Tuesday 24 September 2013

The Romsey Show and a weekend in Whitstable

Had a great day selling at the Romsey Agricultural Show last Saturday.  Luckily the weather was good and I met lots of lovely people!  Having a bit of a break until next month.

Me and Richard are off to Whitstable for a long weekend.  Richard bid for the holiday at a charity auction and we have no idea what to expect, especially as he'd had a couple of drinks at the time!  We went there once before for the day and I remember there were lots of nice fish restaurants.

I have been making lots of fused silver pendants and really enjoying it.  I have been adding 5 and 4mm cabochons to them and I think they look amazing. 

S&M are doing fine apart from having harvest mice (sorry harvest mites) which are very common when you live in an agricultural area full of fields.  I have front lined them and they seem much better now. 

I'm off - it will soon be Christmas (I know, big groan) and I have lots to do.....





Tuesday 30 July 2013

Preparing for Christmas!

Yes, I know it's a bit early but we are already focusing on getting things together for a very busy December.  I will be back at Hilliers with the Association for Contemporary Jewellery and also sharing a chalet at the Salisbury Christmas Market.  The latter is a first for me and I have no idea what to expect, how much stock I will need - all a bit scary really but if you don't give it a try you will never know.

My stock of earrings is getting very depleted so I have made a few more.  I have done very well at the art and craft markets in July.  Especially Bert and Gert's vintage and art and craft market in Andover.  I will be back in Andover again on 11th August.

I am also taking part in an exhibition in a gallery in Salisbury in October.  I have been getting a theme together for that one as I only need 10 pieces.  I want to do silver flowers with gemstone centres but is that too summery for October?  Do people like flower jewellery in October or Christmas?  Not sure but I love making them.  So many pretty flowers in our garden.  My new rose garden is looking amazing.

I have also had a few commissions from friends and my sister, it's all busy busy.  Better go and get on with it.  I will leave you with some photos.  The large flower has a druzy stone in the centre which is beautiful - it is sold though!









Tuesday 18 June 2013

Jellyfish and a perforated ear drum!

and that's not all!  We came back from Menorca the day the French air traffic controllers decided to strike.  We were delayed for 6 hours.  I only chose to go to Menorca because it was less than 2 hours on a plane.  We got on the plane after an hour, started taxiing (is that a word??) along the runway and heard a thud.  It seems that something broke off the tow thing (technical term) and we had to wait for an engineer.  He arrived eventually and said we would have to wait for an engineer to be flown from Majorca so we all had to get off the plane.  6 HOURS in total on a plane in the heat with hundreds of screaming under school age children - God knows how the parents coped as I didn't do very well.

Back to the jellyfish.  The beaches in the south were full of jellyfish so no swimming even if you could brave the cold water.  Richard went scuba diving and was in such a rush to get away from the jellyfish that he dived to quickly and perforated his eardrum so we had to see the local doctor etc etc.

Apart from all that we had a lovely holiday.  Then when you get back you have all the washing and post and emails etc - is it worth it?  The weather was amazing.......

I have been busy doing local craft markets and I am selling at the Hursley village Fete on Saturday 11.30 til 3pm.  Fingers crossed for some lovely weather and lots of sales of my stunning jewellery!

I have been experimenting with copper and brass with some amazing results.  Take a look at my folded leaf in copper.  Those colours were achieved by heating the copper - quite incredible and great fun.  The water cast charms on my other pendant are made by melting sterling silver and then dropping it into cold water.  Great fun again unless you set fire to the new oak worktop!

My work is selling well at the Tourist Information Centre in Winchester - thanks to all those tourists who bought my work!!  I have closed my Folksy shop as I have started a shop with wowthankyou.com and need the time to concentrate on that and my sosensational directory what with that and Facebook, pinterest, linkedin, twitter etc etc it's hard to find time to make jewellery.

I will show you some photos from our holiday complete with jellyfish, birds nest and spooky sheep.







Saturday 4 May 2013

flower power and leaking aneurisms!

I have been making flower jewellery.  Just finished a lovely pendant.  I finished the ring with the ray's tooth - very different!  No sightings of the snake.

Had a family crisis when my brother in law Richard II (my Richard is Richard I and my nieces soon to be husband is Richard III) was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery as his aortic aneurism was leaking.  There was a 50/50 chance of him making it through and he did thank God!  We were all saying our prayers!  He is back home now and convalescing.

The wedding fayre in Winchester was very quiet.  The first one I have ever done.  About 5 minutes after it opened two lovely Russian ladies came in and bought 4 items of my jewellery.  I was very pleased but unfortunately I didn't sell anything else.  The two ladies were staying at the hotel and just happened to pop in!  I am worried now about the wedding fayre I have booked for October which has cost a small fortune. 

Last Sunday I did a craft fair in Hamble.  Again that was very quiet but a lovely lady bought a pendant - the one with the brass and copper discs - so again I was lucky.

The next craft fair is next Sunday in Otterborne the village next to Hursley.  I will let you know how that one goes.  I have hardly a free weekend left this year now. 

