What a day!

The Winter Open Studios was a fantastic day, a great success - so much so that the studios have been rather quiet this week as we've all been recovering!

Our first visitor of the day was Father Christmas, and as soon as he settled into his colourful grotto the doors opened. I hardly stopped all day, talking to people about my tuition and workshops, showing some of the pieces I'm working on at the moment, discussing commissions and generally showing off my lovely studio! I also had a gratifying number of empty displays at the end of the day.

I had planned to take lots of photos of the open day, but in the end I hardly left my own studio and when I did I only got as far as Denise's studio next door.

Thankfully there are a few more on the Sorting Office facebook page here, and even a quick video tour!



We're all off to London tomorrow, a Sorting Office studios trip out to the Cockpit Arts Open Studios. A treat after our hard work, a day off from Christmas orders! I'm really looking forward to it - and hoping that I can do some more Christmas shopping!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We've all been busy down at the Sorting Office this week, getting everything ready for the Winter Open Studios - which is tomorrow - eeek! Where on earth has the week gone?!

The building of Santa's Grotto

We now have Santa's Grotto in the Production House where I teach my group workshops, fairy lights hanging from the rafters, snowflakes decorating the walls and windows and beautiful artwork and crafts on display.

A very messy studio after a couple of days teaching - I haven't even got any jewellery on the walls since taking it down for the Christmas Gifts Bazaar last Friday!

 I was teaching Wednesday and Thursday so I had to wait until today to get my studio ready. It was rather messy to start with, and halfway through it looked worse than when I started but I got there in the end! You can find more photos, including some of my studio neighbours work, on my Facebook page.

Jewellery back on display on the walls, more jewellery on display where my computer, photography set-up and polishing set-up usually are. It was a long day but  it was worth it!

I'd love to show you round if you can make it, and you can find all the details here. But whether you can make it or not I have an early Christmas present for you....

If you can make it tomorrow just print out the voucher above or show it to me on your phone and you will get 15% off when you spend £45 or more. If you can't make it, simply enter "openstudios" at check out on my website and until the end of November you will get the same deal!

Can I mention Christmas yet?!

Despite starting to plan new products for the Christmas season and Christmas events in the spring, I still dislike talking about Christmas too early! However, I heard my first Christmas song on Radio 2 this evening so I think it's time!

Unfortunately my favourite show of the year, Handmade Winchester isn't running this year but I will be showing my jewellery at two events - two different events but I am very excited (and rather nervous!) about both of them.

The first event is this coming Friday, 15th November - the Christmas Gifts Bazaar that a friend and I organise to raise money for the Wessex Cancer Trust each  year. This is our fourth year and we've got more stalls that before, live music, wine, mince pies, a raffle - what more could you want?! The reason I'm nervous is that we've worked so hard on this and I'm at the waking up in the middle of the night stage praying that it will be a success! I know that it will be as people have been talking about it and tickets have been sold, but that doesn't stop the nerves!

And the second event is our first annual Open Studios at the Sorting Office - the nerves this time are because I've never had to opportunity to open my studio up to the public before! I'll tell you lots more about this later in the week, but for now all the basic information you need is below.....

 

It would be wonderful to see you there!

I Love Autumn!

You know it's been too long since your last blog post when your Mum asks you why you haven't written anything recently - oops! The start of the new school year was rather hectic (nothing new there then!) and I think that I just got out of the habit of blogging. It has been a busy month though (again, nothing new there!). Here's some of what I've been up to....

• kicking through the autumn leaves on the way to school.
• admiring the dew-decorated spider's webs with Jamie after dropping Ben off at school. 

My cool dude!

• taking Jamie to preschool for the first time. He loves it there! I asked him if I could come with him the first time. He looked at me as if I was crazy and said very clearly "NO!"
• starting the new courses I'm teaching for Eastleigh College this year.
• teaching lots of private students - I must post edit the photos I've taken.
• working on a new collection of jewellery - lovebirds, owls, rabbits and butterflies. Again, photos coming soon! One of my jobs today is to edit them.

