In the garden.....

We came back from England last week and it was so lovely to see the garden and how it had progressed in the few weeks we were away. This year we planted some rhododendrons that my parents bought my husband and they were all in flower. In few years, they will just be gorgeous as they edge the wooded area.



Of course, the vineyard has now greened as well after all those months of black/dark brown. Those leafing vines are so fresh and vibrant.


We did quite a bit of work about our pond a few years ago with plantings and this year they are really looking established.


Notice the little bird on the fountain below! We switch the fountain on every day around 5pm so they can have their shower....


So enjoy a few garden photos. This last one is my husband John on our little dock at the pond. We try to have "cocktail hour" at 5pm every evening - a time to stop what else we are doing and partake in a little drink! It's a great habit and whenever we have people staying with us - it's one that they always so easily slip in to!!! And tonight our time was spent wandering around the garden with our cocktails in hands, making new plans, seeing what we need to do over the weekend, and me taking a few photos. How does your garden grow?

All dressed up and no place to go....

Here's Mrs Byrd. She's all dressed up and no place to go.......


Look at her smart boots and lovely summer hat with a big flower in it. She'd love to come around for tea. Would that be OK? It seems such a shame to just sit on the nest when you are looking so pretty......


To tell you the truth, when I started making her yesterday, she was going to be a chicken, but I just didn't like how her comb on the top of her head looked...So as I was trying different variations on combs and wattles, the thought came to me that maybe birds sometimes have bad "hair" days, so maybe I should make her a hat to cover it up! So then she became the well dressed Mrs Byrd!

Do invite her out....she'd love to meet you....

Business Matters - Marketplaces - Zibbet

Zibbet is a relatively new artisan marketplace (the name Zibbet comes from the word 'exhibit'!). It only started in February this year and is still in Beta phase. There was a lot of publicity about it's opening - but the start was then delayed, and then delayed, and then delayed.....

My friend Fabienne from Turkey told me about the site. She was quite enthusiastic about all the run up to the opening and I too was looking forward to seeing somewhere new and what they would offer. We exchanged quite a few emails about it.....but I have to say that out excitement has abated somewhat since it started!

Zibbet was created by two guys from Sydney, Australia. It makes no charges for an artist to open a store, no listing fees and then charges 7.5% commission for any items that you sell. There is no maximum on the number of items you can list.

You then have the option to pay a small fee ($1-2) to show pieces in the showroom, to increase your exposure.

The whole look of Zibbet is clean, open and quite minimalist - quite different from a lot of the other marketplaces. As it has turned out, in my opinion, it seems to be a popular site for buying and selling paintings and prints and the like. That seems to be the most common type of seller on there - so maybe it will develop into that niche....a bit like Boundless gallery?.

They have had a few problems with scams - ie people trying to "purchase" things out of the system but really trying to scam the artists and not pay anything. That's unfortunate when a marketplace is so new.

The other problem with the site is that it is so new and thus doesn't get that many visitors....yet... But who knows - maybe that will change. Go take a look.

Here's a snapshot of Fabienne's store there - Easterya

Let me know what you think.

Through to the final.....

As I told you last month, I recently entered a couple of competitions and have just heard that my "remember the little things" bracelet has just got into the final of the Bead and Button competition. The first stage is showing photos of the piece, and the second phase is that I just sent the piece off to them!

I'm excited just to have got this far. Feels great! Maybe I should follow the bracelet's example and "celebrate" a little!


Remember the little things: stop a little; entertain a little; indulge a little; celebrate a little; care a little; work a little; pamper a little; love a little; play a little.

I'm back!

Back from England and ready to head upstairs to my little studio! I'd include a photo here of it - except it's too messy!

Can't wait to make something new to show you.....

Sunday's spotlight - Flowers, flowers everywhere

By guest blogger Pete.

