commissions

I had a commission for a pair of cuff links....same as my lace imprint cuff links, but different shape to match a pendant. Here are some photos:

Monday, monday

Fabulous weekend - saw Slumdog Millionaire, which I thought was brilliant. Met up with a bunch of friends and talked lots of rubbish. Planned and sorted out our holiday in June. Ate some chocolate. Excellent :-)
So today it's back to the bench and hopefully a bunch of cuff links and rings will emerge. I struggled with the pendants I was trying to make at the end of last week. I had some problems with the design, they weren't turning out how I'd envisioned, so I need to leave them for a bit and think about how better to do them.
I think I'll listen to my Crystal Castles cd today. I got the cd for Christmas and it is very, very good. Electro-thrash I think they call themselves, but it's not as hardcore as I thought it would be. It's overall quite chilled electronic with vocals and a couple of screamy tracks to get the energy levels up. Excellent album - definitely one of the best of 2008!

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!!

new stuff

Here's a photo of the bangle of a new collection.... (click on the photo for a much better, closer look at it!!)

plodding along...

It's the middle of the week again and I'm just making, making, making. The plan is to make 3 pairs of long earrings, a ring and 6 pendants today. Might be a touch ambitious, but I'll try. I've got some new necklaces to put pendants on - silver cable which is quite sleek and sky blue silk which is nice for a splash of colour. I'll be putting sapphires on a pendant to go with the blue silk necklet. That'll take a while before it's actually completely finished because I need to send the pendants to get hallmarked without the stones in yet. Which means I have to collect a decent amount of things to get hallmarked because there's a minimum cost so it's much more expensive per item if I send only a couple of things at a time.
Also have a custom job coming up - some lace imprint cuff links in a different shape. Photos to follow...
Other than that, just plodding along. Well, I will go to my first proper meeting of the Berkshire Designer Jewellers on Friday, so I'm looking forward to that.

First show as part of the Berkshire Designer Jewellers

I am a member of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery and as part of this, I'm also a member of the sub-group for this area, which is the Berkshire Designer Jewellers. I met most of the members in December at a pre-Christmas get together and now I'm going to my first proper meeting this Friday. The exciting thing is that there's an exhibit planned already in April and I get to participate in that. It will be held at the Norden Farm centre for the arts, which is in Maidenhead. If anyone's interested in the details already, this is the link. I'll post more about it closer to the time.

bye bye balloon man and other things...

I sold an old game of mine on ebay this week. It's now winging its way to another corner of Europe. I can't believe how collectable those old nintendo hand held games are!! Amazingly lucky sequence of events, really. That was the only electronic game I liked - so I kept it in its original box. I got it as a gift from my aunt when I was 11 and played it for hours on end. It didn't have a pause button! Anyway, I had a fondness for that game that I never had for any video-type game and that turned out to be a very good thing. I hope the new owner is happy with it too. And now I can afford to get some friggin new socks!! All my socks have holes in or are grey - not good grey, used-to-be-black grey. So I'm throwing away all my old socks and getting new ones! hurrah! :-)
In other news, yesterday was amazingly productive and I'm a long way into a new collection which is destined, hopefully, for a special project. All will be revealed when I actually finish it! I'm delighted to report that the bangle mandrel works like a charm - a very good purchase!
Oh yes and a school nearby emailed yesterday to ask if I would participate in their Spring Fair - always nice to be asked!! Plus it's close by and a very nice school, so I think I'll do it. It's in March so that gives me something to aim for before the fairs in the autumn.

blogs and walking like an Egyptian

Freezing fog this morning. How.........lovely. not. What is lovely is that two charming blogs have chosen to show a bit of my jewellery this week. One is Hannah Mary Pinnock (silver bud ring). The other is a bunch of artists (feltgiraffe wrote the post) with a blog called Autonomous Artists (one of the Japanese paper pendants). So a big thanks to them!! :-)
In other news, I finally got a bangle mandrel. That's a bit of steel for forming bangles around. (did anyone get that Bangles reference in the title of this post??? ha ha I'm so funny...or something.) So today I can finish a bunch of bangles I'm working on. That's including the bangle to go with this collection, which is silver with an 18k ball. This is the first time this photo is public!! Ooo er!! Oh yes, world premier of this collection, soon to include a bangle which I shall photograph once it's ready. Anyway...here's the photo with ring, pendant and earrings:

Craft in Focus

Just a quick note today to say hurrah! because I've been accepted to participate in the Crowthorne Craft in Focus show! It will be on from 30 October until 1 November, so a long weekend. I'm excited to be in a Craft in Focus show, since they are well known for their quality and because when I was a student jeweller I had some pieces in a show on the college's stand!

Glasgow

I was in Glasgow over the weekend, visiting friends of mine. It was a very relaxed weekend, with lots of chilling and a bit of wandering around Glasgow. And by "wandering", I don't really mean strolling. I mean walking while battling the rain and wind hoping to find a warm, dry, indoor place quickly. The weather was quite terrible. We were waiting to cross a street and looking at the stoplight - waiting for the little man to turn green, as one does - and the whole green lamp part of the stoplight was ripped off by the wind and propelled down the street! That's some serious wind. Anyway, we did make it to the Macintosh house, which I'd wanted to see for ages already but somehow didn't get around to seeing last time I was in Glasgow. Unfortunately only half of it was open because they were cleaning it or something, but it was still interesting. Bit gloomier than I thought it would be, though. Also I hadn't realised that the original house was destroyed in 1963 because of issues with subsidence or something and so the house is actually a replica. They kept it as much like the original as possible, but it did remind me of visiting sites in Japan - there we often went to see some ancient building and then when we read the info boards, at the bottom it would say something like "rebuilt in 1980 in ferro-concrete". For some reason ferro concrete was mentioned a lot, so it started being rather amusing to try to find the line where it said the ancient temple/pagoda/castle was actually rebuilt in ferro-concrete. In any case, here's a photo of the Macintosh house through the heavy rain:

