Such a nice day!

Spent a lovely day with a good friend, in our local florists 'Jo Butler Flowers', doing a little day course making table centres. The florist is owned by the lovely Jo, who not only has a great eye as a florist - she also stocks some delightful homewares, and sources and paints one off bits of furniture and household items. It was a perfect blend of floral creativity, cups of tea, nice chat, a lovely lunch, and then at the end of it we had two stunning displays to take home. This one is my favorite.

Obviously the shop is a feast for the senses. At this time of year, there was a wonderful fresh smell of eucalyptus which we used in the long table centre. There was also a gorgeous smell of rosemary which we used in a more traditional red and berried circular display. There was also lots to look at.

ROSE'S TABLE CENTRE

MY LONG TABLE CENTRE

A BOUQUET READY TO GO

SEA HOLLY

PLANTED SAUCE TUREEN

LINDA BLOOMFIELD CERAMICS

You can find Jo's website here, and read about all the courses she offers, including Thursday Night Flower Club where you and a bunch of friends can sit, chat, drink wine, and get creative with flowers.

One for each of them

A daughter commissioned this, many months ago:

2 x 10 mm aqua blue chalcedony, brushed finish

Then her mother commissioned this:

3 x 10 mm aqua blue chalcedony, brushed finish

And now this commission has just been completed for the other daughter.

4 x 8 mm aqua blue chalcedony, polished finish

Obviously all photographed under completely different light conditions.

Sadly, I will never see all three together as they are all in the USA (the international wonder of Etsy). But I just love the idea of the mother and daughters wearing the same, yet different. I feel strangely humble to be able to join a family together like this.

Working to commission

Posted yesterday. One of my very favorite 'Family' pieces. Hours and hours of work.

For me, working to commission means:

The opportunity to create something unique
To make something utterly special for the wearer
To make the people who give and receive commissioned pieces very happy
To sometimes take your own work in a new direction
To sometimes push yourself design wise or technically

And sometimes:

Feeling the pressure to make it perfect
Deadlines keeping me awake at night
The cost of the final piece not = the hours you have put in, researching, designing, making


But I still love to do them as the top list still outweighs the bottom one in my mind.
x

Rings

While everyone is busying themselves with Christmas posts, I am not quite ready for that yet, so instead will show you the rings that I uploaded to the Etsy shop yesterday. Although you may have seen these before, I only just got round to taking individual pics of some of them, and only just got round to their listings.

Aquamarines, moonstone, and sky blue topaz. Large aquamarines and Topaz £110, medium aquamarines and moonstone £85. Handmade, hallmarked, gorgeous, and if I say so myself, a bargain. Click on the Etsy shop on the right hand side if you are tempted to shop!

Snail

I love it when a commission takes you in a direction you may not otherwise have gone in. Look at these teeny tiny garden snail shells sat next to a 5p.

I'll keep you posted on this one as it develops.

The pale sunlight of the north...

...rose across the wilderness.

This little beauty posted today to a new home. This was one of the scribblings I penned on my Arctic trip.

What a lovely Show

I really enjoyed Sparkle. The setting is gorgeous, with the high vaulted ceilings of the Church. There were good crowds, and a lovely atmosphere. Healthy sales, were a pleasing reward after all the hard work of getting ready for it. Here are a few of my favorite stands:

This is Wick Hutton's fabulous oil lamp. I just NEED one of these! Unfortunately naked flames were banned, so you couldn't see the full glory of the flame coming out of the spot. Look at it's feet. Tiny pickle forks! LOVE.

Wick Hutton's garden candles and bird feeders made from vintage cups and saucers were best sellers. Rumor has it Wick had a very late night getting more stock ready for Sunday.

Wick's daughter Emma Hutton, makes the most fabulous jewellery. Her website here is well worth a visit. She makes unique and quirky pieces, which I would wear. She is self taught and has mastered the art of casting. She trained in theatre design, and as you can see here, her jewellery was displayed in a perfect little 'set'. 

Katherine makes the most scrummy sketchbooks, notebooks and diaries by hand, using traditional bookbinding techniques but with some amazing contemporary papers and fabrics. You can find her website here. As a sketchbook junkie, I thought her product was lovely, and she was possibly the most smiley person at Sparkle!

Known to me as the mouse lady, Claire has possibly the cutest stand ever. She doesn't do websites, blogs, or social media so she is tricky to shop from unless you see her in person, but you can e-mail her at claire212jacob@btinternet.com if you see a little handmade treasure on these jam packed shelves that you would like to own. Her prices start at 50p, and I don't think anything is over £10. She has teeny peg dolls, beautifully crafted bunting, palm sized mice, velvet strawberries with individually hand sewn beads for seeds, a stocking fillers dream, and guaranteed to make you smile.

And finally jeweller Alex Yule, who had jewellery made from castings of the most gorgeous minute urchin and muscle shells I have ever seen, amongst other things. Her website is here. 

Sparkle

Getting ready for Sparkle at the Landmark Arts Centre in Teddington, SW London tomorrow. Just finishing stock lists, mailing list form, and a few prices. My stand has been constructed and deconstructed. Everything has been finished and polished. Nearly ready, and very weary. Here's the mock up in the kitchen.

Woohooo! any excuse for fairy lights.

