The Jewels from Cannes

The 64th International Cannes Film Festival has been on this month and as it is heavily sponsored by Chopard, the couture jewels on the red carpet have definitely been worth watching!

It was nice to see it wasn’t just diamonds at this event – coloured gems definitely made their presence known and it was a lovely change from white diamonds.

Uma Thurman (at top), on this year’s jury, wore these chandelier earrings set with 34 pear-shaped emeralds for a total of 54cts together along with a more understated emerald bracelet. The emeralds just glowed even from a distance and gave some colour to her all white ensemble. Another day, she wore this little diamond cuff. (I’m not jealous, really, I’m not… much!)


Model Bianca Balti went the green route as well, wearing this amazing De Grisogono emerald necklace. I adore the intense colour - she carries it well.


In the sapphire brigade were Fan Bing Bing wearing Cartier and Jane Fonda wearing Chopard.



Rosario Dawson had a showstopper necklace by Faraone Mennella of aquamarine and diamonds and look at the size of those rocks!


The co-president of Chopard, Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele wore a peacock bracelet set with diamonds, emeralds, tsavorite garnets and sapphires with matching earrings. I’m not a fan of this ensemble, but to each their own!


Former Miss World, Aishwarya Rai wore Chopard diamonds - 12cts of pink diamonds in her ears and a whopping 53ct emerald cut diamond on her hand.


Linn Ullmann, Norwegian writer and critic wore a more low key Chopard oval diamond necklace totaling of 46cts. A nice little row of sparkles :)


Penelope Cruz showed great taste wearing these rubelite and diamond earrings. Gorgeous.


Salma Hayek wore pearls with her diamonds in a cuff bangle and earrings.


Although hardly well known in Australia, Italian fashion blogger, Chiara Ferragni wore this Chopard mixed gemstone bracelet and earrings. I love the delicate colour of the gems yet the overall substantial size – I think this might be one of my favourite jewellery sets seen on the red carpet this year.


Till next :)
Annette

Busy Days, Olive Picking and Olive Oil

I know, I’ve been a VERY bad blogger. I’ve posted very sporadically and I can’t seem to get back into the ‘groove’.

We had a very social April with lots of family coming and going and even some non-family social occasions. I’ve had two shows on since my last post … and only someone else who does shows can appreciate how much work and time they take up beforehand! I’ve also been busy running children around – to Sydney, to piano lessons, to school events. Hubby has been no better, he’s been to travelling off to seminars and meetings, having teleconferences at home (which I somehow ended up taking minutes for!?), attending the National Aerobatics Comp (he came second in Advanced) and the rest of the time busy on the farm.


The latest in the long line of things to do was to pick our olives. We have a few hundred olive trees planted on the property. Some are dryland and planted in tree lines (above), some are irrigated in the house yard (water makes SUCH a difference, the latter are huge). The photo below is post-harvest, we obviously missed a few but they are up high and we forgot the step ladder (oops).


There are some jobs you can automate, but olive picking isn’t one of them. So yesterday, hubby and I picked, by hand, our 6 heavily laden mature trees, in about 5 hours, stripping them fairly well to a height we could reach, onto sheets spread out on the ground. After tipping the sheets into tubs, we spent another hour or so picking through the 50 odd kilograms of olives and removing the branches and leaves. They looked so pretty in their tubs – a lovely mix of green and black (deep purple really) ovals.

I had to dash off into town then so hubby took them down to a neighbour who has an olive press to extract the oil. He then took cattle to the saleyards in Mudgee and returned via the neighbour with 4 very large (2-3 litres each) jars of olive oil. Its the first time we've made oil, usually I just pickle the crop for eating.


Considering the amount we use, I reckon these jars could do us for a couple of years. Note that these are almost opaque as they are unfiltered. They need to be stored for a while to let the sediment drop and then the oil is decanted from the top down. The green colour is a also a sign of fresh, first press, virgin olive oil.

To say yesterday was tiring would be an understatement. I’m so pleased to have the next couple of days at home, even though I have a ‘to do’ list that seems a mile long.

Taking off my farming hat, today’s picture is of a pair of limited edition freshwater cultured ‘keshi’ pearls, garnet and 12ct gold fill earrings.

To celebrate autumn (my favourite season of the year), I’ve decided that every purchase made up until 30 May 2011 will go in a draw to win a pair of these. What’s even better is that I will customize them completely to your preferences – peacock or white keshi pearls, a selection of coloured gems to chose from, and either sterling silver or gold fill.

