Workroom Wednesday

So, I've had a wonderful mini break with my fabulous siblings and today's workroom has been less hammering and sawing, more emails, accounts, assignments, photo scanning, fair arranging and cups of tea on the settee.

I am also deciding which pieces to take to the lovely Number Four Gallery in St Abbs which will be stocking a selection of my work from this weekend and feeling generally excited by the sunshine even if it is still freezing and windy enough to blow my laundry off the line!

Green News

I have joyous news - at long last I have a UK supplier of recycled silver!

This means that my next order of silver will be made up of recycled silver! I am so pleased that I will be able to create my jewellery from over 90% recycled materials as all glass, pottery, silver wire and sheet will be recycled! I also have a lovely stock of recycled copper sheet to use which I'm having fun exploring. The roughly 10% new materials used in my jewellery are fine necklace chains and lobster clasps.

I am hoping my new supplier will agree to be featured on my blog to tell you all about their work but until then if you would like their contact details please get in touch. It is so exciting that now jewellers in the UK have access to recycled silver and hopefully the large precious metals will take note and ethical metals will become the norm.

In more green news I have an even more exciting* announcement to make: laundry balls work!
After a few years of seeing these laundry balls in the shops and wondering if they work R's Mum mentioned she had bought a set and was really pleased with the results. So, today we bought a box and I have just hung the first load of washing out. I am pleased to announce that without any laundry detergent or fabric softener the socks are indeed clean and lovely, I hope it works every time as it's all rather pleasing for thrifty and eco reasons! There are loads of reports online about these laundry balls being eco-gimmicks but if this first wash is anything to go by they are working and I'm hopeful!

Happy Weekend to you all!

* update on the eco laundry balls, they ain't so hot after all! After a week I find on certain garments which have been in close proximity to armpits the eco balls don't remove deodorant whiffs so I'll have to add a wee bit of detergent in with t-shirts. Otherwise, still good!

First Fair of the Year

Last Saturday R and I had our first fair adventure of the year at St Abbs' Wool Festival run by the lovely Louise of Woolfish. It was a good day and despite still feeling a bit tired and run down getting out and talking to people about work did wonders to banish the despondent feelings which had been creeping into my sleepy head. You know the ones which hammer on about not earning enough and having to go and try to get a job you don't want to do. Just as they were serious enough for me to get a job application form other opportunities are starting to appear on the horizon and I calmed down again with the reminder that I am still in the first year of being fully self employed and just need to crack on and not fret!

Each day this week has bloomed into glorious sunshine which is boosting my energy greatly. I have been combining jewellery photographing and website updates with cycling around this fabulous place we call home and sticking bulbs in the garden with wild abandon.

It's a good mix and resulting in me finally getting my website a little bit more up to date. I've listed a few new pieces and will be adding more once I decide which bits of jewellery will be going to my new stockist - more on the who, what, where on that soon! I'm loving the way copper works with the tones of the sea glass and pottery in these pieces and am looking forward to working with more copper.


Tomorrow R and I are starting a Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector course which was recommended by the Workers' Education Association when we taught for them. I have really enjoyed teaching jewellery workshops and am hoping this course will lead me on to planning some new ones; all part of the cracking on!

Let's hope this spring delight carries on - I have siblings flying this way and it would be ace to have some sunshine to accompany their visit.

Andy Goldsworthy

In the midst of getting ready for this Saturday's fair at the wonderful St Abbs Wool Festival we realised it was nearly the end of the Andy Goldsworthy 'Lost Landscapes' exhibition at Peter Potter Gallery, Haddington. Goldsworthy has been one of my favourite artists ever since I was introduced to his work by my high school Art teacher and his work never fails to entrance me, so I really didn't want to miss the chance to see images of his work on a large scale. Goldsworthy works with nature and the environment around him to create sculptures resonating with ephemeral beauty as it responds to natural forces of light and dark, time, the seasons, growth and decay.

Yesterday, we took a break and tootled up the A1 to Haddington and enjoyed our visit to the exhibition. I felt a bit greedy because I wanted to see more work by Goldsworthy and just as I was thinking that a browse through one of the books on display revealed the Midsummer Snowball works which I had never seen before!

From the Amazon blurb:

Just after midnight on 21 June 2000 - midsummer's day - Andy Goldsworthy supervised the unloading of 13 huge snowballs from refrigerated trucks parked by Smithfield Market in the City of London. Each snowball was several feet in diameter and weighed about a ton. Over the next few hours, they were carefully manoeuvred into predetermined sites on the streets of the City to be released from their plastic wrappings at dawn so that they were there to greet the workers in London's financial district as they streamed off buses and out of tube stations on their way to their offices. The snowballs were then left to melt - a process that, even in the warmth of summer, took anything up to six days. All this amazed, delighted and sometimes affronted the passers-by, and a rich element of "Midsummer Snowballs" is the public's responses: gazing, touching, smiling, laughing, or simply walking by and pretending to ignore the enormous mass of snow on the pavement. These reactions are covered in spontaneous photographs taken by a team of photographers who worked around the clock. The introduction by Judith Collins places the snowballs in the context not just of Goldsworthy's work but in that of earlier painters and sculptors. The story of the snowballs is told by Goldsworthy himself, and chronicled in the colour photographs.

