Caversham Arts Trail

Yesterday was the last day of the Caversham Arts Trail for this year. Copious amounts of tea were had, cake was eaten, pots were made, earrings were created, and visitors said they really enjoyed seeing the locals artists! Here are a few photos. The first one is of the super cute kitten, Friday.This is the clay pot making session in action:
Lauren's beautiful work:
My two cases:
The fuel for all the hard work: tea and cakes!

Caversham Arts Trail

We've been on the radio, loads of flyers have been circulated, things have been made, people have already said they are excited about it : tomorrow is the first day of the Caversham Arts Trail!!!! See details over at http://cavershamartiststrail.co.uk - we're open from 11am - 5pm. See you there....................

Reading Beer festival and rain

It's been such good weather lately that I got lulled into a false sense of security. I had visions of lounging around outside with a big crowd of friends at the Reading Beer Festival. Picnics, sunglasses, blankets laid out on the grass... But alas, the weather has gone back to its usual dreary and there are great big dark grey clouds hanging over Reading. I am now back to regular mode and assuming it will start pouring it down the second I get down the beer fest. Ah well, at least they have two HUGE tents so I'll be safe and fine and still have a great time!!
I've been busy on the jewellery front - finished the wedding cuff links and brooches. I have loads of photos, but the bride & groom are keeping secrets and these are surprises for the recipients, so I'll hold off on posting those until after the wedding! I'm also progressing nicely (finally) on their wedding rings. Also finished some other items and even snuck in a tester of a new bit of washi that I got for Christmas. Here's a photo:
The black came out very nicely with the metallic bits of silver and gold staying shiny. I'll be showing this washi at the private craft fair I'm doing on May 20th (newsletter readers have already received their invites - let me know if you're interested!).
Classes are progressing fine as well, with a bunch of new techniques show and next week I'll be doing a demo on photo etching. So, once I get these wedding rings done I can start making some new items - whose designs have been sorting themselves out in my head for months already! Hope you all have a lovely weekend, rain or no rain!

Craft and Design magazine

Hey, hey, that's me in Craft & Design magazine....

new items

Some photos of commissioned washi paper pieces:

monday monday

I've finished the brooches and cuff links, hurrah! Still working on the wedding rings, fitting on Thursday. Hands still on the mend, left one has a huge purple spot which hopefully will fade. I've got tons to do so am being slow about blogging. I'm sulking because I really want to take the hand engravers' course, but it's always on a Wednesday evening, which is one of the times I teach. I might see if I can change it in the autumn so I can the course. I've been wanting to take it ever since I first saw it advertised, so I really hope I can figure out a way to get on it!!! Besides that, just plodding away planning and trying to get as much done as possible. Plus in 2 weeks it's the Caversham Arts Trail! Hope to see some of you there....

birthday fun

I'm preparing a massive feast for the birthday boy. I've cleaned, set the table, blown up the balloons and made a couple of the courses already. A couple of things need to chill or freeze, so I did those this morning. Now I have to think about the order in which I'm going to make all these things, otherwise the meal could take a very long time indeed. I'm making 13 very small courses. There will be lots of leftovers, so I think we'll be eating from this for a while!
I'm nearly ready for next term as well - plan at the ready! I've got a goal, some lesson plans ready to go, lots of examples and now I just need to type up some more instruction sheets and make a couple of example items.
Making progress on the wedding rings as well - white and yellow gold line wedding bands. I got the bits and pieces I need in the post today and will be making the 'mock' version in silver first. I almost always do that for large commissions to make sure that the sizing and look is exactly right before I plunge into the gold side of things. Massive package went off to hallmarking yesterday, too, so things are progressing once again.

