Lots of new work !

Life has been rather eventful since I last posted -

Just after christmas my long serving SC2 kiln died, but the wonderful Kilncare sorted me out with a lovely new GREY Maxi kiln... and a loaner beadcube whilst it was being built !! Arent they wonderful people !!

The Lark Books "1000 Beads" book arrived, I feel very privileged to have 3 pieces included in such a lovely book with some very beautiful work, and its a real put your feet up with a cup of tea and have a good browse through book - in fact I have done several times and each time find something new to "Ooooo" at.

A few days before the Flame Off my oxycon decided it too was giving up, but with a lot of help from lovely people online I got a new one delivered and got back to work.

The Flame Off a couple of weeks back was great, it was lovely to chat to the people who came to my stall, meet old friends and make new ones.

Flame off Stand

Some of the beads !

As you might be able to see from the Flame Off pic I have been working hard on my lidded boxes, some new designs with lampworked decoration fused to the lids of the boxes.

Ive also been making lots of new designs of beads, some you can see in the picture from the Flame Off, mainly inspired by blossom as our new garden is full of it. First there was Blackthorn blossom, then the plums - Cherry Plums and Damsons, and now the Apples have started with everything from a soft white to a bright fuchsia pink crab apple and all sorts in between. It is stunning and really makes you feel the joy of spring !

From Left, Sloe, Apple and Crab Apple blossoms

One of the new blossom beads.

Then after the Flame Off we had a weekend in Budapest for a much needed break !!

So its been all go, I am hoping to blog more regularly now but if you are missing me dont forget you can also see me on Facebook.

Happy 2014

I hope the New Year is treating you well so far ? I cant believe how fast time is flying, half way through January already !

I have been busy, following a bit more clearing of boxes (and a bit of bodging together ) I have my torch set up !! Woo Hoo !! As you can understand Im very happy, its only a temporary home but it means I could torch :) …once I finished unpacking all the glass

An what have I been upto on my torch since this excitement occurred I hear you ask ? Well, I have had a couple of commissions to do but I have been working on inclusions for some new work - Lidded boxes. Or boxes with lids. However you want to describe them (I cant decide) they are dinky little creatures, about 3 1/2" ( 9cm for those that prefer it) across, with a soft curved bowl on the inside to put your treasures in and a little lid. The lids have been my current source of fascination or more specifically making inclusions to put in them. It has taken quite a lot of experimenting to get it to work quite how I wanted but ….drum roll…. my I present to you my first little box, with a cherry blossom lid -

and for the curious, another view showing the inside -

In other news the skitties have settled in pretty well now. Her Spottyness, ever the heat seeking kitty, is completely in love with the fire (cant say I blame her, its amazing, I have never lived somewhere with a real fire before and I love it) and is usually to be found stretched out in front of it basking. She has had a good look at the fish in the pond, but so far has only had a couple of half hearted attempts at getting them. 

Lily, following the arrival of a special new Lily chair, spends lots of time snoozing with occasional dainty forays out into the cold. She has been for a good wander around the garden, checked out the wendy house (and you know she can see potential for that come summer !!) and had a good nosey at the chickens next door. 

The Pickle boy has had a good mooch about, not over fussed on the great outdoors, its awful cold and wet, had a couple of nights out with the feral cats over the road (and possibly a bad mouse vindaloo…. yes, nuff said.) but is generally content to snooze on our bed or lounge around wherever the humans are. 

Anyway on that note I will leave you as there are kilns to empty and dinner to make..

Christmas tree update

Well, I was going to say its time for my annual Christmas tree ornament update, but looking back on the blog, I couldnt find it ?!?! ...Last years is still as a draft !! Hopeless ? Me ? hmmm.. possibly ! Guess we know what one of my New Years Resolutions needs to be.

So, the not so annual update...

Well this year I have a gorgeous little felted Robin from Sarah Jane Coleby how adorable is he ?!

 I also have a very special ornament bought for me by himself, from Fortnum and Mason no less, when we went for afternoon tea as wonderful wedding present from very special friends, it is a little cranberry glass bauble engraved and lustred and a wonderful memento of a really lovely day out as well as being a stunning bauble in its own right.

The hedgepigs I bought a couple of years ago and then misplaced finally made it onto the tree (its amazing what turns up when you move house)

And himself got some very cute foxes and owls which also had to go on the tree.

This years me-made addition is one of my snowflakes -

What ornaments have you added to your tree this year ? just one or two to build up a collection ? Or maybe you have had a complete change of theme ? I would love to see pictures of ornaments or the whole tree, please add a link in the comments :)

Its (not) grim 'Up North'

Yes we're here, and finally also back in the land of the interwebularly connected !! It's been a slightly difficult few weeks without Internet, I forget how much we rely on it till its not there, I'd been all organised and written up lists of nearest diy stores, takeaways, (and even dr and hospital ! ) but there were still so many things that we went "we need a_______, I'll just look online ....er, no, I forgot no interwebs. " still we found out the town hall has a cafe and free wifi so that became the 'emergency' interwebs point !!

