Ulrika

 

This design is named after it's owner. It's now finished and on it's way to it's new home. It's a little more floral then I usually do it, but I like it. The stones are blue topaz briollettes. Very light coloured and sparkly.

Happy Australia-versary

Today it's exactly one year since we arrived in Australia. One year, it has gone really fast as it always does.

There are a lot of things that have been better then expected this year. There are also a few things that has been harder then I expected.

I found that fitting in has been harder, I found that people are much more offended by swearing then in London. I have a terrible habit of swearing and it seems to equally offend and amuse people. A little like swearing kids are funny, but not something that one should encourage.

I found finding a job unsettling, but that has so far led to a much better place then I thought would have been possible. More stress full, but better.

I found that making friends when you are older is harder. We have been lucky that Mr T had some friends from before or we would have been very lonely. Especially since our life in London was so very friends involved.

I have found that where I live affects me more that I thought. The general feeling here is more positive, people seem more positive, being outside is not just possible it's actively encouraged. I don't "concrete" so much.

The things here that I do daily that really adds happiness to my life is:

The coffee is really great - I love coffee, can't drink much off it. So i try to get the best cup for the single cup I can drink a day.

I eat a lot fruit, I really like fruit. The quality of the fruit in Australia surpasses any fruit I've had anywhere else. Also they tend to do fruit in seasons, so you can't eat out of season crap fruit.

I live really conveniently located, from the shops, from work, from beaches. It's not the most charming flat. Our last flat in London was much more beautiful but It's more convenient.

I believe the things that we do everyday affect us more then we think. I would do 35 minute commute every day in London, on a over crowded train where I often had to stand with my face in someones armpit. Here it's a 20 min buss ride, or a 45 min walk. That makes my life a little better every day.

So all in all, an eventfull year, a truly eventfull year.

80 men in Sequinned Dresses

We spent the weekend in the Blue Mountains, which is the mountainous area about 2 hours west - north west of Sydney. It's an area that looks very much like the Grand Canyon except covered with eucalyptus trees.

You can see in the photo (where I do my weird tilting my head and squint pose) how beautiful the views are. There are these views all over the place. This is just one of the look outs up there.

I have been up in the mountains 3 times. Each time I end up borrowing clothes from my 5 foot 1 inch great auntie because I'm so cold. It is so much colder up there then down here in the City. You forget between each time how freaking freezing it is..

Most of the towns in the mountains are rather small and cute and you know small towns. Hence you don't expect to go into a bar and see 80 men dressed up in full on sequinned ball gowns that is for sure.

We went to an old hotel in the little town of Katomba for a drink before dinner, as I entered the bar I was struck that there was a lot of very tall females in there. Which in itself is not strange, Australian women are rather tall. At 5.7" I often feel short here.

But then I have a closer look and all the tall females are actually there for a Transgender formal dance. Except for the Ladies(men) in their ball gowns there was some Men(women) dressed in their formal dinner suits. But the Ladies(men) stood out more in their dresses mainly due to the bright colours and the amount of work these ladies had put into their outfits.

The variety of styles was huge. There was some that looked like they stepped just of Dancing with the Stars,all sparkly and chiffony, and some with full on taffeta ball gowns and one girl in a very very very short lemon yellow hardly butt-skimming dress.

I was thinking all the other ladies in there would think she was the slut, cause she was wearing such a short dress.

Anyway, the night was young when we left them but they all seemed to have a good time. The reason I was so surprised was it was a very unexpected place to walk in on 80 men dressed in sequins.

Other than that.

I have learned to re-wire old school porcelain fuses.

We have had a wedding invitation that was sent to us taken by quarantine as the paper that the invitation was written on had straw in it.


And Mr T is happy to report that Chilli Chicken soup and Raspberry bagel work together well as a flavour combination.

Proof of concept

 

My Cousin is getting a PHD. Wich is kind of cool, she will be a doctor that helps people. Hence a doctor with a PHD. I used to work in a team where I was the only one that didn't have a phd. They where all doctors that didn't help people as their Phd's where all in maths.

Anyway I digress. I got asked by my dad to make a present. Hence DAD this is the begining of the idea. I wil make a flower shaped lariat pendant. With the little blue briolette topaz that you can see in the picture. With matching earings.

