News, Sales, Awards and Coffee!

I have been a very bad girl and not blogged for ages but I'm back!!

2014 is showing much more promise than 2013 which was a rubbish year in lots of ways, mostly on a personal level, not professionally.  So, the very biggest news for this year is that I will be going back to college in September to study for a BA in Jewellery and Silversmithing.  I've been offered a place at Plymouth College of Art and I'm really looking forward to it (apart from waking up at night in a cold sweat thinking about workload, whether my poor little brain cells are up to it and whether I might be the only 'mature' student!!).

Last year saw me building up a reasonable number of stockists and exhibiting at some great venues around the country as well as being accepted for some fab shows like Crux.  Whilst I was at one of the events I found myself thinking the future and wondering what might come next.  When you're largely self-taught it can be quite hard to keep pushing your boundaries, especially if you feel that better skills would allow you to take your work to another level. This is where I'm at. I'm happy enough with what I make and you all seem to like it which is wonderful, but, I might be capable of achieving even more! Also very important is the access to opportunites that might come my way.

Have you visited my website lately? There's a sale! A SALE!! There's 20% off vitually everything (only a couple of things not in the sale) so hurry over and get your favourite piece before the end of January! SlickSilver Jewellery Sale

In other news I had an amazing birthday present towards the end of last year from my daughter and son-in-law - a mother and daughter photo shoot.  I cannot begin to tell you how much fun we had! My facial muscles were aching from smiling and laughing so much.  We settled on a date which turned out to be a very stormy day, outdoor shots were out of the question so Kinga, the lovely photographer suggested a cosy coffee shop with some shots being taken from outside in the dark and the rain looking in on us having our coffee. Do you like them? Photo courtesy of Kinga Burakowska Photography.

I've also been nominated for a Selected Award from Craft and Design Magazine, so if any of you lovely, lovely people would like to vote for me here's the link. Val Williams Thank you for voting for me! See you all soon!

 

Favourite at the Fair and Inspiration Pics

It's been another busy week folks! What's new, I hear you groan......

You may recall that last blog I was telling you that I was meeting the Ladies Wot Tweat for another lovely lunch and so last Friday, 10 of us met up for lunch at Jolly Jacks.  A fast-paced and hilarious few hours ensued and I didn't return from lunch until well after 4pm! I got chance to speak with those I hadn't managed to chat to before and met another new member and we found that we had musical offspring in common amongst other things.

The weather on Saturday was dire, but, as my husband was on a photography course, I spent the day working and on Sunday we woke up to sunshine so set off as planned to visit the Contemporary Craft Fair at Bovey Tracey, Devon.  I've been before, but the familiar excitement of seeing so much beautiful jewellery soon set in and no, I wasn't disappointed! I couldn't go last year because of surgery on my shoulder but really enjoyed the opportunity of chatting to makers whose work I was already familiar with.  I also met some really lovely designers, who had stunning work on display and who were really friendly.  To the two ladies who were manning stalls and who didn't look up from their mobile phones or acknowledge me the whole time I was looking at their work - bad move! I cannot pass up the chance to mention just a few designers who really caught my eye.  Anne Morgan for her amazing ability to reticulate large pieces of silver, Bryony Stanford's amazing crumpled cuffs, Jed Green's incredible shaped glass tube jewellery and Kokkino for some absolutely stunning new work. I also loved the aesthetically pleasing designs of new jeweller Katie Roberts in the One Year On marquee.  I'm a real sucker for ceramics too and have contacted two of my favourites in the hope that they'll take part in a collaborative blog. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, this week we've had a visitor to stay who was mixing an album with my husband, so after hearing many snippets of music many times, I retired to my studio to work!  I'm hoping to exhibit in the summer so I'm currently working on pieces for that theme.  I'll tell you no more than that, but you can see a picture of one of the pieces so far.

I thought that you might also be interested in seeing what inspires me.  We took a little trip down to Royal William Yard yesterday for a coffee and a look at Plymouth College of Art Degree Show which was well worth a visit, so if you get a chance to visit their two venues down there, do go.  Anyway, on to inspiration.  Texture and colour, every time.  We wandered round and I took some photos for my inspiration board - I hope you like them too.

An amazing rusty old door!

Old stone wall

Peely paintwork

Well, that's all for this week, hope you like my pictures!