Tudor House

This beautiful house is in one of the few areas of Southampton that wasn't badly bombed during WWII - amazing really considering how close it is the the sea front and the docks that were the bombers main aim. It is the Tudor House, and it is just as lovely on the inside as it is on the outside, and the gardens are well worth a visit too. It's also the venue for the first craft show that I'm doing this year, on Saturday 14th September. It's part of Southampton City Council's Heritage Open day with activities for the children, a vintage bus your around the city - and of course a small but select craft show that includes some of my neighbours from the Sorting Office Studios too. Entrance to the Tudor House and Gardens is free for the day, and I'm really looking forward to working in such beautiful surroundings for the day!

If you're in the area, do come along. You can find more details on the Tudor House Facebook page here.

Craft Show Countdown

 

Now it's November and the school halfterm holiday is nearly over I feel that I can mention Christmas! Although as I've been busy with developing new products for my made-to-order designs, ordering new business cards, a new stamp with my new logo and a new banner, and planning out improvements to my displays for my craft stall it feels as though I've been preparing for Christmas ever since we got back from New Zealand! You can read some of my plans for my craft stall in my Art Jewelry Elements blog post published yesterday, and there are lots of links to craft display ideas and tutorials for DIY displays in the post too.

I've got three shows this season, and the first is next week - which is rather a scary thought as a friend and I are the organisers! It's our charity Christmas Shopping Evening in aid of the Wessex Cancer Trust, and it's in it's third year now. This year it's going to be even bigger and better than before, with more local businesses and live music from a fantastic local jazz saxophone group - I know that they're fantastic as one of the member is our neighbour and they sometimes practise round at hers. I always leave the patio doors open in the summer evenings when they're rehearsing so I can hear them better!

If you are in the Southampton area next Friday evening it would be fantastic if you could join us to raise as much money as possible for this great charity, and to support small local businesses. It's a great way to get a lot of beautiful gifts under one roof! Tickets are £3, and include a glass of wine, a mince pie and raffle tickets. And you could also see what you think of my new craft stall displays on their first outing! For more details we have a Facebook event page set up here

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Well, actually today I feel mainly tired and will be off for an early night very soon, but yesterday with Christmas music playing in Winchester Guildhall and lots of fairy lights twinkling on stalls (must get some new ones for my stall next year!) and between 5.5 and 6 thousand people through the door (so many the clicker counter couldn't keep up!) it definitely felt a lot like Christmas in Winchester!

We had an amazing day, and the atmosphere was wonderful right from setting up to packing away. Handmade Winchester has always been my favourite of all the craft shows I've ever done, partly because I get to meet up with friends I only usually get to see in real life at the show, partly because absolutely everything for sale is handcrafted by the people behind the stalls, and partly because the atmosphere is so wonderful. Everyone is so cheerful and smiling and so delighted to be there taking part again, or so delighted because although it's their first time everyone is welcoming!

Thank you for the comments on Friday's post. I didn't sell the necklace (I'm not too upset about that as I am still rather tempted to keep it myself - afterall, I have to wear my jewellery to advertise it, don't I?) but did sell two of the bracelets, and in total I sold nearly 30 pieces of jewellery with prices ranging from £10 to £80, the best I've ever done. My stud earrings sold very well. I put the tags I showed you a few months ago pegged onto cord running across a painted canvas this time, which showed them off very well. It made it easy for people to compare the different styles.

I also had simple brown paper bags to put the jewellery boxes and bags in this time, something I've been meaning to do for ages, but I've got a few things I want to do before or at the next show I do:

• get a sign/banner made similar to the one my gorgeous friend Helen had made - a great way of showing people that she made everything that she had on her stall. Helen and I always have a stall next to each other now, but we didn't have much of a chance to chat yesterday as we were so busy!
• get a stamp made with my logo on it to stamp the brown paper bags.
• put a leaflet about my classes and private tuition in the brown paper bags ready to go. I got bags ready with two business cards in (one to keep, one to give to a friend), I don't know why I didn't put the leaflets in there too!

