It's a Wedding Blog Collaboration!

Hello folks!

It seems a while since I featured a collaborative blog which is because I've had a couple promised which have fallen by the wayside, however, I now have a great one for you!  Let me tell you a little about Sarah, my guest this week.  Well the first thing is, she's a very talented lady, obviously, but the second thing is she's the keeper of my sanity!  We met through Twitter and we check in with each other most days and have a natter about what we're up to and if either of us is having a bit of a rough patch, we email.  We've never actually spoken and she's years younger than me, but that doesn't seem to get in the way of us being friends.  This means a lot to me, having gone from having a lot of work colleagues this year to lone working - as I say she keeps me sane!

Sarah makes extremely pretty jewellery and lovely weddingy things and I know that she's happy to work with brides to come up with a whole range of co-ordinated goodies. With that in mind, let's let Sarah of S L Jewellery tell us a bit more about what she does.

1. Do you make and sell your lovely bridal bouquets or do you prefer
to work individually with a bride?

 

I have a couple of sample bouquets which I sell off occasionally as
new designs are created but the joy of these bouquets is that they can
be created uniquely for each bride.
I love working with brides to create a piece unique to them. They know
that the bouquet they take down the isle is likely to be a complete
one off and there will be no other the same.
We sit down or chat over the phone and come up with the scheme and
begin to gather together some pieces to create a mood board. Once we
are happy with the ideas I begin the making process. I photograph each
step and keep the bride fully involved to make sure they are happy
before each step is completed. Once the complete bouquet is assembled
the brides gets to see it in the flesh which usually results in floors
of tears.

 

 

2. Where do you find all your sparkly bits and pieces to go into a bouquet?

Some brides prefer to gather all the pieces for a bouquet whether this
be for budget purposes or if they are lucky enough to have lots of
pieces within the family. Some receive pieces as gifts from friends
and family once they tell them they are having this type of bouquet.
If they prefer I can collect the items. I love all things sparkly and
wherever I am I always pick up bits and pieces. I have a secret box to
keep them all in. I love getting it out and going through it with
brides :)

3. Where can people see more of your work?

I'm a well known twitter addict so come and say hi at
www.twitter.co.uk/s_l_jewellery or here on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/S-L-Jewellery-and-Accessories/94160226703
You can view my website here www.sljewelleryandaccessories.co.uk or
why not email me on info@sljewelleryandaccessories.co.uk

So if you're thinking of getting married, or you know someone who is, then why not take a look at S L Jewellery's amazing bouquets and bits and bobs?

When thinking about weddings, no matter what the season, there's always the desire for the bride's mum to want to to wear something that no-one else will be wearing.  Even the simplest outfit can be made special and unique by the addition of bespoke jewellery.  Here at SlickSilver Jewellery we can offer just that.  Show us pictures of your outfit, close up shots of the fabric, and select the style of jewellery from my website, email me with your requirements and I can make aluminium and silver jewellery just for you and you'll know that no-one else will be wearing it! Tempting, isn't it! Just email me for a quotation!

This is some of my latest work. If you're interested in finding out more then please visit my website for further details http://www.slicksilverjewellery.co.uk

Oh, and there's some exciting news - I've got another stockist - visit Mangojuice Gallery in Worcester to see (and hopefully buy!) something for yourself!

Next week I've got another exciting blog collaboration - completely different, but just a beautiful!! Why not follow my blog so that you don't miss it!

Parma Violets Necklace

Summer Dreams Necklace




 

Updates and News

It's raining, the wind is howling, the cat is wet, it's Sunday, the coffee's on, the bread is made, scones to be made later, so all of that means it's update time!  Does anyone else set aside a particular time to do their updates?

On my Facebook page last week http://www.facebook.com/SlickSilverJewellery?ref=hl#!/SlickSilverJewellery I mentioned that I had a heap of finished jewellery ready to be photographed, so yesterday my husband did that for me.  That means today I have a load of lovely pics to play with, hence the updates!! So, this morning I feel I've achieved quite a lot.  I started off by updating my LinkedIn profile which was something I've been meaning to do for ages, followed by my website, then my Facebook page, Twitter and then finally here I am, all ready to blog! It does take time to manage it all, but it's worth it.

Those of you who've followed my blog will know that I left my day job in March and since then I've been fully concentrating designing (and selling!) my jewellery.  I'm sure that some of my old colleagues must think that all I do now is sit around at home chatting on Twitter, but believe me I work much longer hours now than I ever did before and I do find it really hard to take a day off in the week because I really do love what I do!

So what's new?  Well both my husband, artist and composer David Muddyman, and myself have a new stockist.  You can now find us at West Gallery, West Putford, Holsworthy, Devon http://www.westgallery.co.uk/index.html which is a lovely tranquil place to visit and to have a chat to Rob and Belinda.

I've also been working, as I said before, on some new collections which have been added to the Signature Collection today. I really hope you like these - they are some of my favourite pieces so far. Mermaid's Tale only consists of the three pieces shown - a very limited edition!

Summer Dreams

This long necklace is in the Summer Dreams Collection and slips easily over the head as it's 25 inched long.  You can wear it whichever way you want, with it's off-centre rings and uneven circles, it has a contemporary feel.

Mermaid's Tale

The Mermaid's Tale Collections consists of just these three pieces which makes it a very exclusive set of jewellery.  The colours are just gorgeous and the deep texture gives it an iridescence. Again it is entirely made by hand from anodised aluminium and sterling silver.

Watermark

This stunning collection is called Watermark and the three dimensional quality of this piece means that it turns slightly when it's being worn and it always shows a glimpse of hidden pattern of colour - trust me, it's gorgeous!! There's also matching earrings and cuff for this one.




You can find all of these new pieces on my website in the Signature Collection.  Why not treat yourself? http://slicksilverjewellery.co.uk/userimages/Signature-Collection-Shop(2625802).htm

That's all from me this week as I really should go and make scones, after all, I have jam and clotted cream so it would be rude not to..................

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