excitement in jewellery land

Well, the bloke didn't call me back because he got the number wrong, so I called him and hey ho, I have the sticks already!! Haven't tried them out yet but they look good!
In other news....it's sunny. That's pretty amazing. I'm starting to feel like I am emerging from the gloom! I think all those months of darkness were getting me down, because just a wee bit of sun is making me feel lots better!! Actually I quite like the darkness in about October, November time because at first it feels cosy and christmas-like. But by February it's just gloomy. So, the days are getting longer and so hopefully we'll have a nice spring!!
Tomorrow I'm off to a masterclass with the Berkshire Designer Jewellers. I'm very excited about it - a super guru jeweller has a list of questions from us and is going to show us some tips and things to sort out those little niggles. I'm looking forward to it!
What else...one of my cousins has had a daughter so now my gran has more great-grandchildren than she can shake a stick at! I think there are 10 or 12 now...something like that.
Ok, people, I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! And here's a photo for you of the front of a postcard that I'm having printed. Or not. I just tried it and the colours turned out all funky on blogger...hm. Well, suffice to say that I will have postcards soon....and I'll see if I can sort out the image and post it...

polishing sticks and things

Polishing sticks are little fiberglass sticks that are useful for getting into small areas to polish them - for things like this ring, the part around the gold ball:When I last went to the jewellery quarter to get some supplies, none of the suppliers had these sticks. So I was asking around and it turns out that one of the suppliers has them - either they just didn't have any the day I asked, or they've reintroduced them. I haven't used their website in ages because it wasn't that great. So I looked on their site and it seems to have gotten a makeover, which is good, but when I did the order for these sticks, at the last minute it failed. After I had put in my details, the site froze and I got a 'can't connect to network' type message. Sigh. So I phoned and now the sales dude is supposed to be calling me back....I certainly hope he will. I never like it when a 5 minute job takes ages to sort out! At least if he calls back, then it'll all be sorted....no call yet though. Sigh.
In other, more exciting news, I'm working on a custom engagement ring!! Right now it's in the design stage - it's a commission so the people involved are thinking about what they want, the design and the look and the stones and all that and I'm thinking about feasibility! I have to make sure the design is actually possible, especially because it's a very small ring size. Anyway, always exciting to work on wedding or engagement things - feels like a privilege to be working on them!

Projeto Gallery

The Projeto Gallery has just put up some new photos over on Flickr. On the second page you can see the shelf with my pieces on it - it has MagpieNest written in the caption! You can also see more photos of the inside of the Gallery - it's looking good!

hi again

There's a nice blog post over at Handm@de today about the fair and how it started. You can read about it by clicking here. November seems like a loooooong way away, but I know from last year that before you know it, it'll be here and I'll have to have everything ready - jewellery, boxes, ads, display, transport plans, etc. etc. At least this year I have a better idea how long it all takes and what I need to do before hand!!
I had a sale on folksy over the weekend, which is always exciting! Now I have three commissions to finish and a pile of items to polish. Lots to do!

Northern Ireland

We went to Northern Ireland to visit some friends over the weekend and on Saturday we walked over to Giant's Causeway, which is a weird natural rock formation. Follow the link if you want to see some photos of the Causeway...otherwise, here are some of the best photos from our walk there:

handm@de in Oxford - accepted!

Yay! I've been accepted to Handm@de in Oxford - a craft fair held in Oxford Town Hall on the 29th of November! Fantastic! I'm really happy about that and will be emailing all my Oxford friends to spread the word...closer to the time, of course...bit early now!
You can see the website here: www.handmadecraftfairs.co.uk/upcoming-shows/oxford-291109/
But the blog is better, it will have information about all the different craftsters/artists/makers. The blog is: http://handmadeoxford.blogspot.com

middle of the week...

So, it's the middle of the week and I'm still working on the new ring. New designs often take quite a bit of time to perfect. The first one shows me how not to make it, the second one shows me how to make it even better and hopefully the third one is the good one!! It depends how complex the design is, of course...sometimes it takes much longer to perfect a particular idea. In any case, I'm working on it and in the meantime trying to finish lots of half-made pieces. I had a pile of rings that were done but not sanded or polished so I worked on those a lot yesterday...it's a lot of repetitive motion so my fingers are a bit sore! I also nearly finished a bunch of new cuff links - they are heavyweight uber-sleek cuff links...to match this ring:photos coming as soon I've polished them!!
Incidentally, I tried the onion bhaji crisps and they are by far the best of the options, so if you like onions, try those if you get a chance! :-)

crisps

Well, the ring photos are going to be a bit later than I expected because the ring is rather complicated to make so I'm still working on it!!
So I thought I'd just mention what loads of people seem to be talking about - walkers' new crisps! ha! Yes, there are 6 new flavours that are out now and the public is supposed to vote for the best one of those six to become a regular flavour. I think crisps and crisp flavours is a bigger thing in the UK than anywhere else I've lived...perhaps because of the special place in the national psyche of the phrase '2 pints and a packet of crisps'??? In any case, the six flavours are (all vegetarian, by the way, despite the names!):
1. cajun squirrel (a cajun flavour, not bad, bit like paprika crisps)
2. onion bhaji (haven't had this one yet)
3. builder's breakfast (ok but reminded me too much of buttered toast and I can't stand butter)
4. hoisin duck (not bad, the taste was a bit too mild though)
5. chocolate and chili (yech...I didn't like this one! not much chocolate flavour though)
6. fish & chips (the shop we were in had tried all the flavours and didn't have this one for sale because they had tried it and reckoned it was disgusting! so haven't tried this one!)

