogger. Made By White - an Australian jewellery brand who were recently ripped off by Topshop.

We also uploaded our experience to the fantastic You Thought We Wouldn't Notice website!

We've a busy week ahead which includes the launch of our folky friend the I'm Nuts About You squirrel necklace and brooch, our all new super cute Valentines notecards to accompany our gold charm jewellery are on their way, check out our fabric sale on eBay and we're in the *very* last week of making our Personalised jewellery...

Join Laura J London and friends for a day of shopping, shoes, cake and burlesque! Discover French Kiss Vintage - a secret treasure trove of spellbinding one-of-a-kind vintage garments and va-va-voom vintage-inspired accessories designed to bring a bit of Ooh La La into your life. Nudge your boyf in the direction of BannBee hand-made undergarments and holler hints galore when delving into our Valentines inspired range of jewellery. Swing by between 1pm and 4pm and you can marvel at our living breathing mannequin the wonderful Bella de Jac performing her fan dance as part of the window display! My-oh-my...

The workers present a ‘one stop shoppe‘ of all their favourite designers, makers and crafters. Come along! Bring your date, or bring your mates, buy gifts for your friends, or indulge in a spot of self-love and treat yourselves! Check out gifts for ladies and gentlemen ranging from the frivolous to the eccentric to the serious, but all well made, unique and value for money. Something to tickle anyone’s fancy!

Spend a lazy Sunday afternoon browsing through vintage and handmade burlesque inspired treats, hand drawn valentine’s cards, chocolates and indulgent cupcakes, jewellery, graphic t-shirts and limited edition prints, Japanese toys, curios & collectibles, craft kits, do-it-yourself packs and undergarments GALORE!

Hangover cures including: "Toshi's Donkey-Monkey veggie sushi bar", teas, coffees, cakes, snacks, fully stocked bar, live music and dj’s throughout the day. All here for your delight set in the wonderful and strange surroundings of the Working mens club!

We had such a fun day last year, check out the photos here and hope to see you there. More info on Facebook!

When we set up Lady Luck Rules OK in 2003 I attended a seminar by Own It and decided to sign up to Design Protect with Briffa to protect our intellectual property rights. In March 2006, copies of our best selling Music Lover boombox brooch started cropping up on eBay and in independent stores – but they weren’t ours! A bit of internet sleuthing revealed an Australian based wholesaler called Nookart was the copying culprit. Briffa handled the case for us but because Nookart weren’t based in the UK there was little we could do as the Design Protect insurance only covered infringements within the UK. Nookart said they had purchased the design from a “backpacking graphic designer” (convenient, huh?) and the rather eccentric owner of Nookart said he would only deal directly with me and not our solicitors. In the end he removed the brooch from sale, re-called the stock from retail stores and destroyed the remaining units. This all took weeks and many, many e-mails all resulting in our next collection launching late.

In February 2008 I was link-clicking and landed on the adorable Girlsaremadeofsugar website when I saw an exact copy of our enamel Rainbow Heart being sold as one of their designs. I sent an e-mail and Cynthia replied telling us the shocking news that she had purchased the necklace from Primark in Spain for just 1.50! In the same month, Mellie from Belgium e-mailed to tell us about cheapo jewellery store chain Six which is the European version of Claire’s Accessories and their very poor replica of our Robot Lover necklace. She sent us the photo above. Sigh. In the November, Karen e-mailed us about the UK website Extreme Largeness because she thought they were selling recreations of our products. They had in fact gone for the hat trick and were selling copies of our Raygun, Rocket & Robot (he’s a popular lil’ guy!). I called the company up and spoke to the owner who told us she had purchased the jewellery from a factory in Thailand and was unaware the artwork had been stolen from us. I’d like to believe this were true but they had attempted to open a wholesale account with us 6 months earlier (we don’t tend to wholesale to other online stores) so they *were* aware of our designs. It's unfortunate that when she discovered the copies she didn't tell us about it but instead purchased and sold them. She did remove the copies from her website the same day we spoke on the telephone.

The most disappointing trend has been the copying by other small businesses or individuals - and this is very common. We've seen our logo crop up on t-shirts in Germany, our Tattoo Parlour collection photocopied onto shrinky dink jewellery in America, and our tattoo heart artwork replicated onto wooden jewellery here in England. I'm sure these people didn't mean any real harm, they were just being lazy. Sure, if you want to make a robot necklace, do what we do and have fun watching B-movies, look at those fantastic collection of metal toys from the 50's, thumb through old Boy's Adventure books and then put them aside while you let all this fantastic inspiration and your imagination conjure up your dream robot. Give him the features, like googly eyes and a dinky little heart that you think will make him that little bit special. Draw the shapes that you like, and use your favourite colours... But where's the satisfaction in simply replicating something someone else has done? Sometimes people say we should be flattered when this happens, but we really only ever feel hurt because something that was very special to us has been spoilt by someone we've never met.

