things are getting busy again...

Tomorrow is September again, which I can't quite believe. Where did August go? Today is a bit of a running around day and I think I better get used to it - might be a running around type rest of the year! This morning I had an exciting dentist appointment. I use the word 'exciting' here to mean 'not remotely exciting' which is exactly how I like my dentist appointments! Nothing wrong so then I drove over to South Hill Park and took down the students' show. Went pretty well, 6 pieces sold and I'll return the rest when the term starts.
I've started posting again a bit on Etsy and Folksy. Will be trying to increase that slowly. Also finally getting towards the end of a project I'm working on with Hello Wilson - just a couple more things to do and it's nearly finished.
You can probably spot the most exciting news at the top of my blog/etsy/folksy/twitter....see anything new???

want to learn how to make jewellery?

Click on the photo below for a closer look - take a jewellery class taught by an experienced silversmith and learn how to make your own creative pieces:

Summer course over...

The summer course is over now, I think it went quite well. We discovered some interesting things, one of which is that hollow items with no holes can indeed explode during soldering. It hadn't happened before and then it happened twice - it is loud, an enormous bang! Luckily there were no injuries!! I covered metal inlay and things that look like inlay, for example, amongst others:

So now back to making more things and very soon hopefully heading off to London to get more boxes, as I'm out of nearly every type of box. I'm hoping the supplier won't be too low on stock...

just randomly...

Just thought I'd point out these posts in case someone else finds these interesting. They are about the work life of one person in London in the 1940s over on Mary Portas' (of Mary Queen of Shops fame) blog: http://tiny.cc/3lhiu

cont'd

So Ernest Jones have agreed with no fuss to get the watch fixed, new strap and all at no cost to me. So now I just have to wait another 2 weeks. Sigh. Oh well, at least I didn't have to kick up a fuss.
The guys at The Watch Shop in Reading has been exceptionally helpful and polite. They went out of their way to help me get this sorted.
Anyway, in other news I am working on an order for a wedding gift - a collection for the bride & groom. I had one of the necklaces in stock, so I re-polished that:I've nearly finished a pair of the earrings, of which I had sold out:
And I just need to polish the cuff links which had also sold out:

arggghhh

So I have been working on jewellery and will stick a photo here soon of some new stuff. However, am now posting to vent. You know when you have a little task that should be super easy? And then it goes horribly wrong? Through no fault of your own? Wellllll....so I had a very nice watch. I liked it a lot. My mom had the same one. She liked it a lot. Hers broke by accident. She wanted the same one again. We searched and scoured the internet, could not find one anywhere. It's a lovely, slim line Skagen watch. Very minimal, neat and modern. In the end, I gave my mom my watch because it seems Skagen have stopped making any of their slimline watches for women. They have men's, but they are way too big.
So, I needed a watch. I went to John Lewis, thinking they might still have a Skagen slimline watch for women because they used to have one. No luck. All other women's watches either covered with diamonds, pink, or otherwise bling. Nothing minimal.
So, went online to a reputable shop and bought a minimal calvin klein watch. No numbers, no extra dials, no fuss. It arrived a bit later than I had anticipated because it was out of stock.
Anyway, lovely watch - far too big. Can't self-adjust it because it has links. Go into town for what should be a 5 minute job and go into Ernest Jones. Can they do it? Yes. Now? Yes. About 40 minutes later - sorry can you come back tomorrow, I can't get it back together. I come back the next day, manager hasn't been able to do it either. Watch in pieces.
Took the watch to another shop. They are amazed at the incompetence of Ernest Jones. Turns out Ernest Jones broke one of the pegs. Come back tomorrow....
Went back today, turns out Ernest Jones hadn't the foggiest what they were doing and took out the wrong peg, breaking the watch strap. I need to buy a whole new strap. I haven't even worn the watch yet. Arrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhh.
So, now another week to wait while this shop fixes the problem. Will be presenting the bill to Ernest Jones. Why didn't they just stop when they realised they didn't know how to do it????
Sigh. Anyway....apologies about the long post about this, needed to vent!!!

more cat action!

