blast from the past - wedding rings

I was thinking about all the wedding rings I've made and realised I never put a photo here of these particular rings. They are 18ct white and yellow gold alternating stripes, with the white gold (with a textured finish) set deeper so the yellow gold is higher. The one on the left is the woman's ring, very small, I think it was size H. The man's ring is a square ring, sometimes that shape works better with thinner fingers that have wide knuckles. I made the rings in silver first to test the process and sizing, which turned out to be a good thing, as the groom lost his ring! So he's wearing the silver version now - luckily for him I still had it and it fits.

A couple posts ago I wrote about a triple sapphire wedding ring I made. I've made numerous plain bands - no stones or decorations - in a wide variety of sizes, widths and profiles. There have been several wedding bands made to fit against a complicated-shaped engagement ring. As I look through my photos while writing this post, I realise I didn't take photos of many of those, shame!

This is another wedding ring, a silver ring with 4 diamonds set all the way around with an oval profile.

 

These two rings were for a couple who wanted unique rings - each quite different to each other but with a unifying element. That element was a touch of gold. The ring on the left has a solid gold ball sitting on a delicate shank, while the one on the right has one silver arm and one gold arm.

another ring

Here's another ring I just finished for a customer who was looking for a Russian wedding ring. As far as I'm aware, a Russian wedding ring is traditionally three rings, each with a D-shape profile, interlinked with each other. I think usually they are three colours of gold (rose, yellow and white) but my customer was looking for an all-silver one. Here's the result, which she is picking up on Friday:

(According to a very cursory search on Google, the three rings were in a Russian wedding ring to represent the holy trinity. Not sure how reliable the website I landed on was, though!)

wedding and engagement ring

I have just finished an wedding ring for a customer - she already had an engagement ring from me. The engagement ring is my blue sapphire peek ring, which is this one:

My customer had a look at various rings I had done and together we came up with a triple sapphire ring that  echoes a stack ring, sitting against the above peek ring with a slight overlap, thus giving the allusion of a single ring and showing continuity between the wedding and engagement rings. This is the finished wedding ring:

They are both sterling silver with a matte finish with 3mm blue sapphires.

mega 13 course birthday meal

It was Dougall's birthday a couple of weeks ago and I made him and a friend a 13 course meal. I cooked and cooked and cooked until I could cook no more. It took about a day and an evening and here's the result: (order may have been different, I can't remember it all now!!)

cream cheese and walnut and roasted peppers palmiers

- tastey! 

Spiced macadamia nuts - very nice but didn't realise how expensive macadamia nuts are!

Toasted walnut and stilton balls - not for the faint-hearted

gazpacho with caraway and pimiento twist - twists were fun to make

cherry soup - reminiscent of mulled wine and liked by all

Forgot to take photo - courgette noodles with chashew and sun dried tomato sauce. courgette in thinly peeled sliced are delicious alternate to noodles, who would have thought...

Spicy coconut and beetroot soup, rather lovely and the herby yogurt that went with it rather unnecessary. lots of work though.

asparagus spirals - would have been yummy if i hadn't picked dud, rather stringy asparagus!

Not a success - apple crumble cocktail. Would have been better if I had checked if we had ice. We didn't. So the crumbled digestive and apple sauce that was supposed to be decorative on top just floated around in the drink in a bad way. oh well.

Stuffed tomato - with gruyere and cream sauce. Nick's fave, although there is a LOT of cream in the sauce, so could probably be better with less cream and just the gruyere. Dougs said nice rocket and dressing underneath!

meh. Parsnip pudding. just a tarted up version of mashed parsnip really, not that exciting.

Blueberry tart - a fave from my childhood, wanted to see if it's still good. it is. delicious almond crust and fat blueberries covered with apricot and grand marnier jelly.

chewy biscotti a success with everyone - lots of dried fruit in those! served with limoncello - recipe said to make it, but that was one step too far so I bought a bottle. Great with the biscotti. 

