Ruth Gordon Jewellery: paperwork

Right! I am on a mission. A proactive mission to get all my stock back out into galleries across the land. Then I am going to streamline my ranges.

Today I am going to focus on earrings. A bit of background on earrings from Wiki.

I love earrings, I have made hundreds of pairs of earrings in my life. I used to go to craft shops with my mum and we would buy beads and go home and make earrings. It was always a treat to go to Rockhaven or Letham. My grandad gave me some pliers and a wee tool box to keep all my bits and bobs in. Also remember getting given huge bags of beads and findings and broken jewellery after grandad had been at Dens Road Market!

I didn't have a very good experience when it came to getting my ears pierced. I was about 11 or 12 and my mum and dad took me to Debenhams (this is pre-Overgate Centre, so the jewellery department was about where Jimmy Chungs bar is!). I remember my ear getting very hot and I'm not sure whether I passed out or not but I remember the room swirling and nearly didn't get the second ear pierced because it was so uncomfortable.

I still have problem wearing earrings, probably because of my dramatics, I had put the girl doing the piercing off and now my ears are pierced very squint! One earring sits at a completely different angle to the other, not a good look it you are trying to promote your own earring designs!

Earring making was always a popular thing to teach at my HERA night classes. Everyone loves earrings!

So back to business, a look at the range of earrings by Ruth Gordon Jewellery. I could spend hours going through pictures of earrings I have made and sold but I have decided against this. This blog post is going to be written as the thought come into my head, a visual notebook as it were.

Corrugated silver earrings. I have so many different shapes, sizes and colours I don't have a clue what sells best. Maybe if I look closely at my sales history there isn't any great pattern and it is all to do with the individual pair of earrings and the buyer involved. This sounds quite right in my head but my paperwork urges me to have more of a system.

My plan is to choose a few of the styles and stick to them only varying the colours. This way my inventory and range will be a bit more organised. So the above pictures could be styles 1-4. Reading 'style 3 in blue and yellow' will be so much easier than reading 'Silver and cold enamel earrings (Yellow and Blue - small)'. To me anyway! Thumbnail images have also featured in my stocktaking to identify which piece is which. I have 25 different thumbnail drawings just for the corrugated silver earrings. That is ridiculous!

With regards to my nylon earrings I think keeping the simple, clean pieces like the ones below makes the most sense. I have made some quite experimental earrings using nylon over the past few years which have been more effort than they were worth aesthetically. My nylon pieces have always been good sellers and I really enjoy working with the material.

I have decided to start making some of my 'Smarties' stud and hanging earrings again, simple, colourful pieces that are fun and easy to wear.

My acrylic and plastic earrings will get another wee outing too as they have proved very popular in the past.

For the time being I am going to keep my vitreous enamel work to a minimum, if I decide to do any earrings in this medium at all the will be these very simple enamelled disc on silver chain earrings. Straightforward to make and cost and they are very effective design.

Semi precious stone beads are lovely to work with and having just bought a rather large amount from a supplier I am currently working on designs to use them in. I have made several pieces so far such as this agate and crystal necklace.

What does this have to do with earrings? Well, the semi precious stone bead range is going to be the exception to my rule. I wont change this range as it would be impossible to have set pieces with so many different stones out there!

The moral of this blog is less is more.

In my opinion.

Next up. Brooches.

Footnote: Yikes aren't my photos grey?!

A long, hard day of work yesterday, lots of paperwork but I was rewarded with this sunset at the end of it. A wee trip into Leicester at lunchtime broke up the day which had started at 8am. I am raring to go now, just waiting on a few tools and materials being delivered.

The view from my workshop.

Today, I tried to update my website but Flash and me don't mix! So I gave up and went into my workshop to sort out my space.

My toolbox was first on my list.

It is amazing what you find in a toolbox you've had for nearly 12 years! I remember at University every term Walsh would come for the 2nd years to pick their tools and I always had to buy something. Usually something I didn't really need. Did I really need 2 of my own ring mandrels in 3rd year? Probably not!

I don't even know what these are! I think they are a carborundum stone, an abrasive rubber polishing block and a stone used to take off fire stain (I can't remember what it's called!)