Do you think it's a good idea. Or you want me to go back to the drawing board..???

The ring for the big stone is getting there. I will just have to go and have it cast in gold. That will have to happen next week.

So im slowly working my way throught my to-do list.

Very slowly. That is the problem when I only have 1 hour each night to do it after work.

I figured it out

Lately it has been getting a little colder, and little wetter and a lot dark. And I've felt like something is missing. Like I'm waiting for something fun, cheerfull and more festive. It just struck me what it is. It's Christmas. I'm used to a long and dark winter that is broken up with a bright shiny festive point. I think that is we are so obsessive about Christmas, it's the brightest thing that happens in winter. And in northern europe the winter is long.

Here the autumn/winter is very short, it's not that cold in Sydney. However there are places in Australia that get's really cold (not like -25 but your know enought for fake snow). But it's dark and there is no festive element with added holiday. And that is what I'm missing. I'm a huge fan of christmas, it's my favourite holiday. Mainly cause of the Christmas crafting and the food and the cookies. Big fan of the cookies, and the festivitites. That breaks up the long and dreary winter. But here there is no such thing. No special winter cookies or holidays or festivities.
Maybe that is what I need to do, invite a bunch of people for winter festivities. I reckon a roast or a casserole would be a good thing to serve, some red wine, lots of warm and festive food.

I shall have to think about this one, there are some problems with this plan.
1. A plate broke , so we only have 5.
2. We don't have that much room. It wuold be very cramped. But maybe we don't invite so many people. Only like 5 or so, that could be a good reason to buy new plates.

Maybe I trick mr T to go to IKEA so I can buy plates.

Maybe Midsummer...maybe we can do a a winter midsummer festivitity..
I shall have to have a think

Working away

A lot of exiting things have happened in the last few days. I sold the above ring in my Etsy shop and I finally figured out how to make a good setting for the big moonstone order I have.

This stone has caused a lot of problems. The stone is big, 12 mm square and the end result of the ring will be made in gold. Gold is expensive, hence making this ring in gold would be a bad idea. I would have ended up filling away a small fortune. My plan is to make the ring in Silver and then make a casting model of it and have the ring cast in gold. That way I don't waste any extra gold and the client aren't spending money on metal that ends up on my floor.

More things are in the works for my other Job. Which are also exiting but I can't talk about that yet. So I will keep quiet and go and make a band for the big moonstone ring..

6 Hour Winge

I have been working on a setting for a ring. A setting for a very big square stone. And it is driving me crazy. I have spent 6 hours on it so far. And all I have to show for it so far is a square with some pointy bits sticking out in really weird directions.

The problem when you are working on a new style, something that you have never done before and no one you know has done before is that you kind of work things out as you go along. This is time consuming, and I don't have that much time.

But today after 3 hours I thought out a much better way to do it. Using round wire instead of square wire. So tomorrow I start again.

Do it again, Do it right is my motto. But now, crap tv, cup of tea and a cookie

The above view is from where I went running at lunch today. Perfect running weather. 19 degrees, chilly wind and bright blue skies. You can't fault it.

Energy - Smenergy - Bubbles

I have been lacking in energy in the last few weeks. I normally have to much energy, to the level where I can be a bit annoying to some, I have been informed on occasion.

But these last few weeks I have been really tired and not very creative. And far to emotional really to work on any new ideas. The necklace above is a prototype for a new Design. I do like the bubble concept and the benefit of making a prototype is not just that I get to be the owner of new jewellery but also that I can figure out that works and what doesn't during the production.

For this necklace when I make another one I will make the bubbles in round silver wire and maybe wire that is 1.1 or 1.2 mm instead of square wire as it tends to twist. I mark out clearer where the solder joins are going to be. And I will make the setting for the stone higher then the other "Bubbles". For prototype I made the setting for the tourmaline about the same height as the other bubbles and that makes it very very hard to set.

Back to the tired, the problem with being tired when you work on a new design is that you can get very upset when it doesn't work out the way you planned. Instead of looking at it as an opportunity to work out how to make the piece the best way you focus on your result not being perfect. And perfect has always been very important for me. I think I have to learn that for prototypes "good" is good enough. Or Perfect is the enemy of done...

