Welcome to 2010.....

The last couple of months have been hectic to say the least. With Christmas approaching faster than ever and a mad rush to keep up with Snake Jewellery orders, November and December went by in a heartbeat!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break. We had a lovely time in our new home with both our families visiting. Christmas day, although a little on the humid side, was thankfully nowhere near the temperatures of the previous week.

So now for some catching up........

As promised in my last post, I have some photos of Grafton Artsfest to share.
Here is returning student, Leslea, deep in concentration at the soldering station.

As always, we had a wonderful time with the class consisting of many familiar faces as well as some lovely new people whom we now consider friends. The students made a wonderful array of creative jewellery and I was once again amazed and inspired by the quality of work produced.

Unfortunately, my camera decided to get lazy (yes, I'm blaming the camera!) and the photos of the actual jewellery turned out pretty dismal. Being the high-tech gal that I am (not), I couldn't even photoshop them to a suitable degree to post here, so you will have to take my word for how well the students did.... My photography skills, on the other hand, could use some help.

I also had my photograph appear in the local Grafton newspaper with Richard, the only boy in the class!! He is holding a lovely brooch that he made.

Grafton Artsfest 2010 is running from September 25th to 30th. A discount is offered for early payment, so if you are interested in attending, please visit their website Grafton Artsfest 2010 for more information or email me for details on what you can expect in our 2010 class.

On the home-front things are progressing. Work on the studio should begin this month, although a few other things have cropped up which need to be taken care of first, such as the hole we discovered in the concrete water tank.

I have been very busy with my Snake Jewellery website and have also been making some interesting pieces for my friend, Bronwyn's new gallery in San Remo, Victoria. Bronwyn is president of the Gold & Silvermiths Guild of Australia and the Goldsmiths Gallery is her new venture, showcasing guild members from around the country. Here are a couple of pieces I made specifically for the gallery.

I'm looking forward to a very busy and creative New Year. I have a pile of new designs ready for the making, with nothing stopping me but time!! Class programs are being prepared for when the studio is up and running and I have a couple of exhibitions coming up throughout the year as well. So, for me, 2010 is looking like a very full but enjoyable year and I hope you will share it with me. Don't forget to keep checking in. Better still, click the link to follow my blog.

Thanks for visiting. I wish you all the very best for an exciting and prosperous 2010 and hope to see you at my place sometime........

Settled In

Hello Again (finally!)

Well, we have moved and are pretty much settled in our new home.

We are absolutely loving the new lifestyle out here in the bush. There is always something new to see out here, including the biggest goanna I have ever seen!!
The photo doesn't do him justice, he was HUGE !!! Being a reptile lover, I was thrilled to have him wandering through my place.


Grafton Artsfest was a great success! We had a lovely class of six and the creativity was certainly flowing. Great to see some friends of previous years as well as some new-comers. We had such a good time, as always, and shared a lot of laughs, ideas and chocolate!!

The student exhibition drew a lot of attention our way, with visitors very impressed at the quality of work produced. Returning student, Tracy, again worked her magic on the computer and made us very classy name cards for our display. Thanks Tracy!!

To top it off, a photograph of myself and our only male student, Richard, appeared in the Grafton local paper a couple of days later. I have some photos of our workshop and the finished work, but they need a bit of cropping and resizing so I will get them posted as soon as I can.

Enrolments are being accepted for next year, with the class almost half booked out already, so if you are interested in attending Artsfest in 2010, visit their website or shoot me an email for more information.

Back to the home front and the work will begin soon on the new studio. It is quite a task, but I am hoping to be ready for classes in February 2010. I will certainly keep you posted on the progress once we start. In the meantime, if you are interested in learning to make sterling silver jewellery or would like more information on the type of workshops that will be running, just email me and I'll give you any information you require. Don't forget, you can also subscribe to this blog so you will be up to date with what's happening.

Will have more pics posted soon. Thanks for stopping by.....

Time Flies

Well, they say "time flies when you're having fun"..... or if you're a frog, "time's fun when you're having flies". (OK, I'll stop with the corny jokes)

But seriously, where has the year gone? Who can believe it's nearly July? And that wretched end-of-financial-year paperwork is looming......ugghhh !

It's almost Grafton Artsfest time again. This year, Artsfest runs from Tuesday October 6th to Sunday October 11th. If you are planning on booking in to any of the great courses available, I'd recommend you do it soon as time really is running out.




My class will cater for beginners and those with some experience. Most projects will be adaptable depending on the skill level of the student. If you have any enquiries about my "Precious Metal Skills" class, please feel free to contact me and if you would like a printed Artsfest guide, which lists all of the courses and events, just let me know and I'll pop one in the post for you. You can also visit the Grafton Artsfest website http://www.artsfestgrafton.com/ for an online version and, of course, to make your booking.


I've been busy, not only creating some great jewellery, but also designing. Now all I need is the time to make the designs a reality! Following the Lego ring, I was asked to make two Scrabble tile pendants. My client is giving them as a gift to two of her close 'scrabble-playing' friends overseas. I just love these.... I'm going to make a whole lot more of them when I get the time. The back is also silver to allow for a personal message to be engraved.

