street art

I just got back from a fantastic weekend in Berlin - such a cool city!! There are lots of things going on, lots of new things and it's got such a creative vibe. I saw a lot of little boutique stores with new ideas. And the street art was really impressive. There were HUGE murals and lots of impressive graffiti. I like graffiti when it's creative, ie not just a tag. So I took lots of photos of these things and here are some of them:

new new and so on

Many new things afoot for MagpieNest, most of them long term plans. It's going to be a busy year with lots of ideas finally being realised. I have loads of ideas, but it takes time (a lot of it) to make the items and then get everything around it all properly ready. As you can see over on the right side of this page, I have lots of craft fairs coming up in the autumn. I'm also increasing the number of shops that carry my items. I will be putting a 'commissions' page on my website because that is becoming an increasingly large part of what I do. I have done commissions that are a design specified by the customer; I have also been asked to take stones from existing jewellery or just loose stones and make a new piece with the design up to me. I've made brooches and clip on earrings and toe rings and engagement rings and wedding rings. I've also made rings smaller and larger and necklaces longer and shorter. In short, I've been gaining a lot experience! So I'm now able to put a page on my website about commissions with confidence! I also know by now what I am not an expert at doing - but I know who to refer people to if they need unusual or other services.
I'm especially excited about my display unit for all the craft fairs. It's built and I just need to decorate it. I think it's going to look pretty darn good - it's different and it's friendly. It makes it easy for people to look and try on the jewellery while showing clearly that there are separate collections. I also have to make a backdrop for some shows and I have that finally planned out now and just need to purchase the pieces for that. I hope to have photos soon!!

prjeto gallery and things

Over the weekend I had the chance to visit the Projeto Gallery in Silsden, up in Yorkshire. As you may know, I have some of my pieces there and finally had the opportunity to have a look in person and this lovely gallery. The gallery is on the lovely main street and has a wide variety of jewellery and prints - something to suit most tastes, I'd say! I spoke to Paula, who runs the gallery, and there are many plans afoot. I also dropped off some new items - new for Projeto - the silver bud collection and the star collection. Paula felt they were just right for the gallery - so if you're ever near Silsden, do pop in! It's also down the road from one of the best bridal wear shops in the country and Paula is planning on working with that shop so brides can get not only the best dress but the best matching piece of jewellery. A good match, I think :-)

custom job

These are some photos of a custom job I did at the beginning of this year. The cuff links are made in the exact shape the customer wanted - she has a pendant that her boyfriend really likes, so building on that she wanted something the same shape but for him. These cuff links were the result. And, best of all, when I ran into them together somewhere unexpectedly, he was wearing them! That's the best compliment I can get :-)

designer tea towels

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

working...

I'm working on another lace imprint bracelet with a hinge and padlock clasp. Incidentally, I've called the collection with all this lace imprinting "Lingerie & Lace" because it's made from old lingerie printed into the silver. I've even made separate boxes for it and have a whole separate strategy for the collection. I'm speaking to some different vendors about the collection and will be telling you all more about it hopefully later this year. It's not yet available in any of my shops - this lingerie & lace collection is actually the top secret project I mentioned in a bunch of posts earlier this year. I have earrings, bracelets, rings, tie clips, cuff links and pendants thus far. I'll reveal more when I can!

ha...

This is one of my favourite ever jokes. I have it hanging next to the computer monitor because it makes me laugh so much.

finished ring

This is the finished engagement ring: It's 18k white gold with two dark sapphires and a large medium blue sapphire.

oldie

Bringing out an oldie to show you...my mom bought this beautifully embroidered jacket in the photo below and I made a pendant to match it. I made it a while ago, so my sawing was a bit shaky compared to now, but still not too bad. The pendant is pure silver and the stone is turquoise.

spring, erm, summer cleaning

So I'm doing some sorting out of stock and boxes and inventory and so on. This means a trimming down of my online shops until I know what I want to put back into them and what new items I want to add. Hence a wee bit quiet on the online front. I figure this'll be a good time to do it - it's lovely weather and summer so people are out and about. It's a kind of quiet, outdoor time of year. At least, it is if the weather stays this way, which I'm really hoping it will. Wouldn't it be great if we had a whole summer of this? That would be so nice. Also very unlikely. Anyway...so I'll be blogging but my shops are getting a dusting out!

Festival of Crafts

Hurrah - I got a letter from Farnham Malting on Friday saying I've been accepted for the Festival of Crafts show there in October! It's 17&18 October in the lovely building at Farnham.
I had a fabulous weekend - lots of sun and warmth and activities. My cold is nearly gone, I think, as I've been up for over an hour now and only had to blow my nose twice so far! ha!

