Max in Paradise, Freezer Jam, New Chokers & Cleaning Up My Market Table

I bought two more hanging baskets of gorgeous flowers yesterday at the market. I suppose I really should stop but why? I love flowers and these are stunning. I will remember to get the name of Boris's greenhouse in the Niagara area one of these days... but everyone who's bought anything from him, including cut flowers, has raved about their lushness, health and longevity.

'Tis also my favourite season beginning last Thursday: the first local strawberries arrived at the Thursday downtown outdoor market (I don't do that market anymore, but I happened to be in town so I dropped by). I got to the market late and only got one pint of berries. I ate some and made two jars of freezer jam with them. Last Saturday, the strawberries weren't too nice, but made jam anyway, and last night I made a batch of four jars that were sweet and succulent. I am addicted to this stuff. I now make 100 or more jars or more every summer, strawberry, rhubarb, cherry and black raspberry. If people invite me for dinner I usually take a few jars, and I give them to my friends, too. I make it with lots of lemon juice, very little sugar (1-1/2 to a scant 3 soup spoons' worth) and powdered low-sugar pectin. I have a small black raspberry patch growing wild by the door here, about 2' x 6' and last year I got way more than 25 jars of jam out of it with plenty to eat with yogourt and on cereal. 

The bushes are situated in a heat trap. We've had rain at just the right times this spring and recently and this is the lushest I've seen these berries.

Black raspberry bushes...

Four of this year's strawberry jam jars...

Max waiting patiently for his cookies -- yikes, I'm 45 minutes late with them...

And now back to work...
Here are the choker and bracelet I made and sold yesterday at the market:

Matte jet heishi, copper beads and "Tibetan Silver"-style silver-plated beads threaded onto 1.5mm black Greek leather. I never made it to Toronto on Friday after all -- cripes, I'm swamped all of a sudden with typing that will keep me pounding the keyboard until the end of June, if not into July -- and I must go back to Arton after the beginning of July because these silver-plated ones are great-looking beads, particularly those small ones, and I am now already pretty much out of them. I bought one skein of 1.5mm black Greek leather from Bamiyan when I was there, and I am finding it tremendously useful. My customer said that the chokers sit very nicely without being bulky or stiff, like the 2mm does, and the bracelet has a nice firmness to it, not floppy the way cheap leather behaves.

Now to my table. I'm in the midst of a major tweak and tidying up with the help of Lynn from Imogene's, a genius at merchandising. I've always been impressed by the way she displays my stuff in the store, and asked if she would help rearrange my table to maximum effect.

The main problem being where I am -- in a farmer's market -- is the visual "noise" of the background competing with the visual mayhem residing on my table. I have things hanging from the grid, but there's so much light coming through and what with being able to see all the other stuff going on, it's definitely very confusing. Unfortunately, I can't drape a cloth behind the grid to set off the stones and necklaces because I need to be able to see what's going on on the table. I already feel like I'm in a cage, but it's such a useful thing to have, especially since I don't have a back wall I could use.

This is the left half of the table top, what it "really" looks like:

A more dramatically lit view of the left side of the table top:

The right side of the table top, regular lighting:

The right side, dramatically lit:

New centre display that will feature sale items each week:

Centre display, to better show the colours: 

Cleaning up the back grid, the pewter has been moved to the top, and the seed bead necklaces are now hanging from a curtain rod. I can see what's starting to jump out and look interesting, and what's just a jumble. The plan is to get more hangers that stick out like the one where all the long seed bead necklaces are hanging from on the left, and I'll be able to display way more items such that they can all be seen easily, rather than as they are now, hanging undifferentiated along the grid on the rods.

Closeup of the seedbead necklaces on the rods -- they almost completely disappear.

I've ordered new display boards and they will all be about 6 inches taller and some will be a bit wider. That will be the next project to tackle -- rearranging in a more logical fashion all the pendants and earrings that are currently displayed on boards.

Thanks for looking!

Plus-size jewellery...

This week I've begun producing a dedicated collection of good quality, medium-priced plus-size jewellery to suit all ages for Imogene's, 426 Dundas Street, Woodstock, Ontario. You can check 'em out online, too: http://www.imogenes.ca/

I will be taking the initial pieces in this Friday afternoon if anyone is interested in viewing them over the weekend. The Santa Claus parade is this Saturday: good time to check out all the stores downtown, too. I'd sure appreciate any feedback, positive or negative, and to hear about your wish lists.

Materials will include base metal (pure copper, jeweller's brass, zinc and plated silver) and/or pewter to keep costs down, Argentium sterling silver for the good stuff (weddings, special occasion gifts), Greek leather to make adjustable pendant necklaces, genuine turquoise and A-grade semi-precious stones, as well as interesting pendants in all types of materials. A specific request was feather earrings, so there will be lots of those.

My feather earrings are made with maximum movement and dangle in mind. Each feather is attached separately, so that if one feather becomes damaged it can be replaced; the whole thing doesn't have to be tossed. Yes, it takes a little longer to make and costs a little more, but you'll get a lot more wear out of the piece.

Necklace in progress. I've decided to restring this so that the three ceramic dolphins will be strung in a line on the left (rather than as a pendant) with the other dolphin all by himself on the other side. Earrings to match.

In general, I would also be profoundly grateful to hear from you about what bugs you about jewellery currently available, things like the size of clasps, the weight of chains, how things sit/fit in general, as well as the overall scale of jewellery. What kind of materials do you like? What kind of materials do you hate? If my jewellery style isn't to your taste, I know lots of artisans working in all media I can recommend.

I've developed a list of standard plus-size measurements for bracelets, anklets and necklaces, but pretty much any jewellery would benefit from a little tweaking to fit properly because, quite frankly, everyone has problems with the way jewellery fits.

My favourite wail is: "Don't jewellery designers ever try on their jewellery before they sell it to see if it's actually physically possible to wear it?" Answer? Nope. Except me. The truth is, jewellery irritates me to no end which is why I almost never wear it. My long hair gets caught in chains at the back of my neck (an endless complaint from so many people), or I feel like I'm choking (a length problem), and bracelets drive me nuts. Essentially, I wear what I make and tweak it until it finally doesn't bug me, fall off or fall apart. Then I give them to people who do wear jewellery all the time to test-wear.
 
One of my customers brought in gorgeous chunky multi-strand stone and glass bracelets and necklaces that she'd bought at a craft show, but which all had grotesquely teensy tiny, itty-bitty cheap-cheap-cheap lobster clasps and equally spindly, flimsy extender chains which made the jewellery look just plain stupid on. Of course nothing fit, the itty-bitty being the problem. I ditched the chintzy findings and substituted chunky, inexpensive but good quality pewter toggle clasps and the wearability problem was resolved. The jewellery finally fit well and it all looked fantastic on.

For people who live in southern Ontario, I am at the Woodstock Farmer's Market every Saturday morning with most of my jewellery on display. I can do simple repairs while you shop at the market.

If you're looking for jewellery during the week, in addition to Imogene's, you will find a range of pure silver, Swarovski and semi-precious jewellery available at Rekindled in Woodstock, pure silver leaf and turquoise jewellery at the Woodstock Art Gallery, and pure silver leaf pendants and earrings at Studio Works in downtown Paris, Ontario.

And I'm always lurking around somewhere online:
bemacdougall@gmail.com
http://www.barbaramacdougall.com/
http://www.artefaccio.deviantart.com/
http://www.artefaccio.blogspot.com/
www.etsy.com/shop/artefaccio

Talk to you soon!