back to the bench

I'm going back to work at my bench today for the first time since I hurt my hands. They are mostly better now and my other half got me some fingerless cycle gloves. They have padding over the palm, so should help me to keep it painless. I've got oodles to do and now of course I'm well behind because of all this nonsense. I did get to sort out my spreadsheets and update my Folksy and Etsy in the meantime though. I picked up the flyers for the Caversham Arts Trail last night and will be distributing them around. If you'd like one, let me know. I'll put a bunch over at South Hill Park as well, so you can pick one up there. Here are some pics of items added to Etsy/Folksy:

end of financial year

So today I got around to doing my stock take, which means taking everything out of boxes, counting, and then putting it back in the boxes. So I've been relisting items on Folksy and Etsy since I now am sure of exactly what I have! I still have a bit of commission work to do, having been rather slowed down for a week because of my bruised hands. They are healing quite well, but man is it a pain to have big, painful scabs on my hands! I'm going to get back to the bench tomorrow and see how it goes. Today it's all paperwork and relisting. I'll be listing some newer items soon too. I've added the 18k yellow gold crossover post earrings for the first time. I only have one pair, so while the craft fairs and shows were on it didn't make sense to also put them in my online shops. I guess I could put up a gross photo of my bloodied hands, but I think you'd probably prefer a picture of the gold earrings, so here they are:

photos, finally

Here are, finally, some photos of a commission I just finished. A ring and a pendant, 18k white gold with a diamond on the pendant and diamonds and a sapphire on the ring.

oooo pretty

lovely flyer for the Caversham Arts Trail: (click for larger image!)

ugh

so i'm still sitting here waiting for the postman, hopefully my items will arrive very soon!!!!! argh. also i fell really hard on my hands last night while bravely jogging in the rain (lesson learnt, no more jogging, ha!) so my hands hurt rather a lot. can just about type. so not sure what i will get done today.... bah. more exciting posts coming when my hands heal a bit....

stress

You know how some projects seem to go wrong at every turn? I was thinking I was finally at the end of one such project and I could breathe easy again and all would be well. Except that this project required a stone setter. If the stones are high value and I'm using 18k gold, then I prefer to send the pieces off to a stone setter because I know he will do a perfect job. Now, I am well aware that I am small fry to the stone setter. I don't send off huge packages full of items and it's only occasionally that I feel the need to use their services. So I included a letter saying please can you do this job by this time. I left a margin for error in my deadline. I called on the deadline, since of course I hadn't heard anything. He said he'd try to get it done this week. Now, the absolute LAST day I can get these items and still get them hallmarked on time would be Tuesday. Guess what? No word from the stone setter. So I phoned today and guess what? He's not in. His colleague was very kind about it, however, now I'm in an awkward position. I sent the items 4 March. It's now 26 March. So now I have to phone him Monday morning and pester him to please get these items finished. Sometimes I really wish that not everything had to be chased up. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to rely on someone to do their bit without having to check up on them?

End of term

It's the end of the first term of this year. Less than a month until the next term starts and I have big plans which I need to get sorted. Before that I *still* have to sort out the commissions. I'm making major progress though, so that's getting there. I'm still waiting for the stone setter and he's making me nervous so I really hope post arrives from him today.
Today I'm very happy to be featured on a fantastic new website called Creative Boom. There's a central Creative Boom website and then there are regional ones and I'm on the Reading Creative Boom. (The link is http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/reading/2010/03/25/focus-on-jewellery-maker-magpienest) It's a website that showcases art and creative happenings around the country and it has a fab design. Check it out!

ps. just got tipped off to this website...oooo if you like modern furniture: http://www.deconet.com/

almost weekend

Wah, what a dreary day outside. Luckily I'm inside! I just wrote an email delving back into my linguistics past. My mom's Japanese teacher wanted to ask me some questions about English/Japanese learning issues so I had to think again about syllable structures, consonant clusters, phonetics, etc. A whole different set of jargon to jewellery!
I've had a packed week, with a very interesting demonstration of anticlastic raising. I had a go as well and bought a stake for small items and am even getting a custom made hammer.(That link will bring you to Tim's page about tools, if you are interested in buying any from him.) I'm excited about it because I could see applications to my own designs immediately. So that was a fun bit of the week. My classes went fine, one more week to go for this term. I have plans for next term, but am a bit worried that the students won't go for it. It's hard to introduce new things when the students have been coming for years and years and know the studio better than me! Still, I don't want to just plod along, I would like a bit more structure and a bit of a fun challenge for the students too. It would be nice to have something to point at at the end of the term for the whole class to be able to say "we did that" instead of just trailing off with all kinds of different projects, half of them not finished. In any case, I will make my plans and just see how it goes...
I should be sitting at my bench right now. I'm still working on the cuff links and brooches. I'm getting closer and closer. Just a bit more to go until I can send them all off for hallmarking. I'm also still waiting for a word from the stone setter for my other big project. I really, really hope I hear from him soon so I can just get that project finished! I asked for the items to be returned by this coming Monday, so hopefully that'll happen and I won't have to phone and pester him. I hate chasing people up, but it seems to be required for pretty much everything.
In any case, hurrah to the weekend and hope you all have a good one.

morning........

