Banksy Vs Bristol Museum

Had an amazing weekend, a friend of mine works for Banksy and got us in to the private view at the Banksy Vs Bristol Museum exhibition on Friday night. It was so good, his work was amazing and I have never been to a private view where I was more interested in the art than the free booze. I even went back the next day to see some of it again.

Happy Accident

My hubby accidently fell over one of my paintings and put his foot through the canvas. Luckily I didn't think much of the painting anyway so he wasn't in too much trouble! I am unable to throw anything away so obviously I've made it in to earrings!! They are all totally unique and bursting with colour and texture, I'm really pleased with them.

Homage to Frida

I'm doing the 365 project on Flickr and this was my photo for today. A homage to Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait with Cropped Hair. I didn't fancy chopping all my hair off (been there, done that, looked bloody awful) so my floor is strewn with ribbons which is quite fitting to my craft. I have started making fabric stuff again as they sell well at the fayres and I'm too skint to buy silver at the moment.

Fayre enough

It's that time of year again when we roll out the ol' market stall and get selling in the fresh air! As usual it'll a jumble of my jewellery, my little sisters Foundlings Jewellery, Big Sis' artwork and Mum's fab kids nits!

First event is the summer opening of Penzance's amazing art deco lido. Should be great with lots of stalls, music and food. Loads more festivals and fayres are lined up throughout the summer... keep you posted!

stuff squared

a mixture of old and new stuff. the cat is not for sale ... altough she did do a poo on the front room floor last night so p'raps...

ecoco

I've been bashing the life out of a water cylinder this week to make something for Abi to hang in her new shop window...here's a little detail

Spiritual cleanse

There's nothing more satisfying than melting down jewellery given to you by an old boyfriend! These are recycled copper pipe and silver taken from a bangle given to me by a Scottish boyfriend a long, long time ago ... he actually gave me two but I discovered, after blow torching the other one for what seemed like a week, was plated not real silver... tight git!

Personalised signet ring in silver

My signet ring gets so many complements, everyone spots it. Obviously I can stamp any letter and the punches I use are over 100 years old so they contain a little bit of history.... just added them to my etsy and folksy shops

bird poo

BOO! This morning as I stepped out of my house in to the almost spring sunshine a seagull decided to open its bottom and deposit a poo on me... apparently it is supposed to be lucky...

HOORAY! From today my stuff will be available at www.thegifttree.co.uk which is a lovely website full of interesting stuff. I'm slightly worried that any money that comes my way from them may be spent on their other products...they've got some great rings!

Had the most crazy day today... I found a stray dog in the back lane, she was very excitable and friendly. There was no name on the collar and no sign of anyone around. She came indoors and Moomin the cat made a very swift exit.

I decided to go and knock on a few doors to see if I could track down her owner. She was so strong and literally pulled me the length and breadth of Penzance! Finally managed to steer the dog back to my house only to discover I had locked my self out!!! Enlisted the help if my elderly neighbours to lend me a ladder and hold the dog whilst I hitched up my skirt and tried to climb the back gate...which is 7 foot high. I am 5 foot 2. I got an attack of the wobbles on top of the gate and my neighbour had to help me down. Rang my dad and he came to save the day!

Whilst my dad was dangling over the gate, a man with another dog came over and said that it might belong to someone who owns a shop in town so after a few phone calls I managed to get hold of the owner!

When she turned up to collect the dog, who was called Jessie, she recognised me from a Christmas jewellery fair I did where she had bought some of my earrings! Small world eh?

little stering silver studs with punched spots
recycled copper pipe and silver star earrings

beautiful sterling silver disc earrings
...

all are now available on www.fayewilson.etsy.com & www.folksy.com/shops/fayewilson

Made these little love heart earrings today ...



My cat Moomin helped with the photos

Made and finished lots of lovely pieces for Abi at Ecoco in Penryn and Lynsey at thegifttree.co.uk. Everything beautifully wrapped in recycled tissue paper with my new boxes.



Had an invitation today from old family friends to holiday in America at their house ... hmm, rainy and cold Cornwall or sunny and warm California ... better start saving my pennies!

box clever

Beautiful box labels designed by Scott Thompson of Rorschach

Thank you!

Scott designed a label for my recycled gift boxes today... they are amazing!!! I'll post a pic tomorrow. Thanks Scott, love you lots Big Bruv x x x

Decision time!

Came to a decision today... I'm going to concentrate on the metalwork side to things for a while. I enjoy sewing and people like the stuff I make but the copper and silver is much more of a challenge so I'm going to throw myself in to it whole heartedly! Gulp...

scratch studs

Met a new friend today, Abi is opening a new shop...Ecoco... very soon. And she will be stocking my stuff which is very exciting!

Here's one I made earlier...

I'm trying to use every last tiny bit of copper...
I use reward stickers as templates...makes me feel like a good girl

shaping and filing

cleaned up

heated until cherry red...

preparing the borax

painting on the borax

little stars are ready

wire on the jig

flux and solder...and potato...

leather mallet to anneal and shape

bees wax to protect and add a bit of shine

the finished earrings!

Tidy Workshop - still quite a messy mind

Spent a long time tidying my workshop today. It involved a lot of shrieking and flinging stuff across the room because of spiders, jeez, I'm such a girl. But I salvaged lots of cut off bits of copper that are tiny but still excitingly usable. Also finally got round to sticking up all the postcards I've collected over the years...now my walls are covered in Frida Kahlo, Karel Appel, Basquiat and Louise Maclary! Plus a few little pics of my own...

rosette corsage

star earrings made from old copper pipes

bangles made from plastic bottles and fabric

Corsage ruffly button brooch

Bashed with love... this heart brooch used to be a copper water pipe in a previous engagement... be the envy of your friends with a bit of old plumming pinned to you!

Little silver stars for little pink ears...

Help! I just can't stop making stuff out of things...

Fabric, copper, plastic, silver, you name it i'll make a piece of jewellery out of it.

I try to recycle as much as possible, and there's nothing I love more than turning an big old water pipe in to a weenie pair of earrings or chopping up a skirt to turn in to a corsage.

My next project is an old kitchen sink so watch this space!!