Aren't they great? These are made with the classic older style tiles. When you actually look into it, there were quite a few variations of the humble Scrabble tile. Who would have thought!

I have lots more to show you, but time is getting away from me again, so check back in a day or so when I'll post again......

Thanks for stopping by.

Blast From The Past

Well, I've had a lovely day, working on something FUN!

Today I decided to just play. It seems everything old is new again. Those 70's and 80's toys are getting some good dollars on ebay and anything "retro" is definately in. That in mind, I dug out my old box of Lego and made myself a ring. Here's how it went.....


I made the 'setting' with stamped silver. The setting is tight, so there are no gaps visible down the sides of the Lego brick. The Lego will be glued in, so a snug fit is essential.

I soldered a wire post to the ring and drilled a hole in the centre of the brace under the setting. This helps to centre the setting on the band and helps hold the pieces together when soldering as you can see in the picture below. The post will also become an anchor for the glue.


Here's the ring and setting ready to be soldered together. I curled the post so that it is more secure when glued in. A straight post can pull out easily, this one's going nowhere! I thought the Lego brick was a bit chunky and sat up too high in the ring, so I lowered it by cutting some off the base of the brick.







And here's the finished ring.........

I used a red brick for the construction pictures, because red showed up best in the photos but I used a black brick for the actual ring. (see photo of me wearing it at top of this post)

It really is surprising how the humble brick of Lego can become such a striking piece of jewellery. Who would have ever thought !!

Now, I'm off to raid the games cupboard....

Turning over a Silver Leaf.....

It's been funny lately... seems I'm doing dribs and drabs of all sorts of things, but not getting anything finished. Don't you hate that feeling ?? So today, I sat down at my bench, determined to do something from start to finish without getting sidetracked.

A few weeks ago (maybe longer..) I made a few wax pieces. There was no urgency to get them cast, so I gave them to a friend of mine who has a casting set-up at home and whom I know does a good job. Last week, he returned my waxes in silver. Yayyy !

When the silver model comes back, there is still quite a bit of work left to do cleaning up and polishing, so I spent this afternoon doing just that.

Here's a picture of the waxes. The one on the left is the one I had cast.

The wax comes in thin sheets.

I heat the wax gently until it's just softened and then press a real leaf into it and allow the wax to reset. Then I carefully cut around the leaf with a scalpel. The leaf is then peeled away and some strengthening pieces are added to the back if needed. This leaf is actually a tomato leaf out of my garden.

When the cast leaf comes back, it needs a lot of work smoothing edges, shaping, adding a bail and polishing, but the end result is amazing.

I'm really happy with how this one turned out. It looks great on the leather necklace.

Another job I started and finished today was a sample for an upcoming workshop (see pic below). This class is specifically designed for beginners. It incorporates all of the basic silversmithing skills and comes together quickly once the components are made. By completing this project, students will have learned the basics of sawing, filing, soldering, shaping, texturing, polishing and design skills, in just one day....Phew!! Sorry the picture is not too good, I was running out of daylight by the time I was ready to photograph. All of the silver components of the bracelet are handmade, even the fancy silver bead!

If you're interested in paticipating in a beginners workshop, drop me a line. I'm also looking at holding some open day workshops (bring your own project, or something you're having trouble with) and also some set-project workshops in Canberra in the coming months, so once again, if you're interested, let me know and I'll send you details and dates once they're finalised.

Well, that's about it for this entry. Must be wine o'clock by now !!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back soon.

Happy New Year !!

Wow, 2009 already.. Where does the time go?
I had a wonderful Christmas with my family and made my very first Gingerbread House. To be honest, it may well be my last too. Don't get me wrong, it was fun, but so time consuming. Of course, I am perhaps a bit too fussy when it comes to this sort of thing. Well, I was at first... but, being Christmas, the champagne was flowing, so after a while I became somewhat more 'relaxed' about the whole thing.

Everyone got in on the action. Mum helped with the design and construction, Dad added the reindeer in the chimney and assisted with the 'disposal' of unused licorice allsorts and freckles. My boyfriend, Phil, made toffee for the windows and we had little lights inside. It looked spectacular at night. When it came time for the demolition, the boys got to work, rigging up a golf ball on a string pinned to the roof....a miniature, dimpled wrecking ball!


Anyway, Christmas over, it's time to get back into things. My creativity seems to be on overdrive at the moment, although getting all that 'stuff' out of my head and onto the bench is another story. I'm developing some new workshops, which I hope to be holding in both Canberra and Moruya at some point in the first half of the year. I am also looking at moving house, with the aim of setting up a permanent workshop for regular classes. Of course, Grafton Artsfest is on again this year as well.

I have also been working on some new Snake Jewellery designs and have been doing some wax-carving, which is a lot of fun.

The Australian Frog and Reptile Expo will be on again in May and I hope to be there again this year with a whole bunch of new designs.


Well, I think that's it for this post. I'll leave you with a photograph I took recently of a big moth that took a liking to a red t-shirt on my washing line. Being a keen, but very amateur, photographer I had to take his photo before moving him to a more appropriate spot. I'm amazed at the macro shots my digital camera takes. This moth was about 8cm long, quite large and he was the hairiest little thing I've ever seen!