So that was the whole meal - recipes are here: (I had to add a half pint of water to the courgette recipe, otherwise it wouldn't blend, still tasted great.)

can't find the palmiers recipe, but plenty similar on BBC good food website. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spiced_macadamia_nuts_76146

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/stiltonandtoastedwal_78906

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gazpachoshotswithpim_93819

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/warm_cherry_soup_15890 (totally ignored the thing about the cherry stones because it was too hard and I had no hammer)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spicybeetrootandcoco_85158

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/mar/16/vegetarian-main-course-recipes (courgette noodles are in this article)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/asparagus_and_puff_00402

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/dec/04/christmas-vegetarian-recipes-shaun-hill (parsnip pudding is in this article)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/biscotti_with_limoncello_55604

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gruyre_stuffed_tomatoes_08076

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/apple_crumble_cocktail_95570

you'll have to email me if you want the blueberry tart recipe, that's old and not online as far as I know!

Planning your wedding?

If you're planning your wedding and looking for a photographer, let me recommend Loren Stone. She does amazing photographs! You can see a selection of her photographs on her website, which is http://www.stonephotos.co.uk

Loren studied photography at Reading College, where she got her BA and qualified for the British Institute of Professional Photographers Licentiateship, demonstrating her professional level of skill and competence. Loren really enjoys weddings and has lots of experience - she could probably also give you good recommendations for wedding favours! The other day, she brought in a rather nice chocolate that was in the shape of mini cake slice. Not that she offered me any....!!! ha, just kidding :-)

Anyway, I thoroughly recommend Loren for your photography needs! Go have a look at her website, go on,  you'll be impressed. http://www.stonephotos.co.uk

Various updates

So if you'd like to take a fun day course on how to make silver clay jewellery, you can do exactly that at Jam in Eton on either (or both) April 20th and April 21st. There are a mere 8 students per class and the setting is lovely, so do book soon if you'd like a place. You can find details - as well as a video of the last course held at Jam - on the Jam website here: http://www.jam-eton.co.uk/pages/workshops.html

In other news, I have been quiet but that's because I am making, making, making. I have a few commissions, a couple of small jobs and I am preparing new work for October. I will be the featured jeweller at Jam for October (you can see their exhibition schedule here to see all the exciting jewellers on show: http://www.jam-eton.co.uk/pages/exhibitions_diary.html) I am planning to have some new pieces, as well as some one-off pieces just for that exhibit.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is totally bored with the winter. I'm bored of my winter clothes, bored of the damp cold and bored of waiting around at freezing train stations. So I was delighted to feel a tinge of warmth at lunch yesterday - there was even a small ray of sunshine. Hopefully this means the tide will be turning soon and we can all chill out a bit. I saw this amazing cake yesterday in Eton that may actually herald the beginning of spring, it's from Foxy's Cake Co at the end of Eton high street:

It is my plan to put a couple more items up on Not on the High Street and Etsy this week, so hopefully that will come to fruition as well. I need to take some photos before that can be done, but I am hopeful that I'll have a super productive day today! Tea at the ready!

updated page on Craft & Design

My page on Craft & Design's Selected Makers site has been updated. You can see it here:
http://www.craftmaker.co.uk/machidewaard/ and if you fancy it, there's still time to vote for me at the bottom of that page for Craft & Design's Selected Maker awards for this year.

quick link

Jam Eton has started a blog -- the very first post is up! If you're interested in handmade or UK makers or craft, then this is a blog to keep an eye on! Here's the link: http://jameton.wordpress.com/

This week has been action-packed so far. On Monday, I went to the Spring Fair in Birmingham with Jam Eton's fair veteran and owner, Jacqueline. We went up by train, which was surprisingly easy - the train was on time, and fast (I know! I was amazed!) and not only did it arrive near the NEC, we could walk straight in to it without even having to put one foot outside. So that part was easy. Mission number one was to search for interesting Christmas decorations. It certainly was a novel experience (for me) to search for Christmas stuff in February. Fun, mind you, because I love Christmas and every year it's an enjoyable task of the holiday season to find some lovely new decorations to add to my stash. For example, this past year I found these totally amazing white-feather filled glass baubles (at Liberty's in London):

Anyway, back to this year -- so we wandered around and around, up and down the aisles, scanning the stands for goodies. I started off thinking more about getting a reasonable collection that sort of fitted together. I suppose I didn't think we would necessarily find anything really good because there is *so much* there and it's amazing how much of it is very similar (stuffed santas, that 'distressed' look that is hip and trendy but makes me think it wasn't painted very well). I am guessing this is in part due to the whole trend forecasting business and attempts to stay in fashion. Anyway, in the end we did find some really nice decorations that are great and not boring and I won't tell you all the details because I don't want to spoil the surprise. Suffice it to say, I will be saving up so I can get my own set of quite a few of those decorations!

