28 Feb 2014

"20 of the Best" exhibition

I am super excited to have organised and be taking part in Jam Eton's "20 of the Best" exhibition. This year is Jam Eton's 20th anniversary of exhibiting and supporting great fine craft. Mike and Jacqueline have worked very hard at always finding the best jewellery, ceramics, glasswork and more from across the UK and sometimes from further afield. It's a huge achievement to have been in business for so long - and still going strong!

For March, I have organised a special 20th anniversary jewellery exhibition which will be shown in the window at Jam. We asked 20 of our favourite jewellers to create a special piece of jewellery for us to exhibit for the month. These pieces have been arriving over the last couple of weeks and they are stunning - it is truly exciting to see what each jeweller has come up with! Since it is a very special exhibition, I also organised a photo shoot at Stone Photos studio with a model to show off the jewellery creations. We were kindly lent some amazing dresses by Eton's newest fashion designer, Ieva Poriete. I will put some of those photos here, but you will be able to see them on Jam's Facebook page throughout the month: www.facebook.com/JamEtonGallery as well as on their website: www.jam-eton.co.uk

Of course I was excited to come up with a special piece myself for the exhibition! My piece is a concave spiral sterling silver bangle with four 18ct gold balls placed inside the curve around the bangle. It is made from a single strip of sterling silver sheet and has a muted saturnised finish. Here are some photos of the piece itself and on our lovely model.




The ring with the bird is by Hannah Louise Lamb.

19 Feb 2014

Updates!

I've just updated my Not on the High Street and Etsy shops. I've added a brooch, a pin and a necklace to NOTHS and you can see them here: http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/partners/machidewaardjewellery/products and includes this necklace:



And over on Etsy, I have added 7 pairs of small silver earrings and 1 pair of cufflinks. Those are the last pair of that style of cufflinks. The earrings haven't seen the light of day for a while - they are small so quite good for higher ear piercings as well as regular. Perfect for work! Also included is a pair of mini white pearl dangle earrings - the last pair. I've never come across these mini pearls again - although to be fair I didn't look that hard! I like their tiny-ness.




5 Feb 2014

Tempus fugit

Firstly, and importantly, Mr Dion Stallwood (telephone number available if anyone needs it) did a brilliant job and fixed our washing machine. Secondly, and rather annoyingly, the following week our fridge broke. So I called another repair guy (Mr Stallwood doesn't work on fridges) and sadly the fridge is dead as a doornail. The new one is arriving tomorrow and I can confirm that two weeks without a fridge is rather annoying. There are many worse things in this world, nevertheless not having a fridge is more of inconvenience than I may have thought.

In terms of jewellery, things are afoot. A new brooch is coming together and will hopefully be finished soon so photos can be posted. I am excited to be working on Jam's 20th anniversary jewellery exhibition with 20  very special pieces from 20 different jewellers. Next Monday I've arranged a photo shoot with a professional photographer (Loren Stone) with dresses from an Eton fashion designer (Ieva Poriete) and a friend of mine who is stepping in to be our model. Hopefully some fabulous photos showing off amazing pieces of jewellery will come of that!

Today I'm working on a wedding ring - 18ct white gold court profile 4mm wide in case you were wondering. And hopefully working on my new brooch plus some components for some more mini pendants. And I leave you with a photo of the stand that Jane Tadrist and I shared at the Desire Fair in Winchester last October (It was all black and white, we even had a white orchid on the smaller table to match):