The duffers guide to taking a hint

I see it all the time at art and craft markets, couples wander up to my stall, look at the jewellery, have a chat, the girlfriend/wife/partner picks up a piece of jewellery and says something to her boyfriend/husband/partner that - to me - is clearly a hint that if someone special bought the item for her, she'd be highly delighted. All she gets back is a blank look and they wander off. Very occasionally, the gentleman will return and buy the item; he was just playing dumb. I'm always most impressed with guys that can pull that off (DH is hopeless, he will actually ask me "Is that hint for your birthday present then?") !!!

So, for all you blokes out there that can't take a hint, here's a rough guide translating commonly heard phrases and generally letting you know what might be going on in your beloved's mind.

The vital point for you to realise is that when you are taken out shopping close to Valentinue's day, her birthday, your anniversary or Christmas she is NOT doing this just to deprive you of watching sports on TV, or keep you from your mates in the pub. She is trying to help you come to the right decision about a present for her and to save you wasting your money. See ... she loves you really.

So, when you're in a shop or (for preference) at a craft market stall and she picks up (for example), the bracelet photographed

if she tries it on, she is interested in it. If she just puts it down again and tries on something else, that wasn't a hint. Sometimes things look different when they're on. (NB With earrings she will just hold them up next to her ear and look at herself in a mirror, she won't put them in as most retailers don't like you to do this with earrings for hygiene reasons.) What she says after trying it on is the key to not missing the hint.

If she says "Oh, this is lovely, I really like it what do you think?" and shows it to you, she isn't really interested in your opinion, she is engaging you and bringing the item to your attention. If you go back later and buy this for her, she will pretend it was all your idea and tell all her friends how clever you were to notice that she'd like it. Other things she may say if she'd like you to buy it for her are:

• "This would go with my new dress"
• "It fits perfectly, it was made for me"
• "I really like this, I'd like to have it but I can't afford it" (you will get bonus points here for your generosity)

When she doesn't buy it for herself, she isn't torturing you and drawing out the nightmare of having to keep shopping til she does find something she wants to buy - she is dropping a hint to you.

The thing to do next is after a few minutes, when you've left the stall, is to say "I'm just going to buy a newspaper, I'll be back in a minute" she will probably realise what you're doing but she won't let on, so no need (at this stage in your hint-taking education) to be any more subtle than that. She probably won't even question you if you don't have a newspaper when you come back, if she does, just tell her "They didn't have a copy of The Daily Mirror" (or whatever paper you usually buy).

However, some ladies have a different approach, having tried the above way numerous times in the past and had their hints ignored, they are a tad more direct about it and may say something like:

• "This is a lovely bracelet, it would be so nice if someone listening to me would buy it for my Valentine's day present"
• "It would be lovely if someone came back to buy this for me when I wasn't here"

In my experience, this still only works about 50% of the time. Oftentimes, the gentleman will pick up one of my business cards which are handily lying around at both ends of the stall and I will get a phone call/e-mail/internet order. I have a really good memory and if you ring me during the week, I will remember the hint and know what you are talking about. After a week though, my memory is a bit faulty so follow up on this kind of comment fast! Hopefully you're getting the idea by now; you need to realise that it's imperative to take heed when she's talking; if you're not listening and are daydreaming about the football scores, then you will not pick up on this hint - remember: pay attention!

There is one final way that some ladies adopt. These ladies have been so often disappointed in the past and fed up with presents they don't like, that they utilise a candid, blunt and to the point method:

• "Get your wallet out, you're buying me this for Valentine's day"

This is a royal command, if you don't buy this item right then, don't expect any smoochies later on! This has a good success rate but it's a little unromantic. So I urge all of you people out there who never know what to get your other half for a present; all you have to do is listen when you're out shopping together - she may be trying to tell you something!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Sooz Jewels' jewellery is designed for women to wear, we have no objection if men wish to wear our jewellery and readers of the above guide may therefore feel free to substitute gender and gender-specific terms at will should they so wish. Sooz Jewels is an equal opportunities purveyor of craft jewellery.

