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Why Re-Energize You?

Hey, thanks for checking out my blog post! I’m Caroline, creator of Re-Energize You! I thought I would use this post as an opportunity to expand on all things ENERGY:)

What is energy? Why do we need to re-Energize?

Essentially, we are all energy- from our thoughts to the sound of our heartbeat. The vibration or frequency omitted denotes how well we are feeling. Maintaining a higher frequency keeps your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual body on point in order to achieve ‘optimum wellness’.  

So how do we raise our vibration?

Meditation, creativity, exercise, eating healthily, drinking water, being around positive people and keeping a positive mental attitude can all help us stay in the ‘wellness zone’ and keep us ‘high’on life. 

Of course this is easy to say but sometimes hard to do. We fall off the wagon, we stop looking after ourselves or get annoyed and irritated by life which can bring us down till we are so low in energy that we may bring others down with us. At worst we get run down and may be prone to physical illness.

Re-Energizing is about taking responsibility for our own wellbeing. When we reawaken and become aware of who we are in order to recognize our true life’s purpose.

How can Energy Stones help me?

Energy Stones are essentially from nature, chosen, hand painted and attuned by me to flow Reiki- a Japanese healing art meaning Universal (Rei) Life Force Energy (Ki) With the intention of receiving Reiki, holding the stone or consciously placing it in your room, nightstand or mediation space, you are connecting to the intention in that stone from when it was attuned. 

During this connection, you may feel more relaxed, or more focused or energized- whatever you intended to receive from the Reiki. Personally, I like to hold at points throughout the day so I keep a stone in my purse particularly useful when navigating emotionally challenging 2020!

So energy stones act as an anchor: a mindful tool that brings you back to a state of awareness of who you are and why you are here and what is truly important in this present moment.

A powerfully positive pebble for our times that will re-energize you, keep your vibration high and promote your overall wellbeing- oh and they are very pretty too!

Love and positivity,

Caroline xoxo

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Meet the Maker – Beverley from Bevart designs

Meet the maker blog

Beverley Chapelhow – Bevart designs.

I am Beverley, of ‘Bevart designs’ I live in the beautiful Ribble Valley in Lancashire. I will always be that artist that fell into making jewellery making and designing, many people have said that my artwork would make lovely jewellery pieces, this got me thinking and I started to create and work on this possibility. I made a few pieces and put them on display in my studio… to my delight I sold a few, 12 months on I was accepted for a great art and craft show called ‘Art in the Pen’. I took with me my framed artwork and my jewellery, I made more sales than I thought possible. Being encouraged by this I applied to sell on ‘The British Craft House’ and was thrilled to be accepted.

I have always taught art classes to adults sometimes with a crossover into craft making like flower arranging, printmaking, card making etc.

I am inspired to create any art work including my jewellery by nature, the Japanese way of Wabisabi, travel, and other artists, I love the work of Greyson Perry, Yayoi Kusama, there are lots more!

my art studio

I graduated from university in 2008 with a degree in fine art, with a friend and colleague we wanted to still try and work together in a studio environment, we wanted to find a place where we could provide affordable studio space for other artists. I am currently the proud owner of ‘Atelier Arts’ an art studio collective with gallery and teaching space in Clitheroe from here I sell my paintings, I teach art classes to adults including general art and life drawing , I also teach art in Spain with partners ‘Caves of Dreams’  we provide a full all-inclusive art holiday experience in Baza, the region of Andalucia.  

Teaching in Spain

What is the dream? The dream was always to own an art studio, the other is to be selling my work more regularly, whether that’s jewellery or my paintings to build a following and to become successful.

I am currently working from home and we have a workshop in the garage, so I can keep on creating and making.

My proudest moment business wise is owning my current business and that being a success. Forever proud of our two daughters growing into confident, successful, independent women.

