Keeping busy

Here's a pair of custom earrings I made this month - they are a very short drop earring variant of my dangle earrings. Oxidised silver with gold balls.

 

The other big news this month, of course, has been the snow. It's all gone now, rain has taken its place. But here's a photo of the courtyard at Jam Gallery when the snow was piling up. It looked nice, but you'd think trains were allergic to snow, the way transport system reacted!! 

check out my friend

yeah! look what my friend Jane Tadrist, jeweller and silversmith is doing --
http://janetadrist.wordpress.com/

bye bye 2012

And we're off - 2013! It's only the second, so not much to say about this shiny new year so far. However, I can say a couple of things about last year. Firstly, below a photo of an engagement ring commission that I did towards the end of last year. The recipients are very happy with their rings and very happy with their engagement too! The one on the left is sterling silver with a solid 18k gold ball, while the one on the right is a twist on my silver crossover ring - the end of one prong is solid 18k gold.

In other 2012 news, I am happy to say that my first season on Not on the High Street went well - sold various pieces and really need to get cracking to replenish my stock! My new mini pendants went down well in the galleries - if you haven't seen them yet, here's a photo of three of them (there's also a gold plated one, which you can see on Not on the High Street).

Here's to a great 2013 for all - let it be prosperous and healthy!

Jam Newsletter

My newest pendant featured in the Jam Gallery newsletter this month (pic below). It is available on Etsy and Not on the High Street. I am really pleased with my new little pendants, they are charming - small and modern with four varieties - oxidised, with gold ball, closed and 18ct vermeil with silver ball.

news

Well, it suddenly feels like winter. Looking up casserole and hot soup recipes! The biggest jewellery news is that I have joined Not on the High Street and am now live on the site! You can see my page here:
http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/partners/machidewaardjewellery/products

Click on the above link to go straight to the site, or click on the below picture to get a closer look at what my product page looks like:

I'm still busy with various jewellery-related plans. Just finished a peek ring as an engagement ring with a lovely light blue sapphire. On most Thursdays and Fridays I'm over at the Jam Gallery in Eton at 81 High Street, so you can always come see me or my work there :-) New items are in the works, so hopefully soon I will be sending out a newsletter with some photos. You can sign up for my newsletter here.
That's all for now...hope you're all staying warm and dry on this very wet and chilly Monday.

Oh, and also - in totally unrelated news, a very good friend of mine has published a book! I'm very proud of him, especially as I know how much work went into it...I'm half way through reading it myself... here's a link in case you're looking for some good page-turning reading - - http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Goodbye-ebook/dp/B009JU940O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349705051&sr=8-1

quick link

I was interviewed yesterday on UK Handmade's website -- you can see the interview here:
http://ukhandmade.co.uk/content/meet-machi-de-waard

Secret Project number one

Unveiled today! UK Handmade is holding a competition! The start date today and entries must be in by 10 August. What can I win, I hear you cry.... You can win £150 worth of bespoke handmade jewellery by one of six jewellers. I'm one of the six! You can read all about it here in UK Handmade's latest magazine : http://ukhandmade.co.uk/magazine

Or you can read all about here on the relevant pages of the magazine (just click on the photo to get a larger image so you can read it.) Well worth checking out the whole magazine, though, at the link above, as it has many interesting articles in it.

quiet phase

I'm still here, but going through a quiet phase. I'm focusing on a bunch of new projects - details of which will be revealed in the autumn. At the moment, though, I just have to focus on working at the bench and preparing the framework for the new projects. In the meantime, I can show you something else. In June I made a new website for my mom. She's an artist and this new website shows more (and newer) paintings than her old website. So, you can have a look at it here: www.mariekedewaard.co.uk and here is a screenshot of the front page:

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Whether you're into the spirit of the Queen's Jubilee this summer or not, there's no question there's a lot of fun activities going on in Windsor & Eton this summer! There's the official website if you want to see where the various royal family members will be - http://www.thediamondjubilee.org/ and if you're not so into that, then you can just do the fun bit - the street parties! There's bound to be one in your area, and you can get tickets for tomorrow, 3 June, for Eton' street party (might be sold out by now though!). In any case, a great excuse to pick a day with nice weather to wander around Windsor & Eton. You can pop over the bridge from Windsor into Eton and see the Jam gallery, with its new logo and building colour which looks great! The gallery has lots of interesting work from many individual makers - in jewellery, ceramics, glass and more. (Including my work, so obviously I'm biased!!) You can also follow the travelling exhibition of jewellery on the theme of the Jubilee organised by the Association for Contemporary Jewellery. Just click on this link to find out more: http://www.acj.org.uk/index.php/component/content/article/201-acj-diamond-jubilee-exhibition

