Sunday, August 28, 2016

The new Irish & Celtic jewelry from Solvar is on the way.


Dave Duggan, Solvar Jewelry
Just this Thursday Kerry and I were treated to the new Irish and Celtic jewelry from Solvar.  Dave Duggan, the US Sales Executive for Solvar Jewelry, made his annual pilgrimage from Massachusetts to Phoenix, Arizona to show us all the new product.  As usual it was well worth everyone's time; Dave showed us about 200 exciting new pieces that ranged from Claddagh rings to the Tree of Life jewelry, and we bought just about every one!  We will receive the first batch of Solvar jewelry from Ireland by mid September and we will be busy publishing the new product to theirishgifthouse.com.  You may check our New Irish Gifts page to see how we are progressing.

Celtic Wedding Band
Solvar has always been known for their eclectic style of jewelry that ranges from traditional Irish jewelry to Celtic designs that imitate the popular trends to completely innovation designs.  One of our favorite new designs included the heaviest and thickest Celtic wedding bands that were amazingly comfortable to wear.   Another of our favorites are some of the lightest Celtic necklaces and earrings that feature a puffed dimensional design, but were hollow inside.

Solvar has always been a leader in Connemara marble jewelry and this year was no exception.  Some of the new designs featured facet cut Connemara marble; we had never seen this unique style before.  From looking at the new line there must be a resurgence in Celtic brooches as more new designs were offered than in previous years; we are not complaining, a handsome brooch can be the perfect accent to any outfit.  And Solvar also had more harp jewelry than in recent visit; as I'm sure you know, the harp is Ireland's national emblem and it is present on all official documents.

We also selected some gold Celtic cross necklaces with large lab created emeralds.  The lab created emeralds look brilliant and by using them, Solvar is able to keep the cost down.  We can't wait until we get this new Solvar jewelry published to our site; we better get busy!

Sunday, August 21, 2016

The Irish Gift House Celebrates Our 30,000th Order!


The Irish Gift House - 30,000 Orders!I guess that Kerry and I were relatively late in embracing e-commerce at The Irish Gift House as we didn't launce theirishgifthouse.com until 2005.  We had a thriving "brick and mortar" retail business in place and we were happy taking orders by phone and by mail.  We didn't know what was good for us!

What we first thought was that our customers might want to see what Irish gifts and Celtic jewelry we offered and would next take a drive to our store.   We think that is actually how the internet first worked; at least it did for us.  For example, a customer would call and ask if we had Claddagh rings.  We would say, "We had many Claddagh rings, and they are all made in Ireland."  The next question might be to describe what some of our Claddagh rings look like.  That can be a little difficult over the phone, so by directing the customer to our website (if they had access, remember not everyone did in 2005) they could take a gander and would then typically visit our store.
Claddagh RingAs the years past and as the internet expanded an interesting phenomenon occurred; the customer would skip visiting our store and would simply make the purchase from our site!   We started to think that this internet might catch on and kept adding more and more Irish goods to our site including Celtic crosses and Celtic wedding bands.  In fact over the years we have added over 15,000 Irish gifts to theirishgifthouse.com, but through attrition, we currently have just over 9,000 items.

Early on we often went days or weeks at a time without an order; while today we wonder if our site is up if we didn't take an order in the last hour.  Now during the Christmas season we will often take over 100 orders in a day; that keeps the two of us hopping!  There have been a couple of times that we even considered temporarily taking our site off line so we could catch our breath.
Thinking of Christmas, it was Irish Christmas ornaments and Irish Santa decorations that were some of our earliest sales.  We still ship a lot of them today, but our number one categories are Irish jewelry and Celtic jewelry.  We think that there was once apprehension in buying jewelry from a "stranger".  Today the apprehension has been replace with the confidence of dealing with a reputable merchant, even if it is electronically.       

Kerry and I have been, and continue to be grateful to the thousands of customers who have trusted us over the years.  We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Sunday, August 14, 2016

The Irish Gift House features Irish and Celtic jewelry from Solvar!


The Irish Gift House features Irish and Celtic jewelry from Solvar! 

 

 
Solvar Claddagh Engagement Ring2016 marks the 75th anniversary of Solvar Jewelry!  For several generations this Irish family owned business has been one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of Irish jewelry and has won multiple awards along the way. 

The extensive range from Solvar includes
Claddagh rings, Celtic rings, Celtic cross necklaces, Celtic jewelry, shamrock jewelry, St.Brigid's crosses and more.  Their annual catalog typically features over 1,000 current jewelry pieces and they offer their jewelry in precious metals such as gold and silver and they also offer plated pieces too.   Solvar additionally offers many of their designs with stones that range from diamonds and emeralds to crystals and has a beautiful collection of Connemara marble jewelry 

Not only does Solvar offer several choices in metals and symbols, but they are also famous for the diversity of their product lines.  For example in Sterling silver alone Solvar offers Claddagh jewelry as rings and bands, brooches, earrings, necklaces and pendants, charms and beads, bracelets and bangles, and cuff links!

Solvar offers the finest in traditional Irish jewelry featuring all the classic designs and they are also innovative with their new product development that often emulates the current trends with an added Irish or Celtic twist.

Every year we receive a visit from our Solvar representative and it often takes 3 to 4 hours just to see the newest product.   The new products are next proudly added to our site and the orders never seem to stop!

The Irish Gift House is proud to say that Solvar has been our principle Celtic and Irish jewelry purveyor for the past 18 years.  Ever since we launched theirishgifthouse.com in 2005 we have made it our goal to feature every available piece from Solvar on our site.  Today you will find about 2,000 different and often unique pieces of Solvar jewelry on our site and we have almost every piece is in stock for quick delivery.