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!

Jewellery isn't always precious metals ...

Whilst jewellers usually make adornments from precious metals and gems, those attending Kinder Aggugini's show at last week's London Fashion Week had a surprise in store.

Guests found these 'handbag orchids' on their seats! According to Gemma Hayward in The Independent, Kinder felt the orchid 'best symbolised the style antithesis' that is his signature in the collection. This flower's mix of 'gritty roots' and 'charming chic blossom' fit perfectly with Kinder's prevailing inspiration for his designs - a sort of 'if Sid Vicious had married Coco Chanel'.

The handbag orchids were made for Aggugini by Creative Director Ian Drummond and his team at Indoor Garden Design who also decorated the cat walk with amazing Vanda orchids.

Wedding bouquet glitters with jewels

Reported in today's Guardian is the story of one girl's DIY wedding at a fraction of the cost of most. Interestingly there seems to be no mention of what the actual cost was!

But there are some interesting ideas. As well as asking firends to make them presents instead of buying wedding gifts, Momtaz Begum-Hossain created her 'ultimate wedding extravaganza' big day from headpiece to cake.

And here's here wedding bouquet created from jewellery donated by friends.

I give you my heart

From ancient times the heart was thought to be the source of all human emotions and much later became associated with the emotion of love. So it's not surprising that heart symbols are automatically linked to Valentine's Day.

It's not clear when the heart symbol became shaped like it is. Some think that the heart symbol came from early attempts by people to draw the organ they had never seen.

Now it is used to signify love and romance and is therefore linked to Valentine's Day.

Recycling vintage porcelain

Annie Banian uses 'shards of discarded tea-services' according to 'Intelligent Life' to create her refined and unusual jewellery.

For comissioned work customers bring her ceramics for her to transform into jewllery and she claims almost every piece comes with a story. From a grandmother's cherished cup to a favourite cake stand. Annie turns the momento into something cusomters can wear.

She cuts porcelain with a handsaw if the china is valuable. Her creations range from rings made from tea-cup handles, to bangles from the rim of a cup, to china pendants hung on a string or two of pearls.

Annie claims that 'porcelain is surprisingly robust' and expects her creations to last for easily as long as the original pieces did!