Craftfinder

I'm delighted that my profile is now up on the new Craftfinder website. It's a website that makes it easy to find exciting handmade contemporary craft wherever you happen to be in the UK. Sponsored by the Arts Council and the Lottery, this website is just getting started, so keep an eye on it and be amazed by quite how many beautiful contemporary crafts are being created all over the UK! Here's a screenshot of me on the homepage of Craftfinder, or you can just click here for my profile.

Inhorgenta

I went to the enormous jewellery trade fair, Inhorgenta, in Munich in February. I wrote a review which will be out soon in the latest issue of Findings, which is the magazine of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery. You can read the article to find out more about what jewellery and jewellery-related goodies were at the show, but the main memory I have now is how COLD it was. It was about -17 to -19C, so quite cold. Here are some photos to show the cold...

Craft and jewellery classes at Jam

Jam Gallery in Eton is doing something new - offering craft and jewellery classes. There are three sessions of Children's craft workshops on 14 July. Taught by experienced children's teacher and jeweller/silversmith Jane Tadrist. The children will take home two gifts they've made themselves and in the process learn how to work with metal.

See flyer for details - click on them to get a bigger image:

Then on 22 and 23 September there are adult jewellery classes - the Saturday is a class on metal clay and the Sunday is sterling silver jewellery. Both taught by the lovely Janet Richardson, who has 30+ years experience in the jewellery field.

See flyer for details - click on them to get a bigger image:

benchpeg

Just a comparison....my benchpeg gets a lot of use, so I thought it might be interesting to see how it has changed in a year and a half. The first picture is a year and a half ago, the one below it is now. You can see it's shrinking, the left and right sides keep getting shorter...

Sport for charity challenge

My husband is doing a 3000 mile cycle in 33 days this summer - his longest ever cycle. To put this into perspective, for the famous Land's End to John o' Groats route, the traditional distance by road is 874 miles (1,407 km) and takes most cyclists ten to fourteen days. Dougall will be cycling about 3.5 times the distance in only about double the time.

You can sponsor him in this mad endeavour if you wish! Or you can read about it when it starts on 4th of June on this blog - http://dougal3000miles.blogspot.co.uk/ which I will be updating with notes on his progress. All the sponsorship will go directly to charity! Here he is on a previous cycle:

New Ashgate Gallery

My jewellery is part of the Spring Exhibition at the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham until 28 April. I went to go have a look yesterday. Lots of interesting work! Had a mooch around Farnham too, which was fun. This is a picture of the gallery and a photo of the main street in Farnham. And one more photo - a steeple in the middle of Farnham.

New Ashgate Gallery exhibit

My work will be shown in the New Ashgate gallery Spring Exhibition! The opening is on Friday 3 February, 6-8pm. The exhibit is on from that evening until Saturday 28 April. If you've never been, this is a great reason to go see this lovely gallery in the charming town of Farnham. The gallery is in a lovely location and is well worth a visit!

New Ashgate Gallery

Waggon Yard, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7PS

Open Tues-Sat 10-5

Registered Charitable Trust No. 274326

JaM

I'm Flavour of the Month over at the JaM Gallery in Eton. JaM is located at 81 High Street, Eton, just over the bridge from Windsor. My work is also available on the JaM website (just follow the link to see). I'm also working at JaM part time. I am there pretty much every Thursday, so come by and see this lovely gallery. We have a wide selection of jewellery - including jewellery made by the jeweller who made the Algerian love knot necklace for my favourite James Bond film, Casino Royale with Daniel Craig. That's not all, though, there is also a dazzling array of glasswork and ceramics, along with cards, woodwork, etc. Come and have a look :-) In the meantime, here is a photo of some earrings that are part of my new collection:

Yay!