Night night.

x

Made Just So

Just posted off this little lot to the beautiful 'Made Just So' in Bristol.

Made Just So

32 The Mall

Clifton Village

Bristol 

BS8 4DS

www.madejustso.com

Arctic hare pins

Although these were started a while ago, they only just got finished today. I think I will be wearing one tonight!

Who would have thought that something that appears so simple, can be so time consuming to make?

The trouble is, when silver is thin, it is actually quite soft. When you heat it, the molecules jump around and it becomes more soft. Here's the problem... you need a pin that is thin, so you can get it though your clothes easily, and it doesn't leave a great hole afterwards. Yet you need the pin to be rigid so it doesn't bend easily and distort.

The pin has to be heated, when it is soldered to the back, so pin = soft :-(  To make silver hard again, you need to 'work harden' it. By hitting it with a hammer, rubbing it with a burnisher, or tumbling it in steel shot. Firstly I tumbled mine. But when I took them out of the barrel polisher they were a bit bent. I rolled them in steel plates to straighten them, but the plates were marked, and the pins didn't look so good. So today I sanded the pin to a fine point, and rubbed it with my agate burnisher, and finally I got it to the standard that made me happy.

As you can see, this little chap is marked with a full set of British Hallmarks. Some have been given a high polish and some a brushed finish. He is just 3cm long from the tip of his front paws to the tip of the back ones. It comes with a solid silver tie pin stopper, and is beautifully packaged in one of my special boxes. If you nip over to my 'Charlotte Bezzant Jewelley' facebook page' you will find out how to buy one at a special price!

MADELondon

For the first time, Brighton's Contemporary Craft Fair MADE hit London. The Venue One Marylebone, an old church on the edge of Regent's Park. Sponsored by the marvelous madebyhandonline.com it was a fantastic opportunity to see over 100 of the country's best designer makers together, spread over four floors in a great venue.

I had recently discovered the ceramics of Porte-bonheur de Wollie. Both jewellery and functional items that make me smile, so it was a pleasure to see them here. My one and only treat was the two piece doll brooch you see here at the bottom right, but I think I am going to put it in a little frame as a mini work of art. I loved the attention to detail of the printed bag, with ribbon and sticker, a proper little gift to myself.

If I had had more pennies to spend, then I would definitely have bought a tiny enamel plate by Buddug Wyn Humphreys. She was showing in the crypt as part of the Dialogue Collective. I have loved following the adventures of Buddug and Jesse and their fantastic little shop, and you should definitely take a peek at the creative exploits of this pair here. Living the dream!

The lovely plates, and also Welsh Love Spoons.

Also in the crypt, were Katrin Moye's ceramics. The colours of the glazes she uses really appeal to me (I suppose I am always using blue and green stones in my jewellery, so it's no wonder I like them) but I also love her use of pattern, and would be quite happy if Father Christmas delivered me one of these.

I also enjoyed seeing Helen Noake's jewellery as always - tiny figures and animals in resin set in silver. I would definitely wear some of Helen's bits (and I am a fussy thing!). Finally, I was amazed to see makers that had been at Farnham Maltings the weekend before like Henrietta Fernandez. How do they have time to make so much stock - do they ever sleep?

I am sure the organisers of MADELondon must be giving themselves a big pat on the back for such a successful event. Still no time for them to rest, MADE12 takes place at the end of November in Brighton - just think of the amzing Christmas shopping you could do!

Gem shopping

The October Gem Fair is one of the bigger ones of the year. I came away with this little lot...

Aquamarines

Blue Topaz, Ametrine and Green Amethyst

Small Periodot cabs, Green Tourmaline, Faceted Periodots

Pink Tourmaline

(Just could not resist these shades)

Garnets

I have been feeling rather low about my jewellery right now (for reasons the censor asked me to remove!), but opening these up today brought a big happy smile to my face, and reminded me that I love what I do.

Festival of Crafts

Apologies all... blog postings have been a little sparse. I needed a little time for R&R post PopUp, but hopefully normal service will resume again soon.

A couple of weekends ago, I drove out to visit the Festival of Crafts at Farnham Maltings. It is a well known destination for Contemporary Craft and this Annual Festival has been on the go for 16 years. Farnham Maltings is a huge space, but subdivided into many rooms on many different levels, which actually gave different bits of the exhibition, a quite different feeling. I just hope I managed to see every bit - it is a bit of a warren.

I was keen to visit the event for lots of reasons... to surround myself with interesting and beautiful things, to get my creativity going, ...because on so many previous occasions I had meant to visit, and also very slightly considering the possibility of applying to show here in the future.

It was interesting to see some of the madebyhandonline.com makers there; Helen Brice and her rings set with lots of minute faceted gems, Henrietta Fernandez who's work I didn't know, and who's work I did like as some of it was clean and graphic like the direction my jewellery has been moving in.

Henrietta Fernandez

It was also nice to see the ceramics of Suet Yi. I liked the uneven shapes of her wall plaques and the muted colours.

So did I buy? ...Only a perfect latte and a morning pastry. But I enjoyed the visit, and I loved being able to take my boys and show them all the lovely things. I think its really important that they grow up being surrounded by art and craft, and there is just a little (massive) bit of me, that hopes they will grow up making things too.