We're Getting Creative

Hello All,

Welcome back!

Here at the Amethyst studio we are once again putting our thinking caps on, designing and creating new pieces.

Sara has been hard at work making new sparkly jewellery creations using her beautiful wire wrapping technique - the new rings she has made are just fabulous - See below -  and pre sale orders have flooded in. We soon hope to have these available through our Misi store - the link for the shop is found at the side of the main blog posts but you can click HERE for a quick link too.

Wire Wrapped necklaces by Sara Young 2014

 

These pieces will look stunning with summer wear, evening wear, party wear - you name it! 

Wire wrapped ring by Sara Young 2014

This ring is one of several new creations, pre orders are coming in thick and fast! 




Our focus at the moment is on getting new summer stock ready for the Milton Keynes Museum Children and Families weekend which is being held on 14th and 15th June this year.


The Children's Literature/ fairy tale theme is a great excuse to make some fabulous costume pieces and for Paula to get in touch with her inner child and create some themed art pieces too

This piece - The Queen of Hearts is being considered for producing as prints -

Would you like to see this produced as a print? - let us know. 

we welcome any feedback you might like to give us about these ideas, so please feel free to leave us a comment or get in touch with us via the store if you have any requests.




We will have a stall at the event, which Sara and Paula are organising through our sister company Cerulean Sky Ltd, Stall holder enquiries are welcome!)  we would love to see you there so come and introduce yourself - we would love to meet you :)

Until next time..

The Amethyst Team x

Merry Christmas!!

Hello All!!

We've 'taken 5' from the hustle and bustle in the studio this week to bring you more news and updates from the Amethyst world. There has barely been time to breathe, de-brief and scratch our...noses, since the big event at Bletchley Park this summer and the holiday season is upon us once more.

As ever we will be taking our place among the stall holders at the Milton Keynes Museum's Victorian Christmas Fair this December. Starting this Friday, stall holders from around the area will be gathering there each weekend to tempt and delight you with their amazing wares!!

Be sure to come along and have a look; not just to see the magnificent artifacts and main museum delights, but also to meet some of their dedicated volunteer staff who will all be getting into the Christmas spirit. You never know who you might bump in to - Mr Scrooge perhaps? or even HM Queen Victoria, who has been know to grace us with her stern presence over the last few years!

The museum also offers traditional roast chestnuts from the working forge, where you can also try your hand at Blacksmithing, mulled wine and fabulous gifts for your children when they visit Santa in his grotto! You can find out more about that Here- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Milton-Keynes-Museum/101231029955872?fref=ts

This is also our opportunity to do some shameless, unadulterated pimping of the benefits of shopping for your Christmas gifts outside of the high street this Christmas. There are so many great and unique crafts and pieces being created by talented artisans nationwide, and all of them need your support to be able to keep going. The main reason our customers give when they return year after year is that they are able to buy one-off, bespoke, unique gifts for their friends and family, safe in the knowledge that their gift is not going to be duplicated, and that they don't have to compromise on getting what they want. Most of the stall holders take commissions, so will make items to order if they don't already have what you want.

If the Museum really isn't your scene, but you still want to find something special for your loved ones, come along to the Tecton Centre in Fenny Stratford - they are currently exhibiting and selling a wide variety of crafts including jewellery, furniture, sculpture and original paintings by some extremely talented local artists. Their Facebook page -
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tecton-Art-Centre/201580786688381?fref=ts -  has all the details you need to find them and shows just a few of the fabulous item they have on display and for sale.

Some of our pieces are now being exhibited and sold through the gallery at the Tecton Centre, these two original paintings by Paula Harris are available to buy there, and very soon limited edition, signed prints of these will be available too.

No Place Like Home. By Paula Harris - 2013. 

Daughter of Eve. By Paula Harris - 2011. 

Edwardian Style Necklace,
 Designed and Created by Sara Young 2013

Sara has also been very busy with her latest designs and has created some really beautiful pieces for our customers this year. The picture above is just one of her latest creations which, I'm sure you'll agree is among her best work yet and will grace any outfit throughout Christmas and beyond! More of her work is also available at the gallery and of course on our stall at the museum fair.