The narrative of these giant snowballs revealing their various mysteries to passers by greatly intrigued me and this book is firmly on my really, really want list!



Trailer from the fantastic Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time

Workroom Wednesday

Remember last week's delivery of scruffy and squashed copper tubing? Well, it's cleaning up a treat! The piece on the left is still sharp and mucky and the piece on the right has been filed and sanded to a gleaming piece of loveliness! These two pieces are going to become a pair of earrings by this afternoon, probably with a beaten texture I think.

I spent a lot of frustrating time experimenting last week and have found it very difficult to solder copper; even after cleaning, pickling, cleaning, pickling, fluxing, fluxing, fluxing and using my torch as hot as it goes I have only had two soldering successes. Hmph. Looking around the internet for advice it seems I can't get the copper hot enough quickly enough before oxidation prevents the solder from flowing. Any advice on this would be very welcome.

Until I fathom it I will be sticking to cold connections with the copper. The two pieces of copper are resting on my new super gadget tool which led to me being serenaded* in Aldi this morning! It is a very handy table vice which has already improved my working conditions / posture as I could file away at a higher level preventing the usual sore neck and shoulders. It also holds little fiddly bits of metal nice and tight so I don't have to hold it with my left hand and get sore digits! Oh, Aldi the joy you bring!

In other experimenting-when-I-should-be-getting-ready-for-the-next-fair news I have had the resin out again. In 2009 I had a go with resin and though it was fabulous stuff but was never very happy with the results I achieved; mainly the bubbles and the lack of a high shine finish. Recently I thought the bubbles would go really well with the sea glass and so have cast a bangle and some bottle cap rock pools. The bangle is again causing me frustrations as every time I get one section re-coated for a shiny finish I have to sand a wee drip away meaning I have to re-coat that bit and the sand away another drip and so on and so forth. This is using epoxy resin and I am very tempted to try out a different kind to see if I can get the finish I'm hoping for. We shall see.

For now I must get back to work!

* replace Edelweiss with Table Vice and you'll get what R sang the whole way round the shop this morning!

Popular Crafts

pages from Popular Crafts Magazine

Thanks to a twitter chat with editor Kerry Wilkonson, of Penny Dog Jewellery, my RedBubble site has been included in Popular Crafts' Painting, Printing and Stamping edition. The article looks at various ways to sell prints and products featuring your art work.

It's an interesting area and something I might pursue more in the future. Red Bubble is centrally focused on prints and greetings cards of your work, however, if you are interested in printing a greater range of items you should check out The Useful Art Company who "are happy to talk to artists about publishing your work" and offer a huge range of printed products from cards to mugs and canvas bags.

Workroom Wednesday

Last week's silver bubbles have become this ring! I have given each bubble a hammered texture to twinkle in the light. It is nearly finished and will be lovely and shiny after tumbling.
This afternoon the postman brought all sorts of goodies for work including a whole jiffy bag of copper tubing which has been squashed flat. It is a bit mucky at the moment but once I've cleaned it up I will be working on new recycled copper jewellery.

Once I see how I get on with this lot I've got a huge copper ballcock to try and flatten and I'm not entirely sure how to do it . . .

Sparrow Hawk

Yesterday we had a visitor in the garden. I'd just gone upstairs to the work room and glancing out the window I spotted a large brown lump on the grass. I was without my spectaculars but could tell it was a bird. Knowing the 'run/fly away if you see anybody with a camera' rule strictly adhered to by all wildlife, I thought it was still faster to grab the nearest camera, whack a big lens on and have another look than it would be to run down and get my glasses.

Fortunately, this lady was so focused on the potential meals fluttering about our garden she gave me time to catch a few shots.
The images are a bit ropey as they were taken through an upstairs window but still, it's a sparrow hawk!

Blue and White Sea Pottery Earrings

Three pairs of blue and white patterned sea pottery earrings all nearly finished! The pottery is a combination of pieces we've picked up and pieces from the recent box of joy - thanks again Lynda! I've put in a few orders to top up my workroom supplies and tools and am waiting on the arrival of a new cup bur to smooth the ends of the earwires before a hammer, a tumble and a polish for these pretties.

It's just three weeks to the first fair of the year and I'm really looking forward to a day out in St Abbs! Both R and I will have some exciting new work with the introduction of recycled copper to mine and impressionist squares to his.