What a week!

It's been a mixed week so far. Monday was very productive - I spent most of the day catching up with boring but necessary admin jobs but managed to set the stones in the part-made examples I'd put together for last Saturday's stone setting workshop. However, I tossed and turned all Monday night, and woke up on Tuesday morning looking like a cross between a chipmunk and a relative of the Mitchellin man - and a throbbing abscess on a tooth. If I hadn't already written and scheduled the tutorial this week it would have been very quiet here this week!

Thankfully, one emergency dentist appointment and strong (pregnancy friendly!) antibiotics later and I look and feel a lot more human. I even got some sleep last night!! Whether I sleep next Tuesday night, though, is another matter as I'm having the abscess drained on Wednesday! I had to cancel my classes on Tuesday night, which I hated having to do, but I wouldn't have got much teaching done without being able to talk.

Anyway, today has been alot better. Anna has been round for a day's silversmithing tuition to build on the stone setting skills that she learnt during Saturday's class. You can see the pendant she made on Saturday here, and she's popping back round to finish setting the stone tomorrow morning - I promise to take some photos when she's done as it's going to be a gorgeous pendant!

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day - it's the Christmas Shopping Evening! I've still got a few pieces I'd like to finish to take along with me (I always want to make more, just in case!), and I've also got to buy the wine for the drinks included in the ticket price and finish collecting the raffle prizes. Local shops have been very generous with prizes - we've got everything from vouchers for the local butcher to a gift basket from the hairdressers and a voucher from a great local photographer who I'm hoping will take some photos of our newly enlarged family in the New Year. If you're in the area tomorrow evening do come along - ticket sales have gone even better than we hoped they would, but there will still be some tickets on the door!

Christmas in November!

It's that time of year - the Christmas craft shows are nearly here and I'm busy creating new pieces to go on  my stalls. I've got two more stalls this year, one in Southampton in just over a couple of week's time and one in Winchester the next day - and then I think I'll give myself at least the morning off the next day!! I'm really excited about both events, but for different reasons.


The first show is the first one that I've ever had a hand in organising. At the beginning of the year I suggest to a couple of friends who also have their own small businesses in the area that it would be great if we could get together for a shopping evening before this Christmas, either at one of our homes or in one of the local church halls. We've finally put our plans into action - introducing our first every Christmas Shopping Evening on Friday 12th November, 7.30pm-9.30pm!

The venue is the Old Chemist, a beautiful old shop in Bitterne Park that's now a church office for the local evangelical church and a small community centre, and we've got seven different stalls, from gorgeous handbags, great traditional wooden toys, Pampered Chef, Vie at Home cosmetics, Phoenix cards, and, of course, my jewellery! The evening is also raising money for the Wessex Cancer Trust, who do a amazing amount of work helping cancer patients and their families in the South of England - more information about the evening can be found here! We're selling tickets in advance, with money going to the Wessex Cancer Trust, and the tickets include a glass of wine, mince pies and a raffle ticket. There will also be tickets available on the door.

The event the next day is the Christmas Winchester Handm@de show at the Winchester Guildhall on Saturday 13th November from 11am - 5pm. This is the third Winchester Handm@de show, and the first Christmas one that we've had. The first two shows were a great success, with beautifully unique handcrafted goods - some of which you can see here!

Stones!

