So my last proper posting was way back in July and that's just plain pathetic! The last piece I therefore posted was my mum's wedding ring.
A few things have happened since, but I'll start with a picture of the Eternity ring I made her for Christmas, which my dad asked to match the other as use the same type of stones which were in her engagement ring: diamonds and sapphires.
It was actually a really busy Christmas, which given I'd had a pretty busy few months prior is pretty weird.
My Masters finished in September and so I am now a Master of Design - I'm not sure why but every time I say that I feel as though I need to type MWHAHAHAHAHAHA! - and I'm not going to lie and say I'm not slightly relieved it's over, but I am going to say that I am missing my friends dreadfully and seeing people every day. However, I felt exactly the same when when I finished my Undergraduate degree.
I actually came up with some designs I'm really proud of, but still need fine tuning. My plan is to order some silver this week and get enough for a few new versions of these pieces which if I never take it forward with their given purpose I will take them forward just as jewellery. I even got an offer of someone who would take them on in their gallery just as pieces. Which was great.
The degree show was mad actually. We had two opening nights, the first with a couple of great lectures on design, which Mike Press used the photo of people in my glasses as a picture of the class...shame that not everyone in the class was in it and two undergrads were. I wasn't even in it! I really wish it had been all of us. It would have been a wonderful image to have to remember the year.
It's so weird being done with uni for good. I am genuinely terrified by the fact.
Since September I've been having some down time. Dad and I have made me a workshop at home, so I've now got my own private working space in which I can work away to my hearts content. It took us the best part of Sept-November to do it all, and it still needs tweaked but I am so grateful just to have been given the space. I love my parents for doing it!
December has mostly been taken up with trying to make things and doing commissions. I had 16 pieces to make on commission this Christmas, mostly for work and family but hey, work and money is always welcome wherever it comes from.
I've spent a lot of time researching and designing new ranges too, so I have lots of ideas. I discovered very late on in my Masters that I actually love using Rhino3D (a computer aided design program) to design pieces of jewellery. A lot of people use it to get things rapid prototyped prior to casting, but I really love it just as a sketching tool. I'm not brilliant at it, and I really despised it when we were taught it in 3rd year, but now I can voluntarily spend hours on it! Usually the hours between 11 and 3 in the morning!
God I sound like a geek!
Anyway, since Christmas I've been taking a little bit of down time. Partly because I was literally having a bit of a down period, the fact that I really am finished uni and not having seem my friends in months kinda making me feel a little blue. But, it is February today in about 5 minutes time and it's time to follow the advice of a scrap of paper my friend Jen left on my bench at uni at the end of 4th year:
GET BACK ON THE BENCH BOYD!
Last bit of new. I've decided to start a new Blog called Snow in a Teapot - don't ask me why I called it that, I don't have a good answer. Anyway, because this blog is about my personal work I never talk about the things that inspire me and those are the blogs I love to read. The ones which talk about design and craft and the things people are inspired by and are passionate about. So far I've just been formatting it and I've written my introduction, but haven't posted yet. I may disband the designeresearch blog, but haven't made a decision. Shall post in the next day or two, so if you read this, check it out:
Now to keep this post down in size I've posted Thumbnail pictures of a bunch of pieces I've made. However, I promise - honest to blog - that I will post the bigger pictures once I've posted this but most of them are already on my deviantArt page or my portfolio website.
So, ta ta for now, now that I'm producing more, I'll post more frequently.
Honest to blog!
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