Ah, yes, it almost killed me … but there is new jewellery being added to my Etsy shop after photographing it all yesterday. There’s still more to come from what I photographed and also more to be finished making and photographing.

I made the near fatal error of thinking, ‘This won’t take long!’ and setting up my light tent, lighting and tripod on the loungeroom floor to save me from clearing my desk. That was at 1:30pm. Next thing I knew it was 6:30pm … and I was in agony! All those hours of kneeling, crawling around on the floor, squatting in really awkward positions for several minutes at a time … it was hell.

Could someone please make sure I never do that again! I still hurt all over.

Now I’ve had my whine … onto the work. I’ve made a number of simple little Valentine’s day inspired pieces - hearts of course!

The red and silver hearts to the left belong to a pair of love heart earrings. I really love this finish on copper (top secret it is!!) - it seals the metal to help prevent oxidisation, which is the main thing that makes copper suck! But it also leaves a gorgeous, slightly mottled matte red finish. Delish!

The heart to the right is a hammer-beaten sterling silver pendant which has been slightly domed. I’ve got it on red and black silk, as well as one suspended on a sterling silver wire choker … none of which are in my handmade jewellery shop yet, but they will be very soon!

This cut out heart with flowers pendant is one of my favourite pieces from my recent days of making. I’ve had this heart illustration lurking around for such a long time. I made a few modifications to it and finally took the plunge and sawed it out of sterling silver and then domed it slightly. I think it works!

I’m pleased to let you know that I’ve finally managed to get around to putting these wonderful handmade sterling silver chains into production for my shop. I wear one of these almost every day - it’s my very favourite piece of handmade jewellery. In fact, I love it so much that I had to make a blog post about the joys of handmade chains (and more!) and just how very special they are.

This is my new forget-me-not pin or brooch (depending on where you’re from!). Another new little idea I started work on recently was these very simple little pins made from sterling silver and hammered to make them nicely springy. They can be worn in lots of different ways and so far the pieces I’ve made with them (there are more to come!) all feature items which can actually be removed from the pin easily and worn as a necklace - or replaced with something different. I’m looking forward to exploring this idea a bit more in my production work!

And finally I’m pleased to say that I’m managing to add more of my Japanese etch pendants and earrings back into my Etsy shop. There were hardly any left after Christmas - and other shops I sell through were selling them so fast I could barely keep up! But there’s been more added in recent days - including this etched pendant with chrysanthemums - and there are more to come soon, including more earrings.

Be sure to visit my shop to see what else is new - there are a few other pieces too and I’m adding more regularly. Oh and if one of the items linked to above is sold and you’d like it, make sure you actually check in my shop as I may well have relisted it.

So that’s it for now, but I’m sure I’ll have more new trinkets to show you in a few days.