So, have any of you tried them yet? what's your favorite? I know this whole thing is unimportant, and a very good publicity exercise for walkers, but it is kinda fun...

Which new crisp flavour is your favourite??

new!

I'm working on a new, new range - so far I'm liking how it's going!!! New design, new technique, new look!!!!! But the first one didn't go exactly right so I'm going to make another today and then soon I shall have photos and then I will put a poll on here and see what you all think :-)
that's all for now 'cause I have to get back to my bench...but photos to follow!!

handm@de in oxford

I'm just sending off my application today for Handm@de in Oxford, which will be held 29 November. I really hope I am accepted for this, because I know a decent amount of people in Oxford. A lot of those friends wanted to go to and asked about other events but weren't able to get to them because they were too far away. So if I can participate in this fair, it would be brilliant!! So I'll keep you posted :-)
Ok, off to check on the last bit of polishing on a secret project. I better not say anything other than that it's fun to work on a secret valentine's present :-)

porridge

Yes, porridge. It's healthy and filling and warms you up on cold winter mornings. Especially nice with lots of currants. If you like currants, that is. Or raisins, they are fine too. If I talk to people here in the UK about eating porridge, they say - oooo yes porridge, I used to have it as a kid - with milk and cream. And I say, oooo yes I used to have it as a kid too - in little sachets that you just add boiling water to and then it had these other little sachets with some disturbingly chemical looking jam-like matter that you swirled on top to add a bit of sugary goodness. Ha! So - English childhood porridge = milk and cream and a saucepan. US childhood porridge = instant porridge out of sachets with gooey sugar stuff. I'm amazed my parents let me eat that weird gooey stuff that came with it.....although maybe they noticed because I only remember having that porridge for a short while. Mostly I had cornflakes. I still make the porridge with water though. Sounds like it would be gross, but it's not. Really! So there you have it, a totally random story for this freezing cold Wednesday.

LinkedIn

Are any of you also on LinkedIn? I've updated and expanded my profile there - so if you want to connect with me on LinkedIn just click here.
I'm also thinking of making a facebook 'fan' page but I'll have to look into it a bit more to see if it's worth it.
I had a nice weekend in Holland - saw my cousin+wife and my grandmother. My gran was in good form and we had a good chat about all kinds of things. It was snowing on and off there and it's still cooooooooold here too. Roll on the spring, I say!!

white stuff and good news!

And we have more of the white stuff!! My mini garden gnome is snowed under, as you can see. Well, there are actually two and one is hidden under the snow and the other is the one you can see in the photo. I got these brilliant mini gnomes from my friend bob - who just got brilliant news! His gf has just received the news that her visa application to come to the UK has been accepted!! HURRAH!!

Pepe

His full first names are Pepe Romero, but my mom insists on calling him Peppy. Here he is:

more snow

It's snowing again....and apparently it's supposed to keep snowing lightly all week. I don't think we're going to get packs of snow here, like there were in parts of London. It looks nice, but it's so cold and I'm getting tired of all the cold weather. Winter is fine but by February I'm already looking forward to spring and warm days. Last spring, on one of the first nice sunny days, we went over to Wargrave and sat on their huge patio next to the Thames and lazily watched the rowboats go by. That was a good way to spend an afternoon. The pub has a website, www.stgeorgeanddragon.co.uk, but sadly the website does not have a good photo of their fabulous patio/outdoor seating area. Well, in case you're ever around Wargrave on a warm, sunny day...now you know where to go.

snow!

Snow! Lots of it! Well, as much as I can remember getting here before....

lastfm

Ok, I may have been one of the last people to twig to lastfm.com but just in case I'd thought I'd write about it today in case someone out there doesn't know about it. If you're into music, any music, this is a great website. You just go to the website www.lastfm.com and in the black box (right hand side of the screen) you type in the name of any band you like and it will play tracks from that band and other bands in roughly the same genre or that other people who like the band like. It's a great tool to get into new music without wading through too much stuff you don't like. Plus you can 'heart' or 'ban' tracks that you like or don't like, so it gets better the more you use it. There are more sites like it, but I reckon this is the best one....not that I've extensively tried other sites because this one was great straight away. So, there we go - a potential web tip if you hadn't heard of lastfm before!

blades and ants

So the day before yesterday I was working and *ping* my saw blade broke. Ok, put another one on. *ping* it broke just from the tension of setting it in the saw! That's a new one! A bad new one - saws should not be that wimpy, especially when they are not a fine grade. So, another one...saw, saw, saw, *ping*......grr....and so on....12 blades broke! TWELVE! So I concluded that they were poor quality blades. So I've bought some new blades, which I thought would arrive today but haven't yet. Which randomly made me think about blades. Saw blades, blades of grass, razor blades, and roller blades. The last of these, I feel, is conceptually quite loose... I mean, all other blades are sharp, or have a sharp edge. Roller blades do not. But they are in comparison to roller skates. So, interesting choice. And interesting connection made in the head of some marketing person, since I assume roller blades are pretty new and the name is a marketing tag (because they are also called in-line skates).
Ants...I don't like 'em. But I do like these ceramics:

Also I really like this elegant little flower vase:

commissions

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

Monday, monday

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