Acid Butterflies ready to fly

I have had a really odd weekend. I worked massive overtime to get a commissioned project finished (10 personalised double stranded rune bracelets) and it left me exhausted, plus I helped my lovely friends Maya and Petra move house.

However, I thought I should find time to pop these butterflies up here. Hand crafted and inspired by tiffany lamps, raves and acid colours these guys are mounted on my standard bails. 

 Unusually for me they are exclusively on sale at Minerva beads and crafts in Glastonbury, although I am going to do some interesting variations for my own experiments soon. I have images of lovely fine chains and semi precious stones, maybe some pearls as well.

The technique for these was lifted directly from my Ghostie pins and pendants. That in itself was lifted from shadow work textile technique.

 I have lots to do this week, mostly involving orders and shipping them out. Plus my usual markets and I am savagely attacking the clutter in my house. In the new year I am going back to work to build up some funds to reinvest into Purky Products. I am starting to plan next years products and have high hopes.

 I was a bit naughty and gave my DH one of his Christmas presents early this evening. Its an electronic cigarette that dispenses a dose of nicotine without all the tar and bad stuff. The end lights up and it gives out water vapour to give the sensation of really smoking. Whilst strictly I do not approve of him being a nicotine addict at least its not as toxic as proper smoking.

I appear to have run out of photographs so shall bring my paragraphs to a conclusion. Catch you later guys xx

Purky experiments

Double posting because I need to put some more out there!

I am experimenting with smaller things at the moment using my canes. Also trying to develop some niche products :)

and here are some bookmarks :P

I have lots to say at the moment but I come to sit down and type and nothing appears. Quite an odd sensation because in the flesh I am gregarious and verbose.

On Tuesday I popped into Minerva Beads in Glastonbury to chat to my friend Tabatha and catch up on some craftiness. Feel better for a bit of an arty recharge. We had choux buns and tea whilst discussing beadiness :)


Going to pop off now and promise to post a bit more frequently :)

Wincanton Farmers Markets

Hola!

I am back sort of, trying to get some more discipline in my professional life. I traded at the farmer's market in my home town and it was quite interesting.

For the first time the organisers intergrated crafty folk into the mix and the atmosphere was very pleasant.


I have actually got photos and details of all the crafty folk involved and voila!

 Tamsin G - lovely lady makes crocheted items and much more. Currently has a shop in Wincanton High Street.

Joy and Emma, a dynamic duo who work wonders with pork :D

Veronica is a talented glass artist whom I think is based in Frome. 

Rowan Meade is an artisan choclatier from Street. www.rowanchocolatier.co.uk

Mary Straker is another crafty lady, catch her at www.marystraker.co.uk

Thursday? THURSDAY?

It might strike you that a common theme of this blog other than Purkiness is my inability to cope with the space time continuam. I love time and the way it elapses erratically, sometimes flying by and other times dragging. Just part of the cosmic humour that envelops us all.

However, its Thursday? When did that happen. Mister Loaf was frankly amazing in concert as was his support act Imelda May. Cardiff is a lovely city and my DH and I had a brilliant time up there.

Now I am back, there is some serious studio catching up to do and all of a sudden there is only 23 days until Christmas, or even less time until Yule.

So au revoir for now.

Pictures and Purkys to follow.

H xx

Just a quickie

Hi guys, just finished the Hogswatch weekend and going away for a few days in Cardiff. My dear Phil Cat will miss us but he has friends coming to feed him. Plus the Gerbil army will be suitably catered for.

I promise you new photos and general excitement upon my return.


Much Love and Purkiness

HJP x

Updates on a Wednesday?

Well, at last we have some images! Hurray everybody, I forsee parades and general happiness.

Most of them are now on the Purky Products facebook group and lots of them are in my Picasa album.

Whats been occurring? Well Purky is a small independent business and frankly its rather hard at the moment. So rather than allow myself to get down I have been working really hard on bringing out new products and refining my skills.

I have also been visiting new venues and meeting lovely new folks. I managed to pull everything together and create a confectionary collection for Chocolate Sundae   which seemed really popular. I enjoyed doing something a tad more whimsical than usual and I learned all about chocolate which was amazing. Did you know that raw chocolate is really good for you? Something to do with anti-toxidants and endorphin boosting. Probably the deliciousness helps as well.

I also attended the christmas fete for Rode's school between Trowbridge and Frome which was a completely different feel for me. For a start it was indoors and quite late, starting at 7pm and finishing at 10pm. I dont think they have a webpage but heres a snapshot of the stand.

Later today I am going to make some Mokume Nendo brooches in the form of doves and some other bits and pieces as well. I would quite like to put up a tutorial on that at some point so, erm..I will!

catch you later guys

H

Oh and, rest in peace my dear Gerbil Bob. xxxx

Gosh, how rubbish am I?

Hello! sorry to anyone who actively follows this blog. The last fortnight has been insane!

I have created an entire new collection, learned multiple new skills and revived some old ones!

The main reason I have not posted is because I am having issues with photography. Both digital cameras are out of action due to missing usb cables or duff batteries. However once they are up and running again I have so much cool stuff to show you!

Perhaps the main artistic achievement for me of the last two weeks is my foray into shadow boxes and back into sculptural items. I showed a long term (respected and publicly known) artistic friend of mine and he got very excited. So more of those will be along shortly.