So, if you’ve been thinking about a pre-winter jewellery purchase, now might be a good time and perhaps you will win a pair of earrings too!

Right, now back to that list….

Till next :)
Annette

The Muse, To Do Lists and New Creations

Have you ever had a couple of weeks that leaves your head spinning? You can’t think straight, keep jumping from thing to thing and not really feeling as if you’re getting anywhere (even if you are)? No time to stop, take stock and dare I say, smell the roses? If you have that makes me feel MUCH better, as I’m there at the moment!

I can identify one reason – the muse came to visit. Now when she comes along, everything just has to stop, the creativity flows and all is right with the world. Well, in my little sphere of my studio all is right!

Unfortunately, the rest of the world keeps marching at its own pace. The family still needs to be fed, the house kept at a respectably clean level, and the laundry done. The husband still needs a lunchbox packed and jobs done while he’s busy farming. The phone still rings, orders still come in and have to go out. The school term still rolls on, homework has to be supervised, piano lessons attended, and even a little trip to the hospital to pick up son who had been hit in the face with a cricket ball at a school match was thrown in the mix.

The consequence is that every time I surfaced from my studio the “to do” list just got longer as those “urgent & important” things kept taking precedence. So, when the muse departed earlier this week (although sad to see her go and hoping for her return soon) I’ve spent the time since desperately trying to catch up. Throw into the mix my new duty as the school’s P&C secretary and I’m feeling so far behind in some things (like the mountainous pile of ironing … which I’m at least glad to say, my children are now too big to be crushed under should it fall!) that I’m doubting if I shall catch up – at least in the short term.

Please tell me you’ve had times like these and got through them!?

On the positive side I’m absolutely thrilled with the new pieces I’ve made. There’s a gorgeous lapis lazuli and freshwater cultured pearl bracelet (photo above), a natural pink freshwater pearl necklace, a necklace and bracelet in red, white and black, a scintillating necklace of smoky quartz, petro tourmaline, citrine and vermeil, a torsade of pearls and gems in green, silver and berry colours, a necklace of greens in pearls and aventurine, a soft neutral toned pearl and amethyst necklace, a silvery peacock pearl necklace scattered with amethyst, aquamarine and iolite, plus some earrings to match some of these too. There is also a very special pink amethyst and pink topaz necklace that’s almost finished and is sure to gain many admirers!

I need to get all this lovely stock ready for my next show, which is at Mendooran this coming Saturday … oh dear, I’ve just remembered that means even more things to do before then *sigh* . I guess I’d better get started!

Hope you're achieving more than me!

Till next
Annette

Shows - the trials and tribulations

OK, I think I need to just stop. For a few minutes anyway.

This time of the year is unbelievable - even one of my girls last night asked when my next show was, and the next, and the next and the next.... Her eyes got bigger at each one I mentioned. Luckily they're kept busy at school and when they're home they're playing together, doing piano practice and reading. Lots of reading (I think I gave birth to book worms not children sometimes!). And I have a husband that is flexible enough to look after them (and if he is not available, then, thankfully, there is always Grandma!).

I love doing shows - I love getting out and about and meeting people, sharing my passion for gems and pearls and hopefully brightening people's day with some 'pretty' jewels. Even better when I can extend that happiness by having someone take something they love home.

I have another outing this afternoon - just a small one, in my neighbouring town, Dunedoo, about 45min drive away, for a 'ladies afternoon'.

Last weekend I wended my way to Armidale with my friend Trista in tow (to keep me awake as well as help me at the show) for the TAS fair. We had a wonderful time, met some lovely people and sold some jewels, but, as often happens, there was just too many people selling jewellery for any of us to do really well and the poor people attending the show had glazed eyes at the literally hundreds of strands of necklaces that must have been there. Of course the quality, material and styles varied immensely, but at first glance, all people saw was "more jewellery".

This, I must admit, is one of my pet peeves about doing shows. I realise that these shows are organised by time-poor volunteers, but as organisers they CAN and SHOULD dictate what people can sell. In the case of last week, two stall holders mentioned they sold jewellery amongst a myriad of other things (such as clothes, shoes, homewares etc.) but they displayed mostly jewellery. The result is that the show isn't as successful as it could be - the stall holders don't sell as much as they might if there were less of the same category there, and the attendees get limited variety and boredom sets in early.

