Wednesday 26 December 2012

Happy Christmas and a merry New Year!

★˛˚˛*˛°.˛*.˛°˛.*★˚˛*˛°.˛*.˛°˛.*★Happy*★* 。*˛.
˛°_██_*.。*./ ♥ .˛* .˛。.˛.*.★* Boxing Day*★ 。*
˛. (´• ̮•)*.。*/♫.♫*˛.* ˛_Π_____.♥Everyone ♥ ˛* ˛*
.°( . • . ) ˛°./• ‘♫ ‘ •.˛*./______/~\*. ˛*.。˛* ˛.*。
*(…’•’.. ) *˛╬╬╬╬╬˛°.|田田 |門|╬╬╬╬╬*˚ .˛ …
Hope you're all having a lovely Christmas and here's to a fantastic 2013! 

Saturday 17 November 2012

Reactions

I've got my silver foil back again, what a relief! So of course pretty much every bead I am making at the moment has silver foil in it :o)

From subtle sparkles...

To amazing 'wow, I never know silver could do THAT!' reactions!



For all this silver loveliness and more, keep checking Etsy over the next few days!


Sunday 28 October 2012

Silver...

I've run out of silver foil and oh how I miss it! I hadn't realised I used it so much until it was gone. I use it for all sorts of things, from adding sparkle to a bead to using it in silvered ivory stringer, for a lovely organic feel. These three, just listed on Ebay, are all made with silver foil...

Luckily, I have some more winging it's way to me from over the pond, so hopefully I'll have some in time for my next beadmaking session. *Phew!*

Monday 22 October 2012

Pink






Here's a picture of a pink bead.  I've been making a lot of beads lately in organic neutrals and thought it was about time I made something that is most definitely not an organic neutral colour!

On Etsy now...

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Inspired by Mother Earth



Oh how I love making organic beads! Squidging, swirling and smooshing the glass is so satisfying and attempting to recreate nature in glass is always a challenge.
My latest batch of beads to go on Etsy are all deliciously organic; based on fire, water and rock.





All will be appearing on Etsy over the next few days, so keep checking!


Sunday 30 September 2012

Checking in

Just popping my head round the door to say that I've just listed some beads on eBay, including these two simple organic focals.



Tuesday 25 September 2012

Fifty shades of beige

Yes, I've been playing with striking glasses again. A striking glass is one that requires special treatment in the flame to bring out it's inner loveliness. The process goes something like this; get the bead really, really hot, then cool it quickly...then get it hot again, then blow on it...back in the flame and get it fairly hot, but not too hot...then cross all your fingers and toes and offer a sacrifice to the goddess of striking glass...you get the idea. Except that the goddess obviously doesn't like me, because all I can get from the glass is the aforementioned fifty shades of beige. And yet I buy it time and time again, seduced by the promises of amazing rainbow colours.

Sometimes, if I pretend to myself that I really want beige with the merest hint of khaki and casually contemplate the numerous cobwebs and spiders' nests in the shedio instead of concentrating on the bead, then I can take the glass by surprise and the odd shade of a colour that isn't beige pops out. I have to pretend not to be happy (blue! I definitely saw blue!) and calmly take it out of the flame and put it in my annealing bubbles. Aaaand relax.

The latest beige glass I've been playing with is called Magic. Having tried and failed to magic some colours out of it, I have discovered that if I whack up the propane in the flame and wave the bead around a bit, it gets a rather lovely metallic bronze hue. And with the various shades of beige showing underneath, the result is actually rather nice!

So...no doubt after all that waffle you'd like to see some pictures, so here they are...the success stories. Phew!







You will find then all on Etsy now and keep checking back over the next few days for lots more new beads being added!  ;o)

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Sunday 26 August 2012

Slapped wrist

I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged!

Although I got my shedio set up a while ago, it seems to take ages to get back into the swing of things after a house move. However, I have now made *lots* of beads, annealed and cleaned them, photographed them and I am now in the process of listing them on Etsy. Which is quite an undertaking after leaving it so long!








Anyway, here is a taster of some of the beads that will be going on Etsy over the next few days and I'll be back soon for a longer post...promise!

Saturday 7 July 2012

Sunshine!

No, Paignton doesn't have a different weather system to everyone else...it's still raining. However, I have just listed these 'Little Nuggets of Sunshine' on Etsy.


