Its that time of year, things are getting Christmassy, the mornings are frosty, and I made Penguins.

"So, erm, do you come here often ?"

So far I have made 22 penguins and I managed to get some pictures of some of them last night before they put on their new outfits and went out into the world as phone charms. I love making penguins, I love the fact they are all different, the expressions it is possible to get on their faces. They were so cute that I had to keep one for me.

Is there anything that you love to make near Christmas, something that makes you feel all festive ? Feel free to comment or leave a link to a photo, Id love to see. 

The finished beads

This is what the two sets of beads look like once they have had their masking removed and been cleaned up.

Ice Stars -

Frosty Daisies - 

The beads have a core of one colour and a thick coat of enamel, they have been masked off with a resist and then sandblasted to give this finish. I let the sandblast eat quite deep as I like that effect, but tried to keep smattering of enamel to keep that frosted feel.

Its a dirty job..

I thought it might interest you to see some pictures of what I have been working on whilst I have been very quiet this week. So I thought that I would share some work in progress pictures..

Can you guess what I have been doing ??

How about if I give you a bit more of a clue, one step further along the process -

Any guesses ? Answers on a postcard please,.. well ok then in the comments !! I'll share the pictures of the finished pieces soon.

Nelli Rees "Glass Bead Jewellery Projects" Book

I am most excited today to have received my copy of this book. It seems like ages ago Nelli said she was writing it, (and to be fair with publishing times etc it probably is). I have always admired Nelli's take on tombo dama beads and as a result have been greatly anticipating the arrival of the book and it definitely lives upto expectations.

I love the book cover, it is a soft back book and has a matt front cover that has ben spot laminated over the pictures (aka the pictures are glossy the rest isnt) which is an effect that I love - I have been trying to source a company who does spot laminating on photobooks for ages but that is another story- and it makes a great "oooo" first impression.

I havent had a chance to sit and read cover to cover but I have had a good nosey through the book. It has been split into sections for different abilities and each lampwork tutorial is then followed by a step by step tutorial on a piece of jewellery made with those very beads. I am always intrigued to see how different people use beads and I think this format is a great idea especially for those who are new to lampwork. I know when I first started making beads, having made anything i liked i had to immediately make it into jewellery so i could wear it and show it off. Looking back at the things i made then its rather clear to see i was as new to wire work and stringing as lampwork and a bit of guidance would have been very useful ! So congratulations to Nelli on a lovely book which I am looking forward to sitting down with a brew and reading thoroughly.

Rocking again

Its been a little while since I made Rocks and so I decided it was time for some, partly because I found a string of orphan rocks in my clearing out, and decided that I really liked the look of the thickly encased one therefore I needed to make some more, so I grabbed some silver glass and set off in search of that lovely mother of pearl shine.

My clearing out is part of the new studio plan ... work has currently come to a halt on the studio from a building point of view but I have been having a BIG sort out / clear out trying to get all bead / glass / metal / jewellery related things from their various locations around the house and outside into the studio. You would be amazed at some of the things I have unearthed !! .. or maybe shocked lol ! It has had the added benefit of me actually listing things in my Etsy shop again as I have decided for the time being to use that as a Sale area for all the bits and bobs I have unearthed.

Torch was poorly yesterday but Im pleased to say is better now (huge thankings to my lovely Himself for fixing it) so Im back off out there to melt some more glass and who knows there may be even more rocks soon !! 

Mangobeads New Studio

What an amazing weekend ! We are home, somewhat tired but definitely feeling the love (and the cheese ) following a most fabulous weekend in Devon at the opening of Mangobeads gorgeous new studio.


(Picture of Manda Demoing in her new studio - isnt that the most gorgeous picture on the wall behind her !?!)

For a lot of the time as most of you know I spend my time in my garage on my torch, and as Im not exactly Miss Sociability this suits me down to the ground. It does mean that when the chance for a get together comes up it is quite a big thing and I have a tendancy to get rather over excited !! This weekend was no exception and was one of the nicest glassy get togethers I have ever been to, with so many lovely people there the only shame was in lack of time to talk to everyone I wanted to talk to for hours and hours each. There were demos to watch, both "formal" and impromptu and lots and lots of beady swapage going on and I think I can safely say a great time was had by all.

I dont have a lot of pictures (Got carried away with the talking...) but there are some on Flickr here for those that are interested.

As well as all the lovely glassyness we did discover on Saturday evening a (slightly surreal) carnival of pipe bands in Bideford !! Not, I have to confess, what I was expecting in the very south of England but fantastic to watch and listen to non the less.



Further down the road from where the bands were marching there was a funfair !! At which point I rather made up for the lack of photos I didnt take during the day funfairs being one of my favorite things to take photographs of !! I wont bore you with all of them, just a couple I particularly like -





All in all a fun filled and fantastic weekend with lots of lovely people, now I just have to work out how to settle back into my routine .....

As Promised

Here is a picture of what I was getting all excited about -



New flutterbies ! Following on from all the comments both at the flame off and online since, about the sample beads I made with the Flutter set of transfers I decided I had to make some of these to sell. I am really pleased with how they have turned out and Im going to make one for me too, when I decide which is my favorite colour, which might take a while !!

They are all two tone so I had lots of fun matching up glass to get the two tones to be two I was happy with for each bead, and the butterfly design is slightly raised to give a bit of a 3D which also nicely magnifies the pattern ! Im hoping to get them online on my website in the morning.

Claudia Trimbur Pagel Class beads

My class beads have arrived home !! They arrived in the post this morning, it was very exciting opening the parcel to see if the lived upto my memory of them. The class was great fun and we covered quite a number of things considering it was a one day class. We started off by having a go at applying gold and silver patterns to beads -



I went with basic patterns to keep things simple although I did keep thinking "oooh I could just add a bit more there...." Its quite addictive !!

This bead was originally a mid transparent blue but it has struck to a smokey grey in the kiln -


the nice thing about it being transparent too is the pattern on the other side shows through



Then we moved on to making some murrini which was a little nerve wracking as I had never made murrini quite that large before, and I did manage to bust mine part way through but I learnt so much in doing it and Im looking forward to making some more of my own design.



and we followed that up with making a bead to use the murrini on



All in all it was a great day, very very inspiring and left me with loads of ideas i want to try, now all i need to do is find some time !

Blizzard Tiles

I promised I would show the new beads and here they are, inspired by our current weather conditions here in the UK, they have a sprinkling of enamel for a frosty, snowy background and then some stringer work of abstract snowflake pattern.