Thursday already! Today it's grey out - warmer than yesterday though. At least my fingers don't feel like ice blocks anymore! I sorted out my Singapore photos yesterday and a lot of them turned out pretty well so I'm pleased with that. I need to take a photo of the pearls that I have now! Here is a close up photo of one of the shophouses that are typical of Singapore:On the airplane I read a book called Tanamera, which is an excellent read. It's set in Singapore so I enjoyed it extra because I recognised the street names and store names and so on. I highly recommend this book, it is really hard to put down. Luckily, since the flight back to the UK was about 13 hours, I didn't have to put it down! ha!
While in Singapore, I met some of the people my mom has met there, one of whom was Marlous. She showed us her fabulous jewellery collection and it was super interesting. She has gold, silver, plastic and fabric jewellery - all really different and stylish. It was fun to look through a whole bunch of jewellery collected over time from many different countries. She has some really beautiful items!
I did go to a lot of jewellery shops, nosing around to see if I could find something special. Unfortunately most of it was not my taste - lots of diamonds! Also a lot of jade with gold - which is ok but too ornate for my taste. I almost bought some expensive gold earrings, but I'm glad I didn't because I think the only reason I liked them was because everything else in the case was so ugly (in my opinion!) that those earrings looked good by comparison! ha!
I did notice that there were a lot of earrings with the ear thread style, like my ball & chain earrings. I don't see those here much, so that was interesting. I did get two pairs of earrings from my mom from a jewellery shop that did only silver jewellery - an Italian chain shop. All their jewellery was fairly simple with neat lines (although they also had lots of hearts...). I got one pair of ear threads with pearls on the end, which I like but they are a touch heavy so I have to keep checking that they're not falling out! I do like them lots though. Hm, I just went to their website and it is supremely annoying and it doesn't have the pairs I got there. And even though it seems to be an Italian company, it's only in Asia, so maybe it's not an Italian company...who knows...
Anyway, I have to go sort out another Etsy order now - my first one to Denmark! Hurrah!

I'm back from a fantastic trip to Singapore! There was a LOT to see and do there!! I got some pearls (a present from my mom) with a single drilled hole to make new rings/pendants and some little gift bags for posting items in and various others bits and pieces. It was an amazing trip which also gave me plenty of inspiration and encouragement for my jewellery! I also bought some earrings which will remind me of this holiday - they are rhodium plated seed pod earrings and look like this:

Now I am cleaning up my emails, sorting out some recent Etsy orders, updating my spreadsheets and making a list of things to do! I got 3 commissions from friends of my mom's so I am going to be busy for a while!! Unfortunately today I got a letter that the jewellery category was already full for one of the craft shows I wanted to participate in, but they are keeping me on the waiting list in case there are cancellations. Ok, so now I need to sort out my photos from Singapore and empty my suitcase!! More tomorrow...

blogging will recommence 5 March!

hello! things are busy and moving along! I have posted two applications for huge craft fairs -- the deadlines are now-ish for shows at the end of this year! madness. So hopefully I'll be accepted to at least one show. I have been showing around two new designs for rings of which I have no photos as of yet, and have been getting positive responses. These two are to form the basis of two of the gallery collections. One is very modern and the other is more modern-quirky. Well, quirky implies a certain whimsical-ness, so perhaps eccentric is a better word. In any case, soon I will be filling out those ideas with matching pieces and will be taking photos.

Right, so Reddit and Delicious are two more social bookmarking sites. They work the same way as Technorati, really. And StumbleUpon. And Digg. All these sites are very similar indeed. You register, you see the list of sites that people have given the thumbs up (ie marked as a favorite, submitted, or whatever wording that particular site uses). The more people like something, the higher up the list it goes. With Reddit, the set-up is, in terms of format and font, pretty old school. It's not very pretty and it's just a list of links. But they do have a very cute little icon:

<-- this little creature is the Reddit icon. So, yes, these are two other social bookmarking sites.....you bookmark, other people bookmark, and hey presto you get to see the sites that are the most bookmarked. (One advantage of using one of these sites to hold your bookmarks is that you can access them from anywhere, not just your home or work computer. Also, you won't lose your favorites/bookmarks if your computer dies!)I still prefer StumbleUpon because you don't need to go back to the StumbleUpon page to find links. With the others, it seems to me, you always have to return to their page to browse through pages that are popular. With StumbleUpon, you just keep clicking the "Stumble" button on your address bar, so you don't need to go back to a central page. Just to make that clear, here is a screen shot of the StumbleUpon buttons: (Incidentally, if you want to make a screenshot and don't know how - find the button on your keyboard on the right hand top side which says "PrtScn" and press it once. Then open "paint", which is under accessories in the start menu, and go to edit-->paste. It will paste in your screenshot. You can also paste it into PowerPoint directly.)

