Make - a meeting

One rainy Thursday evening I showed up at Ruth Singer's studio, which was packed with creative people from Leicestershire. This was the evening that 'Make - a meeting', organised by Creative Leicestershire was taking place. Ruth's studio is amazing and throughout the evening I found myself getting distracted by all the bits and pieces she has scattered about her wonderfully bright and colourful creative space. 
I met lots of people that I have been connected with on Twitter for some time and even made a few Association for Contemporary Jewellery connections. I also was asked to do a little bit of a talk on ACJ which I nervously fumbled through (I'm not a public speaker and the word 'um' seemed to crop up a lot!).

We all made paper name badges and heard some information about Creative Leicestershire, Makers Yard and Ruth Singer before getting down to brainstorming ideas for Creative Leicestershire and having a chat with other makers.

We also got the opportunity to go to the large studio upstairs, which was full of rubber matting and shotgun shells! 'Love Bullets' are a jewellery company who are building the walls for a nightclub at Glastonbury Festival using the rubber matting and 1 million bullets. I wish I had taken my camera to the event as what 'Love Bullets' are doing is amazing, it really was beautiful!

After a bit more networking and eating cake the evening wound up and we all disappeared back into the rain.

I thought the evening was great and would love to go to another one. 

My only regret was that I didn't get to meet everyone I would have liked to. Time just ran away with me.

Creative Coffee

Last week I went to my first ever Creative Coffee Leicester at Phoenix Square in the centre of Leicester. This informal and relaxed event offers regular networking for creative people in the area. 

I had been meaning to go to one of these meetings for a while now but something always came up or it slipped my mind. However when I heard that Julia Hamer from Makers' Yard was going to do a talk about the building they have acquired for studio spaces in Leicester city centre, I felt I had to go. I had looked at their website and had seen some photos of Ruth Singer's studio space via Twitter so I was really interested to see what Julia had to say about it.

I also haven't met many 'creatives' in Leicester, apart from the jewellers that I have met through the ACJ (Association for Contemporary Jewellery), so I thought it'd be nice to met some new creative people.

I went along at 10am, more than ready for a cup of coffee, and sat with a very friendly man named Paul Burton from twf Design and Marketing Solutions. We discussed our work and what we wanted from the event. Paul showed me some of the 3D imaging he had been working on including some for a jewellery designer! We then mingled and spoke to some other creative people including Nicki Merrall, a knitwear designer and tutor. We found we had both worked with similar materials - nylon and polyester threads. Nicki had knitted with polyester threads and I use nylon thread in my work now. I also met the owner of Handmade by Hema who makes beautiful knitwear. It was great to speak to another first timer at the event and discuss our work, how we do our marketing and where we sell our work. You can buy Handmade by Hema knitwear on Etsy.

Julia Hamer spoke about Makers' Yard, which is a really interesting building with big studio spaces rented by a wide range of artists, designers and craftspeople. There are woodworkers, painters, glassmakers, paperworkers, textile artists, photographers and ceramicists to name a few. In previous years the building was know as the Charnwood Hosiery Factory where socks for football clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool and Leicester City were made. Lydia Marshall, 94, who used to work at the factory was invited to the opening of Makers' Yard. She says, "we even made a pair for Terry Wogan!"

Julia asked for some ideas on how Makers' Yard could make the building more appealing to the general public. Some ideas were thrown around the room, with several people coming up with excellent and inspiring suggestions, which snowballed as others contributed.

I really enjoyed hearing everyone's ideas and how they evolved as the group discussed them. In my eyes this is what Creative Coffee is all about - networking, finding new sources of inspiration and collaborating with other creative people.

I will definitely go back to Creative Coffee and I am glad to say that I have kept in touch with several of the people I met there.

Goodbye 2012

With only 5 days until Christmas Day, Ruth Gordon Jewellery is shutting up shop for the holidays. Normal service will resume in the New Year after we have travelled from Leicester to Perthshire to Leicester to Saltash to Leicester. That is 1228 miles!

This year has been great both in my business and personal life. I have made some great new contacts with galleries and clients, I was featured ion insideKENT Magazine, I have set up the ACJ East Midlands group, I have helped organise the first ever ACJ East Midlands exhibition, I have three new stockists, two new online shops and a brand new rolling mill! There have also been some low points to the year but I'll focus on them in a later post.

This year I have been to some very inspirational places. I have visited France, Spain, Andorra, Czech Republic and many beautiful places in the UK including the wonderful Burgh Island. I have also attended two very motivating talks, one at the LCB (see A helpful evening in Leicester) and the other at the Leicester Print Workshop (look out for a blog post about this talk in the new year).

