Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Autumn

Gosh, nearly a month since I last blogged !!! What a bad blogger I am !

It has been a very busy few weeks, we have been to Barcelona (wonderful, I love Barcelona, the weather was amazing and we indulged in lots of spanish hot chocolate. Heaven.) I have started teaching a glass after school club locally and last weekend I gave my very first lampworking class !

I wont bore you with hundreds of photos of Barcelona, (and as usual there are 100's !!) but will sum up by saying I took lots of photos of patterns -


Sampled lots of cake shops -


And got quite addicted to a new iPhone photo app that takes interesting panoramas -



My class last weekend was hosted at Fire Works studio in Bristol by the lovely Georgina Black and her husband. They were great and made everything run smoothly and trouble free and John even cooked us a wonderful lunch on Sunday !!

I had a great group of students, and we covered working with transfers, various ways of making cabachons and things you can convert cabachons into like buttons and pendants.


As all the beads and cabs were still in the kiln on Sunday when we finished I havent seen finished beads first hand (Pictures would be great ladies, hint hint lol) but Georgina did put a few pictures up on Frit Happens. It was a great weekend which I thoroughly enjoyed and Im looking forward to seeing what everyone makes with what they learnt.

Im now busily getting back to "normal", filling some gallery orders, making beads and preparing for my next class in Cheshire next month.

I will be back much sooner this time with pictures of new beads !

Tuesday, 28 September 2010

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 !! 

Friday, 24 September 2010

Lace bead

I have had an idea for a bead running around in my head for a while now, I love lace (although I prefer mine not to be the frilly variety!) and lace patterns seem to be calling out to go on a bead. I started out by getting pieces of lace and looking at how they went together and thinking about the type of lace I needed for the qualities I wanted the bead to have - a delicate pattern that would, like lace itself, let you see through it to what is behind just slightly veiling. I drew out numerous designs and had several sets of transfers made up but none have been quite right. I finally got some I was happy with and set about having an initial go at putting it all together as I imagined it to be and this is the result -


I am pretty pleased with this as a first go although there are areas that need work so I think you will be seeing several more of these in the non too distant future !

Thursday, 23 September 2010

And the bead goes to ...

Comment Number 8 - Rustyhammer !! Congrats Sharon :o) I will get you your storm coloured bead made tomorrow and on its way to you asap.

Huge thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment and take part !  

Wednesday, 22 September 2010

Change is as good as a rest..

And on my day off I made -



Please excuse the fact thy have not yet been cleaned, they are all big hole beads the big one is 12mm hole and the little ones 5mm, they are only very simple beads but I had such fun making them !! Very definitely "Happy Beads" I love the colours together and they make me smile just looking at them so Im thinking these are keepers to be make into something for me !!

Do you have colour combinations that make you smile ?? Do share please, Im in a happy mood and feeling like sharing it so if you post your colours I'll pick one person at random and make you a big bead in your colours...

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

I had a day off.

There I said it.

Yesterday, I took a day out of my making time, I still went into the studio and I still lit my torch but I had FUN, I played. It was important for ME to take a break, and a change is as good as a rest they say, so that is what I did, I had a change, I played and messed and poked about at my glass, and do you know what ? I didnt make a single saleable thing all day. !!

I know I should probably be telling myself off right now, after all what a disgraceful, frivolous, and downright unsensible thing to do but you know what I feel great. It was what I needed to do, today Im all geared up to make lots of exciting things, get the website and etsy updated, do some photography, finish my to-do list and basically aim for world domination lol.

Sometimes you just need to give yourself some time. Since I have been beading full time I have been getting a bee in my bonnet about spending all of my time making things to go online. I have been productive, and it does feel good getting lots done, but my "work / life balance" (to come over all corporate on you) was getting out of sync. I do this because I love it, and I want to keep it that way.

Things were getting rather too much like the second verse of this poem, I want to enjoy the journey and take time to see the real butterflies not just the ones that come out of my kiln....




SLOW DANCE

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask "How are you?"
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say "Hi"?
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over

Monday, 13 September 2010

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 .....