'beach' series

beach ACEO in wire and fibre

Some of my earliest childhood memories include beachcombing on a family holiday spent in south-western Scotland. My dad used to take me out for the morning, while mum dealt with my new baby sister. We would scan the highwater mark for valuable flotsam – wood, plastic, nails, string – which we could use to make sailing boats.

the 'embrace' series

'embrace' copper wire and fibre stranded collar with sea glass

These pieces were designed to hold treasures and mementos securely and in return embrace the wearer with a sense of warmth, comfort and security.

fibre friday: 'embrace' wire and fibre collar

copper wire and fibre collar with polished beach pebble

My mother taught me to crochet.
My mother taught me to sew and embroider.
My father taught me to beach comb.
My mother picked and polished the pebble.
This is all held in an embrace within the necklace.
In return, the collar embraces the wearer in safety, warmth and security.

 

studio thursday: QR codes and promo stuff, oh my!

QR code and logo cards

Promotion is the name of the game (la) and I want to play the game with you (with huge apologies to Bruce Forsyth).
Part of my promotion and marketing strategy (used in the loosest sense of the word) is advertising future 'in person' events to people passing by my table at craft fairs. They may not want to buy there and then, but maybe the time would be right at another occasion. Usually I print out a list of upcomings for people to take along with a business card.

This time I'm being a little more high tech.
Dear readers, may I present to the first pomo mama design QR code.
The QR Droid app on my smartphone generated the code which I then sent as a jpeg so I could download and print out.
Using MS Publisher I designed a cute 3cm square card with my logo on the reverse.
I'll let you know how they worked out at Got Craft?

promo cards for Got Craft? this weekend

QR code (go on, scan it! (you now you want to)

i will be selling here on Sunday

"

wordless wednesday: just sayin'

fine silver 'little forest' pendants with freshwater pearl or peridot

fine silver'little forest' pendant series

fine silver maple leaf with freshwater pearl

fine silver maple leaf pendants with moss agate, denim lapis and freshwater coin pearl

home is where the heart is

Leaving home, leaving the country of my birth, leaving my family, putting down roots half a world away. The old familiars are no longer at hand beside me.

Yet I look up to a new night sky so similar to the old one I used to gaze at as a child from the shadows of my childhood garden. I orientate myself with familiar constellations; Orion the Hunter, the Plough, the Milky Way though it is dimmer and the stars sparkle less. So comforting, knowing that over the seas my family are rooted under the same sky. Even the water I dip my toes in is remotely connected through the great oceans to my childhood beach where I gathered shells and sea glass treasures. I carry my memories as wearable, portable touchstones of those precious to me.

I remain connected. I make my home.

One of the first reasons for making my own jewelry was extreme homesickness experienced after moving to Canada, selling our UK home and putting down roots here. I missed and still miss my family and friends as I make my new life in BC. Emigrating exacts a huge price on social networks, family ties, and security, especially for the non-working, trailing spouse who has no familiar work routine to slot readily into. On the trip back to the UK to sell our home I spent a few weeks with my parents in the Scottish seaside village which I grew up in. I came back to Canada with almost a kilogram of beachcombed sea glass from my childhood beach and over a hundred photographs of my childhood garden. Somehow they developed mystical qualities, tying me to the homeland I will probably never live in again and influencing my work. My jewelry-making initially focused on creating portable mementoes using sea glass, vintage beads from unstrung hand-me-downs, and other souvenirs of a former life, so I could carry them with in my new homeland.

So I can remain connected to who and where I used to be.

So I can feel safe and secure and put down new roots.

moonlighting and career development

interconnected social media metwork for Blackberry Artist's Society

Readers of my other non-business blog will know that I am attempting to branch out career-wise by taking a part-time diploma in professional writing studies. As my son gets older my life as a work-from-home mum is changing and I have more time to reflect on what I would like to do in, around and in spite of my family. The jewelry design and crafts teaching business has been a great introduction to being self-employed in Canada, and also a boost to my own income/confidence/self esteem as an unemployed, former career gal ... but I'd like to do more. Hence exploring writing as a career, either self-employed, contract, freelance, or within another organisation.

As part of my new career 'development' I'm trying to write more. I blog regularly for the Blackberry Artist's blog and occasionally pluck up the courage to submit a guest post. The latest is a description of the first 12 months of a new social media network which I set up for the artist's co-operative. Read all about it on my guest post on Full Bleed Arts Marketing (thanks John!).