in which i waffle

I need to go to the post office again. sigh. it's still cold out. My gran called this morning to tell me that where one of my uncles lives, it's -21 C. I reckon that's the coldest it's been in Holland since I lived there in 95/96. That winter was the coldest in 100 years. I even got to skate - in proper wooden skates - on a frozen canal. I was frozen too. The room I was living in (in a shared house) had no heating. It was also the attic room and had no proper insulation. So I had a space heater and I could feel the wind from outside when I was laying in bed. I used to go over to my friends' house to sleep on the couch in their kitchen because it was so much warmer.
Happily, these days I live in a properly insulated house with functioning heating. Also the boy is not one of these people who goes around turning down thermostats. I'm not silly, I don't heat all the rooms when I'm not in them, but I don't have to worry about someone opening a window or turning off the heat. I even have a hot water bottle and a proper nice thick duvet.
Anyway...in other exciting news, I ordered a sort of posterboard thing from the Assay Office which has all the info about hallmarking on it. I didn't think I needed one, as I've already got their small hallmarking information cards, but it turns out that strictly speaking, if you are selling silver/gold in a public space then you have to display one of these hallmarking info boards. So I ordered one (not that bad, only £10) and lo and behold it arrived. Sort of. I opened the envelope and there was just two pieces of plain brown cardboard in it!! Ha! They forgot to put the board in! So I called them and they're going to send me another one. They sounded a bit suspicious...like I'm running a racket selling Hallmarking boards. Please, like at £10 a piece I'm really going to make a killing or something...pff.

shiny shiny

I'm gearing myself up to go into the cold and go to the post office. brrrrrrrrrrrr. The post office is a mere 5 minutes' walk, luckily. So at least I don't have to go far. Yesterday I worked on some stuff that didn't go very far - one thing didn't work as expected and another I can't finish because I don't have the right material. So today I'm going to work on a bunch of other stuff, hopefully to get me going again and get lots done in a push to get myself back up to speed.
One thing I did do over the xmas break was make a ring for myself. This ring is sort of taking over from the ring that I used to wear every single day but on the one day I didn't wear it, it was stolen. Snif. Anyway...so this is one of my regular rings, but this time in 18k gold. So although this one's for me, I now have decent photos of what this ring looks like in gold so I can offer it for people who prefer gold. Here are some photos of it:

brrrrrrrrr

So it's officially a cold snap here in Britain. It's supposed to get down to minus a trillion degrees Celsius tonight. Ok, *slight* exaggeration, but it might just be the coldest I've felt here. Thus the plan for today is to stay inside. Any venturing outside is probably a bad idea. Argh! Just remembered that I need to go to the post office. Perhaps that can wait until tomorrow. Hmmm...
I'm applying to two more craft fairs, both in Farnham, and need to send the applications. One is Gift and the other is the Festival of Crafts. I have realised that these craft fairs require not a covering letter, but rather an "artist's statement". Yesterday I was struggling with writing one - I want it to give an idea of what I make and what my style is, but I don't want it to sound like every other artist's statement. I think it's ok now, but I think I may pester my marketing friends and see what they think. It's hard to write something about yourself without thinking it's pretentious or lame or boring or whatever. I looked at heaps of artist's statements on the internet and some are too long, some are not very interesting, and some are ok. It's always going to be better just to look at a photo of the work. Ah well, anyway...I'm now going to try to finish this statement and maybe, just maybe, I'll post it here and see what you think.

welcome 2009

Happy new year to everyone!! I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday and enjoyed themselves!
It is cold, cold, cold and I just looked out the window and it's snowing!!! I had a lovely break and am all ready to go for the new year. It's 2009 - in September, Dougs & I will have been together for a decade already! wah, time flies!!!!
I made some jewellery during the break, of course. One of the things I made was a pendant for my mum. It's made with a piece of mangosteen - that's a tropical fruit and happens to be my mom's favorite. She cut off the top of it and flattened & dried it. I made a silver pendant to hold the piece of mangosteen. Instead of gluing the piece into the pendant or using bezel, I made some rivets to hold it in place. Here's a photo:

Bob is great

So, my friend Bob Tarling is great. Yes, he's great. Why? Because he fixed the back button on my website!!!!!!!!!!!! hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!
The problem was that if you looked at the details of an item, say a ring, and then wanted to go back to the main list of items, e.g. rings, it always went back to the beginning of the list. NOT where you already were on the list. This made looking through the items somewhat annoying.
It turned out to be a rather tricky issue to fix - not least because it required Javascript tweaking, and I don't really know Javascript, I know HTML. Anyway....just so you can be impressed at Bob, here's a piece of the code that sorted it in the end:

if (page > 0) {
var previousPage = currentPage - 1;
document.getElementById("previous").innerHTML = '';
} else {
document.getElementById("previous").innerHTML = '';
}
var nextPage = currentPage + 1;
if (totalPics > nextPage * picsPerPage) {
document.getElementById("next").innerHTML = '';
} else {
document.getElementById("next").innerHTML = '';
}

Oh YES, read it and be impressed!! or confused, whichever. Keeping in mind that Bob's main thing is not Javascript, that's just one of his many nerd hobbies! (He also has non-nerd hobbies!)
So, anyone out there who wants to offer Bob a job paying loads, please contact me!

End result: browsing my website just got a lot easier!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

christmas tree

This is a photo of our small christmas tree. It actually looks nice with the lights and things...but it was hard to get a decent photo. Oh well, anyway, that's the tree. It was grown potted, so hopefully it'll survive and we can use this one again next year. Which reminds me, I haven't given it any water yet...

holidays....

