Its beginning to look a lot like christmas...

Finally, I *think* its starting to come together, I have finished making a couple of presents this morning and there are more in the works that are coming along nicely, I have wrapped pressies up and put them under the tree



and look what else is under there lol ...



the lights on and everything is looking very festive, Ive been baking so the house smells yummy ...christmas feels like its on the way :o)

p.s. thank you to everyone who commented on the p-hish :))

P-hishes

Ok I have pictures ... these are the beads that i was soooo excited about yesterday (and i still think they are cool today !!)



They are thanks to a great tutorial from Aardvark Art Glass they are quite big beads, I was going to measure one for you but due to the fact my calipers have vanished (what is it with calipers, how do they know when to disappear???) I cant, so at a guess they are about 35mm long. They do take me a bit of a while to make the first one was a whole cd's worth of time !! And yes that is how i measure time when im out in the garage lol :))



Sooo.... what do you think ??

hot things in the kiln...

I was going to say cool things in the kiln but blatantly they are not cool they are hot or I'd have got them out by now !! One of the few bad things about glass is the waiting for the kiln to cool down, lol and I reckon I have another couple of hours yet until it does ! 

I have been playing with something I dont make very much, sculptural beads. In this case following a tutorial for some fab fishes that I think are such fun that I had one of those *I need it* moments when I saw the tutorial available, and they are so much fun to make. I even did a little dance when I finished the first one and by the 3rd one was quite over excited lol. So I am totally watching the kiln waiting for it to be cool enough, hopefully I will be able to get pictures to share with you tomorrow when it is light again.

I have not yet managed to get very good pictures of the ornaments on my tree (other than a couple of new ones i made - see below) but I am working on it so those will be coming too :o) 

Gosh such a lot has been going on ! The run up to Christmas and the end of term is always a bit manic so let me see,....

I have had a tutorial printed in Beads and Beyond magazine which goes through the technique I used to make the Iontaise bead (A preview is available online HERE)

My Christmas tree is up, for anyone who doesnt know I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I love decorating my tree, wrapping presents and making everything look pretty, in fact it has been know for me to get a little obsessive about it !! :o) So Himself and I spent quite an amount of time tredging around various garden centres, DIY stores and Xmas Tree Farms until we found one I liked (they were all skinny or like EEEEK price !) and we now have a gorgeous fat christmas tree only slightly shoe-horned into our living room.



I will try and get some close ups of some of the ornaments for you, I have been building up a collection, so each year some of my original plain ones that I bought a ton of for my first tree so that it would look full, dont make it onto the tree as I buy a couple of special ones each year and one day it will be an amazing tree full of different unique baubles ...and I do try and buy handmade ones too, I have a couple of lampwork ones I love :o)

Lastly for a bit of fun (be warned it is very addictive) make a snowflake ! If you search for snowflakes made by Becky in Surrey with todays date you might even find some of mine !! Thanks to Sam of Beady Sam Glass for sharing the website !

Frit Happens Calendar

Great news to share today, my beads have been chosen to feature on the July page of the Frit Happens Calendar 2009. This will be a gorgeous calendar full of pictures of yummy lampwork beads from the talented artists on Frit Happens forum so Im thrilled to be included in there.

Busy Busy Busy

Yep its that time of year again, the run upto Christmas and assessment time at uni drawing close ! Only one more week after this in uni then we break for Christmas and my dissertaion starts to take up a lot of my time lol ! Currently Im spending lots of time in the hot shop trying to get as much practical work done as i possibly can as I dont want to be doing any blowing of work for assessment after next monday (athough thats not to say that a few christmas presents wont be being made lol !!).

The other reason why very little has made it onto the website is that I have a jewellery party this weekend. I am really looking forward to it and have been having lots of fun making up some new jewellery to take with me. One of the new things I have been creating is these little ear studs



They come on their own little cards (Dont you just love Moo) and Im having lots of fun coming up with designs. I think the ones above are destined to be a made to order design on my website, and then I will have some one offs available from time to time too.

Firsts

It has been a few days hasnt it !! I have been busy during that time though and that is one of the things I want to talk about as it has been a time of many firsts which have all been great.

