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!

Planning and I need your input!

Hello again everyone!  Hope you've all been enjoying the lovely weather - sadly it's not going to be around after tonight but at least we've had a few days of sunshine to make us all feel better!

I feel like I haven't drawn breath since attending the Crafts Council Hothouse Taster Day! I keep waking up at ridiculous hours with ideas and the need to get things down on paper.  As a result it's been a pretty busy week! I've had some interesting meetings and scheduled some more, attended Tavistock Arts Market and generally had a great week, lots of sales and lots of interest. The type of week when I love working for myself, even though I work far longer hours now than I ever have before and it does feel a little bit like I'm spinning plates!

I'm planning a brand new website in the next couple of months so once again, I'd really like your feedback.  When I visit craft fairs I always dress my stand in black as it makes the colours in the aluminium jewellery really stand out and people often comment on how good it looks.  My question is black or white background for the website? Do you find one or the other easier to look at? Let me know what you think!

I'm looking forward to making some jewellery next week - I haven't had chance to make anything this week! I've got a couple of sheets of aluminium already dyed so I will have something to work with.

I can also tell you about a brand new gallery that have opened the doors this week and which has my jewellery on display - go and have a look at Porters of Station Road, Bovey Tracey, Devon if you get the chance.  It's a lovely shop and Ali will give you a warm welcome!

Have you ever thought about taking a short course in texturing/colouring metal or an aluminium taster day? I offer one to one half day courses in a variety of themes or if you prefer full day group courses I will soon be working with a couple of craft centres in Cornwall to deliver that training - do let me know if you'd like me to pass on your details.



Texture and colour on copper

The second and third pictures are examples of copper that has been heat treated in different ways - playing with texture and colour is great fun and the techniques learned can then be incorporated into your own style of working.

I look forward to your comments regarding the new website! Onwards!

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!

Bronze and Blossom

Hello folks, today is our first wedding anniversary and so much has happened during the last year - very many changes on a personal level.  I no longer have a day job! Now I feel properly self-employed (my business was formalised in 2008 but was very part-time up until recently). I've expanded my aluminium range to launch my Signature Collection on the website, which marries the material with silver elements and designs where I can explore my creative ideas.

On leaving my job after 17 years, my lovely colleagues gave me some money 'to be spent on jewellery tools' and so I bought a kiln and I've been experimenting since it's arrival with textures from nature on bronze.  These are not yet available for purchase but will be in to not too distant future.  I'm always drawn to texture and colour around me and I've been making moulds from just about everything I can find! Even the cat's started to eye me up warily and not stay in one place too long!!

I've used silver clay many times in the past, but always torch fired it which was fine.  Bronze clay, unless it's a very small piece, doesn't fire as successfully with a torch and not all of the pieces fired successfully in the kiln, but I think I have the measure of it now. #crossesfingersandtoes









These pieces were cast from pieces of wood and the ring was taken directly from a lump of lavarock and has an adjustable silver ring band.

I've finally launched my Cherry Blossom collection on the website this week too.  Thank you to all those of you who've given me such lovely comments on this one.  I think it's going to be a favourite of mine in the same way that Surf's Up was.  You can find Cherry Blossom at http://slicksilverjewellery.co.uk/page10.htm

So, in other news, yesterday was a bit of an emotional one! All mums out there will know that no matter how big your kids are etc etc.....
Yesterday I packed my very grown up son off on the train that would take him to London, then Heathrow, then Australia - where he's off travelling for 3 months.  He's going to have a fabulous time and he'd better bring me a wallaby back or else......

Tomorrow we're off to our favourite place in all of UK - St. Ives.  We went to St. Ives for our honeymoon so where else could we possibly go for our anniversary? Galleries, here we come!!

Competition for a Valentine's Treat!

