What a pleasure it was to be interviewed recently by Kylie for a ‘Made-It Monday – Seller Interview’ feature on her blog. Kylie creates the most amazing Raw Toys – I really recommend checking them out if you have a little person (and even if you don’t!). My son spends hours playing with his beautiful rainbow (which you can see below in Kylie’s blog header), and I keep one of Kylie’s little wooden tree puzzles on the windowsill by my desk – it makes me smile each time I see it! My nieces are the proud owners of two of Kylie’s little fairy doors, which I believe are helping some flowers grow in their garden as we speak. Kylie’s toys are natural, well made, whimsical, and most importantly of all, stimulate the imaginations of our little ones beautifully.
Below is the interview in full – please do check it out over on the Raw Toys Blog as well, won’t you!
I love Made It. It’s a user friendly platform for me to sell my toys and it doubles as one of my favourite places to shop. Topping off the awesomeness of Made It is it’s lively, supportive and inspirational community of sellers. I’ve invited some of these talented folk to tell us a bit about what they do and share the story behind their favourite creation.
Out of all the people I’ve connected with on this creative small business pathway, Ruthie from The Silver Forge has to be one of my favourites! Ruthie is a brilliant artist whose work I absolutely adore and you won’t find many people more lovely. I’m sure you’ll love reading about what is involved in Ruthie’s work and viewing her incredible jewellery. A lovely giveaway is on offer too – enjoy!
My name is Ruthie, and I live in sunny Brisbane. I am a silversmith.
My shop, The Silver Forge, opened in May 2012. I have been smithing for over five years and last year, completed intensive vocational certification at a local dedicated goldsmith’s school. I feel very lucky, as I love what I do!!
My favourite item in my shop at the moment is this teal green drusy agate and sterling silver ring. (Available for purchase here).
I fell in love with drusy agate a few years ago when I found a gorgeous piece I used to create a ring.
The term “drusy” comes from the word “druse”, which is a rock surface covered with tiny crystals, like those found inside geodes. Drusy crystals take hundreds or even thousands of years to form – molten rock begins to cool with trapped gases inside. The gases create gaps in the rock. As ground water carrying dissolved silica is forced into these porous areas, tiny crystals form, creating sparking clusters. Amazing!!
Since then, I have collected a range of gorgeous drusy cabochons that I love to create gorgeous big chunky rings and pendants with. Because the stones are so full of beauty and colour, I like to keep my designs simple and elegant, letting the crystal speak for itself. I have a number of pieces in my shop.
I also offer people the option of choosing their own stone from my collection on my website.
This particular ring was created using sterling silver sheet. Firstly, I shaped the bezel (which is the part of the ring surrounding and holding the gemstone) using half round pliers, then I soldered that to the backing plate using a propane gas soldering torch. (Whoo hoo, flame!!!) I cut out around the bezel plate with my jeweller’s saw, then bent the ring shank (the part of the ring that goes around your finger) and soldered that to the bezel assembly.
Then, after some filing and emerying, I set the stone into the ring using my setting ball and my gorgeous setting hammer. Finally I gave the piece its final texture – a high polish this time! The whole process is a fairly industrial, noisy, fiery, tool-wielding experience, which sometimes seems at odds with something so delicate and refined!You can find The Silver Forge at:
A big thank you to Kylie for choosing to interview me for her gorgeous blog!
Ruthie has a fantastic newsletter that you can subscribe to either on the Silver Forge website or Facebook page. Just by subscribing, you enter the draw for a monthly giveaway – very exciting! Ruthie is offering a very special giveaway to one Raw Toys readers.. a custom made pair of Czech glass earrings! I have a gorgeous pair of these in green – they are just divine. Here is an example of the style:
Visit Ruthie’s shop and have a look at the earrings there. Pop back here and leave a comment to tell Ruthie your favourite bead and which shape takes your fancy. A winner will be randomly chosen on Friday evening.
Huge thanks to you for sharing your work here, Ruthie, I’m very honoured to have you!
Rusty, the artisan behind the beautiful ‘Vance’ guitars, commissioned me to create a ring for his daughter’s birthday.
He chose the stone from my collection, then sent me a copy of a chart on which he’d measured the size of a ring from her ‘little gripper’. (Hehe, ‘little gripper’ made me laugh when Rusty send that to me!)
