Wednesday 15 June 2011

A little piece of Treasure...

A large glass of wine enjoyed at the VIP launch night, some of my pieces in Professional Jeweller Magazine, the new Blossom Necklaces, the Twisted Swarovski Bangle and a bit of networking. (photos Simi S)

Hello!  

I can't believe that Treasure has come and gone so quickly.  It seemed such a long time coming with so much to do and not enough time, but as with most things it all came together in the end.  It was a great way to start the four day jewellery extravaganza by walking into Victoria House to see a huge poster on the wall declaring that WGSN, the fashion forecasting website, had picked me as one of their editor's choice for upcoming trends.  They then went on to use some images of my work in a talk they gave to the trade visitors on the next upcoming jewellery trends, with one of the big future ones being colourful textile jewellery, woo hoo!  You heard it here first!

The launch night was good too, catching up with some old friends and meeting some new people who said lovely things about my work.  I was also excited to see two of my pieces (the Twisted Swarovski Necklace and Bangle) in print, featured in Professional Jeweller magazine as part of their London Jewellery Week article.  This obviously prompted a small celebration with what look like very large glasses of wine from the evidence above.

By the end of the show I was pleased to have made some sales and collected some intriguing leads from trade buyers, stylists and the press.   It will be interesting to see where these leads take me in the forthcoming months, fingers crossed!

Finally, I want to say a big, big thank you to all the people who helped me in preparing for the show, especially Nicole who now understands the sheer joy (hmmmmm....) of knitting with elastic, thank you!


Monday 30 May 2011

A Sneak Peek...

Clockwise from top: printmaking pigments, our knitting machine, original tiled floor, my trusty Singer,  some of my yarns,  printmaking workshop.


Um... so writing a blog post every week didn't quite go to plan, but I will try harder!  I have been a bit distracted recently by getting everything made and ready for showing at Treasure in a week or so (is it that soon?!!).  I am really looking forward to it, meeting new customers and catching up with old friends.  More details can be found at www.treasureuk.com.  Hopefully see some of you there!


I thought you might be interested in having a little look at my studio and the lovely big steel contraption that is our Stoll knitting machine.  I share the machine and the studio with my good friend Tamar.  Our studio is part of an old dairy shop.  In fact it was one of Sainsburys first shops and it still has some of the original Victorian tiles and marble counters.  For the last 40 years it has been used as a printmakers workshop and the owners have very kindly let my friend and I use one of their rooms as our studio.  The place hasn’t really changed much in the last few decades but this gives it a real charm and with no phone or internet connection it is a great place to go to escape from the modern world and concentrate on some making.


From left:  Large clustered Blossom Necklace, Double Ring Blossom Necklace and one of the 3 Ring Tiered earrings.


This is the other sneak peek I wanted to give you. These are some of the pieces from my new Blossom collection which I shall be previewing at Treasure.  They are made by knitting together elastic and some beautiful copper/bamboo and silk/steel yarn from Habu Textiles and the Handweavers Studio and then embedding the knitted fabric with Swarovski Crystals.  Hopefully, if I can keep on top of this blog thing then you'll see some more images of the new collection next week!  


Tuesday 3 May 2011

Time to start the blog...

Yorkshire, Wales and home for lunch


Some bank holidays and a Royal Wedding have finally given me a bit of time to sort out the writing of a blog... and for my first little foray into the world of blogging I thought I would post a few photos of what I got up to on the extended bank holidays.   Lots of travelling around the country visiting relatives and soaking up the sunshine, as well as the long overdue opportunity to sort out my sketchbook, planning my new collection which I am very excited about and will be giving you a sneak preview of soon!