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.

Anyone who works in precious metal of any type will be very well aware of what sort of pain I mean.  In the last 18 months or so the price of metals - especially precious metals - has skyrocketed.  Every time you think it can’t get any more expensive … it just does.

Currently I’m paying about AU$0.97 a gram for sterling silver - that’s around double what I’ve paid for it throughout most of my career (US$0.89 at today’s exchange rate).

Even worse, today I purchased some 18k gold for the first time in a very long time.  I remember the days where I used to gasp over it being around AU$9 a gram.  Today I paid AU$35 (around US$32).  Ouch!

And here is what AU$187 worth of gold looks like!  Yep, it looks pretty piddly - especially when you consider that it’s only 0.3mm thick (0.1″ or around the same as 30 gauge wire).

Of course everyone who knows a thing or two about precious metal prices is wishing that they’d stocked up on kilograms of the stuff a few years back!  Although some people will tell you that those reading this post a year or so in the future will most likely wonder why we didn’t buy it in bulk right now - many people think that the prices are going to get much higher again than they are already.

Ouch.  OUCH!!

Anyway, I just felt the need to have a little whine about that!  And buyers of jewellery and other precious metal objects should feel free to whine too as of course ultimately they are now paying more too.

This is a quick blog post to let people know that I’m still alive! Phew.

I’m working hard on pulling myself together after a very difficult end to 2007 and start to 2008 in terms of my health and ending up in a bit of a mess.

Unfortunately ‘working hard’ actually means taking a large number of things very slowly, something I’ve been finding frustrating as it’s so unlike me. However I’m coming to accept that is the way things need to be just now.

I’m also pulling back on a number of commitments - at least temporarily - having realised that I really do need to put my health ahead of all sorts of things just now, no matter how interesting those things might be.

However, I’ve still got some exciting plans for my business this year which I hope to be able to bring about - but they will happen more slowly than I would have liked and after a big reorganisation of the other things on my plate.

I’ve also got lots of ideas for new work which I’m hoping to start to deveop very soon. Thankfully making jewellery is going ahead at the usual pace!

As for blogging … I hope to be back to doing more of it very soon.

Just call me Gloria Gaynor!