2015 Jewellery Trend Predictions

Clockwise from top left.... examples of - rainbow and geometric (multi sapphire earrings) , layered necklace (lapis, Peruvian amazonite & iolite necklace) , wrap bracelet (prehnite, rose quartz and pearl wrap bracelet), geometric (onyx frame earrings), coloured stone and slim rings (peridot ring),  multistrand necklace (hematite necklace), vintage inspired and geometric clasp on a multistrand red hued necklace (red coral and garnet necklace), geometric, yellow gold and pink hues (rose quartz earrings).

Professional jewellery organisations around the world have been full of chatter about what will be “in” in 2015….to save you the time, I’ve summarised the most  predicted trends for you…

Statement necklaces -   whilst earrings once again reigned supreme in 2014, necklaces will finally take back their spot as a statement piece for 2015.   Yay! Don’t be held back by fashion rules for necklaces … if you like it, wear it!

Necklaces that you can layer – either multistrand necklaces that give you the layered look instantly – or multiple single necklaces worn together.  

Wrap bracelets for that layered look – with an emphasis on charms, gemstone, metal and leather. 

Statement cuffs – particularly embellished metals.

Rings that stack – the layering look continues to the hand – particularly multiple slim styles creating a big ring look.

Coloured stones – whilst coloured diamonds are the province of the rich and famous, coloured gemstones of all type will appeal to those whose wallets aren’t quite that large!

Motifs from the 1960s and 70s.   With the runways heavily inspired by these two decades, accessories featuring geometric shapes (circles, squares, zigzags) and bohemian themes (owls, beads, feathers, fringes) will go with these fashions.

Rainbows – a personal favourite of mine, rainbows will continue to be popular this year with  colourful patterns, trios of hues and multiple colours with one particular colour brought to the forefront.

Vintage designs.  Whilst they don’t have to be vintage themselves, designs that are inspired by vintage themes and shapes will continue to be popular in new jewellery.

Yellow Gold – with a drop in price (somewhat!) making the metal more affordable over the last year or so, and a trend on the runways for yellow… this mellow metal is set to become more popular in 2015.  

Pantone’s colour of the year, Marsala, is a kind of soft wine gravy colour … not that inspiring for jewellery lol, however on the colour wheel, the colours surrounding Marsala are appealing – think soft pinks, lavenders, purples and reds.  

Are you looking forward to any of these trends making an appearance?

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

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

Eisteddfod Success!

I've been distracted most of this past week - firstly because my kiddos did so darn well in their eisteddfod (basically a competition for non-professionals in dance, speech, singing and instruments for those who asked!) then the 'high' of having won followed closely by a commitment to buy another, better piano for them.

Firstly, the eisteddfod. Well, our teacher definitely knows what she is doing and I can clearly say that her students were the best prepared out of any there. They played note perfect, their style was lovely and each was truly a little 'performance' rather than just 'playing'.

My heart was beating so fast as each of them went up to play and until the whole class was over and the winner announced the adrenalin was pumping! Of course the children themselves were fine and relatively unconcerned.

Of course, very proud parent here as you can tell (sorry!). If you know me, I am NOT one to talk about how amazingly talented my kids are - they've have never really been achievers so it has been a wonderful boost to everyone to have this success under their belts!

As they did so well, Hubby gave approval for the expenditure on another piano for them. The teacher has been warning us for a while that their skill has exceeded the capabilities of our current 80+ year old Beale Elfin (a small Australian made 'parlour' piano). So there's been lots of phone calls around the State looking for pianos.

Tomorrow we are off on a two day sojourn to look and try out an 8 year old baby grand. Hopefully it will be wonderful, we can get it and I can get back to something a little more productive than having a phone dangling from my ear and dreams of pianos!

I am sure I will need a dose of inspiration to get back into creating next week - and I think one of the best places for that is at the Additions Style blog. Valerie always writes posts that pushes my brain into 'what if I did this ....' I highly recommend a visit there if you need a creative push!

