2010: A quiet blogging year

SNOW


This is only my third post of the year. Not exactly great statistics. But, on the other hand, I should be able to do better than that next year. I hope.

Moving house one and a half times (next half some time next year!) has taken far more time, energy and patience than I knew I'd need. I've still silversmithed, still made jewellery, but at a far slower rate than I would have liked.

Still, a long-standing birthday gift was finished (more on that in a later post) and some Christmas gifts were started and completed, despite the sudden realisation that I had no idea where half my tumble polisher equipment was (many thanks to my mum for the ingenious tights-as-sieve hint!)

Snow has disrupted my life, like many others, this last month, and I'm spending Christmas far from where my plans expected me to. But it's still very, very beautiful . . .






Merry Christmas!

Snow, Christmas, Traffic, Snow

Long time no post. I feel like I've been away for a very long time. My Christmas travels took in Scotland, snow, Manchester airport, snow, Yorkshire, snow . . .








and a nine hour drive south through snow-studded landscapes which were replaced by small traffic jams and then big traffic jams and more cars than I knew existed . . .




Now it's the new year, a time of beginnings. And more snow. I've yet to get back into the groove of making although design ideas are coming fast but, for now, I'm going to have a bit of a sale on some listings that are soon to end in my Folksy store . . . Do take a look as these photos are just a selection . . .

Spring, snow, sun, blue skies . . .

It has been a slow silver week. I've got things done but only by edging forward, one step at a time. I had a good spell yesterday, worked on some more leaf ideas, developing the theme, playing around with it.

But the week feels dominated by weather and the results it's created in my world.

I found this earlier in the week . . .



A flower! Having seen snowdrops a little earlier, I felt all kind of spring-like.

Then this happened.





I added to the prints, inspired by some of the photos I've found through this wonderful blog



Yesterday, the sun came out. It didn't melt all the snow, which I was glad about, but it did make the sky glow.

A leaf from start to finish

A work-in-progress gallery of a new pendant I've been working on.

Perhaps not overly fitting given the weather lately but when venturing outside I've found a few small crop of green shoots pushing through the snow, and some buds, just waiting, on a plant . . .



This is the pendant after it's been soldered. Not particularly attractive but the shape I'm trying to achieve is emerging. The small 'veins' were not easy to solder.



Fool that I am, I decided on soldering another 'vein' in. I think it looks more balanced, perversely, and more natural and authentic with an odd number.



How the pendant looks after it's been pickled out, the dark oxidisation from soldering lifted away by the acidic pickle solution.



A couple of rings have been attached (for hanging on a chain necklace) and excess solder has been, carefully, filed away. I tumble polished the leaf to give it a bright shine and then lightly hammered it to impart some leafy-looking texture.

Snow, frost, cold, silver

Someone has to mention it. It's not been on the news at all and the papers haven't commented on it. But it snowed quite a bit these last few days in the UK . . . I even have proof . . .



Nowhere near as much as in some areas but, despite sun the last two days, it's still hanging around for the most part. Which is kind of nice, if a bit chilly.

Watching snowfall is a wonderful way to pass the time. I spent a while on Sunday watching it come down and, as I slowly became hypnotised by the dizzying flakes, I remembered a book I'd looked through in a coffee shop within a bookshop some time back. So I did some searching and found the guy who wrote it, Kenneth Libbrecht, has a website full of everything snowflake related.

It even has a link to a place where they grow their own snowflakes . . .

I also made these as the snow fell, which I think of as how snowflakes may look if they had curved and not straight edges (and, yes, were made of silver). I'm as yet undecided what to do with them so all suggestions welcomed!

First Craft Fair approaches!

Another long gap between blog entries. This time my excuse/reason/feeble explanation is by way of a trip to Scotland to see family. Naturally enough, this took place when snow appeared in October for the first time in officially yonks. I was lucky - flights were not affected (and Gatwick wasn't too busy despite an airline going bust on the morning I was due to fly). And I was even luckier when the plane began to descend above mountains in Scotland and I was rewarded with the sight of, well, why bother with words when I can show this:






Of course, snow means cold and we had a chilly few days but then things heated up (okay, weren't so cold, but the contrast with the snow-cold meant things seemed warmer than they were!) and the sun could be felt. We headed off to Roseisle



where I found a few of the wonderful pebbles that cover parts of the beach here, and at nearby Findhorn, and have fetched them home with me, hoping to be able to incorporate them with silver somehow,



and Dulcie Bridge, or rather, the view from said bridge.




But, hold on. Isn't this blog about, er, silver and jewellery and stuff like that? And doesn't a certain First Craft Fair appear to be looming on the horizon? Yes and yes. And so, back in England, I've been busy working through several lists (I made one big one then cannibalized it into three smaller ones, the first about jewellery itself, the second about how to display it and the third about everything that didn't fit into the previous two headings), and getting things done, making up on lost time a little too.

I changed the soap in my tumble polisher which has made a massive difference to the quality of the shine on the jewellery (um, hang on. I've just remembered I set it running and it needs checking. Back in a minute! Wait, I'm going to save this first . . . Right, Back again. Just swapping over from one chain to another as, having spent a good 15 minutes untangling two chains (despite them being wrapped around separate bangles) yesterday, I'm now polishing them one at a time . . .). And I finished this afternoon four pieces, two pendants and two bracelets that had needed doing for a long while now. I've also been making up some chains (hence the polishing) and finishing up any little things that should have been done and hadn't been done. Which seemed to be quite a lot . . .

I’m also working on how I’m actually going to set my stall out, how the table will be designed, where the various bits of jewellery will go. Apparently, the thing to do is take a photo of it when you like it, print it up, then use it as a guide on the day. So I shall try to do this, even as I’m increasingly convinced that as long as it all fits on the stall and can be seen then, this time at least, I’ll be happy.

Quick update before I post this! Today, I managed to break a plastic crate that I was going to store things in; I discovered three chain necklaces I'd made up were not able to be used as I'd managed to solder the clasps I'd also made on incorrectly; and the jump ring on a pendant came off as I tried to fix it to one of the chain necklaces that did work . . . Oh well. Let's hope I'm getting it all out of the way before the craft fair this Saturday . . .