How did you get started in your particular craft and how long have you been doing it?
The christmas before last I couldn't find anything I liked or could afford to wear to a ball. Always looking at craft magazines and saw one with a necklace on the cover I liked the look of. Found that it was a to do project so I bought the magazine, made some alterations, ordered all the bits from USA as I didn't know any better at that time and it was an American edition, and eventually made it after a few false starts, with days to spare. But I was so proud of it and still have it. I was totally hooked on the idea of making jewellery, but only seriously started the following June when I got a web site and a gallery to sell some through. I want to find the time to teach myself to silversmith. I have all the basic kit just need to stop procrastinating and get on with it.
Are there any negative aspects to doing your craft and if there are how do you work around them?
Time is the biggest one. As a wage slave I still work full time, anything from 40 to 50 hours a week, help my OH with designs and seeing clients sometimes for his business, take a couple of dance classes a week and make the jewellery. Then there is keeping up the websites, taking the photos, craft fairs when i can get into one at short notice, and all the other things connected with running a home. The jewellery just has to be slotted in between everything else often late in the evenings. The only TV programme I watch is Strictly on a saturday night, I'm not much fun at a gathering when everyone is talking about whats on the box, I've no idea!
What tips would you give to anyone thinking of starting your craft?
Could say lots of things like, research your market, sort your funding, organise your time, get other members of your household to support you and help out, don't get carried away buying components willy nilly for stock, but all that would be, do what I say, not what I do . We are all in this for different reasons, I am trying to run a viable business direct to my clients, unique quality goods at a fair price, others may be a hobby maker which would have a differernt set of rules, reasons and goals.
How did you find Misi?
In a roundabout sort of way by word of mouth, but I think the source was Jean from Talking Beads, thanks Jean.
What is your favourite item in your own Misi shop?
Often the favourite is the latest design you make. I have started to work with sea glass from Rob Johnson and I absolutely adore it, especially the beads he makes from it. They are expensive but the romance of sea glass is wonderful, imagining where it might have originated, its former life, firstly transformed into beads by a lampworker to then be made into something beautiful ( I hope ) and useful like jewellery, recycling at its best.
What is your favourite shop on Misi (besides your own)?
Everybody says they can't choose as there are so many and they are right, I haven't even scratched the surface of viewing them all yet, and the rate they are increasing is wonderful. Just found Stickman, his walking canes are amazing and beautiful. As a furniture designer I love timber and appreciate his craft. I would have one just to stand in a corner and look at. Dogplant is wonderful. Martins planters were my first purchases from MISI. He made me a special order black cat and a cow for Christmas presents, he must have liked the suggestion as they went straight into his shop. Jewellery wise, I think it has to be The Hairy Growler, I covet the fork bangle, by the time you read this I may well be the proud owner of one !
Random Facts about you:
What is your favourite time of day?
Sunrise or sunset, not that I get to see too many sunrises as I'm an owl rather than a lark. The sheer beauty of those times of the day can take your breath away.
What is your ideal vacation?
Has to be by water somewhere. I go to Norfolk to have a few days to get my head together sometimes, holed up in a little cottage by myself, and walk the beaches around Heacham, read, listen to music and relax. I take my jewellery and if I want to still be making something at 3 in the morning I can and sleep till 10, not that I do sleep in, as I want to be up and on the beach.
What is your favourite colour?
To wear, I live in black but lilacs, purples, pinks I suppose, but not pastels clear and bright.
What is your favourite animal?
Tigeress, the perfect feline. Beautiful, lithe, elegant, fiesty, clever, captivating, dangerous. Everything I aspire to, but never will be, the perfect woman.
What actor/actress would you NOT kick out of bed?
Daniel Craig. Not into 'pretty' men, got to be a bit rugged, tall, with come to bed eyes, and look a bit naughty ( You can interpt that how you like ha ha )
How many DVDs do you have?
None, never have time to watch them. I have the loan of a set of Garth Brooks concert DVD's and they have been sat there for nearly 2 years now without even been taken out of the box. One day, maybe this Christmas !
Visit MornieG Jewellery on Misi for a tantalising taste of gorgeous goodies. Quick ~ you only have 2 weeks until Christmas!
xxx
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