Two Go Mad at Artists Open Houses

Artists Open Houses Brighton and Hove May 2011

We took a trip along the coast to Brighton yesterday (15th May) to look around the phenomenon that is Artist Open Houses www.aoh.org.uk We hadn’t been before and, as you know, we’re always keen to track down talented designer makers we haven’t met before and the Open Houses seemed a perfect opportunity to meet a lot of new people and see a lot of work.

Oh, how we’d underestimated the sheer scale of this event! The fab Elizabeth Anne Norris http://eanjewellery.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/open-house-and-new-designs/ who we knew through the power of the Twitter www.twitter.com/eanjewellery had generously sent us a map showing all of the trails and the location of each of the Open Houses. We thought we’d be terribly organised and went through the listing, highlighting the houses where jewellers were showing. A plan of attach was formulated; don’t plan to see too much in one day, start at the furthest point out and work out way back, try not to double back on ourselves too much through the course of the day.

Ok, I didn’t know that the route up through Fiveways on the Fiveways Artists Group Trail http://fivewaysartists.com/ was quite so uphill (when you set off from Brighton Station) ‘Up we go! Up we go!’ said the Mole. When we felt we’d walked quite far enough thank you, we started exploring. So many houses, so much to see, we probably only covered a very small percentage of what there was to see (we only really covered parts of the Fiveways Artists Group Trial, Beyond the Level http://www.beyond-the-level.org.uk/ and some of the Independent houses) and were constantly distracted by the gorgeous ceramics, paintings, prints, textiles, sculpture and all manner of other lovely things, oh, and tea and cake, virtually every house was a tea and cake fan’s dream. A stonking Sunday roast was enjoyed at the Open House http://www.drinkinbrighton.co.uk/open-house and when we finally collapsed onto the train home we were exhausted but enlivened by all of the art and fantastic artistic hospitality.

Artists Open Houses continues for the next two weekends, pop along and treat yourself to a fantastic day out. You can get a feel for the festival over on their Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/1284841@N21

How Far to Ulaan Baatar? *

Saturday saw the start of the Mongol Rally 2010 (read all about it over on The Adventurists website) and the gathering of teams and vehicles for The Festival of Slow at Goodwood Motor Circuit. It looked like tremendous fun as can be seen from this vid.

You’ll never find a Team Plush undertaking a rally of this nature as we can get lost travelling from Chichester to the Birmingham’s NEC.

We’ve been following the build up of one particular team, Team Stardust. Helen, Victoria and Estelle are crossing countries and and continents to reach their destination. Oh by the way, Estelle is the Land Rover Ambulance Helen and Victoria are travelling in.

Estelle - ready to go

Support these intrepid, adventuring ladies by following Team Stardust’s progress on Twitter twitter.com/teamstardust and on their website http://stardustmongolrally2010.co.uk/. They’ve reached their original chariable target and are now collecting monies for the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation, a donation link is over on the Team Stardust website.

* it’s between 8 and 10,000 miles depending on the route you take.

The Lesser Spotted Holly

Hello dear Reader. If you regularly peruse these blog bassed missives or are a fan of Plush Jewellery on facebook facebook.com/plushjewellery or follow us on Twitter twitter.com/plushjewellery, you may be under the mistaken impression that it is just me, Allie, here at Plush.

There is another, she is Holly, she looks after all the important things at Plush Jewellery in Chichester while I’m tottling about looking after the interwebs, Today however, we needed a model for some lovely new pieces by local designer maker Kate Gill – all online soon, watch this space – and I roped Hol in. She is tremendously camera shy and a complete pain to get to stay still for a pic.

The Lesser Spotted Holly in Getaway Mode

Go on, give her a virtual wave in the comments section.

Bestest

Allie

Two Go Mad in Birmingham

It’s a tradition here at Plush Towers, at the beginning of every February we pack up and head northwards for a couple of days of shopping and catching up with jewellery designers and old chums.

Another tradition is the pre-journey fuel up at McDonalds – nothing like a Hash Brown to set you up for the day.

Mmmmmm McDonalds

We’ve been going to Spring Fair for a few years now and with experience you work out that it really is a good idea to remember which of the many car parks you’ve left the car in and more importantly which entrance you use to get into the NEC. It also helps to ‘have a plan’ as the show is so vast there just isn’t time to see it all.

Day one plan: work out who’s where and what’s what. As always, these carefully laid plans quickly scatter to the wind due to the distraction of the sheer shininess of all the jewellery on display. We did catch up with; amongst others, Hazel Atkinson, who has added to her stunning ranges of anodised aluminium jewellery *coming soon* and Juli Miller of Jules Jules whose new ranges using combinations of materials are fabulous *coming soon*.

