Popping round for a visit...

A few weeks ago I went to visit my friend Jane, which is always great because i get to have a peek around her studio/office. Jane's a jewellery designer, one of Dundee's many talented creatives and you might have read mentions on my blog before about her. I'm always really curious about seeing other peoples workspaces and so I took a few photos as I thought you might be keen to have a look too. I recently took part in "A Day in the Life of..." which is a nice blogging project Nikki McWilliams started. Keen to find out more about the day to day life of a jewellery designer I asked Jane a few questions and thought I could share them with you..

What's a typical day for you as a jewellery designer?
I like to be in my studio for 10am and I finish my day around 9pm. There is no set structure to my day but I like to begin by answering emails and writing a list or two... or three. At the moment my day is then spent at my workbench making the new collection and I usually fit in an almost daily trip to the post office. In between this I like to dedicate a little time to social networking, marketing and devising future plans. At the moment attention is focussed on our recently launched Valentine's Pop Up Shop and the release of our brand new Geology Rocks Collection on the 2nd of March.

You have a really nice sensibility with the styling of your jewellery, is that something you have in mind from the start when you're designing the collection or is it something that works it's way in nearer the end?
Thank you. I look at so many sources of inspiration and am surrounded by fashion imagery all the time so I imagine that this feeds into what I curate subconsciously. The styling is mainly inspired by the piece itself so I like to make the work first to decide what kind of shoot would best reflect the collection.

I've been lucky to get little sneaky peeks in the development of Jane's new collection over the past year. She's put so much time into developing each piece, combining 3d printing techniques with more hands-on traditional techniques and I can really see how much painstaking attention goes into the tiniest details. I'm really excited to see it all come together. What will your final collection be like?
The new collection is inspired by the amazing facets, patterns and structures that are found in geological forms. The pieces are bigger and bolder than before and are created using a fusion of both cutting edge technologies and traditional jewellery manufacturing techniques. In March the Geology Rocks Collection will be released in both 18ct Gold Vermeil and Oxidised Silver colour ways.

What are your favourite blogs for inspiration?
The Cut, F7 Jewellery, See it. Love it. Want it. Need it.

Jane's going to be launching the collection, Geology Rocks at curious Edinburgh boutique, Black Box on the 2nd of March. It's an open event but you'll need to sign up first by contacting Jane directly.

Good luck Jane, I'm sure it'll go down a storm!

Image of Black Box by What Kristen Saw.

And the winners are...

Well this took me a LOT longer to figure out than expected and it appears I have done a LOT of knitting this winter. 143,300 rows in fact! Thank you everyone who took a guess and to all the lovely people on Twitter who RT-ed my tweets. I wish I could make mittens for you all!

So my lucky winners are: in 1st place...

Kristen
Feb 1, 2012 02:07 PM
That is a very tough question! My guess is 104,347!

And in 2nd place...

Hannah
Jan 29, 2012 11:39 AM
So much knitting! 87,002 is my guess.

If you can both send me an email with your postal address your prizes will be sent out. Huzzah!

A Day in The Life

A few other folks on twitter have been taking part in a group "A Day in the Life of..." blog posting. So this is my one, a typical wednesday. I have no idea how this started but it's always instigated by biscuiteer Nikki McWilliams.

7.50 Wake up, check emails in bed (terrible habit I know) and spend the next 30 minutes replying and checking twitter.

Have a cup of tea, cereal and run a bath and give my cat Biscuit her breakfast too.

Have Bath, dry hair and decide on appropriate attire for my driving lesson i.e. comfy shoes, no big wooly scarf (it's difficult to see wearing it) and a light jumper.

Finish reply to the morning emails. Visit the bank.

10.00 Driving lesson.

11.30 My driving lesson conveniently stops outside my friends house so pop in for a quick cup of tea.

I go home, feed the kitty and settle into the studio to start knitting up some orders.

12.30 Lunch- 1.30ish I tend to take wednesday's easier and have a long lunch to chill out as I always end up feeling a bit highly strung after my driving lesson. I have a bacon on toast, with a cup of tea, orange juice and a clementine. Yum.

13.30ish onwards- Back to knitting for the rest of the afternoon, finishing and ironing scarves. I entertain myself by listening to this song on you tube I have no idea what it's about but sounds so happy!

18.40 Write and print out invoices and letters, bung in envelopes, pack orders and get my post office pile for tomorrow ready. Tidy up studio a little.

19.10ish Dinner time. I had (how uninspiring, wait for it...) fish, chips and peas, but sometimes simple dinners are the best. Kitty has dinner too. After dinner my cat eats she always comes over and jumps up on my lap to say thank you. She's a sweet little thing.

19.35- Clean the kitchen and take part in other domestic joys.

20.15 ish- I feel compelled to bake cakes. I go to the shop to stock up on the essentials: eggs, bicarb of soda and some mint Green & Blacks chocolate incase the cakes don't work out.

20.30- I make raspberry jam buns. It's a really awesome recipe from the Primrose Bakery book and it worked out really well, which doesn't happen too often so while I'm on a roll I make another batch.

21.50 So I have about 18 buns. Try one and it's good, so safe to have another with a cup of tea and I settle down to watch and episode of Boardwalk Empire.

Watch a bit of tv, read tweets and Frankie Magazine and end up falling asleep on the sofa. I wake up at about 1.20am so I drag my carcass off the sofa and get ready to go to bed. I can hear my cat chirping away loudly with her toy rat so it's not until the back of 1 when I actually fall asleep zzz.

