By Laura Johnson

Hello all!

Due to my ownership of www.lauracameron.co.uk expiring very soon I am switching to my new website now! I had planned to launch in the new year to give plenty of time to design and stock the new website but I don't want to renew a domain name for just a few months.

So, after a busy afternoon I have the bones of my new website and blog all wrapped up in one handy place. I know it is tedious to follow me on to somewhere new but I really hope you will come visit at:

www.bylaurajohnson.com

Thank you for hanging out with me here right from the very beginnings of my creative venture, leaving teaching, moving to Scotland and now marrying the writer!  Thank you for your comments, chats and encouragement, see you on the new site!

UPDATE: This site is now live again! Hoorah! April 2013

Laura Johnson

The name changing continues and during the website re-design my main shop is over on Folksy at http://folksy.com/shops/byLauraJohnson.  

Today I've been trying out polishing silver using polishes and mops. I have been put off going for this due to standard polishes having animal products in them and, as a vegetarian I wasn't going to use them.  However, I found a range of polishing compounds which contain no animal and so far so good.  Once I get the better control over my multi tool and avoid nicking the metal with the actual tool I'll have super shiny silver suitable for vegetarians!

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Blue Sea Glass Rings

Two ready-to-polish blue sea glass and recycled sterling silver rings.  I love them stacked together like this and have been sorting through glass to make more in greens and aquas.  Yum.

Garden Pottery

I was approached about making a pendant using a piece of blue willow found in the customer's garden.  A really lovely piece and I wish I had taken a decent picture!

I've used a solid silver back for greater stability and as, unlike the glass, there is no benefit from letting the light come through the back.  Working with sheet silver is great and I've started two little bezel settings for sea glass rings which I'll get the chance to finish later on in the week.

ReSide - Scotland / India Textile Residency

Calling all fans of textiles!

Some of you may know the Border Tart, well Lindsay is off on an adventure with knitwear designer Jenni Allison  as the Scottish part of the exchange and you can read all about their exciting adventures here .

I had the joy of meeting Swati and Murji who have been in Scotland for a month or so before heading back to India with Jenni and Lindsay. The group came over to Paxton House to have a look at the 18th century costume and the costumes created this year by fashion and textiles students at Heriot-Watt university.

photo courtesy of douglasmcbridephoto@mac.com

Such an exciting exchange and I look forward to hearing and seeing more!  

Changes in Season and Online

We've moved the living room into winter mode with the sofa closer to the fire place. The curtain over the front door has been pulled closed at night.  Wood has been chopped and the fire lit.  No sign of the first frost yet but it is autumnal and rather lovely to be at home.

Despite the roaring storms last week I am enjoying the season; we went to the beach to collect some glass today and got a good soaking. It filled me with joy for some reason. Possibly because it wasn't particularly cold out there and possibly because it's a blooming brilliant part of my working life.

Looking upstream and downstream near Allanton during last week's floods.

I do feel like I'm having to fight for time for my own work at the moment and my online presence is suffering. I've had such great support from customers online and I really don't want to lose that or let anybody down. I know nobody needs my bloggy rambling or to buy my work online, but it's important to me that the option is there; especially for people searching for ethical alternatives for jewellery purchases. And I simply want to make a living from my work and you, the people who read my blog, buy my work, attend workshops and chat with me are the ones who will make it happen and I thank you for that.

So, I've decided to go all out and change my online name; I've only been married a few months and am finding it confusing having two names! R was very happy for me to keep my maiden name but it was important to me to share his name. I was planning on keeping Cameron as a professional name, however, it suits me to just have one name what with being easily confused and all!  Over the next few months there will be changes; the first one being twitter as I figure out preferred domain names, website redesign etc.  It's exciting to be having a much needed re-vamp!  Hopefully by the new year it will all be done.  I will be concentrating on the festive build up getting extra pieces made so the website won't be making an instant appearance but I have been playing around with some designs.

In other news Hester kitten is getting bigger and Molly cat is marginally less angry about the whole situation.

Hester's first venture into the garden.

Speak to you soon!

*Thanks to R for the photos!