*conditions apply

*conditions apply

I really crack myself up sometimes.

Get these crafty characters at this:

You give love a bad name

Love Letters jewellery decorating one of the anthems of the 80s that I think I might have once rollerskated to. This one goes out to Dan and Poppilina.

You give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi

An angel's smile is what you sell
You promise me heaven, then put me through hell
Chains of love got a hold on me
When passion's a prison, you can't break free





You're a loaded gun
There's nowhere to run
No one can save me
The damage is done








Chorus:
Shot through the heart
And you're to blame
You give love a bad name
I play my part and you play your game
You give love a bad name
You give love a bad name



Paint your smile on your lips
Blood red nails on your fingertips
A school boys dream, you act so shy
Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye





You're a loaded gun
There's nowhere to run
No one can save me
The damage is done





Chorus:
Shot through the heart
And you're to blame
You give love a bad name
I play my part and you play your game
You give love a bad name
You give love a bad name

Why I Heart Librarians

You may not think it, but this necklace is the jewellery of choice for one sassy librarian I know. Nothing surprises me when it comes to librarians and their desire for personal adornment. With rockstar librarian Nancy Pearl in BrisVegas, (love the action doll), I thought it timely to discuss the topic. During a past life spent working in libraries and even growing up in library culture (father was a librarian) I have been able to study them and develop my own market research theories. You've basically got your 3 archetypes - I'll ignore the male variety as the population sample is too insignificant for analysis - Buffy's Giles is really all you need to know here.

1. Lifestyle Librarian. A passion for books, knowledge, databases, cataloguing, internet etc.
   
   Navy cardigans and sensible shoes are the unofficial uniform here. These come in 2 main categories:
   a) Conservative on the outside while groovy on the inside proving once more that you can't judge a book by its cover. These ones are politically and socially enlightened and may surprise you with their dance moves. They are a good market for brooches - on their navy cardigans and small neat earrings with strings of beads.
   b) Conservative on the outside, conservative on the inside - somewhat of a stereotype I'm afraid and definitely a minority group in the throes of extinction. These are the ones that perhaps should have gone to police academy but somehow wound up in library school. Noted for an overzealous approach to enforcement of library rules and lack of sense of humour, they have no use for unecessary adornment which only gets in the way when they have to tackle misbehaving library patrons.
   
   
2. Liberated Librarians. These are the stylish and/or geeky ones out to prove that being a librarian does not exclude one from excercising the personal expression of weirdness. Who knows what they do in their spare time but don't be fooled by the strange garb and hair colour- these ones really know their stuff and are the prime target for contemporary jewellery and designer/unique clothing. From afar they resemble flocks of brightly coloured parakeets chattering away and sharing information and style tips. Anything goes and they like to outdo their colleagues - something that the savvy jeweller can use to their advantage.
   
   
   
3. Lipstick Librarians. Avoid these women. You can normally hear the approach of their trashy stilettos (*clik*clak*clik*clak*) although they may engage stealth mode on carpeted surfaces. They are generally to be found in sections of the library called 'Corporate Services' and are characterised by an all consuming lust for power. If you do see one approach, the best course of action is to ward them off with dusty printed matter which acts like a form of kryptonite, weakening their powers. As potential jewellery clients, don't bother. These women have no class and are only looking for ways to conspicuously display their power and status.
   

Hair Doerupperas in the News

I was sooo excited last Thursday that I might be in the Sydney Morning Herald that I could barely sleep the night before. Everytime I closed my eyes I kept thinking about how wonderful I was. I sprung out of bed at crack of sparrow and we headed to (S)Lutwyche Village for arancinis and muggacinos. Long-suffering Mr Accordian dutifully went and purchased the SMH for me.

Again and again I went through the paper and could not find anything about myself. Lots of stuff about other people, horses, dogs, footballers but not about me. Desperation set in as I combed the business and sports sections while the accordian applied himself vigorously to some Ekhart Tolle. I swung from hysteria to logical reasoning about what could have gone wrong. Then I realised we had the wednesday edition being sold a day late in Brisbane. Of course we are always playing catch up in the deep north and it's not just daylight saving I'm talking about.

So hurray for designspotter who set the ball rolling. Some of the press that I received from listing my Neo-Luddite Hair Control System in designspotter included Sydney Morning Herald cutting above (Thurs 2 Nov) and below groovy blogs.
Popgloss
Style hive
This Next
Zamazing.org

I also was recently in the Canadian Green Living Magazine print and online and Modamuse.