I saw a great band on Saturday night - Televised Crime Wave. If you get the chance to see them live, don't miss it! Good indi music with lots of jumping about. They were really nice and friendly too. Plus, if you followed that link, they have a great pic of a cat on guitar as their background image......

yech

I have a nasty sore throat which I'm hoping will go away very quickly indeed. Yesterday I made some new earrings, some stock earrings, and started on another bracelet. Today there will be fun-filled trip to the dentist, hurrah. It should be fine, hopefully. That's pretty much all the news here. Not very exciting, so I'll make up for it with a couple of photos of cute bunnies. :-)

new bracelet

I'm making some new earrings and I'm going to work on another one of these. It's a lace imprint bracelet with a hinge. It has a dimple clasp on the inside and a padlock clasp on the outside. The padlock is a mere 9mm and it's attached by a safety chain. I'm quite proud of this here bracelet, as it took quite a lot of work. I'm happy with how it turned out and it fits and works well. Plus it looks good on. Sooooooo I'm hoping lots of people will agree with me :-) So here are some photos. It's 22mm wide and just over a millimeter thick.

pro pro pro crastination

If I didn't procrastinate so much, I'd rule the world by now. Still, there's plenty of time left in the day. So I keep telling myself, anyway! ha! Well...the bank holiday weekend was lovely and warm and summery so I guess I am in a mellow warm and summery mood. Bit too mellow! I just had some caffeine though and will be doing LOADS this afternoon. Oh yes! Plus over the weekend I went to little shop in a museum and I need to give them a call to see if they want to stock some of my jewellery. So at least I did something over the weekend! And we worked on my display unit as well - I'm really looking forward to that being DONE. We're doing some more hammering and gluing on that tonight, so hopefully soon it'll be photo-ready!
On another note, the Projeto gallery have been working hard on their website and have a number of my pieces available online as well now. Check it out here.
Also, for those of you in the Reading area, the Caversham Open Studios is next weekend (5-7 June) and you can see art and artists in the area. I'd love to have participated, but I'm at a wedding for part of the time so it would have been too hectic. Hopefully next year! You can find more information here.

nice weather????

Hey hey it's supposed to be nice weather for this bank holiday weekend! woo hoo!!! excitement...
It was amazing this morning, all blue skies, warmth, sun and a slight breeze. perfect. Now it's cloudy but hey ho at least it's not raining. Sooooo I just had a lesson which was useful as ever and I've borrowed a tool to see if it'll help me with a problem I've been having with one of my designs. The tool is called a bull stick, hee hee...for some reason that sounds funny to me!! It's a scorper type tool and has a very sharp edge that you can use to carve off tiny slivers of metal. It's particularly useful for opening up holes to set stones in. So I'm going to see if it helps me and if it does, I'll be purchasing one of those. Hm, I've just checked and here's a photo of the scorper itself...and then you buy the handle separately because there are different shapes of wooden handles. So the bit that's at the top of the photo is the part that you put in the handle - the other end is the part that you shape so that you can do the carving. Hm. Total cost would be just over 10 quid...although there's a set with a handle that has a chuck and a whole bunch of different scorpers...and that's just under 20 quid...which would seem to be better value. Hm. So many tools...it's very hard not to just buy loads and loads of tools. It's so tempting! There are a couple of tools that I couldn't do without now (pendant drill, 3rd hand tweezers) but some that I thought I would use lots and haven't (drawplates). It depends on the type of things you make and the style you have, of course. In any case, I'm going to try this bull stick and see how useful it is...
Hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend and that it is fun! I'm going to be at home doing hopefully lots of fun stuff, but also a bit of working on my display for all the craft fairs.

me versus the bracelet

I've been battling with a bracelet that looks amazing in my head. The picture I have in my mind is fabulous - a real stunner of a bracelet. However, that stunner is taking a while to actually become reality!! I've been struggling with the hinge - the hinge part works fine but it's been a lot of fiddly-ness to solder the hinge on to the rounded sheet. There's been swearing, frustration, and some (read: lots) resorting to the brute force and ignorance approach. After what feels like a long battle, though, the bracelet is nearly completely formed. I just need to polish it and smooth out a couple of kinks. I'm really hoping that the finished product will match the picture that I have in my head!!! The goal is to finish and photograph it today. Then I need to do some pendant bails, but after that I will immediately start making another one of these bracelets. I have a good feeling about them and want to get the making of it down pat - plus now I know what not to do! ha! So, sorry to keep you in suspense but a photo should be appearing soon. It's a wide bracelet with lace imprint and a hinge on one side and a tiny padlock on the other side as the clasp.