Thomas, who lives near us, made an extended visit today. (I'm also working on jewellery, but a cat photo for now...)

Peppy

Peppy, originally actually Pepe Romero (influence of a concert I'd just been to) is our family cat and he's nearly 21. He's still going strong and is super cute. Here are some photos to prove it!!

Summer Course at South Hill Park

There are still a couple of spaces left on my summer course at South Hill Park! See here for details: http://tiny.cc/i1gb8
It's a three day course from Tue 17 Aug - Thu 19 Aug 10.00am - 4.00pm each day.

fun photo

I just like this photo. It's a super close up of some laser hallmarking on a clasp for a piece I did which is part silver and part 9ct gold. You can't see this detail with the naked eye!!

engagement ring...

and here's another commission. Sterling silver with ruby, sapphire and CZ. Middle stone in 'mock' tension setting - ie there's a tiny bridge behind it to make it sturdier. satin finish.

more commissioned work

Here are some photos of a piece commissioned for a birthday. I think I said in a previous post, the hard part with this one was finding the right stone (checkerboard cut aquamarine). I found one and it looks much better than the photo the supplier sent. It also actually looks a lot nicer in real life than on any photo I could take. The light dances over the surface, hard to capture on a photo!! In any case, here is the final ring. Bezel set in sterling silver with a satin finish.

and more wedding gifts

And a chop of the couple's names on cuff links and a pendant...chop is actually upside down on the cuff links in this photo, sorry! These look fairly simply but they took a whole load of steps to make!

wedding gifts...

These have now been given to the various wedding guests, so safe to put up some photos. These are brooches and cuff links with silk Chinese cloth. The surround is all handmade by me, sterling silver:

holy busy, batman

Still manic around here, which you can probably tell, since the number of blog posts has been dwindling! Just getting a job ready and hoping I'll manage to get to the post office before it shuts. Meeting some people tonight, one pair for a custom job and another to return a repair job. Also need to clean and make one earring (for someone who lost one of their pair) and laundry and ....etc. I finished another custom job that I'd love to post photos of, but it's a secret so better wait til after they've been given! Right, I better run off to the bench again but before I go, for another custom job (another secret but I highly doubt the recipient would see this post and even if they did they wouldn't recognise it was for them) we tracked down the right fabulous stone, which is this facet cut cabochon aquamarine:

So much going on...

It continues to be super busy chez magpienest. Yesterday I did a private craft fair which was ok but to be honest a bit disappointing. Ah well, can't win them all! At least I met a bunch of interesting people and two ladies in particular really liked my jewellery and are hopefully going to come to the Desire show in Winchester to see me. I had good news as well, I've been accepted to Festival of Crafts in Farnham! Hurrah! So I'll be putting up links to that soon on my website. I have a bunch of commissions on the go with the related research. I'm searching for a particular stone, which I may have a look at in Brighton because I'll be there for a friend's wedding. Also have a mock tension setting in the works. For another piece, I thought I was going to photo etch it, but in the end it made more sense to photo etch brass and then use the brass through the rolling mill to imprint the image on to the silver. It worked beautifully, so just need to tidy up the silver and transform it into cuff links and a pendant.
In other news I couldn't sleep and came up with a (I think) pretty good idea for my 3-day summer course I'm teaching over at South Hill Park in August. If you're interested in that course, let me know. The brochure is being printed, so it's not out yet. I believe it's going to be 17-19 August, but I'm waiting for the brochure to be 100% sure!! There will be two summer 3 day courses, one for beginners (taught by Bev) and my one, which is for people who have already been taking the jewellery courses.
Tomorrow I'm going to South Hill Park to do a resin in jewellery workshop - should be good and something different for me. I've used resin a bit, but not extensively, so it will be interesting to see what other options there are!
Right now I need to go off to the post office yet again but happily it's a beautiful day out, so it'll be a pleasure.

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....