bunch of interesting things

First of all, something that I am upset about. This article in the Guardian, which says that there are plans to axe BBC radio 6. That's a music channel. Will there be no decent radio stations left at all??? Argh!!! I finally found one I like and now there's a whiff of rumour that it'll be shut down!! When I listen to the radio over at South Hill Park, it's for 7+ hours straight. I can't deal with ad breaks for that long. I also can't stand waffling about rubbish - if they do talk, it should be about the music. And Radio 6 does that and keeps it interesting. They also don't have the same 10 songs on rotation all day, otherwise, similarly, I would go mad! So please, BBC, wake up and see the loyal following that Radio 6 has and keep your mitts off it!!!!!!!!

Anyway, more positive things: join a giant creative people map:

Message from Louise of www.myehive.com ....

We've just launched Craft Nations Unite, but we need your help! It's the largest google map of artisans and designers of it's kind.
http://bit.ly/bV2Dru
Please add your photos, links, embed video, show us where you live and work, make this the largest visual reference of handmade and homemade designers on the planet!
Once you have done this please blog it, tweet it and share the link in forums.

And one last thing....an interesting website that a friend pointed out to me which some of you might find interesting to explore: http://www.behance.net

and breathe...

I had another driving lesson this morning, which is going along fairly smoothly. I have another 3 lessons, I think. It's all going fairly well but I have to practice the old left around a corner a bit more. I can't seem to get it quite right. sigh. All this driving has been sucking up time, so I'm getting busier and busier trying to fit everything in. Tonight I'm going to my first meeting of the Caversham Artists, which should be good :-) It looks like I'll have to do some work this weekend though (ehem, I mean more than usual!). Ah well, I'll feel better if I'm more caught up on everything! I have 2 large commissions to go and one small one that's nearly finished. Then I will be caught up. I have to say it's been a shocker every time I need to order gold, bah, the price is so very sky high at the moment! I've also upped the stakes on the exercise front and am really trying my best to stick to it. I'm even jogging, which I do not like, but it sure is a workout, so I'm determined to stick to it. That's all for now, but hopefully soon I'll have more photos of the remaining 3 commissions.

Caversham Arts Trail

Oooh it's so lovely out - a nice mix of wet snow and rain. What a fantastic day for another driving lesson! woo hoo! Ugh....get me some more tea!!!!!!!
ehem...anyway....so in May I will be participating in the Caversham Arts Trail alongside Lauren (that's Lauren Ceramics to you!) and there are now a number of easy peasy ways to follow the plans for the Arts Trail. If you're on Twitter, follow either me (magpienest) or the Arts Trail (http://twitter.com/CavArtsTrail). If you prefer facebook, please become a fan here. Or you can just click this link, which is also on my sidebar on this blog and brings you straight to the website (http://cavershamartiststrail.co.uk). Sooo many options, surely one is right for you!
I hope everyone is nice and warm and snug today. My day looks like it's going to be full of driving, a bit of making a ring and quite a lot of tea. Oh yes and probably a trip to Hobbycraft!! I shall leave you with a picture of a nose stud I made a few weeks ago. It is tiny and has a leeeeeetle tiny stone set (yes, set, not glued!!) in the end. Here it is next to a ten pence coin so you can see quite how small it is:

custom work again....

I got a lovely email from the recipient of this ring - very happy with it and it fits perfectly :-)

twit

I've succumbed to pressure and joined twitter. so if you're into twitter then I'm @magpienest. I'll see how it goes. So far it's fun to see what the big organisations write - I thought I'd follow the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. Those are interesting. But I'm not so sure I can think of much interesting to put on there...ah well I'll just see how it goes. So I have a lot of plans for today, including yet another trip to the post office. I also need to continue with a huge custom job for a wedding of a good friend. I'm already working on it, but it's requiring a couple of goes to make sure that the materials are right for the desired end result. In the meantime, I still have work over at the Craft Study Centre, Norden Farm and at the Evolution exhibition at South Hill Park. For that last one we all did a piece themed on DNA and I made this pendant:

some new earrings....

Hello hello, just a quick post. I managed to squeeze in making some new earrings in between trying to get a million other things done. I just wanted to try out something new. Here are some pics, they are up on Etsy too.

It's snowing out right now! How is that happening? I thought we'd already had way more than our fair share of snow for the year. Or even for the decade!
Anyway, so on Friday was the opening of the Evolution exhibit over at South Hill Park. By all accounts it went well and a good amount of people came. I wasn't one of them, though. I tried, but when we got on the motorway there was a very long queue and when we got to the end of the queue it turned out that there had been a major accident. The police made everyone do a u-turn over the grass verge and sent us back the way we had come. Both sides of the motorway were closed. By then there was no time to get to the opening anymore another way. So sadly I missed the opening!
This weekend I caught up on some much needed sleep and now it's back into the ring. I had a Folksy sale, which is great, so those earrings are going to be sent off today. So today's plan is post office and sorting papers and then back to the bench to start on the next batch of custom jobs. I'm hoping to have an item returned from the hallmarking office, but it looks like no luck on that front because it's already noon and usually it would have arrived by now. That was a bit of bad luck because one of the items I sent off for hallmarking came back with no hallmark on it - the Assay office just forgot! So another hallnote, another trip to the post office and another delay.
Here's a random photo of Mt Fuji that my dad took from an airplane - an exceptionally clear photo:

Evolution show opening tomorrow!

All welcome to the opening reception of the Berkshire Designer Jewellers "Evolution" show tomorrow evening 6.30pm - 8pm at South Hill Park in Bracknell.

custom necklace