Of course, some shows are very well organised in this department and they are usually very successful and enjoyed by everyone. These go on to run year after year and I'm fortunate to be a part of some of them. I noted on the Business Mums Blog a week or so ago that some of the markets/shows in Melbourne do great promotion for their participants too. Ah, sometimes I want to live in a city and get those sort of benefits. But then, I love my peace and quiet and rural life too much!

I also noted on the Busy Mum blog, that she's wishing for summer to hurry up and come. Given the cold weather we keep getting here, I'm wishing for a bit of summer too!

Well, I must dash and put my busy hat back on. I still have to finish packing for my outing this afternoon and I only have an hour and a half left before I leave! Today's photo is of pearls - I've felt a bit 'pearly' the last week or so, so made this strand up a few days ago. Rich dark brown pearls with a peacock sheen, enhanced by the addition of some rhodolite garnet, amethyst, iolite and peridot. Yum!

Till next :)
Annette

Shows, an Airshow and now its almost holiday time!

I’ve been a very bad blogger. I’ll admit it. I’ve been going along at a 110% (which we all know is totally unsustainable) so things started to drop off. I miss being online. I feel like I’m falling behind by not keeping up to date in my fellow blogger’s worlds!

And just to compound my discomfort offline, I am off on our annual holiday in a couple of days time. YAY for the holiday – lots of reading, lazing around, beach walks, bike rides and family time. But BOO to no internet coverage!

Since I last wrote I’ve had two, two-day shows. Quirindi was the first. The show was great fun and many husbands said “oh no, not you!” but their wives smiled widely :D . The second show was at Merriwa with gorgeous weather, lots of familiar faces and ladies keen to look at and partake of the new collection. It’s so lovely to be welcomed by the ladies so warmly!

Country shows are great fun and as I’m situated in the ladies pavilion, I get to see all the local talent – the green fingered ladies with their flowers, the cooks with their cakes and preserves, the patient ladies with their needlework, embroidery, sewing and knitting, the artists with their paintings and sculpture, the budding younger artists with their drawings and the avid photographers with their creative photos. It’s always great to see the men having a go too – Merriwa always has a brave gent or two competing in the cooking arena and lots of them in the fresh produce department.

Naturally there are the horse events, cattle judging, pet parades and more. Merriwa had a ute muster and with all their big lights and myriad of aerials, I assume these young fellows are very lonely and scared of the dark! They also had a roving magician as part of the entertainment and I had my own private little show at one stage with some incredibly good card ‘tricks’ – a polished performance, I still have no idea how he did it.

We finished the weekend off with a visit to the RAAF Williamtown Airshow. The last one we attended there was in 1985 and when I told this to one young airman he made me feel incredibly old when he told me he hadn’t even been born then!

The show was quite spectacular, starting off with Matt Hall, of Red Bull Air Race fame; two incredible formation flights of aeroplanes from different eras (the poor old Neptune at the front must have been going flat out compared to the F111 in the same flight!); the last public performance from a F111 that was awe inspiring and made everyone jump when he sneaked up on us all; and a fantastic solo by an F-18 that showed so much skill and control in such a powerful machine. Of course there were many more air displays that we all enjoyed but the ones above were amazing! All in all a fantastic day, although it was soooo long with a three hour drive each way added on to a full day at the show. Truly memorable though and worth it.

So, please forgive my absence, including one for the next couple of weeks. But I promise I will think of you while I’m walking along the beach, playing games with the kids, reading a huge pile of novels and snoozing regularly … well, maybe a passing thought now and again ;)

Till next
Annette

PS. Today’s pic – this one found a new home last weekend - from my Beach Party Collection, it’s fun and bright mother of pearl shell, sterling silver and freshwater cultured pearls.

Rose Quartz and a bit more about Creativity

I had another brilliant day last weekend at the Scone Grammar School annual fete - lots of stallholders this time and a real market feel to the whole event. People kept milling about and there was a real reluctance for people to go home! I caught up with lots of clients, some ex-Coolah residents and sold lots of jewels. It's wonderful to watch people see "the" one piece of jewellery for them. (Of course, I have a couple of clients who find "the" one, each time they look LOL. Addicted to beautiful stones - what a way to be!)

I've had a few questions recently about specific stones and realised I haven't really written about the stones themselves for a while. So this week I thought I'd do a run down on rose quartz since I use it quite a bit in my designs.