Also joining in the fun (or rather, crashing the party!) at the museum and the gallery are the inimitable Fidgets! - https://www.facebook.com/fidgetsfun?ref=hl - There are new arrivals at Fidgets Farm every day and they are all VERY excited about finding new homes with new families over the Christmas period. The latest gang to arrive are settling in nicely and Widget is showing them around. Fidget Santa is there too, making sure his naughty/nice list is fully up to date, so Widget is on his best behaviour!

Fidgets -  By Paula Harris - 2013

We hope you can all join us at some point over the festive season, and look forward to seeing all our customers, old and new, very soon!

Best Wishes

The Amethyst Team!

Bletchley Park Event Round-up, and Cause for Congratulations!

Photograph By Paula Harris. August 2013

Hello All,

We hope you have all had a fabulous Summer, and enjoyed the intermittent sun as much as possible. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that it's not quite over yet!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who attended, participated in and helped with the Bletchley Park 'Summer on the Lawn' event. It was a huge success and the majority of the feedback we have had has been extremely positive. The wheels are already in motion to get organised for next year and we hope to see an even better turn out next Summer.

We are still awaiting the final figures for the amount of money raised for and donated to The Bletchley Park Trust and Open Door charities through attendance and participation in the event - we will update you when we get this information.

We would also like to congratulate our clients Jules and Myles Cooper on their recent wedding!

The happy couple were married on August 31st 2013, and Amethyst Sky was privileged to be commissioned to create the bride's bouquet, posies, corsages and button holes, and even a topper for their wedding cake!

The Bride was keen to have something bespoke and beautiful for herself and her wedding party, and after some initial consultations Sara Young designed these fabulous arrangements:

Bouquets, Posies, Button holes and
corsages designed and made
 by Sara Young. 2013.

In her brief to us, Jules asked for a tear-drop shaped Bride's bouquet arrangement (Centre), with a contemporary edge.The bouquet consisted of deep red roses and delicate white feathers, and was interspersed with vintage brooches;some dated back as far as 1918.

Jules also told us that both she and her husband to be Myles liked steam-punk and vintage style, and asked if we could incorporate this into our designs with out being too 'left of centre'

We were only too happy to oblige, as we both have a soft spot for this style too!
It is fair to say that we had lots of fun designing and creating these accessories, perhaps even a little too much fun!


For the bridesmaids, Jules chose to combine long stemmed Calla Lillie's with a red centrepiece, which was then draped with crystals to complement the bridesmaids dresses. Simple white rose arrangements were chosen for the Mothers of the Bride and Groom to complement any outfit they chose to wear.

Corsages for the Mothers of the Bride and Groom

The button holes were crafted using simple flowers, but as you can see form the picture, the steam punk element was incorporated here too, with wire wrapping and tiny cogs detailing some of the foliage.

The cake topper that Jules chose was also designed to echo the Bride and Groom's accessories. In the bouquet, tiny crystal beads were fixed over the flowers in the little bouquet, and steam-punk cogs were fixed on to the top hat

By all accounts the couple, their families and guests all had a fabulous time, and we were privileged to be able to help make something beautiful for Jules and Myles on their big day.

If you would like us to create something similar for you, please get in touch either through the blog comments section below, or via our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/AmethystSky2012 and we will do our very best to help you. 

Wedding Photography by Jeff Whiting:
you can see more of his fabulous work here >
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/technojeff/

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!

Exciting News From The Amethyst Sky Studio.

Today, we are excited to be able to announce the latest news from the Amethyst Sky studio.

This coming year we will be involved in several fabulous Arts, Craft, Vintage and Handmade fairs, not least of which will be the 'Summer On The Lawn' event, which is taking place at Bletchley Park on 3rd and 4th of August 2013!

We have been excitedly (and a little nervously) taking stock of all of the items that we have - both those for sale and those currently in production - and talking with our sister company Cerulean Sky Ltd (who are helping to organise the event!) about the marketing side of things.