Ugh, I dreamt about rivets all night. I can think of more restful things...yawn! At least it's bright and sunshiney outside. I have loads to do again today...had a lovely weekend. Yesterday we walked a whole long way so I felt like I got in a bit of exercise. On Saturday we did indeed go to Garlic & Shots, the restaurant I mentioned on Friday. I have two words about it: don't bother. The food was very disappointing, below pub grub. The super hot chili was bland and the plate it was on was mostly tortilla chips with a bit of chili in the corner. When Dougs told the waitress he was disappointed and thought it was bland, she said "oh". Then when she brought the bill, he said it again and she just kind of mumbled "oh" again. Plus the service charge was included and she didn't even offer to make it optional, or even say sorry he didn't like the food. I had baked garlic which was fine (but I've had better, and considering it's supposed to be their speciality...). I also had nachos, which looked good at first but then they were in a bowl and there was a bit of averagey topping on the top but the rest of the bowl was just plain tortilla chips. Anyway, overall it was very overpriced for what it was and very disappointing. Shame, because the idea is good and the place looks cool. Shame about the service too, I would've felt a little better if the waitress had shown one iota of interest in whether we liked the food or not.

Lookee here

Or should it be looky here? Hmmm...anyway - the first bit of press for the Caversham Arts Trail is here (http://www.caversham.info/2010/03/caversham-arts-trail-coming-in-may/). Remember you can follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/CavArtsTrail) which you may want to do anyway if you're looking for a piano. You'll have to go look to see what I mean...
I'm still working on the cufflinks & brooches, unsurprisingly. The weekend is shaping up to be a fun one, yippeee! We made a proper plan on paper and everything! One of the things we're going to do is go try out this restaurant. It's called Garlic & Shots. I've only ever gone to the bar bit and that was just to meet someone and then go elsewhere, so I was there probably only 5 minutes. I didn't even realise it had food. How can you go wrong with food full of garlic? Methinks you can't....I'll let you know what I thought of it....

thursday already...

So, I passed my driving test! Hurrah! Now for the fun, fun search for car insurance that is mildly affordable, not so fun. I've been working as hard as I can on 9 cuff links and 9 brooches. Later I may take a photo of all the bits and pieces I have now. It looks like a sort of miniature manufacturing plant on the bench! I am getting there, but it is a lot of work. My classes went fine this week, but as usual I was totally tired by the end of Wednesday evening. Got a bit of a lie-in today and have now caught up on all my blog reading and emails (more or less) and twitter and facebook and all the rest of that nonsense, ha! I really need a cup of tea and then it's back to the bench. Well, after I call my gran and have another cup of tea....and take some photos....I'll update with some photos in a bit...

UPDATE:
here's a photo of lots of little bits for making brooch parts, all handmade, not bought:

here we go...

Tomorrow's the day - my driving test. I am trying to stay calm and focus on all the driving around I'll be able to do when I pass!!!
Plus I'm sending off two items that I've been working on for ages to the stone setter. Am very excited about these two and hope to high heaven that they turn out beautifully...photos to follow in some weeks after their return and hallmarking.
I got the go-ahead for a big commission that I will be slaving away on all of next week - lots of cuff links and brooches. And I'm even making progress on my copper bowl. The bowl is moving towards vertical on the top half...I'm working on getting the top to go in so I have a rounded bowl. Photos to follow for that as well.
The financial year's end is near so am also aware I need to sort out my folders of invoices, expenses, etc once again. It's hard to believe it's March already. I wouldn't mind spring to hurry up and get here already, my fingers are so cold again today!!
Here's to the weekend and hopefully good news after about 12.15 tomorrow!!!