Monday again!??!

So it's Monday again...seems almost impossible. I thought it was just Friday. Pf. Well, it's lovely British weather again, ie raining and dismal. It doesn't even remotely feel like it's summer or even near it. However, on Saturday I did get to experience a small sliver of something sort of resembling summer. I very unexpectedly won free tickets from the Guardian to The Great Escape festival in Brighton! I entered the competition on a complete whim and was totally surprised to win. So hurrah for the Guardian! The Great Escape is a music festival in which lots of small (and small-ish) bands play in venues all across Brighton. It's sort of like the Camden Crawl, but no queues. And a bit bigger, I think. In any case, off we went to Brighton on Saturday and lo and behold, there was sun there! So we walked along the beach area and the pier and the Lanes (the windy shopping streets) and we walked into Choccywoccydoodah's Brighton store - if you are unfamiliar with this fabulous chocolate store, do have a look at the cakes on their website! Of course we also saw lots of bands...we saw bands from Japan, bands featured by Artrocker magazine and bands we knew. Of the latter, we saw the KASMS who were fun and good and jumped around a lot. We also saw the Joy Formidable - they were FANTASTIC!! They were so very good that they played and we listened and when it was over I was thinking, what?! over already?! more more more!! They were truly brilliant.

My friend took this photo in Cuba or Indonesia, I can't remember. I save it because someday I want to get it printed on canvas for her. I keep wanting to do that, but I don't want a tiny canvas, so I'm forever on the lookout for a place that would do a good job but not too expensive. If anyone has any tips...let me know :-)

deliveries and things

A funny side effect of working at home is that I've gotten to know the postmen and delivery guys. They are all men, no postwoman yet on my road. I don't really know the postmen, but it is at the point where they recognise me even in town! I think I probably get more packages than most people, considering I buy almost all my metals, tools, stationary and so on online. There's a postman for regular post and another one for special deliveries and then there's a whole host of guys that work for the private courier companies. I would prefer not to have to pay for couriers, but sometimes it's required - like if I buy so-called "hazardous" materials. They aren't really hazardous if you use them correctly, but I think it's required by law to send corrosive type materials by courier. I guess it's to avoid accidents.
Anyway, so today I got one special delivery - engagement ring back from the Assay Office. I also got a courier delivery - some silver and a whole bunch of clasps. And I got regular post - a Metals Directory which I wasn't expecting, it was free from one of the suppliers I use. So, busy day for post. And I'm off to the post office very soon to send out a bunch of stuff.
Phew, who knew there was so much to write about post...

book

On a whim, I've just bought this book about hot and cold connections. I am hoping it will be a good, solid, technical book. The problem I have with most jewellery books is that lots are all pictures for inspiration, which I just don't want because I already have too many ideas and not enough time to execute them all. I also don't like the ones that are beginner because they are just too simplistic and are just about the very basics. I am hoping this is a book that is more advanced, very practical, and not just pretty pictures to fill up space. According the reviews, that is a reasonable thing to hope for in this book. So, I'll see when it arrives!

painting

So in my profile it says my mom is an artist. She is, and she works mostly as a painter and at the moment mostly with watercolour and collage. My mom used to work mostly in acrylics, but is very versatile in the mediums she uses. In any case, you can see lots of her work on the website I built for her, which is here. But the reason I'm writing this now is that she got a commission to make a painting of the view in Yokohama - of the harbour area. So here are some photos of that painting! The first is the whole painting and the second is a close-up of the middle. I really like this painting because of the colours and the 3-D feeling of the pier in the middle. I also like the collage use of pages of old Japanese books to subtly add a little detail.

Reveal in Henley

I'm going to be at Reveal - a showcase of crafts - in Henley-upon-Thames from the 10th to the 13th of December. If you've never been to Henley, this is a good reason to go! It's a lovely place and has lots of super cosy pubs, perfect for hiding from winter weather. Plus there's an amazing teddy bear store. And now there's also a fabulous craft fair showing the work of a varied selection of artists from the Oxon/Berkshire area.

