It's been too long...

It has been a long while since we last wrote a blog! It's been busy down here at SJW HQ, our July has filled up with events;

11th July - Bletcingley Craft Fair for UNICEF - VILLAGE HALL, BLETCHINGLEY (11am - 3pm) 

18th July - Chipstead Flower Show - ELMORE, HIGH ROAD, CHIPSTEAD (12.30pm to 6pm) Website

25th July - Lavender Harvest Festival - Stanley Road Allotments, Oaks Way, Carshalton Beeches, Surrey, SM5 4NQ (10am - 4pm) Website

We have some wonderful new things for 2015, take a sneak peak at what we will have for sale at our events in July.

 Cactus Light Cover £16 + P&P

Strawberry Hanger £4.50 & Large Beach Huts £5 (both + P&P).

Small and Medium Beach Huts (before fusing) £3 & £4 + P&P. 

Miniature Strawberry Brooches (or to be, once fired) £2.50 + P&P. 

Framed Strawberry Fused Art Piece £20 + P&P. 

We have also opened up our Etsy shop and are (slowly) putting some of our work up for sale.

Check it out here. 

We have opened an Etsy Shop!

This year has been pretty busy with the building of the new studio and working on our new collection. As we have been accepted to Farmham Malting Christmas Fair (9th & 10th December 2014) we thought we would also open an online shop. 

You can now buy from us on Etsy, Folksy and our website.

If you live in the UK, we are offering free postage on all orders until midnight on Sunday (19th October) on our Etsy site - it's the only one we can have a coupon for! So use NEWBIE to get your postage paid for by us! 

Go treat yourself. 

Our new studio

So as some of you may know, if you follow us on facebook and instagram, we have spend the last 4 months building a *brand new* sparky studio in the Walsh family garden.

Pappa Walsh has worked extremely hard and has spent most of his weekends slaving away on the studio. 

After a few weeks of ripping up the old decking and putting new decking down, the first few pieces of the studio went down!

After only a few hours, the walls were up and the beams for the roof went in!

 And its was up, walls, doors, windows and floor. Next we needed to paint the whole thing. 

Mamma Walsh helped paint the inside. 

And we painted it a nice sage green outside.

One we had painted it, twice! The insides could go in. I managed to get my beautiful yellow cabinet for free from a neighbour who was moving. It is LUSH!

Pappa Walsh also made me a wonderful jewellery bench!

And then I moved ALL my stuff in, since moving back from university most of my tools and crafty bits have been in boxes in my grandma's garage. I had forgotten quite how much I had...

Now that we are all move it, its time to get MAKING!! 

2014 Jewellery Collection

So since my last post, I have been filled with ideas and inspiration and have been beverring away in the studio to get my entries for the Harley and Ashgate fairs ready.

So are you ready for the big reveal...

1. Raindrops Keep Falling... on my neck. Sterling silver oxidised cloud pendant on a 18" chain with three effetre glass raindrops (available in a variety of colours either etched or shiny) 

2. Raindrops Keep Falling... on my finger. Sterling silver oxidised cloud ring with an effetre glass raindrop (available in a variety of colours either etched or shiny)

3. Raindrops Keep Falling... on my ears. Sterling silver oxidised cloud earrings with an effetre glass raindrop (available in a variety of colours either etched or shiny) 

4. In my heart ... Sterling silver pendant with effetre glass heart with 3D glass dots. (Available in a variety of colours with words of your choice)

And I know we have just had Christmas but I started this over Christmas but have only just finished it.

5. Holly... This is a copper sample, with effetre glass beads. I haven't decided if I will do a copper or silver range or maybe do both as the cost with be significantly different.

I have a few more beads cooking in the kiln tonight so more jewellery to come next week!! 

New work for 2014

I have had ideas buzzing around in my head recently and I am loving it! I am looking to apply for the Harley Christmas Fair, which has a deadline for March! I have made my first piece for the collection I will be submitting. 

I am really pleased with it, it is called ' Raindrops keep falling on my neck'.