First first, I have opened an etsy shop, and thanks to the lovely Jo of Gem Heaven for my second first as she included me in her Etsy treasury so I have been in my first treasury too !!

My other first is one that i have to confess I got a real warm and fuzzy feeling inside about, it is one of those daft things I guess, I was blowing glass in the hot shop at uni, making experiments for my current work, (and the occasional paperweight too, more about that later) and one of our artists in residence was working in there as well, Shelly is not a glass blower but works with print in glass and she was experimenting with some small forms when she turned and said "you know, you make that look very easy". It is one of those things about glass blowing that I love, I love to watch anyone who is very good at blowing as it is so amazing to watch and when it is someone who can blow well it looks so effortless and so amazingly easy, so I was totally thrilled to think, just for a minute, that someone thought I might make it look easy. Its great to think that my skills are improving !!



Paperweights, I said I would get to them didnt I ? Yes I have been making paperweights, we have to fundraise at uni so that we can go to New Designers in the summer next year so my contribution to our group is to make paperweights, you can find them available online here and I hope to have some more online tomorrow or thursday

Website Revamp

I have finally today put the revamped version of my website online. It has taken a little working to get there but I am happy with it now and I have put some new focal beads online too as I managed to grab some torch time yesterday (as per yesterday's post).
I am hoping the new look will put a bit more emphasis on what I make rather than all the bright design of the site so feel free to share your opinion and if you think I succeeded :o)

I also have a new Chameleon, this time one that I have made rather than a photo! Its funny I have always thought given the name of my site that I should have a picture of a chameleon on there and usually I buy a stock photo for that purpose but I decided this time that I would rather have one that I could, if I wanted, use as a logo (which I cant do under the terms of the stock photos) so this is what I came up with




I can change the colours so I can make him match whatever I like and I’m hoping he’s going to prove to be quite versatile.

Where did this week go ?

Time seems to be flying along at the moment, I think it is because it is all go at uni, busy busy busy and I am really enjoying it as I LOVE the pieces im making :o) when I have some finished I will take a picture and share with you I promise !

I have also been busy making work to sell for fundraising purposes as we have to raise money to pay for our stand at New Designers in the summer so I have been busy making blown paperweights, there are some pictures of them on Flickr HERE if you would like to see them.

Today I have finally made some beads !! Fresh from the kiln, my absolute favorite of which is this one, it is a two colour gorgeous antique crystal and palest honey yellow bubble flower, I also have a few more in this style too sat waiting for me to clean them up and take their pictures :o)

These are the latest designs of mine in this range of beads. I am finding these quite fasinating as a range in the way the keep evolving, in some ways these newest ones are also a link to some of my previous designs of beads as part of my ongoing love of silvered ivory.



These beads have been designed but only to an extent, there has been something organic in their development from the original design back in september through to where they are now and I am really enjoying this process. Its a process that comes out of the way that i work, I rarely make more than a handful of any particular design as I get bored very quickly and also because there is always that thought of ... what if i do this to it ..

Happy Halloween

Hope you are having a great friday whether you are a halloween fan or not ! As a child I was never allowed to go out trick or treating but when I got my own house I loved having halloween fancy dress parties and decorating the house too :o) that isnt really possible at the moment though so I decorated this house instead lol


Its actually a tealight holder my lovely man bought for me, now accessorised with some of my lampwork !

And the Winner is ...

... well there isnt one winner !! Following from a few comments, the de-bump title is staying to describe the overall style of beads however

*drum roll*

I have decided to use some of the names suggested as names for individual collections within the overall style, so, we have multiple winners !!

The pale collection pictured on yesterdays competition post will be "Moon flowers" thank you to SABINE for that suggestion.

The black background collection that I am still working on (see pic below for a taster) will be "Ghost Flowers" which MIZGEORGE gets a bead for as it is inspired by her suggestion.

I also have plans inspired by another of the names suggested so I will be sending another bead out too but what i would like to do is send that person one of the beads inspired by the name suggested so if you will forgive me that will be an announcement for another day !

and still not a bump in sight...

