This is just one of six new product pictures added to the Lampwork page of my website.I didn't set up my stall yesterday at the craft market. We travelled to Cambridge but it was so icy, the roads in the town centre were treacherous, no salting at all and you could actually see the shine where the small sprinkling of snow had been compressed by tyres and feet.
It was a cocktail of things that made me decided not to stay and set up, we got diverted around some roadworks which made us late, a van nearly slid right into us at the end of Jesus Lane which although it was slow motion, that was kind of scarey, my neck was hurting and I'd forgotten to bring any more painkillers with me. It was really difficult to get out of the car, I had my big hiking boots on, they have tread on them that comes up to my armpits but it still took ages to get any traction so I could haul myself out of the passenger seat!
We saw numerous people falling over, bicycles seemed particularly vulnerable to going over (fortunately, they all got up and seemed none the worse for wear), Sharon, my sister who has the Arcturus Jewellery stall stayed and said she also saw two cars having minor accidents. It just didn't feel right and I wasn't in the frame of mind to be my usual charming and pleasant self. Half of me knows that it was the wrong decision because Sharon sold lots of jewellery and had a really great afternoon! Having said that, I'm certain she was jealous when I texted her from my other sister's home where I was warm, dry, eating bacon bagels and petting her two lovely cats, Georgie and Darcy! :-)
She started to appear in October last year after the paper deadline but I just smugly ignored her for three months telling myself that I was far too busy in the run up to Christmas but that I had all of January to do it and now it's getting a bit late!
I just managed to get a picture of these beads before the batteries on my camera gave out on me. I coaxed the camera into downloading into the computer by switching the batteries around and this fooled it for just long enough!
I quite liked this turquoise lentil on the left and spent four hours yesterday making a batch of them along with some smaller round matching spacers. I was so disappointed when they came out of the kiln. Instead of actually 
Usually a 100g skein of wool from 
This is the first time I've purchased from 
These are dangly diamond earrings with Celeste enamel but I am utterly, utterly ashamed of the holes I have drilled in these. They are not central. I am used to drilling in .3mm or .5mm sterling silver. I use a punch to make a small pilot depression to guide the drill bit and then use my .9mm dremel bit to make the hole. This method does not work on thicker fine silver made from PMC. I think the main problem is that I have textured the surface and the drill bit has skidded out of the pilot depression off to the side. I cannot offer these earrings sale because of that so I'll be keeping these for me. I just wanted to show off the enamelling!
Ditto goes for these rectangular earrings in Pale Blue - this is my very favourite colour so far of enamel.
It would have been so easy just to poke a well placed larger pilot hole when the PMC was wet and this is what I'm going to do with the next batch that I make - hopefully I'll be able to offer them for sale. I'll probably have a competition and a giveaway of the first pair.
These are the most successful beads I've made since Christmas. They're quite simple, a transparent glass with only a hint of colour in the rod rolled in a frit blend and then a hint of extra iris gold frit melted in and then reduced. The photograph doesn't do them justice; the pic is a bit dark and the reduction irridescence doesn't show much at all but hopefully you get the idea. I can't get outside to photograph them as it's been snowing since breakfast time here so this is a window sill job. The beads remind me of a pair of shoes I had when I was around 8. They were super shiny patent leather with like a snakeskin pattern on them but I - for some reason - always referred to them as my crocodile shoes.
These are some winter-inspired beads; we've been in the grip of this hard winter for so long, it's difficult to remember how hot I got in the studio during Wimbledon fortnight last year! Anyway, these are icy blue transparent glass, ringed with raised stringers of double helix glass which have been reduced to a blue mirror finish. These beads demonstrate the difficulty of making hand shaped cylinders all the same size!
The birds are getting through the bird food at the moment; the nut feeders are being filled every other day, whereas they usually last 4 days. Ditto for the half-coconuts that I fill with melted fat and birdseed. First thing in the morning I am putting a half pint mug full of sunflower seeds on the birdtable and scattering some on the ground but it's gone by lunchtime. Then at lunchtime I put a mug full of birdseed on the birdtable and ground and that's gone by the time the sun goes in! They're just ignoring the water I put out so I guess they're either eating snow or finding moisture somewhere else. Hope they all make it through the winter, I would love to take a photograph of them on one of the feeders but it means waiting out in the cold .... think I'd rather stay in the warm!
I've done a close up of the mosaic table mats below as I like them so much - glass is my favourite medium to work in and so it pretty much goes without saying I'm going to like glass mosaics. These were made by the ladies of Magpie Mosaics whose work is on the Art & Craft Market most Saturdays. Apparently, they ask customers for photographs of their tables using their tableware but customers never come back. They don't have a website at the moment and I don't have their e-mail addresses, so I'll have tell them to take a peek at them here when I see them in February. So Karen and Mari, these photographs are for you!
I always enjoy Christmas when it actually arrives. I never understand those grumpy old people who complain about it. I admit that some of the build up with the shopping and preparations can be a bit stressful. This year on the Tuesday before Christmas (after finishing selling jewellery for the last time of 2009 on the Monday), I had a list with 34 "to do" items on it but as I crossed things out, I kept thinking of new ones to add! On Christmas eve morning there were still 17 items on it but DH and myself worked our way systematically through it. On Christmas day, we had eight for lunch at our home (first time ever for me cooking Christmas lunch), and two guests stopping overnight. After we had eaten, opened presents but before Dr Who's Christmas special, there were still two items which hadn't got done! The list, much discussed over lunch, was then ceremonially burned on the log fire. My sister Sandy is supposed to be sending me a photograph she took of the fireplace ...?!
I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays, we had a lovely Christmas with all the family here on the day and have been relaxing and doing a bit of "work" here and there. Some more beads made and these PMC shapes with gaps in them ready to be filled with colourful enamel.