When I make the next one I need to make the raindrops on a smaller mandrel so they have smaller holes. I am going to do a mixture of colours; greys, pinks etc.

I will also do a matching set of earrings and a ring. I will also be putting these in my Etsy shop before the fair. Check it out at; My Etsy shop

New year, new range

With Christmas 2013 done and dusted, I was spoilt rotten, ate way to much food and saw so many members of my family. 

I treated myself to an ipad just before Christmas and have been drawing designs during my time off as getting into the studio has been way way to cold! 

I love my new app!! Now just to get into the studio and get making :) happy 2014 everyone. Xx

Long time no see.

It has been forever since I did a post! The summer has just flown by what with graduation, moving back to Surrey and starting my four jobs! It was such a whirl-wind, I had be trawling and trawling the job sites, applying for jobs left right and centre and I had even been to a few interviews but when I moved back to Surrey in July I was still unemployed. However, after a few weeks of being home I go an interview and a trial at a local goldsmiths and got the job :) I also was asked to do some glass workshops at a local craft studio - Glazed all Over in Wallington as well as being their new Saturday girl. This all happened in the same week so it was all so sudden! As well as both of those I had also been offered the role of Jewellery Tutor at SCOLA on a Monday night - so so exciting. Now thats only three, but to keep my busy during the summer I became my dad's assistant to help him out and since it was going so well, I go up to London once a week to help him out and get paid!

So my life if packed, which I'm so grateful for! So no only am I working four jobs, I am trying to go to the gym (got some stubborn weight to lose!), working on my own collection and reconnecting with friends and family after being in Nottingham for the last 3 years.

Working at the Jewellers if giving me such valuable experience in techniques, general runnings of a jewellery business and amazing contacts. I was able to attend IJL - the big UK jewellery show at Earls Court as I am now officially 'Trade'. It is amazing what I am learning and how differently things are done in the real world, there are so many little things that I was taught at uni that I have since found out is totally wrong.

By learning all these new things I am able to pass them on to my students at SCOLA, I teach a small group of complete beginners once a week. They are such a lovely group, really enthusiastic and interested in the course. I am really enjoying it and teaching gives me such a buzz - I can barely sleep on a Monday night as I get so excited what I can show them the following week.

Anyway... enough about the other stuff, more about me! I have finally put my favourite rings in some frames and I am really pleased with them. I am hoping to put them up in my studio when I finally get one.

And I have been exploring a new range of jewellery, which I am hoping to launch in the New Year. I have a few examples; one is completely melted frit and another is partly melted frit. The partly melted one is a frit mix of transparent and opaque glass and the opaque has sat at the top - not an effect I really like but this is the start. I have a few more siting in the kiln at the moment so lets hope the kiln fairies have been kind :)

Real life

So university is over, I have moved back to Surrey (give or take some boxes) and am starting to figure out my life as a grown up! I have been applying for jobs, competitions, professional development opportunities and developing my work. I have once stockist so far in Leicestershire - JG Jeweller, so if you are in the area check it out! But I have put together a catalogue of work so that I can approach fairs, galleries and shops to stock my work. I have had quite a bit of interest for some Christmas fairs which I am very hopeful about :) Keeps your eyes peeled for dates.

And here is a preview of my catalogue, if you are interested in anything either from the catalogue or as a commissions please get in touch s-j-walsh@live.co.uk.

Download catalogue here.

Final assessment work - the final push!

No only did we have to set up the degree show but we also has to submit out sketchbooks, samples and research for assessment as part of our over all grade. I set this up last weekend but haven't had a chance to make a post. 

A full overview of my set up, I was lucky to have a corner where I could use the wall to put up my design sheets.

Close up of my design sheets, I showed my colour work (which rods and frits I was planning to use) and the designs for both my blown pieces and my jewellery.

I added two shelves to my board to add some interest, on the lefthand self I have two photos of my rings that are included in my show. Underneath this I have my final frit colour swatches and their samples next to them. At the top right I have the rest of my frit samples (on white and clear donut beads), with my initial colour samples strung together. At the bottom I have a photograph of my blown pieces and my ring samples, including; copper, copper clay and initial silver rings.

