A new Cocker Spaniel treat tin!
Category: Artisans blogs
Packaging my Suncatchers
I have three types of ‘container’ dependent absolutely on the size of the suncatcher.
1. Small Suncatchers
These are stored in my microwave lidded containers, like those used for your
Chinese takeaway. I buy them new of course (250 at a time) as I wouldn’t want your
suncatcher to arrive lightly smelling of sweet and sour pork J
I put a strong suction hook in the bottom, then a length of small bubblewrap
padding, the suncatcher carefully on top and then the lid. Job done.
Packed like this I can see what is in each box when I need to find the
suncatchers which have been ordered in my storage crates and they will sit safe,
dry and warm inside their box.
When it comes to post it out all I need to do is wrap the bubble wrap round the
suncatcher, put the suction hook and my business card on top, lid on and then
pop it into a padded envelope for posting.
And the customer can use the container for storage so it’s a win win.
2. Medium Suncatchers
If it won’t fit into the small container then hopefully it fits into my medium sized square
containers. These are much harder to get hold of and sometimes I panic that I won’t
be able to get more and empty the shelves in the discount store of them just in case J
These are also food containers but more accommodating size-wise for circular
and bigger suncatchers.
I pack these the same except more bubblewrap needed as they are more spacious.
Again they fit into padded envelopes so I can get orders out pretty quickly when I need to.
3. Bigger Suncatchers
Suncatchers which are too big for the boxes have to go into A5 clear popper wallets. It is very
important to me that I can see what is in each container so I never use cardboard boxes.
I put compressed bubblewrap in the back of the wallets
for padding, a suction hook and then the suncatcher comfortably on top. Posting these out needs more ‘care’ as the wallets
don’t provide the same protection as my microwave boxes.
When I send these out I double wrap the suncatcher within the wallet with compressed bubble and also wrap the outer wallet with big bubble wrap then strengthen with cardboard.
I can’t think of anything worse than a customer opening a parcel and finding a broken
suncatcher inside so I pack well enough that I don’t even wince if I drop a
parcel on the hard Post Office floor J
When all my latest makes are packed in their containers I pack them away in my storage crates where I can pretty quickly find any suncatchers which have been ordered as the crates
and packaging is all see-through.
My garage is full of packaging material. Padded envelopes, bubble wrap
(3 types), stacks of packaging I have received and saved to reuse and then cardboard
boxes for bigger suncatchers and orders for more than one suncatcher.
My lovely local post office is a great source for cardboard boxes and I often post out in
biscuit outers or even boxes labelled as bleach J. The local garden centre has boxes
for me too and if I’m really quick I can get the odd one from Tesco shelf-stackers…
but they are so quick to flatten a box once emptied I have to work fast to grab those J
I print my parcel labels on the computer and copy / paste the address so it goes to the
address the customer provides. I use a big bold font and I cover the label in
sellotape to make sure it remains entirely legible.
Then a return label on the back of my package and off to the post office.
This seems to work well. I can honestly say I have had very very few post problems in the
13+ years I have been selling my glass online.
I always buy my postage at the local post office counter as I need to keep it open and in business. If that were to close I would have to drive 5 miles and pay to park to use the town post office.
As it is it’s a 5 minute trip across the village which I do most days.
A Concert of Birdsong
I have another woodland walk to share with you. This time I’m going to try something a bit different as I take you along. Rather than describing this walk, I can give you an idea of what it sounded like. There was a constant soundtrack of birdsong throughout the walk, giving me plenty of opportunities to stop and video snippets of melodies as I went.
I have to apologise straight off, as I can’t identify most of the birds I heard, but this really didn’t prevent me from enjoying the continual chorus through the day. It was fun to recognise the odd call here and there. I was particularly pleased to hear the occasional pheasant, as I’ve only just learned what they sound like.
