Christmas Fear!

SOLD

After the success of both Open studios (Made in Clerkenwell and Coburg House Studios), the fear has set in this week! I am today and for the rest of the week busy with orders and sending last minute stock ups to my stockists and galleries. As from next wednesday, I will be working at the flower shop up until xmas, so better get those orders in now!!!! :)

Coburg Gallery is open everyday now up until the 23rd Dec including weekends! So if you've not been down to see what gorgeous presents you can buy for christmas, or have been and think you've missed the chance to buy what you had your eye on, don't panic! The gallery is open everyday from 12 till 6pm, and thursdays until 8pm.
www.coburghousestudios.blogspot.com

You can see my work in the window :)

Just 3 days.......

It's that time of year once again for our christmas open studio weekend! It's going to be a blast! As usual, there will be three floors of studios with 65 artists opening up their doors to all you lovely people. So much to see............jewellery, ceramics, textiles, bags, painting, prints and much much more. Our gallery will also be open to the public for the weekend and everyday up until christmas. So come and get your christmas shopping! Check the coburg blog for details of the open studio weekend and for gallery opening times. www.coburghousestudios.blogspot.com

I'm especially excited about this open studios as I have new work to show. As seen here first of course! However, there is more, so come and see :)

Last weekend was spent exhibiting at the studios at Craft Central in London with my good friend Helen and coburgie ceramic/glass artist, Andrea Walsh (Andrea will also be at Coburg House this weekend). I wish I'd taken some pictures of Helen's studio, as she has just such a gorgeous space. It looked great with all our work in it too! :)

Well, hope to see you at the studios on the weekend x

Mirrors & gold leaf

Just posted up some images of new range no.2 (scroll down on the right under contact details). I've been working on this alongside range no.1 (see previous post) over the last few weeks. These pieces came from the cufflink shapes and forms. With this range, I wanted to create something simple and easy to wear.

I'm pretty tired this evening, so I'll leave it at that. I'm off to London tomorrow for 'Made in Clerkenwell', so best be off to finish the rest of my packing and early night.

Goodnight x

P.S
The Snowbud range with stones have been moved further down on the right.

Adding a little colour

Friday was a day of triumph! I finally finished my new jewels for the Open Studios galore this month. I would have carried on making until the bitter end, but I ran out of stones and almost all my silver! Just as well, as it has given me the chance to organize myself with pricing and display etc etc, all the usual tedious stuff at the end.
So, it's down to London I go on Thursday and looking forward to seeing Helen and Andrea (see previous post). I'm also intrigued to see how this new collection of work will go down!

The necklace above is THE special piece of this collection. It is made from silver & labradorites. Above this post, I have added some more new pieces from this range. Other stones which I have used are Rhodochrosites, garnets and white moonstones.
Hope you all like :)

I do have another range to release, but I think it would be too much for you to take in all at once! Well, maybe it's because I just can't take anymore downloading images today!

Other things that are going on at the moment...........
The Ruby Soho website is now up and running so go and have a look. Link
I have a new stockist in Hampstead. Jiq Jaq gallery will have my work on sale from the first week in December!
'Gifted' is now open so go and take a look. I will be once the hecticness is over! www.nms.ac.uk
Also, myself and Kaz are having our website revamped just now. It's coming along nicely thanks to our fantastic and very patient website designer, Gary Dempster! (Hope he's reading this!) Will let you know when it has gone live :)

I am in the studio on a Sunday once again! Yes, it is true. I have no social life! Roll on Christmas!

'Made in Clerkenwell' Winter Open Studios

I have been busy working away at the studio all weekend and have managed to get quite alot done! I am currently working on new work for 'Made in Clerkenwell' Winter Open Studios. For details, check the Craft Central link on the side.
The talented Helen Beard has kindly offered myself and fellow Coburger Andrea Walsh to share her studio especially for Craft Central's Open Studio weekend. We will all being showing our work together. Check out their websites. Both Helen (bottom image) and Andrea (middle) produce beautiful ceramics. They are probably my two favorite ceramicists. I'm not bias!!!
www.andreawalsh.co.uk
www.helenbeard.com

While I was in London last month I made a visit to Hatton Garden and bought some lovely strings of stones. My favorite ones are some rough cut labradorites which I have incorporated into a new large cluster neckpiece. I am quite excited about it! Once I have made some other pieces with these stones, I wil post some pics up.