On Tuesday I was back at the gallery (Jam Eton) working as per usual - except with a new colleague who is really nice and cheery. I have to admit that I felt really knackered Tuesday night. I guess all the visual stimulation on Monday, plus a nasty cold that won't go away, plus some annoying computer stuff that wouldn't do what I wanted on Tuesday just added up. I wanted to sleep, but annoying cold/cough meant I got a few hours only. Boo hiss.

Wednesday I got up super early to go over to Norden Farm in Maidenhead to teach two jewellery classes. I had to leave really early because the traffic *creeps* at that time of the day, so it takes twice as long to get to Maidenhead. So I set up - I was covering for my good friend Janet Richardson - which is a big deal because Jan has to bring all the equipment to Norden Farm, it's not like South Hill Park, where there's a studio all set up with all the tools and everything, ready to go. Then I had two classes - both of whom were perfectly lovely and all working on a wide variety of projects. It was nice for me to be reminded that I do know what I'm talking about when it comes to jewellery, and I certainly know what I'm talking about when it comes to soldering.

So, overall a week packed with action. Now it's time for this stinkin' cold to pack up and go away and for me to get back to my own bench. New pieces coming soon in my gold ball collection....

Keeping busy

Here's a pair of custom earrings I made this month - they are a very short drop earring variant of my dangle earrings. Oxidised silver with gold balls.

 

The other big news this month, of course, has been the snow. It's all gone now, rain has taken its place. But here's a photo of the courtyard at Jam Gallery when the snow was piling up. It looked nice, but you'd think trains were allergic to snow, the way transport system reacted!! 

check out my friend

yeah! look what my friend Jane Tadrist, jeweller and silversmith is doing --
http://janetadrist.wordpress.com/

bye bye 2012

And we're off - 2013! It's only the second, so not much to say about this shiny new year so far. However, I can say a couple of things about last year. Firstly, below a photo of an engagement ring commission that I did towards the end of last year. The recipients are very happy with their rings and very happy with their engagement too! The one on the left is sterling silver with a solid 18k gold ball, while the one on the right is a twist on my silver crossover ring - the end of one prong is solid 18k gold.

In other 2012 news, I am happy to say that my first season on Not on the High Street went well - sold various pieces and really need to get cracking to replenish my stock! My new mini pendants went down well in the galleries - if you haven't seen them yet, here's a photo of three of them (there's also a gold plated one, which you can see on Not on the High Street).

Here's to a great 2013 for all - let it be prosperous and healthy!

Jam Newsletter

My newest pendant featured in the Jam Gallery newsletter this month (pic below). It is available on Etsy and Not on the High Street. I am really pleased with my new little pendants, they are charming - small and modern with four varieties - oxidised, with gold ball, closed and 18ct vermeil with silver ball.

news

Well, it suddenly feels like winter. Looking up casserole and hot soup recipes! The biggest jewellery news is that I have joined Not on the High Street and am now live on the site! You can see my page here:
http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/partners/machidewaardjewellery/products

Click on the above link to go straight to the site, or click on the below picture to get a closer look at what my product page looks like:

I'm still busy with various jewellery-related plans. Just finished a peek ring as an engagement ring with a lovely light blue sapphire. On most Thursdays and Fridays I'm over at the Jam Gallery in Eton at 81 High Street, so you can always come see me or my work there :-) New items are in the works, so hopefully soon I will be sending out a newsletter with some photos. You can sign up for my newsletter here.
That's all for now...hope you're all staying warm and dry on this very wet and chilly Monday.

