To Cotehele and Beyond!

Hello again!

I've decided that the silly season has begun - I'm running around like a headless chicken trying to make sure that I've got enough stock for everything! It seems much harder this year and I think that's because I'm exhibiting in a few places so I've already got a lot of stock tied up - I'm definitely not complaining though!

So, who's coming to see me this weekend at the lovely National Trust property Cotehele? I'm taking part in their two day Craft event this Saturday and Sunday, so come and see me and make sure that you bring plenty of money so that you can do your Christmas shopping.  What could be better that buying beautiful handmade items for all your family and friends? Support independant makers, designers and traders.

Next Saturday I'll be at Tavi Arts Market, which is always a lovely event to visit and Tavistock itself is a great town, full of lots of independant retailers.

From the 22nd November until the 24th I will be at Crux Craft Fair, a new event for me, so please come and say hello and help me find my feet!

 

If you're in the Manchester area, you can find me exhibiting at Ordsall Hall and my work will also be available in the gallery at Salford Museum and Art Gallery and in the Derbyshire area I can be found exhibiting at the By Invitation at The Beetroot Tree Gallery.

Believe it or not I have actually made some jewellery too this week! The storms inspired the first collection and some gorgeous fabric inspired the second.

 

 

 

I hope you like my new work.  See you all next time.

Hello and Goodbye

Hello again! Where's the summer gone??

I'd just like to start this week by mentioning an amazing metal artist Katie Lake who was a founder member of Flameworks.  A lot of you may know her as having won gold in the Craft & Design Selected Awards twice including this year or will have seen her sculpture.  Katie lost her life recently whilst enjoying the Cornish sea.  She was an inspiration to so many people and enabled students with visual disabilities to use the furnace.  A larger than life character, full of fun and we shall miss her, but we will celebrate her here in Plymouth and at Flameworks.

I seem to have produced an awful lot of work over the last couple of weeks and that's been for a number of reasons. The first reason is now done and dusted because twenty pieces have gone off to Salford Museum and Art Gallery for their brand new sales area and also for the By Hand exhibition happening from October to January at Ordsall Hall in Salford. The second reason for all this activity is that my husband artist David Muddyman and myself are holding Open Studios this year starting at the end of August.  We are part of the Plymouth Arts Trail which comes under the umbrella of Drawn To The Valley's exhibition of art along the Tamar.

Full details of when we'll be open can be found in the booklet from local outlets and also on my Events page. Come and see us, there'll be some amazing artwork to buy and my jewellery and wall art.

Over the weekend I dyed some new sheets of aluminium and I'm really pleased with what's to come - one sheet looks like painted silk or batik in shades of pink, another looks like a field of lavendar just coming into bloom and othe other reminds me of surf and blue/green waves. I can't wait to start cutting them out.

So my project for the coming week to is to come to grips with making my site available to Stumble Upon - anyone else tried that?

Want a sneaky peek and what's going to be for sale soon on the website? This is the PopArt collection and there will be a necklace and earrings too.

 

 

 

 

So, see you next week all - have a lovely week doing whatever it is you do!

And The Winner Is......

Hi folks!

Yet another busy week draws to a close.  I managed to make a lot of jewellery while my husband was away and yet he doesn't distract me when he's here, but perhaps I feel the need to fill my hours more when he's away! So there's a huge pile for photographing now and now the sun's gone.......harumph....

A sample of what i've been working on this week!

So first of all this week I'd like to thank all of you who took part in last week's competition.  Lots of correct answers, however (drum roll.....) the winner is Lena Smith of Lena Smith Music. Congratulations and a lovely cuff will be on it's way to you this week!

The rest of the entrants will be added to my newsletter list so that they can receive a discount voucher to be used online. If you would also like to receive my monthly newsletter with discounts and special offers and early bird discounts on new collections before they hit the website why not contact me?

So, there's been a lot of deadline meeting this week.  My contract has now been signed and sent for the exhibition at Ordsall Hall, Salford and for selling at the brand new Landing Gallery at Salford Museum and Art Gallery and I've also sent off an application pack for selection for another exhibition so I shall be waiting with baited breath.

For those of you who were concerned for the welfare of the mouse last week, it disappeared without a trace!! Our victorian house has a void underneath, not quite deep enough for a cellar and not accessible to us, so we think that's where it went. At least it escaped the cat!

 

 My very tidy workbench - can't remember when it last looked like that!!

So what are we all up to next week?  Well I need to do my next newsletter and make a batch of earrings as Hannah's at Seale Hayne Gallery have run out! I also need to finish and send all the jewellery up to Manchester and I need to prepare for a workshop I'm running in Liskeard on the 10th August at Cartwheels Craft Centre.  If you would like to book a place, please follow the link.

Ok, thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!

Competition Time and Mouse

Hi all!

Well yesterday was a little traumatic - I choked on a piece of pickled ginger! Yes I know it's a comdey moment, but my life flashed before my eyes and I saw myself as a pile of bones, only coming to light when I didn't arrive to pick up hubs from the station..... (ok slight exaggeration, but still....) and then as if that wasn't bad enough Layla the cat strolled into the lounge with a live mouse!! She meowed to tell me she'd bought me a present, mouse took off like a rocket underneath our corner sofa which is heavy and a tight fit. Now, I can't budge the sofa and this is Layla's attitude to the entire thing! Bothered? Not much.....

Anyhoo

I've solved all the little glitches (I think) in the new website and I'm chuffed to bits with how it looks!
That brings me on to my website launch competition where you can win a little bit of something nice - all you have to do is count how many items are for sale on my website at the moment and to enter you will need to send your answer via the Contact Us page. Please don't post your answer below as others will see it! Closing date is Saturday 27th at 5pm.

Last week I gave you a teaser of one of the new pieces so this week I thought I would show you a whole picture of a cuff from my favourite collection ever - Digital Cuff.

What do you think? Do you like it? There's a necklace and earrings to match on the website too.

Exciting News
So what's next for me?  Well I'm extremely busy at the moment putting collections together to go off to Salford Art Gallery and Museum to go into their brand new Landing Gallery and also some work to go into an exhibition they're organising in Ordsall Hall, a Tudor Manor in Salford.  The exhibition is called By Hand and will run from October until January. This is very exciting for me as it's the first exhibition i've taken part in outside Devon. If any of you are in the area, please do go and take a look and let me know what it looks like as I doubt I'll be able to make it up there.

Anyway, I'm off to the studio now to put together the collection I've been working on over the last few days - it's called Solar Flare and is yellow/peach/orange and it's very summery.

See you all next week! Don't forget to enter the competition you've got to be in it to win it!