Saturday 27 March 2010

Leeds Exhibition

Taking part in a Park Life exhibtion, at the Leeds Craft and Design Centre, which opened Saturday 27th March. Its a collection of craft makers showing a variety of works around the theme of the great outdoors. Jewellery I have on show are from the Look to the Sky and Leaves ranges. Its a great gallery for contemporary craft worth taking alook!


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Trip to the Baltic

A few weeks back I took a trip to Newcastle to visit the Baltic and took the opportunity to have a walk along the river.






At the Baltic I saw a great exhibition by Martin Parr, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The exhibition starts with a collection of photos taken by Parr. The show then continues to a collection of all sorts it really was an amazing collection of photos and memorobillia. I would love to be a fly on the wall in his house where must he store all the things!!




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Snow

As with the rest of the country we had plenty of snow here in Yorkshire over the last few months. I love the snow and although it made driving a bit of a nightmare, walking to work was great.

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Cufflinks

Just a quick blog entry I have been spending the last year working on making cufflinks. Lots of tests and experiments later I feel confident that I have come up with a solution! See images and cufflinks on website any comments welcome....I'm in the process of expanding the ranges.


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Wednesday 17 March 2010

Shop Window

Always looking at ways to improve the business I decided to take part in a window dressing course. My displays usually aren't too bad but my window is a definite weakness. The course was run by a lady called Helen from 'Made you Look'. It was really interesting and covered all areas of window dressing and general merchandising. There was a 'Yorkshire Day' in Bedale and the aim was to have the new and improved window ready.

Then Christmas came and this was the next window challenge for me, but I was looking forward to it. Opted for a gold and white theme which I continued in the shop. Take a look at the before (left) and after (right) below and let me know what you think!

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Tuesday 16 March 2010

Hello.....

Hello all, I've been away for a fair old while having a few technical difficulties but I'm back now and hopefully able to get on with blog writing again. I have been up to a few things over the last few months and I'll start with the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair......

After a couple of months preparation and a lot of nerves later it was time to take part in my first retail show, The Great Northern Contempoary Craft Fair in Manchester.

This show took place at Spinningfields in the heart of Manchester, the fair gave the public a great opportunity to buy original contemporary craft directly from the UK’s leading designer-makers. There were over 350 applicants and I was very excited to be one of the 140 chosen exhibitors to showcase her work.

I decided to take a fairly broad range of my jewellery, I made plenty of bangles and earrings which seem to be the most popular items. I also worked hard on making a new stand, as I felt I needed to have a slightly different approach to a retail show rather than a trade show, I also didn't have use of a van so compact sprung to mind!! (see image above)

The show was incredibly busy with plenty of people coming through the door. My work was really well received, it was a great experience. I am now working on my next retail show which will be down in Bovey Tracey in June.

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Jessica Jewellery Design's Fan Box