If you hold them in your hand and concentrate really, really hard, you never know...the sun might just come out!

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Rain...

Anyone else had enough yet? Better hurry up and finish building that ark...

Friday 22 June 2012

Just moved house...

...again...but hopefully for the last time! Normal service will be resumed shortly, just as soon as the new shedio is set up!

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Looks like rain

I'm loving using murrini in my beads at the moment, they're going in everything! When I was thinking of a name for this bead, I looked at the murrini and immediately thought of umbrellas, with the swirly frit looking like driving rain...so it just had to be called 'Rainstorm' (especially with the weather being the way it is at the moment!).

 Rainstorm is on Etsy now, along with a few other murrini beads :o)



Sunday 13 May 2012

Reflections

So following on from my last post, I decided to have a go at re-photographing some of my more camera shy beads that are on Etsy at the moment. These are the beads that look gorgeous in the flesh, but fade into boring nothingness the moment I point a camera at them. And lets face it, you only want to buy pretty beads, right?!

Here are some of the results...





And the secret? They were photographed in a bowl of water :o) All this does is to cut out the reflections, but it's amazing the difference it's made!

You will need to watch out for floating cat hairs and drowned insects though...


Wednesday 9 May 2012

Unloved beads

I love this bead...just a simple fritty focal, in one of my favourite colour combinations; pink and orange. It has been languishing on eBay for quite a while though, because it appears that no-one else loves it as much as I do :o(


This bead is also on the 'unloved' list, despite being one of my favourite moon beads.


I know that sometimes a photograph just doesn't do a bead justice, which is one of the most frustrating things about selling online. However, sometimes it seems that some beads are just destined never to find a home, which is disappointing when I am convinced of their loveliness! But well, I can't do much apart from keep relisting them and hope that eventually  they'll sell...although sometimes I figure that I'm obviously meant to keep them, so they end up staying with me ;)

So if you'd like to give either of these lovely beads a home, pop over to eBay now!

Sunday 29 April 2012

The weather

I really want to be making beads right now...but that would mean going out in the driving rain and 50 MPH winds to connect up my propane. And I don't fancy that.

I do have some watery themed beads on Etsy now though...



Monday 23 April 2012

Earth

Earth is a new colour from Effetre. Well I say new, but it's been available in the USA for a while...it's just taken a while to make its way over the pond. The wait has been worth it though, it's a gorgeous glass!


It looks mostly blue in rod form, but as it is worked, streaks of green and turquoise appear. It really does look like planet Earth seen from space. I kept it simple with this bead, now on Ebay.

I adore this set of discs...just Earth, encased in a thin wrap of clear.

And finally...it was inevitable it was going to end up in a moon bead, wasn't it?

The last two will be going on Etsy in the next few days :o)

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Phew!

Picture this. I'm back from the Flame Off with lots of new glass, frit, murrini and tools and even some shiny new propane hosing. I've been really organised and booked the week off work, so I can play to my heart's content. I've had lots of boring stuff to do in the last couple of days, but today I finally managed to sit down in front of the torch and...the propane ran out! I was not a happy bunny. So I phoned Flogas to order more, only to be told it wouldn't be delivered until Tuesday. Tuesday??!! I'm back at work then!

This story has a happy ending though...I managed to track down a local dealer who was able to deliver tonight...yay! So I'm all set to go tomorrow :)

In the meantime, I have listed some new beads on Etsy, so pop over and take a look.


Tuesday 17 April 2012

Back from the Flame Off...

...with lots of lovely goodies! Normal service has now been resumed, my Etsy shop has reopened and I'll be making new beads this week :o)

Tuesday 10 April 2012

New on Etsy...



With lots more shiny new beads to be added over the next week or so!

Sunday 25 March 2012

Flowers and pebbles

Looks like another organic week on eBay then...I've just listed this lovely, flowery purple ribbon bead -


And these etched pebbles.

Monday 19 March 2012

15 minutes of fame

If you take a look at the April issue of Beads & Beyond magazine, you will see my beads (and me) all over two pages, in 'Meet and Greet'...my first time ever in print!


Just thought you'd like to know :o)

Oh, and hello to anyone who has come to the blog via the magazine!

Monday 12 March 2012

Looks like Spring to me...

I've spent the morning sitting outside in the sun and wandering around the garden taking photos.