AJE June Component Of the Month Reveal...

My apologies for posting a little late - things conspired against me somewhat this weekend but here we are at last...

This month our component creator was Jenny Davis-Reazor and she send us all a pair of lovely ceramic charms from this selection - mine being a pair with a flower design in a lovely blood red.

Having had a very hectic month with very little creative time I stuck with the easy option of making a pair of earrings. I love the contrast of the deep red and the milky white on jenny's charms and I wanted to keep an organic feel to my design so I went straight for my favourite chunky rustic pearls. I also found some faceted garnets which picked up the red nicely. A little wrapping with some bronze wire (I will oxidise these eventually but my LOS is at the bottom of a box somewhere between studios) and voila -nothing fancy but pretty none-the-less.

Many thanks to Jenny for her lovely charms and If you'd like to see what the rest of the team created just use the links below.

Guest artists: 

Leah - http://beadyeyedbunny.blogspot.com

Elisabeth - http://beadsforbusygals.blogspot.com

Jean - http://prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com

Sarajo - http://sjdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com

The AJE Team

Jennifer Cameron -  http://glassaddictions.com/
Jenny Davies-Reazor  -  http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog (that would be me)
Susan Kennedy  -  http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com/
Linda Landig -   http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/
Melissa Meman   -  http://melissameman.blogspot.com/
Rebekah Payne  -  http://www.treewingsstudio.com/
Jo Tinley  -   http://daisychaindesignsjewellery.blogspot.com/
Lesley Watt  -   http://thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com/
Francesca Watson  - http://www.francescawatson.com
Diana Ptaszynski   - http://www.vintagebluestudio.typepad.com/
Kristi Bowman -  http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com
Kristen Stevens  - http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/




Lesley

So Near and Yet So Frustrating...

Well, the work on the new studio is almost complete - just some tiling and some tidying up to do then it will all be done and, if you'd asked me a month ago what I expected to be doing at this point I would have said charging around manically moving all my kit in and giving the studio (which I love by the way) some personality and pzazz, but I can"t do that.

Earlier this week...things have progressed!

For the past couple of weeks I've been suffering from a nasty back strain which has been extremely painful and laid me very low. Added to the fact that I had no facilities and the house was full of builders it was not the fun time I'd hoped for. My back is much improved now and getting better by the day but I am certainly not fully flexible and can feel it even when I pick up something relatively light. So, I've had to be sensible and curb my enthusiasm for a little while longer...I am not a patient person!

I do have some willing hands coming to help with some heavy work over the weekend and then at least I can get on with some serious organisation. Once that's done I'll be able to show you some up to date pictures too.

But my frustration doesn't mean there's nothing to celebrate so to get the ball rolling I'm having a sale in my components shop THEA Elements this weekend with 20% off all items until midnight BST (UK) on Sunday - I 've got to make some room for the output from the new studio somehow! To get your discount just use Coupon Code STUDIO20  when you check out.

Hope to see you there - have a great weekend.

Lesley

Studio Conversion - Two Weeks In...

It's been a hive of activity since my last post on this subject. The windows went in last weekend and  everything moved inside the house and took over my life somewhat...

A beautiful sunny Monday saw a very full house with a team of plasterers putting in a long day to get the studio plastered before the fitters arrived to lay the flooring on Tuesday and Wednesday. Sadly the weather deteriorated rapidly thereafter into a grey, wet gloom and that, combined with damp plaster does not make for great photographs...

The flooring went down without hitch but as it's difficult to see here I've borrowed a photo from the manufacturers Amtico - I'm sure they won't mind a bit of free promotion...

http://www.amtico.com/commercial/flooring/wood/engineered-bamboo

The old kitchen also came out on Monday leaving me with this...what do you think - contemporary minimalist?

The fridge has gone as well now so my facilities consist of a tea making area on the kitchen window sill (the builders made sure of that one), a microwave on the dining room table and a cool box. Fortunately there is also a pub five minutes walk from my house so not so bad.

The rest of the week has seen the final fix on the electrics, architraves and skirting beginning to go in, new doors and radiators arriving on site and the start of the decorating. I felt so much better when this primer went up yesterday and brightened the whole room up - I really wasn't feeling the plaster pink!

My building team are once again working through the weekend and by the end of the day today the first coat of colour was on the wall and really brought the room to life. It's called 'Tadpole' but it's not like any tadpole I've ever seen. It's hard to reproduce the actual colour here but it's a kind of cross between lime and melon green - lovely and fresh and hopefully it will be a good colour for stimulating creativity.

I've also treated myself to some new kit this week with a new beading table, a high stool for the workbench and and a gorgeous cream leather ergonomic chair - the latter being a must have since I've spent a large part of this week almost immobilised with a back strain. I'm on the mend now though and hopefully this chair will help me stay that way.

