My 'Normandie' collection

When I knew that The Zone Creative in Sourdeval was interested in taking a range of my jewellery, I thought that a Normandy inspired line would be a good thing to do.  

The first thing that I made was a set of necklace and earrings called 'La Pluie Normande'  inspired by the constant rain that we'd been experiencing since spring.  The focal stone is a labradorite,  which is naturally a blue/ grey colour, perfect for the subject haha. For the raindrop effect, I used some tiny faceted labradorite beads, wirewrapped to be free falling.

Luckily, by the time I finished the first set and was looking for something different, the sun had appeared, so I was thinking about stones with warmth and sparkle when I fell upon these citrines that we've had for a lifetime.  I'd always loved them, but never been moved to make anything out of them....until now.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you 'Eclat Du Soleil'

Born from the Normandy sun with a hint of Etruscan.

'Libellules'  or dragonflies are not peculiar to Normandy, but I love to see them in the warmer months around water. Also, I really wanted to try my hand at a technique of enamelling called 'plique-a-jour'  which is enamelling without a backing, leaving the enamel suspended between the metal frames for a stained glass window effect.  Dragonflies seemed like a good choice of subject for this project.  

I am pleased with how they turned out.

The next photos are not from the Normandy collection, but were added to my general collection headed towards the Zone Creative.

These earrings are made from a pair of ultra sparkly, micro faceted amethyst cabs, hanging from a stylised heart, on a pair of my handmade ear-wires. 

This next set features a stone not seen too often, golden rutile quartz, which looks like threads of gold trapped inside ice crystals, they catch the light every time you move. Sadly, the camera has a hard time picking up the detail :(

This is a set with a leaf design, the silver lines of the leaves echo perfectly the flavour of the stones. Also, because the stones are predominantly colourless, they can be teamed up with your wildest colour combinations .

If you find yourself in Basse Normandie during the summer, maybe you would like to drop by The Zone Creative in Sourdeval and see their range of artisan made arts and crafts they stock, or treat yourself to a cup of tea and a slice of cake in their newly opened tea garden.
You can find them on the high street in Sourdeval,  at No. 5 Rue General Millet

fifth element in silver and peridot

Today is day 36.
I'm not managing to finish a whole piece of jewellery every day as I hoped I might, but I'm working every day at the creation of pieces. Maybe it's a little bit more of an uphill challenge to make a ring or pendant completely from scratch in one day, especially when there are husband, children and housework needing attention too!!
But I'm not feeling daunted by it and I won't give up the thought of trying.

 Don't know whether I've shown you this one before, but a stone as gorgeous as this one deserves another go! 'Welcome to Waterworld |Kid' from Day 12

 Such fab rainbow moostones are set into sweet silver studs. From Day 21

 'She's So 1970's'  Set of ten skinny stacking rings, hammered and polished, they're so dazzling they should come with a government health warning. DO NOT DRIVE IN THESE RINGS, RISK OF BLINDING lol

 This is a revamped version of 'Hortensia' this time she's a poison ring with a fully handmade hinge, sprung catch and the most satisfying click when shut. Made by Mr Lemur, my partner in crime.

 Showing off the opening mechanism.

 Love this one, the small piercings in the triangle applique give so much light to the back of the stone, which makes the stone sparkle and positively glow.

 Just sat down at the bench with no drawings or plan to work from, just selected a stone and channelled the inspiration. This one truly is from the soul. My fave way of working.
The drawings are made AFTER the silverwork is finished, backwards to the traditional method!!

I am going to make an extra special effort to log the pieces that I make.
There's a definite feel of spring in the air in this past week or so, the buds and shoots are starting to  unfurl and the sun is beginning to warm the cold damp Norman mud. These fabulously foggy photo's were taken at 9am one morning just before the sun quickly burnt away the fog, making such a surprisingly warm day. You could hardly see the apple trees in the orchard, they looked like ghostly shapes through the mist.
Enjoy the first signs of sprng, x

Getting out there

 I've reached a point in my jewellery creating 'career' where I need to raise the game. I've been focusing on the making and listing of many pieces in my internet shop, this is what I love to do and it feels like I'm working towards my aim of creating my brand and supporting my family doing work I enjoy. What I've really been doing is a very good job of avoiding doing the one thing I detest....getting up of my butt and selling my work to shops.