The last fair we took part in was held at Milton Keynes Museum and covered 3 weekends in the run up to Christmas 2012. This event was a great success and, as you can probably imagine, the amount of visitors that the location attracted also brought many people to our stall.

The Christmas Craft Fair which is held there each year offers unique, handmade Christmas gift ideas for anyone looking for that special something that is a 'little bit different'. It seems though that last year, due to increased promotion of the event, the expected footfall at the venue was slightly underestimated, which was great!

However, this event seriously depleted our stock to the point where demand almost outstripped our supply.
This is an enviable position to be in to say the least, and we were astonished by the amount of sales we were making. Luckily, we were able to create more pieces during the event as we had already decided to make this event our priority for these 3 weeks, and had no other clients work or commission pieces booked in.

Having discussed the upcoming Bletchley Park event with our marketing team, it has come to light that the expected footfall at Summer On The Lawn  is expected to be somewhere in the region of 2.5 to 3 thousand people over the whole weekend.

This is fantastic, and not entirely unexpected since the venue is so fabulous and attracts many visitors, for varying reasons, all year round. However, this has presented us with a few small - and lovely - problems. How much stock do we need? and, how much should we take with us?

As a result, we are furiously working on new pieces to add to our summer collection, and putting extra effort in to completing works currently in progress. We have given ourselves some quite ambitious deadlines and goals for the next couple of months.This is so much easier cope with when you are as filled with excited anticipation as we are, and love to engage in the work that you do!

Cerulean Sky Ltd have also informed us that, along side the Arts, Crafts and Handmade goods on sale at the event, there will also be a farmers market, children's entertainment, re-enactors and demonstrations of Heritage artisan crafts by local practitioners. So if you are looking for a great family day out in the summer holidays, look no further!

One of the other participants this year will be Nick Packham, a local Smithy who is well know to us at the Amethyst studio. He will be demonstrating his blacksmithing skills for visitors and will be selling some of his fabulous sculptural work  - you can see some of his pieces here: http://www.ngp-artist-and-blacksmith.co.uk
(Nick is also an assistant curator of the Tecton Gallery in Milton Keynes - go check it out if you can, you won't regret it!) http://www.tectongallery.com

If you are interested in booking a stall at the event, either for your own crafts or for your produce, get in touch with our marketing team at:
http://www.cerulean-sky.co.uk - they will be able to send you more information and an application form to book yourself a stall!

You can follow us on twitter via @AmethystSkyArts, where we will also be posting updates and promoting our new pieces whenever possible.

Look our for updates and more information about the event on the Bletchley Park website too:
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/calendar/event_detail.rhtm?cat=special&recID=680644

Most importantly - if you can - do come long to the event, we would love to meet you.

P
x

Finding inspiration in a sack full of old rocks?...

The designers at the studio got together last week to decide on our marketing strategy for this year, assisted by our sister company Cerulean Sky (www.cerulean-sky.co.uk)  who specialise in this area - go check them out, they're fab!.The meeting turned out to be fruitful, inspiring and (believe it or not) somewhat exciting - We are looking forward to a bright future, and some exciting prospects for all concerned if we play our cards right in 2013.

 We also took this opportunity to go through a huge bag of old stones and rocks which was very kindly donated to us by some industry friends who no longer wanted them. We have had this since before Christmas 2012, and have barely given it much thought - except when one of us stubbed our toe on the way past bag which was plonked unceremoniously out in the corridor. The stone is mostly still in its raw, unpolished form, and a quick cursory look through the bag when we received it resulted in the conclusion that the majority of it would be used for texture substrate on canvass pieces.

To our delight and surprise, we found it contained some fairly large pieces of Lace Agate, Carnelian, Tigers Eye, Rose Quartz, Bloodstone and much more -some of which we couldn't identify, so if any of you out there are rock hounds who might be able to help out with this -please do get in touch!.