bunch of interesting things

First of all, something that I am upset about. This article in the Guardian, which says that there are plans to axe BBC radio 6. That's a music channel. Will there be no decent radio stations left at all??? Argh!!! I finally found one I like and now there's a whiff of rumour that it'll be shut down!! When I listen to the radio over at South Hill Park, it's for 7+ hours straight. I can't deal with ad breaks for that long. I also can't stand waffling about rubbish - if they do talk, it should be about the music. And Radio 6 does that and keeps it interesting. They also don't have the same 10 songs on rotation all day, otherwise, similarly, I would go mad! So please, BBC, wake up and see the loyal following that Radio 6 has and keep your mitts off it!!!!!!!!

Anyway, more positive things: join a giant creative people map:

Message from Louise of www.myehive.com ....

We've just launched Craft Nations Unite, but we need your help! It's the largest google map of artisans and designers of it's kind.
http://bit.ly/bV2Dru
Please add your photos, links, embed video, show us where you live and work, make this the largest visual reference of handmade and homemade designers on the planet!
Once you have done this please blog it, tweet it and share the link in forums.

And one last thing....an interesting website that a friend pointed out to me which some of you might find interesting to explore: http://www.behance.net

and breathe...

I had another driving lesson this morning, which is going along fairly smoothly. I have another 3 lessons, I think. It's all going fairly well but I have to practice the old left around a corner a bit more. I can't seem to get it quite right. sigh. All this driving has been sucking up time, so I'm getting busier and busier trying to fit everything in. Tonight I'm going to my first meeting of the Caversham Artists, which should be good :-) It looks like I'll have to do some work this weekend though (ehem, I mean more than usual!). Ah well, I'll feel better if I'm more caught up on everything! I have 2 large commissions to go and one small one that's nearly finished. Then I will be caught up. I have to say it's been a shocker every time I need to order gold, bah, the price is so very sky high at the moment! I've also upped the stakes on the exercise front and am really trying my best to stick to it. I'm even jogging, which I do not like, but it sure is a workout, so I'm determined to stick to it. That's all for now, but hopefully soon I'll have more photos of the remaining 3 commissions.

Caversham Arts Trail

Oooh it's so lovely out - a nice mix of wet snow and rain. What a fantastic day for another driving lesson! woo hoo! Ugh....get me some more tea!!!!!!!
ehem...anyway....so in May I will be participating in the Caversham Arts Trail alongside Lauren (that's Lauren Ceramics to you!) and there are now a number of easy peasy ways to follow the plans for the Arts Trail. If you're on Twitter, follow either me (magpienest) or the Arts Trail (http://twitter.com/CavArtsTrail). If you prefer facebook, please become a fan here. Or you can just click this link, which is also on my sidebar on this blog and brings you straight to the website (http://cavershamartiststrail.co.uk). Sooo many options, surely one is right for you!
I hope everyone is nice and warm and snug today. My day looks like it's going to be full of driving, a bit of making a ring and quite a lot of tea. Oh yes and probably a trip to Hobbycraft!! I shall leave you with a picture of a nose stud I made a few weeks ago. It is tiny and has a leeeeeetle tiny stone set (yes, set, not glued!!) in the end. Here it is next to a ten pence coin so you can see quite how small it is:

custom work again....

I got a lovely email from the recipient of this ring - very happy with it and it fits perfectly :-)

twit

I've succumbed to pressure and joined twitter. so if you're into twitter then I'm @magpienest. I'll see how it goes. So far it's fun to see what the big organisations write - I thought I'd follow the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. Those are interesting. But I'm not so sure I can think of much interesting to put on there...ah well I'll just see how it goes. So I have a lot of plans for today, including yet another trip to the post office. I also need to continue with a huge custom job for a wedding of a good friend. I'm already working on it, but it's requiring a couple of goes to make sure that the materials are right for the desired end result. In the meantime, I still have work over at the Craft Study Centre, Norden Farm and at the Evolution exhibition at South Hill Park. For that last one we all did a piece themed on DNA and I made this pendant:

some new earrings....

Hello hello, just a quick post. I managed to squeeze in making some new earrings in between trying to get a million other things done. I just wanted to try out something new. Here are some pics, they are up on Etsy too.

