I’ve finally managed to get around to setting myself up on flickr - you can find me at www.flickr.com/photos/simonewalsh/.

Tonight I’ve put up a few recent jewellery pics - to show off new work and my new camera! I’ll add more of them as I take them (and as I actually get stuff made, of course!).

There’s also a few of my favourite photos from my trip to wonderful Istanbul earlier this year - I hope they inspire people to visit as it really is an amazing place.

I’m currently awaiting bribe money from my friend James (the most important resident of Istanbul, he assures me!) so he can be certain that I don’t put up any photographs of him and his enormous moustache. But you might get lucky!

Since my last posting I’ve added some more links to this page and have joined the Etsy bloggers webring.

And I’ve made another jewellery sale on Etsy as well - thanks anomia! Two in my first week is a great start.

Tonight I’ve also made contact with Little Miss Meshell, a fellow new Etsy-er and the writer of a great blog. And she’s an Australian maker as well! To the left is an example of Meshell’s work as seen on Etsy.com - pincushions were never meant to be so lovely!

I’ve also encountered a great shopping list and recommendations site in my travels today. I’ve come across a few of them, but this one has a lovely web 2.0 interface and I think has a lot of potential - take a look at www.thisnext.com. Here is an example of one of my own pieces that I’ve posted on ThisNext as a recommendation.

Of course all of this web-related work has most certainly kept me away from my bench and I am keen to get back there soon! There’s still those pieces of silver laying there which are in dire need of attention.

I’ve had a very busy week or two setting up my new Etsy shop to directly sell some of my handmade jewellery, as well as finishing off a re-build of www.simonewalsh.com, a website that had been in ‘one day’ mode for longer than I care to remember!

The website probably looks not much different to most of you who visited before, but it has actually been entirely rebuilt to be standards compliant with a CSS layout and the content has been substantially updated. There’s also a new section to showcase some of my web and graphic design work as well.

Because I clearly have a lot of spare time (ha!), I’ve also decided to complement this work by building this blog for myself as well. The blog, Make Me, will be where I keep people informed of what I’m working on, thinking about and creating. It will be a place where I can generally ramble on about things should I feel the urge!

So, to give a quick rundown of what I’m working on:

art stuff:

On my bench are a few pieces of silver which are the beginnings of an art object I’m making for an exhibition entitled Expeditions which opens later this year. The piece will be a small non-functional box which relates to a visit I made to Istanbul earlier this year. I’ll write more about it as work progresses.

I also need to start thinking seriously about another exhibition which will be held in November called Takeaway. This show is for members of JMGA-NSW with the idea being that buyers will take their purchases away from the gallery in a takeaway box - in the empty space will sit a photograph of the piece. I have some ideas for what I’m going to do and will also write more about this later.

jewellery:

It might still be August, but I’m already gearing up for Christmas in terms of saleable jewellery. I’m slowly adding to my Etsy shop as well as catching up with demands from retail outlets. I also have a number of ideas for new pieces which I just need to find some time to actually get started on! I’ve recently made a large batch of findings and have also purchased a rather chunky amount of silver, so time is all I need.

web design:

This is what seems to eat up most of my life just now. I’m working closely with a programmer to build a whole new website for St James Ethics Centre. It really is being built from the ground up (fortunately with the exception of most of the content) and is an enormous amount of work, having taken up a large chunk of this year already and seeing me work up to 80 hours a week on it. Again, I’ll write more about how that pans out.

other stuff:

There’s always a lot of other stuff happening!

For example, I’ve just completed yet another issue of Filings, the newsletter for JMGA-NSW (Jewellers & Metalsmiths Group of Australia - NSW) of which I am the Editor (a voluntary Committee position) and there’s the AGM coming up in just over a week. I’m also just about to start work on building an interim website for the same organisation to replace it’s currently very out of date one, both in terms of content and code.

I’m also fairly seriously considering another year of University next year - in the Visual Arts arena, of course. I will need to research and write out a proposal by the end of October. Eeek!

…

And that’s about it for my first blog posting. Keep your eyes peeled for more!