It's so close...only a few more days and then it's really Christmas holidays! hurrah! Strangely it has gotten quite a bit warmer again, so it's not as wintery cold as it was a couple of weeks ago. Ah well, so I guess I can forget about snow on Christmas day then.
I did a ring for someone, better not say whom just in case, and it's one I have on my website, but a bit wider and hopefully more masculine looking. Here's a photo:
I was going to have photos of a new necklace, but I sold it on Friday, so I will have to make another one and then make some photos. I'm working on another new necklace which hopefully I'll finish today. I'm not sure yet how it will turn out, so I'm hoping to figure out how to do one of those polls on this blog so you guys can let me know what you think. Ok, I better go work on it!

dark at 4pm

oh yes, it's winter alright...dark by 4pm....
I've been putting up loads of new items on Etsy, Folksy and Dawanda...check it out :-)
Finished a ring for a friend today and have been working on two new necklaces...photos soon to see what people think of them...
hope everyone's having a good winding-down-to-Christmas week!!! Nearly the holiday....

yawn

oh dear I'm a bit sleepy today. I went to see a friend in London and had a lovely time. We went to a restaurant which I'd been avoiding because I don't like the name (long story) but she suggested it, so off we went. To my surprise what I had was very tasty indeed. I had farfalle pasta with roasted pine nuts, cherry tomatoes, pesto and grilled artichoke hearts. It was very tasty indeed...especially with pasta dishes I find that often they sound good on the menu but are bland and disappointing, but this one was very good. My friend had a calzone with aubergine and bunch of other veggies and she really liked it too. I tried a piece and it was good! Anyway....that wasn't really my point. My point was that we then went to a pub and were chatting away and eventually decided to go and when I got to Paddington I'd missed all the sensible trains before the last fast one. So I phoned my other half because I knew he was aiming to get that last train, because he was in London with friends to go to a gig. So eventually the boys showed up and we all got the train together, which was much preferable to travelling alone and it was fun. Then we got to Reading and the boy decided he needed some fresh air so we walked home which meant that we probably got to bed close to 1am. So, a bit sleepy today..... long excuse, huh?

for Bea

So I went to the kitchen and took a photo of this box especially for Bea. Just to prove I wasn't making it up....there is vegetarian suet as well. Proof:

mince pies

When I first moved to the UK, I thought mince pies were pies with mince meat in them. A sort of shepard's pie, meat pie, etc. I'm glad someone (probably dougs) showed me they are yummy little sweet tarts with raisins and currants! ha! I just ate one...hmmm yum! Mince pies are filled with mincemeat. You'd think that means there's meat in them, but there only used to be. Nowadays, mincemeat is, according to Delia (the TV chef Delia, I mean):

8oz (225g) Bramley apples, cored and chopped small (no need to peel them)
4 oz (110 g) shredded suet
6oz (175 g) raisins
4oz (110 g) sultanas
4oz (110 g) currants
4oz (110 g) whole mixed candied peel, finely chopped
6oz (175 g) soft dark brown sugar
grated zest and juice 1 orange
grated zest and juice 1 lemon
1 oz (25 g) whole almonds, cut into slivers
2 level teaspoons mixed ground spice
¼ level teaspoon ground cinnamon
good pinch freshly grated nutmeg
3 tablespoons brandy

I just looked that up because I wondered what all was in mincemeat.

Anyway...in other news, the craft fair was a complete dud. Oh well. That'll happen. Happily online sales are going well, so there's that. Now only 10 days until Christmas!! We tried to get a little xmas tree yesterday, but the shop was completely sold out of trees. Sigh. I think we'll go again later this week and see if there are some more.

13 days til Christmas

Oooooh it's miserable looking outside today. Drizzle and about 2 degrees C. brrrrrrrr. Yesterday I managed to get to the post office and post heaps of things (ok, 11) on Etsy, daWanda and Folksy. That involved a lot of picture-taking as most of it was new stuff that I hadn't photographed at all yet. So we'll see how that goes online. I still have some little earrings and a pendant and some more things to add, but that will go up slower since I have to wait until after tomorrow - which is the last craft fair for me for this year!!
I suspect I'm going to be rather on the tired side after this last craft fair so the plan for Sunday is fun - sort out some holiday things. We're going to go find a Christmas tree and make lists of what we need to have in the house so we actually have food when the shops are closed. So that's pretty relaxed. Over the holiday I've promised myself to make time to make two things - one is the ring with a big pearl that is going to be my gran's 90th birthday present - I think it's safe to say that because I don't think she reads my blog, ha! The other is a gold ring that I've been meaning to make for myself as a replacement-of-sorts for the ring that was stolen at the beginning of the year. I've been meaning to get around to it, but because it's for me there has always been something more important to work on! So it will get done this holiday!!!

random stuff and only 2 weeks til Christmas

One more craft fair to go...must prepare! Must also put new stuff on Etsy, daWanda, Folksy...must also post things. must also apply to craft fairs....can you tell I'm in a bit of a panic? Trying to do too many things at once. I will now have a nice calm cup of tea and calmly take photos for the online stuff. I will go to the post office later this afternoon. And I will do the prep for the craft fair tomorrow. And I will merely make a list of craft fairs to apply to and apply to them all beginning of next week. Although I did already apply to one yesterday, so at least I have one out of the way! Hurrah! It's busy here....can you tell? I had sales at the Slough Museum, Etsy and Folksy!! Hurrah! Ok, sorry for the not so interesting post...better tomorrow I hope!

I was working on craft fair applications for next year - yes believe it or not the deadlines are SOON - and I made a much better photo of the sunken texture collection with the pendant included this time. Here it is......click on it to see larger image (and now I'm off into the freezing cold to my lesson! brrrr!)