Hello folks! We've just been to the Seco Lounge to meet up with other Flameworks members, however, no-one turned up so we had dinner and forlornly came home, checked our emails and realised that the meeting is next week - hey ho, dinner out next week too!! #notaseniormoment

So, who would like to win a delicate Valentine's inspired pendant? There's no cost to enter so why not have a go - you could give the pendant to someone you love or you could just keep it yourself!! I know what I'd do!

So how do you enter?  All you have to do is guess the weight of the pendant with chain and the nearest guess will win it!  The closing date is Sunday 5th of February at 5pm so start guessing and post your answers below!

What is the weight of this pendant with chain?

Last week I blogged about Alison Branagan's books on business for Artists and Designers, so I thought I would tell you about another book which is providing me with a lot of inspiration at the moment.  We all get our inspiration from many diverse directions and I get a lot of mine from naturally occurring forms, such as the bark of a tree or a lichen formation.

This book, which I received for my birthday at the end of last year, is proving to be such a source of ideas, even if I only use a colour combination or a small pattern repeat from within the pages.  If colour and texture are your thing too, then give it a try.

It's called Heaven & Earth, Unseen by the Naked Eye by Phaidon and contains stunning photographs of our planet and us, but mostly from the inside!

Do you remember the piece from my Signature Collection I showed you last week? Well this week I have used to same form but in shades of yellow ochre, green and blue, forged it and also designed a pin through it to make a very desirable brooch which would look sensational against black clothing with simple lines.  The oval head of the pin is made from heavily reticulated silver and perhaps I'll post some pictures of it next week.  I've also been working on some simple aluminium adjustable band rings and some not so simple ones!! Pics next week!

Hope you all have a good week - competition results Sunday night!

Jewellery as Art

Well, last week I blogged about Amazon's new Universal Wishlist Button which allows people to add goods from anyone's website to their Amazon wishlist and the possible consequences for people like myself who sell one-off items.  I have tried to contact Amazon to ask if we can choose to opt out of this system, but haven't had a response as yet.  The editor of UK Handmade is also looking into this on our behalf and I will keep you posted.

Those of you who read my last collaborative blog with Carolyn Saxby will recall her gorgeous beads and I'm thrilled to say that I received a package of the golden pink beads and I shall enjoy making myself something stunning with those - thank you Carolyn!

So, following a suggestion this week on Twitter from ShellyBobbins I thought I would look jewellery as art.  I have always sought to introduce colour into my work and in the early days I did that with patinas of various kinds, and now I feel that I can really explore my painterly side using anodised aluminium and inks and dyes.  I'm often inspired by a photograph, but more commonly, a close up texture or a flash of colour will be enough to give me an idea.  I also find inspiration in pottery and textiles.  When I colour and dye a sheet of aluminium it looks like a painting before it is cut up.  I belong a small group of artists who like to push their boundaries and at a recent meeting we decided to work towards a theme for this year.  This has caused me to think about how I can portray my jewellery as art and so I've cut up a sheet of dyed aluminium and suspended it in slices within a frame to make a free standing sculptural exhibit which the viewer will be able to run their fingers through should we get an exhibition!

I also subscribe to Craft & Design magazine http://www.craftanddesign.net/ and you will be able to see a sample of my work in the Makers Gallery in the next issue!

In other news, my jewellery can now also be found at www.love-local.com which launched yesterday and I wish them loads of good luck!

 This aluminium collection is subtely textured and was dyed first in turquoise and then over-dyed in a beautiful deep blue and these three items are the only ones I produced in this pattern.  I think that they would look stunning with a party outfit.

Oh well, I'm off to find another stunning blog collaborator!  See you next week!

The Colour Buzz!

Anyone who knows my jewellery will know that colour is hugely important to me as is texture, but I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite colour sources for inspiration.

I really love looking at things that are very simply laid out with beautiful colours that harmonise and I really do have a great choice of material as my artist husband http://www.davidmuddyman.co.uk collects art books and catalogues with a passion and our house size is decreasing accordingly!