Well, as you can imagine, the excitement level quickly reached a fever pitch, and we began sorting, scrubbing, ooo - ing, ahh-ing and OH - MY - GOD! - ing with every new discovery. Some of the bigger pieces were selected for polishing and have been set aside for inclusion in our new summer collection. Other pieces were so beautiful in their raw form, that we decided to get to work with them straight way: see what you think...

This piece of bloodstone is around 2 inches long and, we think would be suitable for a man or woman to wear, the wire wrapping is edgy, yet still classical. It will compliment any style, from the BoHo to the LBD, and the sliding leather thong means it can be worn at any length.

This Aventurine has been wire wrapped, with a small spiral design to accentuate it's almost hexagonal natural shape - it has been hung from a very simple tiger tail wire necklace, which has been strung with classical silver beads, which won't detract the eye from the main stone.  It's toggle clasp finishing makes it easy to open and close.

This piece was made by me (Paula) and is probably my favourite so far - this was my first attempt at wire wrapping, and creating designs with the wire. I chose to do another spiral design as it is simple, yet effective and complements this piece of Amethyst very well. Sara has been (patiently) teaching me the finer points of jewellery design and construction and I have to say, I am very pleased with the results.

 This stone, in its raw form, has presented us with a real challenge. More usually, we purchase stock rock that is shaped, polished and drilled, ready to use in our designs in a finished form. It has forced us to think outside the box, which can only be a good thing. The stone itself is beautiful nonetheless and will make for some stunning pieces for our new summer collection.

If you like any of our pieces and want to get in touch, please feel free to comment below, or contact us through the Folksy store - www.folsky.com/shops/amethystsky .

xx

A quick introduction to Amethyst Sky.

Hello there! and welcome to our brand new blog.

 Here we will be showing off some of our latest work and designs, as well as keeping you up to date with all of the goings-on in the Amethyst Sky studio's. We will be posting pictures and links to both things we love and things we sell, and hopefully we will have a few guest bloggers joining us soon to talk about their work, their experiences and what they do to promote their work. 

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?

u=http%3A%2F%2Fhadrianus.centerblog.net%2F67605-andre-kohn&h=YAQFvrAI3

The painting above is one of the latest works by resident artist Paula Harris: 

I was inspired by the work of Andre Kohn, who originally painted a series of  vintage Chanel pieces ( see link above) - This one in particular caught my attention and I decided that I would try my hand at at using a palette knife to paint with instead of a brush - this is only my second attempt at painting this way and I have to say, I am quite pleased with the results. I get a real sense of satisfaction from being able to push the paint over the canvass rather than direct it with the brush. 

This painting will NOT be available in our shop, as I fear it may infringe on copyright laws ( even though it is by no means an exact copy), and also because, I would quite like to keep it. Sorry.

My first palette knife painting is this one:

 

Which is available to buy in our online shop : folksy.com/shops/amethystsky  I also have plenty of ideas for new pieces now, thanks to experimenting with this way of painting, so if this style of art appeals to you, keep an eye out for more in the future.

Sara Young, our resident Jewellery Designer and artist has also been working her fingers to the bone (Almost literally! - jewellers wire can be a harsh task mistress sometimes.) creating some fabulous new jewellery pieces. This statement piece set, pictured above, is one of my absolute favourites (She won't let me keep this one though, :( . ) The Crystal and Blue piece below is another absolute triumph - it looks fantastic in the picture, but even better when you get to actually wear it!

 

If you like these, and would like to see more, follow the link above to our shop, and see what you think.

We regularly attend and sell our items at craft fairs, flea markets and bazaars. This is by far our favourite way to market our work, as we get to meet the people who will be enjoying our pieces, and find out more about them. We will also be posting here about any upcoming events which we will be attending, and letting you know how to get there, and any costs that are involved for entry to venues, parking etc, so  if you want to come along and see us keep an eye out for our regular updates. 

We hope that you find something you like in our store, but if not - and you have something more specific or personal in mind, we are happy to consider commissions. You can get in touch with us through the store, or comment here and we will see what we can do for you. 

Happy Shopping!!

Paula xx