Also, if you want to read more about StumbleUpon, Technorati or Digg, see my previous posts. (you can find them by looking at the right hand side of this page under my labels.)

Ok, so tomorrow I will be writing about Reddit and probably Delicious....because I just found out that the builder people are coming tomorrow to replace the broken door & window! Which means I have to clear out all the spaces around the window (door is already clear) so they can reach it to do their work. On the one hand, GREAT, it's finally being done. On the other hand, EEK, I have so much to do today and I have to plan carefully because tomorrow I will not be able to use my workshop. Ho hum. So, tomorrow more blogging, today less blogging!
I took a decent photo yesterday of my peek ring:

Had another useful lesson today....and am having a hectic day! I have to go again in an hour to another appointment. Hopefully I'll be able to get more done this evening. I made some new rings yesterday that I'm very pleased with. They are the beginning of the Gallery series - the series that I plan to bring around to local Galleries to see if they are interested in selling my work. I need to finish my craft fair applications this week as well - nearly there, just a couple more photos and finish writing my CV and a covering letter. Right, well, that's all for today but I have been looking into Reddit - another bookmarking service and I'll be posting about that hopefully tomorrow.

Oh my!! How cool is this -- on Etsy, you need a banner along the top of your store with your store name. Well, you could do without, but it looks much better with. So there's a Banner-generator!! You can just type in your shop name and your tagline and get a banner! Sooooo useful!! Perfect for people who are just starting or for those who don't know how to make a banner. You can find the banner maker here. And here are some results when I tried it:

Eet ees COLD today. brrrrrrr. I can feel it seeping in from the windows. There is frost on the rooftops again.
So I'm trying to get together the right photos to apply to a couple of craft fairs. It's hard to know what photos to choose, having never applied before. I took some "group" photos of my small stud earrings. This is one of those: (but before I do that -- I thought that type of earring was called a stud earring, but it seems to be called a post earring....I wonder if that's a dialect thing, or if that's just me getting it wrong....)

I needed a better hammer to finish rivets. My current hammer was too big to finish rivets neatly. So I orderd a hammer which I think will do the job - a ball pein hammer. Also referred to as a "jobbing hammer" on the supplier website, presumably because it has a LOT of uses. Anyway, so the hammer arrived and it is very cute and little indeed. Here's a photo which may or may not show the cuteness of the hammer:
(And in other news, all cement dust has been removed, all solder cleaned, etc. so that's over! hurrah!)

Note to self: never, ever, ever, EVER let the jewellery bench get covered in a thick layer of cement dust again. It took long enough to clean the living room!!! But the living room is fairly minimalistic, so just a bunch of large items to clean. The jewellery area is filled with teeeeeeeeny little things, every last one of which had to be hoovered, dusted, wiped clean, etc. I am now in the process of cleaning my bits of solder. See that period at the end of the last sentence??? That's how big the bits of solder are. I could throw them away and just start again, but it seems too wasteful. So I'm cleaning them. Bits that small float in water, I have discovered. I should have thought of that beforehand. Now I am picking these little bits of solder off the top of the water with tweezers. ha! what fun!
Anyway, at least that's the last bit and everything else has been cleaned. I met the people who want wedding rings on Friday evening and it went well, so I have a quote ready depending on what material they go for. First I have to wait for them to send me the drawing of what they want engraved on the rings and I need to call the engraver to find out how much that will cost. The costs add up quickly, not least because everything has to be sent back and forth with Special Delivery post, which is 4.75 pounds each way. Add the cost of the jiffy bag, and it's basically another £10 every time you need to post something to get engraved, set, hallmarked or to the customer.
Right, I must get back to picking bits of solder out of water and then I have promised to go on a long jog! :-P

yay! the ring arrived back from the stone setter!! It appears it is Apatite, not Topaz as I thought. Which means it's a very soft stone. But the ring looks good, I think. The setter did a super neat job. Have a look:

I am nearly finished with the website update now. Just need to change all the photos where I had earrings next to a thimble for size to photos with the earrrings on Anastasia (as my sister has decided to call the head). Then ideally some page numbers instead of "previous" and "next" and then that's more or less it for now I think. The "previous" and "next" buttons worked well, but now they're not so good because there are so many pages. So it would be better if there was a page thingy....like "Page: 1 2 3 4 next". A friend of mine is looking into it because it's Javascript, not HTML, that's going to solve that. I like Javascript, it's brilliant, and I understand the logic, but I don't know the syntax. All of that means I can't make changes to the Javascript myself, but at least I can see when whatever I want requires Javascript so I can call my friend and pester him to help.

