Olive Wood

One of my totally awesome Christmas pressies. A basket made from the very expensive olive wood, I love it. handmade of course. :)

It makes a brilliant background for my jewellery pics too.

And its over...

...Christmas day that is. I had a wonderful day yesterday with loved ones, lots of food and presents. Tomorrow my sister and her boyfriend are coming over to France for a week, cant wait! All the family together is going to be awesome. More food and drink!

I am looking forward to working on some new designs this next week or so and getting some Valentines pieces in my shop. Lots more hearts and colour.

On another note I bought this amazing set of nesting dolls. The smallest ones is soooo tiny, I dont think I will be keeping it on display as it will definitely get lost!

A few of my favourites

Here are some of my favourite items on Etsy right now, click the image above to see it large and click the links below to get to their shops :)

Auka
dianecostanza
playingwithfiber
DominicMcCabe
LazyTcrochet
Jealousydesign
shellagarcia

New pieces

Wow, I haven't blogged for a while, not good!

So I have a couple of new pieces here which I love, the artists' paint palette necklace and my little red heart necklace. I also have a couple of new sets of earrings in my shop.

Lately I have also been thinking about some designs for Valentines day so watch this space! :)

I have a new friend!

Check out my brand new mannequin head! how cool is she, I think I love it! I even drilled holes into her ears to model my earrings. The pictures are a bit dull as I have taken them this evening with no natural light but I cant wait to take pics of her wearing all my earrings for my Etsy shop. A great idea I think when customers don't like to see earrings being modelled on an actual person. I just need to buy her a wig :)

Weekend Deals

Its that time of year again, black Friday, cyber Monday. To celebrate this holiday I am offering free worldwide shipping in my Etsy store and I will be gradually adding more pieces over the weekend ready for cyber Monday. So if you are looking for some awesome Christmas pressies, you know where to go :)

SAY WHAT!

Well its been a pretty good week for me. I have been on the front page of Etsy, in the gift guides, featured twice on craft gawker, had 3 sales and I got an ad on Regretsy!

Not bad if I say so myself. For those of you that don't know (Im pretty sure the world and his dog know now) what Regretsy is its a blog which finds really crazy things on Etsy and basically just takes the piss out of them. Some sellers take great offense to this and some love it, me, I love it, I think its all very tongue in cheek and the sellers who are getting featured are getting a tonne of views and lots of sales. Seeing as my jewellery isn't remotely weird in any way to get featured I thought I would purchase and ad spot and Im really happy that I did. It has brought me lots of views, hearts and sales too.

So if you want to check it out the website is here and there is also a Facebook fan page here.

A few of my favourites

Awesome work from other artists on Etsy
Double click to view large

I've been a lucky girl

It has been my week so far, firstly I am in Timothy Adams' top 10 Etsy picks this week and I am also featured in the Etsy gift guides for the very first time with my silver leaf necklace. It has also been a very productive week for me too as I have lots of new items for my shop made, here are a couple of them.

Things I miss about the U.K

I have been in France for 6 weeks so far and here is what I am missing:

1, Royal mail
2, custard
3, people being able to understand what I am saying
4, ordering stuff and getting it sent special delivery (kinda falls under Royal Mail)
5, mint aero's

Erm think thats about it for now...

New in my shop: Bronze heart earrings

Some new work..

..Finally! Here are a few items I have added to my Etsy store over the last couple of days.

Old work, new photos

I retook some photos today for my Etsy store. My mum has a big chunk of olive wood which I think makes a pretty awesome background.

Polymer but no PMC...yet

I seem to be neglecting my blog a bit of late, it doesn't help that we dont have internet in our apartment yet, soon I hope!
I haven't touched my silver clay since I have moved so I have made a promise to get it out this week and make some new bits.
I have been busy with the polymer clay though and I have been making beads these last couple of days for my artfire shop, Ill be taking photos today and I should be having a shop update this evening. Watch this space!

Above is charlie, a special custom order :)

Clay withdrawal!

I have been in France for 1 week now and everything seems to be working out so far. We have signed for an apartment which we will move into on Wednesday if all goes well, fingers crossed! Its then off to Ikea to buy me and big new desk to work on and then I can get the silver and polymer clay out. Feels like forever since I made anything new! My Etsy shop is still in vacation mode, I thought I would leave it that way until I know where everything is and its all organised.

Hopefully next week I will finally be ordering the Foredom flex shaft which I cant wait to get. It will open lots more avenues and make drilling, sanding and polishing a breeze, yay!