Yesterday I travelled from Plymouth to Bristol by train to see my son and purchased what turned out to be a revelation - Oh comely magazine.  I can hear some of you saying 'where have you been, we already knew about that!' - well it was a true find for me.  Beautifully simplistic in layout, not crowded with ads, lovely colours and graphics and great reading matter - do look out for it. Several pictures made me want to immediately dye some aluminium! http://www.ohcomely.co.uk

I'm also a sucker for pads of colourful paper designs and whilst I don't reproduce the design I often feel inspired by an element of what I see.  I also flick through Colour Index by Jim Krause for colour combination types.  Another source I use frequently for it's sheer mouth-wateringness (?) is http://www.design-seeds.com.  The photographs never fail to inspire me and are often a breath of fresh air and I love the way that the colour palette for each picture sits alongside.

My trip to Bristol was another riot of colour with some fabulous street art freely available for all to see and share in and I saw plenty of people appreciating it. The pendant below is my own take on graffiti style mark making and was made using digital imaging, alcohol inks and aluminium dyes.
I hope you'll take a little time to check out the sources I've mentioned in this blog - they might inspire you too!

Purple Rain

Challenges, Changes and Cherry Cheesecake!

Phew - well last week's blog was an exciting time! I had some lovely comments from people entering the competition, a few new followers and you seemed to enjoy the challenge of searching through for the name of the collection that features on my background and you all got it right!

So challenges and changes are my theme for this week's blog.

My greatest challenge at the moment is that I still can't make my jewellery although my shoulder is finally beginning to improve, so hopefully the day won't be too far away! Luckily I was aware that I wouldn't be able to make anything for some time so I stockpiled before I had surgery and I can confirm that I will be launching my new website with a new aluminium collection or two. Just wait until you see mouthwatering Cherry Cheesecake and Surf's Up!

Cherry Cheesecake - but what is it?

That was a neat little link there to the changes ahead on the new website and the challenges it's bought me (and my husband!).  It was supposed to be so simple, but inevitably, it wasn't!  You can, however, expect on the new site to see a shop for each of my collections, Waves, Impressions, Colour & Texture and Aluminium. I'm also hoping to get a forum going with a different subject for discussion each week if possible but we'll wait and see how good the take up is on that.

The other challenge I've had this week is finding another artist to collaborate with.  I'm looking for designers who produce something out of the ordinary and I have emailed a couple of people whose designs are stunning and totally different from anything else I've ever seen.  I really hope I hear back from them soon, however, I shall carry on looking anyway and if anyone has a suggestion I will gladly take a look and see if it fits in with my own work.

So, hopefully before my next blog we shall be up and running on the new site and may be able to celebrate the launch in some way - another competition do you think?

Colour and Texture Collaboration

As an admirer of the work of many others I thought it would be a good idea to show you that of an artist I particularly like and whose work I feel has a synergy with my own and I really hope to make this a regular feature of my blog.

I recently did a mini interview with Mhairi Wild, designer of utterly beautiful knitted and felted accessories. I asked her the following and would like to thank her for taking part:-

Where do you get the inspiration for your designs?
The Scottish coastal communities that I have visited and researched form the basis for much of my inspiration.  The colour, texture and narrative all play a part.  A constant companion on these trips is the work of poet Thomas A Clark, more specifically, ‘Distance and Proximity’.  The visual patterning and imagery of the written word throws up inspiration in equal measure, and is a core part of my work.  So far the Island communities of Easdale, Seil, Mull, Iona, Harris and Lewis, are among the list of inspirational settings and more recently, Cromarty, Auchmithie, and Crovie on the East coast of the Scottish mainland.

Is there a craft medium that you've always had a hankering to try?
I’ve always fancied trying my hand at ceramics.  I’ve dabbled a bit in the past, but would like to develop my skills to perhaps incorporate ceramics and textiles in some way.

If you could see one famous person wearing your designs, who would it be?
Without hesitation, I’d say Tilda Swinton.  I’m a great admirer of her cinematic and community work.  She is well known for supporting the Arts, across the board.  I think she would like the flexibility of my ‘gather’ scarves as they work well as a statement piece and are just as happy worn with a big jacket and wellies.