We spent last night cleaning up the cement dust in the living room, woo hoo what fun. Today I have to tackle my jewellery bench, which is also covered. It's even more of a problem in the jewellery room because of course cement is hard. Harder than silver. So it would scratch silver if I left it laying around. It's going to be a pain, but it must be done. sigh.

By the way, the spell check button on Blogger no longer seems to be working, so sorry if there are lots of typos.

I just posted some new little post/stud earrings on Etsy. I was quite happy with how they turned out...

I'm nearly, nearly done with my major website update. A friend came over last night and did a change that I think will really make a difference - you can now click on the main image of the item and go straight to that item's info page. It should make it easier, more intuitive to get to the right page. Just two more items that need more photos and their pages updated, and then I can announce the update, hurrah!
I still want to make one other change, but that is less important, I think.
Anyway...........the levels of cement dust have gone down in the house, thank goodness. The new door might be finished today! hurrah! Then the rest of the cleaning can commence...sigh.

Well, the finished ashtray --> wine bottle coaster photo is going to have to wait a bit. The house is completely covered with a layer of cement dust. Every little crack, surface, cup, table etc. is covered with a layer of grey dust. It's a complete mess and it's hard to do anything. I can't mix the resin in this mess to finish the coaster because if it gets the cement dust in it, it might not work, it will be grey, and it'll be a mess. This dust is all due to a new door being put in. I can't wait for it to be sorted!!!!!!!
In other news, I'm nearly finished with the ring for that big blue stone that I posted about before. I'm excited to see how it turns out and will post a photo as soon as it's done.
I also learned a new technique today that I'm very excited about because it's the perfect technique to help me make a holder for these brown pods I have. The pods are from some tree but are totally solid and don't rot or anything - they are dried. I haven't been able to think of the right way to make something interesting out of them until I saw this folding style today at my teacher's studio! Photos hopefully to follow in the not-to-distant-future.
I'm also preparing to enter some big craft fairs. I'm very nervous not only because of all the work involved (that's doable...) but what if I get rejected?? These shows are curated... Eek....I will try though, and then even if they don't accept me, at least I know what to do for next time.
Right....well I'm off again soon because I need to deliver some items....stars!!! These earrings and a matching ring:

1. What time is it?
8.30a.m.

2.
What are you most afraid of:
death of loved ones

3.
Favourite food?
cheese

4.
Your natural hair colour?
Brown

5.
Have you travelled?
yes, lots, my whole life

6.
Love someone so much it made you cry?
yes

7.
Been in a car accident ?
only a teeny fender bender and i wasn't driving

8.Mercedes
Benz or Lexus
neither

9.
Favourite day of the week?
Friday

10.
Favourite Restaurant?
Satsuma on Wardour Street in London

11.
Favourite Flower?
dark red rose

12.
Favourite sport to watch?
windsurfing, or tennis if it's a good match

13.
Favourite Drink?
tea

14.
Favourite ice cream?
i'm not crazy about ice cream, but ben & jerry's used to do one with chocolate covered pretzels in it that I really liked.

15.
Disney or Warner Brothers?
warner brothers

16.
Favourite fast food restaurant?
taco bell

17.
What colour is your bedroom carpet?
blue

18.
How many times you failed your driver's test?
once

19.
From whom did you get your last e-mail?
Bob

20.
Hobbies
too many to list!!

21.
Bedtime?
before
midnight

22.
What means the most to you?
family and friends

23.
Are you Tall or short
tall

24.
What is your Favourite colour?
red

25.
How many pets do you have?
none, although I'd love a cat but can't because I'm allergic

26.
What would you like to accomplish/do before you
die?
be successful

I'm working on converting a 1950's silver ashtray into a wine bottle coaster. The ashtray was a gift for ex-employees of the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij (Dutch ship transport company). It was in my dad's family, and has been passed down and passed down and the design isn't that...erm, well, it's kind of ugly. But my dad wanted the bits that were engraved, because it belonged to his family and the engraving is actually the nicest bit of the ashtray. So, I'm converting it. So, this is the photo of the ashtray with the pieces with the engraving on cut out and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post photos of the finished coaster...