 I am not a person who finds it easy to extol my own virtues, I've always admired the people who can stand up and tell the world that their workmanship and creativity are second to none. I smile to myself when I remember people from my past who have sold me the idea that what they do is far superior, each time I believe what I'm told and assume their work must be so much better than mine, each time it turns out that it's their skill at self promotion that excels, not their work.

 I know the theory, I have a great range of work , finished to a high standard, and I know where I would like my work to be selling...so what is standing in the way?

I need a plan.  I need to decide on my strategy and learn my strong points as if I was learning a poem for my school homework
I need to be prepared for rejection. How do I meet it?  Do I redefine my stronger points or turn on my heel in agreement? I know what I would prefer to do....

 ....oh yes, all this will be taking place in French, which I can do but which doesn;t give me the warm fluffy feeling that I would like to have, that would help me to be charming and dynamic, peppy and confident.

I will spend the next few days in a planning frenzy, until my new French business cards arrive, by that time I hope to be prepared enough to breeze into a few shops, offer my card and flyer, and hope someone is impressed enough to call me for a meeting.

..

 While I've been worrying about making a business out of my hobby, Marcus has been busy with his own pursuits, he has been working long hours in making an oak table for our kitchen. At around 2 metres long, it will quite literally be the centre of the household where we will prepare food, eat, chat and drink enough tea to sink a ship.
This is turning out to be not your ordinary table, and anyone who knows Marcus would be more surprised if it had no fancy features.
This table is being hand scraped instead of sanded, the way that it was done for hundreds of years, which gives a very smooth but not ultra flat finish. Then there is the hand scraped reeding on the side rails, for which Marcus has made his own scraping tool,  the lovingly chiselled chamfers on the legs, and the cherry on the cake is the secret feature, of which I'm sure I would be sworn to secrecy, it has it's own mechanism which had to be thought out carefully before the pieces could be made....I'm sure that you would love to be let into the secret.
 Not today.

It's been a busy time here in our little corner of Normandie, the building work is coming to a crescendo with the distinct nip in the air to remind us that winter is just around the corner. We intend moving into the main living area before winter is upon us.
To the untrained eye, it still looks like the building site it always was, but with the advent of an upstairs floor, our possessions are no longer scattered far and wide, it only needs a floor, walls and power and we will be good to go!!



Last month saw the completion of a bathroom....welcome to the 21st century family Lemur. From now, my long suffering hubby is spared the task of the twice weekly journeys into the neighbouring town to empty the toilet.



...and what have I been doing all this time? I have been in my studio, enamelling, hammering and creating to bring you this.


...and this


Florentyne is my latest design, at the moment I have the bracelet and pendant, ring and earrings will be arriving soon. What I love about this bracelet is the tapered link, it fits exactly to the contour of your wrist....and of course the colours, I love, love, love the colours that you get with kiln fired enamels, so bright, clear and juicy, they always remind me of the sweeties I used to like as a child.

I'm also working on another shape of linked bracelet, with enameled insets. This one is even brighter than Florentyne...photo's to follow.
Oh, while we're on the subject of sweeties, who want's some lemon rock?



that's the name of one of my latest rings...because the 'rock' is the colour of lemons

My other ring is called 'Waspie' which is a good name for two reasons:
1 It is a ring with a wasp-like waist
2 2010 has been the summer of the wasp, they have been everywhere, in your drinks, food, clothes. Unfortunately we are surrounded on all sides by ripening fruit trees, which is wasp heaven.
I risked life and limb to bring you a photo of the wasps devouring a rotting apple, but the pic is still in the camera, the lead is in the shed and it's 4.30 am....maybe it will wait for morning.