It's snowing out right now! How is that happening? I thought we'd already had way more than our fair share of snow for the year. Or even for the decade!
Anyway, so on Friday was the opening of the Evolution exhibit over at South Hill Park. By all accounts it went well and a good amount of people came. I wasn't one of them, though. I tried, but when we got on the motorway there was a very long queue and when we got to the end of the queue it turned out that there had been a major accident. The police made everyone do a u-turn over the grass verge and sent us back the way we had come. Both sides of the motorway were closed. By then there was no time to get to the opening anymore another way. So sadly I missed the opening!
This weekend I caught up on some much needed sleep and now it's back into the ring. I had a Folksy sale, which is great, so those earrings are going to be sent off today. So today's plan is post office and sorting papers and then back to the bench to start on the next batch of custom jobs. I'm hoping to have an item returned from the hallmarking office, but it looks like no luck on that front because it's already noon and usually it would have arrived by now. That was a bit of bad luck because one of the items I sent off for hallmarking came back with no hallmark on it - the Assay office just forgot! So another hallnote, another trip to the post office and another delay.
Here's a random photo of Mt Fuji that my dad took from an airplane - an exceptionally clear photo:

Evolution show opening tomorrow!

All welcome to the opening reception of the Berkshire Designer Jewellers "Evolution" show tomorrow evening 6.30pm - 8pm at South Hill Park in Bracknell.

custom necklace

gold ring

Remember the gold ring I cast and was going to clean up? Well, here it is: First here it is before and then two pictures after:
BEFORE:
AFTER:

wah!

Yikes I have a lot to do today! I've just had two very long days over at South Hill Park. All the classes went well and I got loads of my own work done too. But leaving the house so early and getting home so late is going to take some getting used to! Plus there's no internet access so have just been catching up with emails. Usually I guess there wouldn't be so many emails but I'm (along with another jeweller) organising the Evolution exhibit over at South Hill Park and that is SOON. So there are flurries of emails flying back and forth about stock sheet formats and allocated shelves and cases and set up times and so forth. I'll be great once the exhibit is set up!!!
So today I'm working on that a bit plus I really need to get a box together of things to hallmark. I'm still working on the gold ring from the below post. Nearly there, but have no photos yet. Will have them hopefully soon, all being well.
Anyway, it's all a bit hectic and I'm hoping I can stay calm and carry on! Ha!

progress

Custom jobs have been sent, lessons start tomorrow, orders are being placed (by me, for more materials), etc. etc. The year is well and truly underway. Today the plan is to finish this ring, which is a gold cast ring. I made it in silver first, approximately right, but hollow so I couldn't shape it quite the way I wanted to. Then I cast it, since I only need one I used cuttlefish, and now all I need to do is clean it up. As you can see, quite a lot of cleaning up needs to be done. Hopefully it'll go well and I'll be able to finish it today, which means I'll have a photo of the finished item later today.

"Evolution" by Berkshire Designer Jewellers

Please click on the above poster for a closer look! If you're in the Berkshire area, you're very welcome to attend our private view for this exciting show!

The exhibition presents designer jewellery and metal work responding to the theme of DNA as well as selected pieces from the makers’ individual collections. Jewellery will be available for sale.

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday 5th February, 6.30 - 9pm. ALL WELCOME!

EXHIBITION OPENING TIMES:
Monday to Saturday: 9m - 11pm
Sundays and Bank Holidays 11am - 10.30pm

ADMISSION FREE.

South Hill Park Arts Centre
Ringmead
Bracknell
RG12 7PA

DIRECTIONS: http//www.southhillpark.org.uk/aboutUsTravel.jsp

bah humbug

Please read this blog post if you're local to the Reading area and comment. The jelly is a Reading arts institution and provides support and inspiration for numerous Reading arts groups. Currently based in the town hall, they won't have a home from March. I hope a solution can be found!!

technically not a snow picture

Well, it's an icicle picture. Hanging from our gutter are numerous large icicles.