Anyway with the lack of distractions online more probably got done (ha) and lots of boxes have been unpacked, flat pack furniture built, and we're starting to be able to see the house !! I have a rudimentary studio set up, kiln and some cold working equipment (and a heater and a radio of course)  .

The rest of the workshop area is rather box filled, and at the moment not getting unpacked as there is going to be a bit of building work done to make the studio right before I can properly get set up and settled in.

I have had the kiln running (night and day !!) as the very lovely Dee at Soul Bird Gallery in Wem kindly offered me a space for the Wem Christmas Shopping night so I have been making glass snowflake ornaments and also making some float glass ornaments with my drawings and patterns sandblasted onto them. So all in all I have not been idle ! Looking forward to getting back some flamework soon but in the meantime I'll leave you with a picture of some of the snowflakes from a frosty morning.

We're on the move....

Its turning into a busy busy year this year !!

We are on the move (Northwards for anyone who is interested), from an exciting point of view that means that I get a lovely new space, well, lovely after a bit of building work and some "doing up" !! In the meantime what it means is I have to sort the studio out. For those who havent seen my studio it is a tad, er, Full. In fact it is crammed to the rafters with all manner of things, mostly, glass related. The obvious problem here being the thought of having to pack and move it all. So I have started the process of sorting out and trying to work out what I *need* to keep, what I have to throw out, and what I can sell.

As a result of yesterday's mammoth efforts I now have one clear work surface (hurrah!! although as you can see from the picture we wont talk about underneath the work surface !!) and a Sale selection of beads added to my Etsy shop .

There are Focal beads for a fiver !!

There are "Lucky Dip" packs, little collections of beads that are a mix of focals and smaller beads in all manner of shapes.

There are even a limited number of sets of 3 silver core beads for £20 !!!  

Lucky Dips

Please if you have a minute take a look and see if something takes your fancy !

Taking a (metal) leaf out of Sarah's book

Following from drooling over the amazing work of Nancy Sutcliffe  which has the most gorgeous gold patterns in it, I have been pondering. Specifically over metallic surfaces on beads, not the gloriously smooth metallic of my much used lustres but a rougher, more "distressed", less perfect sort of metallic. All my experiments have annoyingly fallen short of what I was looking for.

I bought Frances Federer's Gold Leaf, Paint and Glass (Excellent book by the way) but decided that as I didnt want a top coat on my metallic-ing that gilding was not going to work for this.

So I played. And faffed, and sanded and filed but no, not what I wanted.

Then I was pondering the work of my good friend, the very talented Sarah of Flame Force Five and her use of gold. and I had an idea... so, following on from a bit more faffing, I have the spark of something Im pleased with using metal leaf and deeply sandblasted Im hopeful these are the start of something exciting -

..and yes, I am totally addicted to that soft green. Its almost on a par with grey. Almost. 

Recent work

Not beads exactly (they are built around beads) but some of what I have been working on recently

Hope you have had a great weekend !

OK given my very long absence from the blog I though I'd do a little overview of 2012. The heavily edited highlights are as follows -

February. BIG News. My lovely man and I got engaged. It was a bit of a surprise but in a thoroughly good way and Im still completely deliriously happy about it... and keeping busy planning and making weddingy stuff.

June. I heard that I had been selected for Glass Line Magazine's "Small and Beautiful" issue. I cannot describe how excitied / delighted / amazed / overjoyed I was and still am about this. For those that havent heard of it Glass Line decided to dedicate their June / July issue to celebrating "Significant works of art in glass beads" and asked internationally renowned artists Sara Sally LaGrand, Barbara Becker Simon and Paul Stankard and historian Robert K Liu to select 40 artists representing the international "best of the best" to be documented in that issue. Well, you can imagine the amount of happy dancing that went on in my kitchen when I got the news that I was one of the chosen right ?? Definitely a OMG Wow "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" moment.

August. I had the pleasure of taking a photography class with the lovely Mr Simon Bruntnell who was amazing, I learn so much in that day, he was very generous with his knowledge. If you get change to take a class with him I highly recommend it.

September. Had a dabble with print making at a one day class at Ochre Print Studio in Guildford, which was very inspiring and has resulted in some dabbling with printing on / with glass (nothing terribly successful yet, but one of these days it'll work)

October. I got first place in the British Bead Awards glass beads section with my set "An Ode to Miss Haversham" (detail photo below) lots of silver leaf, lace, and CZ's. I entered rather at the last minute in a should I / shouldnt I  frame of mind, as while I love the set and was really pleased with it, I wasnt sure it was really the right sort of thing, it photographs dreadfully, but I went for it and I am so very pleased I did.

