Website Update and Other News

The work on the updating of my website is going on. I haven't expected Nigel (http://www.nigelrobinson.com/), who we've been working with on the design and development of my website as well as the Demi-Monde website, to come up with all these ideas - last night!

This is a little preview of what my new opening page is going to look like. As Nigel very rightly commented, the bit in the middle of the stylised N is very important as it is the thing which sets this particular N from others. So he was reluctant to put the words "Nelli Rees Lampwork" across it, and now I know why. These four examples are very pretty, but again, as Nigel commented, although the big stylised N works, the lettering doesn't as it is too small and can't really be seen very well. So Nigel also prepared a couple of other options, and they are gorgeous. The problem is, one of them has lettering on the black background, and the other - on the cream one. So now I have this dilemma: black or white? Difficult.

I have finished work on the article for the Making Jewellery mag which should be in the April issue. They obviously want it to coincide with the release of my book in the States which is scheduled for the 5th of April 2011. It is actually good, because if I book a stall at the Flame Off on the 8th-9th of April 2011 it will give me something to display!

I've also finished my article for the GBUK Autumn-Winter Newsletter. It is called "Book or not 2 Book", but I am not sure if they decide to call it something different. Sabine Little, who sadly is not going to remain the Newsletter Editor, very kindly accepted it for the issue that she is going to put together before she leaves this post :( . I mean, :) for being accepted! I tried to make it funny, I hope it'll come through.

What an Exciting Day! Mood: Busy

Yesterday was an amazing day!

First of all, the day before I received a message from this lovely guy, Kevin Clark, who got my book, which apparently arrived at his place last Saturday (wow! - 10 out of 10 to the GMC for organising themselves on time!), and he wrote a lovely note to me about it! But yesterday he allowed me to put it on my blog, so here it is:

"I received your book through Amazon on Saturday, love it. It's really well laid out and for a newbie in the lampworking field (well 4 months) makes a lot of sense. Love the fact that you can make a bead then for the jewellery makers carry on and make your piece."

Wheeee!!!!! I was thrilled!

Then all of a sudden the Making Jewellery team came back and said that they would publish this "10 Questions" thing about me in their Issue 25. Hooray, at last! One would think that as GMC Publications own the Making Jewellery mag, there would be a lot more connection between the editorial teams - well, not so! I've been nagging for ages about an article, so yes! yes! yes!!! OK, issue 25 is a long way away, it's the April issue, if I can count correctly, and this 10 Questions feature is a bit boring - the questions are all the same for everybody, they don't really fit very well with a lampworker, but never mind, this is the format - what can you do? I'm just so glad that they'll do it! So a sneaky preview of one of the photos I'm gonna use in there:

These are my "Gaillardia" beads, I make them from time to time, I just love the goldstone middles, and this green background is also one of my favourite greens. I start with white (any white really) then encase it into my favourite transparent emerald green which, I think, is now sold as "mid dark green" - I just love this shade! - so it comes out this lovely bright green with the added bonus of the following: if you decorate the surface, then you can see the shadows on the white, so it looks extra mysterious!

Next I received the actual 10 questions so I can now buckle down, which I have done actually. I sat at my computer all day, dilidently choosing the photos - only max 8. It's a real pity that I can't do any lampworking at the mo, as I've got soooo many ideas, so I'll have to use the old pix of the stuff I made in the summer. Hey! never mind! :) :) :)

Then I also approached the GBUK Newsletter team, and Sabine Little came back and said "yes" to my plan of writing a piece on how I did it with the book etc, so this was just really great news too! You never know how people might treat your contacting them: they might think that you are too pushy. But the book is out there, and I need to promote it somehow - you know what I mean!

It was raining yesterday, but I didn't notice - I was soooooo busy! Lovely-jubbly! xxx