I am also working on some other designs which tie in a little with the some of the cufflink shapes and forms.

And finally.........although a bit late, as promised I have posted some more pics of the new cufflinks (above). Hope you like. Not all the photos are great as some of them were taken in a bit of a rush before send off for Dazzle!
Dazzle has just opened at the Royal National Theatre and is on until mid january, so if you're around and about the South Bank, go and have a look. I will be :)

A taste of cufflinks

Here are some of the cufflinks I have been making over the last two weeks. There are quite a few other designs and hopefully variations of each. For example, oxidizing, texture and gold leaf. I haven't used gold leaf since I was at college, but thought I would give it a go and see how it would look. I'll let you know how it turns out.
I haven't done any men's jewellery at all before. I thought it would be good to broaden my range and market. Actually, I did make a pair of cufflinks once as a present but they were just too dainty for a man and broke quite quickly! I guess I've always just been used to making feminine, light jewellery! I promise you though, these aren't! And they won't break! Another reason I wanted to try the cufflinks was to get me thinking of new ideas and something a bit chunkier.
At the DAZZLE exhibition in London (check link for details) there is always a separate section for men. Thinking I might add a couple of small man brooches in there which are in the middle of production as we speak! Not sure about them just yet or whether there is a market for man brooches?

I'll be putting more images of cufflinks on with prices at the end of the month. They will be starting from £65. So watch this space if you think your husband, father, or whoever might like them for christmas :)

Not long back from bag making class which was good. It has been a long day, so relaxing bath, then bed for me.

Goodnight
x

Not so much chat and more work!

I have today managed to finish my collection for the 'Gifted' exhibition at The National Museum of Scotland. I'm quite suprised at myself for having the work ready so far in advance! This image will be used for my postcards which the NMS will design and print.

It has been very quiet here at the studio without the girls, who are all sell sell selling down at Origin and Goldsmith's Fair! However, I have had the company of wee Merryn and Leon (The King, as he is known) all day. Talking to the dogs, maybe a sign of me going mad!

Well, I'm off to my bag making class in a bit. May post again later, as I have been working on a range of cufflinks for the men's Dazzle.

Donna x

Going live!

At last the Dazzle on line shop has gone live today! This means you can buy cool jewellery to suit all your individual tastes from Dazzle all year round! Take a look, you won't be disappointed :)
www.lovedazzle.com

I'm working on some new things at the moment, so watch this space!

Spoonished!

Well, here's the spoon. There were a couple of small changes along the way as usual. I haven't really made anything other than jewellery for a few years now. It was quite refreshing to work on something that isn't to be worn for a change. No pin, no catch, nothing! A practical object, maybe not, but it is still only the beginning of an idea. A testpiece really. I like the fact that it looks like two different pieces. Maybe there will be more spoons to come. Who knows....maybe when I have a bit more spare time on my hands.
My spoon is on it's way to join all the other spoons as we speak :)

Above the spoon pics is our gallery poster for the festival. This is the last weekend that we will be open. Tomorrow and Sunday 11-6. Since this is the last weekend, we have made a special effort to bring in some more jewellery, bags, prints and wood and silver work. So if you haven't been down yet, come take a look. It's all very beautiful :)

You Spoon!

Getting up late this morning after another night shift at Dazzle, I made it to the studio for the first time in a week! It was a slow start but quite productive in the end.
I was asked last week to come up with a spoon for an exhibition at the Scottish Gallery which opens next week! www.scottish-gallery.co.uk The exhibition will include spoons designed and made by a number of established contemporary jewellers and silversmiths.
I've had to come up with something quite quickly so I've already pierced the shape (bottom drawing) in it's flat form. It is a double ended spoon and each end will be formed so that when you hold the spoon in your hand, the opposite end will curve into your hand. The next step will be to fuse the ovals on top. There will be a gold oval involved somewhere but haven't decided where yet. At the moment the spoon is not strong enough on it's own as the silver sheet is too thin, but I'm hoping that once it's all fused together the over lapping will make it less delicate. Will let you know how it turns out :)

Grace Girvan, another fabulous fellow jeweller at Coburg House (check links) made me aware of the term 'You Spoon!" today. I think it's maybe a scottish thing! Still not quite sure how you would define the word, but Grace says it's like saying 'You Tube!'. Another scottish term! I suspect it just means 'silly'.