South Hill Park Christmas Fair

I just got a letter to say that I've been accepted to the South Hill Park Christmas Fair for this year! Hurrah! It's 14 & 15th November. I know it's a looooong way off, but now's the time to put it in your calendar.
Also, I sold another large star necklace yesterday - this one: (they are all slightly different so I need to update my main website and put some photos of another one up!)

random stuff

So the work went really well yesterday - engagement ring is nearly done. I just need to do all the final polishing. The white gold is harder than I expected, as in I think it'll take longer to polish. It looks really good though, the ring is shaping up nicely and really has an art nouveau feel to it - which is what the aim was. After this I just need to get it hallmarked and get the stones set.
The pouch that I put up a photo of yesterday seemed to work really well, it did catch pretty much every last little filing. That was its purpose, so that's good.
I'm also going to finish a craft fair application and send that off tomorrow. I would do it today but the local post office is closed Wednesday afternoons.
As soon as I get the engagement ring polished I'm also going to add more things to Etsy. So, that's pretty much the plan for now.

bank holiday

The end of the bank holiday weekend - luckily not too bad, since there's another bank holiday at the end of this month! hurrah! So even though it was a holiday yesterday and the boy was home, I did work on the engagement ring. The boy even made me a leather pouch to catch all the gold filings. I don't have a traditional jeweller's bench in the sense that there's no half circle cut out of it with a leather bit underneath. Initially I didn't want that because that would mean giving up a lot of table area. But now I have a detachable thingy (technical term) so I can put it up when I'm working with gold. With silver it's not as important to catch every last little filing, so what I normally do is just brush off my apron before I stand up. It's a big, heavy apron that I always wear when I'm working, so it catches most filings and extra pieces. But it's not quite good enough for gold, so I have a new solution! It seemed to work really well yesterday, so I'm happy! I might just keep it up permanently if I like it after working with it for a full week. This week will be a trial week for the new pouch attachment, then! And here's a photo: (Hm, it doesn't look so great on the photo, but it works really well because it's cinched at front and back so the filings stay in the pouch.)

repairs

Sometimes I do repair jobs. Actually, come to think of it, I do them more than just sometimes. Friends have broken rings, beads missing from necklaces, brooches where the pin is bent out of shape, etc. I actually quite like doing these odd jobs, because I usually learn some useful new tips. Also, they are usually quite quick jobs which is nice to do in between longer ones. Just over a year ago, my aunt sent me some rings which belonged to my grandmother - my dad's mother. One of the rings is beyond repair. It's been repaired before with what seems to be a cheap metal like tin and the filigree is crushed and distorted. It also seems to be missing part of the original ring shank. Then there's another ring which is quite art deco and I think my mom would like it - I need to resize it when she's here. Then there was one other one. This one is gold and had three pearls set in an unusual flower setting. I would have never chosen this ring myself, since I prefer much less fussy jewellery, but it has a certain charm. The three pearls had long since dwindled to one. I guess the other two had fallen out because it looked like they had been replaced with little plastic beads. (That would be the work of my ever-resourceful great uncle.) In any case, the ring intrigued me, so I asked my mom to source the appropriate pearls in Singapore - not an easy task, since they are 2mm no-hole pearls. I cleaned out the ring and carefully poked out the old pearl and the beads so I could resize the ring. It now fits me and I've replaced the pearls and here's how it looks:

back to the rain

So last week was amazingly lovely weather and the weekend was beatiful too. But now we're back to gloom and drizzle. whee hee... I feel the need for yet another cup of tea very soon indeed. I have been to the post office again already and got a scissor sharpener at John Lewis. The boy hadn't heard of scissor sharpeners, so I shall share in case you haven't either. They are little tools that can be used with any straight regular scissors - ie no pinking or curved or serrated scissors. Perfect for extending the life of your scissors and perfect if you want to cut tricky material. The one I got at John Lewis looks like the below photo and is £7.25, which isn't bad at all.

so cute!

My sister also got some knit wee Easter rabbits and chicks and her cat liked them too, I think:

hee hee hee

jewellery news.....I'm busy with the secret project and plan to launch it tomorrow! yay! If all goes well, there will be photos, there will be plans, they will major excitement (from me, anyway). I have a lot of ideas for new things as well, so the to-do list is as long as ever...

I'm loving the lovely weather we're having. Yesterday I went with my friend to Greys Court - that's a National Trust property close to Reading which has gorgeous gardens. This is a good time of year to see the gardens and there's also a tea room with an outdoor area. The house is closed for renovations, but it's a great place to go sit in the sunshine and enjoy the scenery. Also the woods were full of bluebells, so it just looked amazing.

ha ha - I just got this from my sister and I had to laugh out loud!

ring, bracelet, ring

Two down, one to go. That is, I finished and resized a ring for a friend and delivered it to her yesterday and happily it fit and she's happy with it! Then I finished a cuff bangle which I had sent off to get engraved and that was posted yesterday. Now there's the engagement ring to go - I need to order the gold for it today and then I can get moving on it. It's all heading the right direction!
It's another gorgeous day today - beautiful blue skies and sun! A bit surreal, frankly....

