Congratulations to Sandra Mayr, who correctly answered the question of "what is/are the colour(s) of my cat Charlie?" to win a pair of earrings.  She will receive an email from me shortly and be posted her prize as soon as I receive her address.

The answer in case you're wondering is - black and white.  If you take a look at the Charlie cat earrings and pendant, there's a picture of him to see in all his cuteness!

The popularity of this hand dyed anodised aluminium jewellery has been such that I have experimented further and will be launching a good range in the next few weeks.  I have made some different coloured hearts:

On top of that I have managed to marry silver studs with the aluminium.  No mean feat when the aluminium can't be soldered.  This experiment during the last week resulted in a pair of studs that I am over the moon with (and you'll see how apt that turn of phrase is in a moment)

The effect I generated on the surface led me to think of lightening,  but a few suggestions have been forthcoming - satellite, being one - but my favourite of all is Eclipse.  When this range of hand dyed aluminium stud earrings are officially launched then I have a strong feeling that this will be their Collection Name. 

However, before they go 'live' - then I'm always open to suggestions and would be delighted to hear your thoughts - so please let me know via the comments box below.

Lesley x

Some lovely changes have happened in my studio this week.  Knowing that I will be adding to my jewellery ranges in this coming year, I have been totally aware that lack of space has been my biggest enemy.

Despite having a 15ft x 9ft studio, initially when I planned the studio I thought it would be a lovely place for visitors to come and see the jewellery, but have found that the insurance premiums would be ludicrous if I allowed customers to visit.  I had filled nearly one wall with display cases which I used merely for storage and you can see from the image below that the amount of workspace I had left (after buying lots of equipment and tools!) to work in was about 1 ft square. 

So, I instructed a master carpenter to build me a new workbench.  (After he'd helped me move the 4 cabinets of course!) and in one day my studio has been transformed.

This means I will have a lot more room to be making my jewellery - but I do strongly suspect that it won't take me long to fill the space up with new equipment.  New Kiln, cutters, lathe etc etc.  8ft sounded quite a long bench, but I'm sure it won't seem that much when I'm using it - what do you think?