My creative future looks like this, over the past year I have been experimenting with ice dyeing and eco printing on fabric. I love textiles and pattern, this is something I want to add to my shop in the future in the form of scarves as I believe this would enhance my jewellery range. I am also planning some Yoga and Art retreats, I want to provide creative relaxing workshops based around self care, using our mental and physical self in a creative way using clay and paint.

To relax and have fun I love to tap dance, I regularly take part in yoga, pilates and meditation. I also love photography and to travel sketch and paint.

I also enjoy a good night out with friends in the city of Manchester drinking cocktails!

I also adore cake, what is my favourite cake ….any cake!!! But very partial to a lemon drizzle

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Squashed Glass?

So what is squashed glass? This is a fused glass/kiln forming technique that I’ve been having a go at. As described it is glass put in the kiln to fuse but you have to weigh it down with a second shelf to ‘squash’ it as it fuses.

Glass is viscous at high temperature and up to a certain heat it conforms to the glass fusers mantra “the 6 mm rule”. This basically means that however many layers of glass you put on top of each other the finished fused piece will always end up 6 mm thick, unless you dam it, but that’s another technique! 

Squashed glass is multiple layers of glass weighed down with another kiln shelf on top (and any other bits of kiln furniture you might have to hand) so that the pressure of all that weight will go down on the piece and the glass will flow and merge together. The finished glass piece is nice and level and will have a smooth texture from the kiln shelf.

After that you can cut up your sheet of squashed glass and cold work the edges to smooth them out and slump in a mould to get the shape you want for your finished pieces.

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Hallmarking Jewellery in the UK

Hallmarking in the UK.

Did you know in the UK it is a legal requirement to have certain items hallmarked?

For silver items this legislation applies on any item over 7.78 grams in weight. For gold and palladium the minimum requirement lowers to 1 gram and for platinum its 0.5 grams.

The process of hallmarking involves sending articles to one of 4 assay offices; either London, Sheffield, Birmingham or Edinburgh where the precious metal content is sampled and tested. Assuming the items meet the standard they can then be hallmarked.

London Assay Office StampIn the UK we have one of the strictest systems in the world for testing and quality marking items.  This makes it a fantastic way of guaranteeing the precious metal item you are purchasing is indeed what you believe it to be.

The process of regulating the purity of metals began in 1238 and was progressed further in 1363 when King Edward III decreed all precious metal items were to be tested and marked for purity and that this also had to include a makers mark. It is amazing to be part of such a long standing tradition.

A hallmark consists of various stamps including symbols to indicate where the piece was tested, its purity and the personalised stamp of the maker. Optional stamps include a date stamp to indicate when the piece was made, and fineness stamps to show the metals purity.

Laura Llewellyn Design HallmarkI am proud to have my hallmark registered with the London Assay office and to have my work checked here.  My makers mark is an oval shaped stamp with the initials LJG; the G is from my maiden name. Each person or company’s stamp is unique so the maker of a piece can be identified.

Hallmarking is a costly process. Therefore I don’t tend to have smaller items which are under the threshold hallmarked as the costs would escalate. If however you would like an item to be hallmarked which doesn’t currently display one please get in touch to discuss the options.

I have included the official dealers notice below so you can see the different marks that can be applied and perhaps identify some on a piece of jewellery?!

I hope you have found this article of interest.  Please get in touch with any questions or leave a comment below.

Laura x

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Fused Glass Pebbles of Swirling Colour

I’ve recently been making glass ‘pebbles’ in my studio to try and get my creative juices flowing again. The Covid 19 lock down has left me strangely stumped at times, almost as if having so much unplanned time on my hands has slowed me down. I would wander into my studio and fiddle around tidying my sheets of glass, ordering them by colour and size but couldn’t get stuck in to anything constructive.

So I decided to make some puddles. This is a fun technique where you place a stack of different coloured equally sized glass pieces together and fuse them. The layers fuse together into a solid lump. Then the fun starts! Using a hammer and tile cutters you break the piece into smaller bits, exposing the striped layers of colour. These smaller chunks are then fused again with the layers upright. 