The TOP SECRET project in coming along nicely and I should have photos sooooon....tum-di-dum....oh yes, the excitement!

Erm, in other news I'm getting my hair done tomorrow! hurrah! colour! So I'll have some photos of that soon too.

birthday fun

A lovely day was had yesterday and actually the whole weekend was good! Yesterday was the boy's birthday and we all chilled down at the pub. We had a roast lunch - which was very filling indeed! I had nut roast and it even came with little mini Yorkshire puddings, which aren't usually given with the veggie option! Anyway...it was a lovely relaxed day! I also made a surprise birthday cake - a carrot cake with cream cheese icing (recipe randomly chosen from the internet!). It turned out really well and here's a photo of it:

Today we took down the Norden Farm exhibit, so that has come and gone. I'm sure it won't be too long before we do another exhibit and then I'll post it on here again :-)
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and here's hoping that we get fabulous weather this coming weekend too!!

tra la la

I'm having a pretty darn good week. I had some more sales on Etsy and DaWanda and in new countries, too! I get a bit giddy when I have a sale that is going to a new country. This time it was Japan and Norway. Oo er! :-) I sold these cuff links, which in a way are going home. They are made with Japanese paper that I bought either in Yokohama or Kamakura, and now they are going over to Tokyo. Kind of a nice idea :-)

Wheeeee

Oh, I'm having a good day...very productive! I've called the stone setter, the gem supplier, the arts centre, had a lesson, got some box supplies, been to Staples and even went to Hobbycraft. This is all in the name of the engagement ring commission and a big secret plan. The big secret plan shall be revealed at some point. *evil cackles*
The engagement ring went beautifully well in silver and now I am awaiting approval (or not) from the bride-to-be, who is visiting this Saturday with her mum to see if it's what she wanted and to choose the stones that she wants set in it. I have a small pile of sapphires and such so she can look at the colours together, etc.
Ok, well I still have heaps to do so I'm off again....more photos of pretty things soon!!

Monday feelings on a tuesday

So it's Tuesday but I'm feeling like it's Monday - wondering what order to do things in, what I'm supposed to be doing and thinking I'm probably forgetting something important! I have a box of items at the hallmarking office, so I should have those back at the beginning of next week. I have a small pile of half-finished items - this pile is, thankfully, getting a wee bit smaller and more manageable! Last Thursday I did loads and got various things done that had been laying around for ages. Also, we had the private view at Norden Farm which went very well. The show there is still on for another 2 weeks, so there's still a chance to see it!
I hope everyone had a lovely Easter. I put my knitted Easter bunnies and chicks on the table for Easter breakfast and it was very cheerful :-)
Tomorrow hopefully a more interesting post - with me more focused than I am today!

update: hm, two websites seem to have disappeared. One is a bead supplier I have used a lot - Jules Gems. They seem to have gone bust, the website is gone and I managed to find one comment somewhere that they aren't in business anymore. That's a shame because they had a good selection. And now I see that theindiego.com seems to have gone as well - but I can't find any comments about that, so not sure what the deal is there. If anyone knows....please leave a comment!

sing song

Norden farm, Norden farm, Norden faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarm,
you are like a nice warm baaaaaaaaaaaalm,
tomorrow night you will see such a siiiiiiiiiiight,
lots of lovely jewellery under bright white liiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Is that a haiku? no? poem? terrible poem? ha! I think I better stick to jewellery.

ps. Looks like I may be having my jewellery at Norden Farm later this year as well, in their cases in the foyer area, from August onwards some time!! :-)

ps2. I put some things in my online shops, including this pair of earrings. They are silver folded over with texture on the inside and one is laser hallmarked. I think they would be perfect for someone who likes their earrings large...not huge, but not tiny:

Norden Farm, Maidenhead

Yesterday morning we (Berkshire Designer Jewellers) set up the cases and jewellery and other bits and pieces for our group exhibit at Norden Farm Arts Centre. It looks fabulous and there is lots of exciting and beautiful jewellery on show. We are having a private view on Thursday evening from 6-8...you, oh myriad readers of my blog, are cordially invited (yes even the ones in California, although I think it might be a bit too far for you!). If you can make it, you can meet the makers and have a glass of wine :-) Directions are available on the Norden Farm website. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to email me at machi (at) magpienest.co.uk
Hopefully see some of you there!