Rose quartz, a member of the quartz family, is found abundantly in Brazil, Madagascar, India, Mozambique, Namibia, Sri Lanka, the USA and in smaller quantities elsewhere in the world. Of course, the grade of rose quartz varies considerably and it is often crackled and usually turbid rather than transparent. Some higher quality rose quartz is softly glowing pink and rather than completely clear it is often as if it's just a bit misty. With a hardness of 7 it is a sturdy stone although care should be taken to avoid hard knocks or impacts as these can cause conchoidal fractures - which will look like 'chips' to the naked eye.

Rose quartz is named after its pink colour and this colour is thought to come from titanium. Although its crystal structure is trigonal, it is usually found in a massive form (so found in chunks rather than crystals).

A popular stone, its use in jewellery goes back to 7000BC in Mesopotamia where it has been found in the form of beads. The Assyrians used it during 800-600BC and the Romans used it for seals.

Many cultures believed in its metaphysical properties, notably for love and matters of the heart. Egyptians believed it prevented aging (quick, give me some!). It is still used by crystal healers in a variety of ways, predominately to restore calmness, balance and clarity to the emotions.

All in all a pretty stone with nice connotations!

On to other things, the topic of creativity has featured prominently around here lately. I worked with the local preschool on a mother's day project where the children could make a bracelet for their mum. I took in a vast array of beads and my not-good-enough-to-use-in-my-jewellery gems and pearls, some memory wire (it springs back into shape) and my pliers. Over the course of a week, the children strung their selections onto the wire which I then made into bracelets. The results were incredible. There was the occasional mish-mash and the occasional child that obviously wasn't really interested, but most of the bracelets were amazing. There were some real stars too in the colour combination category! The feedback from the mothers has been overwhelming - the preschool teacher even called me last night to tell me how thrilled the mums were.

Is this creativity innate or do you think it's inspired by things they see or their play? Do you think it fades as we grow older or it just needs topping up?

I saw a great post on the Heart On My Sleeve blog about a couple of university graduates being so inspired by the often colourful washing hanging on lines that they took photos of clothes lines in over 22 countries! Some of the pics ARE inspiring too, particularly with the varying backdrops. And if creative play inspires, then I think the cute little knitted finger puppets at Your Cheeky Monkey would be just the thing to get the children in the mood.

Given the run down on rose quartz, today's photo is of a rose quartz and freshwater pearls sterling charm bracelet. Very feminine and very spring inspired (even though we're going into winter - like I said, the muse takes me where she will, regardless of what's going on around me! *sigh*)

Till next :)
Annette

Blink ... and another week is gone

Gosh the weeks are just blurring together. I always seem to be out and about during the week and before I blink the week has gone with not much to show for it! It seems to be a bit that way though - a frantic week with lots getting made and done and then a week that just whizzes past that I don't even get to my 'urgent & important' list! Maybe that means that next week will be an achieving week??? For some reason I don't think so...

Thanks for the many commiserating comments last week on the state of my weedy garden - it's good to know I'm not alone! The weather has cooled down dramatically this week (a good temperature for weeding - not that I've done any more!) and I've started dropping hints to hubby about 'firewood'. He hasn't taken me up on the hint though. Ah well, it will get cold enough eventually that he won't be able to ignore it anymore.

I played farmer again this week, fortunately only for a morning. Luck wasn't on my side though and my ignorance played against me - I ran out of fuel just after moving the stock. I pushed the bike about a km to the nearest cross-track and then walked the remaining couple of km home. Lesson learned. I'll check the fuel tank next time!

I was reading a post today at Dana's about vintage items and a woman returning a 1960s purse that she was unhappy with as it wasn't 'new'. Poor Dana feels sick about a customer not being happy, and I can certainly sympathise with that - we all want our customers to be thrilled. But I would imagine it's a little hard to find 'new' and 'vintage' unless you come across a warehouse of untouched stock?

I've not really dealt with vintage before - unless it is a restoration job on someone's favourite old jewels, which probably doesn't count! There seems to be a fair population that do though. Do you buy vintage? If you do, I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts on vintage - both the positives and the pitfalls - are.

My extra good news this week is that the Mega Mums Giveaway was drawn and one of my entrants won it! Jenny from Mendooran is the lucky recipient and is still stunned by her win. Her husband thinks she's never won anything before except an argument with him, so it sounds like it is well deserved!

Next weekend I am off to the Scone Grammar School's annual Fete. I have attended the last two years and last year already had some 'regulars', so I'm looking forward to catching up with them again. They have changed the set up this year with lots of outside vendors so it should be a fun market-like atmosphere. If you're in the vicinity, drop by to the school on Saturday between 10am and 3pm.