The result is lovely rounded pebbles of swirling colours, I love just running them through my fingers!

I’m now thinking of what to do with them. Some will be pendents and some I will incorporate into other projects.

Thank goodness, I’ve got my mojo back!

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Buzzy Busy Bees

You will probably have gathered by now that my inspiration comes from nature
bee it (see what I did there!) flowers, butterflies, birds or bees, you will
find lots of nature themed influences in my work.

I like to challenge myself to create new designs using different methods and
learn new skills, so today I moved from sheet metal onto Fine Silver Clay for
my bees.  Silver clay is an eco-friendly product it’s made from particles
of pure silver suspended in a binder that burns off under heat to leave fine
silver.  The product feels and behaves much like clay, you can shape it,
mold it and once it’s been fired you can solder it and pretty much treat as any
other silver.

These little fellas are entirely handcrafted from silver clay, you can see
from the pictures how I shaped and molded by hand then used a brush and liquid
clay to refine.  Once they were ready I left them to dry and then kiln
fired them to create fine silver.  I made 3 different designs in two
different sizes and once they were kiln fired and had become solid silver I
created little molds from them to allow me to ‘cast’ more with silver
clay. 

I have just used the tiniest ones to create some earrings and a bangle
giving them an oxidized finish to bring out the details and the slightly larger
one has been made into a pendant which I just polished. I’m looking forward to
using these in other items and using my new molds to create my own swarm, I
have just orders some copper clay so hopefully soon some little copper bees
will be making their way into my shop.

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog, I hope you enjoyed reading about how
I made my little bees.

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Five reasons to send greeting cards!

One of the reasons I started making my own cards a few years ago was that I love the idea of sending something handmade through the mail, and hopefully making the person on the receiving end smile when it arrives.  It’s a great way to stay connected with people and recent events have highlighted this even more than ever.  Read on to hear more on why I think sending greeting cards is still so important!

1. Stay in touch and keep connected 

This may sound pretty obvious, but in the modern world when everyone is so busy, popping a birthday or anniversary card in the post is a great way to stay in touch with friends and family, especially if you don’t get to see each other very often.  These days we have a tendency to rely heavily on technology and whilst an email or text is great, you can’t beat some good old fashioned snail mail landing on the door mat, and a handwritten note is much more personable than reading something off a screen.  We can all appreciate how nice it is when you open your mail to find more than just bills and junk mail!

2. Let someone know you are thinking about them and make them smile

Receiving a card really can mean a lot to some people.  Not only does it show you care, but it shows you have made that little extra effort to take a few minutes out of your day to spend the time picking out something you know the recipient will really like.  You can get cards for all occasions and some of the best ones are those that you send ‘just because’.  It’s a great way to let someone know you are thinking about them, or if someone is going through a challenging time and you’re not quite sure what to say, a card can say it for you.  Thinking of You Week, run by The Greeting Card Association is taking place this year from 21-27 September, and it’s a great opportunity to get involved in sending some #happymail!

3. They make great memories and keepsakes

How many of you have a box hidden away somewhere full of old cards or postcards from friends and family, reminding you of special occasions?!  I know I certainly do, and cards are a great way of reminding you of important moments.  In fact when you think about it, for most of life’s big milestones, it’s the trusty old greeting card that we turn to, to mark the occasion!  Some cards are even perfect for framing and keeping out on display all year round!

4. Buying a card is an easy way to support a small business

If you are shopping on The British Craft House, you are probably already a fan of shopping small or supporting handmade businesses, but buying a greeting card is a great way of showing your support to small, independent retailers.  Not only card retailers but often museums, gift shops and art galleries have cards for sale – if you are able to, it’s a small purchase without having to spend a lot and it means the world to the seller!

5. It keeps tradition alive 

Not only is sending a card a great opportunity to flex those handwriting skills, but it also helps keep the long standing tradition of sending greeting cards alive!  The act of sending cards dates all the way back to the ancient Chinese who used to exchange messages of goodwill to celebrate New Year, but they really started coming into their own in the 1840-50’s….but I’ll save that for a whole other blog post…..!