Not Mass Produced

Good morning! I've been accepted to join a website called Not Mass Produced - it's what it says on the tin - a website celebrating all the great handmade items from Europe (mostly UK and France I think). I'm a starter on the site, so that means I have 3 items available. Follow this link to see! The site has a nice feel to it, it's easy on the eye and since the owners vet every applicant, it has a good quality control in place. I like the ethos, which is on their about us page. It's about finding something special and supporting individual talent and small business. It's in the same vein as Folksy and Etsy and DaWanda, but with a bit more focus controlling who joins and a more active marketing team so publicity is not all down to the individual artisan. I'll let you know how it goes! :-)

easter goodies

So I mentioned that my grandmother had sent me a box of goodies for easter...she knitted them all herself (she's 89!) and I love them, they are super fab. There are two rabbits, a bunch of chicks and then those little hats which are perfect as egg warmers. Egg cosies? I'm not sure what the right word is. Anyway, so here's a photo of most of the stash...there were loads more of those little hats but I didn't put them all in the photo.

phew....

With commissions, I do my best to get a good feel for the style and preferences of the customer, but there's always a little sigh of relief when I hear that they are happy with the item! This is the commission that I've just worked on - it's a lace imprint cuff bangle but will also have an engraving on the inside when it's done:

middle-of-the-week-iness

Well, I meant to take some photos of some fabulous knitted rabbits and chicks and egg warmers that I got from my grandmother. But I'm not sure where the camera is. Ok, I know where it is, but it's just too much for today. I'll get around to it. Then you can see the fabulous goodies that I'm going to use to decorate the table for easter breakfast. I don't think I've had easter breakfast for years...maybe not even since I lived with my parents. But this year it's going to happen, because I have stuffed knitted rabbits and chicks. Oh yes.
So yesterday I managed to get quite a bit done, including finally finishing 7 pendants I was working on for a big project which involves approaching a local business to see if they would like to sell my jewellery. I'm nearly ready to approach the store, just need to get my plan on paper so that they agree it's a genius idea. I'll post more about this once I've spoken to the store.... (ooo the suspense)
This weekend we're doing the end-of-tax-year stock take. That's going to involve making sure the stock sheet is accurate (I don't think it is, because sometimes I forget to take items off once I've sold them) and reviewing prices. I need to review prices because the silver and gold prices have changed, as they do, and increased loads again. Anyway, I like organising so I'm actually looking forward to this big stock take! And today I need to work on my commissions...so off I go...
ALSO - if anyone out there knows how to add a label cloud instead of just a list of labels on blogger, can you please tell me. It should be easy, but for some reason I can't figure it out.

hee hee

Oh so funny...my parents live in Japan and my dad delights in forwarding me emails from his Japanese colleagues. They are usually in Japanese and then in English at the bottom. Well, sort of English! It's pretty hilarious, the English is quite good but still pretty muddled. I used to teach English and my Japanese students often had brilliant vocabularies. They knew all these lovely long words, but really had no idea how to use them. Cue lots of "word salad" essays. Lots of lovely words, just randomly strung together. Ha! I think I'm allowed to laugh because I've been on the other side, making a mess of other languages. One of the emails my dad got at work said something like "Please accept my apologies for your errors!" hahahaha! oh...funny!
Anyway...it's Monday again and I'm sorting out lots of little jewellery-related things including getting prepared for the Norden Farm show. I need to polish the pieces that I'm putting in the show and have an appropriate amount of boxes ready, as well as the price list. I think I'm fairly prepared except that I wanted to put in my gold ball collection, but only the bangles are hallmarked. So I'll have to see what I do about that!

my super talented sister

Just look at this amazing shawl my sister made!! I'm totally bowled over by it - so intricate and pretty and lovely and other nice adjectives!! I just wanted to share because this is very impressive:

Handm@de craft fairs

As I mentioned before, I'm going to be at the Handm@de craft fair in Oxford. There are another two - one in Cambridge (4 April) and another in Winchester (5 July). I've sent a whole pile of snazzy postcards to be put into the goody bags. Oh yes, that's right, if you go, not only do you get to peruse a wide selection of amazing crafts, but you also get a goody bag (while supplies last, so probably the first couple hundred people or so). You can see my postcard here. Plus you can see all kinds of crafts and interesting new items on the Handm@de flickr group - and here you can also see all kinds of other items which are going into the goody bags!