Yiipppppeeee the opening to my show (and 3 other fab artists!) is finally nearly here! The opening is on Saturday, 4-6pm at South Hill Park in Bracknell. My new collection is there to see and I will have matching cupcakes! The cupcakes have edible gold balls on top! Yes, I am overly excited about the cupcakes! wheeeeeee

one down, two to go.......

Well, the Crowthorne fair is over for another year. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and had a chat! It went well and it seemed busy - more so than last year. Now it's time to get the orders done from the show and get ready for the next fair, which is the Craft & Design Show at South Hill Park.

dates: 19 & 20 November 2011

price: £Weekend tickets £7, Conc £5 (Advance only)

venue: Wilde Theatre

Enjoy and explore handmade crafts from a wide range of UK artists.

Taster session available on the day in silversmithing, ceramics and printmaking.

Sat 19 Nov - 11am-6pm
Sun 20 Nov - 10am-5pm
Tickets on the day: £5, Conc £3, Under 10s FREE. Family £10 (2+2 or 1+3)

Craft in Focus 28-30 October

Next weekend is Craft in Focus at Crowthorne! I'll be there, along with loads of fabulous crafters like Lauren Denney - beautiful ceramics (stand 21). We'll be across from each other, I will be at stand 90.

1pm to 6pm Friday; 10am to 5pm Saturday & Sunday

Adults £4.50, Over 65's £3.50, Accompanied under 14's free!

End of Residency show

Come see my new collection! Opening reception is at South Hill Park on Saturday 3 December from 4 - 6pm. There will be a secret sweet treat related to my new collection for anyone who comes to the reception!

My end of residency show

Just a quick note - details about my end of Residency show over at South Hill Park are on the website - http://www.southhillpark.org.uk/3842/shows/fundamental-modernist-forms.html

More details to follow soon....with photos!

close-up

I've been busy, busy, busy getting ready for my End of Residency show. More details will follow, but for your calendar - the opening reception is 4-6pm on Saturday December 3rd at South Hill Park in Bracknell.
In the meantime, a close-up of a commission I did several months ago (aquamarine stone in 14ct gold with pearls necklace):

just some nice pics of cornwall

silver thimble

I made this silver thimble for my gran, who is 92 today! Oma is the Dutch word for grandmother. Happy Birthday Oma!!!!

Finished ring

White gold with sapphires.

Exhibition and news

There is an exhibition on in Didcot in which you can see the lovely work of one of the Caversham Artists, Julie Simmonds. Details below on the flyer, just click on the image to get a larger, legible version.

Also, the Jelly has acquired a new home - today (10am - 6pm) is the last day to help paint and fix up the new location. If you're free, it's at the Coopers Arms in Reading town centre, across the street from the main post office and NatWest.

And lastly, it's a hard time for arts centres, and several are struggling to hang on in the face of "cost cutting", reduced funding, or relocation. If you are interested in keeping The Fire Station in Henley as an exhibition centre, then move fast - attend the meeting at the Council Chamber of the Town Hall, Henley at 7.30 this Tuesday, 5th July.

South Hill Park in Bracknell has also lost a lot of funding - this is a thriving arts centre that hosts numerous exhibitions of painting, drawing, conceptual art, ceramics, jewellery, to name but a few. Many people attend and enjoy the courses in all manner of artistic fields. Hopefully it will still manage to do all these things, but of course a big chunk of funding gone means cuts have to be made somewhere! To support South Hill Park, please sign the petition here (we have 681 signatures, we need at least 1000): http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save_our_south_hill_park/

thimble

Here's a picture of my copper thimble. It's a small project I demonstrated for my classes. I wanted to do something a bit different. If the thimble was silver, of course the solder joins wouldn't show up as here - since I used copper with silver solder. If you'd like to make a thimble, this project and many other interesting projects are in this book: http://tiny.cc/o17r9

cufflinks

These are 2 of 5 pairs of different custom cufflinks I made last week. Each had a logo from a different company. They are to be presented at a congress today which a representative of each company is attending. I liked the idea behind it a lot - it is showing the links between the companies, between people and cufflinks link the cuffs :-)

just a nice picture of Wales

copper sculpture

A good friend asked me to make a copper sculpture...I came up with this:

phew

So, the Caversham Arts Trail is over for another year. Thanks to everyone who made it out and for all the lovely comments. You can see some lovely pics from the weekends over on Lauren's blog: www.laurenceramics.blogspot.com

I have work over at the Runnymede Gallery until the end of this month.

