Bocianelli and Too Many Clothes!

Hello again folks!

Blog time!

Those of you who have read my previous blogs may recall that I wrote about some pretty amazing service I'd received from a supplier - well - the story now continues.  I told you about a company I had found who supply stencils and templates for just about anything from technical drawing and maths through to jewellery requirements.  I'd written to them because I was looking for a particular shape and their response to me was 'send us a drawing and we'll make it for you'.  Well, as you can imagine I was thinking that they'd come back to me with a minimum order, either in cost or quantity, but no I was told that they'd work with my drawings (good luck with that, I thought!) that I'd only need to buy one and that the cost would be the same as all their other templates.  Pretty amazing!!
Anyway an email popped into my inbox from Bocianelli this week and the company had made up four variations of my drawings for me to choose from and simply added them to their range.  I am so impressed with this service so make sure you check them out if you also use templates but can't quite find what you're looking for.  I shall certainly use them again especially as they sent me a lovely little discount voucher with my order.  Here's a link for you http://www.bocianelli.com.

So, what else has been happening this week?

Well, I've attended my first indoor Artist's Market in the Pannier Market in Tavistock.  Now, I've been to the Pannier Market many many times and it's a cavernous old stone building for those of you who don't know it.  It hasn't been very warm of late.......  Off I went early on Sunday morning to start setting up for the day, passed a car on my way with about three inches of snow on it, and waddled into the building.  I say waddled because I was wearing my entire wardrobe, layers and layers of clothes........ it was at this point I found out that my stand was beneath the MASSIVE hot air heater......enough to say I didn't actually need my bodywarmer and coat!  I did, as always, meet some lovely people and at one point heard someone say 'oh look the bangle lady's here'.  If you're from the area around Tavistock, please come and say hello to me on Friday 30th when I will be in Bank Square for the Dickensian Evening until 9ish and I'll be back in the Pannier Market on the 2nd and 16th December, probably wearing slightly less - not that that is a good reason to come and see me!! There are some very talented artists and makers who take part in the Artist's Markets, why  not take a look at their Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/SlickSilverJewellery?ref=hl#!/pages/Bank-Square-Arts-Market/131560983607495?fref=pb

Whilst at Tavistock I revealed my latest collections so I thought I'd let you see a few pictures of pieces that will be appearing on my website soon.

Falling Leaves

 

Harlequin

Crushed Velvet

Autumn Leaves

That's all my news for this week but remember that these collections will be added to http://www.slicksilverjewellery.co.uk in the next few days so make sure you get yours, after all they are very limited collections. Perfect presents for mums, sisters, wives, girlfriends, friends, nieces, aunties, grandmas, cousins, and of course - yourself!!

Next week I'll blog about how you could come to me and learn how to make something yourself!

Excellent Service!

Hi everyone!

I'm sitting huddled on my sofa and I really think that autumn has arrived.  On my walk into town this morning I went through the park and noticed how much the leaves are turning on the trees and I don't feel like I've had summer yet! I'm sure that I can remember endless hot days during my summer holidays as a child!

So we've all said a sad goodbye to the Olympics and the Paralympics and I thought it was all fabulous. Lots of memories will stay with me from both games and there were plenty of inspirational moments and I certainly got through a lot of tissues during medal ceremonies.

Over the last month or so I've taken on two new stockists - Boo Gallery in Northamptonshire and Workshop 22 in Bristol and today I had to send more cuffs up to Boo as they'd sold out! Brilliant!

On another positive note, yesterday I heard about a really excellent service and I thought I would pass the information on to you all.  I hand pierce all of my aluminium shapes for necklaces etc, but if I'm using a repeating shape, I tend to use jewellery templates/stencils for uniformity.  I bought a new template last week and it arrived pretty quickly with a CD catalogue of all of the company's stencils.  I looked through the vast array with relish, but the shape I'd had in mind for a while wasn't available.  I contacted the company to ask if they'd ever had anything like my requested shape.  I was amazed to receive an email back saying that if I could send them a drawing they would make me the template I wanted for the standard price and in fact they would be happy to make one-off stencils any time for me.  How amazing a service is that??? So, here you go folks, check them out for yourselves!
http://www.technical-drawing.co.uk

So, what have I been making? Lots of lovely new things! Last week I finished working on the Cherry Blossom Petals Necklace below.  It's a really lovely lightweight piece of jewellery which has a soft tinkling sound when run through the fingers and is extremely comfortable to wear. Do you like it?  If you'd like to look at any of my other jewellery take a look at my website http://www.slicksilverjewellery.co.uk

Cherry Blossom Petals Necklace

After the anodised aluminium is dyed each individual petal is pierced out with a piercing saw, the edges filed and polished and then each piece is textured with a rolling mill, drilled and then assembled.

All in all - sore fingers!!

Cherry Blossom Slim Cuff


 

I also made a slim cuff to go with this necklace and I'm pretty pleased with the end result!

















I've also made quite a lot more this week but we'll leave that till next week.

Just to let you know, I working on another blog collaboration at the moment, which I really hope will come to fruition as it would feature a very talented young lady who practices an old craft that is not seen as often as it should be these days, so let's hope she agrees!

Ok folks, that's all for this week.  See you all soon! xxxxx