Borders Green Festival 2011

This weekend is the 7th annual Borders Green Festival starting on Saturday 2nd July from 12 noon until 11 pm and continuing Sunday 3rd July from 11 am until 5.30 pm at Five Arches Playing Fields, Tweedmouth, Berwick upon Tweed. 

There will be music, workshops, archery and a whole host of green themed stalls!  I'll be there selling my sea glass and recycled silver / copper jewellery and have a load of lovely new pieces nearly ready for their first public showing!


Hope to see you there!  Do come and introduce yourself!
 

Five Arches Playing Fields

A698, Ord Road, Tweedmouth, Berwick upon Tweed.

Post code: TD15 2UT

Next to Berwick Fire Station and railway viaduct.

Limited parking near by in Allan Brothers and General Mills car parks - signed.

Recycled Silver

Hello!

I have been working away with my first delivery of recycled silver wire and am very happy with the supplier. If you are interested in using recycled silver you can order directly from Capella Ltd and I'm hoping to bring you further information on the company soon.

Arm Sculpture by Ute Decker

Last week Ute Decker's newsletter appeared in my inbox and included this little nugget:

Interested in Chain
in 100% Recycled Silver?

I have found a UK chain maker who would be willing to make chain in 100% recylced silver.

The more jewellers the cheaper the chain.

If you are interested, please send me an email with "Chain" in the subject line and roughly how many meters of chain you might need per quater or 6 month. Once I have more details I / the chain maker will get in touch with you.

Email: eco@utedecker.com
Subject: Chain

This would be an excellent step forward as fine chain is now the only part of my silver jewellery which is not made from recycled metal. If you are interested I hope you will email; offering ethical and environmentally friendly jewellery is not just a good thing for your business.

Earth Hour 2011

8.30pm - 9.30pm Saturday 26th March 2011

On Saturday evening we joined many others in participating in the World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour. We spent the hour cosied up on the sofa, staring at the candles and eating our dinner which was a good way to calm my mind after a week of gallivanting ready to start back to working full time this week. I've got a lot of unfinished jewellery waiting for me this afternoon having spent this morning on the first of two assignments due this Friday. Clearly saving the fun stuff for when the not so exciting stuff is done!

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!

Beach Foraging October

A quick shot of last Sunday's collection from a trip to the beach still all sandy before the first wash and sort. I can spot at least one piece which has been used in a piece of jewellery already.