"Radical jewellery: The art of having something distinctive to say"

The Financial Times

"We are told that diamond sales are plummeting and that even rap stars are pressed to stretch to real bling. With gold at a new peak, both jewellers and buyers of jewellery are squeezed. For one substantial group of jewellers, however, this is not all bad news." By Emma Crichton-Miller

Read the full article here:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/77065510-5614-11de-ab7e-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Andrea Wagner: Interview

Andrea Wagner has been interviewed by Noovo, the online Spanish lifestyle magazine. The interview discusses how Andrea creates atmosphere in her work and how experimenting and the subconscious plays an important role in her jewellery.

"Noovo Editions is an independent editorial project with online and paper
editions. First of its kind in Spain from an unique and contemporary perspective
on the international panorama,Noovo seeks not only to be an aesthetic arbiter
but also a cultural mediator at the juncture between Fashion, Photography &
Jewellery.A platform to show the highest level of creativity from around the
world."

http://www.noovoeditions.com/NOOVO/interviews.html

http://www.andreawagner.nl/

Nose

This photo was emailed to me by my friend, fellow blogger and jeweller Paula Lindblom. I was telling her about the red nose day we have in the UK, for charity...and thought I would send her one. The image shows Paula enjoying her new jewellery!

Thanks Paula!

You can read Paula's blog and see more nose pictures here: http://paula-lindblom.blogspot.com/

New work from Loukia Richards

These Images are taken from a fibre book produced by Loukia Richards during her stay as an artist-in-residence at Ted Noten Atelier in the Amsterdam Red Light District in May 2009.

Although it was perhaps an unconventional location to work on a residency project Loukia Richards describes the project as "One of the most didactic and exciting studies I have ever undertaken".

http://www.tednoten.com/work/projects/red-light-design

http://www.myprecious.gr/index.php?lang=gr

Neil Young: After the gold rush

I Like to listen to music as I blog...and often in my studio as I make and think about my work. This album is one of my all time favourites along with Harvest and Everybody knows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_the_Gold_Rush

http://www.amazon.co.uk/After-Gold-Rush-Neil-Young/dp/B000002KD9

Blütenzauber

Blütenzauber

Flower Magic

June 2009 to 04 Juli 2009 July 2009

Where until recently a clear, minimalist design language often without any
decoration prevailed, as is now increasingly colorful patterns visible. Stoffe,
Keramiken oder Papier mit abstrakten, sich wiederholenden Mustern zu verzieren,
ist nicht mehr länger verpönt. Materials, ceramics or paper with abstract,
repetitive patterns to adorn, is no longer frowned upon. Es lebe das Ornament!
Long live the ornament!

38 craftsmen and designers from Germany, Britain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the U.S. show in June and July in the form of Hanover
craft exhibits, which the lavish variety of nature as a model.Represented are
the works of glass, ceramic, metal, paper, textiles and jewelry.

We exhibit: Markus Akesson (S) - Miriam Arentz - Ingrid Bärndal (S) - Andrea Borst - Sarah Caputo (GB) - Claudia Diehl - Claus Dorsch - Pia Duppich - Jan + Dagmar Eiden - Marie Fernström (S) - Carola Gänsslen - Masha Ginsburg - Gabriele Green - Henning Greve / Elsa Töbelmann - Barbara Guthmann - Joanne Haywood (GB) - Katja Höltermann - Christina Hoge - Jürgen Kreuchauff - Myong-ae Kyong - Christine Lambrecht - Julia Langstein - Catarina Larsson (S) - Eva Liebmann - Maria Liliegren (S) - Traudel Lindauer - Waltraud G. Linnemann - Ruth Löbe - Maria Magdalena Nawrath - Gitta Pielcke - Monika Schönholzer (CH) - Stefanie Seitinger (USA) - Martina Sigmund-Servetti - Britta Sommer - Dirk Tietgen / Petra Schmalz - Musin Won (GB) - Silke Wrede - Hugo Zumbühl (CH) Markus Åkesson (S) - Miriam Arentz - Ingrid Bärndal (S) - Andrea Borst - Sarah Caputo (GB) - Claudia Diehl - Claus Dorsch - Pia Duppich - Jan + Dagmar Eiden - Marie Fernström (S) - Carola Gänsslen - Masha Ginsburg -- Gabriele Green - Henning Greve / Elsa Töbelmann - Barbara Guthmann - Joanne Haywood (GB) - Katja Hölter man - Christina Hoge - Jürgen Kreuchauff - Kyong Myong-ae - Christine Lambrecht - Lang Julia Stone - Catarina Larsson (S) - Eva Liebmann - Maria Liliegren ( S) - Traudel Lindauer - Waltraud G. Linnemann - Ruth Löbe - Maria Magdalena Nawrath - Gitta Pielcke - Monika Schönholzer (CH) - Stefanie Seitingen (USA) - Martina Sigmund Servetti - Britta Summer - Dirk Tietgens / Petra lard - Musin Won ( GB) - Silke Wrede - Hugo Zumbühl (CH)

http://www.handwerksform.de/http://www.hwk-hannover.de/webview23/23,45,1259.html

Bilston Craft Gallery celebrates ten years

Ten

Bilston Craft Gallery

30 May 09 - 26 Aug 09

Bilston Craft Gallery celebrates its tenth anniversary as a craft dedicated venue this year, and to mark the occasion, twenty designer makers have created new pieces of work based on the theme of 'ten'.

I made a series of ten Subterranean garden brooches using hand dyed yarns with natural dyes. These works are the first to be shown using the new yarns.

http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/bilston/exhibitions/003924.html

The White Garden

"This garden is probably the most famous of the separate gardens at
Sissinghurst. It was started in 1950 by replanting the garden to the east of the
Priest's House, retaining the original layout but fusing a color scheme of
silver and white: focusing on plants with gray or white foliage and flowers of
mainly white, but with touches of yellow. It is unclear what inspired Vita to
create this monochromatic garden. Through her writings we know she had been
thinking about creating a white garden for at least a decade. Although other
white gardens in England (such as the phlox garden at Hidcote) predated this
one, they did not seem to have an influence on the development of the White
Garden at Sissinghurst. Some speculate that she was inspired by descriptions of
white gardens from hundreds of years earlier in Moghul India."

http://www.hort.wisc.edu/mastergardener/Features/botgardens/sissinghurst/sissinghurst.htm

Bees

This image shows the Beehives at Sissinghurst, you can pick up some honey made by the bees from the gift shop and the vegetables grown in the vegetable plot will be used to feed visitors in the restaurant. http://sissinghurstandfrittendennews.thisiskent.co.uk/2009/04/sissinghurst-vegetable-garden-soon-to.html

The vegetable garden has 50 volunteers working alongside two full and two part time members of staff, this year they are growing 140 different types of vegetables. When I visited many of the plants were still quite young, so I hope to return in a month or so to see the progress and of course take some more photographs.