things are getting busy again...

Tomorrow is September again, which I can't quite believe. Where did August go? Today is a bit of a running around day and I think I better get used to it - might be a running around type rest of the year! This morning I had an exciting dentist appointment. I use the word 'exciting' here to mean 'not remotely exciting' which is exactly how I like my dentist appointments! Nothing wrong so then I drove over to South Hill Park and took down the students' show. Went pretty well, 6 pieces sold and I'll return the rest when the term starts.
I've started posting again a bit on Etsy and Folksy. Will be trying to increase that slowly. Also finally getting towards the end of a project I'm working on with Hello Wilson - just a couple more things to do and it's nearly finished.
You can probably spot the most exciting news at the top of my blog/etsy/folksy/twitter....see anything new???

want to learn how to make jewellery?

Click on the photo below for a closer look - take a jewellery class taught by an experienced silversmith and learn how to make your own creative pieces:

Summer course over...

The summer course is over now, I think it went quite well. We discovered some interesting things, one of which is that hollow items with no holes can indeed explode during soldering. It hadn't happened before and then it happened twice - it is loud, an enormous bang! Luckily there were no injuries!! I covered metal inlay and things that look like inlay, for example, amongst others:

So now back to making more things and very soon hopefully heading off to London to get more boxes, as I'm out of nearly every type of box. I'm hoping the supplier won't be too low on stock...

just randomly...

Just thought I'd point out these posts in case someone else finds these interesting. They are about the work life of one person in London in the 1940s over on Mary Portas' (of Mary Queen of Shops fame) blog: http://tiny.cc/3lhiu

cont'd

So Ernest Jones have agreed with no fuss to get the watch fixed, new strap and all at no cost to me. So now I just have to wait another 2 weeks. Sigh. Oh well, at least I didn't have to kick up a fuss.
The guys at The Watch Shop in Reading has been exceptionally helpful and polite. They went out of their way to help me get this sorted.
Anyway, in other news I am working on an order for a wedding gift - a collection for the bride & groom. I had one of the necklaces in stock, so I re-polished that:I've nearly finished a pair of the earrings, of which I had sold out:
And I just need to polish the cuff links which had also sold out:

arggghhh

So I have been working on jewellery and will stick a photo here soon of some new stuff. However, am now posting to vent. You know when you have a little task that should be super easy? And then it goes horribly wrong? Through no fault of your own? Wellllll....so I had a very nice watch. I liked it a lot. My mom had the same one. She liked it a lot. Hers broke by accident. She wanted the same one again. We searched and scoured the internet, could not find one anywhere. It's a lovely, slim line Skagen watch. Very minimal, neat and modern. In the end, I gave my mom my watch because it seems Skagen have stopped making any of their slimline watches for women. They have men's, but they are way too big.
So, I needed a watch. I went to John Lewis, thinking they might still have a Skagen slimline watch for women because they used to have one. No luck. All other women's watches either covered with diamonds, pink, or otherwise bling. Nothing minimal.
So, went online to a reputable shop and bought a minimal calvin klein watch. No numbers, no extra dials, no fuss. It arrived a bit later than I had anticipated because it was out of stock.
Anyway, lovely watch - far too big. Can't self-adjust it because it has links. Go into town for what should be a 5 minute job and go into Ernest Jones. Can they do it? Yes. Now? Yes. About 40 minutes later - sorry can you come back tomorrow, I can't get it back together. I come back the next day, manager hasn't been able to do it either. Watch in pieces.
Took the watch to another shop. They are amazed at the incompetence of Ernest Jones. Turns out Ernest Jones broke one of the pegs. Come back tomorrow....
Went back today, turns out Ernest Jones hadn't the foggiest what they were doing and took out the wrong peg, breaking the watch strap. I need to buy a whole new strap. I haven't even worn the watch yet. Arrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhh.
So, now another week to wait while this shop fixes the problem. Will be presenting the bill to Ernest Jones. Why didn't they just stop when they realised they didn't know how to do it????
Sigh. Anyway....apologies about the long post about this, needed to vent!!!

more cat action!

Thomas, who lives near us, made an extended visit today. (I'm also working on jewellery, but a cat photo for now...)