• sending orders off to new galleries. This little lot went off to Heart Gallery in Hebden Bridge at the end of last week. It's amazing how small the parcels are when the galleries don't need the boxes to go with the jewellery, despite the lovely large size of the orders!
• visiting Tent London, a great trade show, with some of my studio neighbours. You can see a photo of us all here on the Sorting Office Facebook page.
• organising the Christmas Gifts Bazaar a friend and I run to raise money for the Wessex Cancer Trust. There will be more details soon, but in the meantime I've set up a Facebook event page here.
• working on a new e-course and a couple of new tutorials.
• writing magazine projects.
• knitting! I've actually been knitting myself something for once - a lovely grey cardigan - and also gifts for some new babies.

Right then, I'd better get on with editing those photos so I don't leave my next blog post too long! Hope you're all enjoying your Autumn too!

An Inspired Photoshoot

Yesterday morning was a busy one. The photo studio was finally set up, more storage put up on the walls and some canvases put up too - I'm going to use these to display some of my latest designs as we get quite a few visitors to the Sorting Office so I want to be able to easily show off my work when they ask what kind of jewellery I make! I've got a few more things I want to get sorted and then I'll give you a proper studio tour.

Working hard - and look at that beautiful natural light streaming in through the windows!

As I mentioned yesterday, my friend Nicky came over to work for me, something she does regularly now. The job I needed her help with yesterday was a photoshoot. I've had a project accepted by Art Jewelry Magazine (so excited about this - but I'm going to have to wait a while before I can show you what the project is!) and many of the photos needed were action shots so I needed an extra pair of hands to take the photos for me.

Can't remember what the joke was now - but it was funny!

Now that's a more professional shot

Nicky also took a few photos of me for the "About" page on here and on my website - although I didn't always realise that she had the camera snapping away! She did get caught on camera herself though :)

The wonderfully helpful Nicky

I've mentioned Nicky on here a few times before, but I don't think I've actually explained why or what she does. I've reached the stage in my business where I need someone to help me out with the non-jewellery making side of things but I can't yet afford to take someone on as an employee, even part-time - yet! Nicky bridges that gap as the whole purpose of her business is to support businesses like mine. It's thanks to Nicky that the products went up on my new website so quickly and efficiently, and thanks to her help that I am more organised now than I've ever been before. She's also updated the website and blog to the new business name for me - my Facebook page is next. Sometimes, as yesterday, Nicky comes to my studio to work and sometimes she works remotely - the wonders of technology! I can buy in her time as I need it, and her help is allowing me to grow my business - hopefully to the extent that I can afford to take on a part-time employee. Nicky's website is here - Inspired Business Support - and I most definitely recommend her - as if you hadn't guessed that already!

New Lovebirds

The first lot of orders made completely in my new studio were posted yesterday! I posted some last week as well, but they don't count as being officially from my new studio as I started to make them in my old workshop. This lovely lot of parcels mainly contain bangles - always especially popular in the summer when people show off their arms in short sleeves! Which is probably a good time to tell you that I have added a new design to my Golden Collection....

My Lovebirds are now available swinging gently from sterling silver bangles, as well as pendants and earrings. They have a 24k gold wing on each side, so no matter which way the Lovebird flies it will still look beautiful. You can find the Lovebird bangles here - available in three sizes, the same as my other bangle designs.

I've also added the Lovebird earrings and pendant to the website as a set, so if you are looking to treat yourself or another lucky person then you can save yourself money by buying them as a set. The Cup of Gold pendant and earrings are also now available as a set.

A day of stone setting

Today was the day - my first student in my new studio at the Sorting Office! Julie worked really hard learning a new stone setting technique - and as she set five tiny (3mm) faceted stones in a beautiful bangle I think it's safe to say that she learnt it well!

Soldering the discs onto the bangle - a delicate piece of soldering!

Julie didn't just set the stones. We had square wire to start with for the bangle but she decided that slightly rectangular wire would work better, so the first job was to send the wire through the rolling mill to flatten it. This had the added bonus of lengthening the wire too so she ended up with enough to make a matching ring - a project for a later date! Next was making the bangle, soldering five discs onto the outside to form frames for the stones, cutting the seats for the stones - and then setting them! An amazing amount of work for one day, even if Julie is one of my advanced students from my college evening classes.

I've still got to set up my photo studio so these were quick shots taken in the beautiful natural light in my studio.