Before we moved I made my sister a little anklet with some left over charms, definitely something to make for my Etsy shop.

All change

The black forest
Originally uploaded by ✭Lou✭

I have been neglecting this blog a bit lately. Im not a natural writer so I tend to struggle with it, basically finding something interesting to say without repeating myself is quite hard!

So anyway it is all change here. We (my partner Dom & I) have decided to up sticks and move to France, as you do. We are still young with not many responsibilities so we thought why not?
We are moving next Friday so everything has been put on hold really until after the move, I have put my jewellery shop on Etsy in vacation mode until I am settled out there. We are going out there with no home and no job so a bit scary but also exciting. My mum lives out there so we wont be completely on our own, all change for us!

I have attached a photo I took while in Titisee, the black forest in Germany which is close by to where we will be going. Beautiful!

Busy, busy, busy!

Since I have come back from my holiday in France (excellent by the way, miss you mum!) I have been very busy, mainly with cake toppers. My jewellery has been neglected because of this but hopefully I will get some new pieces up soon. I need to get round to ordering some more silver clay and then can get cracking. I reeeeally want to buy a foredom flex shaft to, it would make life so much easier so I think I might in the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, here is another set of toppers completed today :)

P.s Forgot to say I have opened and Etsy store for my toppers, find it here

Cya!

So this is my last post for 2 weeks as I am off on my sunny hols to Switzerland/ France/ Germany. Everything I had to finish is done, charms made and sent and all 3 sets of cake toppers completed.
When I get back I have another couple of sets to make and then I want to start on some Halloween themed jewellery pieces in silver, Im thinking bats, ghosts, apples!?!
Speaking of apples I will finally get to finish the 4th and final book of the Twilight saga which I have saved mostly for my holiday and when I finish the book its going to be a sad, sad day ;)

Must go pack!

Dead animals, smashed cars & clay dogs

So we are looking after my other halfs, sons cat at the moment called sooty. Sooty likes to bring me dead presents in the middle of the night and sometimes live ones too. First of all it was a bird which I think played dead until Sooty had got him under the bed and then decided to come alive again, screeching and flying around under the bed with the cat trying to catch him again. The bird was surprisingly unharmed and we managed to put him back outside. Next was a little dead mouse which I am sure had been under there for a few days as I only realised it was there when I could smell it, yuck! Then I was woken up 2 days ago by the cat miaowing at me trying to show me a nice dead rat he had brought me, again under my side of the bed, lovely! I know you are showing me affection with all your gifts but please Sooty, no more presents!

Speaking of being woken up, I had a nice wake up call this morning at 7.30am when a car smashed into the wall below our bedroom window. Luckily we live above the pub my partner runs so not out house to damage, I swear the noise nearly gave me a heart attack!


Finally I am making some cake toppers at the moment and I have just finished these 2 miniature schnauzers, I will have a final pic of the toppers up here when they are done.
Thats all for now, have a great weekend everyone :)

EMC charms, Done!

Here are my charms all comeplete for the EMC team charm swap, just need to get them packed up and across the pond, yay! Im so excited about receiving a charm from everyone, it is going to be the coolest bracelet.

I forgot to add that they are made from copprclay with little silver butterflies and sterling silver jump rings.

I havent made much this past week, well for more Etsy shop anyway. I have just been working on my charms for the EMC swap and they are nearly done, just waiting or the jump rings to arrive and then they can be assembled. You can see by the photos what a big old mess firing copper makes in my kiln, ugh.
I also have a cake topper order which needs starting this week as the wedding is in a months time but I am off on my hols so need to get it done before then.

Im Back

After being ill for the last 2 weeks and being away visiting my sister for her graduation, I am now back working away, yay!
I have a couple of photos to share, one is a daisy ring I made for myself from PMC, which I love and I thought turned out really well. I also have a pic of the cake topper I made for my sisters graduation cake.
Now I need to get cracking on my charms for the EMC charm swap, I have decided to make mine from Copprclay combined with silver, just need to wait for the supplies to arrive now!

Something New..

This is going to be a really short post as I am just about to head away for the week. I just wanted to share these new earrings I made. You can find them in my shop, I hope you all like them :)

Cake Tops

I have spent the last week or so sorting out my cake topper website and getting it back up and running. Before I started making jewellery I made personalised wedding cake toppers and this is something I am going to start doing again and taking on a couple of orders. Well basically because its good money and funds my jewellery making habit also. I havent used polymer clay for quite a while now so need to dig out the clay and tools and get cracking. Here is my website, take a look!

