New arrival

Well I am finally back on my feet and pleased to announce the arrival of baby Jack.

He was born on 20th February weighing 7lb 1oz. We are both doing really well and he is a brilliantly well behaved baby.

I was back making jewellery just the week after he arrived and am managing to fit it in around feeds and sleeps.

It will be a while before my little artist produces any drawings, but I might make a piece of jewellery with his hand or footprints...if I ever get a minute!!

Merry Christmas

Well I have finally finished and posted the last of my Christmas jewellery orders and looking forward to a nice break over the festive season.

My bump is getting bigger by the day so it will be great to put my feet up for a couple of weeks.

Merry Christmas to you all and very best wishes for 2009 x

Congratulations

Many congratulations to the three winners in my children's summer drawing competition. They are:

Alana Middleton (0-3yrs)
Aliyah Fyfe (4-6 yrs)
Amy Langer (7-9yrs)

The judges were overwhelmed with the volume and quality of entries received. They had an extremely difficult (but enjoyable) job - from the squiggles and splodges of the younger entrants to the detailed work in the older categories.

All winners have decided to have their artwork turned into a pendant so watch this space for pictures of the finished pieces.

Exciting announcement

Hello everyone. Sorry I haven't written for such a long time but I have some very exciting news...I'm expecting a new arrival in February!

It's great news but has left me feeling a bit below par for the past few months. But now I am blooming and in great fettle for my busy pre-Christmas time. My final date for Christmas orders is Friday 28th November so do get in touch in plenty of time if you have an idea for a piece of jewellery.

Simply brilliante!

I have started to experiment with using a new type of silver in my work. It is called Brilliante and is less prone to tarnishing so keeps it's shine for longer.

Silver tarnishes naturally over time as elements within it react to the atmosphere and body sweat.

To help prevent tarnishing, store your silver jewellery in air tight plastic bags in a cool dry place. Some jewellery boxes are lined with anti-tarnish fabric, or you can buy anti tarnish strips from Lakeland Limited. You can clean off tarnish using a special anti-tarnish cloth available from most jewellers.

It seems to be working out well and should mean less cleaning for my customers!

Not on the High Street

My jewellery has been chosen for a new website - http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/

Apparently they have to turn away 95% of businesses who want to sell on their site so I am flattered that I was 'head hunted'!

I think this website is a really great for small businesses to attract the type of customers who are interested in quirky, handmade gifts and treats. I can imagine it will be really popular in the run up to Christmas for people looking something a bit different to give as a special present.

I will of course comtinue to post examples of my work on my own website - http://www.amjewellery.co.uk/ so do continue to check this!

The price of silver

Like everything else these days, the price of silver is on the up. I hadn't realised how much it had risen until I had a look at this graph courtesy of www.cooksongold.com

I started making silver jewellery in about 2000, and you can see from this chart that the price of silver has trebled since 2003. I am no economist, but a Google search will give you lots more reasons on why this is happening and why many investors are turning to gold and silver in these rocky times.

I won't be stockpiling just yet, but what I love about working with silver is that every scrap can be recycled into something new. Have a look at my previous post for examples of what I do with my leftover scraps.