Happy New Year!

Ok, so I know that we're a couple of days in already, but I seem to have taken a while to get going this week! I'm blaming the cold that knocked me out for most of the first week of the school holidays, and the travelling around that we did at the start of this week. We spent New Year's Eve with lovely friends in Wales - great company, good food, lots of laughing and relaxing. My favourite way of spending New Year's Eve, although Jayne, if you're reading this, I'm holding you to your promise of never playing the Krypton Factor board game again!

I've had one day back at work this week, but I seemed to spend most of that tidying the workshop up after the pre-Christmas rush. At least that means that I'll be organised and ready to go next week. I like starting a new week, and the New Year, feeling organised. I've promised myself that I'm going to try and be more relaxed this year, as last year, last term especially, got a bit frantic. It took me longer than I thought it would to get used to teaching three college classes a week last term, especially as I hadn't been able to prepare for them at all, or prepare any Christmas stock, while we were away in  New Zealand over the summer, and there definitely were times when my stress spilt over into family life. And one of the reasons for leaving full time school teaching and setting up the business doing something I love was to have less stress in my life. We'll see how I do, but tonight is a good start - T is out, so I'm watching the end of series 1 of Downton Abbey (yes, I know I'm very late to that particular party!) while trying not to eat the whole tub of Belgium Chocolate ice cream!

Trying to be more relaxed doesn't mean, though, that I haven't got any plans for 2013 - quite the opposite! I'm just going to try and get less frantic about them and stop taking on more than I should - although that is usually easier said than done. I've got some new designs to take photos of to add to both my Daisychain Extra and Daisychain Jewellery etsy shops, and more designs sketched out. I've got a new challenge coming for you in the spring, lots of writing planned and new workshops planned. We've also got a fun new challenge planned for you on the Art Jewelry Elements blog, but you'll have to visit there on Sunday to find out more about that!

I'll be adding the first of the new designs to my shops at the start of next week, but in the meantime there are two days left of my New Year sales. This is your last chance to grab some of my more autumnal and wintery designs in the Daisychain Extra shop for a while as I'll be giving them a rest until later in the year - so if you fancy an owl or an oak leaf, get'em while you can!

AJE component of the month - Wisdom

It's time to show you what I've made with the AJE component of the month. With everything else that December brings I only just met the deadline for this one! I planned out what I wanted to make with Jenny Davies-Reazor's lovely ceramic labyrinth pendant a couple of weeks ago with the idea that I would bring everything up with me to the inlaws this weekend and make it up here. But you should know me by now - it's very rare that my jewellery designs stick to the original plan! I'd packed everything I thought I'd need to make a long necklace, and as you can see I ended up with a bracelet!

(not my best photos I'm afraid as I've had to take the photos on my iPhone in my inlaws garden!)

Jenny chose a labyrinth symbol for her component as, in her words, "As they are a path to the center, your center, your self...they can provide insight and at times inspiration", and so appropriate for the New Year when we try to have a fresh start. You can read more of what she wrote about labyrinths here. I always remember the labyrinth at the centre of the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, so I thought that one of my owl clasps would be appropriate as owls as the sacred symbol of the Greek goddess Athena, the goddess of learning, and a symbol of wisdom. I've also used palm wood beads from Smitten Beads and made some lengths of chain from hammered sterling silver rings. I think I might still tweak the bracelet a little as at the moment I think it's a little too big and I need to replace the last bead with a jump ring or two. Just taking the bead out would make it too small, but of course as I was originally going to make a necklace I didn't bring any jump rings with me!

You can see what the rest of the Art Jewelry Elements blog team made with Jenny's pendants through here. We're off to Wales to spend New Year's Eve with good friends so I'll be back again in 2013! I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve wherever you are!

 

Bead Table Wednesday

For once I stopped long enough today to take a photo of what was on my desk earlier this afternoon - lots and lots of lovebirds! This is also a sneak preview of some special pieces going into the Daisychain Extra shop on Friday. I'm having a shop update with a difference to go with some fun and games we're having on the Art Jewelry Elements blog on Friday

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

A few challenges for you!

There are a few challenges that I'm taking part in at the moment, so I thought I'd share them with you and see if you fancy taking part too!

The first one is the monthly component challenge that has just launched on the Art Jewelry Elements blog. If you have joined in with this one before, each month the blog team take it in turns to design a new bead or clasp or pendant, and then we challenge you to use it to create a beautiful piece of jewellery! It's Lesley Watt's turn in November, and if you go and visit her post on the AJE blog you can enter the draw to win a one of her new pendants and also find details of a discount she's offering on them too - they beautiful and Christmassy!

The other two are both on Artisan Whimsy. The Hooters challenge is one that I've had lots of fun with! This challenge is open to both jewellery designers and bead of component makers - all you have to do is design an owl, or a piece of jewellery with an owl in it and upload it to this page on the forum and you could win a £50 PayPal gift. I've entered one of my owl clasps into the component makers side of the competition, and I've got plans for the jewellery design side too. You've got until this Sunday, 28th October to join in.

The second Artisan Whimsy challenge is perfect timing for me as I'm teaching one of my college classes how to make prong settings, and that's what this challenge is all about - and it even comes with a tutorial! Use the tutorial to make your own piece of jewellery, upload your photo to the forum here and you'll could one of a whole range of fantastic prizes. I've got a stone perfect for this challenge, one that I've started making a setting for ages but it didn't quite work out. All I need now is some time over the halfterm holiday to make it!

Have fun!