arty farty-ness

I had a very pleasant evening yesterday at the Slough Museum. The museum is doing an admirable job of showing and promoting local Berkshire area art to the community. Yesterday evening was a talk about Idea Bank 2009 - an art exhibit of paintings (mostly) of artists from the Berkshire area. The artists who were there did a short (about 5 minutes) talk each about their art, how they make it, what it means to them and also what it means to them to be artists in this area. It was, I must say, better than I expected and quite interesting. There's a bit of a blurb up on the Slough Museum website here: http://www.sloughmuseum.co.uk/exhibitions.htm and I believe the talks are going to be transcribed so will also be up on the website at some point.
While I was there, I also dropped off some more jewellery - namely some items which are now on sale. I've put these items for sale because I'm moving on to making different collections and am doing a sort of spring clean of older designs which I probably won't be repeating. So, for your chance to get these items at a very low price, get ye down to Slough Museum (it's on the High Street in Slough, very easy to get to!) These are the items that are on sale there (the bottom ring is available with a green, blue or yellow stone):

first newsletter

Yesterday I sent out MagpieNest's first newsletter! Woo hoo! It was kind of exciting but kind of annoying because I think that the ones sent to hotmail addresses didn't reach their destinations. I'm not sure, but I think they didn't. I'll figure out something around that at some point, though. I think emails to hotmail addresses just need to be sent individually, which can be done. If you didn't get a newsletter but would like one, please sign up here: www.magpienest.co.uk/newsletter.html
Now it's time to get prepared for the exhibit at Norden Farm! I need to get 20 pieces together to display there. That won't be hard, it's just a case of deciding which pieces!
Tonight I'm going to an artist's talk over at the Slough Museum. I'm looking forward to hearing it and seeing some local artwork. I believe it's the last evening of the art exhibit there. I'll let you know all about it tomorrow....

Monday blues

Well, it's Monday again and the start of another week. It's weird how fast the days fly by...
Ehm, the weekend went by way too fast and so now I'm just going to say - here are some bangle photos.

Tomorrow, tomorrow is only a day away

Hm, what's that line from?? I think it may be from Annie, the musical. Oh dear, that gives away my age/country of upbringing, doesn't it?!?! How was that ever popular? Oh wells. That reminds me, oddly, of something else 80s. I think pretty much only my sister will remember that cartoon called "Fat Albert". Ha, that was brilliant...I wonder if there are clips of it on the internet somewhere. Fat Albert, now there's a character that should be brought back. Let's see if I can find a picture of him.... oh! Amazing - there are clips online and here's a picture of Fat Albert and his gang:
ANYWAY....so instead of writing this, I should be getting ready for tomorrow, for Tomorrow is my first fair of the year: the Spring Fair at Kendrick School in Reading. It's open from 2-5pm and is in town so hopefully the nice weather will entice loads of people to attend!! It'll be good for me to have a show - a bit of warming up for the year!! Plus I have lots of new things, so it's good to see reactions to new designs and see if I need to tweak them or make different sizes. I'm curious to see how many people are interested in bangles - I've showed lots of friends and there is definitely an interest in bangles - especially since I can customise the size. I never bought bangles myself because I have weirdly skinny wrists so the bangles, although I like them, were always too big. So now I can make just the right size - for me and for any customers as well!
Right, I should go polish and pack now!!

New Items on my website!!

After some hard work, I have managed to make a couple of big updates on my website:

- a page for new items: www.magpienest.co.uk/new.html
- a page for bracelets and bangles: www.magpienest.co.uk/bracelets.html
- and I've added loads of new items, which you can see on the new item pages or just on the item
and collection pages!
- I've made loads of small improvements, which I won't list here in detail but it should make the overall look of the website more uniform. I've also removed some old items which were sold!

Please let me know what you think!!!

Norden Farm Exhibition

Here's the poster for the exhibition at Norden Farm of the Berkshire Designer Jewellers: (click on it to see it larger!)

Private view at Norden Farm

The Berkshire Designer Jewellers, of which I am a member, are having an exhibition at Norden Farm in Maidenhead. We are having a private view on Thursday, 9 April from 6-8pm. If you are interested in attending, please email me!! It would be great to see you there!!
The show is on from 7 - 15 April, so even if you can't make it for the private view, you can go on a day that's more convenient :-)

