calendar check

The jewellist blog turns one today. Coincidentally, it’s also my 200th post. I guess that makes me waddling round like a one-year-old; I bet you can’t wait til I hit my terrible twos…

If you cast your mind back, (or if you haven’t bothered with the older blather, let me set you straight) you’ll recall that this is a blog that started out by sharing a gag order. With any luck the posts over the past year have escalated in tone, enough at least to deliver some actual content. However simple that content may be, it has managed to chalk up some small milestones. OK, so maybe more like miles-pebbles, if I may coin a phrase?

One such pebble was being asked by the subjects of this post (Daniela Hedman and Kajsa Lindberg) for permission to use it as promotional material. And on the flip side I was asked, very graciously in fact, to write a guest post on the Ponoko Blog (though it’s likely this request owed less to my blogging capabilities and more to my fondness for laser-cutting technologies).

In terms of my own narrative, I have shared plenty, including a modest series detailing how I got here – into jewellery making, that is – via my history of the jewellist.

During the past year I’ve written about competitions I’ve entered and exhibitions my works have made it into, as well as the curated shows that I was invited to contribute to (at last count I’ve had works in eighteen shows this year.) I shared the three workshops that I completed with visiting artists over the year, and my recent good fortune in picking up a grant to do a residency in England with one of them.

I have blogged about my projects; from curating my first exhibition, to how I set up my studio, which included a blow by blow account of what’s in it. In fact my sandblaster has become a recurring character, as have some collaborators and friends – like the bride, the artist and of course the wonderful TurboNerd.

And I’ve made advances to get y’all to join the party! How? By inviting everyone to come to Part B or to submit a review of a shopfront jewellery store; and to comment on the posts. I offer grateful thanks to everyone who came to a meet or who posted a comment throughout the year, it was lovely, and important to me, to share a dialogue with you.

Amongst a myriad of reasons, I blog to keep me writing, since (as the adage goes) practice makes perfect. Because of that, I’m unable to say that everything I have written here has been concisely put, well argued, or of interest to anyone but myself. But sometimes, just like a day spent in the studio making jewellery, the endeavour is its own reward.

I feel privileged to be able to make jewellery, and feel a responsibility to share how I go about doing this. But no one said you had to read it. So I thank you for reading.