If anyone knows which birds they can hear, do please leave a comment as it would be so interesting to find out.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MSIU2oAf_CA
The first songs were recorded as I walked through cultivated marshland. There were paths and boardwalks tracing their way through a wooded area, past reedy beds. The area felt more enclosed among the trees, so the sound of the birds was very distinct.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1LiLmhyTPT4
After the marsh area, the path opened out to fields and hills, with more people walking around. The birds were continually singing but, as the trees were further away, the birdsong merged with people chatting, dogs barking and lakeside splashing.
When the path started winding through woodland again, I could stop beneath trees, or go and sit in one for a while, and listen to the birds directly above.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/URgQD4MyUPc
I hadn’t expected to take so many videos when I started out. I had originally planned to find quiet and peopleless spots in the woods where I could record two or three videos. As I was intentionally listening out for the birds, however, the constant singing stood out through the whole afternoon. I just kept my camera handy and took videos every five minutes or so. In places where the bird calls were loud and distinct, or really varied, I videoed the songs for about a minute, in case I didn’t get such a good chance further along.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qDqd5Z49kn8
This was the pattern of the afternoon and I ended up with 15 videos of birdsong, and also a handful of water videos as well.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pmk3ZgS2E3g
I was enjoying the bird concert so much, I continued to take videos as I walked home. I chose a different route back and the woods were alive with birdcalls through the late afternoon.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JFC2YR4HMTE
When I got back to the more built up areas I could still hear the birds – now getting into their evensong routine. There were still plenty of trees around and the birds were just as vocal here, above the noise of traffic and people, as they had been in the woods.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RHduNOEyvV8
Thank you for joining me on my musical wander. As well as these shorts, I am adding longer videos on TikTok. Some of them are already up and I will be adding more videos over the next week, so do head over and check them out.
https://www.tiktok.com/@sweetthornembroidery
Welcome to Olive Grove Crafts!
Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog – I’m a novice at this blogging so bear with me! I’m in the process of setting up my shop on The British Craft House and cannot wait to get it all filled with my products.
I am Jane, and I am Olive Grove Crafts. I started my business back in 2021 after taking early retirement from a 20+ year career in automotive electronics purchasing – a bit of a change of scenery that I know a lot of people made after the events of 2020. For me it was an opportunity to re-assess things and start to do things that I found mindful, creative and – more importantly – enjoyable. My mother taught me to sew on a beautiful knee treadle controlled Singer machine when I was young and I spent many a happy weekend making small toys and clothes for myself, friends & family. Everything you see in my shop has been made by me from my converted summerhouse in my garden in Worcestershire. Re-kindling my love for sewing & crafting in recent years has been wonderful and I have discovered a passion for making hats that has also proved to be popular, kickstarted by my bucket hat range in all sorts of lovely cotton prints thanks to a glorious sunny 2022! (I’m busy refreshing the photographs for these so I can share the range with the TBCH customers & community) This autumn I was fortunate to find a wonderful source of wool mix fabric that prompted me to start making Irish flat caps & Gatsby hats (aka “Peaky Blinder” caps). A few weeks ago, with the support of some great crazy Distinguished Gentlemen motor-biker friends, did a mini “photo shoot” of the flat caps that was brilliant fun! The bikes that these guys ride are just stunning and they almost became the stars of the shoot rather than the hats…..but I think you’ll agree with me that they compliment each other wonderfully!
I hope to do more photo shoots like this with my products so I can show them off in the best way possible.
I hope you enjoy a small snippet of this photo shoot and I look forward to sharing more of “life with Olive Grove Crafts” soon!
Jane x
Waiting for Spring
Spring flowers are the most beautiful overture to the garden reawakening and welcoming the sun with a rush of blooms and greenery. There are other flowers that I love to see arriving later in the year such as cherry and apple blossoms, poppies and irises. But there is always a thrill at seeing the first flowers of the year breaking through gloomy winter and making the cold days less bleak.