For a large part of the summer and autumn my attention was turned to organising my wedding so I didn't have as much time for my business as I would have liked but now I no longer need to make endless amounts of paper pom poms and pinwheels or rubber stamp luggage tags to make place settings.

My 'to do' list for January is already massive! I owe this blog about eight posts, four of which are sitting in draft form on my blog menu. I need to pick up the paperwork trail and sort out my inventory and contracts, I will be getting some brand new business cards which is always fun and I need to have a January sale!

But for now I'm going to sit back and relax. That is after my AAT Level 2 Accounting exam tomorrow! Just a small side project I've got going on, I go to college once a week to learn book keeping and accounting skills. Very handy when you are self employed!

Ruth Gordon Jewellery can be found in several galleries over the festive period and I would like to thank these galleries for their continued support over the year. I would also like to thank Amanda Charteris and the Gift Wrapped & Gorgeous team for all their support over the past seven months. They have a wonderful selection of online boutiques and sell gorgeous products.

Focus Gallery in Nottingham are holding an ACJ East Midlands exhibition where my work is featured until 15th January 2013

 

The excellent Peter Potter Gallery in Haddington has a great selection of work from all my ranges for sale.

Hung Gallery in Inverness are stocking my work with everything from cluster rings to acrylic bracelets for sale!

In Leicestershire the wonderful Wistow Gallery is currently stocking my work. They have a great range of my cold enamel pieces from rings to brooches as well as some nylon pieces too!

Thanks to all my customers, suppliers and galleries.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

See you in 2013!

 

Christmas stockists

Is it really only three weeks until Christmas?

Ruth Gordon Jewellery has taken the Christmas fair season off this year but you can find my work scattered throughout the country and online.

Focus Gallery in Nottingham are currently having an ACJ East Midlands exhibition where my work is featured.

 

The excellent Peter Potter Gallery in Haddington also has a great selection of work from all my ranges for sale.

Hung Gallery in Inverness are also stocking my work with everything from cluster rings to acrylic bracelets for sale!

In Leicestershire the wonderful Wistow Gallery is currently stocking my work. They have a great range of my cold enamel pieces from rings to brooches as well as some nylon pieces too!

If these stunning galleries are too far afield for you then don't despair as I have two online shops too.

The fabulous Gift Wrapped & Gorgeous where you can buy classic pieces such as my Fluorite and Silver Range as well as firm favourites such as my Cluster Bangle and Acrylic Cupcake Brooch.

And last but not least, I have a Folksy shop where I sell work starting at only £10, perfect for stocking fillers!

Have a look at these galleries and, indeed, the online shops if you are stuck for someone's Christmas or just to treat yourself.

All my work is completely unique and many of my pieces are completely one off. I use Sterling Silver in my work and my pieces are hallmarked at the Edinburgh Assay Office.

To get regular updates on my work please see my Facebook page.

Have a wonderful time Christmas shopping!

Focus Gallery Exhibition

Over the last few months I have helped to organise an ACJ East Midlands exhibition at Focus Gallery in Nottingham which starts on 1st November 2012 and runs until 15th January 2013.

The exhibition should be excellent with work in various media such as silver, gold, semi precious stones, nylon and cold enamel. Jewellers involved include Ruth Gordon, Helen Shere, Kate Bajic, Ruth Wood, Gail Ferriman, Mary Graham and Karen Mckinley. This is an exciting event as it marks a great start to the ACJ East Midlands group. We are a small group who have only met once but we have big plans!

Silver and Nylon Necklace by Ruth Gordon

Silver and Nylon Bangle by Ruth Gordon

Silver and Nylon Ring by Ruth Gordon

Helen Shere

Helen Shere

Helen Shere

Cave 22.5ct gold plated silver smokey quartz treasure ring by Ruth Wood

Cave 22.5ct gold plated silver topaz treasure ring by Ruth Wood

Cave silver studs by Ruth Wood

In and Out by Gail Ferriman
©2011 Adrian Heapy Photographers

In and Out by Gail Ferriman
©2011 Adrian Heapy Photographers

Kate Bajic

Kate Bajic

Kate Bajic

On the ACJ East Midlands Facebook Page we have an album to further showcase the work that will be displayed at the Focus Gallery Exhibition.

Please pop along to the Focus Gallery if you are in the area and let us know what you think of our first ever show! 

Watch this space for a review of the exhibition! 

A wee catch up....

It is always exciting when you find yourself featured in a publication of some sort (see my previous blog post - Promotional Rummagings) .I recently found out that one of my images had been downloaded from Press Loft by insideKENT magazine. I had a wee look online and found out that it is a free luxury lifestyle publication covering events all over Kent. You can read the magazine by downloading the current issue or pick up a copy at over 300 high traffic venues such as Waitrose and selected hotels, restaurants, shops and even a few gyms.