Today's photo is of a handmade chain of sterling silver, dusky rose rhodonite nuggets, chocolate jasper ovals, big rectangles of rose quartz and huge white freshwater pearls. It's a long necklace with chain at the back but as you can see is easily doubled to a chunkier shorter style.

Till next :)
Annette

My gardening wall of shame!

Another week flies by and lots of average excuses for posting this late! I won't bore you with them all though ;)

Hubby and son returned from their Boy's Own Adventure, crossing the continent and back, covering 3500 miles and with thoroughly sore rear ends LOL. I survived being Farmer Piper again (apart from a seriously trying morning moving cattle with two 9 year old girls helping - I'll leave that to your imagination!) - luckily the split water pipe didn't appear until the morning after hubby's return as that's really something that I couldn't have fixed!

I started the mammoth job of weeding my rose garden last weekend. And if you wonder why, after a week I've only weeded half of it, I will now post a photo on my 'wall of shame'! I need a lot of coercion to get into the garden at the best of times so I ignore it all through summer, apart from watering if required. Well this year we have been blessed with regular rain, so I haven't even had to do that. This is the consequence though.



Yep, that's a tangle of weeds folks, and in the centre of this photo is supposed to be a path - you can see it at the top of the photo, in the half that's weeded. No, it's NOT a pretty sight. My keen-gardener-mother-in-law has to force herself NOT to look when she visits as she is totally appalled. Amongst some very spiky rose bushes there is a mixture of 'paddy melon'-like vines, kikuyu and rye grasses, lucerne, a variety of burrs and thistles and the odd nasty patch of 'sticky-beaks' that are even taller than the roses!

It's taken quite a bit of persistence on my part to get as far as I have. If you had been watching me I'm sure you would have opened your eyes just a tad wider at my numerous vocalisations, which basically centered around the word 'OUCH' and the odd, colourful adjective. Luckily roses are hardy and some lovely blooms are still coming forth in what will be probably their last flush before the cold weather closes in. This is a David Austin double pink with a terrible, rangy habit, but gorgeous scented flowers.



I'm feeling a little floral at the moment ... the roses in the garden, photos of spring blooms at every turn on the web and my girls have been making paper flowers which currently have pride of place in a vase on my dining table.

Have you ever made flowers with some sort of medium? I've made some floral designs with gems in the past and I saw today that Phersmay had posted a photo of some organza flowers that she has made to attach to headbands, brooches and hairpins.

Totally NOT floral, however, today's jewellery piece is a wonderful long, long (did I mention it was long!?) strand of lustrous peacock freshwater pearls in semi-baroque, stick and coin shapes. It's so long it makes a decent length 2 strand necklace or a brilliant shorter length 3 strand. I've added in a sprinkling of amethyst, iolite and tanzanite gemstones to enhance that purple-blue hue that I love so much, and a gorgeous starfish sterling clasp. Do you like it?

Till next
Annette :)

The Patter of Rain on a Tin Roof

As I type this I hear the patter of rain in the background. Rain against a tin roof - there's nothing like it, especially when you really need it! Australia is such a big country - and while the central part of the eastern coast has been literally submerged in wet weather we have remained dry. Living on a farm makes you attuned to the weather and what it can do - and the lack of grass is having an effect, with the need for supplementary feeding. Changing the stock into new paddocks is more to give the cows a change of scenery than more feed! So, I am enjoying the raindrops for as long as they last and wish those affected on the coast could blow some more this way!!

Have you ever looked at where your web visitors come from - I've been watching my blog visitors lately and its amazing the way they find you, the most random searches - albeit for me it is something to do with either gemstones or jewellery. And the locations! There are some places I've never heard of (which I actually find rather embarrassing!). In the last week I've had lots of visitors from the UK, whereas my visitor list is usually dominated by US or Australian locations. I wonder why? Where do most of your visitors come from?

I must thank Anne of The Tall Poppy for a recent award - the Welcoming Blogger Award! She reckons I'm always popping up and welcoming newbies along and I must admit that I do like doing that - after all, you never know who you could meet!



Of course I've been doing the rounds of my arts/crafts online buddies and this week I must draw attention to two outstanding artists.

The first is Carol of The Blue Cat. Carol stumbled on my blog a few months ago, followed me over to Creative Bloggers and has been a stalwart supporter there. I love popping into her blog and seeing her gorgeous artwork - she has an affinity for our feline friends and imbues such personality into them that they are just adorable! She sells on various online marketplaces and they're certainly lucky to have such a talented artist on their books!