Year by year a little more gets added to our garden and I’m gradually building up a display of early spring flowers. A friend of mine, whose back garden will be a riot of crocuses now, mentioned that she planted bulbs every year and this seems like the best plan to me. Some flowers appear regularly, like the snowdrops in the back garden, and others are more intermittent, like our daffodils. Sometimes flowers die off of course – we used to have a lovely primrose, and I’m not sure that the cowslip will come back this year. So there are always gaps to fill here and there.
Sometimes I only have one or two packets to plant, last year I had quite a few. I added more crocuses because they will look so wonderful when I’ve finally created little carpets of them. I also bought flowers I’ve not had before – muscari, chionodoxa luciliae, scilla siberica and (swoon) dwarf irises. I’ve dotted them around the flower beds in the front and back gardens. I only have daffodils in the lawn, but crocuses look spectacular growing out of the grass so I’ll have to give that a go sometime. It’s easiest with early flowers as the grass won’t be getting cut for a while yet.
This is the first year I’ve had bulbs planted up in containers. It’s lovely having a colourful display in the front garden, but we have a better view on the back garden. The containers sit just outside the back door, where I can enjoy them every day. The dwarf irises have come up best in the front garden though – it’s a sunnier spot, so they look all stately and glorious. They’re the first irises I’ve been able to encourage to grow and it’s a treat to finally have some in the garden.
I think Monty Don from Gardeners’ World plants out container bulbs to his lawns and meadows a year or two after the first flowering. This definitely sounds like an interesting rotation plan to try out. It’s been useful learning from other people so that I can have a plan of what I’m doing. Addressing different garden tasks through the year has been a learning curve since we had a garden. We’re busiest in spring and autumn when weeding, planting, pruning and frost coverings are the main activities. The momentum often falls away in summer due to holidays and different routines. If it’s not too British a summer, we make a point of watering the garden and taking a look round every so often. The biggest task for me is maintenance – making sure that the plants are healthy and thriving through the year, and get enough attention.
Given the season, early spring flowers were the natural choice for my first stick and stitch embroidery designs. I got particularly carried away with the snowdrops. These sketches are developed from my photos of spring flowers, most of them from my garden in the past few years. Naturally I am already planning designs for next year based on the new additions that are flowering now. I’m also working on more meadowy themes for the summer and I hope to have a kit or two released later in the year – I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, although you won’t see these designs in my British Craft House shop, you will find them at TBCH’s spinoff site Buy Indie, where I’ve got a Sweet Thorn corner too:
https://buyindie.co.uk/product/stick-and-stitch-spring-flower-embroidery-patterns-2/
Thanks for reading, have a lovely March!
Lee-on-the-Solent entrepreneur highlights small businesses being stifled by late payments from larger companies at Westminster cashflow discussions
A Walk in the Rain
A wet winter’s day along a puddled track. The footpath leads away from the river, bordered with hedgerows and fields either side. Earlier in the year the fields sounded of sheep bleating, mouthfuls of grass torn with a rip, and the rapid, dull thud of alarmed sheep bounding away from passing walkers.
A few sheep remain outside at the end of the year. They sit quiet and huddled under hawthorn hedges, dark shapes through a mist of rain.
Apart from the traffic beyond the fields, the most insistent noise is the familiar drumming of raindrops on the umbrella. A private acoustic performance aimed at me, beneath, listening within the seclusion of my little domed roof.
After travelling away from the river I turn left and meet it once again, crossing over a high bridge. The rain slants through the water, creating chains of ripples that crash into each other, perpetually active.
Over the bridge, a sidetrack leads towards woodland and the raindrops are caught before they reach me, their sound changing to a patter on tree leaves. Fog blanks out much of the landscape, but there are pheasants silhouetted under an oak tree in a neighbouring field. Their colours are indistinct today, but the familiar
shape of angular heads look like cutouts against the grey backdrop, while long flicks of tails bob and sweep through the rain.
