Textiles

Working with the Fashion students on their pieces has taken me off on a tangent I hadn’t anticipated – using textiles in my jewellery. Bought a job lot of reclaimed kimono silks on ebay and have started incorporating those into designs. Both sets of Fashion pieces use the fabrics used in the clothes themselves, so they complement beautifully – it’s now really interesting to see how I can use the fabrics to contrast and conflict too. Everything’s taking on a Victorian/Oriental look, and feedback I’ve had so far after posting a few initial pictures on facebook is really positive.

To follow up:
Dig out mini sewing machine to investigate creating fold and textures in the fabric
Research further into Oriental design influences in Victorian Britain

Web developments...

The website is developing apace now – been working hard on it this week. Plenty of images have now gone on, including loads of promotion for the Fashion Studies project, and images of pieces evolving from the CONNECT collections. I’m also starting to pay close attention to the web statistics the subscription provides – I’ve added Code Jewellery to a number of arts & crafts directories, CIN included, and am now seeing most site referrals coming from these sources. Of course, have to realise that some of these will be fellow jewellers seeing who else has added themselves to the pot of competitors, but some will hopefully lead to contacts, selling opportunities and actual customers.

To follow up:

Once CONNECT is finished, assignments are out of the way and I’ve had a holiday, define ranges for online store based on Coast and Victoriana collections – launch by end of August.