In other news, one of the jewellers in the group can fix drill bits. So if you're a jeweller somewhere near here, and need to have your broken drill bits rehabilitated, I have a contact for you :-) Hey, might as well mention it, in case someone out there needs just that!!
It's Friday already! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

matching cuff links

A while ago I mentioned that I was making matching cuff links for my notch ring. Here they are - they are heavyweight with a satin finish and of course a notch:

blogsville

Yay - I'm on a blog post over on the Handm@de blog - check it out: http://handmadeoxford.blogspot.com
In the post, I mention my mom a little bit - that she's an artist. She's also very good at interior design. At the moment, my mom is in Japan and one of her Japanese friends also writes an interior design blog. I think she also works freelance as an interior design writer, but I'm not sure because the site is all in kanji (Japanese) so I can't read it - too bad! But anyway, so Yuri has written a post about my mom's latest wall decoration - which is folded cranes out of washi paper and other types of paper like newspaper. Washi paper is Japanese handmade paper, which I also use in some of my jewellery. You can see a photo of the cranes on the wall over on Yuri's blog, even if you can't read it: http://artsliving.exblog.jp
Interestingly enough, a couple of weeks ago the Guardian came with a fashion magazine supplement and in one of the photos they used the same sort of idea - they had folded butterflies across a wall!!

Jewellery show in December

So I am going to do that jewellery show in a mansion that I mentioned previously! It's at Wrest Park in a mansion which I believe is run by English Heritage. It's huge and looks very interesting and lovely - a great setting for a jewellery show just before Christmas! Apparently the house has just been all done up, so it will be looking amazing! The show I'm participating in is a long way off - 5 and 6 December. But no harm in checking out the website now!! :-) Ooh in fact I just saw MagpieNest is already on the page - on the right hand side!
I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend - the highlight for me was a trip on the Real Ale Train - a fabulous 1940s steam train with wooden interior and lots of happy people drinking real ale and hanging out the windows to see the steam! It was fun and friendly!

the price of chips

Ok, not really the price of chips - the price of gold. The price of gold is now sky high...it goes up as the economy goes down. Confidence in the stock market goes down equals confidence in precious metals goes up. Which is lovely for anyone who has invested in gold! But it's not so lovely if I want to make some jewellery out of gold. It means that the end retail price ends up being very high at the time that consumers are cutting back, spending less, etc. Hm. So, that means I will have to try harder to re-use the gold I have. My grandmother kindly rounded up bits of broken jewellery and then roped in all her buddies to do the same, so I have a teeny stash of gold that I can use. However, it's scrap, so I need to get it into the right shape (wire, sheet, etc) which means that the cost increases anyway because of the amount of time I have to spend on it! Hmmmm....
Anyway...I got my fabulous promo postcards yesterday. They do look good!! So those are being sent off to Handm@de today!!
Right, I have heaps to do today, so I better stop writing now...!!

newsletter and cute stickers

I've added a "join my newsletter" option to my website! Want to know where and when MagpieNest will be - just sign up for my newsletter! I'm not going to be sending out many newsletters, I doubt it will be more than 6 a year. I think that's better because I know what I do with newsletters that I have signed up for - the ones that arrive infrequently I usually have at least a brief look. The newsletters that arrive every other day, I usually just delete them!! I can't read that many things every day, and anyway if they arrive that often, then how can they really have that much new information!?! Anyway, so please sign up for my infrequent and informative newsletter! :-)
In totally unrelated other news, my mom sent me a bunch of super cute Japanese stickers (probably made in China, but oh well) with animals! They are super cute! I love these little stickers...when I went to Japan I got some and when I was in Singapore I also went to a Japanese shop and got some more. You can never have too many cute little stickers! Ok, maybe you can, but I just love these teeny tiny random stickers. I have a sort of mini collection now. Here are some photos, with the newest ones first (note the usual Japanese funny English - Kira Coat Seal...??!!)

masterclass and a craft fair in a mansion

As part of the Berkshire Designer Jewellers, I had a masterclass on Saturday which focused on problem solving. It was fascinating and informative - definitely a great experience just to hear what a master jeweller has to say about the common technical problems facing jewellers working with silver and gold. There's always more to be learned and I picked up a few very useful tidbits, which will hopefully save me time in the future!
I also got an email over the weekend from another craft fair - this one in December and it looks beautiful. It's in a lovely mansion and I'm fairly certain I will apply this week, so I'll be passing on information about that in the future. The only reason I'm hesitating is because I spoke to someone for whom these particular craft fairs didn't work out financially, so I need to think about how I'll get there and how to cut some costs. Either way, I'll make a decision this week.
Besides that, I need to send off an order from the weekend (Etsy, hurrah!) and a box of things to be hallmarked and so on. I have about, at a guess, oh, about 4 million items on my to-do list! eek! ok, it's not really that bad, obviously, but somehow it feels that way. It's Monday and the morning has already melted away!! I'm off to plow through my to-do list now!