Designer Crafts At The Mall

Repost from my website...

This year started on a high for me with my first exhibition as a Merit Licentiate of the Society of Designer Craftsmen. As a new member we were required to help with the set-up and I really enjoyed getting my hands dirty and getting to have a say in some displays, it's definitely something I want to be involved in again.

I decided to make some completely new work for the exhibition so here are some pics, new jewellers got half a cabinet each so I have two shelves. Trying to make a display stand out in a row of 10 cases when having such little space was hard when I could only carry so much with me on the train/tube but I was pleased with the overall effect of my trusty cork mats.

I displayed new jewellery featuring handmade paper sections cast with vintage patterns, framed in sterling silver and strung on woven paper yarn chains. I experimented with oxidation and was pleasantly surprised, so I matched the oxidised ones with dyed chains.

On my first display I had two brooches front middle, a large fan shaped necklace to the left, a white 3 circle necklace to the right and back middle my grey woven paper neckpiece with silver tassel.
 

On shelf 2 I displayed two large circle necklaces front middle, black three circle necklace to the left, two of my drop-in necklaces to the right, and front right & left were a suite with stacked paper discs. I really liked the way these pieces turned out and exploring the paper casting that I used at uni.

Lincoln Christmas Market

Lincoln Christmas Market 2009 is an event I've been looking forward to since I started university because this year was our turn to hold our own stall selling our own handmade work to raise money for our end of year exhibition 'Direction' next May.

This year's stall featured the work of students on the Furniture and Contemporary Decorative Crafts courses.

This is our stall being manned by Kayleigh and Tasha.

Here you can see porcelain wall panels by Lauren Hirst, glass paper weights by Tanya Beasley and glass necklaces by Emma Whitton.

Paper bowls by Natasha Reidie and myself, snowflake jewellery by me and glass pendants by Kayleigh Rose.

Embossed cotton linter wall panels by Natasha Reidie.

Porcelain wall panels by Lauren Hirst.

And these are the sterling silver sets I made, tassels above and domes below.

If you're interested in any of the items shown please ask me for the contact details of the maker who will be more than happy to make a similar item for you if the one pictured is no longer available.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, organising the stall, making my jewellery to sell and sitting at the stall seeing all these wonderful people who liked our work enough to buy it! It has made me excited about the thought of having a stand at a show, though I know it's on a completely different scale.

2010 just got even more exciting at the prospect of our Final Year Show 'Direction'!

Folksy fun.

I've been a bit loathe to post when I don't feel like I've much to show but I think maybe I should

just do more then I can post more often!

There has been alot of planning going on of late, I decided I wanted to start a shop on Folksy when I discovered it was a UK alternative to Etsy.

The things I was thinking of selling needed to be quite simple to make so that they wouldn't take up all my summer (which is supposed to be spent doing dissertation research!). So I came to buy some shrink plastic which I remember fondly from my childhood. I had a few goes with an idea in mind of the sort of thing I wanted then I took some sheets to a friend's house and fellow blogger Tasha and co, all had a go, the results were really interesting!

Group efforts.

Original 'Temporary gems' idea.

Brooch with my signature 'Trees' design.

'Forest' necklace idea.

The 'Temporary Gems' I'm going to make a range of based on different stone cuts, they're temporary in that they're credit crunch gems and perhaps can be upgraded to the real thing in the future!

The 'Trees' are based on a pattern I made for my course and I'm going to make a range of jewellery with combinations of the sizes. I've listed a brooch on my Folksy shop to start with, there'll be more soon.