Workroom Wednesday

Silver bubbles soldered together and very ready for a pickle and a polish! Any ideas what this set is going to be?!

Sea Foam Earrings

New for 2011 is my Sea Foam range all featuring handcrafted silver bubbles and sea glass collected locally.

The bubbles are created by soldering together loops of silver wire and gently hammering to create a lovely light reflecting surface reminiscent of the shimmering surface of the sea.

This pair are currently available at Crown Studio Rothbury and new pieces will be coming to my website soon.

Workroom Wednesday

This week I have been working away on editing the wedding shots from the start of the month. I have learned so much from the day and now am learning more about achieving the effects I want with the photographs and trying out various finishes.


It was such a cold day I didn't want to keep the guys outside too long. I love this one and have been debating whether or not to clone in a flower for the one who forget! Don't worry it was delivered before the bride arrived!

Gallery Updates and a Box of Joy

Last week I was busy with working on new pieces and updating some stockists. Now The Smokehouse Gallery in Eyemouth, Chirnside Gallery and Crown Studio in Rothbury have new selections of my sea glass and pottery jewellery.

Saturday was the first time I'd visited Crown Studio as the snow before Christmas meant my first selection of jewellery had to be posted. It was lovely to finally meet studio owner Lynda Taylor who I'd only spoken to previously through twitter! The Studio is a beautiful space with a gallery frontage and private work space at the back. R and I were really impressed with Lynda's paintings of local landscapes and a fascinating series exploring family history through still life

paintings which incorporate an item the artist inherited.

Image courtesy of Lynda Taylor

It was a lovely afternoon spent looking at a wealth of paintings, prints and pottery, nattering over tea and doughnuts and trying to control my excitement over what Lynda had given me . . .

. . . the most fabulous collection of pottery shards she and her husband have collected on various beaches! Can you spot the fish head?!

Being a trained potter Lynda was able to share all sorts of fabulous facts about the finishes of various pieces which I am now reading up on and will share soon!

Handmade in Europe Gift Swap

The Artfire Handmade in Europe Guild decided to do a New Year gift swap rather than a Secret Santa to provide a little lift during January. It worked! I received my parcel last week and had such fun exploring the gifts kindly sent by Marianne creator of Nidlongdir.

Together with a note in a card featuring one of her drawings Marianne sent a whole collection of her ACEOs (Art Cards, Editions and Originals) and a pair of lovely wire spiral earrings made by her daughter.

Thank you very much!

My pro Artfire account was due to expire this month and I had already decided not to renew it and have now downgraded to a basic account. For me, Artfire was not a successful selling venue; in the year of pro membership I had one sale and that was through my untouched basic account rather than the studio I was paying for!

Since launching my website in June it has been my primary online selling venue and has definitely been the wisest move I have made since starting to sell my work through the internet. I will be maintaining my Folksy shop and, to a lesser extent my free Artfire shop, but lauracameron.co.uk will be my main online focus. Now I just need to update it!

Books 2010

Last year I kept a record on my blog of books I'd read over the year. I always like to record the books I've read and I used my blog last year to share with you what I've been reading and also so I wouldn't loose the list in the chaos of moving house!

So, my reads of 2010 in chronological order were:

• A Moveable Feast
• Surfacing
• The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
• The Other Boleyn Girl
• Tickling the English
• Mere Christianity
• When Will There Be Good News?
• The House of the Spirits
• The Opposite of Fate
• Celestial Navigation
• Jackdaw Summer
• Kit's Wilderness
• Remarkable Creatures
• Life Before Man
• Human Traces
• The Edible Woman
• The Sisters Antipodes
• Engleby
• The Buddha of Suburbia
• Beatrice and Virgil
• The Amateur Marriage
• Morgan's Passing
• Esther's Inheritance
• Secret
• Kiss Kiss
• Barking
• Black Dogs
• The Chronicles of Narnia
• 
  
• The highlights of the year were discovering Anne Tyler, loving all things David Almond and finally reading all the Narnia books in one go! Now, with the wintery frosts continuing I am returning to 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' as the last time I started it, it was sunny and warm and just did not feel right.
• Any recommendations for me for this year?

Winter Wedding

January has been tootling along at a fair pace and we are already half way through! I came back to Scotland last week after an unexpected opportunity to act as second shooter at a wedding back in Northern Ireland. As some of you know R and I have our first booking to photograph a wedding later on this year and I am working away on the new website and gaining as much experience as possible.

I have to admit (Kate look away now) I have been really nervous about the responsibility of photographing a wedding, however, supporting the main photographer last week provided invaluable experience and was a privilege to see such a lovely couple exchange their vows. So, now I'm really looking forward to the final edit of the shots from last week, shooting more weddings and, of course, the big, first official wedding in October!