Another waffly post from me today, I'm afraid, as I can't seem to settle my mind on any one thing at the moment! I think it's partly because it's a Wednesday morning and on Tuesday evenings I teach two college classes and don't get home until about 10.30pm - I tend to run on adrenalin while I'm teaching and flop as soon as I get home! It's also definitely partly baby brain though. I seem to have reached that stage of breaking off half way through a sentence as I've completely forgotten what I'm saying and of going up stairs and forgetting why. I set the washing machine going four times last week without putting the washing liquid in. Four times! Once I can understand but really! My bump is growing pretty big now, and I'm starting to feel as though I've been pregnant for a year. I think that this baby is going to be a kick boxer :)

The craft show at the Winchester Discovery Centre went really well. It was a bit of a slow start but I had lots of lovely customers. Most of the lemonade earrings I made last week were sold, together with lots of bangles and pendants and a couple of bigger pieces, some of which I hadn't had a chance to put on the website, such as the Blue Velvet necklace above. I love the stone in this piece - it's Russian Blue Pietersite, and it's so unusual to get it in such a rich blue without hints of other colours streaking across it. It's got such velvety depths to it! The bezel setting is quite plain but I made the chain and the clasp is the flower on the front. The clasp hooks onto any of the chain links, so the new owner can change it slightly - either a long chain with the clasp right next to the stone or a shorter chain with a longer chain drop leading down to the pendant. The flower was cut out from the back of the stone setting, so even if the pendant flips over it still looks beautiful from the other side!

The other pendant that you can see here is still available, and I'll be putting it on the website this evening along with a couple of other pieces. The stone is fossilised crinoids, not something that I've been tempted to use before, but I loved the colours and the smooth shape. The setting is similar to the Blue Velvet one, but this time the clasp is a toggle in the shape of an oak leaf - I really enjoyed making this clasp, so expect to see more in this style! Both of the stones, by the way, are from my friend Brenda's etsy shop Iced Hot Rocks.

Now there was something else I had to tell you..............oh yes! The latest Beads and Beyond magazine is out!

I've got a stone set pendant in there this month, so if you'd like to learn how to make your own bezel settings like the ones I've used on these necklaces then that would be a very good starting point. I've also got the last of the "Staying Legal" series of articles in the magazine this month, this time on accounting and taxes - a subject that sounds quite horrible but really needn't be scarey, honest! I think my favourite project in there this month is Rebecca Anderson's Retro Romance set - red and turquoise are such a yummy combination!

I hope you all have lovely days today - I know I'm going to enjoy this afternoon as the sun has started to shine and I'm off to Brenda's to see her latest batch of gorgeous stones. I expect I'll be buying one or six!

How on earth did I forget to tell you

that I'm doing a craft show tomorrow?!?

I guess it's because whenever I've done this show before all I've been doing for the couple of weeks before is preparing for it, whereas this year I've been teaching and plannig lessons and having meetings in college, writing magazine projects, keeping up with the influx of orders (so many more than last year - thank you!), writing tutorials etc etc etc

Anyway....

I'm exhibiting at a craft show tomorrow!!

It's the annual Southampton University Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair, and it's at the Staff Club, next to the Nuffield Theatre on the university campus. It's well signposted with the lovely bright yellow AA signs all the way fron the motorway (junction 4 is the best junction to come in from the M27), and it's open from 10am until 4pm.

This is always a great show - a lovely atmosphere and fantastic Christmas presents (or presents for yourself?). There's even a lovely cafe for your Sunday lunch.

If I have time during my last minute preparation I'll come back and show you some of the things I've been making today that will be on my stall tomorrow!

A great day out!

The Bathtub race at Arundel was a fantastic day out yesterday - a great atmosphere, great company, great sales, great weather and some hilarious bath tubs on the River Arun!! If you're in the area next year it's definitely worth a day out. The Black Rabbit pub (the hosts) is a lovely venue and they laid on lots of entertainment. B loved the bouncy castle, and was fascinated by the owls that were perched next to my stall!

Daisychain Jewellery stall

Going with the tide - the easy bit once you've got your bathtub to float!



The team from the Beresford Pub didn't get very far!

A river full of floating bath tubs

Coming back against the tide didn't look quite so easy!

Dave the Barn Owl

The photo of the Beresford Pub team was taken from the Arundel Bathtub website - if you fancy seeing more, have a look here!

5 days to go!

The Winchester Handm@de show is less than a week away - I can't believe how quickly it's come around! I signed up for it in the depths of winter, and now we're having the hottest day of the year!