Here in the U.K., last weekend was a bank holiday. In the southern part of the county of Lincolnshire - an area known as "South Holland" for reasons that will soon become clear - the landscape is hill-less and the soil fertile. It's one of the main areas for vegetable production in the country but it's also an area well know for the production of daffodil and tulip bulbs. It's a wonderful sight to see whole fields of daffodils and tulips in full bloom. Alas, it's a long time since I've seen fields of tulips in bloom but we did see some fields of daffodils in bloom three weeks or so ago.


For a number of years now the May Bank Holiday weekend has been the date for the well know Spalding Flower Parade, when various floats are drawn through the streets and end up at the large tulip gardens in town. The main ingredient for all the floats has been the petals from tulips. Just lately, however, the production of tulips has fallen off and it was thought that this year's parade would have to be cancelled. Fortunately an alternative source of tulip flower heads was found in the neighbouring county of Norfolk and more cash came from the County Council and other donors so the parade, although somewhat different from previous years, took place. I'm told the weather was typical for bank holidays but this didn't deter the crowds from turning up to witness the event.

For me, a more interesting feature that coincides with the May Bank Holiday and the Spalding parade is the churches flower festivals. A large number of village and town churches in the South Holland region hold their annual flower festivals at the same time as the Parade.


Pam and I paid our annual visit this year, taking with us Bill and Jane, two friends, for whom this was a first visit. They'd never seen such floral displays before. Each church visited is, literally, a mass of colour - the colour of the flowers - and the scent is indescribable. These church displays are done by experts - local folk who have been doing them for years.


Most churches adopt a different theme from each other so every church visited has something different to marvel at. So many and varied are the displays that it took us the whole day to visit just four of the many churches offering festivals. The photos for this blog are the first ones I've worked on - only a few so far - and were taken in the church at Pinchbeck. Try finding that village on a map. We also visited the villages of Donington, Surfleet and Gosberton. It's impossible to say which one was the best - they were all so very, very good.

Keep on smelling the flowers!

My favourite metal clay tools - Part Three - fired metal clay stage

The third part of my favourite tools series is about a tool that I use once the silver has been fired.

Sometimes I like a highly polished and mirror finish on my pieces - for example with my frog necklace, I felt that should be polished and shiny as frogs are wet and so shiny too! However, the finish I actually prefer myself is a soft polished finish. I think that a lot of that decision is based on the fact that my pieces are rounded and soft shapes and thus having a soft finish tends to seem integral to the design - like soft, cuddly, birds and bunny rabbits.......


So once the piece comes out of the kiln, I sand and polish as necessary until there aren't any lumps, bumps, scratches and stuff and then the piece is looking shiny. But then I get to use my favourite tool and take that shine off, replacing it with a soft brushed look. The tool I use is a fibre/ fiber wheel that you can buy from Rio Grande. It fits into a rotary tool and just brushes away that shine to give that soft look that I love.


Sometime people request the shiny look as it's what is more commonly associated with silver - and I'm happy to do that - but I like the soft approach best!

What is your favorite finishing tool?

Business Matters - Marketplaces - Etsy

So, in writing a weekly post about different artisan marketplaces, you just have to include Etsy in there sooner or later! Etsy is the largest and has the highest traffic ranking of all artisan marketplaces.

Etsy has lots to offer - with good support, there are loads of groups you can join, an-overly active forum (which gets a bit too heated for me), virtual trunk shows, alchemy, community interactions,....gosh, it just has so much.


And while that top ranking is great in getting numbers of potential buyers, you can also easily get lost in Etsy and no one will ever find you.

It's quite daunting in a way. You list one of your items and in a few seconds, its buried in the millions of other items and only 6 people ever viewed it! Personally, it seems that only a few months ago did it get so overwhelming. When you listed something new then, it would always get a good number of views - but now, you blink and it's gone.

