Today is the first day of the new financial year in Australia. But for me it’s a day of new beginnings in more ways than one.

Yesterday I did my final day of work as an employee. So today I am officially fully self-employed - finally (or self-insufficient as my friend Jodie describes it!).

I have to be honest that this is a daunting situation financially and I keep wondering if the time really is right to be making such a change.

However, I suspect there would never be a perfect time and it’s good for me to be taking the plunge into the deep end to see what happens.

And all up I am feeling pretty pleased about the change at least at this very early point - it’s been a happy day for me and I’m feeling enthusiastic about the future.

For now I’m going to spend a week or two getting myself a bit more organised, making some plans and smelling the roses. And then I will be getting stuck into some freelance projects and some shiny new handmade jewellery as well.

Another new beginning today is the life of my new MacBook Pro! In a nice piece of timing it arrived yesterday afternoon so I spent the evening after finishing work setting it up.

My old MacBook Pro is a few years old and given what I use it for and the demand I place on my computers it was time for it to be replaced. It was starting to limp along and have a few issues, including an overly-full hard drive. Plus there was a one off bonus for Australian small businesses investing in this sort of equipment and I decided I should take advantage of it.

And so far so good! It’s a beautiful piece of equipment, of course. Plus it has some design changes which seem to be a big improvement on my old machine. And it has a nice big and fast hard drive and a battery with an amazing life (it takes up to seven hours to run down!). It’s all good - so far at least!

Sometimes it feels a tad depressing to be working in a field where the cost of your materials is down to the sometimes extreme whims of a market which has absolutely nothing to do with what you make.

At the moment both silver and gold are priced higher than they have been for a very long time. However, especially since the global economic crisis kicked off the price of gold has been going crazy as investors have been sinking their money into it, seeing it as a much safer bet than the stock market.

But as someone buying gold as a material to make jewellery with and not as an investment (or to make investment jewellery with), this is definitely unhelpful!

The photograph above is of a piece of 14ct gold (that’s 14kt for Americans) which is 0.5mm thick (0.02″) and 35mm tall and wide (1.4″). It set me back AU$245 (currently around US$200). Ouch!

Silver has also been going up and up for the past couple of years for all sorts of complex reasons. It is currently costing around double what it has done for most of my career. But to give an idea of how much more expensive gold is by comparison, 14ct gold is currently around 28 times more expensive per gram than sterling silver at trade cost.

Gold is a wonderful material to work with, but it does indeed hurt when a very small business like mine needs to purchase it.

As for what I’ll be making with my teensy little piece of gold … well I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete at this point. I have been using thinner gold as highlights in a few handmade jewellery pieces for a while now, but I would like to make some pieces where gold is more of a feature.

Stay tuned for details!

Finally last weekend (which was a long one in Australia) I was able to get back to my jewellery bench, now set up in the studio space in my new home.

I spent the weekend completing an order for the National Portrait Gallery shop in Canberra, along with making some urgently needed jewellery for my own supplies seeing as I’ve been badly running out of the jewellery in my shops.

Above are just a few of the little silver blossoms I cut out in sterling silver on the weekend. Each of them were then soaked to remove the paper (with the shape drawn on it), sanded, filed, tumbled and then finally turned into finished jewellery which was then tumbled again.

I seem to spend half of my life making these little blossoms as they form some of the most popular jewellery pieces I sell, so it was no surprise to spend my first weekend of making since moving doing yet more of them!

As for how my new studio is working out, well so far so good! The space is almost fully set up, but there are a few loose ends to tidy up.

The only issue I found on the weekend was that the three large windows let in so much light (in spite of the room being painted so dark) that heating or soldering metal can be difficult because I can’t see what I’m doing! All I need to do is remember to pull a blind or two down before I start and it’s fine, however.

This is not going to be set up as my ‘dream studio’ seeing as I’m still renting and things like fume extraction, heavy equipment which should be bolted to the floor or heavy furniture, etc. are currently out of the question. But soon enough I hope to be working towards just that!

I have now moved in to my Blue Mountains cottage with its very pretty garden. There is still a lot of organising to do after the big move, but at least all of the boxes are unpacked and the rooms are each generally serving their intended function.

Flowers from my garden.

I feel this is a much-needed fresh start for me in a new place. It remains to be seen how it goes as I settle in and become accustomed to a very different environment to the city.

In the spirit of a time of change I’ve also taken another big step this week, which is to resign from my four day per week job with an organisation I’ve been working for in some capacity for over a decade now. I will be continuing a relationship with them by way of a limited amount of contract work, but this still means I will finally be fully self-employed: something I’ve been working towards for years now.