Since I haven't created anything brand new this week, I thought I'd show you a piece that I made just before the Scone show earlier this month that found a new home while I was there. It's a lovely mix of freshwater cultured pearls in cranberry, wine-purple, lime and khaki green with a sprinkling of peridot and garnet. Yum!

Spending time reading...

OK, time to ‘fess up. I’ve read Twilight. When all the hype about it started last year I was missive of it – it was teen fiction and vampires… well, really! So I decided to put it off till I was totally bored or someone gave me the book to read – but I was NOT going to go out and buy it myself. So, what happened?

It all started about 10 days ago when I was really rather unwell. The children had gone to Grandma’s, hubby went to watch the rugby in town and I curled up on the couch under a blanket in a semi-comatose state. To take my mind off my aches and general misery I watched the movie ... and in my weakened state it was quite good. A bit of sucker for a romance and on-screen chemistry I was taken in, hook, line and sinker!

So, when I was in town late last week on my six-weekly visit (not local town, but big town, with more than 2 shops!) I found myself in the bookstore and looking at the novel. Everything I had heard about Twilight said the novel was better than the movie, so I bought it. And while I was there I bought the rest of the series too.

I put off starting reading for a couple of days until I had a somewhat ‘free’ afternoon and in I plunged. I found the first couple of chapters didn’t really grab me, but shortly after this I was pretty well hooked and I’ve been on quite the journey with the characters since. I’ve just finished the final book in the series – 4 books in 4 days. Hmmm. Yes. Not much jewellery work getting done at the moment!

Have you read the series? What did you think? Teen trash or a good story?

Of course I always find the time to browse around a few favourite blogs, regardless of how much time I seemed to spend this week with my head in a book, and I found this on the EP Designs blog and it just made me grin:

“If I spent as much time doing the things I worry about getting done as I do worrying about doing them, I wouldn’t have anything to worry about.”
– Beryl Pfizer

Makes sense to me!

By the way, if you want to read a lovely, family oriented and uplifting blog, pop over to I’m Still Standing – make a cuppa first so you’ve got an excuse to stay a while!

Needless to say, since I’ve spent all my week reading instead of creating, the pic above is just a simple strand of beautiful wine-red garnets - aren’t they stunning, just as they are?!

Till next
Annette :)

A creative burst

Creativity has been flowing since my big pre-spring clean up last week! I'm still feeling refreshed and have energised and consequently I'm starting to see the new pieces for spring come together in soft, muted and pastel colours. A couple of quite bold ones appearing too! I'm glad I'm getting a bit done now as the next two weeks are school holidays. Trying to concentrate with three children rumbling around - playing, fighting, practicing the piano, practicing dance and of course, just being children (AKA sweet but annoying) will be difficult!

There was a great response to my new blog finds list last week - its great to check out new places and people, isn't it!

With my creative rush I haven't had a lot of time for browsing around, however I did venture onto Kelly's blog at Macaroni & Glue. She's a valued member of Creative Bloggers but I haven't looked at her paper goods in a while. Last time I did there was an emphasis on retro style but I'm impressed to see she now has a fresh, modern style going as well under another shopfront on Etsy. Great work Kelly!

I always try to return the favour of a comment if I can and while I was doing so at EP Designs, I notice Elena has a "pink Saturday" feature. What a great idea, particularly if you feel drawn to a colour. Of course, mine would have to be green ;).

Today's pic is a really chic necklace - quite modern yet I think it will fit into any fashion era comfortably. Made with matte black onyx given a lift - subtle yet full of impact - with the addition of sparkling faceted gems - grass green peridot, golden citrine, rich red garnet and deep purple amethyst. Do you like it too?



