Category: Celtic Jewellery

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Celts – Art and Identity

Opening at the British Museum in London on the 24th September is a major exhibition which will examine the full history of Celtic art and identity.

  • Many objects provide clues to and raise questions about Celtic identity.
  • From the depths of the River Thames come magnificent Iron Age treasures such as the Waterloo helmet and Battersea shield.
  • Roman jewellery, early medieval manuscripts and crosses, a Liberty tea set and even a modern football shirt tell a constantly evolving British and Irish story.
  • Major loans, such as the spectacular Gundestrup cauldron, reveal profound cultural connections across Europe.

24 September 2015 – 31 January 2016

Opening times

Saturday – Thursday 10.00–17.30
Friday 10.00–20.30
Last entry 80 minutes before closing

Tickets for adults cost £16.50 – under 16 and you get in free.

The exhibition moves to Edinburgh in March 2016.

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A touch of the Thistle about us!

Silver heavy court wedding ring with thistle motif
Silver heavy court wedding ring with thistle motif

It’s not often we get to spend time helping the wedding party to get ready – but just occasionally we’re allowed a wee peek behind the scenes!  This is a photo of the groom’s ring having had it’s final polish before going to the ceremony tomorrow ….  I’m sure it’s going to make it in time.

This lovely silver thistle ring is available in a full range of sizes – if you would like this for your own wedding, please allow approximately 7-10 working days for manufacture, hallmarking and delivery.

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The perfect system?

I had it all set up – the perfect place to take photographs of products as I add them on to our site. The pictures were easy to edit to make the mugs, leather goods, etc, stand out against a white background. It’s taken me years to find something which really suited the way I work. I even use my iPhone for the photography because it has inbuilt features that let me edit it easily and quickly before it transfers to my pc.

I have been using a second-hand jewellery display cabinet as my light box because it came already fitted with sparkly white LED lights and cool-white fluorescent tubes diffused behind a white acrylic filter.  The whole thing worked really well until the transformer for the LED lights stopped working and one of the cool white fluorescent tubes started strobing.  Aaaargh – now I’m going to have to spend some time finding the spare parts because it looks as if it was a custom design and getting the bits and pieces isn’t going to be easy.  It’s definitely going to be worth it to find them, though, because, as I say, it was the perfect system!

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Enjoying our semi-retirement

Well, it’s only a few weeks since we retired from the shop but we seem to be settling into semi-retirement very well. It’s quite reassuring to know that we’ve still got the option of top-up income by selling online and we’re grateful to our existing suppliers that we can still sell their products.

It's a Dog's Life 2016 Calendar
Alex Clark2016 Calendar,
It’s a Dog’s Life

Since we left the shop, we’ve done more driving round the UK than we’d been able to do for ages. For instance, we visited Derby to help a family member with some work – before, we wouldn’t have been able to just up sticks and go to help within 24 hours! We’ve also been to a family wedding in Stonehaven, met up with more family for a Sunday lunch in Callander and enjoyed a night out to see the Bard in the Botanics in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens. OK, I confess, I’ve always got itchy feet and, while we’re both fit enough to travel, I think we’re going to enjoy every minute of it.

That means that the rest of our time, we have to concentrate on making the internet work for us! Ok, what I really mean is that I sometimes have to drag myself screaming to the computer to list inventory and perhaps take some product photos. The reward of doing that, though, is that we’re getting through the ends of lines we didn’t sell in our last few days and we’re taking the opportunity to assess what is easy to sell and post as well as deciding on potential new ranges of products to sell on the internet.

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Semi-retirement!

It’s official – we’ve retired from the shop in Helensburgh – best wishes to Bill, Christine and family who are now running Argyll Chandlers Ltd from our former premises at 89 West Clyde Street.  It’s been a blast, being in business in the town for 26 years but we’re taking the foot off the gas a little bit and starting to enjoy our retirement.

So, I hear you ask, why did you mention semi-retirement??

Well, we’re still selling online on the internet – it would have been too much of a shock to stop work altogether – and that will allow us to do some work most days while giving us the freedom to have days out, work in the garden and catch up on friends and family – but not necessarily in that order.

Here’s to keeping in touch with our online friends and family!