The early part of next week will see decorating finished, doors hung and radiators plumbed in before the studio fittings and new kitchen arrive on Wednesday which means that this time next week (touch wood), it will all be finished and I will be in my new creative home. I'm so excited and I really can't wait!

I'll keep you posted and let you see the final result as soon as it's done because believe me, once I'm in there It may be some time before I come out again!

Lesley

Changing My Shop Name...

I've been thinking about this for a while and I've decided that the time has come to change the name of my component shop THEA too. When I opened the shop 15 months ago I decided on the name 'THEA too' as it seemed appropriate for an extension of my jewellery shop 'THEA jewellery'. Little did I know that it would take off the way it has and actually become the bigger part of my business so that now, the 'too' doesn't seem quite so fitting.

I also think the link only really works within the confines of Etsy and is somewhat abstract as a standalone name. Since I may be doing more shows and will shortly be shipping my first consignment to a bricks and mortar store I feel the name needs to work in the wider market.

So with this in mind I have changed the shop name to 'THEA Elements' - still with the link to my jewellery shop but hopefully more self contained and descriptive.

Some of you may have noticed that I've been playing with new shop banner designs recently and as part of this change, both shops have new banners in the same style and format but with a different colour...what do you think...? I hope you like them..






I'm not planning to change my avatars since these are widely used and recognisable across many social media platforms and for the most part haven't been linked to my banners anyway.

It will take me a little while to phase out business cards (I didn't want to put off the change any longer) and I will be redesigning my blog badge shortly.

Don't worry if you have THEA too bookmarked on Etsy as all links and favourites will automatically carry over and redirect to the new shop url...I made sure to check that with Etsy first and I have it in writing!

At this point I would just like to say a very, very big thank you to everyone who had supported THEA too and I look forward to sharing my new designs with you in the guise of THEA Elements.

Lesley

Studio Conversion Day 4 - I Have a Wall!

Strange thing to get excited about I know but after 3 days of dust and rubble the garage door coming out and the wall going up reassures me that my plans are taking shape...

Not even an exciting wall but it's my wall!

 Yesterday I went shopping for floor covering and of course I had to choose something that requires specialist fitters of whom there are not apparently very many. My options for fitting were therefore Tuesday/Wednesday of next week or the 24th of the month, the former being a little tight and the latter creating a long delay for other aspects of the work. Cue panicky phone call to my builder but he is nothing if not a problem solver and instructed me to book the fitting for next week and he would do what it takes to be ready. I am beginning to understand why building work can take so long - it's not the actual construction but the logistical nightmare of getting the various elements and trades to dovetail smoothly.

Anyway the upshot is they will be working all over the weekend to get everything done. I've been told it will be a manic few days so all I can do is keep the beverages and biscuits flowing freely and maybe go out for bacon Butties. This load bearing wall between the garage and kitchen is coming down tomorrow and a steel is going in so If I attempt to make them myself there may be some added roughage! The window, timber floor and plaster boards will also go in tomorrow - sounds like a good days work to me!

The kitchen will be ripped out on Monday as well which means maybe a week without one which could prove interesting. Fortunately there is a pub 10 minutes walk from the house so at least I won't starve.

I'll keep you posted on the predicted mayhem but in the meantime - wish me luck!

Lesley

Studo Conversion Day 1 - We're Off...!!!

 Yes - the time has finally arrived and work started on Studio THEA today which is great as I was beginning to think I was dreaming it all! Nothing very interesting to show at this point though. This is how things looked when I woke up at the crack of dawn - Christmas has nothing on this you know...

 And this is how it looks at the end of the day...

Much the same but with some tools I hear you say. Well, yes but there has definitely been some activity - I know because my ears are still ringing from the pneumatic drilling that made the entire house shake. The cat has taken refuge in a padded cell in the wardrobe and I might just join her if there's any more of it to come! As a result of all that drilling we now have the footing for the new wall...

And a big bag of waste - not the last I'm sure.

 

I was quite surprised when the electrician turned up but is seems he has a busy week so we had to grab him while we could even if it was day one - no argument from me as there's nothing worse than coming to a halt because you're waiting on a specialist. Consequently there are also now lots of holes in the ceiling (more drilling!) and lots of cables waiting to be run behind plaster board and under floors.

So as you can see we are well and truly underway - the bricks are coming tomorrow and the window arrives on Thursday and then it will begin to look like something is happening. It won't start to look like a studio until well into next week but I will post regularly to show you what's going on. I'll also set up a dedicated blog page so that all the posts can be read together.

OK - I'm off to remove a film of dust from the kitchen so I can prepare an edible dinner!

Back soon.

Lesley