Oh, and also - in totally unrelated news, a very good friend of mine has published a book! I'm very proud of him, especially as I know how much work went into it...I'm half way through reading it myself... here's a link in case you're looking for some good page-turning reading - - http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Goodbye-ebook/dp/B009JU940O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349705051&sr=8-1

quick link

I was interviewed yesterday on UK Handmade's website -- you can see the interview here:
http://ukhandmade.co.uk/content/meet-machi-de-waard

Secret Project number one

Unveiled today! UK Handmade is holding a competition! The start date today and entries must be in by 10 August. What can I win, I hear you cry.... You can win £150 worth of bespoke handmade jewellery by one of six jewellers. I'm one of the six! You can read all about it here in UK Handmade's latest magazine : http://ukhandmade.co.uk/magazine

Or you can read all about here on the relevant pages of the magazine (just click on the photo to get a larger image so you can read it.) Well worth checking out the whole magazine, though, at the link above, as it has many interesting articles in it.

quiet phase

I'm still here, but going through a quiet phase. I'm focusing on a bunch of new projects - details of which will be revealed in the autumn. At the moment, though, I just have to focus on working at the bench and preparing the framework for the new projects. In the meantime, I can show you something else. In June I made a new website for my mom. She's an artist and this new website shows more (and newer) paintings than her old website. So, you can have a look at it here: www.mariekedewaard.co.uk and here is a screenshot of the front page:

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Whether you're into the spirit of the Queen's Jubilee this summer or not, there's no question there's a lot of fun activities going on in Windsor & Eton this summer! There's the official website if you want to see where the various royal family members will be - http://www.thediamondjubilee.org/ and if you're not so into that, then you can just do the fun bit - the street parties! There's bound to be one in your area, and you can get tickets for tomorrow, 3 June, for Eton' street party (might be sold out by now though!). In any case, a great excuse to pick a day with nice weather to wander around Windsor & Eton. You can pop over the bridge from Windsor into Eton and see the Jam gallery, with its new logo and building colour which looks great! The gallery has lots of interesting work from many individual makers - in jewellery, ceramics, glass and more. (Including my work, so obviously I'm biased!!) You can also follow the travelling exhibition of jewellery on the theme of the Jubilee organised by the Association for Contemporary Jewellery. Just click on this link to find out more: http://www.acj.org.uk/index.php/component/content/article/201-acj-diamond-jubilee-exhibition

Craftfinder

I'm delighted that my profile is now up on the new Craftfinder website. It's a website that makes it easy to find exciting handmade contemporary craft wherever you happen to be in the UK. Sponsored by the Arts Council and the Lottery, this website is just getting started, so keep an eye on it and be amazed by quite how many beautiful contemporary crafts are being created all over the UK! Here's a screenshot of me on the homepage of Craftfinder, or you can just click here for my profile.

Inhorgenta

I went to the enormous jewellery trade fair, Inhorgenta, in Munich in February. I wrote a review which will be out soon in the latest issue of Findings, which is the magazine of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery. You can read the article to find out more about what jewellery and jewellery-related goodies were at the show, but the main memory I have now is how COLD it was. It was about -17 to -19C, so quite cold. Here are some photos to show the cold...

Craft and jewellery classes at Jam

Jam Gallery in Eton is doing something new - offering craft and jewellery classes. There are three sessions of Children's craft workshops on 14 July. Taught by experienced children's teacher and jeweller/silversmith Jane Tadrist. The children will take home two gifts they've made themselves and in the process learn how to work with metal.

See flyer for details - click on them to get a bigger image:

Then on 22 and 23 September there are adult jewellery classes - the Saturday is a class on metal clay and the Sunday is sterling silver jewellery. Both taught by the lovely Janet Richardson, who has 30+ years experience in the jewellery field.

See flyer for details - click on them to get a bigger image:

benchpeg

Just a comparison....my benchpeg gets a lot of use, so I thought it might be interesting to see how it has changed in a year and a half. The first picture is a year and a half ago, the one below it is now. You can see it's shrinking, the left and right sides keep getting shorter...

