Upcoming Events for 2015

Good evening, lovelies!

I've been a bit busy in the last couple of days, looking for many different challenges and blog hops that I can be a part of, and have been super lucky in finding some. 

Here's some stuff I'll be doing over the next few months:

JUNE:
Bridal Challenge from B'Sue's Creative Group. Now for this one, we have a few choices: Steampunk bride, boho bride, glam bride and Victorian bride. We can do one, or two, or all. I'm sorely tempted to do all of them since I'll be on the long midyear break from work so I'll have the time, AND it happens to coincide with wedding season here in Darwin, so I'm ridiculously excited about doing this one.

2015 Charity Auction - hosted on my blog my Facebook page (with links also reaching out to Instagram and Twitter). I try to do at least one fundraising auction per year. I round up as many other small businesses or crafty types as I can, and we all auction off our stuff with the funds going to different causes. This year, I'd like to send donations to either the Red Cross to help the Nepal Earthquake appeal (I have a button to donate to this already on the website)or the Australian Cancer Research Foundation. I haven't decided which one yet. More details to follow. Who knows, maybe I'll do both.

JULY: 

Bugs N Birds Challenge, again from B'Sue's Creative Group. She has some awesome components in her online store but I'm thinking I might have to polymer clay this challenge all the way! We'll see how we go. If you love bugs and birds in your jewellery, then please stick around and have a look at what I come up with!

AUGUST: 

Ocean/Beach/Nautical/End of Summer Challenge, once again from the fab B'Sue's Creative Group. I love all things beachy and summery so this should be loads of fun!

SEPTEMBER:

Favorite Things Blog Hop and Challenge by Pine Ridge Treasures. This is the one I'm really nervous about. Lovely Lisa from PRT sends us a stash of beads and components, and we take on the challenge to create something amazing with them! I'm just worried I won't be able to do the pieces justice, but we'll see what happens!

Okay so that's it...for now. I'm sure to find another event that I'm keen on being involved in, and when I do, I'll just update this post to keep you all updated on the craziness. 

Have a great week, see you next time!

~Jacqui~

Should I Quit My Day Job To Create Full Time?

Hi all!

It's been a couple of days since I was here and I'm very sorry. I'm actually not feeling well and have had to take the last two days off work. I've been watching YouTube videos by the dozen, getting some ideas for my new polymer clay jewellery line which I'm hoping to get started on very soon. I'm thinking somewhat steampunk, vintage, antique looking stuff, but we'll see how we go. There's a few things I need first (yes husband, this means I'm going shopping!) but I should have this collection underway relatively soon.

But that's not the reason for this blog. The real reason I'm here today is because I'm back to playing with the idea of going back to creating and selling on a  full time basis, or at least working less than I am now. I'm pushing 40 now and feel like all I do is work, work, and work. I won't be lying on my death bed wishing I'd spent more time at work, surely! I think this is coming up now because as much as I love teaching (and I really, really do!), I love myself, and my family more. My contract is up in a few weeks, leaving me out in the cold again and on the hunt for a new class and a new school. It means learning everyone's names all over, getting to know more people, more kids, more parents. It means learning new pedagogy, new rules, new processes. It means learning new systems. It means hoping to not get lost again. Damn it, it's hard. Technically, I wouldn't be "quitting." I'd simply be without a contract for a while. That's okay.

There are a number of pros and cons to this decision and as a fantatical list maker, let's see how this pans out. Play along if you're also figuring out if you want to quit your job or not.

Pros: 

• More time with my gorgeous family
• More time to create and feed my soul with what really makes me happy
• More freedom
• Less work related stress!
• Less stress = better health
• Relief teaching means more control over where and when I work, and where and when I don't. 
• No planning for hours and hours on end. 
• No burnout

Cons:

• Less money, or at least less guarantee of it coming in. That's a biggie. 
• Very real possibility of completely failing and landing on my butt in front of well, everyone. 

Well...there you go. Just as I thought, the only two things holding me back are a lack of $$ and the chance I'll look like an idiot. Hell, I've been broke and have made myself look like an idiot plenty of times before. It's not new. 

Here's the question I need to be asking: 

Hmmm. 

The solution is staring me in the face. I think I'm going to work until my contract is up....then see where life leads me. I'm tired of the fight. I've been conditioned to believe that to live I have to work 60 hours a week, never see my family, get paid, and do it all over again. I'm not sure that's really the case. I'm not LIVING. I'm EXISTING. We can't go on fancy holidays. We can't pay private rent. we can't do a lot of things more well off people can do, and yet I'm still working my ass off! That to me is the definition of insanity. It's totally NUTS. My time is precious, so is my family. So am I. 

A friend recently told me, "If you have a passion for teaching, you can do it anywhere. You don't have to do it in a classroom." She's absolutely, 100% right. I don't have to. 

Until next time, 

~Jacqui~ 

I'm also looking for product testers to check out my new line, wear the pieces for a few days, and let me know what they think. I'm always very wary of doing anything new (I'd never forgive myself if a piece sold then went and broke after a couple of wears!) so I like to just take my time, test the waters and see what happens. If you're interested, let me know! I won't be sending items out for a while, but if you think this is something you'd like to help with, just drop me a line. You can leave a comment here, email me (sevenoaksjewellery@gmail.com), or leave a message on Facebook.  

Polymer Clay for Beginners. PS.... I'm the beginner!