So what is an independent designer-maker to do? Unfortunately, I still don’t have a definitive answer, we're still learning too! We stopped paying into the Design Protect scheme because when it came to the crunch it didn’t seem they could help us. As a true independent we deal with the situation ourselves by doing the following…

1. The minute we find out about a copy we start gathering evidence. If it's being sold online take a screengrab of the whole page. If it's being sold in a bricks and mortar store (in the UK!) go and buy one, keep receipt & packaging.

2. Before going public or contacting the company show/e-mail a link to friends and family to gather some honest feedback. It's easy to feel you have been copied when in reality, sometimes it's just that people have similar ideas at similar times. Other times it's obvious to everyone who looks at it that your original work was more than just 'inspiration' to someone else, and that they've copied you.

3. Contact the buyer/designer of the company with a friendly first e-mail/letter (remember they *might* be unaware this is a copy). I prefer to keep everything in writing, in case I need to prove what has been communicated later on. It's easy to forget what you've said over the phone. Cease & Desist letters can come later if they don't co-operate. Provide them with evidence that this is our design, we also include blog entries and press articles which are good quick visual way to date when we launched the design. Request they remove the article from sale immediately and either send the remaining stock to us to destroy or allow them to do it.

4. Compensation? In my experience this is just not a reality, although maybe I should pursue this part more... after all they have saved themselves the time we spent designing and prototyping it, profited from our design, possibly lost us sales, and cheated our valued customers who come to us for unique, well-made jewellery. If you're a designer/illustrator who's successfully managed this part please post a comment below and tell us your story.

5. From now on I will blog 'n' tweet 'n' tell all. Everyone has a right to know that these things happen and customers might feel they no longer want to buy from or support those companies who repeatedly rip off the creative inspiration of others.

6. Have a cup of tea and get over it! It is genuinely hurtful when you first see something you remember doodling on a scrap of paper, drawing and re-drawing until it's just right, excitedly sampling and testing and finally launching to your customers being copied, made badly and sold at half the price you could afford to make it for. Apart from anything else, it's heartbreaking that some people might actually think these shoddy copies were created by me! The people who do this are selfish, lazy and greedy - phew - it makes me so angry, but I have to calm down... As a small business we don't have the resources or money to get involved in time-consuming legal actions and are too busy to feel sorry for ourselves. Instead, we HAD to put our energy into fresh ideas and invent jewellery that was harder to copy. Sadly, one of the reasons we stopped making enamels was that they kept being copied - but it did result in us developing several new handmade techniques, such as printing onto wood and applying glitter to acrylic.

So what happened with ASOS? Well, Llana their Social Media Manager, told us that they have removed the offending article from their site while they contact the supplier and has also informed me that ASOS don’t actually design jewellery in house. The sad truth is that ASOS brand goods are probably sourced by a buyer from a factory in the Far East...

These factories churn out cheap mass produced pieces that's very often copied from other designers to sell in wholesale quantities to shops across the world. It's not exactly the glossy image portrayed on the fashion store’s website, is it? It’s also a fair assumption that it was the factory that stole our artwork, manufactured it and sold it to the buyer. However, I think it's highly unlikely indeed that nobody in the buying office of ASOS was aware it was one of our designs, as we had a lot of press on the Russian Doll. These buyers are paid to be aware of trends, and for this reason, we regularly remove their e-mail addresses from our mailing list when they sign up to it... Besides, back in 2005 we sold a line of jewellery to them! So I’m waiting to hear back from Llana to see what the “supplier” has to say for themselves, because I really don't think they can defend their position for buying this counterfeit, find out what is happening to the remaining stock and in the meantime keeping an eye on their Outlet section to make sure the dolly doesn’t pop up there!

So there you go - running a small creative business isn't all pretty is it? I have in the past lost a lot of sleep and spent a lot of time on these gut wrenching matters instead of designing jewellery. It's a good job I adore what I do and that we have the lovely support of so many customers & fellow designer/makers. I hope this blog might help people going through similar issues or if it's already happened to you please post a comment below and share your story. Is there more we can be doing to protect our artwork/creations? And what do our customers make of all this, we'd love to hear some feedback!