Back to the workbench before the holidays begin! Till next :)

Organisation and Mookaite Jasper

It's a dreary, grey winter's day today - brrr. Its hard to get motivated when the weather is so dull and cold. Overall though, Australia has it so easy in the winter stakes. Imagine having snow and ice for months each year! Whilst we would all say, oh, but wouldn't it be great to have snow.... I think we'd tire of it pretty quickly as the numbness from the cold set in! So, even though this is a mild winter by some standards, I'm not planning on getting too far from my fire today :)

I must admit that I am feeling the need to organise my life again. It's really not as drastic as it sounds. It's just that stuff tends to build up - how do I aquire so much "stuff" anyway!? Then before I know it, I'm digging under stacks of papers looking for that form that had to go back to school. Or I'm moving piles of things around trying to make space to write out a note. Whilst in general things aren't that bad, some areas are getting a bit TOO random for my comfort zone!

Our study for example is a multi-purpose room. It is where hubby and I do our bookwork and work on projects, have the computers and store textbooks, trade magazines/books, accounts and papers associated with clubs we're involved in. I also can't bear to throw out packaging boxes etc - they always get used (evenutally) so I have a cupboard full of those. Plus I store my display materials for jewellery shows which gobbles up quite a bit of space. The room is quite large (a converted garage) and the children love to play in there too.

This is the room that probably bothers me the most but I have to think of a plan of action before just launching in and getting in a bigger mess LOL. Maybe I need to take some pointers from the Organise Your Life Now blog!

I don't seem to have had a lot of time for checking out my favourite bloggers this week - will have to remedy that soon. I did come across a funny post by Amanda at Household Six that shows you do have to be rather careful of your language around young children :)

Today's picture is of a gorgeous necklace of big slabs of mookaite jasper, large freshwater pearls and deep red garnet.

I love the rich colour of this mookaite - a light heathery-purple through to a rich maroon. Mookaite is an Australian jasper (actually radiolarian siltstone) found under the Mooka Creek bed in the Kennedy Range in Western Australia and is often spelled in a variety of ways - eg. mookite, moukaite and so on. It often comes with a mustard-yellow combination but these ones are all in the purple tones (except for just a touch of yellow on the stone right at the very end if you look closely). Its a jasper that you don't see all that often which only makes it all the more special.


Till next!

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 :)

Thursdays, an interview and Gold Month

What a busy week. I can't believe its already Thursday!

I've come to the conclusion, after today's experience, that I don't really fancy Thursdays. Why? Well Thursday means I go into my local town 25km away and do all the jobs that need doing eg. pay bills, banking, post office, library, groceries, pick up farm needs, check on stock on display, deliver orders and so on (since I only go to town once a week), and then running three children back and forwards between piano and dance lessons over a two hour period! See what I mean?

We've had a cold snap here over the last week and the fire has been lit. Typically, I just get in the groove of chopping wood, keeping the fire alight etc., and the cold snap finished and we're back into mild autumn weather. I must admit, I'm having trouble keeping up!

Recently I was asked for an interview by Wandering Educators. I feel honoured to be have been selected the month's featured artisan and they have put my interview and lots of my pics up on their site. Do check it out and have a look at the other talented artisans and artists they have featured!

I found out that May is "Gold Month" while reading the bilingual (French/English) blog Mademoiselle M by fellow jewellery-maker Marie-Michele. Gold Month is a promotion run by the World Gold Council and is principally for higher karat gold (above 14ct)and where the piece is mostly gold rather than stones - which none of mine are ever going to be, since I love the stones more than the metal!

However, in honour of Gold Month, my picture this week is a scrumptious mixed gemstone and pearl torsade I've just finished which has the colours of green, raspberry, red wine and burnished bronze-gold. It contains freshwater pearls, peridot and garnet. I will hopefully have it up on my website soon!

This Saturday I will have a booth at the Scone Grammar School Fete so if you're in the Upper Hunter Valley, do drop in and say hello!

Till next! :)

Cold days, learning something new and tagged again!

We've had a pretty cold snap up here on the Great Dividing Range over the last week - the fire has been roaring away trying to keep the chill at bay, and those earmuffs that everybody laughed at when I bought them last year are perfect - even hubby is looking slightly envious! Well, he DOES have to work outside most of the time, but he wears a nice wool beanie so it's not as if I'm letting him freeze!