My main struggle has been getting to grips with time and project management. My arty farty brain is slowly being conditioned into a craftsman brain where art and discipline collide. Another of my friends who is a designer is helping with that.

Anyway this is an interim blogpost and my pyrography iron is getting hot.

Promise to be back soon with pictures and more detailed news

H

A Murky Monday

Today I am rather irritated with myself. Mountains of work to do and even mountains of praise heaped upon me for lovely things I have made. Had a brilliant day out yesterday with DH and recieved new business opportunities.

I haven't achieved anything today other than making a rather long 'to-do' list. It seems to have sucked the very will out of me! I think in future there will be 'to-do spidergrams' with bright colours and jaunty pictures. In many ways its a very impressive list in terms of projects I have been asked to collaborate in, future product ranges and such. Its just left me cold today.

However, I have managed to finish a couple of bits and pieces and photograph them like these lovely goddess face magnets. I have also secured a trading space on Glastonbury market which means abandoning Yeovil unless I can find someone to be a Purky Purveyor.

But first some pretty magnets.

I am going to go do housework then return to important business of Purky-ing. I have a feeling its going to be one of those days where inspiration strikes at Midnight.

Sunday Omnibus.

Gosh where did the time go? It has been a rather good week in a few aspects and a hard one in others. Usual human existance methinks.

Shepton Mallet on Friday which was fun as usual. I really enjoy seeing the gang and over the next few weeks I am going to start putting up some pictures and details of them on the blog :) However spotlight this week goes to the lovely Juno. She is about a year old and a labrador and just gorgeous.

However I witnessed yesterday that she has a very strict sense of honour when dealing with thieves!

Unfortunately I haven't got a picture of the stall she belongs to but the webpage is here www.minervabeadsandcrafts.co.uk  Tabatha and Jim are lovely folks and will pop some pictures up next week!

I have such serious dog envy. I love my cat, he is ace but he cannot come to work with me. It would be awesome if he could be trusted to go to sleep on one side of my trading table and amuse the punters but alas he would probably take some money out the till and visit the fishmongers.

Ok and onto Saturday. Frome was unspectacular but quite enjoyable. Attached the strings to a hundred handcut christmas decorations (more to follow!) and sorta mooched while making bits and pieces. Got lots to make tommorow as well.

Going to pop to Glastonbury now and then going to watch Despicable me....bwah ha ha ha

Spooky Thursday

Ilminster today. My earliest, bleariest start. 6AM and even then I didn't manage to get my good parking space. Imagine how much joy this sight brought me.

I am all about handcrafted joy, its the tagline for the business and sort of a life mantra for me. Handmade equals joyous. These delightful cupcakes are the work of a talented lady called Sarah. www.quirkybakes.co.uk

I tried to get into the halloween spirit but only really managed a severed limb which caused the pensioners of Ilminster some consternation.

Anyway, I made a very funky frog when I got home and made my very first steampunk bird. Pictures of those things will wing their way over here when I am not quite so tired.

Going to slink off to bed now :)

No more alliteration for now

Hey its Wednesday! Whoop and so on.

Been really good today, worked hard and made large quantities of festive goodness and managed to get smothered in plaster.

However, my favourite ecentricity of the last few days has been these butterflies which will be dubbed 'Acid Butterflies' and the production version will have much brighter acid colours and incorporate uv reactive and glow in the dark components :)

After I have finished painting up my plaster cast masterpieces I will pop some up on here :)

Ilminster market tommorow. Wish me luck!

Tuesday...erm Typing?

Ahh Tuesday, now really in terms of working my Monday.

I go to the open air market in Yeovil on Tuesdays. Leave at 7am all bleary eyed and arrive not much different. Usually manage to spill coffee on myself en route. Listen to music far to loud and blast through the semi-deserted country lanes.

After setting everything up it looks sort of like this

However this is a slightly older picture taken in September, when it was actually sunny. Today it was blowing a gale and pouring with rain! So I hid with my stand under the archway and watched the world wash away.

So when I came home, I cheered myself up by making my first items of mini food!

 A sparkly pepper!

 A magic marbled chilli!

 A normal chilli!

 Pumpkins

And a close up of the baby pumpkin :)

Not quite sure where I am going with the foodie things but its making me smile which helps on grey days like this :)

Monday Mornings

Hey guys,

Whomever invented Mondays invented a very useful day and had a thankless task. Thus far though I have done some photo editing because gloominess does not sell bright funky products. Created a google account. A Picassa web account. Supplied my webpage with a quartet of links and eaten lots of toast....Actually I could back to the toast eating.


However, now I am at one of those impasses. Where to start. My Festive Fancies collection? My Confectionary Collection? More additions to my earrings, pendants, brooches and revolutions?

 On a spooky and glowy note, have a Ghostie while I mull over my choices.

I will be back to talk some more later. I am going to venture up into the studio and see what happens!

Here we go folks

Well folks, here we go.

For the last seven weeks I have been trading on open air markets with my small (read teeny weeny) independent jewellery company. I feel it is time I got online and spread the Purky word. H ere is a link to my facebook group.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Purky-Products/119159611466039

Over there somewhere -----------> there should be some of my recent tweets and my 'proper' webpage at www.PurkyProducts.co.uk is looking rather retro. So please stick around with the blog for now.

Hopefully you guys can put up with my random posts about cooking, gardening, my rather amusing cat called Phil, my equally amusing DH and lots of pictures.

Signing off for now. HJP