Julie set the stones using flush setting. The seat for the stone is cut into the metal sheet or wire using burrs in a pendant drill so that the top of the stone is flush with the top of the silver. After the stone is pushed into place a burnisher is used to push some of wall around the seat down onto the stone to hold it in place. I think she did a beautiful job! There are five stones around the bangle - amethyst, aquamarine, quite a pink garnet, citrine and peridot.

Ready to go!

It's been a busy few days, but my new studio is ready for my first student tomorrow morning! I'm actually teaching in there Thursday, Saturday and Sunday as well but Julie is my first student tomorrow. We've got stone setting planned!

A quick reminder of what the studio looked like at the start and end of Saturday...

And this is how I left it on Sunday...

And this is what it looks like now!

Tables are up, the soldering station is set up in the corner, the tools are set up on my desk which is also where students will work. I've gone back to using clamp-on bench pegs as the desk is a bit more flexible then. I can just have one out when it's just me and move things about a bit for visitors. The bookcase (on the wall opposite the window) hasn't changed much yet, the photo studio isn't set up yet and the drawers under the desks aren't how I want them yet, but that will come. And so will more shelves on the walls, and finishing touches like a notice board and pictures. I'll get there!

All Change!

There is a very good reason why things have been so quiet round here lately. I've been hoping for, planning for, dreaming of some big changes, and as I couldn't tell you about them until they became a reality I found it impossible to blog about anything - I couldn't focus on anything else! But now they have become a reality....ready? It's definitely all change here!

Firstly, I've changed the name of my business to Joanne Tinley Jewellery. Visitors to my website over the last week will have seen the new logo above, and I have a new web address (www.joannetinleyjewellery.com) and a new email address (admin@joannetinleyjewellery.com), although the old daisychain web and email address will still forward you on to the right places. I've been thinking of making the change for months - well, a couple of years to be honest - but the time never felt right until now, and I am so pleased that I've done it. Daisychain no longer gave the right image for my designs, and as galleries and magazines use my name and not Daisychain it makes far more sense. I've still got a few jobs to do such as changing the Facebook page, and I'm in the process of moving over to a new Joanne Tinley Jewellery blog, and they will be done over the next couple of weeks because this is not the only change. Ready for the next one?

I'VE GOT A NEW STUDIO!!!!

Did everyone catch that? I tell you, if I wasn't typing at this moment I would be doing a happy dance round the room! I applied for a space at a new set of studios at the beginning of May, and it has been so hard not telling the whole world about it. My new studio (I love typing that!) is one of 16 spaces in Eastleigh, the small town just outside Southampton. It's called the Sorting Office as it's in the old Royal Mail sorting office right in the centre of town. It's in the perfect location for my students too - even easier to get to from the motorway than before, and 5 minutes walk from Eastleigh train station which is a mainline from London. And Southampton airport, which I do pick students up from every now and then, is actually in Eastleigh, not Southampton! The building had been empty for the last five years but now it is a beautiful, bright, light and colourful creative space full of wonderfully creative people who I will introduce you to over the next few months. I had to go through an application and interview process as the studio comes with EU funding designed to help the residents develop their businesses - you can read more about the Sorting Office here. We've got a Business Manager to basically mentor us which is fantastic as, let's face it, we creative types aren't always the best at being business like!

Most of the studio spaces are fairly open-plan but mine is just through that door way - and has it's own lockable door. Not that keen on the colour of the woodwork, but you can't have everything!

I signed the lease agreement on Thursday, spent that evening measuring up and sticking masking tape to the floor as that was the only way that I could get a real idea of how best to use the space, and started moving things over there today. Brenda and Paul, two of my regular students, were absolutely wonderful today at helping me move so many boxes and drawers over there - thank you again both of you! It's a slightly smaller space than my shed - 8' by 9' rather than 8' by 12', but it's got a proper high ceiling and strong walls rather than wooden shed walls which means that I can make much better use of the space, and it's still big enough for teaching. The residents have also got access to the Production Space, a massive room that will be perfect for teaching my small group workshops.

My studio before and after we started moving things in today! Tomorrow's job is building the bookcase and desks and getting unpacked.

So, that's what I've been up to while I've been MIA from blogging  - well, that as well as the usual teaching and orders and magazine projects. Watch this space for photos of my empty room with masking tape on the floor being transformed into a wonderful creative space!