Saturday 28 December 2013

Earth, air, fire and water

Once again, Christmas has passed in the blink of an eye...and as I was back to work on Boxing Day, it seemed even shorter! Hope you all had a good one and here's to a wonderful 2014 :o)

You've probably noticed that the weather's not been too good lately - strong gales and driving rain make sitting in a shed with a naked flame a little difficult, not to mention dangerous, so I've not been able to get in the shedio much lately. The beads I have made seem to be mostly in shades of blue and green - no doubt inspired by all that water!


I've also made one of those beads that makes up for all the 'fuglies' and 'mediocres' I've made over the years...I absolutely adore it!
It was one of those times when all the ideas in my head came together beautifully and the result is this rather glamorous rock, full of gold and silver, sparkles and rainbows all wrapped around some rather lovely mottled ivory. I hope you love it as much as I do - often I find that the beads that are loveliest in my eyes are the ones that sit in my Etsy shop for ages :( Still, if no-one buys it, that means I get to keep it!

Why not pop to my shop now and check out the new blues and organic beauties?


Sunday 1 December 2013

Phew...

My lovely husband has evicted the squatter from my shedio!
Bye bye Harry...

Friday 22 November 2013

Cold weather and uninvited guests

It's cold. So cold I couldn't even bring myself to go into the shedio and make beads today. Bad times. Those in the know say it's going to get much colder though, so I'd better man up and get my thermals ready!

However, I've also put off by the enormous spider that seems to have taken up residence in the shedio. I've been trying to get over my fear of spiders and was actually doing rather well, but this is a real beast! Five minutes into my session, he'll suddenly saunter casually down the wall in front of me and disappear into some nook or cranny. I'm too soft hearted to actually kill spiders though, so I've named him Harry and I pretend to ignore him while I continue to make beads (but am constantly alert and poised for flight!).

I have managed to make some beads though, in between shivering and spider watching, including this little beauty...one of those that looked completely different in my head and was much more wonderful in real life!
You will find 'Sedona' in the usual place!

Sunday 10 November 2013

All or nothing

That's kinda how it is with me at the moment. It's been either a lack of time or inspiration (yup, the old mojo is still being a little elusive!). But I have finally cooked and cleaned some new beads...and wow, I hadn't realised quite how many there were! Which is good for you, but it took a loooong time to clean, photograph and list them all.



You may notice a weather theme with these beads - that will be due to the fact I am currently studying the weather as the next module of my course. The resulting beads are rather more colourful than they have been of late...which makes quite a nice change!

If you like them, pop on over to Etsy and have a look...they are being added over the next few days.

Oh and if anyone is interested, I passed my exam!

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Playtime

I've just got some new glass :o)

Oh, the excitement when the parcel arrives at my workplace! I open the box, rip out all the packaging, eat the sweet...and there it is...lovely, shiny new glass. It has to be touched, stroked and held up to the light...then it has to be put away again until I get a day off and am finally able to play with it.

Today was that long awaited playtime and I can't wait to see what comes out of my annealing bubbles!

Sunday 15 September 2013

Autumn

Looks like Autumn's here...


And it really feels like it on a blustery, chilly drizzly day like today!

Saturday 7 September 2013

Rocks, the Universe and all that...

Well the mojo seems to be back, although I've not had much time to make many beads lately. I've come to the end of the first module of my degree and am currently revising for the exam, which is in a week and a half...wish me luck!

The unexpected bonus of the course was how much it influenced my beadmaking! I know I've commented on it a few times in my blog, but I'm rather chuffed because I feel like I've finally found my style. I've always loved making organic beads, but my interest in rocks - and most recently (and surprisingly!) in astrophysics - has been really fun and challenging to translate to glass.

Here are some of my latest Etsy batch. The first is a style I particularly love...a little ribbon of galaxy within a rock. Just fabulous :o)






Wednesday 21 August 2013

New beads

Just popping in to tell you there are a couple of new beads now in my Etsy shop...


Sunday 18 August 2013

New shop

Oh dear, I've been rather lax on the blogging front...again...

My mojo has gone missing again, it hasn't been seen for a few weeks now. It happens every now and then, it seems that I have an intense period of creativity when I love almost everything I make, then I guess the old mojo decides it's been overworked and needs a holiday! It always comes back in the end, although I do panic for a while that it's gone for good and I'll never make a decent bead again :(

Anyway, in the meantime I've opened a new shop on Folksy. I've listed a few beads that I made a while back before the mojo went AWOL and there are more to come, so keep checking!




Wednesday 24 July 2013

Hot, hot, hot!

Not that I'm complaining though, just being very British and stoic and saying, "well it;s about time we had a proper summer"!

Today I made some beads for the first time in two weeks, because as I said in my last post it really has been VERY warm in the shedio and today was -apparently - a little cooler.

 Just a couple of new ones on Etsy for now...




Friday 5 July 2013

Summer

Has it really been a whole month since I last blogged?! Doesn't time fly? It's July already and shock horror, the sun's out! And those who know about these things are predicting an actual hot, sunny summer for this month! Enjoy it while it lasts...