Unrelated to all that, on Saturday I went to the Dollhouse Show in Kensington to go look at loads of miniature things. It was amazing, everything you could imagine in miniature! I have two tiny bears and I thought they needed a chair and now they have their very own park bench. Oh and I saw another mini bear who was just too amazing to be left behind, so now I have three tiny bears. Here's a pic of my grumpy little bears on their little park benches. With a pound coin in front to give an idea of size...

Plenty to do

So, if you're at loose ends about what to do this weekend, there's plenty to choose from:

Runnymede Gallery Exhibition - modern jewellery by me, Jane Tadrist, Dana Kidson and Jo King. The opening reception is on Saturday from 12 - 4pm. Follow the link for the address...

Caversham Arts Trail - open 7 & 8 May and 13 - 15 May. Opening reception at Albert Road Day Centre in Caversham from 10.30 a.m. You can download and print a map of the Arts Trail here: http://tiny.cc/z980n


There is also another fantastic Third Thursday event coming up on May 19th. Please click here for more information.

It's been a busy week already, getting ready for all the shows. I also have a couple of new items added in my case in the foyer at South Hill Park if you happen to be going there.
Classes have started again, so it's all go!
Hope everyone is enjoying the fabulous weather, long may it continue!! :-)

Caversham Arts Trail

Caversham Arts Trail coming soon - 7 & 8 May and 13, 14 & 15 May
Here's our lovely spread in Craft & Design Magazine! Click for a bigger view...

Runnymede Gallery show 7 -30 May

I'm exhibiting at the Runnymede Gallery in May from the 7th to the 30th. We are having a opening view on the 7th of May from 12 - 4pm. We are: Jane Tadrist, Dana Kidson, Jo King and me. Details to follow...
In the meantime, my hinges course was last week and seemed to go down quite well. Everyone did really well and made at least a couple of hinges. Here is a photo of some of the samples I made, mostly made from bit of copper. I didn't clean them up, so these are just to demonstrate the mechanics of making various types of hinges.

Caversham Arts Trail

Will be 7 & 8 and 13-15 May... here's the flyer!! Click for a larger view....

Craft & Design awards

It's the last week to vote over at the Craft & Design selected awards - http://www.craftmaker.co.uk/machidewaard/

It's busy as usual here - been working on an interesting bit of fashion for a fashion retailer...will post more about that after I see if they're happy with the first piece I did, which is in the post now!
Also this week is the last week of term over at South Hill Park. However, I still have a packed week next week as I'm teaching a three-day course on hinges there. Hinges and tube, here we come!
Today the plan is to finish a pile of polishing. After this polishing, I think I'm actually nearly ready to start on some new designs! Well, after the hinges preparation, that is. Nearly there...
Hope everyone enjoyed the measily couple of warm days we had. It's back to chilly now, but there are still people walking around in shorts and t-shirts as if it's tropical weather out now. I guess it is officially spring because of the time change, but I still need a scarf!

custom pendant

Photos of a custom pendant made to match my silver bud collection...

finished pendant

This is the pendant I was discussing in my last post, now finished:

the ides of march have passed

I've been making tube and it's a bit addictive. I keep wanting to see how much smaller I can get it. Here's a photo of two of my attempts - both made from sheet. (I had to colour over my nail in photoshop because being a jeweller is not a good thing for the state of my nails!!)

The tube on the left is copper and just over 2mm outside diameter. The one on the right is silver and 1.3mm outside diameter. I'm thinking this will be useful for making hinges, possibly for odd shaped hinges. Also a wee bit cheaper than buying tube ready made.
So yeah, that's been the excitement this week! I've also been working on a custom pendant for my soon-to-be-ex-boss (she's leaving to pursue her own art). It's a silver rectangle, with edges, so it's sort of a shallow open box. We're going to fill it with the internal components of her father's watch - all the teeny tiny cogs and springs and things. Then we're going to fill it with clear resin. It's the ultimate personal piece of jewellery - made by someone my boss knows, filled with material from her father's watch, and she'll pour the resin herself. Hopefully I'll get a good photo of it when it's done...
Also working on some wedding rings, birthday presents, and making more gold ball stud earrings and rings. Photos coming soon...