Rising Sun Art Market 13 December

Music and stuff

I'm back after a weekend at All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead in Somerset. It was brilliant, lots of interesting bands and music and people. It was COLD but happily it's all indoors so aside from a quick stroll on a very cold beach the weather didn't affect us. Fun was had by all! The Melvins were brilliant - they played three times, as they were the curators. Each time they were quite different but excellent. So now it's back to work and getting ready for my last craft fair of the season - this Saturday at the Rising Sun arts centre in Reading!
Here's a photo of me on the cold, cold beach:

update

Ah ha, just got an email from ACJ and it turns out that the administrator type person only works there 2 days a week! No wonder! Anyway, it's all sorted and fine now. Phew.
I've been making good progress on a new collection...just need to do the fiddly bit of polishing on the buffer to get most of the items finished. I also want to make a bangle to go with this collection, but I haven't finished that yet. Should all be done next week and then I can post some photos.
It's nearly the weekend!! yay!

still freezing cold

It's still cold - that's hardly news though, is it? I am in a state of confusion. I am trying to become a member of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery. I downloaded the application form, filled it in, wrote out a cheque and posted it all. More than two weeks ago. I haven't heard one little teeny weeny pip squeak. So I phoned the number listed on their website and got a strange answering machine - you know how most answering machines say something like "You have reached X but we can't come to the phone, please leave a message" or something along those lines? This one says "This is an answering machine". Erm, ok then. As if you'd mistake it for a real person or something. A bit odd. Anyway, so I left a message and for good measure also emailed them at the general enquiry email address listed on their website - which, incidentally, also states "We welcome information FROM YOU". <-- odd caps and bold theirs! So...no response. Hmmmmmm....
Short of going to their office in London, I'm not sure how to proceed.....

cold!!

It is very cold here today - the kind of day that reminds me of winters in Pennsylvania - where the temperature is measured in wind chill factor. It's about -1C in wind chill temperatures here today. I walked for a bit without gloves and that was a mistake - frozen fingers!!!
Anyway...another busy week...I'm applying for next year's craft fairs with all that that entails. More photos, application forms, updated CV, etc. I'm looking forward to it all already, seeing as the craft fairs went very well this year! I'm hoping to do more and be in more galleries as well.
An item sold in the Yorkshire gallery (Projeto) and on DaWanda, so things are looking good! Also sold some more small earrings and have plans to make more for the 13th December Rising Sun Art Market.
I'm also excited about the christmas holidays in general - some time off to eat nice things (xmas lunch is already planned - nut roast, roasted parsnips, garlicky salad, date pudding for dessert!) and to go into London and see some exhibits. I'm interested in seeing the exhibit which I believe is on at the Hayward Gallery of the South African artist who does chalk drawings and photographs them. Oh drat, I just found it on the Hayward site, it's Robin Rhode, but that exhibit's only on til 7 Dec. sigh. Hm. Oh well, there is a big Rothko exhibit at the Tate Modern. I do like Rothko and I've seen lots of his work in Houston, where he made a special chapel with huge black paintings. Well, they were black. He used cheaper paint, so it's kinda purpley now!

Gift and things

Here's a photo of my stand at the Gift show in Farnham over the weekend:

It went well but it was pretty quiet, not as good as the other two craft fairs I've done recently. There just weren't that many people there, but oh well, I still did well and met lots of nice people. I have another stash of business cards from interesting people who make wildly different things - from clothing with antique lace to recycled handbags to paper clay ceramics.
I have to admit I was pretty tired when it was over and did a whole lot of nothing much on Sunday. One more craft fair to go - in Reading at the Rising Sun Arts Centre - on the 13th of December. Hard to believe it's December already!! On the other hand, it is easy to imagine because it is COLD today! yikes! I have to find where on earth I put my snazzy fingerless gloves...I have some that my sister made and some that knithappens made. Hm, they are somewhere in my closet!!

crafty craft craftness and stuff.

well, according to the brochure, "contemporary accessories" :-) In about half an hour, I'm off to Gift at Farnham Maltings. I'm nervous because I haven't been there before, so I hope it all goes smoothly. The show is open to the public from 5pm - 8pm today and 10.30 - 5pm tomorrow. Tomorrow some friends are showing up which is fun :-) Nice to know someone is coming for moral support!!
Anyway, I've ironed all the cloths again and packed everything up and have it all ready to go in the car, so I think it's all ready to go! Here we go again!!!

ps. I had another sale on DaWanda yesterday, hurrah!! To someone in Barcelona. I love Barcelona - such a brilliant city - it has everything. Beach, art, architecture, crooked back streets, fascinating history, etc. There are several excellent books about Barcelona - I'm trying to remember the titles. I think one is just called Barcelona, by the art critic Robert Hughes. The other is....something about miracles...City of Miracles? I know I read that one in Spanish, for a class I was following on Spanish Literature. Hm, well, if I think of the name I'll post it. And of course there are the fantastic Orwell books - I love his books, but especially the one about him in the Spanish Civil War - he went to Spain to fight. He was in Cataluna, so it makes me think of Barcelona. Ah, just looked it up, that book is called Homage to Catalonia. If I remember correctly, he was shot in the throat and was lucky to survive. I have a bit of a fascination with Catalonia and Catalan because I spent quite a few summers there when I was small. I really like the Catalan language and wouldn't mind learning it...except I wouldn't have much chance to use it. I like the words, like obert, tancat, es prohibit d'incendre foc. (=open, closed, prohibited to start a fire). anyway....tangent...ok, off to Gift now!!!

Gift in Farnham Maltings - starts tomorrow!!

Click for larger image!!

Projeto Gallery

Here's a photo of the gallery in West Yorkshire where two of my collections are available:

The gallery is now open: Open Mon-Sat 10am-4:30pm

two remain...

So on Saturday we had the Art Market at the Rising Sun which went pretty well. It was COLD though, very cold. Much tea was consumed. Much shivering was done. And despite all that, the promised snow did not materialise either Saturday or Sunday. Anyway, the art market went pretty well and so now there are two fairs remaining for me this year - Gift in Farnham this weekend and then another Art Market at the Rising Sun on the 13th of December. So, getting there.
In other news, I had my first sale on Folksy, which is quite exciting!! hurrah!!
Now I have to get ready for Gift!! Here we go again.....

necklace commission

This is a necklace I made commissioned to match the earrings in the second photo. (I also made those, but they were to replace a pair...one of the earrings was lost from the original pair so I made a copied pair.) You can see the necklace much better if you click on the photo to get a larger view!!

gorgeous ceramics

I saw some ceramics at the craft fair over the weekend that I really liked - elegant and minimal. Really lovely things! They are made by Lauren Denney who lives very close to me, it turns out! I especially liked a beautiful tourquoise green small vase...I wish I had a photo of it, but I don't. Anyway, you can see some her work on Etsy and on her own website. These are the links:
http://www.laurendenney.com
and here on Etsy.

yay!