I thought I'd show you some work from more of the designers who will be at the show - just to wet your appetite you understand, and to encourage you to come along! Remember that you can find all the details about the show and a list of everyone who is exhibiting at the Winchester Handm@de blog here

The first person whose work I'm going to show you is Izabela -I had real problems trying to choose photos to put on here as her work is amazing! She creates beautifully finished, often very delicate but contemporary crocheted designs, some of which I've shown here.


Have a look at her blog, her website and also her photogallery for some more. I think my favourites are a beautiful multicoloured baby blanket in her gallery and the teeny tiny doll's dress below - beautiful work!


And the second person is Raspberry aka Alice who has been doing an amazing job organising the whole Winchester Handm@de show. As far as I am concerned, you can never have too much jewellery or too many bags, and Raspberry bags are gorgeous, beautiful colours and I'm really looking forward to seeing them in real life. You can check out her work here.


She's been coming up with some great new designs lately, and I'm really hoping that I might be able to persuade her to make a knitting needle roll for me - after she's recovered from Handm@de of course!

Meet the Maker

It's less than a week to go until the Handm@de show in Winchester. For the last couple of months the Winchester Handm@de blog has had interviews from the designers who are going to be selling their work at the show, and today it's my turn! Thanks to Alice (Raspberry) for asking the questions and adding the photos!
Meet the Maker - Daisychain Designs

I'll be back later this evening (if I don't melt in the meantime) with some pictures of work from some of the other designers who will be at the show.

Winchester Handm@de

You may have noticed the blue 'Handm@de' logo about halfway down the page on the left, under the list of past blog entries. If you click on it, it will take you to a blog about an event that I am very excited to be taking part in at the beginning of July - the Winchester Handm@de craft fair in the Guildhall on Sunday 5th July.

Blue Fairy Designs

I've been selling my work at craft shows of various shapes and sizes for about 7 years now, but this one feels very different as it's organised by crafters rather than by a university or a town council, and absolutely all of the stalls there will have beautifully handcrafted wares made by the people standing behind the tables. In other words, absolutely no mass-produced goods, every piece that you will see will have been lovingly individually crafted with no two pieces the same, and you will get to meet the designers who have made it all. If you visit the Handm@de Winchester blog you will see a list of the exhibitors on the righthand side, and you can visit their websites to get an idea of what will be on offer. Some of my favourites are shown in the photos here. And if you get there quickly enough and are one of the first 200 people through the door you will get one of the goodie bags filled to the brim with information and items from exhibitors as well as those unable to attend. Oh, and the fair will be supporting Naomi House children's hospice with a raffle that will include a necklace from me, so what more could you ask for? A great location, beautifully crafted goodies and the opportunity to feel good about helping a local charity!

Sock Bunny by Half an Acre

Several of the exhibitors will also be at the Oxford and Cambridge handm@de fairs. The Handm@de fairs began when a group of UK etsy sellers were fed up with working at craft shows were half the stalls didn't have handmade items for sale, and decided to do something about it and organise their own. The first handm@de fair was in Oxford last year, and you can read more about how succesful that was and more about the ideas behind the Handm@de fairs here on the website.

Another reason that I am really looking forward to the Winchester show is that it is on the last day of the 35th annual Winchester Hat Fair - and no, that's got nothing to do with hats! It started as a group of street entertainers getting together to put on performances around the city centre, and after each performance they passed a hat round to collect money from the crowd. It is now billed as "a celebration of Street Arts and Community", with acts coming from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand as well as Europe. It always runs over the first weekend in July, and I'm really looking forward to taking B to it on the Friday.

So, have I given you enough reasons to visit Winchester on Sunday 5th July? You don't even need to worry about parking as the park'n'ride system is great too!!

Countdown

It's the same every year. Once the University craft show is finished I suddenly realise just how close Christmas is! In the last few years, though, I've also had a countdown to B's birthday as it's only a week before Christmas. This year is the first year that he's realised that his birthday is coming soon, and I'm really looking forward to seeing his reactions on the big day itself.

