Autumn 2009

The last time I managed to update this blog it was mid-summer, and I was talking about my summer show and looking forward to starting a new job. It's now four months on, well and truly Autumn, and I'm thinking about Christmas already!


The new job is going well, and I'm not the new girl anymore, which is always a good feeling. There's lots of traveling at the moment, so less time than I'd like for jewellery-making, but I have had lots of time on the train thinking up new design ideas, and I've got a week off soon to try and realise some of them ;)


So in the absence of any brand new jewellery, here are a couple of pics of some earrings I made earlier ;) ~ alternate versions of my silver hoop and glass disc design, featuring lampwork glass by Caroline Cash of Crafted Gems and clusters of beautiful gemstones and pearls. I really enjoy making this design, so these may not be the last incarnation...

So it's been a while... and I've been busy as usual. I'm moving to a new day job in 3 weeks time and so desperately trying to wrap everything up where I am at the moment. But I've still had time for jewellery and last weekend was the Leammington Peace Festival, where I had a stall along with the gals from an arts collective: Sent 2 Coventry, who I have started to do craft fairs & events with. Julia makes the most amazing jewellery from buttons, Beth recycles all sorts of things to make jewellery and accessories, Janice and Emma G are artists and Emma O is a soft sculptor and sells (among other things) amazing monsters made of fluffy fabric (the hats are courtesy of Emma ;).


The weather was fantastic and the atmosphere was brilliant, and people were buying my jewellery, which was the icing on the cake for me ;)

I think it's quite a challenge to get a stall looking enticing enough for people to come and buy, and each time I do a show I try to put into practice ideas or lessons learned from the last one. I've got a few new jewellery display bits and bobs, (bracelet bars and necklace busts), I just need to get my earring display right next time!


I sold a few lampwork and silver pieces (including my favourite 'Rainbow Sunset' bracelet) but I also I did really well with silver plated charm bracelets, which I can price a bit cheaper than the sterling silver jewellery. I don't have these for sale in my webshops, but I do take them out when I do shows. I have another event next Saturday, so I'm madly making more of them this week as my stock was seriously depleted last weekend - not that I'm complaining! Of course I've nearly spent all my takings on new beads already... so now I'm stalking my postman waiting for my new sparklies to arrive ;)

Wire Wrapping

I've been trying a bit more wire-wrapping lately, and these earrings were the catalyst for several other pairs I've made since. This is a design by one of my Plurk buddies, Lotta of Silverknuten who asked for volunteers to try out her tutorial. I jumped at the chance and here is the end result. I'm really pleased with how they turned out so now I need to scribble some designs of my own and get going. It should be interesting, seeing as I don't ususally work from a drawn design but just go with the flow. I think for this sort of design, though I need to work out where it's going before I start wrapping!
If you fancy having a go at these yourself, Lotta has the tutorial up for sale on her Etsy store here, but if wire-wrapping isn't your thing, she has the finished article in her shop too ;)

South Paw Studios: ETT Shop of the Week

I know it's nearly the end of the week, but there's still time for me to get in a quick post about the Etsy Twitter Team shop of the week: South Paw Studios. I really love the jewellery in this week's shop, simple chic and elegant. The artist behind these lovely things is Katy Mims, a self-taught jewellery designer from Toledo, Ohio, in the US. I really like the way she combines her beads and silver, these two bracelets with freshawater pearls and Bali silver beads are great examples of her work.
Check out her shop if you like her style, Katy has a special offer running this week too: 15% off your TOTAL order plus free worldwide shipping. Enter code "EtsyTwitter" in Message to Seller and all discounts will be refunded promptly via Paypal!

LOLCats...

Totally non-bead related (although I suppose string might be a tenuous link!) I just had to post this picture from the LOLCATS / I Can Has CheezBurger website. I laughed out loud ;) my cat Black Bat is a bit like this pair ~ my boyfriend and I have decided he's probably the philosopher rather than the dummy, LOL.

A New Blue Treasury

I got lucky today and snagged a Treasury West on Etsy, so loaded it up with goodies made by some of the lovely ladies (at least I'm assuming they are all ladies, I could be wrong!) from the Etsy Twitter Team. All in shades of turquoise, aqua and teal blues. It's up until Tuesday evening, so please give it some love if you can!

Earrings & Things

To end the post-less spell I thought I'd pop in a quick post to show you some of my latest creations. I've been pretty busy lately with my non-jewellery work; I've been offered a new job which starts in July and so there's lots of finishing up to do in my present job to leave it in a fit state for a successor! I have also been working up to a 3-day craft fair, which happened last weekend (relatively successful and great fun ;) so not much time left for blogging.

As you can see I've been experimenting with wire-wrapping and oxidising, and I'm quite pleased with the results! I am going to try and get around to listing these new earrings on my shops in the next couple of days too ;)

I hope you are all having a good week so far.

Ali