Shop Number 2, Clandestine plans In The Making (Shhh!) and New Works In Progress Too!

Where does the time go?

Artwork By Paula Harris - March 2013. 

We have been ultra busy in the Amethyst Studio this last fortnight. We have been busily creating new items for our summer collection, working on new canvasses and drawings for the original art works, and we have found a second online outlet for our wares.
Our work will now be available through our MISI store, you can see some of the items we have listed here on the widget at the side of this blog page (although please bear with us, the stock available on there is limited at the moment)

There are some exciting prospects in the pipeline for us and some of our fellow artists and crafty types over the next 12 months - we will be expanding the empire and edging ever closer toward world domination, although we can't go into too much detail about that right now,because the plans are all very hush-hush and secret so we'll keep it just between you and me for now, okay? :)
We will  however, be looking to include here some guest blogs and interviews from some of our friends who's work we know and love - so keep an eye out for that coming soon...

In the mean time, here are just some of the new works in progress and pieces we will be working on over the next few months

We have been racking our little designers brains to come up with some items that are more appealing to those who like accessories, but don't want anything too girly or bling. So, we are looking at designing a range around Hematite, Wood, Obsidian etc - incorporating a more masculine feel and hopefully appealing to a broader audience

Paula Harris - 2013

Like everyone else, we are sick of the cold dreary days and are all looking forward to the summer. Our thoughts have turned to warm beaches and relaxing in the sunshine. This bracelet is made using elastic so that it will fit larger wrists, and is easy to get on and off. It is great for beach wear and would look great on tanned skin.....

Paula Harris - 2013

Continuing the summer theme we are looking at using warm colours along side cooler silver and chrome tones. This wire wrapped piece will look great with a Maxi dress or gypsy top and is the epitome of boho style.

The copper coil necklace is evolving, we think that the addition of the focal piece has made this piece really pretty, again this style of necklace will complement practically any outfit and will look great against a tan. 

Sara and I have also been working our little socks making arrangements and new pieces for the summer events which are coming our way - the stock is growing daily! some of our new art pieces ( shown below) are already attracting attention on Facebook and Twitter, so we hope that when they are finished they will be sold in no time. 

This beautiful lady is going metallic! Best viewed in person, you can see the gold and silver high lights in her hair and the metallic purple background sets the whole thing off. She is set to be finished before the next blog so we should have a finished product to show you by then. 

Sara Young - 2013

This canvass is started with an acrylic swirl background - some have suggested that the foreground needs to be a TARDIS - let us know what you think......

Paula Harris - 2013

Paula Harris - 2013

I have been playing with some sketches  and stencils (exploring a street art theme - watch this space for more on that!) and have framed some older pieces to bring them a little more up to date 

Paula Harris - 2013

  

Paula Harris 2013

This is a small clue to the next piece that I will be creating, again - keep an eye on the blog for updates and new work.

Paula Harris - 2013

Along with all of this, we are including some fabric crafts in to our repertoire, but that is a whole other blog topic...

New Events, New Toys, New Items And A Give Away In The Folksy Store!!

Things are moving very quickly for us all at the Amethyst Studio's this year, and this week has been no exception. Not only do we have the fabulous Summer on the lawn event at Bletchley Park to look forward to, we have also been invited to take part in two more craft events - both being held at Milton Keynes Museum.

So to celebrate our progress, we have decided to have a little give-away at the Folksy shop! www.folksy.com/shops/AmethystSky
The first 5 people to 'favourite' our shop will receive this lovely Tree of Life pendant as a thank you gift.

All you have to do is follow the link above to our shop, click 'Favourite' and then send us a message through the store (There is an option to contact the seller on the side of the page) either giving us your address to send the pendant to, or an email address where we can contact you for further details. 

Good luck! x

In June this year the museum will be hosting a Country Fair, which will incorporate lots of different types of crafts, including ours, and we will also be attending the Victorian Christmas Market again in December. We couldn't be more excited!

If you would like to keep up to date with the museum and it's events do have a look at their face book page. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Milton-Keynes-Museum

There are several new art works in progress too (which I will be updating the blog with later in the week) and Sara has been playing with a new little anvil, which was kindly made for her by Nicholas Packham who's work and art you can find here: http://www.ngp-artist-and-blacksmith.co.uk/

We recently acquired some copper wire and Sara has been working on some prototype designs and learning how to work with the metal and the hammers to produce more stunning pieces to add to our collection.
Below is an example of one of these prototypes -

I personally think that their addition to our collection will be amazingly popular - I love them already!

Amethyst Studio Retrospective

This weekend at the Amethyst studio we have been sitting in quiet (and not so quiet) contemplation about this past year, and how we got to where we are today.

 Sara and I have been in business partnership for a year this month, albeit from a very slow and cautious start. The 'leap of faith' that we took – going from being employees at the same company, doing jobs we weren't invested in, to starting out on our own - was filled with trepidation and fraught with doubts. We both have mouths to feed and bills to pay, and the possibility of this whole thing being a catastrophic failure was daunting to say the least.

Nevertheless, the idea of being independent of an employer, and making our own decisions about our futures was too exciting an opportunity to pass up. We had some back up from industry friends and most of the important people in our lives supported the idea. So we rolled up our sleeves, adopted the ‘Feel the Fear, But do It Anyway’ school of thought, and jumped off the precipice.

Since then the studio has gone from strength to strength, and we have found that – not only do people like our work – they have also commissioned us to do more personal pieces for them. I painted this piece for the Christmas 2012 craft fair held at Milton Keynes Museum:

It was originally intended as an advent calendar, complete with a polymer clay Santa, climbing a ladder numbered 1 - 24 on the rungs, but it wasn’t finished in time so the piece was put up for sale as a 3 tier folk house. The painting attracted the attention of one lady, who subsequently brought me a picture of her daughters new home, and asked me to paint one for her as a Christmas present ( complete with her 3 grandchildren looking out of the windows!) :

The finished piece was adjusted a little to suit the clients taste, and the little girl in the top window was moved to the middle right window (a request which wasn’t part of the original brief, but was easily changed)  This was one of my most satisfying pieces to date as, although the subject matter was a little odd and it was a real challenge to get all of the roof angles and lines right , I had created a bespoke piece of original art which was personal to the client and all within a deadline of 1 week! Additionally, the client has been in touch with me through email since Christmas to let me know that her daughter  and  grandchildren  were thrilled with the gift – this is almost reward enough in itself, as it is always nice to know that your work is appreciated.

Sara also had a few commission pieces to put together for Christmas gifts – these pieces were mostly created during the lull’s when we weren’t serving customers at the fair – It certainly pays to have your kit with you sometimes! – and I’m sure you will agree, these were going to make for fabulous gifts:

We have also been venturing in to the realms of fabric crafts recently too,  and yet another commission came Sara’s way when she was asked to make this stunning ring pillow for a friend’s wedding:

Last week, another commission was requested from a bride to be, who has decided that she doesn't want flowers to feature in her wedding at all, so Sara has come up with some very exciting designs for her bouquet, the bridesmaids posies and the button holes for the gents. She has also had some great ideas for table centrepieces so keep an eye out for those on the blog in the next few months too.  

Looking back over this last year, we have had some ups and downs and it hasn't been smooth sailing by any stretch of the imagination - we learned quickly that getting to where we want to be is going to be a Sisyphean task, luckily though –

thus far - the up's have been more predominant than the downs – and so the fight continues….