Thank you to all who subscribed to my mailing list during April. I hope to have an email coming out to all of you soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

For those who weren’t aware, during the month of April I ran a competition for all subscribers to my mailing list to win a US$50 voucher to spend in my handmade jewelry shop.

So today I set myself the task of drawing a winner. This meant undertaking the complex process of printing out the list without looking at it, cutting it up into a few sections (still not looking!), shutting my eyes while I shuffled them around with them facing downwards on a table … and finally turning one of the pieces over and - with my eyes still firmly shut - pointing a fingertip onto the winner.

And I’m pleased to announce that my fingertip landed on Hayley - the lucky winner! Congratulations.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I plan to run similar competitions in future, so keep your eyes peeled for that too!

I’ve lived in my current home in Sydney for around three years now. But several months back - after realising that I’ve ended up in Sydney more by accident than by design - I decided I would be leaving this year.

My destination was to have been Melbourne, but after getting to the point of actually going over to look at rental properties I came to understand what the ‘housing crisis’ in Australia is actually all about. I decided with a bit of a heavy heart that now is not the time to be going anywhere - especially given that I’ve currently got a good deal.

The big problem with that was realising that I’d stopped feeling at home here as I had been so committed to moving, but also that the place wasn’t functioning anywhere near as well as I needed it to. So the Great Apartment Fix Up of 2008 commenced! This has been devouring so much time and energy of late, so I thought I’d share it.

The first thing I did was to move my office out of what I’ve always called my ‘workroom’ (really the second bedroom in the apartment) and into the lounge room - and above is the outcome now that I’ve changed a lot of things around and bought some new bits and pieces.

I work entirely from home and I work pretty vast numbers of hours … and spending so much time in a tiny and cramped room wasn’t really ideal. Moving a working space into a living space felt like a bad thing to be doing, but as I’ve mentioned earlier it really works and the lounge room actually looks better for it too. Having more rent I can claim as a tax deduction doesn’t hurt either!

I’ve also painted my ugly orange wood laminate bookcases - a colour I’d ended up with not by choice. They’re now a shiny white which is a huge improvement. I did a pretty rough painting job (I have no patience for painting!), but with the books on them nobody will notice - not even me!

The view from my desk now takes in the refreshed bookcases, along with my new screenprinted Keep Calm and Carry On poster - a message I frequently need to read as I’m working!

Generally I decided that I was completely fed up with looking at various colours of wood, so a lot of painting has happened - and there’s still more of it to do. The wicker chair and Depression era chest of drawers have been painted a glossy black, which looks much better. I’m sure some people will think it was sacrilege to paint an antique, but it’s a badly made and also badly damaged piece. It really wasn’t going to be worth the huge effort to try to restore it. I’ve got a few other dark wooden pieces from the same period in my bedroom which are much nicer and which won’t be getting the painting treatment.

I’ve also sorted out my mildly strange little bathroom and feel much happier with that too. The mirror was here when I moved in, but it was painted a really horrible purple which had blue and gold paint sponged over it. It immediately got hidden in a cupboard and was replaced with a very boring mirror. But I actually quite liked the design - just not the colour. So it got the black glossy paint treatment too!

The kitchen still needs a bit more work, but I’ve done a big reorganisation to make it more functional and have generally got it looking a lot better than it was. I even replaced the dead plants in the window boxes!

Oh yes - and my courtyard has had a lot of gardening-type attention too! Things are looking much better even outside.

Finally there’s my workroom, which is now pretty much a dedicated jewelry studio. Everything in this room has been moved - and there’s some quite heavy stuff in here! I also now have an Ikea kitchen island which is being used as my buffing station (the buffer is in the box behind the fabric) and the area where I keep my metal pickle. That frees up a small table, which now sits in front of the window to provide both an extra working surface and a space to photograph my work.

There’s a lot more I want to do to my bench in particular. I have a lot of ideas for modifying it, but I’m going to have to pay someone to do the work, I think. Woodwork is not my forte!

So all that’s left to do now is to … get the entire apartment painted! Unfortunately the walls have some pretty big cracks in them which need patching up (again!) before being painted. But I decided it would actually be easier to reorganise the place first so that after the painting I’ll know exactly where everything needs to go.

I’m pretty sure my landlord will be happy with it being painted white rather than the buttery cream colour it is now. The apartment is a bit dark and the walls make it seem much worse than it really is.

Once that’s done the place will finally feel like home again - although it’s already pretty much there already. Although I know full well I still need to ultimately resolve my rather major ‘where to live’ dilemma. Sydney is not the place for me, I suspect. Melbourne might be more the place … but other destinations around the globe call my name more loudly.

