Sometimes it's the journey, not the end itself that matters

I've had a busy day today, the little girl was in nursery for a few hours so I was able to really get into work. I love it when you don't see time going by and suddenly realise it's time to stop for lunch. I think it's called going with the flow. That feeling is terrific and it means I'm loving what I'm doing.

Here is one of the pieces I finished off today - a dog tag sterling silver necklace with an abstract repeating Fleur De Lis pattern. You can find it here. I first started experimenting with this pattern in 2006 and finally I think I've found how I want to use it.

I also finished off my ruched silver flower a few days ago. I have been wearing it non-stop and really do love it! I even found I was wearing it in bed the other night.....accidentally!

Another project completed today - the dog tag necklace with stars on.

Right it's late, time to quickly play the piano before bedtime. I'm am playing  Michael Nyman's "The Piano" currently, I've learnt about 3 pages of 6 in total. It's an interesting piece, lots of time changes but at least in the key of C, thank heavens. Bonne nuit dear world, wishing you a good night's sleep.

Is it a plane? Is it a bird? Is it an alien?

Erm.... well it looks like an alien, I agree but it is in fact a sterling silver flower, cast from jeweller's wax which I have just soldered two little jump rings to, so that I can attach a chain and it can begin its life as a necklace.

I have a small burn on the back of my hand which happened, not, dear Reader, during the soldering process, but as I was putting the torch away. I moved a jar out of the way, forgetting that it was still around 500 degrees centigrade. and it briefly touched my hand. Fortunately, I have a retired doctor for a Dad, who taught me to put a tiny smear of cortisone cream on any minor burn after running it in cold water for a few minutes.

The satisfaction of getting these jump rings on is more giving me more of a glow than my burn is right now :) !

My new anenome plants

I got these from Morrisons a month ago and suddenly they've started to do really well. I love anenomes, except for the fact that they are the last really lovely flowers before autumn well and truly kicks in. I'm not a great fan of winter, ever since I travelled for 6 months in Asia in 1999, when I got used to it always being warm and sunny.

But these flowers are a real tonic and put me in a good mood every time I leave the house and see them nodding their pretty heads my way :D)

Happy Autumn Days!

Poor little blog.... but the work continues!

Well, the 18 month old is now 2... I haven't been idle though, far from it! You barely even get to have a cup of tea with a 2 year old around, let alone make a piece of jewellery. The good news is that after a long break from making I have been working on new pieces again and still find it utterly inspiring and exciting to watch them take shape. I recently made a customised version of my Endless Spiral Line Ring, it was just slightly narrower for a lovely lady in Canada. Here it is as a wax cast before going off to be fired into solid sterling silver.

And here is the final ring, polished up:

Such good fun, I really enjoyed making this ring! I love it's unruliness, so free-spirited! To me it says "I will not conform". Hmmm.... goooood!

The other pieces, a heavily textured moon-surface bangle and a dog-tag with two different patterns on either side are coming soon. Notes to self: 1) I am still in love with texture, 2) let's not leave it another 10 months before posting again! :) Hasta luego, Interwebers!