plodding ever closer to craft fairs...

So now it's 2 weeks until the first of my autumn craft fairs - Festival of Crafts at Farnham Maltings. I'm still making things and will be sending off a hallmarking package soon.
I went to the Goldsmith's Fair on Monday but was too ill to enjoy it - just helped my friend and then went home again. Yesterday was worse, felt awful and had to get another friend to cover my evening class for me. Today is a bit better, after the long sleep and lots of medicine! I'm going again to Goldsmith's Fair on Friday so will have a proper look around then. What I did see all looked very impressive! In the meantime I have one more class to teach tomorrow and I have a lot to make!
My new website is finished apart from some tweeks here or there: www.machidewaard.co.uk. There's a new logo - same as at the top of this page! New layout and several new pieces of jewellery. It's neater and hopefully simpler for me to maintain!! I also sent out my latest newsletter - if you'd like a newsletter, you can sign up here.
In other news, my friends over at ToDryFor have been very busy indeed - and are opening a shop in Oxford! A real bricks & mortar shop! It's all super exciting and their opening is going to be in a couple of weeks (I'm crying into my tea that I can't make it to the launch, boo hoo!).
Here's a photo of my new gold ball stud earrings:

exciting stuff going on....

1. Reveal - a fantastic showcase of talent right in the middle of Henley. Private view this Thursday evening. Details on this flyer or on the Reveal website. (I'm at this show!)


2. My lovely friends over at ToDryFor (tea towel experts) are giving away FREE TEA - can it get better than that? Go check it out over here.


3. Art show displaying the talents of artists who live in Caversham, Reading. Caversham Artists present "Exhuberance". Details on this flyer (click for larger view)! (I'm not at this show, but the lovely Lauren is!)

socks and tea towels

I wanted to share two things with you. The first is a shop that a friend introduced to me in London. It's a wonderful store with every manner of sock. Yes, it's a sock speciality store! It has socks, leg warmers, toe socks, toeless socks, ankle socks, middle of the foot socks, socky sock sock.... I'm telling you, it's an awesome store. I was tempted to buy lots and lots but in the end I remained somewhat calm and restricted myself to getting a gift for a friend. Anyway, they happily have a lovely website, so you can look at their fabulous socks here (http://tabio.com/uk).
In other shopping news, my friends over at todryfor (you know you need a cool tea towel, so go have a look) now have a blog - check it out (http://blog.todryfor.com/). You'll see an amazingly useful tea towel on there - a list of when what vegetable is in season!! How handy....a multi-purpose tea towel. Can it get better than that?

designer tea towels

I know I've mentioned this site before, but if you haven't had a look before or recently, go check out www.todryfor.com - they sell amazing designer tea towels. Some of the tea towels are even especially commissioned for todryfor, designed by up-and-coming British artists. You can see under 'new' that there's quite a few different designs available now. I actually like the tea towel that has the Barbican on it - first because I love London and second because the Barbican center is really odd and reminds me of Planet of the Apes.

rain, rain, go away

More rain today and I'm waiting for my lift to the Berkshire Designer Jewellers meeting. I met up with a friend last night - my friend who runs www.todryfor.com - and it's doing REALLY well!! I'm so excited for her! Designer tea towel madness! There is a chance that they are in the Guardian newspaper today! So I'm going to go check later. She liked my new collection lots - her favourite so far - so that is encouraging and I'm going to go work hard!! :-) Hope you all have a good weekend!!

This week is whizzing by.... and I've stumbled upon a new UK-based craft site which is very similar to Etsy & DaWanda..... it's called Folksy and it's still in beta version. This is my shop on Folksy:
http://www.folksy.com/shops/magpienest -- you can explore the whole site by just clicking on the "Folksy" logo in top left hand corner. It would be very nice indeed to have a successful UK-based site!! It's looking good so far....
Several people have been clicking away on my own site to help me make sure there are no errors...it seems that all is well in that arena. If you have a spare minute, have a look and let me know what you think of the new design! www.magpienest.co.uk
In other news, my friends over at www.todryfor.com are doing very well and are going to be mentioned in the Telegraph this Saturday!! Not only that, but they are in the current Elle Decoration magazine and are going to be featured in a bunch more magazines in the coming months! Well done, tea towels :-)

We are in the midst of a winter storm with high winds and lots of rain. Indeed, as I look out the window I see sheets of rain rolling across the houses. Thank goodness I don't have to go outside today!!!
One of my rings, the notch ring, is a cast item. That means I made it out of wax first and then got a mold made. The mold is then used to make multiple copies of the ring. With this particular ring, it doesn't really need to be cast because I can also make it from sheet. The problem with the cast rings is that the range of sizes is limited...you can't just keep stretching the ring because it will distort the shape too much or crack. So while I was in Singapore someone asked for this ring and I have made it out of sheet. But the result is actually much crisper and now I think it looks better without the notch in it. I have emailed some photos to the person who wanted it, so I'll see what she wants!
In other news, my friends Sally and Dave have launched their online tea towel business. Yes, that's right, designer tea towels! Need some encouragement to do the drying? Bored of tired old tea towels? Can't think of a gift for someone with quirky taste? See www.todryfor.com !!!!!!!!
So today I am aiming to finish one other commission ring and nearly finish two other rings. Then I will be ready to send a package for hallmarking. Hopefully all will go well with that plan and tomorrow I will be able to focus on replenishing my stock of small stud earrings - possibly with some new designs thrown in!