Just a random photo of the first mini clothes peg I made:

My plans for the week got a bit sidetracked! I was planning on working at the bench but then I tried a new bit of javascript which is super easy to use! It's a slide show/gallery which lets you choose if you want the pictures to change automatically (and if you do, at what intervals). It also makes it a lot neater to have lots of photos of an item because it includes the thumbnails in the gallery so people can choose if they want to view the thumbnails or not - thus also freeing up a lot of space on the page. I think it works better and looks nicer. I'm working through my website updating with this new feature....and also making a clearer link to my Etsy shop to make it easier to purchase. And while I'm at it, also putting more new photos and new items. I'll post here once the update is actually finished....

In the meantime, follow the link below to see one of the pages I've already added the gallery to - and let me know if you think it looks good!!!

http://www.magpienest.co.uk/ringpages/silverbudring.html

I just finished labelling my posts. I didn't do the labelling initially because I didn't think it was worth it. But I have written a couple of posts about StumbleUpon, Technorati, and some other social bookmarking sites which could be useful and it was impossible to find those posts easily without labelling. So I labelled all my posts and put a label link list on the right hand side of my blog right above "Links". So, if anyone wants to find old posts, it's a lot easier now!!

I will be looking into some of the other popular social bookmarking sites next week, so if you're interested, keep an eye out for that...

I am going to participate in a craft show on Saturday 26 April at the famous (infamous?) Rising Sun Institute here in Reading. The Art Market will be open from 10.30 - 4.30 so if you're interested, please come visit! The reason I put the infamous in there is that I've seen many a band at the Rising Sun Institute and it can get pretty rammed in there for gigs....I saw Bloc Party, Saloon, and erm lots of other bands whose names escape me at the moment. Anyway, it is a great small venue to see up and coming bands. I'll post more info about the Art Market nearer the time...

The head arrived in the post!! So here's a photo of a new earring on the head:

I'm quite disappointed that the earring display head still hasn't arrived. I've emailed the seller who said it was sent last week, but still no sign of it.

On the other hand, I ordered a bunch of things so I can work on some new items such as cuff links. I've had a number of people asking me about cuff links, so I have bought some of the bits one needs to make them and I'll see how they work. The trouble with cuff links and clip-on earring findings is that you have to be careful when you solder them. If they are already assembled and you solder them, you have a large chance of annealing the spring bit, so they no longer work because there's not enough tension for them to spring open and closed. So you usually end up either buying them unassembled or taking them apart and reassembling after soldering.

I also got a phone call about a commission - two wedding rings!! So I need to call them back and see if they know what they want. That's exciting.

Here's a photo of one of the Indonesian stone bezel pendants I just finished: (It's on Etsy, but on the third page because I updated an old listing instead of making a new one...)

Still no head in the post, sadly. I have emailed the seller to see if they've already sent it, so we'll see. It does say on the shop that items are sent out same or next day, so I'm confused as to why I haven't heard anything.
Anyway...so I may be the only person who hadn't already heard of Wee Mee. It's like mini me (Austin Powers, anyone?) but online and you can build your own. I think the website is yet another option for social networking, but I just wanted the mini me. I don't need yet another website/network/etc that I need to keep updated! I've already lost my login to LinkedIn and can't retrieve it because I can't remember what email address I used to sign up!! Anyway...that's another story.
So, wee mee. You just go to the site, www.weeworld.com and click on "create a wee mee" and then when you're done building your mini-self, it will ask you to register (of course). That's easy and free. Don't forget, whenever you're registering, to untick or tick the boxes to make sure you're not agreeing to lots of junk mail. Anyway, then you can use the Wee Mee on your blog, facebook, digg, or whatever else it's compatible with. Kind of amusing. No useful purpose whatsoever. So this is my WeeMee with a cup of tea in my hand...and so I need to get some more tea!!

I have purchased the bottom half of a head on ebay. For display purposes - as you can see in the photo below, the head has an ear which has a hole so you can display earrings. It's a hassle to show the relative size of earrings in photos. It's not good to use a coin, because it's country specific, so will mean nothing to people unfamiliar with British money. A ruler looks a bit naff and personally I don't think it helps if you've already stated measurements in your description. Bits of food don't look so good, etc. (I've been using a thimble, which is ok but then I suppose there are loads of people who don't use thimbles plus I think thimble size can vary...?) So I got this head and I'm hoping it's going to solve this issue!!
I've never bought anything off ebay before, only sold things on it. So I'm hoping that this head arrives soon. The seller had a very good rating - sold about a trillion items and 100% positive feedback. So maybe today in the post???!!

