Its all go ...

Its been a busy busy week not least because I started a new job on Monday ! So I have been dashing around the house each morning getting ready and then contending with the wonders of the uk train system. I am not a natural commuter, I do not like crowds and confined spaces (...hmm I hear you ask, why then did you take a job in London ?? ) but I have managed to find a slightly quieter route which only gets horribly busy for the last 3 or 4 stations near london so I have not been completely tearing my hair out !! I have discovered getting home again can be a big of a chore depending on which connections I catch or miss but hopefully I will fathom that out eventually.



The skitties are most befuddled by it all having become used to me being at home since I finished uni they have gone from sulking and totally ignoring me (Monday night) to now being mega cuddly as you can see from the gratuitous picture of his cuteness above.



As for things of a beady and glassy nature well I have quite a bit of news to share,so Im going to spread it out a bit over a few days so I dont write war and peace and bore you ! So for today pictures of the rest of my charm collection - Initials !! Im really pleased with these and have decided on 3 styles to start off with, the two shown above are "Deco" which as the name suggests is art deco style uppercase letters which are available with or without colour (shown in Aqua), and "Type" based on old fashioned typewriter keys, again available with or without colour. Below is the third option "Romance", almost Art Nouveau style uppercase letters, the one shown is mine as I'm sure you guessed and has been brush finished for a satiny look.



Ok thats it for today, there will be more to follow soon, with pictures of more new things I will have available shortly !

Into orbit - galactic beads online now

In this months issue (Issue 7) of Making Jewellery I have a step by step project to make the pendant and earrings below. Pretty and elegant and suitable for both dressing up jeans and casuals or taking centre stage with a little black dress.



These beads have a lovely shimmery sparkle to them that I just love they make me feel like christmas is coming and its time to get a-making some pretties for the party season, so I have made some more for you and they are online now HERE.









Id love to see what you make with these so if anyone wants to share pictures when they have made pieces I will post them here so we can all see.

Charmed Im sure

I have something new to share with you today, good job really after I have been away for sooo long !! I am very excited about these though, I have been busy making charms ! These are suitable to go on the european bracelet systems such as Pandora and Trollbeads and are lovely little dangles style charms.



These are dream cloud, wish upon a star, and one of two options of finger print charm. The Dream Cloud charm is show below has sparkly aqua colour that is, well, dreamy. It has DREAM written in the silver which shows through the transparent sparkly colour.



Wish upon a Star is my favorite, Im really pleased with it and will be keeping this first one for myself ! This one has a pale blue sparkly colour through which you can see the "wish" that I wrote in the silver.



The finger print charms I was a little conflicted about as there are quite a lot of finger print things available and I wanted something different. So I went with the finger print as a pattern in the piece rather than as an obvious finger-print-pushed-into-the-piece and I thought it could use a little colour so I added a little sparkle colour in purple. I did a simple uncoloured option too as I know some people love silver pure and simple !



I will be able to do these in your choice of colour, from the sparkle colours shown or from a huge variety of non sparkly colours.

These are the first ones, I have some more designs I am even more excited about but I need to keep those under my hat for a few days yet so look out for another post about those soon !!

GBUK Confectionary Competition

I thought I would share with you what I made for the GBUK (Glass Beadmakers UK) competition that was held at the GBUK Bead Fair last Sunday. The theme was confections and so this is my cake stand and cakes bead -



The cup cakes were made off mandrel - for the non Lampworkers that means they are soild glass made on the end of a glass rod rather than wound onto a mandrel as a bead - and then the bottom layer of the cake stand was made, the cupcakes were then attached to the stand before the top layer of the stand went on and the last little cake was added.

The beads were all put into a display case anonymously so that people could vote for the one they like best and I got 2nd place :))) it was great fun and I got a prize too :))

And the winner is ...

Kristin of K S Jewellery Designs !! Kirsten if you can send me an email please then we can sort out your prize :o)

Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments celebrating my blogiversary with me :o)

Autumn is in the air

Yes its that time of year again, some of the leaves are changing colour on the trees and some of them are starting to scatter and tumble across the ground, when I step outside first thing in the morning to empty the kiln there is a nip in the air and all is bright and has that clean freshness to it, all the signs are here, Autumn is coming.

It always amazes me how much the seasons in general but autumn in particular affect my work. Autumn always, without fail affects my colour choices. Sometimes it sneaks up on me and all of a sudden I look at the beads I have made and their colours and there is a little lightbulb moment, other times it is a more conscious choice. These are some of my beads from the past few days, anyone see a bit of a theme here ??



This year Autumn hasnt snook up on me, there is a fern I can see out the back window that has turned the most amazing bright acid green / yellow, its absolutely stunning, I'll have to try and get a photo of it for you !

Something a little different

Really I should be quite good with a sewing machine, or at the very least kind of "at home" with one as my Mum makes wedding dresses and ever since I was small has made me clothes from my school uniform to prom dresses. I do remember making a pair of pyjamas and a few other bits and bobs under her tuition but it has to be said that its rare my sewing machine comes out these days. However it was unearthed over the weekend for the shortening of some trousers and I went and dug out the fabric I bought, erm, back in January, to make a bag with.



As you can see the pattern cutting was a highly technical process, lacking a table big enough for my cutting board I took over the kitchen floor !!



but all the pieces eventually got cut out, with a few little adjustments of my own to the design and sewing could begin. As you can see below I work in a very tidy and organised manner *ahem*



However it did eventually get done with only one slight oops that was quickly remedied and here it is, my variation on Amy Butlers "Birdie Sling" pattern -



So now while the sewing machine is out, I guess I have no excuse not to make the tool bag for my blowing tools that I have been meaning to make for ooo, erm, well about three years !!! I'll let you know how I get on !!

I also want to say a BIG thank you everyone who has commented on the blogiversary post, keep them coming dont forget you have until Saturday evening to enter :o)