Anyway, the show last Sunday was a big success - thank you to those of you who dropped by to say hello. It was especially great to see some familar faces from previous years, and I had fun catching up with some of the other regular stall holders too. We did have one bit of disappointing news, though, as the Univeristy has decided that this is the last year that they will organise the show. I'm certain that this will be the main item on the agenda at the Wessex Guild of Craftsmen AGM in the New Year as we try to figure out whether it's possible for us to add it to the list of shows that we organise so that it can keep going.

I've been busy this week with orders from the show, including the luxurious earrings above - a warm mix of smoky quartz and delicate rubies! I think I'm going to make a couple more pairs of these for the website, so watch this space! I'll have some photos to show you tomorrow, including one of December's newsletter prize draw earrings. All the names for the November earrings were put in the hat (B's woolly Thomas the Tank Engine one) yesterday and he pulled out Nicola New's name, so Nicola, watch out for a little surprise winging your way!

Time for bed!

Well, the new jewellery is priced up, all my pendants are displayed on boards so that I can hopefully just put the boards up on my stall and save myself some time in the morning, everything I need for tomorrow is (hopefully!) piled up on the dining room table ready to pack in the car...it's definitely time for bed!

B and I did manage to get most of our jobs done yesterday. He's really proud of his new car seat, bless him, and loves the fact that the base of it has two pull-out holders for his drink and snacks! I love the fact that it's not so far off the main car seat so that if he drops something he's more likely to be able to pick it up himself. The only thing on my list that I didn't manage to get done yesterday was soldering, but I've been able to make up for that today as T and B went over to my parents for the afternoon. The soldering jobs I had to do were putting bails on the backs of these pendants. The leaf is sterling silver with autumnal tourmaline beads. The tree is fine silver, made with precious metal clay. I've oxidised both pendants to highlight the texture. I've decided to make the tree a made-to-order item on the website, maybe with the option of different beads - you can just about see these in the picture. What do you think?

Anyway, I'm off to get some sleep before tomorrow! Night night!

Rush Rush Rush

That's what I seem to be doing this week - rushing everywhere! It's partly because B and I have had a bit more of a social life this week (birthday lunch with a friend and her little boy on Monday for example - quite a relaxed lunch too considering pre-schoolers were about!), partly the usual rush on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to get lunch finished before preschool, and partly because I've got my last show of the year this coming Sunday.

I know I've got enough stock, but I'm having the usual last minute panic about needing more in different colours, different sizes etc. I had thought that I was getting over this but obviously not! I've also been busy designing and making more made-to-order items for the website, including the moonstone and sterling silver earrings above. These were textured with my favourite hammer - and if anyone had told me a few years ago that I would one day have such a thing as a favourite hammer I would have thought them slightly mad! I do love the texture this hammer gives - you can see it on my silver birch bangles as well. It's a hammer that I inherited, and I love the fact that it's got so much history.

The show that I'm doing on Sunday is the University of Southampton Christmas Craft Show. It's in the Staff Club on University Road from 10am-4pm, and it's usually really well signposted. It's quite a big show - my mum usually does half her Christmas shopping there when she comes and helps me out - and there's live music and good food too! If you're coming along please stop and say hello! And if you end up being tempted by the lovely sparklies on my stall and spend £30 or more I'll give you 10% off!

The necklace above is one of the items that will be on the stall if it's not bought off the website before then - the beautiful bead was made by Becky at Chameleon Designs. I've got another two beads of hers in the same style, and I just love them. The colours are just gorgeous and the beads are so tactile - have a closer look!

Right, that's it for now as I really must get to bed - B and I have to be in town early tomorrow to get him a new car seat and me a couple of last minute display bits for Sunday, then it's back here for lunch and Nicky's little boy is coming to play for the afternoon, then some friends are coming over, then I've got some soldering to do ........... and hopefully I'll get a couple of minutes quiet sit down too!