We have also been to Prague and Vietnam in the last year, both of which were wonderful (and totally different !!). So that gives you a bit of an insight into what Ive been upto ! I'll be back soon with some images of some recent work !!!

This one is for Caroline

I had a lovely student come to me for a class yesterday and we got onto the subject of blogs and specifically how very neglected mine is ... so THANK YOU Caroline, it was lovely to meet you and just for you - look a blog post !!

There has been rather a lot happened since I last posted which I will write about in another post (yes, really) but things are good here and Im certainly keeping busy, Im still doing lots of glass although not so many beads but beads are still part of life here at Chameleon Designs and there will be pictures of NEW beads to share too soon (Gasp!) once I have finished the cold work anyway...

On which note, out to the studio I go, and I promise I will be back again soon.

Interviewed !

My "interview" for the Frit Happens team blog is online today ! A great reason to pop over there especially if you haven't been there before, there is lots of information about the team including the member interviews, great insights into the design processes of members, tips and tutorials for putting together jewelley and of course lots of eye candy !

Pattern and Glass

How is 2012 treating you ? So far, I am really really excited by 2012, I have set myself some targets and Im working hard to achieve them, some are quite quick and easy, some are a little more in depth. The first completed one has been on my list for a little while, experiment with the patterns I have been working on and combining them with glass.

I finished this little beauty yesterday and Im really pleased with how it came out, it is a 20cm x 20cm x 3cm dish and I have etched my pattern into the iridescent surface of the glass.

I am finding as soon as I finish one piece Im overflowing with ideas for variations and experiments so I think I might end up having rather a lot of these !! To that end I have set up a new Etsy shop BeckyFairclough - Pattern and Glass where I will be selling the fruits of my experiments. I look forward to sharing more of these with you as and when I get chance to make them and hope to be able to share some exciting lampwork related news soon too ! 

Its that time of year again, making for Christmas events. I have a few new pieces that Im really excited about, some are still work in progress but I have a couple of new flower pendants (Which would look super stunning with a little black dress... hint hint) to share - 

And a prototype of a new design, this one I made for myself to test it out, but it is an interchangeable pendant you can swap the drop between a range of glass or semi precious drops and/or the bead for different big hole lampwork beads,  so it can be mixed and matched with your outfit or mood. 

If you are out and about looking for some unique handmade Christmas presents then Im going to be at some great events in the next few weeks, including Guildford Craftacular on Saturday 3rd December and the We Make London Christmas Popup Shopping Experience on Saturday 10th December so do pop by and say hello if you can.

Flame On 2011

Hello, hello, yes Im back. Im sorry I have been quiet since my return, I have been rather busily running about trying to put the house into some sort of order having spent the run up to flame on charging around like crazy and as a result turning the house into a scene of chaos reminiscent of my bedroom as a teenager with piles of stuff everywhere !!

Im finally getting to the point where there are work surfaces visible again and life is returning to something approaching normal so its time to sit down and tell you all about the Flame On. I shall try not to end up with an epically long blog post but I feel it is only fair to warn you that I have made myself a hot drink (Vimto if you are interested, having just rediscovered it) in order to write this so you may wish to get a brew yourself and settle down in order to read it !

The trip did not get off to the most wonderful of starts as on dropping the cats off at the cattery her spottyness decided to take a great dislike to being "abandoned" and started to create and play up awfully shrieking, growling and hissing constantly at which point i apologised and scarpered quickly !!

We decided to take the ferry over to The Netherlands so we could take the car and himself decided that Harwich to the Hook of Holland was the best route involving the least driving on the "wrong" side of the road. The ferry was surprisingly nice and we had an excellent meal, all the lovelier as we were not expecting it !

Our first night hotel at Hoek van Holland is worthy of a mention for the sheer amazingness of the breakfast. With a "starter" of fresh warm croissants with fresh strawberries and cream, followed by a whole host of warm breads, meats, cheese, fresh fruits, boiled eggs and even fresh made pancakes !! and there were yoghurts and cereals too but we didnt get that far !! (Should you find yourself in the area we stayed at the Hotel Noordzee)

There were also curious little boxes of "sprinkles" very similar to hundreds and thousands, for bread. My inner child was delighted, and when we came across a supermarket I had to buy some to bring home with me ! I can confirm that despite being very messy to eat they are very nice. ( I cant read the label as it is in dutch so I remain blissfully unaware of how many e numbers they may contain or how much sugar I consumed :) )

Anyway.. we got to Oosterhout without incident, had a very good coffee in a lovely little shop we found, which was served in fab little bodum double walled glasses (another thing to add to the must get list !)