So lovely to see the sun - holiday in 3 weeks - hurray!

 ray's tooth


 brass centre (not gold)





Sunday 14 April 2013

scary snake moment!

We were about to take the dogs for a walk this morning; got to the top of the garden and I saw a rather large grey snake lying in the sun!  Richard has a serious snake phobia so I told him to stay back and called on Martin our neighbour for help.  He came over and said he thought it was an adder.  Sophie was barking and we were worried she might get bitten.  Martin gave it a little nudge with a stick and it weaved off into next doors' garden.  Richard was so traumatised.  We carried on with our walk and later Martin came over with a print out - our snake was a grass snake.  Phew!  Richard still not happy; bit like someone telling me that spiders can't hurt you.  At least we know the dogs are safe.  The article said that they like water - better check out the swimming pool before we get in.  I had no idea that grass snakes were large and silvery grey - for some stupid reason I thought they would be green......

Back to the jewellery making.  I have been doing very well this year.  Probably due to the fact that I am now taking credit card payments with my Worldpay account.  It has made a huge difference to my sales. 

I did the teacher's conference in Bournemouth over Easter and that was very successful - I now know all about OFSTED etc.  What a lovely group of people they were.  Then on Thursday evening I did Girls Night In at the Discovery Centre in Winchester.  Three lovely lady authors came along to tell us about their books and a few of us had stalls.  I sold 5 items so was very pleased.  Next Sunday I am doing a wedding show in Winchester.  My first ever wedding show - I'll let you know how I get on. 

I have been experimenting with mixing small amount of copper or brass with my silver and then using Renaissance wax to stop it from tarnishing.  The effect is very pretty.  I have also been making brooches and pins - another first.  Out of 3 brooches/pins I have sold 2 already.  I will attach some pictures for you to look at.



I have been getting more earrings together for a display at the Tourist Information Centre in Winchester and I have some new gift boxes with lynettejewel.com on the top.  They are black with silver script from the Tiny Box Company.

I have a new commission.  A lady has asked me to make her a band ring with a ray's tooth mounted on it.  Watch this space.....



Wednesday 13 February 2013

Big Birthday Coming Up! Argggghhhh

I can't believe it - I am going to be 60 on the 18th Feb.  I don't feel any different to how I felt when I was 30.  Apart of course from the aches and pains.  One good thing I have discovered is going to the cinema is now a lot cheaper!  In a couple of years I will get my bus pass and then there will be no stopping me.

I am doing palates at the village hall every Monday morning - just to try and help my aching joints.  Richard is fine and S&M are doing well.  Sophie will be 7 next month and Megan will be 6 in April.  Guess that makes them middle aged.

I have been making lots things and re-making things that don't seem to be working.  On a note from my last post.  I had a commission from a lovely lady in Switzerland, who contacted me through my advert in Vogue! So, you just never know.  I have been doing lots of commissions this year which is good.  I can't wait for my next big selling opportunity in March - I just hope it goes well.

I have been using my rolling mill a lot to texture my silver and when it snowed I did some snow casting which I heard about through my pal Gill who does a lot of it.  You basically drop molten silver into hard packed snow and see what comes out.  I also do this with water.  I think I like the water casting best as it makes more cornflake shaped pieces whereas my snow cast pieces were quite heavy and large - maybe it was the way I was doing it.  Anyway, I had a bit of a disaster!  I was melting my silver in the utility room and lost concentration and instead of dropping it in the snow tin, I dropped it on my brand new oak worktop.  The oak promptly caught fire and bits of silver went everywhere - all over the tiled floor and even outside of the back door which was open!  I was just lucky that it didn't spill on me.  I managed to put the fire out with a wet cloth but the worktop doesn't look to happy.  I found that I had a lot of tiny silver balls all over the floor - great  for doing some granulation work - look out for them in future makes!

I think me and Richard are both pyromaniacs as he was trying to reignite our log fire the other night by using a newspaper and set fire to the paper!

Anyway, enough of all that.  I am attaching some of my recent pieces - hope you like them.









Wednesday 9 January 2013

Happy New Year!

Hi there
Happy New Year to all my readers and followers! 

Last year was a very good year for me.  I did very well at the Association for Contemporary Jewellery at Hilliers in December.  It was a very exciting time and very successful for all of us.  I have just heard back from the Tourist Information Centre in Winchester and had had a lot of sales with them in the 3 months I was exhibiting.  On a low note, I got nothing as a result of my advert in Vogue.  Disappointing but if you don't try these things you never know.  At least in my old age I can say I was in Vogue!

I am hoping for an even better year for 2013.  I am all set up to take credit card payments now which will make life a lot easier for me and my customers. 

I already have some things booked in for this year.  I am doing an exhibition with the Guild of Jewellery Designers in Birmingham on 9th March and I have a stand at the NASUWT annual conference at the BIC in Bournemouth over the Easter weekend. 

Richard and S&M are doing fine.  Megan had some one to one training today to try to stop her from pulling at people's trousers when they walk around! 

We had a great Christmas - the grandson Louis came to stay - he is walking now - scary how quickly they change.

I am attaching some piccies of my latest makes - hope you like them!