The other talented woman is Sayo - a fellow maker of jewellery and I just love her big silver rings with a lovely big fat natural crystal! It really appeals to the gemmologist in me I guess!!! Do check out her blog where you can see her great work - bet you buy a piece ;)

I would also like to urge any ladies downunder to join the marvellous Connect2mums network - I have already made some wonderful friends there and I'm sure I will find a lot more. It is so wonderful to have such a network for those of us down here in Australia as usually our only option for such camaraderie is based overseas. Of course, in true spirit of my above award I'm welcoming everyone aboard!

OK, I had better include a picture of something I've made recently. Ah yes, a torsade. I only make these occasionally as they are very time consuming - getting the colours just right and not just the combination, but the percentages of each colour. The last one I featured here on my blog sold the first time it was seen in real life, so I decided to make another. This one is a little more subdued in the colour, but very delectable! Made with freshwater pearls in sage, bronze-copper and cranberry, rich red garnet and some sparkling smoky quartz.

Till next :)

School holidays

Eeeech, school holidays - who would consider that three not so little people could get so under foot and so unruly in their first break of the year! Well, I should have remembered the school holidays - although they were in the pool most of summer, and drat it, it's a tad too cool for that now. Oh well. Only another 11 days to go.... *faint*

Needless to say I haven't got an awful lot done in the jewellery department, so this is a picture of a necklace from my creative burst last week. I had a great response to the red bamboo coral recently - and here is some sponge coral and orange freshwater pearls - aren't they bright! Sponge coral has a softer, more matte finish than the bamboo coral but would still look great to brighten up dark winter colours and quite brilliant with white in summer. I had to throw the picture of the matching earrings in too (below) - a little bit of glorious colour!



I've always thought I could so easily get addicted to other crafts... I had a look at Assential Scrapbooking's site and yep, I reckon it wouldn't take much to tip me over the edge and buy all those interesting looking bits and bobs!

I can't believe its almost time for the BAS (quarterly tax) to be done again. This quarter is always the worst, as I feel like I've only just finished the last one - since its due so late, because of the Christmas period. Rather nice of Mr. Taxman to take Christmas holidays into account! Anyway, keeping tax related, I found the best quote on the Always Wired Bead Lady blog...

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors… and miss. ~Robert Heinlein

*giggle* :D

Till next!

Creativity and Inspiration

After an extended holiday my creativity has returned in force and I have so many new pieces from the last week. It had been hard to try and sit at the bench and create when I just wasn't ready and so I didn't push it too hard - and success is the result!

Many of the new pieces were sitting in my 're-do' pile. I hadn't been happy with how they turned out the first time round, or had grown bored with them before I'd even finished. The pile was getting a bit wobbly it was so high, so I am pleased I have decimated it now!

It can be difficult to stop yourself from repeating your first error when you are re-making a piece, so I found I had to deconstruct each one completely before looking at it with a fresh viewpoint. Some are so entirely different and I love the new looks I have come up with.

Of course as these are pieces from quite a time span the colours aren't necessarily seasonal, as I should be working on my winter collection. And there is an awful lot of green. But as I love green it was really no hardship to work with them ;) But I shall have to pull out the muted tones and rich colours soon otherwise my winter collection may look decidely spring-like!

One of my new creations is pictured above - a mixture of lime green chalk turquoise, black lava, freshwater pearls, peridot and sterling silver. All combining to make one eye-popping statement necklace!

Long term readers may know I had a 'fling' with Etsy. Sure enough, I found I didn't have enough time to do all I had to do as it was, so I haven't had any items listed there for ages. However I still SHOP there :)

A very talented maker of vintage inspired stationery, Kelly of Retrocrafted Paper Goods posted about a great giveaway she is participating in for a group on Etsy. Head over to her Macaroni & Glue blog to find out all about it - it sounds easy to enter and wow, what prizes!

Inspiration is such an intangible thing. I actually have no idea why I became so inspired over the last week (but I'm awfully glad I did!) Some people get inspiration from nature, from art, from music. I often get inspiration just looking into stones. Jenny from Assential Scrapbooking has been inspired by some new products she can use in her business and sounds as excited as me! I'd love to hear what inspires you?



P.S. I am pleased to report the bushfires in Victoria have calmed down with no further outbreaks. The cool change has definitely helped. An outpouring of generosity has been received from the Red Cross reporting over AUD$100million in donations received - now the hard work of rebuilding lives begins.

