Reading Arts Week

This week has been very busy and also very hot, like extremely hot for the UK. I'm trying really hard to not complain as we don't really get enough sun and it's nice to have some, but when you are as pale as me and suffer from RA, extreme heat is not your friend. Reason I've been busy is because I only came back from Sweden on Sunday and due to having a late flight and Sunday buses being few and far in between I wasn't in bed until around 1am and then had to be at work in the morning. Following that I have been (and am until tomorrow afternoon) in the Reading Arts week exhibition (as mentioned previously) and had the preview to go to Monday evening. Since then I've worked and prepared for Sundays workshop as well as volunteering for one day (Thursday) at the exhibition. Together with seeing family and catching up with friends. In fact I've only just sat down for the evening and I just (well likely 20 min from now as not yet posted this) taken a cake out of the oven which I've baked for tomorrows skill share day. So all in all it's been a good kind of busy. Extra so as I've spent a fair amount of the time on jewellery based things.
I didn't bring a camera to the preview on Monday but popped in to rearrange my pieces on Wednesday so took the chance to take a bunch of pictures of the art being shown which I thought I'd post.

Creative Skill Share Day

During Reading Art week there is a range of events being planned by different organisations across town. One of these is a Skill share day on at The Rising Sun Arts Centre the 5 July. The day will be full of different workshops and any proceeds will go to support the centre. If you are anywhere near I really recommend you go as the day should be a lot of fun and each individual workshop doesn't cost a lot (some are even free). I am running a bracelet making workshop between 12-14 (which only cost £5) but am definitely planning to try some of the other ones out myself. 

Reading Art Week

Reading Art Week is an exhibition going on between the 29 June to 5 July in Reading. I've applied and found out last week that I got in!
Must admit that I am very exited. If around do come and check it out, the event will run across Reading, with the Arts Week Exhibition being held at The 3B's in the Town Hall, Blagrave Street, Reading.

These are the pieces I will be showing:

Those summer nights

Aware I've not been updating for ages but I've not just given up or anything, no indeed, things have been happening. To start with the temp job I started in January which was as a HR Administrator at University of Reading has just turned into a permanent part time job, giving me more time to work on my jewellery. The new shift pattern has only just started so I don't yet know if I can live on the decrease in income but at least I am giving my jewellery a fair shot as I decided I would do this year. The job itself is nice and the team I work with is great so I really hope it will all work out.

Currently I am home in Sweden celebrating Midsummer and trying to get a new jewellery display together to use when selling. My idea is to make it look a bit Scandinavian to show where the inspiration comes from. However finding cloths that are appropriate is harder than I thought. I am also trying to work more on getting myself out there as I've made a lot of new pieces lately but not worked on selling them  or anything so guess I need to move onto that. Being home gives me some time to look at stuff like that (and writing blog posts) so guess that's a good thing :)

To end the post here are some pictures I've taken from down by the river where my parents live and from the midsummer celebrations we had.

The season to be jolly!

I am as briefly mentioned in Sweden for the holidays. Christmas is done and dusted and is being followed by Birthday celebrations (not mine) and will then, I assume, flow into New Year’s celebrations next week. However whilst I am a huge fan of Christmas the New Year generally gets ushered in by watching TV, especially when I’m out here in the middle of nowhere with my boyfriend and parents. I’m not complaining as I honestly prefer it that way and I don’t think New Years is a big thing.
As for updates on day to day life I finished work on the 5 Dec and I got 4 day a week temp job starting on the 6 Jan which was confirmed whilst I was in Sweden (nice Christmas present) which means I’ll at least get some time to work on my jewellery on the side. That is part of the final plan I decided on, to find a part time job (however preferably 3 days a week) and try to make something of my dreams. It will be very hard to cut down on my income like that but if I don’t try this now I never will and I feel I would regret not trying far more than I would trying and failing.  I plan to give it a year to find out if its viable or not, thou I’m guessing it will take more than that to actually make any profit but hoping I should know by then if its likely to work or not.

But the main reason for this blog post is that I wanted to share a picture of the present I made for my dad. My granddad was very handy and used to make all sorts of pretty things. One of my favorites is rocking chairs he made from beer cans so that’s what I wanted to make. However I realised when starting that a: beer cans used to be wider, b: the metal used to be thicker and finally c: the bottom used to be flat but is now domed. The thing causing the biggest issue was b: the metal used to be thicker, as it made the chair flimsier. So whilst I am relatively proud of the outcome I do wish I had some old cans to work with.

 

I enjoyed making something other than jewellery as there are other things I'd like to move into that would generally also be larger so doing this felt useful. Also more importantly it felt nice to make something based on my grandfathers designs :)

Help Needed

So I am trying to name my shop on Etsy but all the obvious things are already taken (and my name is too hard to remember). I am therefore putting the query out there for good shop names. Any ideas?
Thinking something along the lines of mythology, fairy tales or second chances. The first two as its my inspiration for making jewellery and the third as this is my second chance when it comes to jewellery making :) Will likely stretch to fandoms if its one I'm passionate about and the name makes sense. Any ideas are welcome

Here are some I tried already:

LittleSilverLinings
FairytaleJewellery
SecondChances
Fairytale endings
ShootingStars
Hope
Happyendings
yggdrasil
LifeGoesOn
Phoenix
Fairytaleendings
Fenix
Saga
MySilverLinings

Quick update

To prove I have no intention of going radio silent again I thought I better do a quick post with some updates.

1: I got an FB page now :) Its called  Lina's Silver Linings but I wont post a link as I've not yet set the name in stone (so not decided on the actual page address).
2: I've applied for one Christmas market and am about to apply for one more. If any are confirmed I will obviously post about it *fingers crossed*
3: I'm looking at returning to Etsy but am cancelling my old account and starting a new one (it felt like a good idea considering my RA hiatus and all).

In other news I've finally been given notice at work (the whole team, not just me) :( so need to decided what on Earth I'm doing next. Hiding in bed and pulling the duvet over my head sadly doesn't seem like an option. I'm hoping this turns out to be a good thing but currently it doesn't really feel likely.