Happy Birthday to me!

It was my birthday on Friday, so to treat myself I spent the day at the Desire fair in Richmond.

Wow,  there was some truly amazing work there. It was great to see such a fantastic range of work in one room.

Things seemed to click into place for me about my jewellery style and where I'm going (and where I'm defintely not going!). People often ask me what type of jewellery I make, and now I think I could answer them a little better.

Ring by Sabine Konig

There were some stunning stalls, where I simply stood and stared at the goodies (possibly with my mouth slightly open, and  drooling a bit) and some where I had a chat with the artisan and got a real insight into the stories behind the pieces. So interesting.

The best thing for me from the day though, was that even looking at the most stunning works there, I felt inspired, and thought, "yep, one day if I work hard, I could do something as good as that". It probably sounds a bit silly, but in most other fields I seem to be the type of person who would think " oh dear, I'll never be that good, aren't they lucky to be able to do that"

A beautiful ring by Barbara Bertagnolli......

I wonder if it's just that I've found my path with jewellery.... or whether I'm just getting a bit more confident in my old age.

Speaking of which, I had a great weekend as well. We went up to London and had a Duck Tour - it's a tour on those amphibious vehicles - a drive around showing the girls all the sights, and then a splash down in the Thames. The kids loved it! After that we took the girls to see Stomp. Brilliant - sweeping up will never be the same again.

I got some fantastic pressies off my lovely family... I'll show you later in the week but I also made a little present for myself.

I've been looking into birthstones recently and thought it would be nice to have something in my own birthstone. As my birthday is March - that means Aquamarine. I have a little secret....don't tell anyone.... I don't really like it that much... (ssshhhhhh!). Don't get me wrong it's a really beautiful stone, but it just wouldn't look right on me with my pale skin and red hair.

The traditional stone for March is Bloodstone, which I admit would probably suit my colouring a little more, but I fancied something with a little more sparkle.

So what to do? I did what anyone should in my situation. Cheat.

I found a lovely moss aquamarine, wrapped it in sterling silver and voila! Happy birthday to me.
Let me know if you're a March birthday and would like to cheat too, I'll happily make you one!