Sophie's Appeal

One of the reasons that I'm so busy now is the number of shows that I'm doing between now and Christmas. I've got at least one big show a month, and a couple of jewellery parties thrown in for good measure, so I'm busy making sure that I've got enough jewellery ready. Of course, as my designs have changed and I'm now using a lot more silver in my work a lot of what I make now has to be hallmarked. That means that I have to plan my work in advance to make sure that I leave enough time for the hallmarking process.

Anyway, the biggest event that I've got coming up next is a fashion show in aid of Sophie's Appeal, a charity set up by Lin and Mike Barringer after their daughter Sophie was diagnosed with a form of cancer of the kidney. Sophie died when she was six, but the funds raised in her name are used to fund research into childhood cancers, sponsor dream holidays for terminally ill children and their families and to establish 'Sophie's Place', a dedicated children's assessment centre.

The fashion show is being organised by James and Sarah Beattie (ex-Southampton footballer, currently plays for Sheffield for those of you, like me, who don't follow football!), who are patrons of the charity and it's being held at the Botley Park Hotel just outside Southampton on Sunday 19th October. I've been involved in a few of the charity's events before, and this is definitely the biggest so far - Southampton's Daily Echo have been promoting the event and ran a competition to find models for the event, the finals of which were held last weekend. There'll be an auction (fancy winning a holiday in the Beatties holiday home in Malaga, anyone?), dance acts, and lots more - oh, and a few stands of fashion related goodies, including me and my jewellery! I'm also lending some of my jewellery to the fashion show, so I'm working on some bigger pieces to show off on the cat walk. I'm really looking forward to it - and so is my mum! I've asked her to come along and help me out, but I think she may be a bit distracted by seeing if she can recognise the footballers and their wives who will hopefully be there!

If you are interested in finding out more about Sophie's Appeal or, if you're in the Southampton area and fancy coming to the fashion show, then please visit http://www.sophiesappeal.org/

Work in progress

It's been another busy Thursday here. I'm doing a craft show with other Wessex Guild of Craftsmen members on Saturday at Chichester, so I've been pricing and organising and making some last minute bits and pieces. I was going to take some photos too but my daylight bulb blew yesterday and it's been horrible weather here (again!), so for now you'll have to make do with a picture of some work in progress I'm afraid!

First thing this morning I used silver art clay to make lots of bits and pieces. By this afternoon (with help from my hairdryer!) they were dry and so I've spent the last hour or so sanding them down. What you can see in the picture will by this time tomorrow be stud earrings, pendants, drop earrings and cufflinks - yes, I'm adding cufflinks to my repertoire at last! There's been a section for men's jewellery on the website for a while now, so I thought it was about time I filled it! I have made some cufflinks before now, but they've ended up the galleries or being given as presents. I've mentioned art clay before, but if you're not familiar with it have a look at this site http://www.silverclay.co.uk/.

Anyway, the show on Saturday is at the Assembly Rooms in North Street in Chichester. It runs from 10am until 4pm, and if you come along and spend £30 or more on my stall and mention my blog I'll give you 10% off. This only applies to my stall though! Other crafts exhibited by the Wessex Guild will include ceramics, fused glass and woodwork.

A successful day!

I've just tidied everything away after the annual Southampton University Arts & Crafts Fair. My feet ache, but I'm smiling as it was a very successful day! It was good to catch up with fellow Wessex Guild of Craftsmen members, and good to see some people I send my newsletter to. I had quite few empty spaces on my stall by the end of the day despite getting more jewellery out as things were sold, so I've got the perfect excuse to spend plenty of time beading this week. I've also got a few commissions to do, not to mention the Christmas presents I want to make, so I'm going to be a busy girl.
The necklace and earrings below are made using chainmaille and beautiful rosy beads from Mindy . They were on my stall for the first time today and haven't even been put on my website yet, and they sold on their first outing! Don't worry though, I've got another set of Mindy's beads to play with, so watch this space!