And if you haven't joined yet as a seller already - it is tricky to begin with. You do need to be found from the depths. When I first started, I did do two showcases. These are where your pieces are highlighted for the day and you pay a certain amount for that. While I didn't get any sales from either of them, I did get a lot of views and a lot of hearts. Hearts are the system that Etsy uses that people can tag your item to show that they like it - or they can tag a seller to add them to their favorites. I believe it is my wonderful team of taggers who are the ones that, some time down the road, become the buyers. To check out who hearts you - click on this link. Here's a view of my Etsy store:


Apart from showcases, other people favor posting often on the forum to promote their store but the forum messages change so quickly, unless you have a lot of time to do that, it seems the occasional comment just isn't going to have an impact. Others create a lot of treasuries which is where you make a collection of other people's items and these then get published and viewed. I'm afraid I'm just not quite the treasury maker. I wish I was...... but there are so many people wanting to get one that you have to sit and wait for one to become available. I don't have the patience for that.

What I do find that works for me is listing new items regularly. Nothing does better than this I think. Something fresh for people to see with good photos. Then also link to your Etsy store from outside of Etsy.

To be a seller on Etsy, it costs 20c to list an item for four months and then Etsy takes a 3.5% commission on what you sell. Most transactions come through paypal although there are other options.

There are lots of how-to guides, lots of ideas, and I think you just need to find your niche. Some people love it, some people hate it and some people are indifferent - but you can't get away from it's size!

I actually like it a lot. I get a reasonable number of sales, meet some lovely buyers and enjoy being part of the Etsy Metal clay group. If you are one of those people out there who isn't selling on Etsy - I hope you have taken a look at least!

For the rest of us, buried in the vast number of sellers and buyers - keep your head up and keep listing!

My favourite metal clay tools - Part Two - dry clay stage

Following on from yesterday's post, today I'm going to tell you about my favourite tool that I use when the metal clay is dry but still not fired.

It's not a terribly high-tech tool - but a sanding sponge. I like the 3M soft back sanding sponges and use them in superfine, ultrafine and microfine grits.

With sculptural pieces that I make, I need something to sand a piece that isn't flat and has sharp edges. My pieces have soft rounded edges, like Quentin Quail here and to get that roundness, you need something soft and flexible. No use using a straight metal file or even a emery board style file - they just want to leave flat edges, but these soft backed sanding sponges are great.

I have got them from local hardware stores - however the one in town recently stopped stocking the grey ones I like and now stocks these yellow ones instead which I don't like - so avoid the ones shown to the right!

Anyhow, its a great and inexpensive tool that gives you little round bodies - amongst other things!


What's your favourite dry clay tool then? Any metal clayers out there wishing to share??

My favourite metal clay tools - Part One - wet clay stage

My series of posts this week is about the favourite tools I use with metal clay. I've chosen one tool for each phase of the creating process - a) the wet clay phase; b) the dry clay phase; and c) the fired phase. They will be covered in three different posts, today, tomorrow and Thursday.

Now don't go expecting any beautiful photographs. Tools aren't the most attractive things out there - so this will not be a visual experience!!!

The discussion will focus on my using these tools for my sculptural three dimensional pieces. Often they aren't the most suitable things to use for flat pieces so if you have questions regarding this - do feel free to ask.


Anyhow, my favorite tool for using on 'wet' clay is this rubber tipped "clay shaper". One of the biggest steps I took in my learning curve of how to use silver clay was when I realized that in the wet stage, things don't need to be perfect - or really anywhere near. This is the quick phase of the process where, when you do sculptural work, you need the basic shape and that's about it.

So when I am making one of my birds, it literally takes only a few seconds to get the general bird shape in the clay. I use the clay shaper a little then to smooth out any lines - again just quickly and then set the piece to dry.

Then as the piece dries, you use the clay shaper with fresh 'wet' clay to fill in any cracks that appear as it dries - I fill in any holes in seams ( for example, where the wing attaches to the bird or around a bail)...I smooth off and add shaping ( for example making sure the beak is a good shape and symmetrical).... Basically, I get some wet clay on the shaper, then the shaper lets you squidge the clay in teeny tiny holes or gaps and makes the piece solid and secure.


The rubber end is flexible but not too much so you can pull and push and move the clay around.

You can get different shaped ends on the shaper and I have a few - yet always seem to end up using this pointed one. You can buy them from Whole Lotta Whimsy.

So do share your favorite 'wet clay' tool with us - tell us in the comments section.....