So yesterday I looked into Digg. It's pretty much the same thing as StumbleUpon, except it doesn't seem to have a button you can put on your address bar. Both sites are an easy way to search for website that might interest you. With StumbleUpon, you indicate what you're interested in (arts, finance, etc) and you just click the StumbleUpon button and it randomly takes you to sites that are in those categories. With Digg, you go to the Digg website, register (for free) and on the Digg website you click on the sites in categories that you are interested in and they open in a new window.
The advantage to StumbleUpon is that you don't have to open a new window and you can mark the site as "I like it" or "I don't like it" without leaving the site itself. With Digg, you have to go back to the Digg website and click on "Digg it" next to the entry for that site. That's not terribly difficult, but it is one extra step.
The advantage of Digg, though, is that you can easily add the "Digg it" button to your own site or blog. I tried to do that with StumbleUpon and I couldn't figure it out. I think it's possible, but maybe it's not compatible with Blogger or something. I figure if it takes that long to figure out, most people won't do it. The "Digg it" button is easy to add (you can see it on the right hand side of my blog). Of course....that's only useful if people recognise it, otherwise they'll just ignore it. Same goes for the Technorati button to add to favorites....but it's nice to give visitors the option if they do use those sites.
If you click the Digg it button and someone has already submitted the site as interesting, then your click will just add one to the number of people who digg the site, thus pushing it up the rankings on the Digg website. If nobody has yet submitted the site, then you will get a very simple page asking you to write a short reason why the site is interesting.
Just to test how it all works, I submitted one of my Etsy listing as fascinating (well I had to use something!) and it got another 15 or so views within a minute or so. That's because when a new site is submitted, it *briefly* shows up on the top of the Digg listings for its category. But these views short lived and are unlikely to do your business much good. On the other hand, it won't do it any harm either.
And that's the sort of technical news for today.
While clicking through StumbleUpon, I came across this photo from a presumably Chinese artist - a pretty impressive table and a very clever idea:

I had a jewellery lesson this morning which was very useful indeed. I have a light blue gem stone for which I have been comissioned to make a ring. The stone looks a lot like this one:
The ring is supposed to be very modern - no frills! I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like, but didn't know if it was possible. My teacher showed me how to execute the idea I had, so it is possible and I will soon be starting on it! The design has no claws - so a very clean line around the stone. I will be posting photos as soon as I have something to show!! Updates coming soon!!

Interesting developments in the plans for this spring - we are going to host a troupe of Morris dancers. Oh yes, MORRIS DANCERS. The first time I saw Morris dancers was at the excellent Reading Real Ale festival (which is brilliant, if you can get in). I had no idea what these funny men with white socks and bells and ribbons were doing running around flinging hankies and sticks in the air. Then I found out - they were looking silly in return for free entry to the beer festival! ha!

Ok, A Morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers. Implements such as sticks, swords, and handkerchiefs may also be wielded by the dancers.

That's right, hankies are wielded!!

So, yes, we are going to have a troupe of Holland-based female Morris dancers staying for a weekend in June. They will be performing in or near Reading. I know you will be waiting for news of when and where with bated breath, so I will update you as soon as I know!!

I saw this photo somewhere on the internet. I think the artist is Chinese-German, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I liked the tongue-in-cheekness of these ceramic cans. I've seen plastic cups made with ceramics before, but adding the Chinese vase element strikes me as clever.

I'm quite picky when it comes to liking stuff. I don't like knick-knacks. I don't like frou-frou. I don't like kitsch. I can appreciate it - there is a time and a place for everything. Way back when I lived in Pittsburgh I went to this club every once in a while called the Lava Lounge. One day a week they had this Elvis impersonator who had a keyboard, a stuffed monkey rigged up to dance around next to the keyboard, and a really bad monotone "Elvis" in a tatty old costume. The floor was filled with moth-bitten funny old masks - including an elephant head mask. It was, in a warped kind of way, perfect. It was entertaining and fun. It shouldn't have worked, but it did.

