Wellington. . .

so we went to wellington for the weekend, my husband and I, for our FIVE YEAR anniversary!!!, and basically wanted to live there!. It is such an inspiring city, and so great to walk around, we went everywhere by foot. The city is so compact, and for some reason we feel more at home there then we do in Auckland. Something to think about maybe. . . but anyway, we went to a few different funk-ay shops and a couple of shop staff asked about the jewellery I was wearing(in particular my ring, with a picture of a child's face - you can see it on the slideshow), and ended up exchanging details, with them wanting to see more of my craftiness! Which was very exciting, and as I already have a couple of places in Auckland who are interested, I need to get my act together and start acting like a grown up.
Then last week I went to Devonport and went into a fantastic little shop called georgiescarlett Jewellery - it was the greatest little room, with her workshop in the back, so she was working and talking over the partition to customers, and very friendly sooo we started chatting about jewellery and she was so positive and encouraged me to bring some in to show her, and gave me her details to get in touch about anything. She had a lot of helpful practical advice about the craft itself and also the marketing etc of it, and I came away so inspired and excited! People don't usually let you in on trade secrets and the like, and can be quite catty, but she was really interested and informative. So that's another little contact to follow up on! And I came away with a great little pair of owl earrings which I don't want to take off.
I just made a huge batch of rings, so will get some photos done soon - lots of new stuff, yay! But am really struggling with designs for woven rings - all my rings used to be woven or braided out of wire, and I stopped doing it because it was very time consuming, and not very comfortable on the finger always. So I ordered a large batch of ring bases from etsy, and while they do what I want them to do, they are tiny, smaller than I imagined, and so I extend them all and wrap wire round the extension - less than ideal! I have been playing round with my trusty pliers and galvanised wire, trying to make some prototypes, but am at a real roadblock! So despite all the good feedback I have been getting, I am not satisfied, and probably won't get a restful sleep till I have figured out this little puzzle. I was buoyed up last night though, taking my jewellery round to my friends house for a girls night, and got some really happy customers who were so delighted with their new bits of pretty, so that is a bit of a perk - for the spirit and the pocket!
What an essay! I know I should do less, more often, but so hard to fit in sitting down at a computer. Thanks everyone for looking, and I can't wait to show off my new range of goodies! Here are a few pics of my children and husband, just for those who like cute baby pics. My children are delicious!