Anyway. In regards to the tired. I think my body is just so surprised that the days are getting shorter but it's May. Maybe it will get better if I eat more watermelon. Watermelon solves a lot of problems I found. I also saw at the cricket that it makes a rather fetching hat here it is modelled by a cat. But if you imagine a row of drunk aussies yelling "HOWZAT" you get what I'm talking about.



Other than that. I've been wanting to make a B'day card for my sister. But can't decide about a design. So I was thinking I'll do it themed on 34. But then I found that rule number 34 on the Internet is "if it exist, there are porn about it". And I don't think I can do a B'day card on porn for family. So I have to come up with a new one. Maybe "Dancing Shoes"

Bondi to Bronte

This weekend has come with the most amazing weather. Which you can see in the picture. It's 25 degrees and bright blue skies. I'm not wearing a scarf cause it's cold but because I don't want to burn my chest as I'm only wearing spf 30.

Today we went for a walk along the beach side walk to from Bondi beach to Bronte beach. It's one of the most popular beach walks in Sydney I think. I like it cause it's by the beach and the possibility to stare on the perfect people with the surgically enhanced body structures is big. It's a place where a lot of beatifull people go to run. I like it. I however don't run there. I just watch others do it.

However I did go for my first longer distance run in 2.5 years and it seems that the hip could hack it. It wasn't a long run or fast. But it was in a continous incline, 4.5 km in 30 min. So not to bad for being the first go in a long time.

My plan is to be able to run the city to surf run that is on every year in June/July, it's 14 km. I'm not planning to run it this year. But next year, that way I will have a goal for my physio. Cause belive me, if you need to do 150 double knee bends, and 50 single kneebends every day you do need a goal.

So that is it. City to Surf 2011.

Professor David Harvey – my new crush

David Harvey - The Enigma of Capital - Kings College from swpUkTv on Vimeo.

I'm watching BBC world news interviewing Professor David Harvey about the future of capitalism. He has quite a few interesting point about our need to think about alternatives to capitalism as endless growth is no longer a possibility.
Now I don't totally agree with Prof Harvey on all his points, I think he painting a very bleak picture for our future. But his main point that continuous growth of 3% of our economy is unsustainable, financially, politically and ecologically.
But more importantly, I really like the way he talks and explains things plainly. I always find that the smartest people are the people able to explain complex issues with very few simple words. If you can say something like ...a Credit Default Swap works just like an insurance..
Then people understand what that is, everyone knows what insurance is, you give someone a little bit of money often and if something goes wrong that someone are suppose to give you lots of money. However they often find a way for you not get any of it without giving them more beforehand.
Anyway, I will know have to go and get some of Prof. David Harveys book such that I can decide whether he is right or wrong (in my opinion) and not just get charmed by his fuzzy Santa Beard and softy softy eyes. I have a tendency to dislike Marx and Engel and so I might be a little hard to convince.
If anyone want to see how Economics Santa Looks and sound here he is talking about the Enigma of Capital

Super Week

I have been quite busy filling orders lately, which is really nice. I've been working on these sterling silver pendants with freshwater pearls.


I have realised I really like pearls. I never used to, maybe is a sign that i'm getting more mature. I think they look so nice on the skin. So I made this one for me. The benefit of being the maker is that you can do that.

I have also been working on this bubble pendant. It's just a prototype, and it's not finished. The 4 ring from the right will have a pink tourmaline set in it.

Tommorow I start on the ring with the huge square stone. I think I will make the ring in silver and then cast it in gold. Gold is so expensive that it's far most cost efective to cast it so you don't end up paying for all the metal that you file off.

Other then that, i'm quite exhausted and feel that my observation skills of my surroudings have gone. It's like I have just the level of energy to work and make jewellery. All other things becomes superflous.

Other super things. This week is Super Weeek in this household. I'm trying to negotiate the australian pension system that is called Superannuation. By law have to invest my money in funds. I don't like funds. Mainly cause I don't trust fund managers and I don't trust their statements. They are trying to fob me off with long words for simple calculation. And the difference in the level of return from the funds between using the different calculations can be huge.

So I don't like them. But I have to have a Super wheter I like or not so I will choose one that I think are the most safe and most likely to be guaranteeed by the government when it all turns pearshaped later on. So to make this experiance nicer I have named SUPER WEEK. And I will give myself a treat (the above pearl pendant) when it's all over.