Where can fans buy your work?
My work is available online from Papa Stour, and baffie.  My biggest retailer is Concrete Wardrobe, Broughton Street, Edinburgh, where I am launching a new extended range with homewares, and new gathers on 1^st August.  Sheila Fleet Gallery in Kirkwall is my Orkney retailer, with The Tayberry Gallery holding my work, a bit closer to home.  I’m diversifying into luxury handpainted yarns, inspired by the islands, and am working on a new woven textiles collection for Winter 2012-13.

These stunning designs from Mhairi caught my eye for the rich colour and texture and three dimensional quality she manages to achieve.  They are statement pieces.  The skinny scarf is part of her very latest collection. Please do make sure that you visit her website and either treat your self or make sure that everyone around you knows what's on your Christmas list!  You can find Mhairi
 Wild at www.mhairiwild.co.uk

The View From The Tate

Colour and texture have long been my inspiration and my anodised aluminium jewellery lets me fully explore that and you will see from the images below that I was naturally drawn to Mhairi's work as it similar in concept to my own whilst being in a completely different medium. It would be wonderful to think that some day both of our designs will be worn together.

Sandstorm In The Desert

As you can see, we have often used similar colours in our work and I particularly love to introduce a texture which I achieve by using layers of powdered pigments, alcohol inks, aluminium inks and aluminium dyes.

For further information see www.slicksilverjewellery.co.uk

Inspirations

This week, whilst still exploring and learning about online marketing, I have been thinking about the sorts of things that inspire me.  Really I'm yearning to start making again, but physically my shoulder hasn't recovered enough for that yet - so let's take a look at my inspiration board.  It sits obediently at the side of my workbench and I glance at it periodically, but I'm not entirely sure that I'm using it as I should.  It's covered in pictures I really like, postcards, odd ideas that I've tried (some of them really odd!!), love notes, business cards, application forms, a couple of little paintings by my husband etc, but does all that just make it a noticeboard??? When does a noticeboard become an inspiration board anyway? I feel like it needs to fulfill it's potential by being draped with beautiful swatches, colour charts and the like and perhaps I'm letting it down a little - holding it back as it were.



Reticulated Sterling Silver Pendant
 with Blue Seaglass



So here's the thing. I like having somewhere to keep the bits I don't want to throw away. If I'm really honest, my inspiration comes from what I see outside the house.  I can go into raptures over the colour and texture of an old stone wall, rusty metal, lichen (don't get me started!), the bark of a tree and whilst I don't always try to recreate those textures, I do believe that they show in my work, particularly in my reticulated silver. 

Recently on honeymoon in St Ives we spent a great deal of time in galleries, in fact, there were few we missed in the area.  There are a couple of places that I particularly love that we visited again and previous visits had led me to some designs.  The first is Barbara Hepworth's studio and garden.  Her amazing scultpures immediately make me wish I was at my bench. My other favourite place is the Tate overlooking the beach, particularly out on the rooftop coffee shop on a gorgeous sunny day.  I don't think there's a more stunning view.  Recently I was colouring a sheet of aluminium, and as I've said previously, I'm never quite sure what the final result will be, but as soon as this particular sheet came out of the dye bath I knew what it would be called.  This collection is called The View From The Tate and if you've ever visited the area and seen the amazing light you'll know what I meant.

The View From The Tate Cuff and Pendant (there's also earrings available) and indeed the silver pendant above are all available from me should anyone be interested in buying them by contacting me at info@slicksilverjewellery.co.uk

or through my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/SlickSilver-Jewellery/241037522592328 or you can contact me on Twitter at SlickSilverJ

One final shoutout this week to my lovely Twitter friend S L Jewellery and Accessories.  She wrote a great blog about me but she also makes beautiful wedding jewellery and button bouquets which deserve a look so check out her site at http://www.sljewelleryandaccessories.co.uk/