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The Journey Continues!

Hello again! I have been meaning to do my third blog for a while, but it never seemed like the right time but now, it does.

If you have been following my little business, you may have noticed some changes to the kind of gifts I have been making? My gifts have changed as I feel like I have been on a bit of a journey with both my skills and my creativity. When I first started LouLou & Reg, I knew that I wanted to be able to create and sell gifts that I would buy, that had sentiment and that would bring a smile when gifted. I have always been an admirer of East of India and Sass & Belle and their products; I think it is both the simplicity of their beautiful items and the sentiments that were included with each one that I love. I am and always have been a big fan of dioramas and initially wanted to make these but had no idea where to start as I had no idea how to saw a piece of wood!

At the beginning, I decided I wanted to learn how to make wooden signs which I did after trying lots of techniques, I really do enjoy making them. Then as I started to size, shape, sand and paint the wood myself, my hunger for a little more knowledge and skill grew, so we bought a pillar drill – which I really need to use more; then came the belt sander and finally my husband bought me a scroll saw, that I love!  

Since I have started to use my scroll saw my creativity has grown and I am being taken down a different path now, one that I think I have always wanted to get to but didn’t quite know how to get to. I have started to use wire to make shapes and I also use balsa wood shapes to create different elements for each of my items.  I am hoping to start experimenting with other elements and using other techniques so that I can create and continue to make the kind of product that I would enjoy seeing in my kind of shop and a product that I would want to buy. 

I am so excited to see where this journey takes me, and I really hope that you can continue this journey with me, on a rather exciting path that I seem to be travelling.

(The picture is the first item I created using my scroll saw and I’m rather proud of it as it was a freehand sketch (and I can’t draw) and my first cut……..the product that made me find a different path)

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2 year old smile ….

Today, Easter Monday I received a message via the other side beginning with E and ending in Y … from a lovely customer who, 2 years ago ordered some bespoke planters, they took some time to make, I never heard back so wasn’t sure she was happy or not, however I wasn’t fazed as in my experience most people forget to leave good feedback, rarely do they forget to leave feedback for a negative experience, many tell the world so I assumed all was good. 

Fast forward 2 years, to a chilled Easter Monday, and this lovely lady, Sarah, messaged me simply to say, she tried to leave feedback but couldn’t see how to do it, the remainder of her message is below (I did ask permission to post) 

“They look really fantastic, we look like we have a wildly expensive landscaped garden at a fraction of the cost!” “2 years in and these still look new. Thank you so much we are really pleased” 

So there you have it, Sarah G 2 years on and still her planters look like new. 

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The sculpting & making of Harriet Hare

The little video above shows the various stages which my Harriet Hare Sculpture went through during the year it took to sculpt her. Obviously I was producing other work during that time as well because I needed money coming in before she went into production, but she took around 200 hours to sculpt… 

If Harriet has been a ‘one-off’ then all that sculpting time, backed up by my 30 years sculpting experience, would have had to have been reflected in the price of the ‘one’ Harriet, so instead…a mould was taken from her and I now make her in different metallic finishes. This way all that initial designing and sculpting time, as well as the production costs, are spread over the limited edition number making her more affordable for more people. 

Customers sometimes don’t realise the time, skill and cost which goes into producing handmade pieces like Harriet. I was recently asked if I’d sculpt and then produce in cold-cast iron a gentleman’s two pet dogs… I explained the process of producing these ‘one-offs’ and their likely cost. As is often the case, he unfortunately changed his mind when he realised they couldn’t be made cheaply! 

The purpose of this post then is to show you the many stages of a sculpture’s development from the initial 3D sketch (or maquette) which I make in wax through to the finished original with ALL its detail, and this is before it then goes off into production!  It is also to point out that art doesn’t just materialise. It takes skill, knowledge, practise, expertise, patience, attention to detail and … the love of it. ❤️