Anyway, so I'm picky. So I don't usually see stuff that often that I *really* like lots. But these cards from an Etsy seller are just brilliant. They look completely professional and yet are very personal. I just love the clean look and the potential to get just the right card - something you could never find with a mass-produced card. The seller is Storeyshop and this is an example of one of her cards:

So my sister just got back from holiday and their belongings were stolen out of the rental car. Terrible and very irritating!!! So, just in case it can help someone, here's the list of prevention measures for your home from Thames Valley Police:

• Good lighting is an excellent way to deter a thief. Timer switches can be used for internal lights or a radio so it looks and sounds like someone is at home.
• For external lights consider ‘dusk to dawn’ lights. These are light sensitive and come on when it gets dark and turn themselves off when it gets light.
• Visible burglar alarms make burglars think twice.
• Lock all windows – thieves can wriggle through any gap larger than the size of a human head.
• Fit secure locks to all doors and fit a door chain or bar. Fit visible window locks, including rear or side windows and those above a low roof. Fit locks to the top and bottom of patio doors.
• Never leave garages or sheds unlocked – remember to lock tools and ladders away so that thieves cannot use them to break in. Consider installing a battery operated shed alarm.
• Check for weak spots and sagging fences on your boundary. Make sure the front of the house is visible so a thief cannot work unseen, although a thorny hedge along a boundary makes a useful deterrent.
• Fit a strong lockable gate across side passages.

Also - do NOT keep your keys by your front door!!!!!!!! Keep them in your bedroom. Make it a habit!! If thieves get in your house when you are home, YOU want to have the keys!! And since many thieves are looking for car keys to steal, it's best not to make it easy for them by having them right next to the front door!

Another gloomy and extremely windy day today. I did a fair amount of exercise yesterday, so rather sore in my arms. Exciting news, huh!?
So I am trying to find out how useful Technorati is. It's a site which gathers data about blog use and allows you to easily find blogs about topics you're interested in. I'm working on registering my blog on the site to see how it works. To do so, I have to include this link in today's post:
Technorati Profile
So I'll post this and then see how it works and post about its usefulness later....

Right, so I posted the above link and within a minute Technorati confirmed that it is my blog and I was free to write a description. Then you get an "authority" number, which is the number of blogs registered with Technorati which have a link to your blog....which is sort of useful.

Then you can add a bit of HTML which Technorati offers which allows users to mark your blog as a "favorite" if they use Technorati to keep tabs on blogs. That's the little green logo on the right hand side of my blog that says "add to favourites"...

So, for a small blog, it does no harm to register with Technorati but I can't see it making a huge difference either. I guess I will find out....if suddenly there are more comments, I will change my opinion!

When I was in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago with the parentals, we chanced upon the Droog store. My mom enlightened me that Droog is the ultra-hip Dutch design group engaged in producing innovative items for the home. Well, mostly for the home, as far as I know. The store was most entertaining, with lots of interesting items. I think they are best known for a lamp which is made out of numerous milk bottles. I personally liked the marble bench most. It's a bench, filled with clear marbles. On top of the marbles there are three seats, so you sit on the seat and you can slide around. It's quite fun! Here's a photo of me on the bench:

It's extremely gloomy today. Lots of rain and grey skies. As mentioned on the Outcast blog, my Q&A article about some of Reading's artists is out now in the January edition of Blah Blah magazine. Blah Blah has the listings for all that is happening in and around Reading.

My mom bought this beautiful jacket and asked me to make a matching pendant using some tourquoise stone she bought. Below is a photo of the jacket, followed by the resulting pendant.

I'm getting increasingly frustrated by lack of camera, it having been stolen. I made two paintings for the boy for his xmas present. I took a photo with my camera phone, so the quality is pretty poor. But just to give an idea, below is that photo. The paintings are felt on canvas, with some patterned cellophane and paint behind the felt. Most of the pattern is cut out and some of the pattern is with paper on top of the felt.

Well, happy new year or something. I had a great holiday until 1 January. Burglars got in our house and stole my personal jewellery and lots of other items. The jewellery is the worst, as it's worth next to nothing to them and for me embodies 32 years of birthdays, graduations, etc. The ring my mom had made for me for my high school graduation is the item I'll miss the most. I wore it every single day. Why on earth I decided not to wear it for New Year's Eve - who knows. I sure regret that decision. The necklace with my name that I got at birth from my aunt and uncle, the pendant from my great-grandmother, the bracelets I got from my other aunt and uncle for my 21st birthday, the necklace my mom and grandmother picked out together for me....

The burglars also broke the computer, so I have just gotten back online. I have gotten orders in the meantime, so I apologise for delays that occurred while I was sorting out the broken computer. I will post more soon!