The path becomes increasingly waterlogged. As the sludgy muddy track peters out, the footpath continues through grassland. Marshy puddles bubble through reeds wherever I step, and there are small pockets of flooding. At first I can walk through them, but eventually I am crammed to the side of the path, crouching
through leafless shrubs and small trees, whose whippy branches allow me through.
Eventually the path descends towards the lake where it dissolves into the water. A short way beyond this point stands a newly made island – a wooden bench. The lake has crept past its boundaries and merged the landscapes of land and water. The blanket of fog encircles and shrinks the landscape to a stretch of water edged with the dark spiky tangle of a winter forest.
New Year New Inspiration
At the beginning of every year I get excited about making new pieces. I generally have a bit of a tidy up/ clear out and inevitably come across materials that I’ve put to one side for ‘one day’………………..
Well, one day has arrived! These beauties were found tucked away in a nice old tin, I’d completely forgotten about them. Initially I thought they were all brass, but some are bronze: even better.
My brother in law gave them to me, he was a mechanic so I assume they’re car parts. I might be wrong, I’ll need to do some detective work as I like to be able to tell people what they were originally.
I’ve got ideas for candlesticks and sculptures and am ticking all the jobs off my list so that I can get creating. My aim is to use every single item before the year is out, but don’t hold me to it…..actually, yes you should! Please hold me to it.x
Valentine’s Day
Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? Is is important to give your loved one some attention, warm gestures, flowers and present just on this day? Are you looking for something unusual? I have some heart pendants in my shop. Maybe you will find something your loved one be happy with. Just take a look. Happy Valentine’s Day
Meet the Maker
Hi, my name is Deborah and I am the owner and maker at Silver Wave Jewellery and based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.
My love of creating really began many years ago without me realising when I started to watch my mother make my and my sister’s clothes – they were gorgeous pieces – and I wanted to copy her and make my own. I continued making clothes into adulthood and when I worked in the City you could often find me at local markets in my lunchtime buying fabric ready for my next makes! I also made some of my children’s clothes when they came along.
However, as life became busy with work and family I did not use my creative skills that much apart from knitting a few jumpers and making a few curtains but about seven years ago having always loved silver jewellery and buying it to match my handmade outfits I signed up for a one day silversmithing class in Dorset. I had such a wonderful time and made a couple of rings, a pendant and a beautiful bangle – all of which I still wear today! I
enjoyed it so much I decided I just had to carry on.
I began attending weekly jewellery classes then started to exhibit my work locally, sold at local craft fairs and in the last few years have taken part in art trail events around my local area in Maidenhead, Berkshire. I took early retirement just before the Covid lockdown so Silver Wave Jewellery has now become my main focus and I love being able to work on designing and creating new pieces from my little studio at home.
I use nature as my inspiration and I am lucky enough to be able to spend a lot of time at the coast in Lyme Regis which is where I came up with the name for my business. I love walking along the beaches with my dog Archie and collecting sea glass and pottery. I have not used these in my jewellery yet but have made quite a few pictures for myself and family with them.
I work with sterling silver, precious metal clay, copper and brass and add semi-precious gemstones, crystals
and gemstone beads for a touch of sparkle and interest. Texture is added to my work with hammers, metal stamps, etching, fusing and reticulation, fold forming and on occasions a rolling mill. I love creating simple, boho style, wearable jewellery suitable for any occasion. I create contemporary sterling silver and copper jewellery including rings, pendants, earrings, bangles and cuffs using traditional silversmithing techniques. Many of my pieces are one of a kind, unique items often created out of scraps left over from other projects as I try not to waste any metal and recycle as much as possible.
If you are buying for a gift I can ship direct to the recipient with a short handwritten gift note.
All my jewellery complies with the UK hallmarking regulations and I have my own makers hallmark registered with the London Assay Office.
Please get in touch if you have any questions.
Deborah
Email: silverwavedesigns@gmail.com