Read other A Day In The Life participants:
Nikki McWilliams
Sloth Goes

Mitten Competition

Seeing as the forecasters are predicting a Siberian blast of ice and freezing temperatures over the next month here in the UK I felt I had a public duty to help you all stay warm.

One of my D.I.Y. Mitten Kits is going to be up for grabs and if you'd like a little bit of inspiration to whet your appetite, have a look at design duo Abigail and Ryan's blog and marvel at Abigail's beautiful stitchwork on hers.


All you have to do is guess the answer to the following question:

How many rows of knitting do you think have I made in the last 6 months?
Place your answer in the comment box please!

I'll give you a tip: we're talking thousands here. The closest will win.

If there are two winning entries, the winner will be picked from a hat (a knitted hat no less!) and the runner up or 2nd closest answer will win a pompon keyring like the ones featured on my Supermarket Sarah shop.

The winner for this will be announced next Friday. Good luck to you all!

CLOSING ENTRIES: 5pm FRIDAY.

////THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED////
The winner will be announced shortly. Thank you to you all who placed a guess!

Keep this Page

Last weekend, whilst visiting family in Glasgow I finally had the opportunity to nip over to the West End to meet the wonderful and colourful illustrator Lesley Barnes with Jen Collins (aka Hello Jenuine). Lesley was so sweet to give me this awesome bookmark which now makes reading business books a joy!

Factory Visit

Last week I travelled down to the Scottish Borders to visit some knitting factories and find a manufacturer to help me with all the knitting for next winter. Like much of Scotland, the Borders have some really spectacular views and at least on that day- weather to match.

So, factory visit. If anyone is ever looking into textile or fashion production it is a little difficult to find out the basic information you need to know. I spent a fair whack of my Christmas holidays reading the Nesta guides and Fashion Toolkits they've put together. There are lots of really great case studies and have checklists of what should be expected from both designer an manufacturer in order to develop a good relationship. I'm now also going to be working to seasons with the fashion accessories as now I'll have run with their sampling and production deadlines. A book I found really helpful was "How to Set Up & Run A Fashion Label" by Toby Meadows

I armed myself with as much knowledge as possible, brought samples and examples of the kinds of products I'd want to develop with my designs, fabric swatches and a few finished pieces too. I also prepared a printed checklist for each manufacturer I visited with all my questions and spaces to fill in the answers. Although this was an extremely nerdy thing to do it was also immensely helpful to be able to assess all the info I had collected retrospectively once I had calmed down from all the excitement.

The first manufacturers I visited, a great family business in the Borders, were so helpful, talked me through everything I needed to know, couldn't have been nicer and I'm happy to say, I think I've found the one! The factories were like Santa's knitting grotto, so much colour and wool and bright coloured knitwear and knitting.



The factories all had different set ups. And it was really interesting to see the difference between the smaller factories and the bigger factories. One of the bigger factories I visited had a technician who had been working on just the scouring (washing) of the garments for over 30 years! Apparently he could tell, by the degree the temperature at which a garment had to be washed, how much water in the drum, much soap etc just by feeling the garment. Amazing!



This year I will be developing the range to include more accessories, hats, mittens, gloves and new scarf styles. I'm also going to be experimenting with some new yarns and fibres, so hold on to your hats!

If those who are interested in the History behind Scotland's textile and clothing manufacturing history, they might also like to read a previous post about the book, "The Inventors of Tradition".

N.B. I've blocked out parts of the photos with other samples being made out of courtesy and respect to their clients. Behind those pixels are the most delightful scarves and sweaters I've ever seen!

I went for a walk at The Hermitage near Dunkeld in Perthshire. It was such a beautiful day and the frost in the air makes me excited about the new collection for AW12! Hope you all had a good weekend.

2011: the year Charles felt my Pompon

So I'm a little late with the 2011 round-ups. But I've had a long christmas holiday and a very much needed recharge after an exhausting few months. 2011 was a pretty intense one but awesome and full of great new people and opportunities. Without gushing too much, here's quickie of some of the best bits:


Lot of new Twitter friends and stockists.


In May I was lucky enough to have been awarded support and mentoring this year with the Princes Scottish Youth Business Trust.


Securing my first stockist in Asia! The wonderful K11 Design shop is an amazing concept/ art mall in Hong Kong.


In February I was really lucky to receice financial support from the Dundee Craftmakers Award, sponsored by Creative Scotland, which allowed me to participate in the London tradeshow, Pulse Launchpad for the very first time!


And a last little mention to thank Nikki McWilliams for organising a Secret Santa with our twitter pals. My Secret Santa was the lovely Lucy Davidson of Peas and Needles and Lucy sent me the sweetest bundle of crafted goodies.


Thanks for all your support, mentions and kindness over 2011. Have a great 2012 everyone!

Super Market Sarah

Sarah Bagner of the awesome Supermarket Sarah recently invited me to contribute to her online emporium of walled-wonders.

Although my online shop is now closed until the 6th of January. My Super Market Sarah wall is taking orders and delivering throughout the holidays. Perfect for any late-last minute presents or giving yourself a little post-christmas treat.

You'll also see there is a limited edition scarf available made from a specially sourced lambswool demin yarn sourced from a spinners in the North East of Scotland. It makes a nice heavy weight of fabric, soft and keeps out the winter winds.

Hint Hint...

If you'd like one of my scarves for Christmas but your significant other or family members are needing a little prod in the right direction you can click on the image, print this off, fold it into quarters and place it in a strategic spot where they'll most definitely find it e.g. their workplace, jacket pocket, under a cup of tea should work too!

Just click on the image to enlarge, and go print.

Happy Weekend everyone!