A New "Home" in London

I have finally found a place to retail my jewelry in London. I've been searching a couple years now and I'm glad to have found a good match. The Artfusion Gallery, in City Plaza, was recommended to me by a fellow jewelry designer, Candace Dice. She has a great talent for taking discarded vintage jewelry and giving it new, creative life.

Ryan Mahy, one of the owners, has been so easy to deal with and has also provided space for a friend of mine to display his work. His name is Michael John and he's a stone carver from Grenada, my second home. He carves pendants and sculptures from local stone using design motifs from the Arawaks, the original inhabitants of the island. I'll have to post some of his work on a future blog.

I wanted to give a shout out to Artfusion, so here's an article focusing on their upcoming first anniversary at City Plaza:

http://metronews.ca/voices/backstage-pass-london-2/384978/urban-art-for-everyone-artfusion-gallery-marks-a-year-in-london/

I don't feel right posting a blog without some visual treat, but don't have any new photos for you. I do have some new jewellery, but as it's being held hostage at the gallery, I haven't been able to shoot them yet. What other eye candy can I give you? Aha, here's a photo of the latest progress on our house in Grenada. Yes, we have to climb a ladder to get in.

Some Beading Humour

This video is from the editor of Beadwork, Melinda Barta, who is one of my favourite designers. If you don't get it, you're obviously not a beader. I wonder if there is "Stuff Lampwork Bead Makers Say"?

Question of the Day/Month/Year

The question I'm posing to myself today is:

Do I really have time to run an Etsy store?

I acknowledge that it is a great community and I visit it frequently. However, I use it mostly for inspiration and to purchase supplies. I didn't get any action on my first listing and it has since expired. Which is OK, because I sold it to my neighbour in Grenada a few months ago. Sigh.

I'm off to a nearby hair salon this afternoon to see if they will sell some of my jewelry. I guess that if I had some venues here in London, I wouldn't feel like I needed the Etsy store. I'm just soooo not fond of craft shows! The last one stank. If anyone has a good suggestion for a good upcoming show in the London, Ontario region, please pass it along!

I just wanna bead...

Duh, here's a link to my store.

Photo Found!

Here is the photo that I wanted to include in my previous post:

Something New!

I made this pendant for Alma Francis, a jeweller here in Grenada. She's been drilling holes for me in tiny red seeds for a real "made in Grenada" style bracelet. (Sorry, can't find the photo of said bracelet at the moment.) She wouldn't take any money, so I've forced her to accept one of my jewelry designs. This is my "Art Deco Pendant":

Independence 2012

Independence Day has come and gone again in Grenada. On February 7th, and the week heading into it, green, red and gold flags start appearing. They fly from cars, trees and store fronts. Everybody is proudly showing their national colours. On the 7th, you'll be out of place if you're not wearing a piece of clothing with your colours.

In honour of the 38th year of independence, I have created a new design for my Independence Collection.

Last New Year's, I opened my "cracker" and found inside, not a plastic whistle or some stupid thing, but a really nice daisy chain bracelet. The flowers were of various colours and matched just about anything I would ever wear. It broke recently and while I was repairing it, I thought that it would make a good project for my Grenada Independence collection just by changing the flower colours. 

It took a few false starts trying to figure out bead sizes, how many "petals" there should be and what looked best in the middle of each flower. My favourite is the top bracelet. It is made with size 8/0 beads and the centre bead is a 3mm glass pearl. The bottom bracelet is similar to my cracker bracelet and it's made with size 11/0 beads.

Back in Grenada

I'm glad to be back in paradise as of December 6th. However, it hasn't been the usual laid-back experience so far. I was invited to be part of a "Jewelry Party" on the 9th and a Christmas Bazaar on the 11th. It hadn't even been a month since my last showing at the Wearable Art Sale and I was busy trying to get packed and organized for our 5 month stay in Grenada. There wasn't a lot of time to increase inventory.

Both the party and the bazaar were held at the same venue, True Blue Bay Resort. There is a lovely, covered area right on the water that they call the Dodgy Dock and is normally where you can sit down for a meal or lime it up at night with live music and beverages. The owners have kindly let me download some of their photos so I can talk up their resort. I've got a link to the right that you can click to check out their web site. Click on the "Specials" tab, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Click here to see some of our past events". There's a little bit of info there about the Easter and Christmas Bazaars.

All my sales here have been successful. Is it the lack of tourists in London, Ontario that make jewelry sales here a bit bleak? Who knows. Just one more reason to stay in Grenada!