This week I have mostly been photographing and measuring

Please click on any of the photographs to see a larger view.

Sometimes the only way I can get through tortuous tasks is to set myself incentives. I'll allow myself to do something I do enjoy, if I finish something that I don't enjoy so much first. So it has been this week.

I simply love making things. My mind is perpetually full of ideas and shapes and there are simply never enough hours in the day to bring them to life. But the peril of being productive with work is that I then have to photograph, measure and describe the finished pieces in order to even have the vaguest chance of selling them. Necessary to fund my addiction.

I think this copper bracelet is the last piece to be photographed from a backlog of spiral link pieces from a previous theme.

So I set myself a target yesterday to list a batch of 9 pieces just finished and photographed before I would allow myself anywhere near metal. And I stuck to it, tempting though the lure of my tools was. So now, I'm free for the rest of the day to actually get my hands on some metal. Unfortunately, this didn't actually make much inroad into my backlog either - to which I can now add a further handful of new pieces not even included in the 9 piece target I set myself.

Antiqued copper bracelet featuring hammered figure of 8 links, joined with hand sawn jump rings and my own toggle clasp. This one's for me. I wanted to wear it for a few days and see how the toggle performed in practice and I was really happy with it. I have some more like this in progress.

But I have now reached the milestone of 100 pieces in my Etsy shop and I'm approaching 400 pieces in my own shop too - although that number includes some optional extras and now-sold unique pieces - which I leave in place to serve as a portfolio.

Double wrapped loops of antiqued copper with rosy copper buds. Molten buds are a perpetual theme that I haven't exhausted yet.

Also done in polished Sterling silver. This design was started as I wanted to make a pair for myself to match a pendant I have and I personally don't suit big earrings, so these are quite small and delicate. My own pair are antiqued, so I must photograph them too as an optional finish.

In line with comments I've made in previous blogs, my recent pieces have all been on related design themes - once you sort out a particular design element or perfect a shape or technique, related items just flow from the initial design, so my work always emerges in batches of closely related pieces.

A necklace from an earlier work theme of wrapped rosy copper buds. This necklace features a oxidised and hammered scroll wire wrapped with buds and joined directly to the chain with double wrapped loops.

Dyed jade beads on long wraps of oxidised copper, tumbled to a lovely gunmetal sheen.

And this week has been no different. I honed a technique to allow me to symmetrically wire wrap stones to other shapes and I've made several earrings and pendants along those lines this week.

Hammered copper rings wire wrapped with faceted amethyst beads with matching earwires with small roughly faceted garnets.

The same technique used in Sterling silver to make a pendant with 2 faceted amethysts. Antiqued to highlight the wire wrapping.

Fully oxidised and tumbled copper rings with faceted citrine beads.