Handmade and an Award

I’ve had a busy week! The end of last week was flat out as I prepared for my first spring show at the NEGS Spring Fair, Armidale. The co-ordinator of the fair was very helpful and after a looooong drive, we got set up quickly and for once I was actually ready BEFORE the show started! I even got to do a quick tour around and see the other booths quickly.

I was surprised to find that I was in the vast minority with a handmade product. There were only two other noticeable stallholders with quality handmade items there – a milliner with fun hats for children and women and a fibre artist with the most incredible felt objects d’art. The rest of the stall holders were resellers which was disappointing.

Although I have clear signage that my jewellery is handcrafted one woman got a huge surprise when I told her I was a gemmologist and she realized my jewellery was ‘real’ and handmade. Another vendor later informed my husband that I need to get some lower priced items to sell – he told her that that is difficult since I make everything at the lowest price I can already. She was shocked into silence for a moment before stuttering….’she makes ALL of that????’ LOL.

When you visit a show or fair (not necessarily a market), what do you expect to see – resellers, imports, handmade/artisan goods?

On to other things, I was pleased as punch to receive The Uplifting Blogger Award from Shraddha and April at the The Self Love Project. Thankyou!



I’m passing this award onto

Keri at Life of Logan for sharing her wonderful family days.
Jennifer at It’s a Beauty Filled Life for posts that always making me smile.
Veronica Lee of OF MICE AND raMEN for posting great pics of amazing things all the time.
Julie at Momspective for making me laugh out loud, even when I shouldn’t !

I must point out a fantastic pic – if you like pink and dogs (yes, I know, you don’t normally consider both together) check out the photo on this post at The Tall Poppy! :D

On another note, I’m still working on my new wordpress blog behind the scenes and will tell you where it is soon (or you can go looking !) but I’m having dramas with technorati and can’t seem to log a help call with them. I noticed that Robin at Sweet Little Memories has been having issues too - anyone else feel like they’re banging they’re head agains a brick wall over there at Technorati?

Pic for today is a pair of lemon quartz 12ct goldfill earrings. These wondrous gemmies have been hiding in my special stash box which is getting a bit full since I've been hoarding them! A cut of gem that is not commercially available they are half carved and half faceted they are stunning quality! Feminine and delicate.

Gosh, look at the time! I must dash – I’m going to be at Merriwa Show tomorrow and Saturday and have to finish piling things up at the door to pack the car at dawn! Wish me luck :)

Till next
Annette

First show for 2009 and an award

My first show for the year has been and gone and I had a great day out. The occasion was the International Women's Day in the Warrumbungles Shire, and they had an amazing number of speakers - all interesting women from within the Shire. Speakers included a local doctor, a resident originally from South America, an aboriginal elder, a herbalist, a previous shire councillor, a local choir ... and more. There were a small collection of booths from local concerns, all run by women. Everyone was extremely friendly and I was glad to see the men had been put to work in the kitchen ;) - they were profusely thanked, after all, we don't get them in there very often!



Do you ever wonder what you actually do in a day, a week, a month? I frequently ponder and occasionally get a bit distressed at how much time I spend doing 'nothing', or at least 'nothing productive'. At least I'm not alone. In my regular visits to my favourite blogs I see that Nicole of the Modern Goddess Online is wondering where the last two months have gone, and Terry of Magical Beadstalk has actually dissected her day to try and work out where the time goes LOL. Of course we all really do achieve things - they're just not always glaringly apparent! That's my story, at any rate, and I'm sticking to it!

I've feel very honoured to have been awarded the Kreativ Blogger award twice in the past week - once by Theresa of TiLT creations and by Jennifer of It's A Beauty Filled Life! Thank you so much ladies :)


Now, the rules of this award are to list seven things that I love, and to then pass this award on to seven bloggers that I love. I must also make sure to tag them and let them know they have won. So, here we go....