I have made some more of the de-bumps, and I need a name for them as it is not really fair to go on calling them de-bumps !! So its competition time, I have a sky blue de bump to give away, all you have to do is leave me a comment on here with your suggestion for a name for them and then the name I like best I will use as the name for the beads and that person will get the blue de-bump.

De Bumped

Ok, so things are rather busy right now with uni, however I havent been totally unable to torch, the reason for most of my quietness apart from uni work is that I am preparing for a jewellery party !! So I am sorry I have been quiet !!

To make up for it, I have some good news - I have finally managed to make de-bumped bubble flowers that i am happy with :)) Thanks to everyone who asked and commented, your feedback is much appriciated and this is what i have come up with ....

ta dah..



So.....What do you think ??

Ive been Tagged !!!

I saw the comment left by Jo of Gem Heaven Jewellery that she had tagged me, and I confess I wondered what she meant !! ...ok ok but im relatively new to this blogging malarky so some allowances please ! lol :)

Anyhow, I popped over to her blog and saw that the idea is -

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Ok so here goes 7 Facts about me -

1) I love where I live in Surrey. Every time I have to go out in the car I love looking around at the scenery and remind myself how lucky I am to live somewhere so pretty, especially at this time of year.

2) I have a subtropical garden, yes, I did say I live in Surrey, UK - this means in winter I share my "studio" with the plants !
Here is a pic of some of it (and my kitties !)



3) I used to play the saxaphone, I still have my sax but no longer play

4) I would love to learn to fly a microlight. I have been up in one once as a present and would love to be able to pilot one .. of my own of course lol !! When I win the lottery.

5) I love making databases and automating them to make them do cool stuff. I suspect that makes me a geek.

6) I am obsessive about colour, specifically about organising things like my glass rods or coloured pencils into colour order ... and making sure they stay that way.

7) My favorite colour is grey / silver. Its the colour 90% of my clothes are and what I love to wear most of all. but i rarely make grey beads.


So my taggees are -

Manda of Mango Beads
Billie of Glass by Billie
Heather of Bumpy Beads
Kathryn of Turning Light
Nia of Gemwaith Nia
Jo of Daisychain Designs
Emma of The Little Bead Shop

A very glassy weekend

The weekend has been lovely so far and i have everything crossed it will continue to be today. Himself is being a super lovely man and "putting up" ;o) with an entire weekend of glassy-ness. Yesterday we went to Quenington to the "Out" bit of In/Out. Set in the gardens of Quenington Old Rectory it is gorgeous !! I have total house / garden / library / glass, envy lol (*Oh My* the library !! I so want one just like it)

The house from across the mill race -



If you would like to see more photos I have some loaded up on Flickr . It was a perfect autumn day yesterday, the sun came out and we had a lovely lunch sat out in a pub garden, and even stopped for a cream tea on the way home !

Today we are off to Origin in London so fingers crossed for no issues with tubes, nice weather and not too many crowds !

That time of year again

Yes, its that time of year when the evenings are dark and photographing beads starts to become a little more difficult ! I have a few sets of boro beads to go online but Im struggling with the photos, I have some but they really dont show the gorgeous colours in the beads, its really frustrating ! Im hoping for a clear sky in the morning and i'll try again.

The best photo I managed to get was of these -

Oooo I won a bead !!

Im so happy !! I have won a gorgeous nebula bead from Juice Glass !!

I have been admiring Carli's beads and her nebula ones are stunning! What first caught my attention was her yin and yang beads like this one below which I think is sooo fab (and yes it was sold when i tried to get my paws on it lol) and then i discovered her other beads too ! I cant wait to see my bead when it gets here, dont worry I will take a picture and share it as soon as I have it :-)

Inspiration & Experiments

I have this gorgeous ribbon from Jamn Glass and I decided I wanted to make a complimentary Bubble Flower Focal so I had a bit of a play and an experiment and these are what I made-



Im not sure which one I think works best with the ribbon ? Which do you think ? Do you think I should develop any of the beads into their own series .. let me know what you think and we'll see if my thoughts are the same as yours and maybe have a little competition ??
:o)

New Press

Yes, I have a new press ... guess what shape lol -



yep its a focal lentil ! I have been enjoying making bubble flower beads in a different shape, Im still addicted to them :-) This is one of my favorites



What is your favorite shape for focals ?

