A few pairs of earrings

I've been listing jewellery on Folksy today, three new pairs of earrings. Quite simple designs, but I really love them. This pair are small silver ovals with a really pretty pink czech glass flower.

This next pair are just little curved hearts strung on some lovely long v-shape earwires.

Finally, another simple design, all silver, using up some rings left over from a chainmaille project! With the large size ring, these earrings are full of movement.

After a tiring day yesterday, putting jewellery together was about all I could manage today! I've got some pieces that I was working on yesterday, but didn't finish, but they'll have to wait until my energy returns!!

I'm pooped!

I've spent a lovely day today, with some of the ladies who've been on my classes. We just had a bit of a get together, made some lovely jewellery and had a good old natter! I managed to get some pieces made that I've needed to do for ages to get a necklace finished.

The necklace has been a work in progress for many months now, so it'll be nice to see it finally put together! I've just got it going around in the tumbler now and then hopefully I'll still feel like putting it all together tonight. Although I'm pretty shattered so it may be a job for tomorrow!

Folksy

Ok, so I'm lovin Folksy! I'm slowly but surely getting my shop up and running. I hate listing items so it's taking a while, but I'm getting there. I've also had my first sale on there too (thanks Elaine!).

Here's one of the items I've listed today, and is also a new product line - magnetic clasps. There will be lots of these to come, but they take quite a long time to make (especially this one!) This is one of the larger clasps, but I have a range of 4 sizes available. A lot of them will be fairly simple with lovely textures on, some will sit flat the same as this, but others will have the holes positioned so that the clasp is vertical.

I've also made a couple of simple curved heart pendants. I love this shape heart and the necklaces are great little gifts for girls too! I've sold quite a lot of this style necklace and it's still as popular as ever.

Today has been a work day (day job!), so not much jewellery making for me! I have been getting my Folksy store updated with listings. I'm putting up finished jewellery as well as handmade findings and beads. So when it's done (and I've made more stock), I'm hoping it'll be a nice looking shop, with lots of silver goodies to choose from.

I've had my first sale on there too, so that's really great.

I'm also getting ready for this weekend's open studio - a room full of people metal claying and chatting, does it get any better! I'm not teaching, so I'll be making too so that's exciting. Just need to decide what to make!

Here's a couple of bails that I've just uploaded to my Folksy store. For those of you who haven't heard of Folksy it's a bit like Etsy, but a UK version. I really like Etsy, but the problem at the moment is everything is priced in US$, so my pricing was a bit all over the place with the fluctuations in the exchange rate and it was getting expensive for UK customers. So, Folksy is fairly new, but at least I can have a web presence where I can tell people to go and look at my items for sale, without it costing me a fortune in listing fees (can you guess where I'm talking about!!)


Now that I have an alternative listing venue, I feel happier about getting lots of items finished, so watch out!!

I'm running an open studio day on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it. It's more an excuse for a get together really with some of the people who've been on my classes. I'll hopefully get lots of things made and more importantly lots of half finished projects, finished!

Those of you who know how much I admire Hadar Jacobson's work, will understand how excited I am by the arrival of Hadar's latest book. It's fantastic and is packed full of great new projects. I never follow projects in books - it just isn't me, but I do tend to copy her projects just so I can pick up and understand her techniques. I was going to make every project in her first book, but never did, so I think I may go back to that plan and then start on Book 2! Watch out for a Flickr album full of Hadar projects!! Although, it may not be in the next week.

Silver Bracelet

Well, here we are then - the bracelet I've been working on to coordinate with my little wishes bracelet. It's all silver and I love it! I'm always trying to work colour into my pieces, but actually, just silver is beautiful!



When it's on the spacer beads don't sit straight, but I really like the fact that it's wavy. It's quite heavy at just about 20g.





The toggle clasp is also handmade by me (of course!), it's the first time I've made a heart shaped clasp and wasn't sure about how flat it would sit, but it works and there's some of my favourite fine silver flakes for a bit of sparkle!




So, what's next? I'm still working on my piece for the autumn challenge on FH, it's fired and tumbled and looking good - now for the tricky part, enamelling! It's the first time I've done enamelling where I'm wanting to make a picture, usually my enamelling work is pattern based. So I need to make sure I choose the colours well otherwise it won't look at all like it's supposed to!

My other business - Tiny Charms

I am really proud of this, and also very pleased that the lady who commissioned me to make it has allowed me to show it off! The artwork is by her little girl and then I've made a double sided keyring for Daddy's 40th birthday!

