Over 30 degrees today?

It's already 25 degrees today, and it is meant to reach over 30 later. Quite frankly a scorcher!

I have just polished this pendant. I sold it during my Open Studio, but it needed a Hall Mark before going off to it's new owner. It seems very apt for today's weather as it says 'dipping your toes in the warm ocean'. To me, this is the holidays in Thailand that we used to take every year before we had kids. A flight and a rucksack and we were away hopping from island to island. White sand, palm trees, a straw hut on the beach for the night, and warm blue seas. I first etched these words for a friend who was once my bridesmaid. I am sure she will always be an adventurer, off to explore or dive in some exotic destination. We may have drifted, as our lives have gone in different directions, but when I read these words I always think of her.

Funnily enough, it is hard parting with this one; but I have a feeling it may end up with a few beads and bits attached, and I think it will give lots of pleasure to it's eventual new owner!

Something to keep me busy.

A new pile of solid silver twigs in the glorious evening sun. I know what I'll be making next week.

How exciting!

I have been contacted by a well known name who wants me to supply them. Hmmmmmmmnnnnn; lots to think about!

The art of copyright

So I finally published an image of my signature piece on Etsy. I love this necklace, and I haven't seen anything like it out there... sure there are things with tags and names and dates, but I am really proud of the design of this and have been worried that once I show it, I will soon see versions of it popping up here and there. This necklace came about as I wanted to make something for my mum about the women in our family. It has me, my mother, and my grandmother on it - plus names of kids, dates of births etc. The size and shape were well considered and thought out. It took some time to get this just right. Whenever my mum wears her one, or I wear mine - people always comment. It is subtle, but always provokes interest. I must say it certainly did that this weekend.

Available as a commission piece, I etch the tags, and set the photos under picture glass, which I individually file to the correct size - to set the pictures under resin just didn't seem right for such a timeless heirloom piece. If you want to commission one of these, I don't expect you to have perfect black and white miniature photographs- you can e-mail me normal sized images and I can do the rest. You can order this through the link on the right, or contact me on my e-mail which is detailed in the post below.

It was a success!

I really enjoyed doing Arthouse Open Studio, it was a pleasure to meet so many interested people. I am now hard at work getting on with commissions. If you saw something that you want to order or commission, click on my on-line shop to the right, or e-mail me at twocharlies@blueyonder.co.uk

Let the sun shine.

Back to the citrines from a couple of posts ago.... Once I had made the bezel for the largest stone, I realised it would look better as a bangle than a ring, and here is the result. Unfortunately, it has been photographed under today's grey sky, so there is no sun sparkling through the stone. Fingers crossed that the sun can break through later (school sport's day!) but the weather report does not look promising. Shame.

ARThouse at the weekend

Once again, the house will be open Friday 6-9pm, Sat / Sun 11am - 6pm. Pop in anytime, it will be great to see you all. See earlier posts to check out news of last weekend's successful ARThouse, and visit www.richmond.gov.uk/arts for further info.

Today the sunshine.

Yesterday the sea... today the sunshine. When I got the stone I was using yesterday, I also picked up these citrines. I wish I had got more of them, they are such a fabulous sunny colour, and are also the 'free form' shape that I love. I am making a ring with the biggest one, and think it will probably have a matching bangle. I want to pierce out the back of the bezel to 'let the sun shine through', and am going to dig out my little electric drill to start me off, and to see if it is up to the job.

Not sure I will mange to finish this ring today as I have also been busy with a couple of my twig bangles as I have an order for one, and I also decided to make another one with gold in as it looked so beautiful.

A silver twig bangle is in the shop, and also yesterday's ring has been added. Please click on my name under the Etsy shop thumbnails on the right to visit it.

All the colours of the sea

I have recently been trying to track down gems that have been cut in quite natural shapes. It seems I have set myself a difficult task, as they are definitely VERY thin on the ground. The whole point of gem cutting, is to create many facets which the light bounces off to give the gem it's sparkle, so the kind of thing I have been looking for is the opposite of what dealers have to show. However, after talking to someone who I have bought from before; they did manage to come up with something for me, and I have been working with these stones today.