Celebrations for me at Celebrating Beads

Woo Hoo, I came 3rd in the lampwork category of Washington Bead Museums international competition "Celebrating Beads", for my bead "Iontaise" (Fossil). You can imagine how thrilled I am, I have been doing a little dance round the house lol :o)

"Iontaise" -

Sunny Sunday

What a gorgeous weekend it has been ! So sunny and warm, its lovely. I have some new variations on my bubble flowers, im still really enjoying making these and I think I will have a go at some in different shapes too :))

Autumn found me

I have been snook-up-apon this week ... by Autumn !! The trees out the back of my house are all still green but on my way to uni I go along a very pretty road (the hogs back between Guildford and Farnham for those of you who are local) and the trees are all turning colours, so there are lots of ambers and it all looks warm and lovely (very deceptive of it !!) so I have some Autumn beads



Oh and did I mention ... I am back into hollows again too ! lol, a sure sign I have been stressed, I love making hollows because I work very slowly to make them so I find them very theraputic. As well as those above I have a set with a hollow and a bubble flower focal -



As usual I would love to know what you think
:-)

I thought I would share a picture of some commissioned beads I made this week, these are one of my favorite types of bead as they are so very "glassy", Ok I know all my beads are made of glass but these show off the qualities of glass so well, the ultra glossy shine, the transparency and depth and ... ok ok I wont go one for hours :-)

It is sunny in Surrey !!!

Yes really ! The sun is out :o) and what's more it was shining on my windowsill right onto these beads and it made them look so yummy I had to take a picture so I thought I would share !!

Ok I decided I want to do a regular feature on here about the very talented Jewellery Artists and Designers who work with my beads. One of the things I find fascinating about being a lampworker is the amazing and totally varied creations that people come up with using my beads.

So this is going to be the first of these features and I am very pleased to say todays feature is on Jo Tubb of Gem Heaven. I am a big fan of Jo's work and am constantly amazed at the stunning creations she makes that include my beads.



I asked Jo what first got her into designing and making jewellery "A broken necklace" She said, "which as yet is still unmended - I was led down a path I just can't turn back from - once I started creating I just couldn't stop and from a hobby, my passion quickly became a business - one I thoroughly enjoy!!"




When I asked if she had any favorite things to use in her designs she said " Well I expect my customers will problem say anything in the colour blue - although I do use other colours!! Lampwork and gemstones are my favourites - and no real preferences as anything that attracts my eye I tend to be drawn to! Recenlty I starting working more and more with wire and I love the journey it is taking me on!!"



Having vistied Cornwall I can totally understand what Jo means when she says she is inspired by living there, she describes it as "quite a magical place" and says she is lucky enough to "live on the coast (south) and only have to drive 16 miles to reach the north coast, also close by is the moors so I haven't far to go before inspiration strikes! "

I hope you have enjoyed reading this, and many thanks to Jo for allowing me to use her photos and answering my questions :))
You can find Jo's creations at Gem Heaven and wire boutique , and also keep up with her goings on on her blog

been focal obsessed !!

I have been busy busy busy... making focal beads ! I have made quite a few that i am really pleased with, desperatley making the most of my mojo while I have it and the time to make stuff - I'm back to uni on monday ! I only managed to get photos of a couple of them before the weather started so here they are, what do you think ?

On the top of the world...

I have had a good bead day !! Im so happy with the way my beads have gone today, I have managed to do a boro technique I saw in a book when I first started with boro but have kept messing up and today it worked :o)) added to that another set that looked so yummy when it went in the kiln that I might have to keep it...now just have to hope the kiln fairies are nice to me !!

Pictured below is the set I have just mastered the twisting for, those of you who know my work know that I love twists and twirls in glass and Im so pleased to finally be able to do it in boro -

Hello and Welcome !

I have decided its time to have a Chameleon Designs blog. I thought I would start off with some pictures of some of my recent beads, I would love to hear what you think.