And then this is my desk. I have all my books and research, my boxes and boxes of glass samples. I also have my professional portfolio as well as my evaluation and my initial blown glass samples.

I am really please with both my assessment and degree show, just waiting for the results now (Friday 14th June)!! 

Its up!

So I spent two days setting up my degree show, I had lots of trouble but after hours the boards were up with the help of my lovely technician Andy. 

These were the bane of my life over the two days, but I love them, especially against the window!

Then I had three plinths, at different heights, much to my tutors hatred! As he wanted me to have three low plinths (50cm tall) that just ran along the bottom of my boards. 

The final result! Due to the window it was difficult to photograph but I am really pleased. Especially with the boards, and the 7 hours they took to put up! Now just a few bit of paper work and I will have finished uni! Ah. 

Getting ready for the show

So this weekend I looked through all my work and realised that I had all but one of my final pieces finished. I just needed to polish them up and they will be ready! Ah! 

I then needed to sort out my display, something my tutor promised to see me about on Friday... but never did. So I began preparing what I wanted to create this, my new revised degree show layout. 

My plan is to have two plinths (50x50cm) with three hanging boards (40x40cm) above with mini plinths (9x9cm) and photographs. 

So I began with 6mm mdf, which I primed with PVA.

And then I began painting :)

So tomorrow I shall finish them up and try and get them ready to hang! 

Degree show layout

So today the official plans for the degree show went up. I have been given two boards on the main stretch next to a ceramacist.

So I had originally planed for one 8x4ft board and shelves, however the boards cannot take a huge amount of weight so I had to come up with plan B; plinths. And now that I have two boards, I had to make a plan C!

So this is a rough idea of my plan. Two boards which create a 'corner' and two plinths which hold a selection of my blown pieces. I think that the plinth on the right will be lower and larger. But this is something that can be adjusted nearer the time. Its getting so close now! 

Signed limited edition

I decided it was best to sign my blown work, as much as I'd like to have my jewellery Hallmarked with my own stamp for the degree show its just not plausible (both cost and time wise) but hopefully in the future I will. But I wanted to sign my blown pieces as if I was to sell them in the shop/degree show I want my name on them. 

Before I could sign them I dremeled the bottoms to create a smooth finish and them covered them with a felt bottom, one, to make them smooth on the surface they will be on and two, to add some stability so they don't roll around. 

I bought a GlassPainter (1mm) pen from eBay for £2.50 which does not require any fixing, however you can pop it in the oven if you want to wash it higher than 40'C.

So after a bit of practice, I took the plunge and wrote on my yellow pebble. 

My pieces will all be signed and either avaliable from the Notch Show or popup shop. 

Keep your eye peeled :)

A morning of bottom grinding...

...of my blown glass pieces. Thought you were going to read something a bit more saucy did you? Tut tut. I popped over the Stuart Akroyd's studio this morning with a friend so that I could finish the bottoms of my large blown twirls ready for the degree show in a few weeks! AH! So that is it now, all my blown pieces are done I just need to get the rest of my jewellery collection finished and the creative practice part will be done. So did you want to see... :)

Large Yellow Pebble, with own blend 'Chilli' frit. 

Small Pink Pebble, Elizabeth Beads frit 'Chelsea Garden'.

Mini Aqua and Medium Aqua Twists. Glasstaffy Hydrangea frit used on medium twist. 

Small Transparent Purple Pebble, GG Glass - Van Gough Frit.

Large Transparent Green Pebble, Elizabeth Beads - Copacabana

XL White (Approx. 3ft) un-twisty with Elizabeth Beads - Metamorphis Frit. 

Miniature Transparent Red Twist. 

Large Aqua 2 Twist with own blend of frit (Yet to be named). 

So pleased how these all look, and the bottoms are all finished except the pebbles as I am going to felt them so that they sit nicely as they cannot be domed. I just wish I had had more transparent twists with frit done. But I just love the opaque colours!