So it also remains to be seen how that goes! It is a risk, especially given the current economic climate. But I feel that for me the time is right. I very much needed to change how I work and ideally work for fewer hours per week while still bringing in enough income to make ends meet and build a future - something that’s hard to do when working for a tiny non-profit organisation with a huge workload and minimal resources.

As for what I’ll be doing with the freed up time, well there are so many things I could be doing. Every year a myriad of opportunities come my way in relation to my handmade jewellery business as well as the other side of my career - web design and production. Much of the time I’m so busy I struggle to find the time to even get back to people to say I can’t do the work! Hopefully from here on in that will change and I can actually make something of many of these opportunities.

Finally, if you’re interested in seeing my new abode (or at least how it was before I moved in), there are some photographs on my Flickr. Once I feel a bit more sorted out I’ll take some more photos of how it looks now.

My studio is now fully dismantled and packed up, with everything ready to be moved to my new home.

If you’ve ever purchased any of my handmade jewellery online, then this is almost certainly the room where it was made.

But with everything now packed, the very next piece of jewellery I make will be created in my new studio in the Blue Mountains! I hope to have some photographs of my new space soon.

As mentioned in previous blog posts, I’m moving home and heading for the hills.

But it’s not just my personal life that is being impacted by the move as I am also moving my studio and my office, given that I work from home.

So if you’re considering purchasing handmade jewellery from me in the near future, please be aware that currently all items listed in all of my shops are in stock. However, it may take me two to three business days to post your order, particularly between 9 and 18 May.

Also I am now in the process of packing up my studio. This means that if any items are sold out they are unlikely to be remade for several weeks - it’s better to get in quick than risking the item you want being out of stock later.

I am now also unable to undertake any custom work, beyond changing the length and colour of necklaces as indicated in some of my jewellery listings.

But the good news for customers is that when I’m finally set up in my new home I should have two much more functional working spaces, which I’m hoping will lead to being much more efficient. And I’m very much looking forward to being inspired by my beautiful new garden and surroundings!

… Leaving Sydney, that is.

Yes, I finally do have a home to go to after months of looking and will be departing Sydney after over a decade of living here.

But I’m not going far - just up to the Blue Mountains, a bit over an hour’s drive from my current home in Sydney’s inner west.

I’ll be living in a town in the upper Mountains which is close to everything I’d like to be close to up there. Of course living in the country will be a big adjustment, but the Mountains has so many Sydney refugees in it that it’s a bit like an outpost of Sydney and is quite urban in some ways, so it shouldn’t be too much of a shock.

My new home is a mostly wooden cottage which is probably around a hundred years old at a guess. It’s quite large and potentially has a whopping four bedrooms, but I will be using just two as bedrooms - one for me and one for any visitors I may have.

The other two will function as a studio and office respectively. Finally I will have working space which is entirely separated from my living space - and enough room to work a lot more effectively than I do now. Can’t wait!

My new studio will be in a decent sized room with two big windows looking out over the very pretty cottage garden at the front and side of the house. And my new office has one good sized window looking out over the side garden. The photograph above was taken of one of the lovely plants in my new garden-to-be.

The room which will be my bedroom has a beautiful bay window with a seat in it which also looks out onto the pretty front garden. There’s also a big living room with a fire and a decent sized kitchen and dining area, plus a separate laundry. And the bathroom is a big space which has been beautifully done up - it has a big deep bath in it which I’m looking forward to spending lots of time soaking in!

At the back of the house is a garden which is so large I’m going to feel like I’ve suddenly got my own private park! It’s a lovely green space. And someone else will be caring for it, so all I have to do is enjoy it.

The house is going to be a challenge to get looking right as the walls are all painted very bold colours … but luckily I’m up for a challenge on that front!

So now I need to get into moving mode for the first time in a few years. I won’t get the keys for a couple of weeks, but there’s an awful lot to get done in that time, especially given how insanely busy I am even without the move! Keep your fingers crossed that I survive it all in one piece.

Once I’m in and have started to set up my new space I’ll share some photographs with you.

It’s Easter - already! The year is whizzing past.

In Australia we are fortunate to get a four day holiday for Easter. Huge numbers of people go away for the weekend - and equally huge numbers stay at home to avoid the traffic created by the people going away!

I am one of the latter and plan to spend the weekend catching up with friends and making some jewellery - and of course nibbling the odd hot cross bun (better than chocolate!).

A treat for you!

For those others who will be around this weekend I’m offering an Easter treat in my handmade jewelry shop - if you make a purchase, just enter the code easter when you checkout and you’ll receive a 15% discount.

The discount is valid from Good Friday through to the end of Easter Monday and will work in my Australian jewellery shop as well.

Enjoy your Easter!