I downloaded the latest issue to find my Anodised Aluminium and Silver Earrings featured in the Trend Report. These earrings are available to buy for a mere £30 at Gift Wrapped and Gorgeous.

Also this week I enrolled in a college course. I had intended to try and go on a creative course, possibly enamelling, anodising aluminium or a polishing course but instead I have gone all business like and I have enrolled in a day release AAT accounting course. This will help me with my business but also I will have the skills to do some freelance book keeping during these tough times in the jewellery industry.

  

Yesterday my fiancée and I locked ourselves in the workshop and made our palladium wedding rings. It was a really good experience for us both. Doug made my ring and I made Dougs and as usual Doug was a natural (I have yet to find something creative that Doug can't do!). We haven't polished them up yet but I am pleasantly surprised how good they look already. I am not a palladium convert yet though as the solder is really hard to work with. I will post more about the ring making in my up-coming blog post about wedding jewellery.

It is also all go at ACJ East Midlands! Our Facebook page has 14 'likes' and there has been a steady stream of enquires about joining on group and getting involved in the winter exhibition at Focus Gallery in Nottingham. We were featured in the ACJ e-bulletin, ACJ Facebook Page, and in the ACJ LinkedIn group page.


Right...better get back to ACJ co-ordinating, preparing for college, wedding planning (40 days to go!), designing new work and general paperwork......after a cup of coffee.

ACJ East Midlands

'The Association for Contemporary Jewellery is devoted to the promotion, representation, understanding and development of contemporary jewellery in the United Kingdom and abroad.'
- From the ACJ website 
 
The Association for Contemporary Jewellery organises conferences, lectures, workshops as well as holding an annual general meeting. ACJ members benefit from attendance at these meetings as well as receiving discounts at selected companies, a regular newsletter and a monthly e-bulletin. The ACJ also has regional groups all over the country from Dundee to Cornwall where members can meet up to discuss work, plan exhibitions and promote both their work and the ACJ. Membership of the association ranges from practising jewellers, designers and crafts people to educators, students, gallery owners, retailers, curators and collectors. Pretty much anyone with an interest in contemporary jewellery!

The newest ACJ group is ACJ East Midlands which started it's life as ACJ Leicester. After moving to Leicestershire from Dundee I realised that I did not know any jewellers in the area and there didn't seem to be a regional group nearby. I had been a member of ACJ Dundee and attended meetings whenever I could so I contacted the ACJ to see what I could do regarding starting a group and meeting people.

A call for members was put in the e-bulletin and slowly I received emails from jewellers who were interested in joining. As many of the jewellers were from further afield than Leicester the decision was made to re-name the group ACJ East Midlands.

The inaugural meeting was not easy to arrange, it took three attempts to find a day where more than two people could attend but we managed it on 23rd October 2012 in The Slug and Lettuce in Leicester!

Myself, Helen Shere, Mary Graham and Anna Pope (Anna isn't an ACJ member yet but we gave her the hard sell!) all met for the first time to discuss what we would like from the group and what we should do next.

The meeting was very productive and the very next day we got to work with our tasks of arranging an exhibition, setting up a facebook page and spreading the word about ACJ East Midlands.

So we now have an ACJ East Midlands facebook page, we have an exhibition arranged at Focus Gallery in Nottingham at Christmas and hopefully our numbers will grow.

If you are interested in joining the ACJ or ACJ East Midlands please get in touch. We also still have space in our winter exhibition at Focus Gallery so please do get in touch regarding this as well!

Happy making!

Super quick update!

Wow! It has been a busy week for Ruth Gordon Jewellery so it's time for a quick mid week update.

I have four new £10 items listed on Folksy, one of which has sold already!

                                          Acrylic and Silver Necklace

                                         Green enamel and silver earrings

                                          Yellow enamelled silver earrings (sold)

                                          Pearl and Silver Earrings

I have also been Tweeting my little heart out! You can follow me on Twitter to find out all the latest news from Ruth Gordon Jewellery and other creatives I retweet. @RuthGJewellery

I am getting ready to start stocking and restocking galleries around the country so please do check back here for news on this as there are some pretty exciting new ventures happening with my jewellery this summer.

I will also post news on my Facebook page so please 'Like' that to receive regular updates and, in the upcoming months, there will be a Facebook competition where you could win a piece of Ruth Gordon jewellery.

Lastly there has been talk of setting up an ACJ Leicester group and hopefully I will be getting the ball rolling on that very soon!

More news coming soon!