Hello dear readers. Let me take you on a tale of adventure... 

About three years ago, I decided I absolutely had to, must, couldn't possible NOT work with polymer clay. So, as you do, I set about hunting the internet for all this "stuff" that apparently you need to have for working with clay. 

I already had the toaster oven! YAY! Thanks whoever bought it for me for our wedding (I actually can't remember who it was but I'm eternally grateful. If it was you, THANK YOU!). 

I went out and bought a pasta roller. I've never used one before. I'm a little scared of it. There are moving parts and stuff.

Buying clay is HARD. Seriously. There's about 30,000 types on the market and ALL OF THEM claim to do the same thing, more or less. After some frantic searching, I settled on Kato Polyclay as it is, after all, the best one out there. Or so I've been told. I really don't know. I haven't used anything else. 

I ended up buying a few blocks in a few different colours. Not being sure what I was actually going to make made this a little harder than it should have been (note: have your colour palette in mind BEFORE shopping. Seriously. I wish I had!). I ended up with 9 colours (pink and purple being a big feature, naturally!) 

A couple of weeks later my lovely little packages of clay goodness arrived. Yay! I lovingly stored them away in a box in among my other jewellery stuff...and they've sat there ever since. Unopened. Abandoned. Poor, forgotten clay. 

Here's the problem. The stuff TERRIFIES me. I have no idea why! It's just clay. It's like play dough for grown ups, right? There is no reason to be scared. It's not going to eat me. I've been stupidly busy at work and jewellery making in general sort of took a massive nosedive after the New Year. So, I made excuse after excuse about why I couldn't use it...why I didn't have time....why I just had SO MUCH TO DO ALREADY...

Finally, I decided I didn't really have THAT much to do already. I had time - a whole weekend even. I sat down and gave myself a firm talking to. I need to create. I need to create like other people need air, and what better way to jump start the creative juices but to play with clay? So I sat and watched YouTube videos. Lots of them. I procrastinated. "I don't have a proper work surface!" was my latest excuse. Hubby took me to the recycle shop this morning and bought one. I think he's tired of hearing "But I......." 

(You realise that writing this blog before I start is actually just another way to procrastinate and NOT get the stuff out, right?)

Back at home, after getting a total bargain on my work surface (a gorgeous brand new white ceramic tile that we spent a whopping $2 on), here's what happened:  

First, retrieve the pasta roller from the top of the fridge. I'm 4'11" tall and the fridge is taller than most non vertically challenged humans. Call in hubby to help. He wrangles it from its resting place and off we go. 

Second...put pasta roller together. Stare at it puzzled for a moment. Call in husband. He's getting irritated, I can tell. 

Third...condition the clay. Sure! Easy! I've watched LOADS of YouTube clips today so I know exactly what I'm doing. 

This conditioning lark is actually quite fun and oddly cathartic. 

Here's a photo of my gorgeous hot pink clay being conditioned to within an inch of its life :D It's a crap pic. I'm sorry. 

Wait...what the hell is that DIRTY MARK on my lovely white clay?!?!? 

Back to YouTube. Apparently it's a thing where the rollers get scratched and then they oxidise and you end up with dirty marks on your clay. Strange since my roller hasn't even been opened until today! It's all good. I found the cure. 

Fourth....roll all the gorgeous newly conditioned clay into sausages. OMG! Finally! My one and only plasticine skill that I've carried with me from primary school is about to be truly realised! 

Look at me go! 

Fifth...twist all your newly formed sausages into a big twisty sausage shape! Thank you, Mrs C for all your totally rocking play dough teaching in preschool! 

Sixth...roll said twisty sausage into a gorgeous smooth, marbled piece of clay artwork. 

I'm DOING IT! I'm working with CLAY! And so far, it hasn't bitten me! Yes!!! 

Oh GOD...those awful nails! I'm so sorry!! 

Seventh...cut off even sized pieces and roll into little bead shapes. Screw a tooth pick though them and VOILA! BEADS! 

I am a clay bead making goddess! I know exactly what I'm doing. They will be perfect, fabulous little balls of beady goodness after I've baked them to the manufacturer's directions in a toaster oven I've had for eleven years. (Yes, that last bit was sarcasm). 

What the HELL?

Not exactly what I was going for.

It turns out that my little toaster oven is about as accurate as an English weather forecast. I had it set to 300F as the instructions told me to. Well apparently according to my little oven thermometer which I forgot to keep in there for the whole time (FACEPALM!!)....that's closer to about 400F. Oops. 

What I ended up with were toasted blobs of clay that resemble raisins far more than the lovely smooth little balls of happiness I had envisaged. 

Husband comes to the rescue, and totally McGyvers a set up that any clay making person would be in awe of, with the intention being to keep the heat off them, stop them from getting flat spots and basically be amazing. My 9 year old's beads were next in the firing line. They came out as melted, brown, droopy blobs. Think Hersheys Kisses and you'll be close to how they looked...only not as yummy. Mine were actually nicer. At this point, there may have been a few tears. Not from my daughter, either. 

Back to Youtube. I frantically type in "HOW NOT TO BURN YOUR BEADS" (or words to that effect) and found an amazing channel which has seriously saved my butt. And my beads. My daughter's next batch are cooling down as we speak and so far, don't look like Hershey's. 

I'm off to the workbench now to try this again. 

Wish me luck, lovelies! 

Jacqui
xx