7 Things I Love:

1. chocolate - I'm sure I've mentioned this one before, but nevertheless...it deserves to be said again!
2. the colour green. I can't help it. Long term readers will know of my penchant for green jewellery. Maybe I need help.
3. my herbalist
4. blogging friends
5. warm sunshine on a cold day.
6. Jane Austen
7. Trinny & Susannah

7 Bloggers that I love:

1. Mariam of Angelshair. I have only just found Mariam's blog - she has some beautiful images of her work and some profound thoughts.
2. Ann of Ann Again...and again - always an entertaining read
3. Trisha Funky Food Allergies - because she HAS to be creative with toddler who has multiple food allergies.
4. Andrew of Chainmaille by BMOI - a new artist I have met who creates beautiful handpainted glasses and incredible chainmaille.
5. Elizabeth of La Toriana - beautiful quality children's wear - its enough to make me wish my children were younger!
6. Giggle Smile Designs - children's wall decor - another blog that makes me want to wind back the clock.
7. Lori of Pretty Things - because she always has great pictures and something interesting to say!

Today's picture is a necklace of lava and silver that sold at the show last weekend. Full of contrasts - rough/smooth, dark/light, matte/shiny all added up to alot of impact even though it wasn't that large a piece.

Coolah Spring Garden Festival and a tagging game

Well the Coolah Spring Garden Festival was wonderful! I was at the delightful "Pilca Butta" garden and my hosts Ian and Liz were wonderfully accommodating and helpful. Both days were bright and sunny (the second day got a little too warm!), the garden was in full bloom and really couldn't have looked better, and all in attendance had a marvellous time. Here is a pic of my set up on part of the homestead verandah:



I had beautiful old-fashioned lilac and snowball bushes right near my display - can you see them? Here was my view from my 'perch':





Don't you wish you were there!!!!?

Now last week I mentioned I was tagged and given an award :) Firstly, thank you to Commotion from the Ocean of Life for this award!



Now how special is that!!! I love reading this blog - always something different to read about! Thank you so much - I guess that will make me comment some more ;)

Then Olivia from Piktorize tagged me. Do check out Olivia's blog - she has a photo of the week which is often amazing and she honoured me with featuring my ring photo from last week too!

Now the tagging game rules: Share 7 things your readers may not know about you and tag 7 others to do the same thing, then include a link in your blog back to the person who tagged you.

OK, 7 things...(having done this a couple of months ago, this isn't so easy....)

1. My favourite pets have been golden haired dogs. The first one, when I was a little girl, was an Irish Terrier called 'Goldie' and the second, as an adult was a labrador x red cattle dog called 'Sunny'. Yeah I know, original names, lol.

2. We have a very bad record with keeping cats. We're up to number 5 in about three years. Mostly they just disappear one day although the last one we think met with a snake :(

3. I HATE snakes. Like REALLY HATE. They make me squirm and scream.

4. I hate spiders. Not as much as snakes but then again, they're not as big!

5. My Dad took me out of school at the end of year 6 and we travelled around Australia for a few months. They were going to make me repeat since I was too young to go to High School, so he thought travel would be better than doing the same work twice. Go Dad!!!

6. I travelled around Europe for 8 months in Year 7 with my schoolwork never quite catching up with me! When it did though, all I did was WORK! The trip prior to that was fun though and I saw a lot of the world from the window of a Bedford van!

7. A young man tried to buy me in Morocco for a camel, a donkey and something else I can't remember. I was 13 and the perfect age for a bride (!). My father kept reminding me for a number of years that he turned down a camel that would have been worth a fortune!

OK, this time I'm going to tag my Skwiggazine friends:

1. Designing Hilary

2. Tulip's Talking

3. Michabella Creations

4. Inspired Designs by Teresa

5. Daydream Art Studio

6. Cherished Dreams

7. Who Says 8 Is Enough?

Speaking of number 2 above, check out the pics from Lily's fishing trip and sequential sunrise shots.

Ooops, almost forgot about the pic at the top of the page. Don't you just love the sparkle and the impact of the black onyx and the red jade. Yum! Definitely a statement piece.

I made this one after a client had asked me to make an asymmetric necklace of red white and black (by the way I don't do asymmetric easily, so it was a real challenge!). The strength of the contrasting colours encouraged me to make this necklace - all the sparkle you would need for a night out, don't you think!?

Ironfest 2008 recap

Well I am back from Ironfest and almost recovered! It was a brilliant festival and once again I really enjoyed myself. I didn't get to experience much of the events eg. jousting, battle re-enactments, but of course I was able to see those wandering around in costume and managed a quick whizz around the blacksmith's area and the artisan's hall. Plus we were situated right opposite the indoor stage so experienced a good selection of music. I even weakened and bought a CD by one of the performers, Fintan, who sings and plays traditional (celtic styled) music. And I indulged a childhood fantasy and bought a wool cloak from the lovely Kathleen at a neighbouring booth, Faerietail. Not terribly practical... but it would be if I was game enough to wear it!

