Helen

Author's details

Name: Helen Kaut
Date registered: June 13, 2009
URL: http://www.hkpress.co.uk

Latest posts

  1. Helen tests … polishing methods: buffing with the Dremel, auto-clay and Renaissance Wax — May 11, 2012
  2. Guest bloggers wanted — May 4, 2012
  3. Walking your cat – is more common than you think — April 18, 2012
  4. Helen tests…Moulding compounds: Amazing Mold Putty and Oyumaru Instant Mold Moulding Compound — April 5, 2012
  5. What to do with jewellery items that don’t sell? — March 28, 2012

Most commented posts

  1. Commission for a customer — 4 comments
  2. More from the diet front — 4 comments
  3. The making of…a bracelet woven on a beading loom — 4 comments
  4. Spotlight on…Four Paws Animal Rescue (South Wales) — 4 comments
  5. Cat Globetrotter – French couple travel the world with a super cute cat — 3 comments

Author's posts listings

Oct
26

Spotlight on….Kirsty Sullivan from Ladybird Beads

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Strawberry Fields bracelet - copyright Kirsty Sullivan

Kirsty Sullivan is the designer and owner of Ladybird Beads. She lives with her three small children and partner in a small town in Essex just north of Epping Forest, but is originally from Wales. Kirsty started making jewellery in 2009 and in her day job she works as a Programme Manager of the schools provision at the Museum of London Docklands

Do you have any pets?

Not any more, though I have a history of gerbils. I would love a Devon Rex cat!

When did you start making jewellery?

I started making jewellery in early 2009, when I wanted to make a bag charm to finish a cross stitch project and then got a bit carried away.

When did you start your business?

I sold my first pieces in June 2009, firstly to Facebook friends who were really supportive and then I set up my website about 6 weeks later – my first craft fairs were in December that year.

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Oct
05

Snnnnnnakes in the Studio.

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snake1detailonbust

Working with polymer clay is fun but also very time consuming. My latest pendants were originally planned as rings. I wanted to make snake rings, however on the day I couldn’t find my ring mandrel and had to improvise and because the snakes are not that thin they ended up being very small in diameter – mainly size I which is very small indeed. So I now sell them as pendants.

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Sep
21

Spotlight on…Jennifer Elizabeth Heap – Designer and owner of Jennifer Lizzy

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Jennie - copyright Jennifer Elizabeth Heap

My friend Jennifer Elizabeth Heap originally comes from Leicestershire but has moved to South Wales in 2006 to study drama at the University of Glamorgan. Jennie lives in the outskirts of Caerphilly with her gorgeous and mischievous black and white cats Reebok and Booful. When she’s not creating beautiful jewellery she is studying childcare at her local college.
Jennie: I first started making jewellery last year (2010), when I was unwell with depression. My mum bought me a load of beads and cord and I used to make threaded and knotted necklaces, because it kept my hands busy and gave me something to do. I found it really therapeutic and moved on to using headpins and eye pins and now I’m using resin and wirework and there’s no looking back!

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Sep
06

Mercuries – Freddie and prizes – (warning long post).

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Today the Mercury prize will be awarded to one of 12 nominees and Radio 6 has been promoting this event for weeks now. If you love music as much as I do, you’ll be interested to find out who will get the award this year and the ever excitable Jools Holland will as usual present the show. I always assumed the prize was named after either the record label Mercury Records or the great Freddie (who is also the inspiration for the name of my dear cat Freddy). So when checking I was surprised that it was actually named and created by the communications company Mercury – and that was before I lived in Britain so I have never heard of them. Since its demise the Mercury has changed its sponsors to Barclaycard but kept the name.

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Aug
10

A bit of a catch up

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Scotty dog pendant - copyright Helen White

I decided to create animal themed jewellery, mainly because I love animals esp. cats (no surprise there) and would wear these myself. So now you can find a lot of cute earrings – horses, dinosaurs, cats, flying horses, elephants, tortoises, turtles, owls, dragonflies, hummingbirds and howling wolves which you can all find here. I will add more earrings in the near future.

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Jul
06

How to make a DIY pendant display.

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Pendant display front - copyright Helen White

In the run-up for my stall at Roath Craft Market this coming Saturday I have been experimenting with displays. I have only a small table of approx 4feet x 2 feet available to use and therefore need to make the most of my space.

Obviously I won’t be taking all my stock but have not only to choose my items wisely, but also to decide on which displays to take. I have a few pendants I’d like to sell this Saturday (fingers crossed) and wasn’t happy with just laying them out on the table. My friend Pamela gave me an idea, as she’s very good at making her own displays out of photo frames. Her earring display is very nifty indeed as she can hook her earrings on them and close the whole display for transport and when she opens it, it can stand on its own.

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Jun
22

Spotlight on…Rachel Jinks from “Mog’s Togs”

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Rachel Jinks

If you love cats as much as I do you will love the cute cat collars Rachel Jinks designs and sells through her online shops on Etsy and Folksy. Rachel founded her cat accessory business “Mog’s Togs” in 2010. She lives with her husband Pete and her gorgeous rescue cats Lila and Mia in Surrey. In her day job she works as a trial statistician and she is also studying for a PhD in Medical Statistics.

When did you start making collars for cats?

When Lila and Mia first started going outside, they lost their breakaway collars at an amazing rate. I didn’t want them going out without ID tags, but with no pet shop conveniently nearby, I was concerned about running out of replacement collars, so I decided to look into sewing them myself from scrap fabric.

Rachel’s cat Mia – copyright Rachel Jinks

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Jun
11

E-books and other stuff

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Bobby - copyright Helen White

I have recently added an extra page on this blog called “Jewellery E-books” and if you are creating and selling jewellery you might be interested to explore this page – Through this blog and the extra page I offer three different books all by jewellery artist Rena Klingenberg. You can find excerpts of all three books on the page and more information when following the links in my blogroll or on the page. I have all three books and find them very useful. Currently I am reading her book “Ultimate Guide to Your Profitable Jewelry Booth” as I am preparing a stall for the 25th of June in Roath. It has lots of brilliant ideas on how to present your jewellery, how to attract customers and how to simply make the most of your stall. So if you’re interested check out the page.

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Jun
03

Injuries can seriously derail diet plans

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I haven’t posted for a while about my diet progress – because I haven’t made any significant progress. In fact I think I have stalled – but dare not touch the scales. Last time I was at the gym my shoulder and neck were in agony and we could only work the lower body, so in the end I cancelled training for the unforeseeable future and decided to get my neck and shoulder problem fixed. A while ago I had an email from a therapy provider who specialises in ART – short for Active Release Technique. So I thought I try this out.The treatment combines movement, stretching and massages and treats problems with muscles, tendons, nerves, ligaments and fascia. After 4 sessions though I had to give up because I couldn’t feel any improvement and the pain in my left arm, which is also my dominant arm got worse. So now I am back with my physiotherapist Osian from Recovery and Beyond and am hoping he can fix my shoulder.

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May
09

How to… create an interesting necklace with a Chalk Turquoise pendant.

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Earrings - copyright Helen White

A while ago I bought a selection of Chalk Turquoise pendants and didn’t really think much about what to do with them – the end result was a rather dull and uninspired necklace.As nice as the pendant looks on its own – something was just missing. So I decided to experiment a little with wire and different ways of wrapping the pendant. It has two side drilled holes which determine the direction of the wrap. I first started with thicker wire of 0.8mm but realised that I couldn’t cross the wires within the holes and thus not wrap it the way I wanted it.

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