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!

Brooches

 Brooches. I absolutely covet brooches! I rarely wear them but I love them!

The first brooch I made for my degree show (all those years ago!) was this acrylic, silver and cold enamel brooch.

I just about cried when I sold it! This and the other three original brooches in this range were nearly the end of me at University. Those of you that were there will remember the blood, sweat and lots of tears! I still have the 20 or so pieces of acrylic that I lovingly shaped by heating in my oven then bending over a jam jar only to then drill them slightly wrong!

I now do a slightly simpler version of these brooches without the silver corrugation element. I am planning to make smaller versions of these brooches, probably about half the size. I always receive positive feedback about these brooches but I feel that mini versions would appeal to a wider audience.

Also for my degree show and over the past few years I have made corrugated silver brooches with cold enamel elements. These are fun and playful and have become one of my signature ranges.

I vividly remember doing the sketches for these brooches, it was in an Art History lecture on a Thursday morning! I came up with some of my best designs on scraps of lined paper during those lectures.

I am going to continue to make these brooches but, again, on a smaller scale. I feel fashions and my market has changed and I will change with it.

My range of nylon brooches is very varied! 

I have had a great response to my nylon brooches as a whole but as the May master plan states, I must streamline. The framed and enamel with loops pieces probably win in the popularity stakes for my customers and for myself.

I made a small range of 'Sampler' brooches a few years back. The idea behind them was that I made several brooches of the same dimensions using different techniques. It was interesting to do. These are more one off pieces than work that sit in a range so maybe more will be made in the coming months and years as a wee artistic release!

And so to enamel. Vitreous enamel. It's been a love hate relationship between myself and my kiln. I realised not so long ago that it probably was because of my lack of knowledge so I am looking into some courses. I wont be making any more enamelled brooches until I get my skill level up but I enjoyed looking through images of pieces I have made in this medium.

I have found over the years that less is more when it comes to designing and making brooches and I am going to follow that philosophy to the letter from now on.

I am finding it very useful to think through all my designs and write down my thoughts. Still to come - necklaces, wrist wear and rings.

Also don't forget to check my Folksy page for jewellery starting at just £10.

I also have a Facebook page that I update regularly with news.

You can follow me on Twitter.

And you can find more information about me and my jewellery on my website.

If you are out and about you can find my work at the Wistow Gallery in Leicestershire, Hung Gallery in Inverness, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich and Rosie McKenzie Art in Edinburgh.

Thanks for reading!

Twittergate

What a weekend! I will get the 'bad' news out of the way first, an incident we are calling 'Twittergate'

Last Friday night someone I follow on Twitter got hacked and somehow I also got hacked. The spammers started posting on my twitter account about weight loss and, as this was linked to my facebook account, the posts also got posted on there!

I could have coped with that but no, they didn't stop there.

Everyone who follows me received several direct messages saying various things along the lines of 'Someone is spreading rumours about you.' and a link. As far as I know the link looks like a twitter page and asks you to log back in after your session has timed out and this is how you are hacked.

This continued throughout the night and I woke up the next morning to several messages from followers and friends warning me it was still happening. Thanks for these by the way guys! I changed my password etc. and it all got fixed. I apologise again now to my followers for the inconvenience.

A few years ago my credit card got defrauded and I have likened Friday nights events to this. Only this was worse. At least my credit card only affected me. I was so upset about everyone receiving messages and worried that people might not realise what it was and get hacked themselves.

I fully expected to login to Twitter on Saturday morning after hardly getting any sleep to have no followers left. I actually had two new followers! This made me feel a lot better as did the spam disappearing after simple steps I took. I have made some great contacts and friends on Twitter and I am thankful that everyone seemed to understand.

If you get any strange DM messages on Twitter/Facebook etc. my advice is not to open them! I found this guide from the Huffington Post on what to do if your Twitter Account is hacked.

My weekend got better when we went out from dinner to Wagamama and then went to see Andrew Lawrence at Embrace arts in Leicester!

Leaving on a positive note, I also added two more £10 items to my Folksy shop.

                                         Ambronite, Peridot and Silver Earrings

                                         Corrugated Silver Earrings

More new gallery news coming soon!

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!

A helpful evening in Leicester

Tuesday 27th March 2012

A beautiful sunny evening in Leicester, the perfect setting for the Creative Leicestershire event, 'Selling Art and Craftwork Online' at the LCB Depot.

The speakers were James Boardwell, co-founder and director of Folksy; Sharon Dickinson, a jeweller and metal worker who sells on Etsy and via her own online shop; and Amanda Charteris and Alison Griffiths the co-founders of Gift Wrapped & Gorgeous Ltd.

 

After a warm welcome from the Creative Leicestershire team, James introduced himself and began the evening's discussion. The Folksy director spoke about the difference between 'craft' and 'handmade' and what this means. James also emphasised the importance of having a story behind your work, showing or telling customers how the pieces for sale were designed and made. I felt this was particularly significant to my work as I've always found that at my Open Studios visitors are often just as interested in my tools and techniques as they are in my work. I will be using this Blog to document and share how I make several pieces from start to finish in the future.


With some examples including the work of fellow Dundonian, Nikki McWilliams, James spoke of the importance of finding your niche in the market, how to stand out and be noticed. Social media and the different methods of sharing information were also discussed. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Linkedin etc. were mentioned along with emails, newsletters and good old fashioned printed cards and leaflets. The group talked about creating different products with varying price points to attract a range of customers such as cards, mugs and badges alongside cushions and aprons.


A huge talking point of the evening was the importance of quality photographs. As the customer can't pick up the product and see it until they have bought it a set of quality images is critical. A lot of craftspeople are guilty of taking photos and knowing they are not the best quality but using the images anyway. I do it. I say to myself "I will take a better one soon but that'll do for now". Photography isn't as easy as pointing and clicking, it requires a bit more knowledge and understanding than that!


 James also discussed some of the features of Folksy such as the online magazine, Frankly and the email newsletter (which I was featured in a few weeks ago).


 
The next speaker was Sharon Dickinson of Archive Crafts. Sharon makes jewellery and larger objects which she sells at markets, on Etsy and on her own website. Sharon started by saying she wasn't sure why she had been asked to talk as she doesn't rate her website very highly and does not sell a great volume of work through it. It was encouraging to hear Sharon's story and her thoughts and concerns about her website and social media in general. Like myself, Sharon finds it all a bit foreign and hard to get her head around. Sharon passed around some beautiful mirrors and a particularly impressive picture she had made out of embossed pewter.  Check out her blog, it's really good, despite her misgivings.


Next up were Amanda Charteris and Alison Griffiths from Gift Wrapped & Gorgeous, the online gift boutique marketplace. Amanda and Alison work together with each designer to create an individual boutique with the option of promoting their business with the media coverage package.

Amanda and Alison gave excellent advice on photography that stands out and will be noticed by the press and by the consumer. They commented on lifestyle photography as well as white cut out photography for press use and showed several examples of images which were successful and ones that were not so successful. Amanda gave several quirky ideas to catch the attention of the press and also discussed whether it is a good idea to write your own copy or not.

A point that has really stuck with me came from Amanda being asked how best to make Twitter work for your business. Amanda explained #ff to us and it all started to become clear! In the week following the event I made a lot of progress on Twitter with a significant amount of new followers and numerous retweets and mentions. It was also suggested that we have a social media strategy to ensure we get what we want to do done in a timely and effective manner.


This event was very informative, I met some great people and got some great advice. I have already changed my practice and I am using social media more effectively. I do, however, have a long way to go!