Monday, January 30, 2012

Back At The Bench.

The sun is out and shining! Finally! It feels like forever since I last saw the sun for this length of time. It's been a few weeks almost. So this morning, I took my little munchkin out to the pond to get some much needed Vit D.

We're back home and I've put the air conditioning on to keep the humidity at bay. 
I have actually made some new things at the bench this past week. 
Honestly though with the lack of sales in my shop, it makes me feel like giving up. Though on the flip side of that, I just bought some more tools and a book and silver tubing lol.

I figure I will keep at it. For now.

On my list of things to learn, I want to try my hand at setting another large faceted stone. I bought one a while back, so will have to take a picture of it before I try and make a setting for it. Hopefully this one works out without any issues and I can list it in my shop. I finally bought the Creative Stone Setting book, which might help me the second time round with this setting. I also want to give flush setting a go. I have the burs coming and I have a few very small stones I can practice with, I just need to make a small burnisher first. There are a couple of tutorials out there that show you how to go about making one. 



Above are a couple of simpler things I have made for my shop.

Thanks ladies for giving me your opinion on my new background. I am going to keep the Turquoise box for the big earring shots and the other background for everything else. It keeps things interesting in my shop.

Sadly I am almost out of silver sheet. Which isn't great, as silver prices are on the rise again. Should probably weigh my scraps and see what I have....I've got quite a bit again.

Really I should buy myself some ingots and crucibles and melt it down myself....actually I think I will buy them in a couple of weeks and give it a go!!
I have the scrap and I have the mill, so it makes sense doesn't it?!!

I guess I should go and make some lunch for all now, it's almost lunch time.
I will go and read some blogs now :)

Take care
Em ♥

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

For nearly 2 days now, it has been raining heavily. 
This time last year, there were awful flash floods over Brisbane (Queensland) and sadly there have been some yesterday. Not to the extent of the 2011 floods, but it's still disconcerting.

We have a lot of creeks around where I live, especially on the way into Town. About 20 meters away we have a creek that runs under our road out of our estate. It flooded our road yesterday....fortunately we have a small SUV and we were able to get through about 3 flooded roads yesterday on our way to Town. 

Right now, the rain isn't as it was yesterday. I just stepped outside to see how our creeks looking....it's okay. Checked out the local rainfall radar to see whats coming and it's only light rain. The heavy stuff is headed out to sea and some down south.

I used to absolutely adore rainy days like today. But since those floods last year, it tends to leave me feeling a little freaked out, when it rains like it has been.

Enough of the depressing stuff for now.....

Here is my little delivery of stones I received  Friday:


Some plume/riviara/moss agates and chrysoprase.

I want to get my hands on some Dendritic Opals and some Priday plume as well as a million others lol...but that will have to wait. The silversmithing funds are kinda dry right now :(

Oh and if I haven't mentioned this already...I am a very indecisive person and I change my mind a lot. 
I know I just changed all of my backdrops for my Etsy store jewellery, but I've gone and done it again haha.
I LOVED the turquoise box. LOVED it. 
But, if I am completely honest, it took focus away from the jewellery. Some of the pieces didn't stand out as well as they do on their own as the colour of the stones were so similar.
So I changed a heap of my pictures again.

Here is a before and after shot of one item...



As boring as the new background is.....the jewellery takes the spotlight perfectly. In the old picture, it still looks good....but it sort of melts into the box a little. If you have time, please take a quick peek at my shop and tell me if you like the new background??

Em ♥

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Lunch time :)

and I am making myself a lovely Triple smoked ham toasted sandwich with cheese and onion, with a nice iced bottle of water on the side. Yum ♥

Well I haven't made anything since my last post. 
I did however buy up some gorgeous stones, this time though they weren't all colourful, they're more on the natural side. I bought some nice Moss Agate and some Plume Agate. I can't wait to get them...they looked pretty damned nice.

I had started to make a few little loveheart charms for Valentines, but haven't had the energy to go and finish them up. The weather has been so all over the place, I don't know if I'm coming or going!

My head is full of other nonsense at the moment..but I am hoping that when my new stones arrive, I will be inspired to make some new pieces. I want to get my hands on a couple of new tools, but stupid me went and bought some shoes in the sales and now those tools will have to wait.....why did those nice shiny new shoes have to look so good??!!!
We have been hiring a couple of cars out lately to test drive them for a day to see how they go on petrol and comfort etc....who knew choosing a new car would be so difficult. We both thought we had chosen what we were going to save for.....but for some reason we are back at square one. Sigh. 
 
lol well this was a boring post...nothing really interesting to write about.


hope you are all having a wonderful week thus far 
Em ♥

Thursday, January 12, 2012

A Good Start.

It's Friday morning and I've just finished all of my housework. 
Typically I went and put on Summers washing and it started to rain. 

It's been terribly hot here the last 3 days and just yesterday the heat started to dissipate and we got a bit of relief and today it's not too bad again. So I haven't really gotten to the bench - except to finish things off and photograph them ready to list in my shop:




I think I'm getting a bit sick of seeing the blue box in my background lol.....
It's lovely, but I think it's a bit overpowering to have in every single picture....I may have to start putting pictures like the 2 above in as the first picture of my listing, just to keep it looking different?? I dunno haha.

I've only sold 1 thing in the last month and it's getting hard for me to be upbeat about making things. I really really want to keep making things, but I don't know if I am prepared to have sales anymore to get sales. It's hard. I keep getting faves for my shop and items and I get added to circles and sometimes I am in treasuries. If I'm honest, I don't really promote my work. I guess that's something I will have to work on this year. And I really should be spreading the love on Etsy with others more, by making my own treasuries and promoting others work - but it's just so time consuming. I hope things pick up soon :(

Well the hubby has just arrived home, so I will leave it here.
I hope you've all had a great month so far!
Em ♥

Monday, January 2, 2012

Day 3 Already...

I'm just hoping this year doesn't go as fast as last year did. 
I have made no resolutions. They never stick. 
But I have made some goals. And those I will be seeing through. 

The Hubs and I spent New Years Day doing loads of housie things that needed to be done. I used his big surface cleaning machine on our back tiled patio and cleaned it right up...it looks great out there! Just need a nice set of chairs now :)

Then hubs water blasted all the windows/screens of the house. One of those ended in disaster as it was a louvered window that wasn't quite shut (in our ensuite) and sadly it was the dirtiest window in the entire house (we have LOTS of windows). So cutting a long story short, approx half of that bathroom was covered in wet clumps of dust/dirt and I'm talking everything, from ceiling to floor. Fortunately it cleaned up relatively easily and you wouldn't know it happened now......but making a note for the future lol

I haven't been at the bench in weeks now. I just really haven't felt it. In my head I have all these ideas and things I want to try - you know...the usual. But I just haven't felt the connection with my hands and metal to bother. 
This morning I went out there and cleaned up cobwebs and dead flies and tiny strips of discarded sandpaper (it is the garage remember) and now it's looking okay and I've been sort of feeling the itch to get out there and make things again....so hopefully soon that will happen?...

Summer has a cold :(
Dog was sick for a couple of days, but is now over it thank goodness!
Other than that, all is well with our little piece of the world. 
How was your beginning to the new year?? 
Hope it was nice :)
Em ♥