JUST BE YOURSELF; everyone else is taken

Although I am thoroughly loving running my fantastic vintage kimono jewellery business, there are times when I yearn to try something a little different.
My past jewellery life was all about precious metals, stone-setting, soldering, stamping, texturing, chain-making, granulation...you name it, I was probably doing it at some stage. And when my kids were babies, it seemed so impossible to do. So messy, so dusty, so noxious, that I put it all on hold.
The tools are still organised and the materials are waiting. My jeweller's bench is set up and ready for action...I just need to tip my hands the wink and we'll be off.

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Back in 2009, just before Miss 8 was born, this is what I was up to in the studio. Painstakingly cutting and soldering pieces of silver tube for my 'Bamboo' collection. This was all based very loosely on a photo I had taken in the late '90s of a stacked pile of bamboo (yes, I'm really THAT old!). The perfect circles in varying sizes fascinated me back then and a whole collection emerged from that one photo.

I work in a completely different way these days, preferring to focus on the materials I'm using and what they can do. Experimenting and setting aside, thinking and planning. But I'm definitely the same maker, My pieces back then (and now) certainly evoke 'Japan', but these days in a different and perhaps more obvious way. Yet the sensibility of design, the clean lines, the lack of fuss, the simplicity and detail continues on.
So the gauntlet is cast and I accept the challenge ahead. A new line of precious metal contemporary jewellery will be launched in the Winter (hopefully in time for Christmas).
I'm not going to rush, I'm going to take my time and see where the materials lead me. This time I have no big ideas or grand plans. How exciting is that?

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