Hmmmm, this has been tricky to photograph... these are all the same gem, but at least they show how different it looks as it catches the light.

This gem is an aquamarine. Not a perfect oval,  not any particular cut, in fact quite a 'free form' shape. The colour is the palest bluey green. You can see it has inclusions / speckles, and although to some this is a complete reject, to me it is beautiful. It really is a nugget of nature.

I created a bezel for the stone, and put it on the finest of silver rings. I set the stone with a rubover setting, and was really very pleased with the result. It just reminds me of the sea, how it can change from blue to green in different lights. Here is the finished result.

It turned out just as I had hoped and I was delighted with the very natural looking result.

Sunday's ARThouse

A slow start due to the rain. What a contrast to Saturday when the doors were wide open and the sun was streaming in. Soon after lunch the rain stopped, and with that, and lunches being digested, the stream of visitors started. Most of the day I was on my own, and at one point I had 10 people here. Not much time for demonstrating anything. It was nice to meet some neighbours I didn't know, and also to see so many young people interested in seeing what I do.
All in all, I had about 70 people through the door over the weekend. It has been great fun, and I can do it all again next weekend.

Saturday's ARThouse

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day with a steady trickle of visitors all day, and I really enjoyed it. I liked talking about my work and how I make things, and it was really nice to get some positive feedback, some sales and a commission. Here is how the 'Studio' looked in the sunshine. The top photo is my side, and the bottom one, my mum's side!

 Remember all those delicate rings that I made one day? Well I had them all hall marked and attached them to my mini cards, and they looked like this...

Here's another shot from yesterday. I had been experimenting with these shapes, and I think they look quite nice together on the stand.

last night's ARThouse

The first visitor arrived at 5.50 yesterday, which was a bit of a surprise. We then had a steady stream of invited friends plus a couple of unknowns, throughout the evening. In total about 20 visitors I think. Fizzy was opened and it was a lot of fun. A great excuse for a party.

ARThouse is here!

So from 6 o'clock tonight, visitors can come to my house to see a display of my jewellery, some of which is for sale. It has been a busy day of polishing and perfecting (all of which could not have been done without the amazing Lorna) and now we are ready for the public! Here's how it looks...

On the way today...

...just had a final polish and posting these to a customer today.

A huge ring.

Sorry, I was a bit carried away yesterday... who wants to see chickens on a jewellery blog? Here is something that I was working on yesterday. It is a huge ring for me. The stone is a gorgeous labradorite. My folks bought it for my 40th as I wanted to make a ring to commemorate such a momentous occasion. It has gorgeous flashes of green and blue. I love it. Hopefully I will get this finished so I can wear it on Friday night.

(The stone is just balanced in the ring for this shot). Really need to get on with stuff today, I have a few rings in work that I definitely want finished by Friday, and I have a few bangles to finish and polish.
Must dash!

View out my window.

Errrm, I think they are just checking I am getting on with work. I don't think they could get much closer!

London Blue Topaz

Sorry, couldn't resist it. Here is that London Blue in the morning sunshine.

Better get on with some work.

This is what I am doing today. Making rings for some of my lovely sparkly stones. I decided that some people can't visualise them as rings, and they do look super made up, so that is what I am doing. The only thing is they can't really be re-sized once the stones are set, so I just have to hope some people have the right size fingers.

I was gem shopping over the weekend, and have got lots of new sparklers, including the lovely London Blue Topaz that you can see above. It really is my favourite shade of blue Topaz, I'll post a close up later in the week when its complete.

ARThouse poster

...just because the images of my stuff look great....really better get on with some work now, I was in the middle of making some rings!

Me and my CV.

Just wrote a mini CV to stick on the wall for Open Studio. (If you want to read it you have to come to the event!) Here is the photo on it. Need to get my hair cut!

Postcard time.

Just a few days away from ARThouse Open Studios now, time to send out some of the lovely postcard invitations that I had printed.