Spring Madness!

Hello all! I know, I've been a bad girl and haven't blogged for ages but I'll get on to that in a minute!

It's Spring, we even have flowers in the garden! Yes I know it's still raining, but over Easter we did have a little bit of the bright stuff, a big yellow thing made an appearance in the sky and the birds were singing! Doesn't it make you feel better?

So what have you all been up to?

I've had some good news of my own - my daughter is having a baby! That's right I'm going to be Nanna Val in the autumn! Happy news.  I'm also going back to college in late September to get myself some formal training whilst still running my business so it's going to be a very busy time.  In view of that I am taking the opportunity to make plenty of stock now. That's why I've been so busy.

So what have I been up to? Well, I've found a new aluminium supplier and I've been experimenting with new designs and colourways.  The new metal is much harder to work, but takes colour in an amazing way, really intense and vibrant.  Rust is a texture/colour which I simply cannot pass by, particularly if the metal has been painted and is peeling and I have been exploring this effect in my newest work.

This brings me to my sale - there's 25% off everything on my website, but only until the end of April and this is to make way for some of my new collections.  If you have a favourite piece, now would be a very good time to get it! There's free postage too! Tell your friends! Tell everyone!!

I've also got some fab new stockists, Created Gallery, The Hayrack Gallery, Number Four Gallery and finally Rostra Gallery which is brilliant news! Do check them out if they're in your area.

Finally some pictures of my new work, would love to have your feedback!

These are samples of what I've been up to, more next time! Thanks for reading!

The Frustrations Of A Recovering Designer/Maker

Hello world, 

A lot has happened since I last blogged and it is my intention to be a more frequent blogger from now on! The most major change since last time is that I got married and anyone who wants to see a picture, scroll down to the bottom of the page for a sneaky look!  As you can probably tell, it was for the second time but it really was the most fantastic sunny day to get married by the sea to a wonderful man with our families and friends around us.  Following the wedding we had a honeymoon in a former artists' studio in St Ives and spent all of our time wandering around galleries, partly getting inspiration for new work, partly meeting inspiring people and just occasionally thinking that our work was ok after all!! An hour or two peace and quiet in Barbara Hepworth's garden led to some new ideas for jewellery being sketched out for trial at a later date.

The second major thing to happen to me recently, just two weeks ago, was planned surgery on my right shoulder and yes I am right-handed!  I sadly oiled my tools, tidied my bench and shut the door on my studio for a while.  I know that it will be some time yet before I have enough movement and little enough pain to be able to venture in there again.  Because I knew that I would be having surgery I worked hard beforehand to build up a store of new designs.  Part of my plan for my recovery time has been to work on my online presence and to convince myself that marketing is fun.  Like most creative people I would much rather make jewellery than try to sell my work, however, my bank balance does not approve.  As I've now got to the stage where I can move my arm from the elbow down ok, it's time to get on with some laptop based work and to resist the urge to buy things!

At the bottom of my blog you will see where you can buy my work from and whilst I do hope that you will take the time to have a look, it caused me to ponder whether people like buying jewellery online.  I'm always open to ideas about how to best present my work so please let me know if you have any suggestions. 

So, for the rest of this week I shall continue to rest and be waited upon whilst my reluctant mind absorbs computery stuff and I pick the brains of my long-suffering other half and Twitter friends.

See you here next week!