Craft Neutral begins here.... and playing with wire

Right then. I've been to all the fairs I wanted to go to before starting the craft neutral thingy. I am now NOT GOING TO SPEND ANY MORE MONEY ON CRAFTY THINGS unless I've sold something. (This was a challenge Vonnie set for herself  (here) for the year but I wasn't ready to start in Jan.)

Ok. So I need to start making to sell. I have an empty folksy shop waiting and my brother-in-law has said I can put stuff in his bookshop- I really must ask him for a bit more info on that.... Then my thoughts took me to displaying my creations. I decided to make an earring hanger out of random wire I have lying around and a polymer clay base. Whilst I was playing with wire I also made a couple of flowers but I have no idea what I'm going to do with them!

Here they are. Please ignore the burn in the table. It turns out that when you heat silver with a blowtorch and it decides to leap off your fire brick its pretty hot ;o)

Kempton Park Rock'n'Gem fair

I've never been to a rock'n'gem fair before so when I found out that there was one on at Kempton Park a weekend I was planning on being in London anyway I jumped at the chance. Especially as the friend I was seeing was busy all day on Sun.

So many gorgeous, shiney, pretties!! I could have spent thousands! Here're some pics of the gorgeous bits I got. I'm going to have so much funfun making jewellery with it- when I'm feeling brave enough that is!

Kinda top to bottom: brown and red tiger's eye; green amber; smoky quartz drops and cuboid beads; cracked rock crystal nugget beads; labradorite cabochons; rutilated quartz teardrop cabochon; ruby in zoisite nugget; ametrine facetted stone; two stands of lava rock beads; ammonite pair; and opal rough bits.

Pyrite sun: I had no intention of buying decorative stuff but couldn't resist when I saw this. The photo doesn't do it any justice really. Its simply gorgeous. Got to think about where to display it.

I also picked up some slices of tiger's eye, labradorite and picture jasper whick I'm going to cut up and play with just  to experiment really. I have no experience cutting stone but wanna play to see what happens. They were cheap so it doesn't matter if I mess it up!

Coming soon (hopefully): jewellery made from these bits in my (currently empty) folksy shop!!

Bad blogger and decisions to make...

Sorry folks. I'm being a bad blogger at the moment. Live a bit topsy turvey as I've just given up my main job. Going to continue private maths teaching though. I'm also toying with the idea of openning a folksy shop. That and Phil's brother says I can sell jewellery in his bookshop. Just have to start deciding what I'm going to make to sell. At the mo I only make for myself and for gifts so I can spend days on a particular design but thats a bit impractical if I'm going to be selling them! Also, although my main craft passion is jewellery making, I dabble in all sorts of things. So should I sell other things too I wonder? A good thing about selling all sorts is that I can destash. I'm planning on cutting down on buying crafty supplies until I start selling. I'm not going completely craft neutral yet because if I see something thats a good price it would be silly to leave it in the shop. Also, I'm going to hobbycrafts at the NEC at the end of the month and there's not much point forking out for travel, hotel and entry if I'm not going to take advantage of the show prices!!

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Organisation and too many projects

Over the past few weeks I've not been feeling particularly crafty but have been spending some time trying to organise myself. Over the years I have subscribed on and off to various magazines and have collected loads of craft books. I decided to cut out all the projects I'm interested in (from mags NOT books) and any inspirational pics I like too. I now have 3 leaver arch files full of projects I want to have a go at (2 that are mostly beading/jewellery making and 1 that is all sorts of crafty goodness). I also have a few notebooks with my ideas and inspirational clips and dread to think how many projects I have saved on my computer. Craft book wise, I have a 6' shelf practically filled.

Somehow I don't think I need to buy any more craft books or mags for the next few millenia......even if there is some fantastic new technique that NEEDS to be tried. I haven't tried all the fanastic old techniques I already have. Save your pennies Gemma and don't renew your subscriptions when they come up- you dont need more projects!!

And don't get me started on supplies....maybe I should have joined Vonnie's Craft Neutral challenge?

Celtic Pendant

A friend of mine saw the celtic style pendant I made for Kirsty for Christmas (this one) and he really liked it. He asked me if I could have a go at making a disc pendant for him. He needs one for car racing or something. Apparently he needs a metal pendant with his name and blood group on the back!! I was up for the challenge. I got to try out my new disc cutter and I also used sheet silver for the first time. I've had a bit for a while but was too scared to use it.

I saw Steve when I went to London and he liked it (phew!) Mind you, I told him it wasn't going too well and he said,he'd wear it even if it was #*^$, so who knows what he really thinks of it?

............Drum roll please......

Its not perfect by any stretch but I was quite pleased with the end results. It started out as a 1mm thick approx 1 inch diameter circle. The knotwork was done by bending one long piece of wire using a jig to help sometimes. It then got hammered and soldered it on. I decided it needed a twisty frame so added that (tricky bit). Into the liver of sulphur and polished and then forgetting that it needed a bail so made one of those somehow... My rotary tool gave up so had to use my little twisty drill which took nearly forever. The bail was a bent strip of silver with some wire soldered on.

As a complete aside, crafting is on the back burner for a bit. Life a bit extra neurotic atm. I'll catch up eventually with forums, blog posts and my own crafty backlog.

London, baby!!

I'm off to London for a few days to visit some friends and a bit of window shopping! Maybe a trip to the West End too. Tomorrow I'm thinking I might go to the V&A for inspiration for jewellery designs. Fri will be spent NOT spending money in Camden! Yay!

Dragon beads and silver heart pendant

I've not done much recently. Been snowed under at work and also not been too well. I'm waaaaaay behind with reading blog posts and forums. Will maybe catch up .....eventually.....

Did have a crafty day at a friends last Sun though and made a couple more Christi Friesen inspired dragon beads. Also made a simple heart pendant for the cooksongold forum challenge. Here're the results