Fairs fair

I've been quiet for a reason this last month I was busy getting ready for a craft fair. It has to be one of the most nerve wracking things I have done in a long while. It was also enjoyable , exhausting and I learnt a heck of a lot and I can't wait to do another

I was worried for what must be all the usual reasons will I sell anything? Yeah!! I did!!

Will people be rude about my stuff?
Well not to my face anyway :) They didn't even gasp at my prices and tell me I was having myself on.

Will I sell all my stuff? well maybe that is not a usual worry but for some reason  I had decided it would be awful to sell everything and be left with an empty table even I am sitting here shaking my head at that one!

So what will I do better next time?

The Christmassy looking cloth didn't really show off my jewellery to best advantage so I'll go with the natural calico I had in mind in the first place.

Take a mirror that will stand on the table  to encourage people to try things on

Make more purple . . .. well maybe . .. . . everything I had in purple sold

Put some info on there to make sure people are aware that I have personally made all the focal beads on my necklaces and dangles on my earrings and such as opposed to being bought in bits assembled and that each piece is a one off

What did I get right?

Although it might not look like it having items laid out on the table rather than "arranged" on display stands gave people permission to pick things up and look at them.

I had mulled wine and chocolate brownies for lunch which perked up my sales patter considerably 

Roses are red Violets are violet

More flowers this time on a brass cuff. This is the first anticlastic bracelet I have formed I did it with the help of my trusty rolling pin not having stakes.

Halloween Flowers

The kiln called and I answered and made a job lot of copper flowers. Some in orange and some turquoise.

Then I spent ages wondering what to do with them. I was blocked obsessing with the idea of using them all in one project and it just had to have rivets.

Then I remembered some black knitted copper wire I bought because I had to have it even though I had no idea what I wanted to do with it. I made the three bracelets below in quick succession then having cleared the blockage so as to speak went on to make the little flower pendants which are riveted (yippee) to the bales. So not a bad weekend all in all. Except for falling off my bike but that's another story.

Coils and leaves yet again

Woodland walk necklace

This might be the last of this series for a while but then again . . . . here copper autumn leaves are teamed with copper coils and wooden beads for a simple seasonal pendant.

Now well my kiln is calling probably to distract me from the bunch of beads I have made up that I haven't done anything with yet.

Not to mention the cuff bracelet obsession that has had me turning base metal into, mmm scrap metal for most of the week.

Also the new hammers are fab bet the neighbours are getting tired of them though. So much to try so little time I just love this hobby!

Woodsmoke and autumn leaves

Definately a seasonal one this with autumn colours in abundance and the autumn leaves.

I can smell bonfires and that sweet smell of leaves on the woodland floor

Dark Hearts

Dark Hearts Necklace
Sold

Today I am keeping up my good intentions of yesterday to post every day.

And killing time untill the hour is reasonable to test out my new hammers. I have one for not leaving marks and one for leaving marks. The neighbours love me you know.

I also have something which to the untutored eye looks like a rolling pin (yes the shop thought it was a rolling pin too) but is actually a bracelet mandrell I have a sudden yen for beating out cuff bracelets.

No nothing to do with the new hammers ... just coincidence . . . really

Good intentions

Forest necklace

 I had every intention of posting things here as I made them but I was too busy making stuff. I was even too busy to list stuff on MISI and Folksy . Yes a bit daft I know but I will be doing my first craft show in December and I'm panicking about not having enough stuff, the wrong stuff, rubbish stuff. In fact you name it I'm worrying.

 I did finally have a few moments of sanity though so here is my forest necklace full of the bits and bobs I am enjoying making at the moment. My new bale design, copper coil beads, copper fold formed autumn leaves and polymer clay beads using a mokume gane technique

Wheels in wheels

Wheel Pendant

 Moving on from my obsession with coils.

Another shape I return to time after time is this cog shape. influenced partly by all the steam punk jewellery there is around and started by my need to just plain fiddle about with stuff. My cog stencil started life as a Tipex mouse I had at work.

Once I had wasted all the correction stuff (tape?) by drawing pictures with it while talking on the phone and colouring them in with highlighter pens.  I naturally had to take it to bits.

Wheel Earrings
Sold

And discovered this fabulous stencil round about the same time as I was learning enamelling at my jewellery class. The rest is history and wasted stationary.

Coils and coils

Tropical Coil Necklace

 Despite the death of my extruder I've still got a coil thing going on so I've switched to copper.

In the Tropical coil necklace my coils are teamed with the beads I made as an antidote the the all black necklace.

Then the copper coil necklace is just coils "neat" with a dash of copper beads.

Tonight .... well I will mostly be making coils.

Maybe I should get out more

Copper Coil Necklace

Ear ear

Oval earrings enamel on copper with sterling silver ear wires

Hearts earrings enamel on copper

I've been having a bit of an enamel/earring phase lately

I love the effect of the turqouise enamel over the flux on these oval dangles combined with the multicoloured bits. They remind me of tropical fish.

Enamels can be a bit unpredictable especially when you are easily distracted. The hearts were supposed to be scarlet but I overcooked them (this is why the other half does most of the other cooking in the house).

Still,  I like the effect  so don't let on it wasn't deliberate it can be our little secret.

Black on black

Black "jet look" necklace
Sold

Boxed up with matching earrings

A friend recently asked me for a plain black necklace complaining she had big chunky black necklaces and cheap shiny looking black necklaces but nothing simple.

Colour is really my thing so I wasn't thrilled at the prospect but when I sat down to work it proved to be an absorbing challenge to create interest from texture and shape yet stick with simple.

The end result a combination of glossy black glass discs and beads along with matt textured polymer clay beads reminds me of Whitby, the jet and the place. I usually make my own catches but this silver one that I found in my stash seemed to suit the mood. A pair of matching strud earrings is the icing on the cake for my friend who likes to co-ordinate her look perfectly.

Beech and Sands

Experiments with the polymer clay extruder which I have managed to kill off completely sometimes I think I should stick to hammers.

Ochre Sands Bracelet £15

Hot desert colours hence Ochre Sands

Beech Necklace
Sold

and cool winter bracing walks on the beech

Daisies

And in blue
Sold

With a blue green patina on the links

Poppies Bracelet

Poppies Bracelet
Sold

Arm model? I think not

Something a little bit on the gothic side