It's nearly Christmas! Just wrapped the boy's presents, with poems. Nearly everything is ready for our party this evening. The tree still looks great. Nearly finished with the big secret project for the boy!!!!!!!! Will post some photos once he's seen it.
Going for a jog this afternoon, then last minute preparations for the party and then it's officially the holiday! hurrah! I hope everyone has a fabulous holiday break!!!!! :-)

It's cold again. You can see the frost clinging on where the shadows remain:

I'm trying to beat this cold over the head so it runs away fast....having fruit only smoothies, weird vitamin drink I got for free at Boots for some random reason, chewable vitamins, lots of sleep, and medicine. Surely all that ought to work?!

I love the little felt sheep on a swing that's on the outcast blog today.

I have a horrid cold. It is making me ache. Anyway, today a randomly slightly technical post. Here's what happened: friends told us we must watch this tv series called Heroes. We don't have a tv, so they put the episodes on our memory/usb stick so we could watch it on the computer. So, we put the memory stick in the computer, click on the files that appear, and it there's the sound, but no picture.

All the files were video files, with extension .avi -- so first issue is which program to run it in. It opened with Windows Media Player and Real One Player. The first point I want to make here is that you can get up-to-date versions of these players for free - just google the name of the program and you will get to a page where you can download the program, which is usually just a series of clicks and you're done. I think people aren't aware sometimes that you do not need a new computer or to buy a new edition. The version of Windows Media Player that we had did not accept .avi files, so we had to download the newer version....it's not necessarily the newest version you want, because it has to be compatible with what operating system you're running - Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows Vista. (Most people do run Windows.)

Anyway, if you can get past all that fiddly-ness, then if you try to play your file and it still has no image, it will give you an error message saying either "the right decompressor is not available" or "codec missing" or something with the word "codec" or "decompressor" in it. You don't need to know what that means exactly (I don't) but in Windows Media Player, you will get a little error icon (in LIST view only, not icon or thumbnail view). When you click on the error icon, it will give you an option for "web help". When you click on that, it will give you the name of the codec you need, which you then Google and you can find where to download it from. Once you've downloaded that, hey presto, the files can play!

Erm, I meant to write this to show that it's not that hard to sort out problems with software if you persevere. However, as I was writing it, I realise it does presuppose you know what operating system you're using, what downloading is, how to see file extensions (in Windows, known file extensions are not shown as the default setting), etc. So...I guess the point of that whole story is, you *can* do these things, but perhaps it is easier to ask the nerd in the family :-)

Ah well, we did get to watch an episode of Heroes...so far quite good!

anyway, in other news, this is the commission I made that involved bending tube:

and here's a close-up (it's a leather band going through the silver)

We have a proper xmas tree! hurrah! it's great! Here's a photo of it:

Thank you, Marmalady!!!!!!!! My etsy swap pressie arrived today!! Hurrah! I will be toasty warm with this lovely hat & scarf combo! With a handmade card and everything! This was a fantastic surprise, very exciting to get a random package in the post! Thanks again, Marmalady, they are brilliant!

It is cold out. Cold for the UK, that is. It's 11.41 and still plenty of frost on the roofs of the houses.

Yesterday I put out a bunch of holiday decorations. I don't like too many colours all together, so what I do is get out all my flower vases and fill them with silver and black Christmas tree balls. I also filled a shallow, large dish with some tinsel and then arranged a bunch of silver Christmas tree balls on top, along with a couple silver snowflake decorations. I also filled a vase with red tiny LED lights and tinsel. You just wrap the lights in the tinsel, hide the battery box in the middle, and the lights look really nice that way. I copied that idea from a display I saw at John Lewis :-) I also got the little lights there.

and, randomly, here's a scarf my sister's working on that is really lovely!!

I thought I would drag out some photos of a commission I did...for my mom :-) My mom found a pearl that matched her dress for my sister's wedding. The idea was to make a ring with the pearl...and this is what I came up with:


The photo below is of the first pearl ring that I made. I made it ages ago, I think at least 2 years ago, when I was still taking classes. I remember that I was taking classes because I had a panic that I had lost the pearl. I was working at the bench in the workshop and had the pearl sitting on a dark surface, so I accidentally left it in the classroom. I got home and couldn't find it, so major panic! I went to the school at some crazy early hour the next morning and had the janitor guy let me in the workshop - and there was the pearl, exactly where I had left it!! oops!!!

I have sent the rings plus various bits & bobs off to the Hallmarking office using their "Early Hall" service, i.e. next day service. I haven't used this service before, so I am hoping it's good because it'll give me an indication of how reliable it is for future use. I should have the rings back and off in the post by the end of the week, all being well!
Today I'm working on more crystal earrings....the funny thing about these earrings is that most girls pass them by, but guys tend to really like them. This is probably an overstatement...but it seems like I'm getting more orders/enquiries from guys asking about them as presents. interesting...
Anyway, I also need to prepare a bit for my WINE meeting next week. That's Women in New Enterprises :-) heh heh, the name makes me laugh. Which reminds me that one of the members of WINE was supposed to send around her business plan for perusal....I need to go chase her up!!!