The South Hill Park craft fair went really, really well!! Hurrah!! I met loads of nice, interesting people - exhibitors and visitors! I sold loads and even sold out of a bunch of items. I got lots of compliments - particularly on the large silver bud necklace - which was great and made the weekend very enjoyable. Exhausting, but enjoyable! Everything went so well, it's great! So now I need to prepare for the Rising Sun Institute art market, which is this Saturday....!! so, busy busy! I also saw some lovely things at the fair so once I've cleaned up a bit I'll unearth the business cards I gathered and post about the artists whose wares I liked :-)

UPDATE: here's a photo of me at the stand - this was in the theater part of the building, so that's a balcony above me!

South Hill Park Christmas Fair

This is it!!!!!!!!!!!! Months of preparing!!!!!!! Tomorrow is the first of two days at the South Hill Park xmas fair. Come and see me! :-) I hope to see lots of people there, I'll let you all know how it went!!!

fawlty towers

My dealings with the company that I buy my boxes from (Lynco) has descended into a Fawlty Towers-esque situation. I usually go to the store to buy what I need. When I was there a week ago, they said, 'oh it's better to phone to get what you want'. The woman working there was also clearly irritated that I was asking questions about the merchandise and even told me at one point to "stop bothering" her. Anyway, they said they had the boxes I wanted but they couldn't get them from the basement, I had to phone to order them. So, this week I phoned with the correct box code and ordered the boxes and some black earring stands. (Not so amusingly the person on the phone told me it was better to go to the store!!!!) I was assured they were in stock and would have them by the end of the week. Yesterday, I got a phone call that the boxes were labelled incorrectly so actually they wouldn't have them until after Christmas. Not much use with all these craft fairs being, unsurprisingly, before Christmas. Add this to the long list of items I was after that they did not have in stock - stud earring holder, long earring holder, etc. Anyway, in the end, I just cancelled the boxes order and said, well, just send me those earring stands that I ordered. So they arrived this morning - in the wrong colour. ARGH. It clearly says on the invoice accompanying the stands, "Black", but no, they are not black. I mean, how hard is it to see that?? It's just irritating because obviously I can't fix this before the craft fair TOMORROW. And now tonight I still need to go to another store and hope I can find appropriate boxes. Sigh and more sighs.
Not only that, but their catalogue is a pathetic collection of photocopies that gives you hardly any idea what the products are like and their website is totally rubbish....if you don't believe me, this is their website: http://www.lynco.co.uk/

grrr

Just when everything was going along smoothly.....now the internet connection is on the blink (quite literally, it only mildly works) and the pendant boxes I ordered and was assured were in stock....are NOT in stock so I have to find a solution by...oh, Saturday! argh!!!
On the plus side, the posters/postcards are out for the Rising Sun Institute Christmas fair and one of my rings features on it! So that is nice and once the internet connection works properly I'll upload that!

Slough Museum

So it's official! MagpieNest jewellery is now available at the Slough Museum!!!Yes, Slough has a museum! ;-) Slough Museum is at the end of the High Street in Slough and is starting a programme of promoting Berkshire artists....enter me with my jewellery and hopefully lots more artists/crafters to follow! Plus you get to find out all about Slough's history...I bet you don't know much about it...I didn't!! If you're an arts/crafts person in Berkshire, why not give Slough Museum a call? They are looking for more people who want to show off what they can do!

MagpieNest available in West Yorkshire!!

So there was a gallery which was online only, called the Projeto Gallery. It is now also a real, brick & mortar gallery in Silsden, West Yorkshire. The lovely woman there was interested in having some of my jewellery for the gallery opening and it was arranged!! So, if you're ever passing Silsden, West Yorkshire, have a look around the brand new Projeto Gallery!! I have the sphere collection and light pink version of the crystal collection available there now!
Coincidentally, I went to a friend's lovely wedding over the weekend (held at the Bodlean Library in Oxford, not too shabby!!!!) and it turned out that she got her wedding dress in Silsden - as it happens, Silsden has one of the best bridal wear shops in the country!

South Hill Park craft fair 15-16 November 2008

I just got the catalogue for the South Hill Park Christmas Craft Fair. MagpieNest is stall 51!! Please come and see me if you can :-) There will be loads of interesting and creative arts on display! You can see the full layout and explanation of who is exhibiting by clicking HERE. That will bring you to a .pdf detailing all the stallholders!

sleepy...

Well, after a late night of trying to stay awake long enough to get some idea of the election (I didn't stay up that long!), I am feeling rather sleepy.

Randomly, in Camden we also went to a small shop called Robot and it had lots of fun stuff. Bits of 1980s and random children's shows' things like My Little Ponies and Rainbow Brite and things like that. Fun t-shirts and cute plastic wallets and just quite unique fun things. Their website is http://pinkkat.co.uk/ - you can see some of their things on the site, but the photos aren't great. If you get the chance, definitely a shop to go have a nose around in Camden!

all eyes on america

watching the elections on the New York Times, CNN, Guardian, and CNN.......!!!!

pretty yarns

Skein Queen, who makes absolutely gorgeously coloured yarns, has revealed her new website and brand new online shop. Anyone into knitting......go have a look:

website:
http://www.skeinqueen.co.uk/

or straight to the shop:
Skein Queen

Camden

We went to Camden Market yesterday in London for the first time in ages. It was brilliant - so many interesting things and crafts and little shops! It had changed too, there was a whole section which is now covered over which I think was open before. They've made this incredible entrance with huge bronze horses and the whole ceiling is covered with material that looks like Chesterfield couches. It's very impressive! And new cafes and new stores and it was all quite exciting. Here's a photo of me (in the red coat) in front of the entrance bit with the horses:
In other news, I got a lovely award from Something Just to Start:

new men's ring

commission for a men's ring: it is a single ring, made offset. (finished yesterday)

opportunities

hmmmmm interesting opportunities flying around the magpie nest this week....!! All I'm saying for now is that it's about two galleries and a Canadian magazine!! ooh er!! I'm hoping these will all work out, and am thinking that even if just one does, that would pretty darn exciting!!
So now I'm going to try to get that photo off my phone which I took yesterday of the snow. Ok, got it, this was on my way to my jewellery tutor's house: not bad for a camera phone, even if I do say so myself...