Sunday's spotlight - People watching

By guest blogger Pete

Some time ago now, Ruth introduced me into the wonders of FLICKR. I had heard of this but, being able to procrastinate well enough to represent my country in the 2012 Olympics, I had never gotten around to exploring it. Ruth is very persuasive and thus I finally entered this new world. I have on hard disc, quite literally, thousands of photos so I have already downloaded quite a few. My address is "flickr/com/photos/peter2010". The reason why it had to be 2010 is because another member called people had taken the suffix 2009. There's a lot of us Peters around!!

I have started my own group called "Cathedral & Church Flower Festivals" - please note that it is"&" and not "and". If you'd like to join my group you'd be very welcome. One of the aims behind the group is to give ideas to flower arrangers. Here endeth the commercial - please support our sponsors, etc.

One of our favourite pastimes when out walking or visiting a place is to people watch. Pam, my wife, is very good at building up imaginary situations - mostly happy - in which these folk find themselves. I'm more inclined to a} wonder at some of the weird clothes/"things" people wear and b} watch children play. They are in a world of their own and it's intriguing to try and work out what that imaginary world of theirs is. I taught for a number of years and often wondered where a child had wandered off to in their mind as they sat there with a blank look on his or her face.

We took Ruth to Louth yesterday. Louth is typical of a middle sized Lincolnshire market town - plenty of historical buildings and, what is becoming quite rare in this country now, independent shops. As we were leaving a cafe following a coffee break we chatted with another customer. She was a people watcher and a regular visitor to that cafe. She always tried to sit in the cafe's window seat so that she could get on with some watching. She said that she was amazed at the number of people who looked into the cafe but never noticed her.

Hope you like the people watching photos. (Editor's note - we are honored - as my dad very rarely takes photos of people!).

Happy Watching.

Tea - That Great British Tradition - Part Four

For the last of my tea series, I thought I'd share my tea-for-two necklace.

Remember the song "Tea for two and two for tea.." made famous by Doris Day ( one my dad's favourite singers!)?

I think this was one of my first lariats with two tiny teacups that pass through the teapot.



Hope you've enjoyed my little teapot collection.

Next week I'll do a mini-series on my three favourite tools with little tips on how I make my pieces. That should be on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

I fly home again on Friday and can't wait to get creating again!

New Quentin Quail necklace

The quails have just returned to our garden. First of all we spotted one, the next day two, ....and by the time we left for England there were four of them. I had just finished a new quail necklace - and you may recall from my previous blog posts that all the male quails we have I call Quentin and all the females are Queenie.


They are one of my favourite birds to watch and listen to. They run so fast and Quentin just has the most amusing calls.

So here is the latest necklace - Quentin in his running shoes. As you can see from the first photo, he doesn't like being on his chain all the time and is very happy to just stand around when he's not being worn - rather than hang around with the other necklaces!

Business Matters - Marketplaces - Not on the High Street

As I'm in England right now visiting family, I thought my marketplace for review this week should be based in England too - so I've chosen "Not on the High Street". I don't sell there - one reason being you need to live in England full time to even apply but I love it as a site. If someone reading this is a seller there, do please let us know your experience in the comment section.

It is not open to everyone to sell on and in fact, they say they accept only 5% of the people who apply. They launched in April 2006 and have received quite a few awards.

They have an application fee, an annual fee (which varies depending on how much you sell - from 49 - 249 pounds), a transaction fee of 2.9% and commission charges - which all seems to mount up!

Then they have clause that says you can't sell on any other marketplace that could be a competitor to Not on the High Street. They say it is OK to sell on your own website and ebay but no other marketplace.

Periodically I get an email with their specials or seasonal gifts, as shown below - which I like. They also produce printed catalogs for the different seasons that you can request in the mail.

(love the look of that personalized swing!)

They do seem to have some lovely items and great gift ideas. I'd love to hear how sellers are finding the site...... I guess if you are looking for an exclusive place to sell in addition to your own website, it may be good. Anyone have inside experiences?

Anyhow, I love it as a site to browse and shop - go take a look .