Sport for charity challenge

My husband is doing a 3000 mile cycle in 33 days this summer - his longest ever cycle. To put this into perspective, for the famous Land's End to John o' Groats route, the traditional distance by road is 874 miles (1,407 km) and takes most cyclists ten to fourteen days. Dougall will be cycling about 3.5 times the distance in only about double the time.

You can sponsor him in this mad endeavour if you wish! Or you can read about it when it starts on 4th of June on this blog - http://dougal3000miles.blogspot.co.uk/ which I will be updating with notes on his progress. All the sponsorship will go directly to charity! Here he is on a previous cycle:

New Ashgate Gallery

My jewellery is part of the Spring Exhibition at the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham until 28 April. I went to go have a look yesterday. Lots of interesting work! Had a mooch around Farnham too, which was fun. This is a picture of the gallery and a photo of the main street in Farnham. And one more photo - a steeple in the middle of Farnham.

New Ashgate Gallery exhibit

My work will be shown in the New Ashgate gallery Spring Exhibition! The opening is on Friday 3 February, 6-8pm. The exhibit is on from that evening until Saturday 28 April. If you've never been, this is a great reason to go see this lovely gallery in the charming town of Farnham. The gallery is in a lovely location and is well worth a visit!

New Ashgate Gallery

Waggon Yard, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7PS

Open Tues-Sat 10-5

Registered Charitable Trust No. 274326

JaM

I'm Flavour of the Month over at the JaM Gallery in Eton. JaM is located at 81 High Street, Eton, just over the bridge from Windsor. My work is also available on the JaM website (just follow the link to see). I'm also working at JaM part time. I am there pretty much every Thursday, so come by and see this lovely gallery. We have a wide selection of jewellery - including jewellery made by the jeweller who made the Algerian love knot necklace for my favourite James Bond film, Casino Royale with Daniel Craig. That's not all, though, there is also a dazzling array of glasswork and ceramics, along with cards, woodwork, etc. Come and have a look :-) In the meantime, here is a photo of some earrings that are part of my new collection:

Yay!

Yiipppppeeee the opening to my show (and 3 other fab artists!) is finally nearly here! The opening is on Saturday, 4-6pm at South Hill Park in Bracknell. My new collection is there to see and I will have matching cupcakes! The cupcakes have edible gold balls on top! Yes, I am overly excited about the cupcakes! wheeeeeee

one down, two to go.......

Well, the Crowthorne fair is over for another year. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and had a chat! It went well and it seemed busy - more so than last year. Now it's time to get the orders done from the show and get ready for the next fair, which is the Craft & Design Show at South Hill Park.

dates: 19 & 20 November 2011

price: £Weekend tickets £7, Conc £5 (Advance only)

venue: Wilde Theatre

Enjoy and explore handmade crafts from a wide range of UK artists.

Taster session available on the day in silversmithing, ceramics and printmaking.

Sat 19 Nov - 11am-6pm
Sun 20 Nov - 10am-5pm
Tickets on the day: £5, Conc £3, Under 10s FREE. Family £10 (2+2 or 1+3)

Craft in Focus 28-30 October

Next weekend is Craft in Focus at Crowthorne! I'll be there, along with loads of fabulous crafters like Lauren Denney - beautiful ceramics (stand 21). We'll be across from each other, I will be at stand 90.

1pm to 6pm Friday; 10am to 5pm Saturday & Sunday

Adults £4.50, Over 65's £3.50, Accompanied under 14's free!

End of Residency show

Come see my new collection! Opening reception is at South Hill Park on Saturday 3 December from 4 - 6pm. There will be a secret sweet treat related to my new collection for anyone who comes to the reception!

My end of residency show

Just a quick note - details about my end of Residency show over at South Hill Park are on the website - http://www.southhillpark.org.uk/3842/shows/fundamental-modernist-forms.html

More details to follow soon....with photos!

close-up

I've been busy, busy, busy getting ready for my End of Residency show. More details will follow, but for your calendar - the opening reception is 4-6pm on Saturday December 3rd at South Hill Park in Bracknell.
In the meantime, a close-up of a commission I did several months ago (aquamarine stone in 14ct gold with pearls necklace):