snow

It snowed!! Not only did it snow last night, but it's really cold today so lots of it stayed on the ground. Amazing...it doesn't happen often that the ground gets covered with snow here and it doesn't just melt straight away. According to the newspaper it's colder here than in Moscow at the moment. Brrrrrrr
Ok, I have to keep it short because of the monitor situation, but hopefully a new one will be appearing soon and then I can type again normally without getting a crick in my neck!!!

inconvenience

The computer monitor broke and I'm using a friend's old monitor in the meantime, just got it this evening as he kindly donated it to me. So my access to internet is limited because the functioning monitor is huge so doesn't quite fit on my desk....bear with me and when i get this sorted i can answer emails properly!!

So I have been tagged by Something Just to Start

So, 7 random factoids about me:

1. I don't have a TV because I have no willpower to turn it off so if I had one I'd watch it too much. This whole idea has been slightly undermined now that you can watch lots of TV free online....

2. I like crackers with ketchup. I don't know if I should admit that.

3. I actually dream about jewellery designs. Maybe that's a bit odd, but I guess I used to dream about my work when I worked in an office, so maybe it's normal.

4. Kettle crisps are my favorite, particularly the ones in a red packet, I think they are mesquite flavoured. However, I also like walker's chunky paprika flavour crisps. And if they count as crisps, walkers also have these lime flavoured mini poppadoms which are fantastic. I totally love crisps and it's a battle not to eat too many.

5. I love scrabble. It's by far my favorite board game. I was worried when scrabulous disappeared from facebook but happily there's now an official scrabble game on it. phew! I particularly like playing scrabble with Marianne (who can still remember particularly fabulous words we've managed over the years!!) and Alana.

6. my two favorite art "isms" are Abstract expressionism and minimalism. My favorite artists are my mom and Robert Rauschenberg.

7. i'm going to have a hard time tagging 7 blogs so I might do less.

I'm tagging: Bea, Dave, and skein queen.

shiny nails

I have very very shiny nails. I've been buffing lots. A pair of collar stiffeners, 3 pendants, and 4 pairs of cuff links. Shiny shiny!! It's amazing how shiny it makes one's nails. However, I wouldn't recommend it because although the nail is super shiny, it is also, erm, black underneath and I've scrubbed and scrubbed and cannot get all the black off. Oh wellsers.

Holland and holidays

I went to Holland over the weekend to see my gran who wasn't that well for a while. Happily now she's much better and nearly 100% back to her usual self. She had shingles, which I've had as well, and it takes ages and ages for it to stop hurting. I also saw my cousin, an old friend, and even my aunt & uncle, albeit briefly. So it was a social and relaxed weekend. Yesterday I failed miserably to get much of anything done at all. Today I'm aiming to be a lot more productive. I guess I am getting nervous about the craft fairs - not because I'm not prepared or anything like that, but because this is going to show me whether my enterprise will work as a business in the long run. In other words, if I can break even and hopefully make a bit more!! There are a lot of costs involved, as in any small business, which are not directly associated with the jewellery, such as insurance, display set-up, business cards, transport to fairs, etc. Anyway, I am overall feeling quite positive about it all, so we will see how it goes!!!
Randomly, the shops here have started putting up Christmas decorations. It's OCTOBER. pf!!! In the US, there's still Halloween and Thanksgiving to go. But here there aren't any big holidays between August bank holiday and Christmas. Well, there is Guy Fawkes in November, but that's not really associated with decorations per se, nor is it commercial beyond lots of firework purchases. So here we are already, as one of my friends said "heading towards Christmas season"!! Maybe the UK needs to have another holiday somewhere in the Autumn....

peek ring

new version of peek ring !! with ruby or sapphire:

To-do lists......

It's a bright and sunny day here and I hope it stays that way. I have loads of items to finish today and I will do so!!! I'm having a hard time focusing because there are so many things to do, but I have a clear plan today so I should be fine! I read an article in the paper, I think it was the Guardian, about types of to-do lists and what kind are best. Of course, some people don't use to-do lists, but the article acknowledged this and also said those people are clearly nuts. Ha! I had to laugh at that because I always have a list on the go!!! I also read a piece in one of my newsletters about to-do lists and how to best use them. The newsletter argued that it is much better to have only ONE master list so that you don't lose the list or get confused about which list you're working from, etc. The Guardian article said it's important to have TWO lists - one for long-term-might-never-do-it type things and another for short-term-must-do things. I try to keep my lists in the same booklet (not always successful which means that I end up writing the same list in loads of different booklets/slips of paper). I do write two lists though: jewellery vs non-jewellery!! And sometimes I split the jewellery one into actual jewellery vs related things like display, business cards, boxes, etc. Anyway...I think the main thing I don't do well is write the lists consistently in the same booklet, so I'm going to try to do better with that.
Oh yes, and grocery shopping lists are totally separate but we have a good system for that....the cutlery drawer in the kitchen has a space for some pens and a small pad of paper and when we think of something we need to get, we put it on that pad of paper. Then whoever goes to the grocery store can get what we need and just take one piece of paper off the pad. It works!
Any tips from anyone out there? What's the best way to have lists that help instead of hinder??