Thus revived we went over to the hall where the Flame On was to be held we were introduced to Joyce who has been co-ordinating and organising and started the setting up process, amid a certain amount of chatting with the other stall holders

That evening Joyce cooked us a lovely dinner at her home where we got to meet the other demonstrating artists Anouk Jasperse, Mauro Vianello and Michou Pascale Eliane Anderson, and also to meet her partner and their lovely cats.

They day of the Flame On dawned with some nerves from me as my demo was to be first and despite having made the beads I was demoing many times I did get a touch of the shakes, however everyone was very kind and said that it was not very noticeable ! After my demo I relaxed a bit and was able to enjoy the demo's of the others. I dont have photos of the demo's but there are some excellent photos of them in Mauro's facebook album .

I do have some photos of work that the artists had bought with them to sell so without further ado -

Michou's beads - 

Mauro's sculptures -

Anouk's Beads -

It was lovely to meet everyone who came to say hello and great to see some old friends too ! I was very lucky and got to do some glassy swaps with some of the other stall holders so I will take photos of my haul of beauties and share them with you soon ! For now I must go and unearth the rest of my house but hope you enjoyed the pictures so far !

British Bead Awards

Ive had a lovely day today. I have been to the Big Bead Show at Sandown racecourse as I had a set of beads in the finals of the British Bead Awards.

Im very pleased to say that they got 2nd place !! What a lovely start to the day ! 

I have spent the rest of the day drooling over pretty shiny things and talking to friends and must say a huge thank you to Sarah of Flame Force Five for letting me use her stand as a "base camp", Judith Johnson  and Hazel Crompton  for being their usual lovely chatty selves, it was a pleasure as always ladies, and to my lovely man for chauffeuring me about. 

One of the best moments of the day was getting to meet my first bead soup partner Niky of SilverNiknats you know when you have been talking to someone online and you have built up an idea of what they look like etc ? Well it was great to meet Niky finally and her lovely daughter. 

Ive also been gathering supplies for a special project idea I had, inspired by the bead soup swaps, which I loved being involved in. Stay tuned for more on that very soon !! 

Preparations ..

Mainly pictures today, Im currently working on preparations for the Flame On and also getting some gallery orders together. These give you an idea of whats lying around on my bench today awaiting my further attentions ...

New Toppers for interchangeable pendants / rings

Manga Ladies

Ear Bobs - a -glueing

Spacers. Spacers Everywhere. All need cleaning. And turning into things.

All photos taken with Hipstamatic and the new Susie lens. 

Visual Merchandising

With the festive season approaching there are craft fairs on the horizon. Following a discussion at the recent UK Handmade Surrey meet-up I have been doing some online research on display or "Visual Merchandising" for crafts and fairs, I found these articles quite interesting and Im going to use some of the advice in my new displays -

Back to Basics Visual Merchandising

Display your Craft to Sell

Meylah's Tips for great booth displays

(There are also a number of other articles on display in the Meylah learning centre)

I am currently building my new display set up so I have no pictures to share at the moment but I will pop some pictures up as I get my display sorted for my upcoming fairs.

If you are looking for table eye candy thought, have a look at the Show Me Your Booths group on Flickr !

Bead Soup - Reveal day

Yes, it's that time, its reveal day !!! You can see the ingredients I was sent by my partner Jana on this post here. 

Jana said that she sent me these pieces to challenge me to push my boundaries (one of the main points of the party) and I'm sure you'll have noticed that the stunningly bright green focal she sent is certainly different from my usual colour palette. I wanted to do something a little different with the focal and have made it up and taken it apart again a couple of times, trying echoing the shape in beads, and also making a rather complex net type idea (which it should be said may have been interesting in principle but was a complete disaster in actuality lol) then out of the corner of my eye I saw it lying about on my desk with some of the other pieces and the little dragonfly was sat almost on top of it ....

As a result, may I present to you the "Flight of the Dragonfly Necklace" 

I decided to work with some wire and try to create "flight pattern" shapes, random flitting about type trails and I was quite pleased with them but decided I needed something else to bring a bit more colour and the jade beads Jana sent seemed perfect so I strung them separately to sit just under the focal. I liked the two elements together but I thought they needed something to make them a little less disparate so I redid my flight pattern links including a little jade bead on each link.

I didnt want the flight pattern links all the way round the necklace as I though they might be a bit uncomfortable on the back of the neck so I continued with sections of jade beads and linked all of them together with the little square links Jana sent, finishing it off with the little flower clasp that was also in my ingredients from Jana.

I have also made these dinky little earring with the swarovski butterflies Jana sent, very simple but cute !

Once again I have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the Bead soup party, thanks for visiting and looking at my bead soup creations, please do check out the other participants creations, you can find the full list on Lori's blog here.