What happens if you land on my bench...

The weeks are rolling by so fast and I sometimes  feel I’m swimming upstream – all my good intentions for this season haven’t  quite making it into reality!

Nevertheless there have been some bright points. 

On the family front, after almost a year of no piano teacher (since our last, fantastic and irreplaceable teacher left to move to the coast) we’ve secured the services of a highly regarded teacher from a nearby town who is willing to come and teach in our little town.  The children had their first lesson with her last night and everyone survived even to the point of being a little bit excited.

On the farm front, the very last heifer had her calf this morning – 6 days overdue, but hey, she got there in the end and all by herself! Yay!  No more checking heifers 4x day!  

And on the jewellery front, I’ve been creating a few things and definitely enjoying the process.  It’s so hard, of course, to work with such gorgeous stones and pearls day in and day out (as if!).

I have been hoarding some gorgeous pearls that I received quite a few months ago.   The dye master where I have been buying my pearls the last couple of years was willing to experiment with some brighter colours and I managed to obtain a few drop pairs and a couple of strands in magnificent colours – specifically fuschia and violet and a couple in softer tones of lilac and rose.  I pulled them out earlier this week - here is a pic of some of the pairs…

And hey presto now they’re earrings! 

I added gems to all the drops, as they are such lustrous pearls they deserved a little sparkle!   The lilac have some pale lavender-pink sapphires, the rose have pink topaz, the fuschia - bright pink sapphire and the violet (you can just see them around the edge) have amethyst.   (There is another pair of pearls that snuck in here to the left – a natural pink matched with pale pink sapphires).

So that’s what happens when  you’re on my bench.  You get sparkles added and go off into the world to make the world prettier for one special woman!

Have a good week - go out and sparkle! :)

Annette

A busy November...

OK, how did it get so busy all of a sudden. There I was, in post-holiday glow, enjoying slowly getting back in to things and then BAM all of a sudden I have so much on, bespoke orders and pieces to rejuvinate into something else and am surrounded by gems, pearls and all things gorgeous. (Of course, I cope admirably with being surrounded by all the pretties!)

I haven't forgotten about the Italian diaries - I just haven't had time to refine them, but I'll get there eventually :)

The show at Muswellbrook was great fun. It was a manageable drive over there (even if we got home after midnight) there were many other stall holders with different items and the organisers were lovely. A few ladies were thrilled with some new jewels for summer and I think I will be warmly welcomed back in that district.

The "Balabudgee" garden weekend was extraordinary - sublime weather, a garden that all at once made me feel inspired and depressed (inspired because it looks achievable... and depressed because I just know that I won't do it!!), and such genial hosts. It was busy with people both days and lots of lovely ladies got to take home quite a bit of new jewellery with them!

I had planned to attend TAS last weekend (The Armidale School's Spring Fair) but unfortunately one of my girls came down with high temps and a headache the evening before and it just wasn't possible to leave her with someone else the next day when she felt like that. Hubby was off at the NSW Aerobatic Championships in Temora so couldn't be on dad duty. But that's what happens I guess. On a high note, hearty congratulations to my hubby who is now the NSW Aerobatic Champion! Woohoo :D

I have a busy show schedule for November - the Dunedoo Central School is holding its ladies shopping night on Friday, 11 November from 5-8pm. Enquiries to the school. The Tamworth Christmas Fair is on Saturday, 19th November at Tamworth Racecourse from 9.30am-4pm and then I have my annual summer show in Coolah on the 25th November.

The last couple of years I have held my show at the local dance studio, but have been offered to hold it the air-conditioned comfort of Noni B's Giftware this year - given the heat we've experienced in past years, I'm looking forward to a comfortable temperature this year! I will have a special preview the day before (24th November) for clients and will be sending invitations out to people in the Coolah area - if you're outside the district and would like to come, do let me know and I will pop off an invite to you!

I am trying to get to the website this week to update with some new stock - a few technical things are holding me back that will hopefully be resolved soon!

Today's photo is of a stunning pair of amethyst and mixed gemstone (blue topaz, pink topaz and peridot) earrings.

Till next :)
Annette

Blue Diamonds and less momentous things!

All across the gem news this week was the sale of the 7.03ct rectangular cut internally flawless vivid blue diamond over the past week? Extracted last year from the Cullinan mine in South Africa it went under the hammer in a Sotheby's auction held in Geneva to an undisclosed telephone bidder. The price hit a new high (per carat) for any gemstone sold at auction, eventually selling after some harried bidding at 10.5 million Swiss francs ... that's almost $9.5million USD or $12.2million AUD! Wowsers!!! Apparently the new owner gets to name it for prosterity as well. (Well, you'd like to get some sort of kudos for paying that much for a stone - albeit one of the world's rarest gemstones).

This led me to read about other blue diamond sales. I found that London jeweller, Laurence Graff, paid just under $5 million for an oval vivid blue diamond of 3.7ct in mid 2008. He followed this up at the end of 2008 by buying the 35.56 carat Wittelsbach diamond for $24.5 million! The really interesting thing is that he outbid the Bavarian government!!

Well, back to reality and even though I have a sizeable stash here, no blue diamonds I'm afraid, not even a little one *sigh*. The closest I have would be blue topaz - so above is a picture of some blue topaz and aquamarine earrings. They're still pretty, even if they're not diamonds!

Onto other things.... I wanted to tell you about two jewellery artisans that have really taken my attention lately. Andrew of Chainmaille by MBOI makes some amazing chainmaille pieces and he photographs them so beautifully as well!

The other is Jenny of J. Mack Gems, who I recently met through Creative Bloggers. She has made some outstanding beadwoven pieces - check out this piece call Gladiator - isn't it extraordinary! I just love it!!

I know Mother's Day is past, however slow little person that I am, found this great gift that would be appropriate for any work at home mum from the Business Mums Network.

Now I have been very remiss in not putting up the recent blogger buddy award I was honoured to receive from Jenjen at Gotta Love Mom. I love sitting down with a cuppa and catching up with what she has been up to (and admiring her wonderful pics), so really appreciate her giving this award to me!