It was such a pleasure to set this beautiful stone for someone lovely to wear.
This is one of Rusty’s guitars: exquisite workmanship, and (apparently, from all who tell me) totally awesome to play. If you’re interested in owning one of these beauties, let me know, and I’ll put you in touch with him!
Vance Custom Guitars
Thanks so much for the honour, Rusty. I really appreciate it!
Ruthie Gray is a silversmith specializing in well-designed, comfortable and fun jewellery for everyday wear. She is the creative owner of her own jewellery line, The Silver Forge. The Silver Forge was started in May 2012, although Ruthie has been studying and practising silversmithing as early as 2005. Ruthie’s creative process may start from a simple daydream or art drawing with all possible ideas and designs ‘dumped’ onto paper. The ones that stood out will then be physically prepared from a silver sheet or wire; such as sawing, filing, emerying, soldering, hammering, bending; until the final piece emerges. All the jewellery you see in The Silver Forge were made by hand using using traditional methods and tools in Ruthie’s Brisbane home studio.
Besides managing her creative business, Ruthie is a mother of two children (17 and 2 years old – yes, I checked and it is not a typo!) and has a ‘day’ job working from home. She feels lucky to be able to have another form of paid work that is flexible and not confined in an office building. To make the most of this arrangement, Ruthie ensures that she spends lots of time with her children in the daytime during the week while also working her ‘day’ job in the background plus running her handmade business. As if that is not enough to keep her occupied, Ruthie manages to squeeze in time for reading and indulging in several crafty pursuits; among them sewing, knitting, needlework and painting miniature models.
“It is a privilege to be able to create for a living. Doing something that you are passionate about makes the days fly by, and there’s never a dull moment!” – Ruthie Gray
Even though The Silver Forge is a part time business for Ruthie, she still faces the challenges of juggling the demands of a handmade business with those of having a family life and a ‘day’ job. List-writing works very well for her. Everything and anything that needs to be done goes on a list to make it easy for her to prioritise. Naturally, family duties come first as the whole point of being able to work from home is to spend time with them. Ruthie acknowledges that it can get quite busy sometimes trying to fit the ‘day’ job and handmade business into everyday life. One of the ways that Ruthie does to stay on top of things is having her 2-year-old spend a few hours each week at crèche and also having quality time with his Nanna. This allows him to learn social interaction skills while giving mum some space to focus on work and business commitments.
I asked Ruthie to share her tips for those wanting to start a business –
Have a basic structure on which your business should be based upon. Do you want to stay small as a one woman business or do you have plans to change the world?
Do not underprice your own work. Setting prices too low not only hurt yourself but you are undermining the value of the whole handmade industry.
Maintain proper financial records. Put aside time to do administrative work on a weekly basis. Yes, it may be boring but at the end of the year, your tax accountant will thank you for it.
Time management is essential. If you are feeling overwhelmed, try this – Spend a couple of days to review your daily tasks and how long it takes for you to do each one. Perhaps you are watching too much television or checking your social media accounts too often in a day. Set time limits when you are on the internet and you may be surprised to discover the amount of free time you can uncover.
Several ways to promote your business – Word of mouth, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Wanelo, Stumbleupon, Blogging, Giveaways, Etsy team membership.
At the end of the day, everything can wait except your children – they grow so quickly! Each precious moment you can spend with them is something you can treasure.
To view more of Ruthie’s work or have her commission a piece for you, do visit the following sites :-
Any purchases made from today and up to 15th April 2013, will be entitled to a 10% discount as a thank you for taking the time to read about The Silver Forge. Just mention in the notes to seller that you are a CassieJene blog reader when purchasing through her Madeit store (a 10% refund will be send to you via Paypal). Alternatively, if you choose to shop through her Etsy store, just use coupon code CASSIEJENE10.
All images featured in this article remained the property of Ruthie Gray / The Silver Forge and is used here with permission. This post is written based on Ruth’s reply via an e-mail interview.
The unusual malachite gemstone cabochon shown here is 24mm long.
Malachite has a high copper content, which is what gives it that fabulous green colouring. It was given its name because of its resemblance to the leaves of the Mallow plant. Read more about Malachite here.
The lovely malachite gemstone cabochon shown here is 22mm diameter.