I caught up with many clients that I had met at Ironfest last year and quite a few went home with some more jewellery to add to their collections! One amazing client is an artist and I had recently been chatting with her via email about our recent olive harvest here on the farm. She was so inspired by the image of this, that she painted me a picture of how she imagined our olive harvest had looked. Appropriately, she had me up a tree with my head amongst the branches! She presented me with this gorgeous painting at Ironfest and I was speechless. My family was very impressed when I showed them on my return. I feel very special :)

I am constantly impressed with artists and those that can paint especially so. Jenni from Papercraft Designs has managed to use some of her original art on her handmade cards - wouldn't you be impressed to receive one of these?

I've included a picture of the booth at Ironfest one morning just before the gates opened. Pictured is Michelle, who weaves Swarovski & Czech crystals into the most gorgeous jewellery and who I was honoured to share the booth with. We did the booth together last year too and it's wonderful to catch up with each other once a year!

Well, back to trying to get back into my usual 'groove' now.... have a great day!

Ironfest preparations and pyrite

Ironfest is only a week away....and I'm in my usual spin trying to think of everything I need to take (I need to switch off the creative part of my brain and start making a list! lol). Today is my personal deadline for creating new items that will need to be ready to go with me so I have some bench time planned for the balance of today - children allowing me of course (yes, it's school holiday time... AGAIN!)

I had a long chat with the woman I am sharing my booth with at Ironfest, planning how to do the set up and display and what we would need. Last year we received many compliments on our set up but of course I want it to be even better this year! I am a big fan of Hilary Johnson's blog and was particularly impressed with her set up for a one day event, which she featured in her blog recently. It looks so chic and attractive - I'd want to wander over and have a look!

Today's picture is of a new piece - a simple necklace, yet it has a wow factor - simply in the gorgeous pyrite stones. I love the green/gold gleam of pyrite as well as the slight patination with the black host stone peeping through. The pyrite has been perfectly complemented by the green/gold small baroque freshwater pearls. Interestingly a gold clasp looked awful - it clashed with the pyrite tones and actually weakened the whole necklace's appearance! However I found a brushed sterling silver clasp worked in brilliantly - it doesn't overwhelm and with the satin finish it isn't competing in the shine department.

Lots to do here so I shall sign off for now. Have a great day!

Jazz, a picnic and a Poshie

Well, what a lovely few days I have had!

Firstly I was up at Jazz in the Tops, our local jazz festival with the most amazing performers - the Bogalusa Strutters wandered around the natural arena in and out of groups of friends and playing some great jazzy music; Adam Rennie (almost a local boy) amazed the crowd with his beautiful voice and had many people asking for more (I met his mum and aunt and they were so proud of him!); George Washingmachine is a crowd favourite and he had Julie O'Hara singing, a small girl with a big voice. The Royal Australian Air Force Jazz Ensemble were brilliant and we're getting spoilt as they really are always wonderful. Also playing were Gypsy Jazz Hour, Howler's Cotton Club and the Aaron Flower Band, but I was a bit busy to hear them!! To break up the music a little they also had wildlife displays and guided bushwalks.

It was great to catch up with some past clients and I must say there was a rather strong presence at my booth, of gentlemen buying for their ladies!!! Well done boys! Lots of new stock was sold so the first outing for some pieces were their last under my guidance! One drawback - the yellow canvas I was placed under was too much for my lights to combat ... it made some of the jewellery look rather 'interesting' to say the least. By the way, the tent looks rather low in the photo above, but my tables are just very high (waist height), so you could actually get in without too much ducking!

The following day the family attended a farewell picnic for some neighbours and settling in under the gum trees in a paddock was very relaxing! Do your picnics look like this?




I also just received a message to tell me that I have won a "Poshie" for March. This is awarded by the ladies at the great social networking site for mums, called Posh Mama. I am feeling rather chuffed at the moment! :D




On a lighthearted note, I saw a link to the Blog Readability Test on the Working Solo blog (I really must read more of this blog - there is some great technical information there - which I could certainly do with learning more about). I did the test and this is what it told me about my blog:

Why don't you try yours out and see what it says! Let me know how you go :)