snow, snow, don't go away but melt a bit please

Ok, the snow is very pretty and all, but I'm still waiting for my hallmarking packet and getting nervous about it now. sigh. I need to go to the post office, but you know as soon as I reach the post office, the postie will be at my door and I won't be home. Grumble....
Anyway......here's a photo that I absolutely love that I wanted to share. I nicked it from my sister, because I am allergic to cats, so I don't have any(*sob* because I love cats!). My sister has our old cat and her super spoiled cat. So at first I thought, aaaaw there's Pepe, sleeping all happy on the couch. Then about the fourth time I looked at the photo, I was like "wait a minute........." and finally spotted JOSIE in the box!!! bwahahaha! ok, maybe it's just me that finds it super amusing, but in any case, makes a change from snow pictures!

more snow?!?!

what's going on? I had never seen so much snow here as we had at Christmas and now we've got another giant packet of the white stuff. It's a thick layer, too, more than Reading has ever seen or at least for a very long while. Not only that, it's still snowing and more snow is predicted until this evening! It's all white, white and more white. It looks nice, but I don't think I'm going anywhere. Lots of rambling about the snow, but really, it's very unusual for here!!! So here's another photo, this time of the back garden about midnight last night.
My scheduled driving lesson isn't happening today. I'm awaiting a special delivery package from the hallmarking office and I'll be very impressed if it arrives today. I also need to send some things, but I wonder if it might be wiser to wait for the roads to have cleared a bit.

brrrrrrrrrrrr

Happy 2010! It's a new year and after a very lovely holiday it's back to normal. All the snow has melted around here, but it's still pretty darn cold. My fingers are freezing and my toes are numb. Much tea and thicker socks are needed! And back to the bench I go. I have several custom jobs to work on and a batch of items to send off for hallmarking today. It's all systems go and my teaching starts next week as well. I'll be posting more photos of custom jobs soon as well as attempting to put new items on my Etsy and Folksy sites. For anyone around this area, I have a bunch of work available over at Norden Farm now, so if you're over that way have a look :-) For now, here's another photo of all the snow that we had over Christmas!

happy holidays

lots of snow

This is more snow than I've ever seen here in Reading! Loads! White stuff! Fluff! Everything looks really lovely and I really like the quietness that comes with snow. The cars are muffled, the people walking by is just a soft crunch, etc... Anyway...here's a photo of the snow beginning and then how it is now, we reckon a good 2 inches fell at least just here.

phhhhhhhhhew

Phew - last craft fair of the year over. Christmas tree decorated. Snow falling. Temperatures falling. Presents ready to be wrapped. Only a couple of custom jobs to do before the weekend. Rage Against the Machine single purchased*. And commissioned piece turned out really nice....here's a photo of it - 18k yellow gold peek ring with ruby:
* there's a group on Facebook trying to get everyone to download the single "Killing in the Name" by Rage against the Machine so it can beat the latest Xfactor dross to be Christmas number one. I support the sentiment - a "handmade" song over a manufactured bland one!

today today...

is my last craft fair of the year - get ye down to Farnham for mulled wine, mince pies, and an amazing array of homemade goodies perfect for those last-minute presents!

In other news, I'm shifting around my online presence a bit. I'm moving off some sites and possibly on to others. I have now stopped using DaWanda because it wasn't working that well for me and I just don't have the time to keep on top of Etsy, Folksy and also DaWanda. Plus I think DaWanda works better if you're also fluent in German and French so you can use the other parts of the site. So hey ho, I'm focusing on Etsy and Folksy. This way I have shops that are in good shape and I can offer PayPal or Google Checkout and dollars or pounds. So hopefully this will make things a bit neater and easier to manage!

In the meantime, I'm working on finishing custom pieces before Christmas - hopefully all will go well and it'll all be finished by this Saturday - here's hoping! And here's a photo of one such custom job....

ONE MORE

One more craft fair to go - this Tuesday evening there is a Christmas market at Farnham Maltings in Farnham, Surrey. Open 5pm - 10pm! Last chance to get your handmade, unique pressies straight from the makers. 150 stalls and mince pies and mulled wine from the bar. See you there...

www.farnhammaltings.com

exciting stuff going on....

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


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


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

gold

Here are some photos of my bud hoop earrings - now available in 18k yellow gold: