Today I had a free day and decided since I have been relatively busy with jewellery making for the last couple of weeks to have a day off........I thought I'd tidy out some cupboards and have an early spring clean....I started out with very good intentions.

But as often happens when I decide to clear out a cupboard, I stumbled upon lots of things I'd forgotten about ! Today it was all my art materials that I'd bought when I was at college studying jewellery design.

I love being creative and making things. Long before I made jewellery I dabbled with all manner of crafts to varying degrees of success. Some things were frankly shocking and as I'm quite impatient they fell by the way side quickly. Its one of my failings but if I struggle to do something right the first time I often wont persevere.

So when I began college and realised that I had art lessons every week, horrified wasn't the word.

Drawing has never been a strength and I had dismissed it as something I just couldn't do.

When I was about 13 or so I remember being in an art class at school and having to draw a potted plant. My geography teacher popped into pass a message to the art teacher about something and on her way by glanced my 'work in progress' and said "I was never very good at drawing either".

At 13 I just wanted to melt into the floor tiles. I knew my drawing wasn't great but such a public humiliation was all I needed to pronounce myself rubbish at drawing forever !

So hearing that I had drawing classes every week made me fearful to the core.....Ok maybe not, but I was apprehensive.

The advice I was given was to try, and to practice regularly and my skills would improve. So with no other option I decided to embrace the challenge and try my best. Gradually my drawing did get a little better. I'm never going to be fantastic at it but I began to see some progress so that gave me heart to carry on. Eventually I actually started to enjoy it, yep truly I did enjoy drawing.

I sketch designs and things now for my jewellery and when I'm thinking of ideas I might sketch various ideas but I don't worry about how good or bad they are because they generally are just for me. Anyway today I found all my pencils, pastels, watercolours and papers and decided to give sketching and painting ago.

So I'm sharing the results with you....I have never painted before so this is my first attempt. I did struggle with it and its far from good but do you know what, I had FUN !!

And really when you think about it that's all that matters isn't it.

Influences and Inspirations

Over the Christmas break I started to think about creating a new collection of jewellery. So as always I spent days cutting out images from magazines not just of jewellery but all kinds of things that I felt drawn to......the images and styles were broad and varied from nature to architecture, patterns textiles and fashion, yet my mind kept leading me back to the same place.

Each night when I'd go to bed I'd close my eyes and see the same things and no matter what I sketched I found nothing was quite right. So I decided to concentrate on my feelings and started to write a list of the words that popped into my head. They were random and at times amusing. It didn't take long though before I realised with some surprise that my thoughts were leading me to my Mum.

Thinking back and picturing Mum during my early years I realised she had always worn the same pieces of silver jewellery. They weren't expensive or elaborate but I'm guessing they were much loved as she wore them daily.

I have memories of sitting together at the dining table with Mum helping me paint a plaster cast craft kit of paddington bear and her long silver pendant knocking against the edge of the table each time she leaned forward to reload her brush with paint. Or her dozen thin silver bangles chiming together when she was waving Goodbye or washing up. Or the ring she wore on her little finger and removed each time she made pastry.

Sadly Mum passed away in 1985 when I was twelve. Until now I hadn't realised that her tastes had left such a lasting impression on me. Its funny really because I have a new found respect for her style. Looking back I can see she made more than the odd fashion faux pas. The huge beehive up do in her wedding pics was awful but none the less with her bell bottomed jeans, cheese cloth tops & gorgeous silver jewellery she was pretty cool to me...............

Good day in Merchant Square yesterday and met lots of lovely people. There were some great stalls including Childrens clothing lots of great photography and artwork and some new jewellers too. Was lovely to see so many people. Some family also arrived for the weekend and we all went out for a meal to celebrate my Mother and Father in Laws 50th wedding anniversary. Had a lovely evening but unfortunately I became unwell and have been unwell throughout the night. so it is with great regret that we wont be able to attend Merchant Square today :( Sorry to anyone who was hoping to catch us there but still feeling very unwell today. Will definitely aim to be posting pictures as soon as possible though of new jewellery and just as soon as I'm better, i'll be working on new designs........Hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend :)

Spent most of today creating pretty pieces to add to our collection but also had a little bit of admin to do this morning. We just can't help dipping in and out of twitter from time to time either, there are some beautiful products and a lot of very talented people out there. Thanks to all our new followers on facebook and twitter. We're hoping that we'll be posting some pictures of this weeks work tomorrow evening so please check our website at www.circa72.co.uk and facebook to see them..................and don't forget Octobers special offers of 10% off for all customers who click like on our facebook page. Well that's it for tonight, we're going to watch the Apprentice and let those plucky candidates show us how it's done !! x

Tired but happy after a successful and eventful day at Merchant Square. Have just posted details of Octobers special offers. To qualify just visit our facebook page and click "like" and then receive 10% discount on all orders placed and paid for during October. Best be quick because some of our items are "one of a kind" pieces that wont be repeated and others can be made to order. Free postage on all orders of £75 and above. We've also added some pictures of our beautiful simplicity ring, more to come in that collection soon, so keep checking the website. Well that's all for tonight, time to collapse in bed before starting it all over again tomorrow. Lovely ..................................

Good Morning ! Sun is shining and it looks as though its going to be a gorgeous autumn day, cold but sunny...........We have a very busy day planned with lots of creations to be made in the workshop, lots of paperwork to get through and plans to be made ahead of this weekends craft fair in Merchant Square. Great to see some more people have clicked our facebook page to say they like it, If you haven't already, why don't you stop by and do the same ? Details of special offers for October will be posted soon.............................................

Wow, Thanks to new facebook and Twitter followers that have joined us over the weekend. Some lovely comments made by some of you and that have really made our week ! Had a lovely day today in the Merchant square with more fun and mayhem at the craft market. Was busy today with more stalls than we've seen before and a wonderful chap selling the best tablet that we have ever tasted - Very naughty, but very nice !!! Found time in the day to create some more lovely pieces though and the chirps from these Robins flying around our workshop are so sweet, we've captured a few and turned them into the prettiest little Robin Brooches...........will aim to post some pics for you early part of next week. In the mean time we'll be back at Merchant Square tomorrow and hope to meet a few more of you. Have a lovely weekend all whatever you're doing we hope you have fun...................x