I’m organised and ready to go. Here’s hoping the better weather promised for the weekend will bring out people to look at our work.

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Oxfordshire artists and craftspeople will open their studios to the public for the county’s most important arts festival

North Oxfordshire 5th-13th May

Oxford City 12th-20th May

South Oxfordshire 19th-27th May

As last year, Guen Palmer and I will be exhibiting with Richard and Kathy Shock at 369 Woodstock Road, Oxford.

We are Sites 253 – 255 in the Guide, see www.artweeks.org: Guen Palmer (Jeweller), Katherine Shock (Painter), John Huddleston (Silversmith) and Richard Shock (Woodturner) There will also be 13 other artists and makers at 6 venues within 300 yards of us, 50 sites within a mile and 150 in Oxford, so there is plenty to see round here. There is a trail map at
http://www.jhud.co.uk/woodstockroad/Top_of_Woodstock_Rd.pdf.

I’ve developed a 45-60 minute talk about silver suitable for local groups.  I cover sources, uses, price, hallmarking, how to make silverware and how to care for it.

I’ve given the talk in Radley a couple of times and it seems to go down well.

I shall be giving the talk to the Stonesfield WI tonight and to the Wantage Probus club in October.

The lowest band  of Special Delivery will rise from £5.45 to £5.90 on 30th April, along with a raft of other changes, so my rate for postage for shop items will have to change accordingly.  I have a flat rate of £6.00 at present and that will rise to £6.50.

As April is past, this small increase has taken effect.

This is my test piece where I depleted the sterling silver to allow the gold foil to fuse

Keum (or Kum) Boo is a process for affixing fine gold foil onto fine silver for decoration. See on my main website for more detail at this page.  Up until now , I have fused the gold onto fine silver, but i’ve just tried successfully to put foil on sterling silver by depletion silvering.  To pretreat the sterling sheet, I did the heat / acid/ heat / acid  cycle seven times, but the end result is good. I am pleased with the result and will do more.

Try looking at my examples pages – earrings, bracelets, cufflinks and pendants have an intermediate page using lighbox for display

A copy of my favourite cufflinks and a  pair based on 3d pieces.  Some new earrings including a seahorse, another paperknife and a bangle.  An eclectic collection!

I have added some rings that I can only describe as meandering which can the thumb or finger rings.  Also a new book mark using the same leaf design as used on some jewellery.

A new twist on my treble clef brooch.  I’ve varnished and modified a standard clothes peg so that the brooch fits on to the peg and hence can be used as a rather special clip on a music stand to hold the music in place.  Picture here.  It doesn’t stop the brooch being used without the peg either.