With the cold weather, the huddling near the fire and more grey days than normal, I got a bit of a shock when I realised that my first spring show will be on 13-14 September! Thats just over a month away!! I've really got to dedicate some time to creating. Now that's going to be hard as looking at my calendar every weekend is busy until NOVEMBER! Ahem. Yes. Going to have to be very productive during the week I think. :)

I'm pleased to see that Blog Whammy has re-opened after a change of management. We have more bloggers on board and it will be great to revisit some of my old favourites soon.

Don't you love to learn something new? It's great for keeping your mind fresh. I have a friend who firmly believes this and is currently working on expanding her vocabularly by adding a new word at least every week and seeing how many times she can use her new word in a day. Last time we spoke the word was "adjectival". I think she had started using it as a swear word LOL.

I'm getting to learn lots of new things regularly as I am currently writing a Q&A column on Skwiggazine. Obviously I don't know everything and have to research the answers, so I learn a lot in the process. Missy has done a great job with the recent makeover from Everything Swkiggle to Skwiggazine and it is attracting lots of great artisans.

I've also found another networking site (yes, I know, time, time, time) but early indications show there are a great group of women to be found on Business Women Unite.

Do you like today's picture? Isn't the garnet glorious! The picture is very accurate and the stones really are that luscious red. Although each stone is quite diminutive, there's quite a lot in total when you consider the contents of a three strand bracelet! The garnets have a brilliant shine and the bracelet feels quite delicious on. Here is a pic of the whole bracelet - I've used a sterling tube clasp for a clean, crisp, finish.



I can't believe - I've been tagged AGAIN. Not once, but twice in one day! Geesh, at this rate, I'm not going to have any secrets ;) My taggers were: Lois at A Beaded Affair and Tina at Links and Loops.

This time I am supposed to list six of random things about me and then tag six other people. Well here we go on the 'random':

1. I love chocolate (who doesn't?)
2. I'm 5ft 5 1/2 inches tall - that extra half an inch makes ALL the difference.
3. I love reading Austen and Bronte novels again, and again, and again...
4. I have lost count at how many times I have watched Pride & Prejudice, in all its different versions. Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle is my favourite one though.
5. I really dislike gardening and my rose garden often shows the effects of this dislike.
6. I spend time reading blogs when I really should be working.

Here are the rules:

1. link the person(s) who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

OK, guys, consider yourselves TAGGED:

1. Mom Squad
2. Stone Soup
3. Stay Classy
4. Minna's Favourites
5. The Creative Junkie
6. Fractured Toy

Have a great day!

Autumn, the Great Art Grid and a quiz for every day

The cooler weather is here and I can see my loungeroom being re-arranged very soon so that we can access the fireplace! (We have a 'summer' set up where the lounges face outwards to look at the view and a 'winter' set up where we turn away from the cold and face the fire. Does anybody else do this?)

I have been busy making things for Ironfest which is rapidly creeping up on me. I have received some new stones lately too which are proving to reveal themselves as very one of a kind pieces of jewellery :). I have included one of them above - it is grossular garnet and is a beautiful deep green with sections of the cut stone falling away into crevices where the skin of the crystal shows through. A very 'honest' piece in its rather natural state, it looks like it has just been found on the bottom of the ocean where some goddess or nymph happened to drop it. Matched with some beautiful, glowing, olive green freshwater pearls, it is truly a bold, statement necklace.

Lots of things have happened in the last few days - I have taken on a new 'bonus partner' Dream Candles. The idea behind this is to provide little gifts and items for each other's customers, so I am looking forward to receiving Michelle's little packages soon. I have also joined the iCraft community and set up a little shop there to make me a little more accessible to those on the other side of the world! It is a similar idea to Etsy with lots of very talented artisans already populating its pages.