Jewellery on the runway

Jewellery is making more and more impact on the fashion runways - the recent shows for spring 2009 featured lots of statement jewellery - masses of cuffs and bangles, huge earrings and a mixture of large, bold necklaces or pendants.

Some of the fashion is rather minimalist and jewellery will make or break these outfits. Maybe it is a reflection on the economy - perhaps the designers are expecting us to purchase more plain items (that will last more than a season) and our accessories will help make the look fashion forward. Even the more flamboyant designers still made a point of including bold jewellery.

Another awards event was on last week - the Director's Guild Awards - and there were a few necklaces in evidence. One that was particularly eyecatching was Marisa Tomei's chunky silver necklace. But, as has been the case recently, earrings were still the major players in the jewellery stakes.

I wanted to share a little piece of wisdom I found on the Business Mums Magazine Blog recently
A smile is a curved line that sets things straight.
Anon
How true is that! Even reading it makes you smile.

I occasionally make cuff style bracelets - and they always find a new home quickly. The one pictured above (and below) is a new one-of-a-kind cuff bracelet - delicate in colour but bold in size. Three strands of generous sized pale lilac freshwater pearls are liberally sprinkled with small faceted amethyst gems and the clasp is a discreet sterling silver slide style.

It is an unstructured cuff, however when on will sit comfortably with the three strands next to each other:


I have named the piece Hedy, which is a Greek name meaning 'peaceful' - the soft colouring is very tranquil. It will be on my website soon - keep your eyes peeled!

A Christmas state of mind

We're having unseasonally cool weather down here ... in fact, last Saturday I was in Orange and it SNOWED! I've never actually seen snow falling from the sky and was amazed at how soft it was. And boy, was it was COLD. Of course, I wasn't expecting that sort of weather - summer does officially start in less than a week after all - but it was still bitterly cold.

Sunday was still very chilly and we weakened and lit the fire! Ahhh, snuggly warm again. Yesterday we were in t-shirts and then this morning dawned cool and rainy so we're back into sweaters. Whatever is going on with the weather it's decidedly strange!

I must say though, Christmas is easier to think about when it is cool. I find this quite bizarre, as I have never experienced anything but Christmas in summertime. Maybe all those movies and stories of Christmas in the northern hemisphere have addled my brain? Whatever the cause, I find myself thinking more and more of Christmas and definitely starting to feel a little jolly!

We have had a 'pretend' tree for the few years so the children can enjoy the Christmas spirit for as long as possible. This year they are going to be almost 8,8 and 11 so we've decided to go back to the family's traditional way of doing things - which is to get a live tree a day or two before Christmas.

The excitement of going looking for a tree and then the decorating will whet their appetites about Christmas to a crescendo I reckon!! How about some of these gorgeous handmade glass decorations to go on it from Daydream Art Studios?

In the light of all this festive thinking, I have even been considering Christmas gifts. We have a system in our family where draw a name out the bag and buy for just that one person. They usually co-operate and tell us what they want which means everyone gets something they really desire.

The children are exempt from this however and get pressies from everyone. I think I may have found something for my little neice - this great art apron/smock from Poss Bloss. It is made with PVC that has handpainted with flowers and has full sleeves so it will keep her clothes (and sleeves) nice and clean. I love the pretty flower pattern too - the colours are very much her as well.

As usual, I have been busy on the jewellery front as well - I have caught up on all my orders and made the last of the new stock before my open day in Coolah this week. Today's picture is one of the new pieces.

A myriad of stones are featured in this statement necklace - amethyst, citrine, rock crystal quartz, mookaite, aventurine, banded agate, pyrite, fluorite, blue lace agate, chalk turquoise, rose quartz, lava, Russian rhyolite and moss agate. The whole is brought together by the absolutely luscious natural lavender toned freshwater pearls and little drops of almost pure silver. See more pics of it here.

Have a great day!

First impressions and more

The cold weather has continued and so last Saturday we had a bonfire. I know these are traditionally held in June, but we weren't that organised then! The kids had a wonderful time dancing around the fire - it was easy to see the primitive side of humans - the mesmerising heat and dancing flames, the joy at watching the flying sparks (and trying to catch them!).

First impressions are important, but not ALL. With the bonfire it was all about heat and light, but there is also danger. Of course, not everything that isn't first apparent is bad - sometimes what is hidden can be the best thing of all!

Take a look at this amazing quilt square posted on fellow Skwiggler Flory's blog. At first glance it is attractive, but then you find out how it was created and it just means so much more. It adds depth and layers that you can't quite 'see'. It was created as a round robin with many friends from all over the world completing a little before passing it on to the next. A little piece of friends and their creativity, as well as a long standing memory of a wonderful project.