Foredom flex shaft

I would like one if these, please thank you :)

Bronz Clay & Cake Toppers

I only really have one half decent photo at the moment of my new bronzclay pieces. Its the same design I have already done in silver, it turned out "o.k".

My first batch of bronzclay went wrong as I mess up the firing schedule and the pieces came out like the clay was still in the plaster dry stage. My second attempt was much better, I had to fire the pieces overnight for a total of 10.5 hours at a very slow ramp speed. I then made a third lot and managed to reduce the time down to just under 9 hours and the pieces turned out well on that firing too. The pieces I made were pretty simple I just really wanted to test the firing schedule first of all so now I can crack on and design some new pieces in Bronze.

On another note I have reopened my cake topper website, Hunters Designs, to start taking orders again and you can find it here

Bronz Clay

Something new to play with, I actually ordered copper clay but bronze turned up instead. I have made a few pieces and I will have a couple of pics up tomorrow of the pieces and my story of the dreaded bronze clay!

New Work

Hello blog followers!

Well I have had a very productive last couple of days, it feels like I have made lots of new things this week, all of which are up in my Etsy shop now. I also made my first pair of earwires which I am excited about because now I can make more earrings, yay! I also had a sale yesterday which always completely surprises me. It was a brand new item which I only listed in my shop the day before so I was very impressed, heres to lots more!

York, haunted & charms!

I have just got back from my weekend away in York which was lovely, got to spend some time with Dom's son James which was nice. While we were in York we had lunch at "The Golden Fleece" pub which is supposed to be the most haunted Inn in York and dates back to 1503. I love watching ghostly programs like TAPS and most haunted which the Golden Fleece has been featured on so it was really exciting to have lunch there, didn't see anything though :(

On another note I am really excited to be involved in a charm swap with other members of the Etsy Metal Clay team. 24 people are involved so we are make 24 charms and then we all have a charm bracelet with a charm from each member. It is a great way to have a little piece of everyones work and I am really looking forward to the finished results so I will post updates on that project as I start making my charms.

E=MC

I thought I would write a post just to say I am now part of the Etsy Metal Clay team as of yesterday which I am really excited about. The EMC team is a global team of metal clay artists and there work is amazing!  You can find the teams work on Etsy by searching "EMC Team".

What is PMC?

So I thought I would right a post just to explain what precious metal clay (PMC) is. There are people out there who aren't crafty and haven't a clue what I work with so this is for them! I am pretty new to this medium also but this is what I have learnt.

There are 2 types of silver clay available, 1 brand is called PMC and the other "art clay silver" but for the purpose of this post I will call them both PMC.  Both PMC and art clay silver have different types of clay for example, slow dry clay or low tarnish. PMC once fired turns to pure silver 9.99 which is more pure than sterling silver 9.25 but not as strong as sterling, its is a much softer metal.

PMC comes in quite a few forms, clay, syringe, paper type and paste.  In my work I mainly use clay and paste, I do have some syringes but I am saving those for when I can think of a good use for them. There is also a product called oil paste which is used on already fired silver clay to attach findings or to mend broken pieces.  Oil paste can only be fired in a kiln.

The clay comes in different size packs, 7g, 10g, 25g and 50g and it costs just over a pound per gram so pretty expensive. You can use this medium like any other type of clay with regards to manipulating it. It is best to know what you are going to make before you take out the clay from the packet as it dries really fast. You can also get slow dry clay which gives you up to 4 times longer to work with the clay before it does dry.  The good thing is though that it never goes out of date and if your clay does dry out you can bring it back to consistency.  Small dried out pieces call also be added to your silver paste pot which is just watered down clay which is used to attach findings, stick pieces together and it can also be used to make designs on your work using a paint brush.

There is also PMC paper type, which is silver but you guessed it, like paper! You can cut it with scissors, punch it with paper punches or even fold it and use it for origami.  

PMC can be fired either with a blow torch or in a kiln apart from the paper type and oil paste which is kiln fire only.

There is definitely lots to know about PMC so I have only touched the basics here but I just wanted to share a little bit about the medium I like to use.  Now bronze clay and copper clay are also available so one day I hope to introduce those clays into my designs too.

Guitar plectrum

I seem to have been very productive of late, making lots of things for my Etsy shop.

Here is my latest offering for the music lover or guitar player.  Its a silver plectrum which I have made into a necklace, you can whip this necklace off and play guitar anytime you like now :)