Ok, you're going to have to take my word for it, but this is Portishead:


And this is the fantastic Thurston Moore:

And the very impressive F Buttons:

and the boy:

and me:

and it's Monday again!!!! madness!!! had a fantastic weekend at All Tomorrow's Parties music festival. Portishead were even better than I had hoped for! They were brilliant and her voice is completely brilliant. Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) was also completely excellent, as were the F Buttons. I hadn't heard of them before and they were amazing.
The weather was suitably terrible. The wind was constantly howling and bits of trees were falling off and cars were shaking when parked. That was a good excuse to have a nice long lie-in and that was lovely.
I didn't take a camera, but did take some photos on the phone, so hopefully will be able to upload those later.
Now I'm working on a bunch of orders and hoping to get them done today!! Lots of rushing around!!

and, a bit belatedly, these are the photos of the clip on earrings...
and i'm very excited today because I got an order for 2 rings on Etsy! hurrah! :-) One of them is my favorite ring, so I'm extra excited!

Here are some preliminary photos of a new pendant....

Well, the clip on earrings are nearly ready. I'll upload some photos later today. The tube situation is more or less under control. Except when I thought I bought a piece of leather cord, it turned out to be regular cord. So now I think the tube might be too big. sigh. I'll just order some leather and see how it looks. The complications of custom orders...
More later with photos!

I got this survey from a fellow estsian: http://stilettoheights.blogspot.com/

Do you send out Christmas Cards? Explain. Yes and they're all written because if we didn't do it last weekend, it wasn't going to happen. I've posted some and most will be sent next week.

When do you start shopping for gifts? usually about October, depends if I see something good for someone in particular.

Who do you shop for? the boy, parents, sister, anyone I'll see on Christmas day and a couple of friends.

How are you doing so far with your shopping? just one present to go for a friend.

Do you put up a Christmas tree? If so, is it real or fake? We haven't really before. We had a fiberoptic mini one, but it broke. We had a mini real one, but all its needles fell out. This year we're going to try to get a proper real tree - but closer to xmas so its needles don't fall out!

Do you like tinsel? yes but only in silver or black.

What do you do for Christmas Eve? Is that the 24th? I get confused about the dates because in Holland there's 1st Christmas day and 2nd Christmas day. growing up we didn't do anything in particular Christmas eve...maybe we got to open one present or something.

Do you hang your stocking? no. never have either....but I used to set my shoe on 5 December - for Sinterklaas...Dutch tradition.

Does your family read ‘T’was the Night Before Christmas’? nope.

What’s your favorite Christmas movie? I don't really have one, but I like The Snowman.

What’s your favorite Christmas song? ugh, carols seriously get on my nerves.

What’s your favorite Christmas TV special? don't have a tv.

Eggnog or Cider? oooh cider. American hot cider or British cold cider :-)

What do you have for Christmas dinner? veggie stuff....nut loaf or mushroom wellington. and roasted parsnips!

Do you participate in Secret Santa? well I guess so because I'm doing a UK Etsy secret swap...

Do you bake cookies? I eat them.

Well I got the clip on things in the post today, and it's not obvious how to solder them on. So that's going to wait for my lesson tomorrow. I have lessons with Janet Richardson. She's a very experienced jeweller/silversmith. You can see some photos of some of her work on her website:
http://www.janetrichardson.co.uk

I can't quite believe it's Monday again. Or that it's December already. This whole year is just flying by. I'll blink and it'll be 2008.
So I bent the piece of tube, or rather, Dougall did. It was a brute force and ignorance approach that ended up working. If anyone out there needs to bend a piece of silver tube (unlikely, I know) then be warned - the shorter the piece of tube, the harder it is to bend.
I'm working on some japanese paper earrings again - this time clip-on style. The clips should arrive in the post tomorrow morning. I've made the main bit, so I just need to solder on the clip. I hope it's obvious how to do it, as I haven't done it before. It should be pretty straight forward though. Amazing how expensive those clip thingies are!!
I'm also working on a pendant which is quite involved - lots of separate pieces to solder. I hope it works though, because I've used pure silver for the bulk of it, instead of sterling silver. Would be a shame to have to scrap that!!