I just added a couple of things to Etsy, DaWanda and Folksy. Will be adding things more frequently now, I think. I'm also getting back a whole bunch of items from the hallmarking office today so tomorrow will be finishing/polishing those items, including the new edition of the peek ring with sapphires or rubies. I'm also working on a necklace for my sister, trying two versions and then she can see which she likes better....
It's pretty darn gloomy outside today but I need to go to the grocery store as there is not much food in the house because we were away.
My mom sent me some interesting material that she bought in New Zealand. It's called Paua Shell Laminate and it is, as far as I can tell, a composite piece of shell found in New Zealand and then polished. It looks a bit like opal or mother of pearl. There's a bit of information on the packet, which says:
New Zealand has a small group of shells collectively known as paua, unique to New Zealand. The group comes from the worldwide family Haliotidae, which contains nearly 130 species from oceans in both tropical and temperate zones. These shellfish have been used for food since ancient times and have figured largely in the diet of coastal Maori. Most countries have their own local names, Abalone (North America), Ormer (Guernsey), Mutton Fish (Australia and early NZ) and Awabi (Japan) being some of the best known. Paua is the most colourful shell in the world, other abalone have some colour, but not the brilliance of Paua.

I'm looking forward to trying to use it for earrings or a pendant and of course photos will follow at some point.... in the meantime, here's a photo from our canal boat trip:

Home again after a week on a narrow boat!! The weather went from terrible - rain and cold - to fantastic - sunny and warm!! This weekend was great. Friends came to join us on the boat and we pottered up and down the locks along the canal. The boats go about 4 miles per hour, so it's all at a lovely slow pace. I will post some photos very soon, took loads!

Along the way we stopped at a lovely little town/village called Hungerford. It was a kind of funny little place with mostly either antique or second hand shops. I usually don't even look at antiques because I'm more into modern, minimalistic styles, but I looked in the window of an antique store and saw this miniature desk which was just amazing - a completely working desk but only about 8 inches high. So I made an effort to go to the shop the next morning before we set off to see how much it cost. The woman in the shop told me it was an 18th century Dutch desk made from walnut wood. I thought it would be between £200 - £500 but when I asked I was shocked to find out it was £1450!!!!!!!! wah!!! That's a lot more than I thought it would be - not that £500 would have been ok, that's still way too much for me. Oh well, it was interesting to see!

Now it's Monday morning again and I have loads to do!! Lots of sorting out and making a to-do list for the week.

So I am sort of repulsed and fascinated by my toe nails at the moment....the nails are all weirdly puffed up because of the blisters underneath and are sort of oozing water. gross. bet you really wanted to know that. Anyway, at least they are hurting less and I hope that walking will stop feeling unpleasant soon. I would take a photo and put it up here, really, I'm tempted, but that's just too gross. I think the world can live without a photo of my decidedly gross looking toe nails. I think I'll take my sister's advice and paint them a nice colour.....one of the millions of colours I got from her, probably! I have to go look into the nail colour collection.....
On the jewellery front, bit of a slow week although I did get a fair bit sorted when I went into London. Just need to finish a bunch of stuff today, some sanding and polishing. And I need to finish polishing some collar stiffeners. Now, about 3 weeks ago I had never even heard of collar stiffeners......apparently I was the odd one out though because everyone I spoke to about it knew what they were. They are long, thin, flat pieces of something hard, either plastic or metal, which go into small pockets at the inside end of the collar men's formal shirts. It's to make the point of the collar neater or something. Sounds Victorian to me!! Anyway....a friend of mine wanted silver ones for her fiancé because he got it into his head that he'd like silver collar stiffeners. So, they are in my workshop and waiting to be polished!

Yesterday was a super busy day. I went into London to the jewellery quarter and met a friend for lunch who works in that area. Then I ran around to all the various supplier shops and got some chain, some tools, some earring displays, etc. Then I met up with another friend for dinner and we had a lovely dinner at Sofra, which is a chain restaurant but it's a small chain, I think they only have 5 restaurants. It's mostly Turkish and I really like the vegetarian meze platter, which is plenty for a meal. It has some hot and some cold dishes with things like hummus and aubergine and felafel. Anyway, it was really good :-) After that I went home again and watched another James Bond movie with the boy. I really like James Bond and have all the books as well. I'm waiting for the new movie, it's out the end of this month!

On our way to the beginning of the Ridgeway walk over the weekend, we walked past some shops in Goring. And hidden in a little row of shops was a miniatures store! hurrah! So of course I had to go have a look and they had these amazing tiny handmade glass vases. So of course I had to get one. Here is a photo....the stopper actually comes out, too! The vase looks like a regular glass vase in the photo, so I put a 20 pence piece next to it to show the size, which is about 2.5cm high.

We got back home yesterday after a fantastic weekend walking part of the Ridgeway, which is an 85-mile public footpath in the countryside. It was perfect weather so we were very lucky - lots of sunshine and gorgeous views. Here's one view:
I now have a lovely big fat blister under each of my big toenails...bet you really wanted to know that. I'm hoping the nails won't fall off. ew. We'll see....
So today it's lots of little errands, final polishing, deciding what to make the rest of the week and tomorrow I'm going into London. I need to go to the Assay office and get a couple of things like a reversible tweezer stand - that's a stand which holds the tweezers in any position you want, sort of like giving you an extra hand so you can solder things in a slightly easier fashion. It looks like this:

I'm working on a new version of the peek ring. Basically just making it a bit stronger and adding proper stones, ruby & sapphire so far. It'll take a while to get photos of the new version because I have to get them hallmarked before I put the stones in. I should have them back from the hallmarking office in 2 weeks. This is the old version:

Phew, trying to sort out insurance as a working artist is not easy. I tried a bunch of different places but there aren't many that aim to insure artists, plus then there's the question of jewellery, which has high value in small items. Anyway, there's a very useful website which has loads of info for all kinds of different art-related things: the Artists Information Company. I decided to become a member and am eagerly awaiting my first magazine. I do get an American jewellery magazine, but it will be nice to read something UK-based. Happily the membership includes public liability insurance, which is something you need if you participate in exhibitions.
Right, well, that's all because it's gloomy out and I need to do some exercise and fill out this insurance form to get a quote!

