Blast From The Past!

Hi everyone!

I've had an interesting and motivational time since my last blog! I'll tell you a little of the background.  I was lucky enough to go to a Steiner School from the age of 3 and I stayed at the same school until after my exams.  One of my friends from the early days was Lucy Walker (now Mhoma), who subsequently emigrated to New Zealand at 14.  A couple of years ago we 'met' again on Facebook and have chatted many times since.  I found out that Lucy has been working as an artist in Christchurch, NZ in the area devastated by earthquakes.

Lucy decided to go on a family/artist trip to various places around the world, some places just to show her children where she'd lived and others to forge new artistic links. I was thrilled when she said that she was coming to Plymouth to see us!  We spent the evening exploring each other's work and talking about school and her adventures.  The next morning, before she set off for Istanbul I took her to Royal William Yard to show her the building which is set to become artist's studios and for coffee, of course! As we entered the Bakery we bumped into a artist friend of mine and after introducing Lucy, Connor McIntyre very kindly offered to show us his studio and to tell us about his latest work which was fabulous.  Lucy is in New York now I believe, and when her travels are finished I hope to feature her here on this blog and to ask her more about her journey.  All in all, I found the whole visit very inspiring.

Since then I've been working on new shapes in my aluminium and I've started to cut out a new design.

So, what do you think of these new shapes?

 

I look forward to hearing what you think of the new pieces! I always appreciate your feedback. I hope to have some of this work on my website in the next few days so please do check SlickSilver Jewellery.

 

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!

Good Lunches, Good Business Books and News

Well, another week's over! It's been a bit of a grim one as I've had tonsillitis so have had a bit of time off from making.

So, have you all been and treated yourselves to some fabulous Debbie Orr, Skein Queen, products? I hope you enjoyed looking around her website and I would just like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to her for taking part. I have met some lovely people through my collaborative blogs so long may it continue - and I do have at least one more in the pipeline for you and I'm always open to suggestions of artists so do let me know if you come across someone we should all know about.

Last Friday, before the sore throat, I attended a really gorgeous lunch at the River Cottage Canteen and Deli at Royal William Yard, Plymouth.  The lunch gathering was held by Ladies Wot Tweat and consisted of a group of ladies who had met each other through Twitter, other social networks, business and word of mouth.  It was slightly daunting to walk in, not knowing a soul, however, I did find I knew one member when I got there and I definitely knew several more by the end of a fantastic meal.  I believe they meet regularly so I shall look out for the next date!

So whilst I've been feeling under the weather, I've been reading.  My husband bought me a great little book for Christmas which is a short punchy business guide, literally only a page or two on each aspect of business for artists and designers.  It's by Alison Branagan and as soon as I started to read it I felt that I also wanted to read her more in-depth essential guide on the same subject.  They're really well written and assume no previous knowledge which is just brilliant for me as I'm just taking the next steps with growing my business into full time hopefully.  I bought both books from Amazon and they're my recommendations for the week!

A Pocket Business Guide for Artists & Designers by Alison Branagan
ISBN 978-1-4081-2992-0

The Essential Guide to Business for Artists & Designers by
Alison Branagan
ISBN 978-1-4081-1903-7






If you fancy a read, these are interesting and not heavy going at all.  I've learned a lot.

So I'm hoping to work on a few designs in the next few days and I'll let you know how I get on and there might even be a Valentine's competition next week!!!

Are you all going to read this next week then? Be in with a chance of winning a very pretty piece? See you all then!!

My Twitter Support Group!

Hi folks!

Well what a week it's been! Times, they are a changing...... they could write a song about that I reckon....

Last week I told you about my submission to Flameworks Art2Go Christmas Exhibition at the Royal William Yard, Plymouth.  Last time I entered this I turned up on the night to see a few of my items displayed and felt a rush of pride, and when I had an urgent message to contact them on Tuesday I thought the worst.  Not so!! They want even more so last night was spent sorting, coding, labelling and pricing lots more work for them to choose from today.  The downside of this was that I completely forgot to attend a pre-arranged Twitter party at 8pm.  I was one of 2 birthday girls and I forgot to go to my own party!!! How lame is that?!?

This brings me on to this week's subject matter - Twitter.  Now I know some of you will be sitting there shouting get a life at the computer screen, however, I figure if you're reading this, you're already half way there yourself!!

The fact is, I blooming love Twitter!!

This week has been a rollercoaster, with potential plans afoot to change my whole lifestyle and as well as the support of my husband and family, I've found great props in a couple of my Twitter friends.  Yes, I know it's strange because we've never met, but we do support each other when we can see that it's needed. Emails have been flying back and forth as well as tweets with ideas and plans - you see what could be better than bouncing ideas around with people of a like mind? It makes perfect sense to me, because often, we can't rationalise something and we get bogged down by it, but someone else comes along and offers a simple solution and off we go again.

The party organiser last night was Sarah Marks from http://www.tiny-gems.co.uk and she makes gorgeous sparkly wedding jewellery and heirloom bouquets and is a bright and chirpy tweeter and along with Tara from http://www.daisyicecreamvan.co.uk who serves the most amazing goodies from her vintage van at weddings and events, we regularly meet up on Twitter to give our very knowledgable opinions on Strictly Come Dancing and anything else we all happen to be watching!

There is one person who's given me her time and ideas tirelessly this week though and that's Sarah from http://www.sljewelleryandaccessories.co.uk and she makes stunning bespoke bead and wire jewellery.  We've emailed and supported a lot and she's decided that I need a plan of action!! Her help has been invaluable and many months ago she spent time explaining a lot of SEO jargon to me as well. I really hope that you'll go and visit the websites of all these lovely ladies and buy lots of nice things from them.  If you're in Wales, look out for SL Jewellery - she may be teaching somewhere near you soon!!

Ok I'm off now to deliver my jewellery to the exhibition - come and visit if you can - photos next week!!