I also read this story on The Modern Goddess recently. It certainly made me smile (if somewhat ruefully as I thought "ha!, that'll show him!"). Go on, read it - it's worthwhile!!

Here is a pic of a recent necklace. This is a pearl and gem torsade made with golden yellow and bronze coloured freshwater pearls, garnet and citrine.


I can promise nothing but good surprises with this necklace - it is even more goregeous in real life and feels divine on :)

Till next!

An outing to Scone and you as part of your product

I love doing shows. I love getting out there and meeting people, catching up with past clients and seeing the happy faces of people who have found a piece of jewellery that I know they will love and enjoy for many years.

I also am very fortunate to have a lot of clients that have my best interests at heart - they always share the "source" of their much-commented-on jewellery and recommend places to exhibit where they think my jewellery would be popular. This is so incredibly satisfying that it's very hard to actually impart how heart-warming it is! Some of these wonderful people I am now fortunate to count as friends as well as customers.

I attended the Scone Grammar School Fete last Saturday - this was on the recommendation of a long-standing customer who had also rang the school's organising committee and ensured that I could go and there was a place available for me, before letting me know. It was rather late notice (less than 24hours!) but I rallied, asked a friend (thank you so much Trista!) to come with me and we had a brilliant day! It was outdoors, which I rarely do, but the sun was shining, the temperature was perfect and the jewellery was sparkling. The school grounds were a lovely background and there were masses of people to appreciate it all :) A big thanks to Annie for organising my attendance and thanks also to Amanda and Maria for coming up and visiting (and bringing their friends!) from way down the other end of the school grounds.

I have been catching up on some of my favourite blogs and Ingrid at Heart Harmony has a very easy-to-read-and-learn-something type of blog at Small Business Ideas. I saw a post on "Brilliant Product Packaging" and it rang a bell with me. Not just in the actual packaging of an item, although I do include a little about me there too. As my endeavour is creative, part of the product is ME. People like to know a little about the person who made something that they like/love. And they like to hear the story behind each piece I make - whether it be the amazing stones and how they inspired me to create a particular piece, or a little about the stones themselves. I love to share my passion so this is not a difficult thing for me to achieve!

Now, a bit about the photo for today. I really love this necklace - it's a piece that sneaks up on you ... once you take the time to look closely you're in love with it too. Inspired by the wonderful hues in the peacock-blue freshwater pearls that form the body of this piece, I have added in bright royal blue lapis lazuli, heathery-purple amethyst, icy rock crystal and acid-green peridot. The result is quite lush up close but almost sedate from a distance. Do you like it too?

A productive week

I have had FUN the last week - lots of lovely new pieces made with such varying stones as sodalite, bronzite, carnelian, brown zebra jasper (looks just like a chocolate milkshake LOL ... really, it DOES!!), pyrite, glaucophane, rough and super smooth rock crystal quartz, chrysocolla, amber and sunstone.... Yep, pretty happy with my productivity this week :D

I finally got around to sending a newsletter out to clients too - I am so slack in that department! For some reason I think they are following my blog, but I am sure most of them don't even know it exists!! I have already received some contact from people who have received the newsletter, so it was definitely worthwhile. I need to get over the feeling that I should leave people alone - I know I need to be reminded to have a look at my favourite sites occasionally, so I'm sure others are in the same position and perhaps even welcome my contact!

I have subscribed to the RSS feeds on a lot of my favourite sites and blogs - it makes it so easy to keep up to date with them. (Both this blog and my website have the option either on the page or via the IE toolbar to subscribe to updated content through the RSS feed). My favourite shopping referral site is My New Shiny Shoes. I check my RSS feed for this store at least every second day and Michelle always has something worth looking at and investigating. She also has a free service that will help you find you that evasive, long searched for item, in an online store. As I live fairly remote from shops, I have requested and received help two times (and I have just sent off another request as well)! She seems to know HOW to find things - whereas I just seem to spend hours and hours searching and all to no avail!

I haven't taken pictures of all my new items yet, but above is a bracelet I made a couple of weeks ago, whilst in a very purple mood! Made with amethyst discs that have been linked together to form a handmade chain with argentinium sterling silver (fantastic material - it's tarnish resistant!), then adorned with little charms of purple freshwater pearls (also on argentinium). The easy to do up/remove toggle clasp is sterling silver.

OK, back to the bench for me.....have a great day!