But that dilemma is for another post.

More photographs on Flickr.

Handmade stuff

Below is a list of some of the handmade items you’ll see in the photographs above.

• Circa Ceramics cups
• Apple cushions by Ruthscrafts
• Damask cushions by Francisrose
• ‘Trying’ print by dkim
• Screenprinted ‘Keep Calm’ poster by sfgirlbybay
• Tea towel (or kitchen towel for you American people!) by PataPri
• ‘My little red shoes’ print by pollyjarman
• Ceramic bowls by shoshonasnow
• ‘Vandal’ cup and saucer by trixiedelicious
• Handpainted vintage coffee cups purchased from unicorn

My new mini range of poppies and roses jewellery is now properly photographed and listed in various of my handmade jewelry shops.

This rose pendant is made with four layers of disc-shaped pieces of sterling silver to create the petals. The discs have been beaten, shaped with a variety of hammers and domed. It is attached to a delicate silver chain with handmade findings.

There is a matching pair of stud/post rose earrings which have three layers of petals.

And there is also a matching rose ring, which features a rose the same size as the pendant.

This poppies necklace features five blackened poppies which move freely around the delicate chain. I’m really pleased with the shiny black and silver finish on these pieces.

There is also a pair of matching poppy earrings in this style, along with the above poppies ring, which features two poppies which move freely around the band of the ring. I really like the tinkling sound the poppies make when they hit against each other.

This silver and gold poppy ring features a centre of 18ct gold (or 18kt gold if you’re American!) as a highlight.

There is also a matching sterling silver and 18ct gold poppy necklace.

You can find all of this work in my handmade jewelry shop, along with my other online outlets.

I tend to make much of my jewellery in a fairly organic way. I generally do a only a few very rough sketches of an idea and possibly a little bit of design problem-solving on paper. Then I launch into making, using the process of sitting at my bench and working with materials to refine my ideas and finish problem-solving.

Poppies and roses rings, earrings and pendants prior to being tumbled and finished.

I’m sure some of my former lecturers would be horrified by my minimal drawing and lack of comprehensive design work beforehand, but for most of what I make it works very well for me. I really enjoy making this way and have lots of happy accidents.

Close up of poppies and roses jewellery after tumbling and finishing.

But a couple of months back this process failed me, as it does every now and again. I made some little cup-shaped flowers out of sterling silver - an idea I’d been sketching and thinking about for a while.

But while the little flowers themselves turned out really well, I found myself unable to satisfactorily resolve the finished pieces of jewellery I wanted to make with them.

Ever since the little flowers have been sitting on my bench amongst my ‘bench junk’ (partly finished pieces, experiments, interesting pieces of scrap, etc.), looking at me reproachfully for never having made them into anything.

Until today!

Before I start work on the larger range I want to create in the next few weeks, I decided my little cup-shaped flowers had to be resolved. After some more thinking, drawing and playing with the flowers, I decided to make them into poppies and roses … and successfully made them all into new pendants, rings and earrings.

Along with sterling silver, I’ve also used some 18 carat gold as a highlight in a couple of the pieces. I have blackened (or ‘oxidised’) some of the silver, but have finished them in a way which leaves them a really lovely shiny metallic grey, which I’m really pleased with.

Once I have the new pieces properly photographed and listed in my jewellery shop, I’ll post the new images and links right here!

Sign up to my mailing list in the month of April and you’ll be in the running to win a US$50 voucher to spend in my handmade jewelry shop!

I’ll be randomly drawing a name from the list of subscribers on 1 May 2008 and will announce the winner right here.

By the way, I definitely will respect your privacy and promise not to be spammy! And you will be able to easily unsubscribe from my list.

So run off and subscribe now!

Before I take myself off to bed I wanted to let you know that I am alive and (kind of!) well.

I’ve been working hard on all sorts of things, including a web project which has eaten up vast amounts of time over the last month.

Plus I came very close in the last several weeks to packing my whole life up and moving it to another city … only to realise that right now simply isn’t a good time to be going anywhere for complicated economic reasons.

So that I can help myself to feel okay about staying put, I have also managed to do some sorely needed re-arranging at home. In particular I wanted to have far more functional working spaces, seeing as I work entirely from home. I’ve found spending so much of my life working in one little and very cramped room isn’t really doing me much good.

I’ve now successfully separated my office from my jewellery studio by moving the office into the lounge room … which probably doesn’t sound like I’m heading for a more balanced life as I’ve been intending!