It's been a bit warm in the shedio lately, what with the aforementioned sunshine and a hot torch on the go, but I've braved it just to make some shiny new beads for you lot :o)

These are all on Etsy right now...





Wednesday 5 June 2013

Guess what?

Yep - more silver foil! And organics...and spacey beads. That's the way my creative juices are flowing at the moment and I'm just going along with it :o)

Here are my latest beads, on Etsy shortly...




Friday 24 May 2013

A galaxy in your pocket...

I'm still making spacey beads...and I love this one. Deep blue, with lots of silver foil and silvered glass frit, encased in pale aqua. The result looks just like a galaxy captured in a bead. It's a big bead and it's what I call a freeform round - meaning that it's not completely spherical. Because if you did manage to get hold of a galaxy and encase it in glass, it wouldn't be perfectly shaped, would it?


If you'd like your own personal piece of the universe, it's on Etsy now :o)

Monday 20 May 2013

Simple

It's amazing what you can do with just one or two colours....and a bit of fine silver foil. One of the things I love about working with glass is the different reactions you can get, some of which can be a surprise!

I've mentioned 'striking' glass before, which requires fancy flamework and a large dose of luck. This bead is simply clear, with a layer of silver foil followed by wraps of a striking glass called Chalcedony. On this occasion I was lucky and I got a myriad of warm, autumnal colours...and even some blues and greens!
The second bead was made with transparent grey, again wrapped in silver foil, with stripes of a mottled brown-grey glass called Sediment. The result is wonderfully organic, but with the surprise addition of some silvery blue bits on the ends.
I could spend ages looking at these beads, there is always something new to discover about them!

You will find them on Etsy over the next day or so.


Tuesday 14 May 2013

Oh, hello again, rain...

To think that only two weeks ago I was sitting in the garden wearing shorts...and now it's cold and rainy. Again. I'm optimistically thinking that because we've had such an awful winter and spring, we must be owed a wonderful summer! Here's hoping...

I've listed a couple of organic-y beads on Etsy - photographed on one of those lovely sunny days -  and I've just cleaned another new batch, so keep an eye out for those ones as well.



Friday 19 April 2013

Scientific beadmaking

After a week off work spend flitting between this and that and not achieving much, I have finally got around to listing some beads on Etsy...and they are all examples of the science influenced beads from my last post.

Organic, gemstone-y ones;



Out-of-this-world cosmic;

And energy and light;

Hope you like them!


Wednesday 17 April 2013

Catching up

Hello! Long time no speak! How are you?

I'm okay, just very busy! As if I didn't have enough to do with a full time job and making beads, I've now started a degree with the Open University as well. I decided it was high time I started studying rocks instead of just talking about them and am now doing a BSc in Natural Sciences with Earth Sciences.

Why am I telling you this? Well, firstly because it will probably mean that my blog posts will be even more sporadic than they normally are. I'm still around and I'm certainly still making beads, but if I suddenly disappear for a bit, it'll be because I'm up to my eyeballs in an assignment.

Secondly, I've found it interesting that my latest beads have been influenced by what aspect of science I have been studying. The first module of my course is general science and I made some very organic, rocky beads whilst studying geology, cosmic beads during the book on space and now I'm studying energy and light I'm making bright and colourful beads!

I've always said that my style of beads is influenced by what is going on in my life and where I've been, so it's going to be interesting to see how my style changes throughout my studies...especially during the chemistry book!

Anyway, that was a very wordy post, so here's a picture of Bob to finish with...just until my next beady post!

Sunday 31 March 2013

Happy Easter/Ostara/Sunday!

Now I've celebrated by eating my Cadbury's Buttons egg, I've listed some beads on Ebay...




Tuesday 12 March 2013

Millions of murrini

Definition of murrini from Wikipedia; Murrine (common pluralization murrini) is an Italian term for colored patterns or images made in a glass cane (long rods of glass) that are revealed when cut in cross-sections.

Whilst listing my latest batch of beads on Etsy just now, I started to notice a common theme...every single bead or set contained murrini. I certainly seem to go through phases with my beadmaking when I'm making lots of a particular style or colour or using a certain material...and at the moment it seems to be murrini! I love them, they just seem to fit into every style of bead I make!




Unfortunately, I haven't yet learned to make murrini myself yet, although it is definitely on my to-do list. The credit goes to fellow bead artists Kaz, Julie and Linda and I am more than happy to carry on using theirs!

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Busy

I've just had a week off work...not very relaxing, what with birthdays and family coming to visit, but lovely all the same! Now everything is back to normal, I've finally got around to putting some new beads on Etsy.

The Lightening Rocks are a bigger, chunkier version of some I've made before -



And I've made a lot of bluey green beads lately...I didn't realise quite how many until I came to photgraph them all! Serenity is the first to go on Etsy, but if you love blues and greens, keep an eye out as I'll be adding lots more!


Wednesday 30 January 2013

Quick, look!

Sunshine and blue sky!

It'll be a lot more pleasant in the shedio today without the wind and driving rain of the last few days...