To ease the pain of the very sudden and severe decline in value of the AU$, I’ve today set up a brand new handmade jewellery shop just for Australian and NZ customers.

This shop is identical to my main shop, but it features a fixed pricelist in Australian dollars (meaning it won’t constantly fluctuate as the exchange rate changes). Prices are based on my original US$ pricelist, but have been calculated at a currently much more favourable exchange rate.

Another benefit is that Australian customers can pay in their own currency and not risk attracting fees from their bank for currency conversion - yay!

An opening discount!

To celebrate the opening of my Australian shop, I’m offering a 10% discount on all purchases through this shop. Just enter the code aud when you checkout to receive your discount. This code will expire on Tuesday 4 November 2008, so get in quick!

More about the new shop

Not only will this stop Australian and NZ customers from being penalised by the current situation, but it also helps me to better organise my business locally. And of course customers elsewhere are still paying the exact same US$ prices as before. So it’s all good!

Note that only orders being delivered to either Australia or New Zealand can be purchased through this shop.

Customers from other countries will need to make their purchases through my original handmade jewelry shop, where deliveries can be made to anywhere in the world.

Learn more about the two shops and the reasoning behind them.

Note that links I provide to products or to my shop from this blog will most often go to my main shop rather than the Australian shop. However, Australian and New Zealand customers can easily go to the Australian shop by clicking on the Australian flag icon near the top of the content on each page in my main shop.

So, to make it clear, the two shops are:

• Handmade jewellery shop - for Australian & NZ customers (prices in AU$)
• Handmade jewelry shop - for international customers (prices in US$)

Ever wondered what half a kilogram of sterling silver looks like? Well, okay, you probably haven’t. But now you know the answer!

This is actually just under half a kilogram (479g to be exact - or 1.05 US pounds). Each of the sheets is 0.5mm thick and approximately 65mm tall and wide (that would be 0.02″ thick and 2.6″ tall and wide).

And of course each one of them will be used in making my handmade jewellery - in fact, some have been already!

I use a great deal of 0.5mm sterling silver sheet as it’s my favourite thickness to work with, so I’m always running out of the stuff. So this year I thought I would buy a chunk of it in the hope that this will see me through much of the busy festive season without me needing to dash back to my suppliers too frequently, while hoping that they have enough stock on hand whenever I need it.

In the spirit of not working every single waking moment of every single day, today I made the most of the lovely spring weather to finally spend some time sorting out my little courtyard.

It’s definitely one of the pluses of where I live these days that I have a little space for plants and to sit outside. But lately it’s been far too neglected and I’ve not felt like sitting out there for a while.

So today I decided to sort it out! I swept up all of the dead leaves that had blown in over the last few months, cleaned and oiled the outdoor table, organised some of the bits and pieces I keep out there, moved plants, pulled out a dead plant and replaced it with some fresh soil and cuttings of new plants, I watered and fertilised everything … and it was good!

I decided to take a few photographs to show off what now looks like a half decent space (given what I have to work with - including the bizarre apricot coloured walls!). Above is the improved view from the front door.

To the left is my favourite old rusty plant stand (found by friends after it was thrown out in the street) with some of my favourite plants - I’ve owned the maiden hair fern for probably around ten years now!

To the right are some geraniums. I’ve always loved geraniums and recently I’ve decided I should start collecting them, mostly by stealing little pieces of plants I like the look of as I’m walking around (only pieces which won’t be noticed and mostly from neglected looking plants). Apparently this means I’m starting to take after my great grandmother who was a notorious cuttings thief!

My inspiration for starting to do this came from the geraniums with the white edged leaves photographed above. I came across them while visiting my parents in South Australia. On an extremely hot day we made a brief stop in a little rural town called Kulpara to get out of the car after a couple of hours of driving.

These poor geraniums - which looked to be quite old - were in a neglected little garden in the park where we stretched our legs. During the worst drought on record and what was a very hot summer, it seemed like they were on their last legs. So I snapped off a few small pieces and brought them home to Sydney … where they seem extremely happy and are quickly growing into decent sized plants - I have four pots of them! I quite like the idea of having a little piece of Kulpara history alive and well in Sydney.

This is my much loved agave - another plant rescued from South Australia, oddly enough! Although it can’t be seen, this plant is a little bit worse for wear having been hailed on this year and also having been pot bound for a while - it’s been relocated to a much bigger pot now. But the new growth all seems happy enough.

Here is fairly new clivia lily which is having its very first flowers.

So that’s your (partial!) tour of my little courtyard. And now it really is time for me to start doing some work.

… in more ways than one.

There was indeed a holiday weekend in my neck of the woods and I spent all of it at my bench. When I pulled this batch of work out of the tumbler before I went to bed on Sunday I was impressed by how much I got done!

Although this isn’t all of it - some pieces went off in orders before the photos were taken, I also did a batch of etching which hasn’t yet been made into anything and there were a few pieces which weren’t finished enough for tumbling.

Some of this work is for my own stocks and some is for sending off to my main offline retail outlet.

The downside to all of this making was neglecting other bits of my life and ending up a bit sore and sorry, with red fingers and the odd cut and bruise!

Yes, my new range of Victorian-inspired jewelry is finally photographed, edited, written about and listed in my handmade jewelry shop.

Below are images of some of the pieces. You can also view the whole Victorian jewelry range in my shop and see some photographs on my Flickr.

This cameo pendant is probably my personal favourite from the new range. I think it captures the right combination of traditional and contemporary design that I was looking for in this series of jewellery pieces.

The pendant is made entirely from sterling silver. Both the entirely blackened background and the cameo profile have been etched with a beautiful damask-style pattern. The pendant is suspended from a sterling silver chain.

Here are the cameo earrings to match the pendant above. The earring panels swing freely from handmade ear wires.

This detailed metalwork pattern has been intricately sawn out of sterling silver to form these Victorian cut out earrings, which also feature handmade sterling silver ear wires. The earring panels are domed inwards which gives off some eye-catching reflections as they move.

Another personal favourite is this Victorian cut out pendant to match the above earrings. The pendant is suspended from black natural silk thread and has handmade sterling silver clasp findings.

This Victorian leaves and flowers pendant is part of a series within this range of etched pendants with 18ct gold highlights in the form of stylised leaves and decorative elements. I’ll feature some more of these pieces in my blog a bit later, but here’s one to take a peek at for now!

The pendant has been etched with a Victorian era engraving of a dense illustration with leaves and flowers. The recessed areas of the etching have been given a blackened but polished finish. The pendant is domed inwards and features an 18ct (or 18kt if you’re an American!) gold leaf design. It is suspended on a delicate sterling silver chain with handmade clasp findings.

This picture frame pendant has been inspired by a very ornamental frame. The design has been intricately sawn out of sterling silver and the centre of the frame has been left empty so that the wearer’s clothing or skin will show through.

The pendant is suspended from a sterling silver chain which has been given a blackened but shiny finish and has handmade sterling silver clasp findings.

Another picture frame pendant inspired by an ornamental frame, but this time in an oval shape and suspended from a black natural silk thread necklace, also with handmade clasp findings.

I’ll blog about more new Victorian-inspired designs soon, but for now have a look in my jewelry shop for the rest of the range.