Hello again to you lovely 4 people who read my blog :-) It's a gloomy morning and I'm hoping it doesn't rain. This is because I actually have to venture outside to go to the gym.
I got a packet of fliers for the Gift show in November which I am supposed to distribute. I'm not sure how far in advance to start putting them in the usual spots around town. Also, I got some complimentary passes to hand out to friends to get into Gift for free, so if anyone's interested, please email me and I'll send/give you one. Which reminds me that I need to sort out a rental car for these shows in November. Neither are close to a train station and I obviously will have to bring my jewellery plus display items, quite bulky. So transport must be sorted...
That's all for now...hope everyone's week is going fine.

well, scratch that, apparently actually Gift is located quite close to the station: Farnham is approximately 50 minutes from London Waterloo and there are regular services (ranging from half hourly to hourly). The Maltings is then a five minute walk from Farnham Railway Station.

Hm, now that I look at the video below, I do believe I may have been a bit delerious. It doesn't seem so funny now. Or it's just Monday morning. Or both!!!
It's a grey Monday morning and this week I am going to be making lots of STUFF. well, lots of rings, some earrings, some more star pendants, and fixing some star necklaces. Well, not exactly fix, because they aren't broken, but strenghthen so that they don't break in future!
I desperately need some tea, it's chilly and my head is still fuzzy thinking it might be asleep.

Well, I may or may not be addicted to cuteoverload.com - according to me, not, according to my husband, probably. anyway, they had this competition over there to make something from an already silly video and the results are posted at cuteoverload now. I just had to share this video, I just thought it was hilarious and inspired:

A date for your calendar, perhaps? Come see MagpieNest:

Busy day today! Been to my lesson...still working on this same design I've been working on for weeks and am now very close to finishing it. phew. I do think it'll be tres chic when it's done though :-)
went to the gym....the gym is nice and quiet in that time right after lunch. one lady in some seriously scary shorts though. they were teeny. eeks.
I've been adding stuff to Etsy/DaWanda and Folksy....all slowly gathering pace again.
This blog cracks me up, just thought I'd share it: http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/ It's not exactly intellectual, but it's amusing.

Yesterday was ok and today feels like a Monday. must be because I ended up waiting for a delivery all day yesterday and this morning it showed up. At least it showed up early. And I got a sale on Etsy, so I need to go to the post office and send that off. which is a good thing. just having a grey day....

Monday morning again!! I got a very, very useful email from a friend of mine with all the last niggles and typos on the website, so it's in good shape now! :-) I want to change the "about" page to add some more information about me...initially a friend of mine who is good at writing copy wrote a blurb for me and I've been using that blurb ever since...but it's kind of been altered and tweaked so many times now that I need to write a piece myself. Ah well, another thing to go on the "to do" list.
Today I'm going to finish a bunch of small things (literally small, as in very small earrings) and hopefully finish a new item which I've been working on for weeks. I'm also waiting for a delivery because the barrel of my barrel polisher needed to be replaced....the lid stretched so it wasn't working because the water was just dripping out of the barrel. Hopefully I'll get the delivery today!!
It's somewhat sunny today, which is nice after all the rain lately. It was the least sunny August in 150 years for the UK. Somehow I didn't really mind....might be because I've been in the UK for nearly a decade now!! amazing....

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 :-)

I had my lesson as usual this morning...I've been working on a new design which requires a special clasp. Clasps are quite tricky since they are small and need to be very precise. Usually you can buy part of or the whole clasp. That's more efficient because to make a clasp can be very time-consuming. But of course sometimes the design requires something a bit different or bigger, smaller, wider, etc than the ones you can buy. So I have made a box clasp, which was pretty tricky but I got it. However, now I've decided that's not really what I needed, so I'm working on making hinges. I made one yesterday and it turned out pretty darn good for my first one!! I made the space between the two sheets too narrow though, so I'm on my second go already. Hopefully soon I will actually be able to finish this item!! It's going to be good for either bracelets or a choker-style necklace or both. Photos will follow once it's done.....
back to the bench now...

Well, some small niggles have been fixed on the website, I've had my first sale on DaWanda and I'm putting new items on Etsy & DaWanda again.....so the ball is rolling once again!!
I still need to make a lot of items for all the craft fairs coming up in November though, so I better get back to the bench!

LIVE LIVE LIVE LIVE LIVE LIVE

The new website is now LIVE!!!! Please, if you have a spare moment, check it out! www.magpienest.co.uk
Let me know if you spot any missing pictures, broken links, spelling mistakes or anything that doesn't look right. I appreciate all help! I've done all the work myself so it's easy to overlook mistakes.

There is one problem I already know about - the shopping cart doesn't work properly in Internet Explorer if there are more than 2 different items in the cart. This will be fixed, I'm just waiting for Google to release the latest version of the shopping cart which they told me would solve the problem! UPDATE: actually I just realised what I hadn't done and this is fixed now! hurrah!

Also let me know if you like the new collections :-)

p.s. you may need to hit your "refresh" button to get the new site!

Some of the new features include:
- shopping cart!
- a cufflinks section
- refine your search option
- lots of new items
- new item photos on the homepage
- new, clearer design
- new homepage that looks like the rest of the site
- upcoming shows section
- direct link to this blog :-)
- MagpieNest logo in the corner of every page that links to the homepage

A very good friend of mine is visiting at the moment and she brought me a fantastic little gift. The important word here is "little". This is the cutest little teeny tiny teddy bear ever!! So so cute! Here he is next to a silver bud ring:

Still a couple of photos away from putting the new site live. It always takes longer than I want!! Also I really should wait until the new version of Google's shopping cart is released because there's a problem with it in Internet Explorer. In Firefox all is well, of course. I urge anyone who will listen to switch to Firefox. It's free, so why not!! it's soooo much better than Internet Explorer....faster, safer, better. You can download it here: http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

I have loads more ideas for new items, so I want to get the website up and working so I go back to the bench!! And of course I want to start adding items to my Etsy shop again, but I told myself I wouldn't do that until I have my site sorted!! In the meantime, to give a taster, a little picture of some new cufflinks: (matching pendant, earrings and ring will be on the new site)

getting closer and closer to putting the new MagpieNest site live!! Hurrah for Google and all the useful tools available from them!! I will now have a proper shopping cart on the site! Soon, soon.....

Another quick note to say that my website will be re-launched in September! New look, new collections! www.magpienest.co.uk