That's better!

I don't think I realised how tetchy I had been getting until I managed to sit down and start work in the shed yesterday evening! I was definitely in danger of getting into what Nicky calls a funk, and all because I hadn't had much creating time recently. Daft, isn't it? At least I'm in good company. Most of the designers (jewellery or lampwork, or indeed any craft) whose blogs I read or I know in real life say that they NEED regular time shut away in their private little kingdoms (aka workareas) in order to stay relatively sane - maybe it's something to do with all those ideas running round in their heads demanding to be put to good use? I do know that I'm much nicer to live with when I've been "playing" with my beads and silver - in fact, T has been known on occasion to tell me to take myself off into my shed! In the nicest, most caring way possible of course.

Anyway, I promised you photos, and as you can see, I've kept my promise. These are some of the daisies I made on Tuesday. They are still one of my favourite designs to make, which is very good as they are also the design that I sell the most of at the moment! Creamy freshwater pearls and lovely fresh turquoise - they will be on the website very shortly!

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/

Blog cleaning

My cleaning and tidying in the house yesterday has spread to my blog too - I've removed links to some blogs that haven't been updated in a few months and moved some of the sidebar sections around. I've also added some links to my tutorials and to some of the jewellery making information posts that I've made. I keep referring people to them when I'm teaching workshops and in replies to people's emails, so I thought that it would be a good idea to make them easy to find!

Manic Monday

Okay, cheesey I know, but that is definitely the perfect title for today! Today has been one of those days when I've been busy all day, but it doesn't really seem as though I've done much. Let's see - did some washing, cleaning and tidying this morning and then took B to Toddler Twist (dance and music class) and then the park, ran some errands in town (banking, post office etc), came home and made lunch, did some more cleaning and a bit of ironing and then played trains with B and read some books with him, made a couple of phone calls, made B's tea. Ummm, I guess I have done a fair bit but it still doesn't feel as though I've done much as I should have. I think it's because I haven't been in the shed and hammered any silver since Thursday evening as we've had T's mum and stepdad visiting, so my mind is full of all the projects I've got to complete! That, and the fact that if I don't have regularly and very frequent creating time I start to feel really unsettled. Never mind! B's at preschool tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully I'll get some jobs done then.

One of the jobs I have to do tomorrow is take some photos. I'm really conscious that I haven't shown you any new jewellery for a couple of weeks. It's not that I haven't made anything - I have been busy making and designing, honest! It's just that several pieces have been commissions that I couldn't show you straight away, and it's taken me a while to get the new improved lighting for my photo studio set up. Anyway, tomorrow there will be no more excuses - you will have some photos!

Tutorials

My first three tutorials are, at last, uploaded onto the website, ready for you to download onto your computer! Isn't technology wonderful? Well, it is once you've figured out all the buttons to press, the boxes to tick on the admin side of the website. I couldn't get the 'download now' button to appear when I did a test purchase until I realised that I had missed '.pdf' off the filename, but it's all working now.

The three tutorials that I've uploaded are on eye loops, wrapped loops and coils. These 3 are, I think, the most important techniques for a beginner to learn and, even, better, they are FREE! I decided that most of the technique tutorials would be free, and the project ones would just have a small charge. I've been teaching jewellery making for over 6 years now, and the tutorials are a way of using my experience to help you if you can't make it to a workshop, and a way of refreshing your memory if you've already got some experience!

The next tutorials I've got planned are on making your own head pins from sterling silver, making your own earwires and information on wireworking tools. If there are any tutorials you would like to see, please let me know!

You can find all the tutorials here.

Tutorial Tuesday

Well, B had his first afternoon at preschool today. He was excited at going in as we'd been talking about the toys he could play with and the fact that his childminder's little boy was going to the same sessions, and he sat down at the table at the start really well and went to get some toys when the registration part was over. I had a chat with his key worker (I've got to come up with a better term than that - it reminds me of the keyworkers from social services I worked with when I was a teacher!), signed some forms, checked that he was settled in and wasn't bothered at the thought of me going, managed to get a kiss from him and then slipped out of the door - all without getting tearful! Both T and I knew that B wouldn't have a problem with starting preschool, it would be me that would get upset. I did get a bit tearful on the way home, but then started laughing at myself when I realised that today, of all days, I didn't have any tissues with me! When I arrived to pick B up he was sitting as good as gold in a circle with the other children - he looked like such a big boy! He wanted me to come in and play with him, but I managed too get him to leave with the promise of taking him to the park were he chatted about the toys he'd played with, so I assume that he had a good time! I just hope it lasts and that he still enjoys it when he realises that it's a regular thing.

Anyway, Tutorial Tuesday......after distracting myself by giving the kitchen a thorough clean, I got on and did quite a bit of admin and phone calls etc. Not all the phone calls I wanted to make as my phone is playing up again, but I managed to tick quite a few jobs off my list. I also uploaded the tutorials I've written onto my website. You can't see them on there at the moment as I've still got to double check that they've uploaded okay, but as from tomorrow my free tutorials on basic wire work techniques will be available to download. My plan had been to get them on the website by the end of August, but although they were written by then I decided I wanted to trial them at a couple of workshops first. So, tomorrow the next stage of my mission pass the addiction of jewellery making will be under way!

Right, off to get wrapped up to go to bed now! It may be sunny during that day at the moment, but it's definitely chilly at night! I can't bear being cold at night. No matter how tired I am I can never sleep when I'm cold, so tonight, if anyone is really interested, I shall be wearing winter pyjamas and bed socks (from a trip on a British Airways flight pre-B!), and I've put the blanket back on top of the duvet on my side of the bed. What on earth am I going to be like when winter arrives?!

I love the sun!

It has been lovely and sunny here today, and most of yesterday too. It's amazing how much that has lifted my mood! It's not that I've been feeling down, just that this summer has been such a disappointment weather-wise. I know that it rarely gets really hot here in the UK, but, well, put it this way, I don't think that we're going to have to worry about hose pipe bans for a while!

I feel a lot more productive when it's sunny, so I was really pleased to be able to have some time in the shed this afternoon. B has more or less stopped having naps in the afternoon now, so I'm having to get used to doing without my hour or so work time each afternoon. Today, however, B fell asleep in the car on the way home (we'd been to see Laura and then to see Nicky during her lunch break at work) and slept in his bed for a couple of hours. A perfect length of time to do some housework and then hammer some silver, and even more perfect as it was unexpected!

I thought that I'd show you what I got up to - the photo shows a couple of rings and what will eventually be a necklace sitting on my desk. You can also see some of my favourite tools, some new and some older than me! The older ones are my two favourite hammers, both given to me by a friend whos parents were goldsmiths. The metal hammer is pitted with age and gives a beautiful texture to the silver. My newest toy, erm, tool is my Pepe disc cutter. I've used it to cut the discs that you can see - I've domed them using a doming block. The cutter arrived last month, a couple of months earlier than I hoped, after being on back order for a few months. I'd decided to buy a decent one rather than an Indian made one that would only last me a few years, and the wait has definitely been worthwhile! In the background you can also see the silver tubing I bought from Laura this morning - she'd decided not to use it to make silver cores inside her beads, and I've got a few designs sketched out that can use it - some of those experiments I mentioned a while back that I promise to show you soon!

By the way, B is still sleeping well in his new bed. He loves it, and stays in it all night until we go into him in the morning. I'm sure this honeymoon period will come to an end soon though! He's got his first pre-school session tomorrow afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes!