BTW

 

Today has mainly been a day of making jewellery and clasps for orders, with a break for a trip to the dentist, so I treated myself to a bit of a play this afternoon and made another house clasp - and a bracelet to go with it! I've used the same layout as my Home Is Where The Heart Is bracelet (which went to a new home last week, thank you!), but brighter colours this time. Pink, purple and aqua aren't a mix of colours I've used much before, but they went perfectly with the lampwork disc by Outwest that you can see in the background, and I love how it's turned out! The aqua is amazonite, the purple is jade and the pink is Czech glass.

And I made a couple more houses too, and they'll be part of a Daisychain Extra shop update on Friday! The bracelet will be in my new jewellery etsy shop that I'm finally setting up over the weekend, unless someone claims it before then!

Love My Art Jewellery

I've written a guest post for the Love My Art Jewellery blog, and it's been published today. I was pretty much given a free rein about what to write about. The first thing that sprung to mind was hallmarking, as although most people in the UK recognise hallmarks, even if they don't know exactly what they stand for, I do get questions from people over the States about what those tiny marks are on the back of some of my pieces of jewellery. The answer goes back over 700 years, so if you want to know what King Henry III has got to do with my jewellery, follow this link!

Tutorial Tuesday - links from the tutorial library

I thought that it was about time that I updated the list of free jewellery tutorials that I've written, the list that I keep on the page shown at the top of the screen, as I rarely seem to remember to do it when I actually post the tutorials! I knew that I'd written quite a few, but I was surprised that there are 29 free jewellery tutorials so far. So I thought that this week's Tutorial Tuesday could re-introduce some of them to you - or indeed show them to you for the first time if you haven't been here long!

Some of the tutorials are on techniques or tools. For example there are a couple of tutorials on soldering tips (here and here), a tutorial on how to cut jump rings, and one on polishing your jewellery with a tumbler. And then there are the project tutorials. All but one of these are actually on making earrings! My three favourites are the ones above - Leaf Green earrings, Bubble earrings and Hammered Drop earrings. So, if you fancy learning some new skills or brushing up on some old ones, or making yourself a quick pair of earrings click on "Jewellery Tutorials" and have a browse. The list will be getting longer soon!

P.S. It's also worth clicking on the Tutorial Tuesday button on the left, as the list on the Jewellery Tutorials page doesn't include links to tutorials written by other people or tutorials that I've written on other subjects.

Macramé, Art Beads and Wire

6 brand new projects featuring art beads 

from Moogin Beads, Humble Beads, Starry Road Studio, Beads of Passion

50 pages

over 100 photos

step-by-step instructions for projects and macramé knots

inspirational gallery featuring work by 

Rebecca Anderson,  

Leah Curtis, 

Malin de Koning,  

Keri Lee Sereika, 

Sherri Stokey 

and Cilla Watkins

The book costs £12, which works out at only £2 per project!

It is available through my website and also through my Daisychain Extra etsy shop.

I hope that you enjoy it!

Thank you to the wonderful designers who contributed to the gallery 

and to Rebecca and my very own T for proof reading for me!

It is Saturday, isn't it?!

Yes, I'm sure it is - the date on my computer is telling me so, even though it definitely doesn't feel like it! What with a four day weekend to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the halfterm holiday, the boys' childminder being on holiday and T and Ben going on a camping trip for a few days I've lost all track of the days, as I've not really needed to know what day it is! It's a lovely feeling, actually. It's great not to have to get up early for the school run or to get the boys to the childminder, and, although I've missed my big boys, it's been nice not to be ferrying Ben about all over the place and to have a quieter (and tidier and cleaner!) house. Jamie and I have been playing in the garden on the decking that T finished before they went camping (rain allowing of course), emptying out and repacking the kitchen cupboards several times a day, having lots of cuddles and taking bread down to the ducks and swans in the park. Despite being busy out and about, though, I kept forgetting to take photos, so the ones above are some of the few I've got from the Jubilee weekend - fun times at a great street party down the road! It was a fantastic fun and relaxed party, a real community event, and it felt great to know more than half of the families there. Before Ben was born, this area of Southampton was really just where T and I happened to live, a convenient place for work. Having Ben changed that as it's really made us part of the community.

The only downside to this week is that the only work time I've had has been for a couple of hours during Jamie's afternoon nap and in the evenings, and thanks to my jewellery sale and a few deadlines I've had lots of lovely work to do. It's meant some very late nights, but strangely enough I still feel refreshed. I think at least some of that is because I have....drum roll please.....nearly finished my ebook! Macramé, Art Beads and Wire just needs two last photos added and a final proof read, and then it will be published on Monday. I am nervous and excited in equal measures! The book will be available from both my Daisychain Extra etsy shop and my jewellery website.

Right, my big boys will be back any minute now so I'm going to get prepared to do loads of washing and put a very tired but happy Ben to bed!

New Sale Offerings

1.  Jade Leaves Bracelet £36 £28.80

2. and 3. Home Is Where The Heart Is Bracelet SOLD

4. Lotus Flower Necklace £75 £60

5. and 6. Bright Jade Bracelet £36 £28.80

Well, not completely new as you have seen them on here before, but these are pieces of jewellery that I have for sale but I haven't uploaded onto the website. You can see more pictures of them and more information about them by clicking on their names - this will take you to the blog posts where I originally showed them off. The prices below the pictures are those in the 20% off sale. After the sale (if they don't sell!) I will be adding them to my etsy shop at the non-sale prices. Postage in the UK is £2 and postage for International sales is £4, and you can see more about my shipping information here on my website. If you would like to buy any of these pieces please email me (address on the left in my profile!) and I'll send you a paypal invoice.

I have extended the sale for a couple of days as I didn't realise until today that there was an error on my site - I put 5th June into the system for the end date, thinking that that meant midnight tonight but it actually meant midnight last night. Apologies for the confusion, but it's all working and showing the correct prices!

Jubilee Jewellery Sale

I've mention on here before that I'm making some changes to my website. I use zencart, a free ecommerce package, and I've made all the changes to the template and layout myself. It's done me well for several years, but I've been conscious recently that it doesn't look quite how I want it to look - not as polished as I'd like, and a bit too mixed up too with one-off pieces competing for space with the made-to-order designs that I make, and tuition information added to the mix as well. I'm going to turn the website into a space for the made-to-order designs as these are the ones I supply to galleries and also tuition information, and I'm going to move the one-off pieces of jewellery over to my unused Daisychain Jewellery etsy shop.

However.....it's going to take me ages to transfer everything over, even considering that I've got the descriptions and photos already! So, to reduce the number of items I've got to move over, I'm having a sale on all my jewellery, just over the long Diamond Jubilee weekend. All jewellery is reduced by 20%, and the discounts have already been applied to the website. I've also got some pieces such as the jewellery I've made for recent blog challenges that are included in the sale, such as my Home Is Where The Heart Is bracelet, although I haven't added them to the website yet. I'll post about them on here again over the weekend so that you can see them again, and if you're interested in them please email me about them!

So, if you fancy giving yourself (or someone else!) a treat then you can find my website here!