Jewellery By Shalini

...sometimes don't quite materialise. Oh well... That's life. Its my Birthday week-end so Dave & I had planned two days of intense learning to celebrate... how to solder, how to set bezels, how to make cold connections... and create a few new pieces in time for 3 Christmas shows coming up. Unfortunately an old friend decided to pay a visit on my birthday (yesterday). Well not quite a friend, I don't like it, I don't want it, but it likes to arrive unannounced anyway and linger for a while. And it has no concept of timing! (Grrrrrrr!) So here I am suffering with an Iritis flare up (right eye pain, light sensitivity, blurred vision in the affected eye due to the medication, more eye pain) Intricate jewellery work is out. Spending too much time at the computer is out. Daytime telly is not really my thing and its not a good idea to watch TV with an aching eye anyway. Its been just over 24 hours and I am bored already! So the next few days I will probably spend ti...

23 December 2012 We lost Bullet in September 2012 and it just did not feel right with only one dog in the house. Millie was depressed too and going downhill fast! She had never been the only dog in the house and was not coping well. Christmas would just not be the same without dogs creating chaos shredding wrapping paper all over the place and fighting over toys :-) So on 23 December off we went to The Animal Helpline Dog Rescue in Wansford near Stamford to meet a Husky-GSD puppy. That wasn't to be as Millie was not very impressed with the little one we introduced to her. So this came back with us instead!  His name on the rescue books was "Frankfurt" and he came with NO history at all (like a lot of other rescue dogs.) He came into the house and refused to budge from the hall. Frightened, very thin and with a troubled frown on his face. That was exactly 6 months ago. January - February 2013 We named him Taj after the Taj Mahal because even in his skinny, sc...

Wendy Who? She is a jewellery designer friend and a lovely lady. If you have not seen it before this is her website: Wendy McLean Jewellery . So? The reason I think this is worth a mention is because I found it so refreshing to sit down with a fellow jewellery maker and discuss all kinds including website design, publicising our work, fairs, bespoke orders and stuff in general. We both work in the same industry, and in some ways a VERY similar field because we both make wire jewellery but we can talk about it and even share supplier information occasionally and feel good about it. Just wanted to say it... And of course always a bonus that she is a dog lover and Bullet and Millie enjoyed the visit too. She talks in a tone of voice they understand. I would love to meet her dog sometime if possible as I am sure we would get on well. I have a special soft spot reserved for German Shepherds :-)

Yup I have not updated this blog for ages and I'll be honest I have not even visited it much! Its been a mad month so far! In the Motorhomes business it was Burning Man RV Rentals balance payment week last week and that is always crazy. This year spectacularly so with a couple of ... clients for the first time in my history of doing Burning Man bookings. But as in everything else two people will not let me spoil the enjoyment of dealing with some of the nicest people in the world who keep coming back every year, refer their friends and even share their fun photos with me when they come back from the show :-) I will go there one day... Then  there is Accounts! I never want to see another spreadsheet in my life! GRRRRR! Couple of bespoke orders to make. Preparing for the 29 July Summer Fair . As one of the committee members of Stamford Artisans Guild I do volunteer a lot of time to guild stuff (...

Go Slow | Jewellery By Shalini : I wrote this on 25 May 2011: At the moment my adventures in jewellery making are on a go slow and its not very nice. For about  a month now I have been suffering from blurred vision on and off.  Some days I can see clearly but some days the vision is completely blurred. Been to the optician – nothing wrong with eye sight. Had a whole lot of blood tests including for diabetes. All Fine. I have now been referred to the eye clinic & Fingers Crossed they will know what’s wrong. So there are days (and quite a lot of them!) when there is no way I can make any jewellery because everything is blurred. I can do some work on the computer because it can be set to large size reading option but I am reluctant to try close work or take on any repair jobs at the moment. The last repair job was delayed so much because of vision problems.  The customer was really sweet and und...

You get to meet some fantastic people on it! I joined twitter long before it was "cool" and remember getting really excited when anyone followed me! Well over the years I have learned that there are some rather nasty, rude and silly people out there who are not worth my time and I am more careful about who I follow and who I block. These days looks like everyone has a twitter account and some of those who do really have no idea of how to use the internet and especially a public platform like twitter in a responsible way! I am not going to go into specifics but I do see a lot of nonsense posted on twitter and have encountered a few keyboard warriors who are an embarrassment to humankind! BUT  for each one of these morons there are a 100 good guys and gals who are a pleasure to know.  I am happy to say I have met really lovely people on it, some I knew before and twitter has just given us another way of sharing information or occasionally havi...

Round and Round and Round it goes Some of my jewellery has a fair amount of swirls in it, its a good way to wrap wire and finish off rough ends. But looking at the last 5-6 pieces I have made everything is going round and round! A bit like me then! I have days when I just keep thinking things over in my head again and again and again but don't actually do anything about it! Do you have days like this? Or am I just being cool and trendy ;-) See comments on a photo I posted on my Facebook page.

Just received a call: Him: "Good Afternoon this is (didn't catch the name he mumbled it) from FB (or maybe it was FP). Can I speak to accounts?" Me "Could you please tell me what FB (or FP) is and what this call is about?" Him: "I am sorry I cannot tell you, I would like to speak to accounts" Me: "I am sorry there is no one called Accounts in this office, Good Bye" IDIOT! Where do these people learn how to make business calls? I don't need to know your life history or your NI Number but the least you can do is tell me your name clearly & the name of  the company you are calling from if you want to try and sell me whatever it is that I am not interested in buying! Too many calls like this these days and I am really getting sick of it!  BAH!

Its Charity Tuesday on Twitter. There are Charities like and The British Red Cross, Help For Heroes, Dogs Trust and various others and they are great causes to support and help. Then there is being Charitable . In my opinion being charitable does not just mean donating money to a Charity. Being charitable is being kind, understanding, co-operative and showing respect and empathy towards others. They don't necessarily have to be less fortunate people than you... just people like you and me working hard at whatever it is that they do. I am increasingly finding that the charitable spirit is disappearing amongst a lot of people I come across. We are increasing becoming a society of " I want" but " I can't be bothered giving back unless there is something in it for me"  Selfish? Stressed? Too Busy? I don't know. But I just find it very sad.