I must tell you about a great idea that Corinne from Day Dream Art Studios has going. She is currently creating a "Great Art Grid" of small pics of fellow artists/artisans work and her aim is to get to 100 - she is well on her way to her goal. The grid is very beautiful to look at and should you be an artist or artisan, why not participate!?

Of course, even though I have been pretty busy, I always manage to find some time to 'surf' around my favourite blogs. I noticed a post on the Tall Poppy blog that asked what sort of goddess you were with a link to a site to find out for yourself. Well, what a treasure trove that link turned out to be... it looks like there are hundreds of quizzes there on all sorts of topics. One of my favourites was Are you right or left brained? (I'm 40% left (organised) and 60% right (creative) which explains a lot about my workspace!!!) There are so many fun ones to do, I bet you can spend quite a bit of time there trying them out. Have fun!

A garnet necklace and Audrey Hepburn

I can't believe another week has passed - but this time instead of being busy making jewellery, I have been busy having friends visit and stay, spending time with the family and so on. Really quite relaxing although my routine has flown out the window and getting my basic chores done is proving to be a bit of a problem!

One of my visitors this week is a great friend who in the past has made some stunning jewellery. She has been published with her designs twice and I have had some of her beautiful dichroic pendants on occasion. She has an affinity with gems as well, so of course I had to drag out some of my stones so we could ooh and ahh together! As a consequence I started to feel the old stirrings of desire to design and make some more jewellery.

So, this week I did make two necklaces - one of which is pictured above. It is 5 strands of beautiful, sparkling dark red garnet which feels glorious against your neck and is a pleasant weight - enough to know its there but not to overwhelm. To contrast the darkness of the stones and to add interest to the simplicity of the style, I have used a delicious sterling silver clasp that has a great amount of detail. Of course the clasp can be worn to the back as well. Do you like it?

When I design, I like to think of elegance and sophistication and one of the most inspiring figures to me is Audrey Hepburn. She was style personified (as well as a true humanitarian) and I have many pictures of her adorning my studio. 'Would Audrey wear it?' is a common question I ask myself during the design process! I also have quite a collection of books on Audrey, so was quite excited when I saw Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years on one of my favourite online gift stores, Tonic Gifts.

Spiralling out of control vs. achieving

Do you ever feel like your life is spiralling out of control? I am a bit of a 'control freak', so it doesn't take much for me to feel like this LOL. But I certainly feel like it at the moment!



There are so many demands on our time - especially if we are mothers and trying to meet all the commitments in our communities, in our families, in our hobby/business and so on.



Take this week for example. Outside of the home/studio I had a family function, took the children to a birthday party and two after school activities, attended a school function and my town's street fair as a stallholder. This meant that I was out 6 out of the 7 days! For the scant few hours that I was home, I was doing things that a mother and wife does around the house, and squeezed in some work on my jewellery in preparation for the fair. I am just starting the next week and find myself surrounded by a messy studio with boxes and stock everywhere (I've just started to unpack it all from the fair last night), mountains of laundry and a list a mile long of things I have to do!! I am also looking after the farm whilst my husband is away, but what the heck, just add a few more lines to the To Do list.



However, although I feel rather overwhelmed I really have had an extremely satisfying week as well! I got to see family I haven't seen in months, I watched the children enjoy a birthday party with their friends and improve at their dancing classes and even saw them perform, caught up with other parents at the school function and had a brilliant day at the street fair (once the wind died down LOL).



Its important to be able to look at the positive side of things and see what you have achieved rather than seeing the downfall in everthing. I read a post on the Etched in Memories blog and although is about achieving success, it does point to the positive aspect of it all and I can see comparisons to our daily lives.



After all that I need something pretty to look at....






I sold this lovely necklace last night to our Mayor's wife. Although we are going into summer here and this piece is almost autumnal, the colours looked lovely on her and I am sure she will enjoy it. It is made of pearls in tones of gold, green, cranberry and creamy apricot, plus BC Jade, citrine and garnet.