A wee catch up

I realise I have been quite quiet recently, so I thought I would write an update with what is going on at Ruth Gordon Jewellery at the moment.
I am currently preparing for 'Crafted', a craft fair organised by Creative Hinckley. I haven't taken part in a craft event for years due to the demands that the 'day job' previously made on my time, so I'm really looking forward to it. It's really great to speak to the public about your work and meet other makers. I'm looking forward to setting up shop on my 6 foot table!

Over the past few months I have been working on some pieces that have no colour in them at all, which is a great departure for me. I have always worked with colour in my jewellery, whether it be enamel, cold enamel, acrylic or nylon so it feels strange to see plain silver pieces in my range. The work does have texture and many of the pieces use the familiar dome shape from my cluster range, so it's not a complete u-turn in design!

I will have some work in the Focus Gallery's next exhibition, starting on 22nd June. The idea of the exhibition is to showcase some of the best work in the East Midlands and I'm honoured to be included.

Ruth Gordon Jewellery has a new stockist this summer. New Brewery Arts in Cirencester will be stocking a collection of Ruth Gordon Jewellery in their craft shop. The arts centre has a gallery, craft shop, cafe and theatre and they also offer craft courses and have on-site craftspeople working in media such as ceramics and stained glass.

Throughout June, I am celebrating summer by offering 10% off anything in my Etsy Shop! Have a browse and use code JUNE2013 at the checkout.

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!