Computer problems and calling Heather!

Since the last Windows automatic update, my laptop been difficult to boot. Consequently, I just didn't switch it off for a couple of weeks whilst I got my accounts and tax return done as I needed information in it to do so. Now that's out of the way, I've been trying to fix it but unfortunately, now it won't turn on at all!

It's within its year's warranty so I'm going to take it back to hopefully be fixed but I don't know when I can get it to the shop or how long they'll keep it. I can use this desktop PC to download new e-mails but I can't access old ones til I get the laptop working again. I was in the middle of e-mail exchanges with Heather about her daughter's wedding jewellery. She was expecting me to post a package of sample beads yesterday but I can't get at her address so Heather, if you're reading this, please can you send me your address again. Thanks!

Am I messy?

I asked this question of myself when I was reading Amy's ReFinds blog. I "met" Amy through the Upcyclers team on Etsy.

So .. am I messy? I took these pictures of my indoor studio where I make my jewellery and the answer is ... when I'm working, most definitely!

I have another studio in my garden where I do my soldering and melt glass for beads which I've featured in here before. Basically that's for hot work -  if it burns down, the house is safe! I had a big tidy up in there over the christmas holidays and so basically looks as tidy as it was in the last photograph. (That won't last!)

EDITED A BIT LATER:
This blog entry has been featured in the Etsy teamUpcyclers Love 2 Upcycle blog under their Blogs 2 Love section. My infamy spreads!

Wedding jewellery

My heart confetti arrived through the post this morning and so I've been photographing the jewellery I made with the recycled Rosé bottle beads.

These have all been listed in my Etsy shop. The plan is to be back at my stall at Cambridge's Art & Craft market from next Saturday onwards (if the weather forecast is dodgy though, I probably won't be there until February) and so I'll have them with me there too.

I celebrated my first Etsy sale yesterday! I changed my shop over to dollars and also introduced free worldwide shipping, I'm not sure which of the two things tipped my luck but I'm glad whichever it was! A lovely jewellery designer in the USA purchased a set of etched Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry beads. We both think that these will look great with the seaglass that she mainly works with. This is a market I wouldn't have reached but for Etsy so I'm hap-hap-happy! I have missed the buzz of making sales on my stall and am also looking forward to being back out there amongst my customers.

Recycled lampwork beads now available to buy

I've made a small selection of my recycled glass beads available for sale in my Etsy Shop.

As well as the etched Bombay Sapphire beads shown in the photograph, I have also added listings for beer bottle beads (Poachers, specially drunk by DH), sherry bottles and Perrier Water beads. Still to come are some beads made from Cava bottles and unetched Bombay Sapphire.

I have made some bridal jewellery with the Rosé bottle beads which I'm excited about but I'm holding off photographing them just for the time being as I'm waiting for a prop to come in the post to make the pics more "weddingy". All will be revealed here first! I've used up all the beads I made but I will be making more so I'll add a set of those in the course of the next few days too.

So why start selling beads now? I've been asked at various times since I started Sooz Jewels via e-mail and on my Saturday stall if I would consider selling them to other jewellery designers and my answer til now has always been an apologetic no but I have changed my mind. I've always thought that I would get bored with making more than I actually need myself and I do find that other lampwork beads are more interesting to make.

Having said that, I have been making recycled beads quite a lot lately and found it relaxing. If I do get a little bored, I watch the birds through my studio window, I have a strategically placed bird table and feeders especially for this. They absolutely love the sunflower seeds that I've been putting out for them (ready shelled so there's less mess). They fly in, pick one up and then fly off to eat it. A few seconds later, they're back for another ... I would get terrible indigestion if I ran around inbetween mouthfuls. It made me wonder what birds use instead of Rennies ...