Country Life

Now that August is upon us and the vegetable garden is laden with promise, I realise that Mother Nature has played a big trick on me.
On looking around at the bountiful treats in neighbouring gardens, I am less impressed with my flowering courgettes which seem to only produce the male flowers, my baby runner beans which will measure three whole inches if I use my husbands 'fishing' ruler.


My dwarf variety peas are a full 8" tall and produce two or three pods per day. The star of the show are the haricot verts who are very forgiving of the hot drought conditions and are giving me lots of beans <3 <3



The chilli plant is being very endearing in that the pods have formed 'couples'...one straight pod and one curled around it's middle,just like ballroom dancers, how sweet is that?



As I'm working in my workshop, I can enjoy the view of my miniature garden set out in front of me, I can almost smell the swaying sunflowers in the garden next door which is a sight to behold. OK, they are around the corner, but I can imagine them. There were a couple of them in a vase in my studio until yesterday, when a child of mine...who will remain nameless, knocked the vase off the top of the desk and emptied a couple of pints of water into the paper slot in the back of the new printer. Still waiting for the thing to dry out before I dare switch it on to suss out the damage.

Yay! Guess which lucky girl has a brand new workbench?

My multi talented OH has taken a couple of days out of his busy schedule renovating the house to build a brand new jewellery bench for me. All of the pieces have been machined to silky smoothness and mortised to perfection so they fit together just right.
The top is made from two pieces of plywood, glued and screwed to make a thick and serviceable place to work, the semi circular cut-out at the front was even lined with a strip of oak, soaked in hot water to make to pliable.
The finish is perfect, three coats of matte polyurethane varnish on the top and beeswax on the legs, it really is les 'boules de chien'
I'm scared to sit at it.

What if I accidentally nick it, or burn it? What if the borax escapes from the dish and leaves an unsightly ring?
I think I'll just brazen it out and blame the kids.....it's worked before, lol.

So now, with no more excuses, I'm finally ready to finish some of the trinkets I've started.
This pic was taken this afternoon after the bench was set out, in it's pristine, blemish free condition. Good eh?

Oh, did I mention, it's oak you know.

Branching out

Wave ByeBye to my little house in Coventry! Fingers crossed.

In my quest for world domination (re. previous post) I've found a little promotional site which lists my shop in a directory, full of other handmade shops, lots of jewellery out there.
The best thing about this for me is that I don't have to rack my brains to remember where my stuff is listed....the links are all there for me to click on.

At the moment the tally stands at five shops, four of which are listed at shop handmade.
It's funny, but the one shop that I really don't like the format of is the only one that I have had to pay to be included. Take a look at notmassproduced.co.uk and let me know if you share my distaste.

The site which lists my collection of shops can be found in the jewellery designer part
of http://www.shophandmade.co.uk/jewellery_designer.htm
There's one shop which is still waiting to be included on there, the one written in Foreignese where I get to list my stuff in my own brand of pidgin French

She shoots, the lightning ridge opal gets it.

I'm back.

after the absence of a few days from the shed and a few weeks since I could work it regularly, today has been pure bliss.

A whole day dedicated to jewellery. I decided that I would set the opal into a delicate pendant. I don't always do delicate but today was special. I wrapped the lightning ridge opal in 18ct yellow gold and suspended a sparkly white sapphire underneath. It works like a dream.

The photo is of the pendant in it's raw state before polishing as this one is gonna need a hallmark.

A chink in the clouds, the promise of sunshine.

Tonight I'm dreaming about spending a whole wonderful day in the shed. This week has seen me shovelling all manner of superfluous items to the tip/charity shop/friends in an effort to make the small terraced house feel palacial. To my credit, it now echoes in the kitchen and the front room!

The estate agent paid us a visit and is due back on Tuesday to take the pics......if you fancy a lovely little house in the heart of sunny Coventry....

Back to tomorrow. I feel like a kid in a sweet shop, so many stones, so many ideas, what shall I do first? I have some delicious rose cut oro verde lemon quartz which are begging for setting. Tiny peridot cabochons or fab opals.

Answers on a postcard.