Malachite has a high copper content, which is what gives it that fabulous green colouring. It was given its name because of its resemblance to the leaves of the Mallow plant. Read more about Malachite here.
The lovely malachite gemstone cabochon shown here is 29mm long, and is available to be handcrafted into a custom made ring or pendant for you.
Malachite has a high copper content, which is what gives it that fabulous green colouring. It was given its name because of its resemblance to the leaves of the Mallow plant. Read more about Malachite here.
I was very excited yesterday to discover that a treasury I curated had made it to the front page of Etsy Australia! For those who might not know, Etsy is an online handmade marketplace, where thousands of individual sellers host their own shops, and millions of fabulous handcrafted or vintage items can be drooled over (and bought). (My shop can be found here, if you haven’t been already!)
Etsy members can curate online collections of sixteen items each, called a treasury. Selected treasuries are displayed on the front page of Etsy each day. Recently I’ve been making lots of them, in part because a couple of Etsy teams I belong to curate as a means of promotion, but mainly because it’s a great way to window shop and come across marvellous things you would never otherwise have seen! Each of my treasuries has a theme, be it a particular item that the treasury is built around, or something I love, or a colour scheme. It’s very zen and quite addictive!! I find myself thinking in curator mode as I walk around IRL. 🙂
Anyway, enough background, on with the tale! I belatedly discovered that one of my treasuries was chosen to appear on the front page! Very exciting, and quite an accolade! The only sad moment was that I wasn’t online while it was on display, so missed seeing it. 🙁
Never mind, I was very happy, and hope that the lovely sellers whom I chose to feature in it were happy too. I’m hoping another of my curated collections is selected to appear on the front page soon! Now, off to Etsy to do some more dreaming and drooling. 🙂
Started by local horsewoman Bid Williams in around 1973, and having an interesting history for the last 40 years, Pegasus provide equestrian activities for people with disabilities with the help and support of volunteers and the local community.
Their programs assist both children and adults, physically, emotionally and socially. Apart from being fun, horse riding helps to improve co-ordination, balance, muscle development and fitness. It also boosts personal confidence, self-esteem, communication skills, leadership and trust.
Pegasus (photograph by Heide Smith)
Pegasus are unfortunately struggling with a financial crisis, and may be unable to stay open past September 2013 unless they receive an increase in public donations, and a much needed boost to their funding from the Government.
Being from Canberra myself, I was happy to find that an Australian Etsy team I’m part of are doing some fundraising for this worthy cause. I will be listing two pairs of earrings, the proceeds from which will be donated to Pegasus.
Head on over to the Etsy fundraising page, and check out the earrings and all the other items that are being sold as part of the fundraising campaign. Who knows what handmade treasure you might find, and be able to purchase to help?
Thanks, Pegasus, for your tireless and wonderful work!
I bought two divine lodolite bullet shaped cabs a while ago, and I spent some time contemplating how to do them justice. I was waiting for inspiration to strike me, and it eventually did!
Lodolite is commonly known as Garden Quartz.
It is clear quartz with inclusions, which look like a landscape scene – garden or underwater garden!
I feel the organic vine-like nature of the ring complements the beautiful stone.
I’m looking forward to making another ring with my second gorgeous piece of Lodolite!
People who know Brisbane might be familiar with le Forme del Mito sculptures, created by Arnaldo Pomodoro in 1983. Pomodoro was born on June 23, 1926, in Morciano, Romagna, Italy. These sculptures were originally theatre set pieces for Agamemnon, a classical Greek tradgedy, which were brought to Brisbane during Expo 88. The Brisbane City Council purchased them, and they were set in King George Square, later moving to their current resting place at the bottom of Jacob’s Ladder in the centre of the city.
photo credit to Carlo Orsi
Each figure is created in bronze, and represents a principal character from the play. From left to right above:
La macchina – Machine – Aegisthus
L’ambizione – Ambition – Clytemnestra
Il potere – Power – Agamemnon
La profezia -Prophecy – Cassandra
The one that really spoke to me when I came upon them at the bottom of Jacob’s ladder a little while ago was Clytemnestra. I’m sure it’s heretical to say this, but the sculpture really reminded me of nothing so much as a Dalek. And Daleks are cool, so that makes this a very cool piece!
If you had read my recent post on the ring that I just made, you see where my mind has been lately. Very industrial scuplture! 🙂