I was so pleased with myself that God had to punish my hubris with a weekend away camping in the rain and I returned wet and humbled to a full inbox of orders to make.

So does anyone have some more old computer keyboards for me? Or how about prising some keys off for me and popping them in the mail? I'm running out of ctrl, alt, tab, insert and end keys. Calling all office workers...wanna see the boss lose ctrl?

Geek Week 7: Geek go bye bye

All this blogging has given me an overuse injury. It is only 8.05pm but I am sooo sleepy. Guten nacht meine kleine geekinder.

Geek week 4: Blessed be the geeks

After Miss Liana and Miss Windbag’s blogs yesterday about not being particularly geeky at all and being 80% geeky (respectively), I paused to reflect on the generous nature of the nerds that are around us. We all have an alpha nerd friend to help us out when we get in a fix. They are always super helpful and seem to love the challenge of solving tricky problems. No matter how nerdy you are, there is someone nerdier and they seem to want to share their knowledge and help you to learn. They are like a bunch of hippies and it reminds you that the human capacity for cooperation and sharing has played as large a role if not greater than the 'survival of the fittest' model that we are told is the fundamental evolutionary truth (and actually is in some art circles)! It is a hidden economy of gifting that never really gets recognised by economists and has had good things like the Linux open source systems that are spreading so much joy among microsoft haters. I hope the nerds know that they are appreciated by neo-luddites like me. For all that they do.

I said to Liana once that my alpha nerd partner and his nerdier friend were going to upgrade the computer that we share to add more storage capacity and that they had ambitions to make it into a super computer. Backups had to be done of my precious image files and it was a major disruption to my blogging/internet schedule. She said “God I HATE it when they do that!” It’s true, I wouldn’t mind how many gigglewhatsits my computer has. As long as I’m number one on a google search for ‘jewellery’ I couldn’t care less. And it is the geeks that hold the key to that.

Now I'm off to the beach for a coupla days to de-geek and watch whale watchers.

Chic Geek Week 1

Welcome to geek week on Rebecca the Wrecker, Plastic Girl and Windbag and Thunder (and whoever else wants to join in!
I am starting off with my "I Robot" Necklace made from computer key and st silver- part of my new neo-luddite range.

Hair Control for Neo Luddites

At 'Junk IT' I'll be launching a revolutionary new approach to hair control:
The Neo-Luddite Hair Control System uses a blend of computer technology and old fashioned elastic to deliver a crafty solution to all of your head hair styling requirements.

Eliminating the need for hot rollers, permanent waves, various nasty chemical styling products, not to mention those endless trips to the hair stylist, this simple and affordable product empowers the wearer to take full coiffure control. Flexible and easy to use, available in the latest fashion colours, be sure to try the Neo-Luddite Hair Control System soon before everyone else does!

*Available PC or MAC format
**Available in single strand or double strand elastic for heavy hair days

The one that got away

Being the daughter of a fisherman, I am very familiar with the concept of 'the one that got away'. Yesterday I delivered my new Neo-Luddite range to Reverse Garbage for JUNK IT and returned home to discover that one had indeed got away. I found Alien Code brooch cowering terrified under the computer keyboard where I was entering its details into excel earlier in the day. It was perfectly camouflaged, tentacles a quivering. I explained to it that they are very nice people at Reverse Garbage and there's every chance that it would be going to a good home so there was no need to hide. With that, Alien Code squared it tentacles bravely and popped into my bag ready to embark on an exciting new life chapter.

Cup Runneth Over

This blessed morning I woke up to this wonderful sight:

A car boot FULL of computer keyboards- 27 in total of many different creeds, young and old. I had to use the wheelbarrow, there were so many! Salvaged by Alpha Nerd/mini-skip diver, Stuart Skabo - thanks Stu! I love them all like they were my children. Kind of - they are the grist for my new 'Neo Luddite" range of work. The original Luddites took their hammers to the lace stocking manufacturing machines of the Industrial Revolution. Nothing makes wrecker blood boil more than technology. Here's how it goes:

The Neo-Luddites will be launched at Reverse Garbage, West End for Junk IT. Opening:
Fri, 21 July 2006 (6pm to 8pm)
Exhibition ends – Sat, 12 Aug.

Sneak peek: