Looking for time, space and inspiration

Gosh it’s a year since armcandii’s blog was updated.  What have we been doing?

Well first of all we had to compromise our studio space when we had the kitchen redone last autumn.  As the ‘studio’ usually shares its space with the dining room and our working office and then as a makeshift kitchen too, it was impossible to make any new pieces.

We did manage to introduce two new collections though – Doodle and Sewn – and show them off at a Christmas open house and then in Fisherton Mill Gallery at the end of last year.

It’s time to start making again.  During this year we’ve been busy on Pinterest collecting inspiration in many forms including other people’s amazing creations.

What will we do next?  Watch this space....

Salisbury Art Trail

The bi-annual event is well underway with only 3 days left to discover local talent and their creations. See artists’ work in galleries, studios and in their homes with some offering workshops for you to participate in. Enjoy installation art, textiles, jewellery, photography, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, painting, glass and sculpture.

This is the first year armcandii is exhibiting in the trail and we can be found in Fisherton Mill - the south of England's largest independent art gallery – alongside other invited and resident artists. We are debuting collections ‘sewn’ and ‘doodle’ with existing collection ‘couture’.


Sewn: textural hand sewn wire jewellery with suspended vintage elements

Doodle: sculptural hand 'doodled' wire jewellery with vintage elements

 

Couture: statement hand knitted wire jewellery with vintage elements

The Mill is this perfect place to start the trail and fuel up on coffee and cake whilst you plan your route. Or drop in for a well earned lunch halfway through and stay for afternoon tea. The food alone is worth the visit.

And if you don’t manage to get to the Mill during the trail, you can still find us there after the 16th October or purchase via our website.

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Etsy and Flickr.

Circles and Treasuries

As designer/makers we not only have our own website but we also have a shop on Etsy.  For anyone who doesn’t know Etsy do check it out – it's a selling site where you can find anything hand made, many things vintage, supplies for many crafts as well as tips on running your business.

A recent app that has been added to Etsy is Circles.  This application allows you to add other Etsians to your ‘Circle’;  Etsy tell us:

‘Your circle is a great way to stay connected with other members of the Etsy community.  When you add someone to your circle, you can see their stories on your activity feed.  There are many ways to use Circles.  Some people you may want to add to your circle might be: friends, family, Etsy shops you like, or Etsians whose style you admire.’

Then there are Treasuries.  These are a hand-picked 'table' of favourite things or listings that fit into a particular category or colour which any Etsian can make.  In fact the opening page of Etsy always has a treasury listing and this is a way of your items being found quickly.

armcandii have featured in three treasuries recently:  Summer Fever featuring our Carnelian and Agate Cosmo bracelet, A Golden Season showing our Rose Quartz Cosmo bracelet and Lots To LUV about Sunday Mornings showcasing our Silver/Red SEWN necklace.

Thanks guys!



Too distracted to blog

Such a lot has been happening over the last couple of weeks that the blog has taken a back seat!  Not good.

First we’ve had the fig tree dug up – a sad, sad day.  It had grown very big, was too close to the house and in the way of the new door proposed for the kitchen so it had to go.  Such a shame as it was loaded with fruit.

The same day we had the Eucalyptus tree lopped and the Olive tree trimmed.  All are growing so well in our little suntrap patch!

Next we started to turn out of the kitchen ready for the refit in September.  We still have quite some way to go; compressing all we want to keep into our already overcrowded dining room cum office cum studio will be no mean feat.

Now today the guys are here mending the sash window in my bedroom.  Thank goodness it’s warm as not only has there been NO window actually in place but the front door has been wide open too.  And they have to come back tomorrow to finish the job.  It has been quite a big one, with repairs to the frame, a new panel of glass and now rehanging and weighting – oh and of course these jobs aren’t cheap.

In between this we’ve been busy making jewellery and adding it to our ETSY shop first, a little tweeting, a newsletter and keeping our Facebook page alive.

 

 

Silver doodle necklace

Silver red S E W N necklace

And also building ETSY treasuries and being featured in one (Summer Fever).  These really are fun and I find building them very therapeutic.  I made a conscious decision with the two I’ve built this week to take a different stand than usual.  So in the first one ‘More than a doodle’ I purposely included no jewellery, but concentrated on drawings, prints and photographs.

In the second one built this morning, I thought about things I like and that make me smile and produced ‘Birds of a Feather’.  Birds and things to do with birds feature in this one.  I just had some fun with it.

Hope you like them both.  If you want to keep up with our mad and serious creative moments, please follow us here, on Facebook and on Twitter @armcandii.

charming new collection

We’ve launched a new collection – Cosmopolitan - inspired by one of our commissions.  Last year we were approached by a friend’s husband to make a bracelet for Claire for her 30^th birthday.

She’d fallen in love with the Links charm bracelets but felt that ‘everyone had one’ so she would like something different.

From that we developed a ‘charm’ bracelet made from semi-precious beads and sterling silver links and toggles.  We have been experimenting with them since and now feel we have some interesting ones to show you as you’ll know if you’ve read our newsletter or visited our website!

Starting with this one made from large purple crackle Agate round beads.  The first ‘charm’ we have chosen to adorn this with is a bead the same as the bracelet.  We’ve also added a recycled element with a papiѐr maché heart, a sterling silver bead and a further glossy round recycled purple bead that contrasts so well with the Agate beads.

crackle Agate

All of the new collection will have a dangling charm made from the same bead that makes up the bracelet; some like this one will also have a recycled element in the form of an additional dangling bead charm ... but only where we have something suitable in our stock of recycled beads.  View collection  Shop collection

Cherry Quartz, vintage beads, Sponge Coral, Ruby Quartz, Rose Quartz, Aventurine & Amazonite

Amazonite

armcandii now showing at Fisherton Mill

Hooray, we're installed! You can now 'try before you buy' if you head over to Fisherton Mill in Salisbury...

couture necklace

What weekends were made for

We're so excited...our jewellery will soon be available at Fisherton Mill. 

hand knitted wire cuff embellished with vintage pieces & freshwater pearls

For those of you who are not familiar with the Mill, it is the south of England's largest independent art gallery and features the work of over 300 artists and designer/makers. Formerly a grain mill built in 1880, it now houses gallery space, studios and a fabulous cafe.

It is situated in Salisbury, Wiltshire and definitely worth a visit. Think lazy Saturday afternoon...punctuated with fabulous food in a building that wouldn't look out of place on Grand Designs, filled with beautiful objects to browse if you can drag yourself away from the paper...you're already there aren't you?!

Opening times:
10-5pm - Tuesday - Friday
9.30-5.30pm - Saturday

The jewellery or the website...which came first?

Well...the jewellery came first in armcandii's case & dictated the need for a website - an essential marketing tool for any designer/maker who wants to reach the masses. 

But what I'm really asking is which comes first on a daily basis? Which is priority? Both need each other after all. I'm constantly torn because I'm passionate about design & can express myself through both mediums. I can lose myself for hours in either...fortunate in some respects, because I can design our website to look & do exactly what we want, but the jewellery doesn't make itself...

And the point of all this deliberating? Our recently revamped website. Many hours well spent showcasing our current collections: couture, celebration & confetti. It's worth a look, if only to see where I used the hours I could have been re:designing vintage jewellery!

Getting ready to Promenade

We are busy getting ready for the Promenade exhibition - organised by Plain Arts for member artists; you can see all types of art from painting, photography, textile and jewellery displayed in shops around the town.

armcandii will share space in The Lighting Workshop in Catherine Street, Salisbury, no 19 (the pink dot!) on the street trail map. You can catch candii there from 11th - 18th September.

mary portas, handmade needs you!

Social networks are buzzing with excitement as designer/makers get behind uk handmade's campaign to enlist the help of Mary Portas (mary queen of shops) in our quest to bring our handmade goods to the masses.


She is the 'chosen one'...a modern day 'Jim'll Fix It' if you like, but with considerably better hair & far more style! Will she help us? We're counting on it.

For more information on the campaign & how you can help spread the word on Facebook, Twitter & the Mary Portas forum, see the uk handmade blog.

vintage goodwood

Well the headbands for Vintage Goodwood are coming on fine. One is finished & the second will be by tomorrow. Watch this space...

see the finished headband on Etsy

vintage goodwood glories

The greatly anticipated Vintage Goodwood Festival is almost here. There'll be music & fashion from bygone eras to feast your eyes & ears on.

see the finished headband on Etsy

And right now we are busy making two head bands for the cocktail waitresses at the Silver Rocketeer trailer bar at Vintage at Goodwood next weeked.

These armcandii treasures are worked on a knitted wire base embroidered with vintage trinkets and new freshwater pearls. they'll look simply stunning on shaz and amy as they entertain the visitors to the bar.