The View from Our Luxury Accommodation

Day two plan: be distracted by new gorgeous jewellery. It goes without saying that this plan works out much better that the more constrained plan of day one. As a result we’ve got some fantastic news about bespoke engagement rings and wedding bands to bring you soon, keep your eyes open *coming soon*. We passed the Catwalk sponsored by Pandora and spotted the VIP area.

VIP Area - Compact and bijou, Mostyn, compact and bijou

Day three plan: have a good old nose around The Jewellery Quarter and drop in on a couple of designer chums. The Jewellery Quarter is a great place for a mooch about if you are at all interested in jewellery, though on cold day in February with bitter winds it does turn into a slightly swifter mooch than on a nice summer’s day. We caught up with Collette Waudby in her workshop where she was working on pieces from her new Butterfly collection *coming soon*, for anyone already familiar with Collette’s work, you are going to love these new pieces as much as we do.

Collette Waudby - A jeweller in her environment

So, three days in Birmingham and lots of new and exciting things coming to Plush Jewellery in the very near future. All in all a jolly good road trip.

Bestest

Allie

Edit: here’s the promo video for The Jewellery Quarter

Normal Blogging Service to be Resumed

January was a month of snow and illnesses here at Plush Towers, hence the lack of bloggage. Massive apologies for the lack of missives, normal service is ressuming. Look out for lots of exciting new things coming rather soon.

Bestest

Allie

Lights, Reindeer, Fireworks…

Saturday, sees the switching on of the christmas lights in Chichester (they’re LED and eco-friendly noless). The city will be a hive of activity all day; if you’ve got little uns they can have their piccy taken with real, live reindeers who will be outside Marks & Spencer in East Street (actually, I believe children of all ages can have a photo with the reindeer), shops will be bedecked in their festive guises (we’re getting the snow spray out this year!!), the mayor of Chichester will be switching the lights on at 5pm, street entertainers will be entertaining the shoppers and the whole thing wraps up with a mahoosive fireworks display, last year it sounded like the Royal Artillery were practicing on the cathedral green.

The free Park & Ride shuttle service also commences it’s seasonal service on the same day, see yesterday’s blog post for more info, which eases the frustrations of parking in an incredibly old city.

Oh and if you’re a member if Qype, we have a downloadable discount voucher which is valid until the end of Nov, so you can pick up a few glittering Christmas presents and save yourself a few pennies on the same day.

Bestest

Allie xx

A mobile test

Hallo all. This is a tiny test blog to see how this iPhone app works. Is it just as easy as the web version? Let’s see shall we.

Bestest

Allie

Packaging for Those Perfect Presents

I know I say over on our website that your pieces come in a presentation box, wrapped in ribbon ‘but Allie,’ I hear you ask – it’s amazing what technology can do isn’t it – ‘what do these presentation boxes look like? What colour is this ribbon?’ Well, read on dear reader to see what happens when you come in and see us at Plush Jewellery – if you order online the only thing you don’t automatically get is the gift bag, they get a bit squashed in the post but if you would like one, please give me a call on 01243 778424 or send me a tweet after you’ve ordered @plush_allie

Your jewellery is carefully placed in a gorgeous presentation box and we hand tye ribbon

Our bow tying skills are honed to perfection!

Then we gently nestle your presentation box into a gift bag

We then close your bag with another ribbon.

Finish it off with another hand tyed bow. The tag's ready for you to add your own message

Bestest
Allie

Gorgeous Things on a Monday Part 1 – Paul Finch Jewellery – Trap Ring

Paul Finch Jewellery - Trap Ring

Monday, the week stretches out in front of us. I’ve decided to use my Monday blog posts to highlight gorgeous things that have caught my eye. Though in a fanfare of self-promotion, today’s gorgeous thing is this stunning Trap ring from the collection by Paul Finch Jewellery, though future gorgeous things will not necessarily come from the pages of Plush Jewellery (pop a comment below with your gorgeous things). The Paul Finch Jewellery Trap ring is made with hallmarked matt finished Sterling Silver which has been plated with 18ct gold and is set with four stunning sparkling 3pt diamonds which glisten from within the shell-like form. It’s available to order in all sizes – pop over to Plush Jewellery for a closer look.

Bestest

Allie

Southsea Art & Design @ Oxmarket Galleries

The Oxmarket Galleries, which is located in Little London Car Park here in Chichester – googly map link to the Oxmarket Galleries location, is hosting an exhibition of paintings, ceramics, photography, textiles, glassware and jewellery by artists from in and around Southsea, Hampshire from Monday (12th Oct) through until Saturday and admission is free. The Oxmarket is a fantastic space, if you’re in the area pop in and take a look.

Bestest

Allie