Better stop the silly talk now x

Dazed & confused!

Haven't managed to get much done at the studio this week as I've been working at the flower shop and Dazzle. We had a post Open studio meeting last night which was followed by a few bottles of wine, and some rather drunken chat at Sopi's! Today started off in a bit of a daze, but we managed to make quite a few sales in the end!
Apart from that, what time I have spent in the studio this week has been spent thinking about what to do next. I am feeling in need of a change and perhaps creating a new range.
This has meant going back to the drawing board literally. This new collection may or may not happen, depending on time scale, as I do have a few deadlines to work towards now.

For those of you who still haven't seen our new gallery space, our summer exhibition is still running and open for business on the weekends, Saturday & Sunday 11-6 during the festival.
www.coburghousestudios.blogspot.com

Dazzling it!

This week has been yet another busy one! There hasn't been much of a chance to recover from the Open Studios. The past three nights I have been working at the Dazzle exhibition at the Traverse Theatre (check links for details).
Myself and coburg jewellers, Kaz, Hannah Louise Lamb and Sally Grant (check links) all had our work featured in the Edinburgh evening news on Monday, advertising Dazzle. Our work was modeled by the gorgeous fellow coburg jeweller Erin Daly. I don't have a link for Erin, but you can view an image of her work on the coburg blog.
The 'Corolla' earrings above are one of the pieces that were modeled for the paper and are on sale at Dazzle now for £95.
The Neckpiece is a special one off that is also at Dazzle just now. Last year, I sold the bracelet version of this at Edinburgh Dazzle, so fingers crossed this will go to a good home too :)

On the right (below blog archives), I have added some more images of work I have sitting in the studio. I just have to work out where I will be sending them next!

Thank god it's friday! Sophi's for a glass of vino is the way to go. Roll on 6 o' clock! x x

Last night at the studios.......

After a long stressful week, the Open studios weekend finally kicked off yesterday and with great success! Doors opened for the private view at 6pm and very quickly all three floors were full of curious people! Regulars and newcomers were both loving our new gallery space! Plenty of sales, wine, and hangovers have been had by all! There's still tomorrow to go so fingers crossed for some sales :) If you haven't been down yet, do so. The studio doors will be closing at 6pm tomorrow.
Above are some photos of the opening and buzzing atmosphere at Coburg House last night!

The Big Clean Up Day!

The Big Clean Up happened today! This happens twice a year, usually on the Tuesay before we open up our studios to the public for the weekend! A big list of jobs is drawn up by our very own Coburg Queen, Kaz Roberston! (See links)
After getting the communal spaces cleaned and presentable, it was time to tackle the mess in mine and Kaz's studio! The picture above is just a small 'before' example of just how messy and disorganised the whole studio was this morning! I will post some 'after' shots when the open weedend is in action. For details of the open studio weekend check the studios blog www.coburghousestudios.blogspot.com Next I will need to set up my work. This isn't going to happen until Thursday! Leaving it till the last minute as usual, but Dazzle duties are calling! I will be spending the next couple of days at The Traverse Theatre setting up the Dazzle Exhibition.
For those of you who haven't heard of Dazzle, check out www.dazzle-exhibitions.com The Edinburgh Dazzle exhibition starts on the 7th Aug and will be on throughout the festival ending on the 31st Aug.

Preparing or NOT preparing for the week ahead!

Today has not been very productive. But then I guess it is Sunday! I was meant to start gutting the studio so there wasn't much work to do in the week (as there is little time as there is!). However, I did pop into the studio to hand in my work for the Coburg Gallery in preparation for the Open Studio exhibition. Here are the three pieces I will be displaying in our new gallery!
None of them are new pieces but I thought they would sit nicely as a group.

The Daisy wrist corsage (first photo above) was made a couple of years ago as part of a limited addition. There are about 6 or 7 in total. The idea came from making up buttonholes, bag corsages and wrist corsages for wedding parties and guests at the flower shop.
I thought it would be great if you could have a wrist corsage that wasn't made for just one day and then disposed off. The precious flower has two flat loops on the back where the ribbon threads through. It can be worn tied around the wrist a number of times, or just once with the rest of the ribbon flowing. The ribbon is interchangeable, so you can wear any colour to suit your outfit for your special occasion.

Tomorrow I will be in the flower shop and then down to the studio to tackle the mess! The joy :)