Wednesday 29 September 2010

Swinton Park - Deer Park BBQ

In the summer a group of fellow Bedale business ladies and I got together for a bit of a night out. It is really hard when you work for yourself to remember there is a world out there, and that other people are having the sames trials and tribulations as you!! So a small group of us get together and compare notes. We decided on this occasion though to have a great social event. This was something really unusual, its a BBQ in the middle of a field at the deer park in a lovely little deer shed. There was only room for maybe 25 people but that was good. There was a small bar at hand and food was served. LOVELY!! The meat was yum and a good range of salads etc to go with it, a buffet set up to just help yourself. Then pudding was a sort of Eton mess/trifle or profiteroles.....we were cheeky and had a bit of both!!! There were too big fires burning which kept us warm and after great food and chat we all headed on our way.
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Monday 27 September 2010

IJL


Well International Jewellery London was a great experience. The scale of the show was mad compared to other shows I have done. Also the variety of people showing was really interesting, in the Design Gallery where I was were a range of smaller jewellery businesses mainly makers but also some small companies. You were then surrounded by the really big companies such as your watches - Rolex etc and all the main brands of jewellery you see on the high street, lots of massively expensive diamonds, all sorts. Great to see, but have to be honest it was a bit intimidating!!

After an interesting journey into London I managed to get my work set out quite smoothly which was good. Set up days are always a bit mad but you just need to concentrate on your stand and on what your doing. I did underestimate the height of the stands so there was a bit of a hunt on for step ladders (as the mini steps we brought were not high enough!)

Once the show opened it was a slow start while we waited for the ques of people to get in. It was wonderful to have my work recognized from the award I won. A lot of people wandering past commented 'didn't you win an award...' I also saw quite a few faces of stockists I supply which was great. A couple who even though having stocked work with them for years I had never actually met in person, with the age of e-mails, so it was really lovely.

The tube strike really didn't help and think more buyers would have come if it hadn't been for that. It was fairly quiet on both the Monday and Tuesday, although the transport was only really badly affected on the Tue as I experienced!! The journey to the venue was normally taking 1hr-1.5hrs , however I set off on the Tuesday morning 6.30am and didn't arrive till 8.55am, not an experience I hope I have to repeat!!

I will be supplying some new galleries from the show so look out for details - here are a preview of a few with their websites - Stark Gallery, Polkadot Gallery and Jewell.

Back to the quiet life up north now just getting on with the orders!!!
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