By the time the end of November rolls around, you can feel the excitement and anticipation of Christmas building. With the countdown on 'til Christmas, there's no time to waste in getting your Christmas outfits organised. And that means planning your jewellery as well. And that's where my latest collection of Christmas earrings can help - 12 fabulously festive earring designs presented in a downloadable ebook - Twelve Days of Christmas Earrings Volume 5 . As with past collections, these designs are truly unique and absolutely charming - the perfect way to dress up a holiday outfit or to put some Christmas spirit into your everyday clothes. This year's designs use filigrees, wire wrapping and even leather,  along with  a variety of construction methods to satisfy both the beginner and more advanced jewellery maker. There are Christmas trees, snow flakes, ornaments and stars. There is even a snowglobe-style design in this year's collection - something for every celebr......

I love it when unexpected deliveries arrive at my door! This week, I got a surprise delivery - one which made my day. I had hoped it might arrive before Christmas, but here we are in October and the advance copy of my new book "Fabulous Jewelry from Findings: Chic Designs using Spacers, Caps, Clasps, and More" arrived by courier, all the way from the US. This book has been three years in the making and to see it finally come to fruition is a dream come true. To say I'm excited would be an understatement! Fabulous Jewelry from Findings is a jewellery making book with a difference - there are no beads, no embellishments and no crystals. Instead, the projects in this book show you how to make chic and elegant jewellery using nothing but jewellery findings: where clasps become necklaces, bead caps become rings and spacers become bracelets. You'll do a double take as you realise what these jewellery pieces are made of! These innovative designs will have you looking at je......

Well, the day has come.... today is the deadline for my book manuscript to be handed into my editor.  I'm not sure whether I'm feeling a sense of relief or satisfaction now that I've managed to compile all the projects and text into a cohesive manuscript AND hand it in on time. It feels a bit like I'm back at school and I've just handed in a major assignment and now I'm awaiting my paper to be graded. It's quite a strange feeling! My editor will be trying to find my "author's voice" and get my personality to come across during the editing process. What will she think of my writing style? Will she like my upbeat, "you can do it" style. How much editing will be required and how many revisions will I have to make? All questions that I will find out the answer to in the next couple of weeks.  But for tonight, I am enjoying the sense of accomplishment and taking the evening off. Because tomorrow, I start on the next BIG project! https://......

I have really exciting news to announce. If you follow me on Facebook , you've already got the heads up, but for my blog readers I must make an apology for not letting you know sooner. I didn't mean to neglect you but you see, I've been just a little busy over the past few months creating concept designs and putting together a book proposal. And the exciting news is that the publisher has accepted my proposal and contracts have been signed. So in a nutshell, I'm writing my first jewellery making book. How exciting is that! So over the coming months I'll be pouring my heart and soul into this book. It will be a busy time with lots of projects being created, text being edited and oodles of step-by-step photographs being taken. I wish I could tell you more about the contents of the book but those details are still under wraps. What I can tell you though is that the jewellery techniques will take you where no other jewellery making books have taken you before and the de......