However, so far it’s working really well and surprisingly the lounge room - which previously had a lot of wasted space - actually looks better for it. Plus I’m finding it great to leave my work on my desk and go and sit on the couch in the other part of the room if I want to take a break, rather than taking work with me to the couch as I have in the past! It’s making me feel more functional and now that my little workroom/studio is vastly less crowded, I can easily open the curtains and window and that makes working a lot more pleasant too.

As part of changing and reorganising things, I’ve also painted some furniture, bought new cushion covers and art for the walls and in all home is looking more homelike. Although there is a lot more of that sort of thing to do and I also have to organise for a painter to come in to repair and paint the walls, which unfortunately are worst of all in my jewellery studio. I see a messy and irritating few days in my future …

Anyway, I hope to have some photographs of my new working spaces once I have everything finished. If you’re interested in seeing my bench and workroom as it has been in the past, you can find some images on Flickr.

In other news, I will soon be taking some time out from other projects to get to work on a new range of handmade jewelry that I have had bubbling away in my mind and have been idly sketching in my notebooks for ages now. I’m really looking forward to sitting in my revamped space and getting to work on some brand new pieces. So keep your eyes peeled!

And now it’s goodnight from me … and goodnight from … me.

Today I’m getting a fair bit of traffic from MySpace, Friendster and Hi5 users, amongst others, due to the fact that I have disabled hotlinking of images from my blog.

I am now referring any hotlinked image to another image which informs visitors that the user is stealing my bandwidth (quite apart from the fact that they are breaching my copyright!) … which causes layouts to look a bit like this:

It appears that a number of visitors are here to try to find the original image in order to copy it and upload it elsewhere instead. However, even if you are able to find it (many have been removed), this would be breaking the law and leaving yourself open to being penalised by your host, your ISP or even being pursued legally.

Instead, be aware of my copyright policy. Many of the images used in this blog are all rights reserved - meaning you cannot use them at all without permission. This also goes for all of the text of the blog and the design elements it uses.

However, the images of the jewellery I sell are covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

This means you must give me clear attribution (including a link) for any such image you use and the image must not be used in derivative works (this includes background or general layout images used in web page designs). Additionally you cannot use my images for any commercial application. If you are hosting a site providing free MySpace (or other) layouts and are earning money from advertising revenue, I consider this a commercial application. If you wish to do any of these things, you need my permission.

As for bandwidth theft: it sucks. It’s also risky: the person you are stealing from can very easily replace the content you are stealing with something deeply unsavoury which will cause great offence to your visitors and may even get your site shut down. I am currently considering what this might be if the theft continues, even in spite of my current referral image, so consider yourselves warned!

If you have up until now been unaware that you have been stealing or have simply been unaware that this is even a problem, it’s time to educate yourself about it. Copying and pasting code from elsewhere without looking at it is no excuse.

For those of you who are worried about falling victim to this sort of problem, I strongly suggest you have a look into Creative Commons licensing for your images. This doesn’t prevent theft, of course, but it does give you a clear policy and - depending on the license you choose - can leave the way open for people to legitimately promote what you do without breaching your copyright or needing to spend time getting your permission.

Additionally I suggest you have a look into hotlink protection for your blog or for the hosting package you may have.

In the spirit of working less and getting a bit more balance into my life, I spent the weekend … at my bench making jewellery! Which probably sounds I’m failing on the whole ‘working less’ front, however, I do of course work with metal because I enjoy it and this weekend I actually made some pieces just for me - which makes a very nice change indeed!

This ring is made from a hammer-beaten sterling silver band and settings with two lovely deep pink lab-grown rubies.

The idea behind this ring is something I’ve been wanting to play with for a while now. The two stone settings are not actually attached to the band of the ring. Instead they have loops at the back through which the band passes. This means the stones move freely around the ring and change position as the wearer’s hand moves. So far I’m really enjoying fiddling with them!

This domed ring is made from sterling silver and 18k gold. The circle on top has been heavily textured with a variety of hammers and given an organic, petal-like edge before being roughly punched into a domed ‘buttercup’ shape. A beaded piece of 18k gold has been soldered into the centre and the inside of the cup has been blackened. Finally the ring was tumbled, which has given the interior of the cup a glossy, metallic grey sheen.

And here are my two new rings being worn. I’m likely to put similar versions of these rings into production to sell through my handmade jewelry shop at some stage - even though I’ve been putting off selling rings because the sizing issue is such a pain.

So keep your eyes peeled for these designs and some other new pieces I’ve got in development.