I've been making this sort of thing for a while, just locally for people I know, along with children's fingerprints. There's another part of the range which I'm not quite ready to show yet, but hopefully it won't be too long.

Other news, I've finished the beads needed for my second bracelet. I've got them strung and then realised I haven't made a clasp! So, guess what tonight's job is!!

So, what have I achieved since my last entry - not a lot! I've had lots of ideas, started a few things but haven't really finished anything, so it's another post without pictures.

I'm taking part in the metal clay challenge on Frit Happens, I know that some of you know me from there, but others know me from my classes, so for those of you that don't know Frit Happens is another forum that I'm part of. This one is for all things glassy - lampworkers and fusers, but metal clay seems to be becoming more a part of the forum as more people experiment with it and with mixing it with glass. So we now have our own section on the forum and Emma, has set us an Autumn challenge. I stupidly decided to do something that's not my usual thing (isn't that what a challenge is about?!), but it's proving harder than I thought! Still, hopefully when it's finished I'll be proud of it and I wanted to take part in challenges to try and stretch me a bit.

Little clue - autumn landscape with enamels - YIKES!

I received my copy of Holly Gage's Metal Clay Calendar 2009 - it's fabulous and I can't stop looking at all the pictures. Also on it's way to me is Hadar Jacobson's new book which I ordered over the weekend, all about Bronzclay and combining it with silver, so I'm really looking forward to that delivery!

Hopefully, I'll have piccies to show you on my next post!

Here are the tags I mentioned in an earlier post. Each customer will get them custom made for them, so they can choose a font to match their existing fonts on their website etc, or they could have their logo imprinted. I think tags give a really professional finish to a piece of handmade jewellery and I hope fact that they can now tie in with the rest of the makers' image will mean that they're popular!

I've been working on a couple of commissions which are going really well, but I've also been making another bracelet to compliment the bracelet I showed a few days ago.

After a bit of advice from my friends on Bead Buddies, I've changed the design! I'm much happier with it now, it'll be all silver - that just means I've got to make another 20 silver spacer beads, so I'll be syringing around straws tonight!

Hopefully I'll have a finished bracelet to show you tomorrow.

For those of you who don't know Bead Buddies is a forum which I'm a member of. It's worth registering just to look at all the lovely work people are showing on there! Everyone's really friendly and helpful too - www.beadbuddies.co.uk/forum

So, what tantalising pieces of information do I have for you today (assuming I'm actually talking to someone that is!!)

I've been working on my commission piece today, and it's had to undergo yet another repair, aaarrrggghhh. So the kiln will be on later, it's a shame to only have one piece in there, so to fill it up, I'm making components for another bracelet. It'll be a little brother or sister to the bracelet I made the other day. I've got 5 of the lampwork beads left so this is going to be mostly silver with a bit of lampwork. I can visualise it in my head, I just hope it turns out the way I see it.

I'm also going to start listing jewellery tags as part of my range of handmade beads and findings - ooh, that's a blog exclusive! Having completed a custom order of 50 tags last week, I decided to make some other samples and add them to my range. I'll post piccies here when they're ready. I think they're great - they're custom made with fonts to match the designers font or logo and add a really unique finish to the jewellery. I've made them for myself in the past but had never thought about adding them to my range before!

Right, off to put little 'un to bed and then on with more silver work!

Well, nothing much creative to report today! Today has been a pottering day - housework, bit of shopping, a few tantrums from the toddler! I'm now catching up on some paperwork -yuk.

I've got a commission that really needs to be finished. It's been hanging around for ages and for one reason or another just hasn't got done. It had another kiln firing last night, I think it's had 5 or 6 now, so a bit more sanding and polishing work tonight and I hope it'll be finished. Sometimes it's just better not to agree to these things! It turned out to be a really complicated shape to get right and it's been driving me mad because it just hasn't looked symmetrical.

The coffee machine's on the go now, so hopefully a caffeine injection will sort me out!

New Bracelet

Right, I'm going to make a big effort to keep up to date with this now - even if I do just ramble on to myself!!

I got this bracelet finished today and I love it! This one is a keeper. The lampwork beads are by the very fabulous Tania Grey (http://www.tanofcourse.co.uk). I thought the beads were just so beautiful that they didn't need much adding to them. So I just made some silver spacer beads using Art Clay Syringe, and a matching toggle clasp.

I've been determined to start making complete jewellery pieces. I spend so much of my "free" time either teaching or making commission pieces that I don't feel like I'm being very creative with my own jewellery. So, I've got a few pieces on the go, which I'm hoping will reignite my creative side! So watch out, this could be the first of many!!