Steampunks and mushrooms in Cambridge

I've been meaning to get back to Cambridge for a day out for ages. Last time as we whizzed by in the car, I spotted these unusual mushrooms sprouting out of wrought iron railings outside a school on Trumpington Road. This time, I had to stop for some pics; aren't they just amazing?!

The perfect opportunity for this came last Saturday, my sister, Sharon and her partner, Martin were arranging one of their Steampunk events at the Cambridge Museum of Technology.

Steampunks are an eccentric bunch, they like dressing up, have tea duals, drink gin and eat cake ...

They're especially fond of their hats, mustn't forget the hats, they even motorise them and have races ... a strange lot! :-)

The museum is brilliant, great staff and most importantly is dog friendly and so Missy was able to come along with us and on the way back into town, we stumbled upon a pub with river views ...

It would be rude not to stop really! 

Have half of shandy and boat watch.

Must go back soon, Cambridge is lovely, sometimes I miss trading there on Saturdays!

Sunny Friday in Cambridge - photos of my stall/booth

I've often been asked to put some photographs of my stall (or booth as my transatlantic friends call it) where I sell my jewellery every Saturday in Cambridge. As I'll soon be giving up my stall after nine years, I thought I'd better get round to it before the opportunity is gone! The Art & Craft market is open on Fridays too during the summer. There are usually fewer stallholders there as it's a bit quieter so last Friday, I took my camera along and took a few snaps. I've posted them as a Facebook album but for non-Facebookers, here are a few of the bestest ones

This is my view looking to the left

From outside looking in

Peeking round the side to the left. In bad weather I have tarpaulins keeping out the rain on the sides of the stall as well as on the top. That's the side of Trinity College in the background. The tower in the middle of All Saints Garden is a memorial to the founders who raised the money to build the church that once occupied this site. The church has gone but the memorial (and some gravestones) are still here ...

Missy is usually snuggled down on her "stall bed" which is brought specially for her and it's underneath the table behind me. When it's sunny, we put her bed in the sunshine as she loves sunning herself. She has a water bowl which is kept topped up all the time. Often people notice her (rather than my jewellery!!) In colder weather, she has blankets to keep her warm. Sometimes she jumps up onto my lap and tries to charm my customers into buying something! Her eye looks a bit runny in this picture, she's got a case of conjunctivitis. We're treating it with antibiotic eyedrops twice a day but its on the mend! Whilst I'm setting up (takes about an hour and a half) she gets a long walk down by the backs and the river with her Daddy, that tends to tire her out for most of the rest of the day!

And here's a picture of the whole thing from a short distance, I put the top tarpaulin is on even in good weather as there are often pigeons in the trees ....!

Spell(un)bound and christmassy

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I got the christmas tree decorated today (poor thing has been all barely forlorn in the corner since Wednesday waiting for me to overcome my festive lethargy), or if it's that the christmas presents are now all wrapped (except for DH's) or if it's the fact that I'm finally feeling warm after two days out in sub-zero temperatures in Cambridge City Centre (the banana I had with lunch was half frozen when I ate it!), or if it's the sherry I was tippling whilst I was doing said decorating and wrapping (I only bought it because I need the bottle to turn into lovely dark blue beads) but ... but ... at last I'm feeling christmassy!

My Cambridge No-Snow spell was finally broken at around 3.45pm yesterday afternoon. It would probably be an exaggeration for me to say I packed my stock and stall away in a blizzard because it wasn't very windy but it was ve-e-e-rrry snowy! I had snow on the top of my hat and DH looked like he'd got a very severe attack of dandruff - the snow really showed up on his black overcoat! When we shook the tarpaulin that had been covering everything up, even in only half an hour, it had quite an accumulation on top.

I am counting myself lucky that it held off for as long as it did, given the awful forecasts that were being given earlier in the week for Cambridge. Sales were well down on the seasonal average but it was really good to note that the City Council had salted the pavements (they didn't do that last year, indeed I can't remember them ever doing it before in December). The Market Manager had also been given a supply of salt for the market - last year, the Council quoted health and safety regulations that said they weren't allowed to salt the  market because if someone fell over due to it not being done properly, they would be sued - no salt, no lawsuits are possible. I know it was in the tory manifesto to do away with such stupid health and safety legislation but whoever decided to give us salt this year - thank you, thank you, thank you! There is a concrete entrance on a bit of an upwards slope and it was so depressing last year to see people try to get into the market only to turn away because it was too slippy.

So, hopefully when I report for duty tomorrow, people should be able to get out and about in Cambridge, even if it is in fewer numbers than previous years. I can't blame people for sticking to the indoor shopping areas due to the unseasonably cold conditions but if anyone fancies venturing out, roads allowing, I will be in All Saints Garden opposite Trinity College tomorrow (and possibly Tuesday as well).

If you're suffering with snow-related problems, my genuine sympathy - I hope anyone who has to travel stays warm and safe.

Now where's the bottle for another glass ... I think I could definitely do with feeling even more christmassy.

Copper flowers

Many of the blogs I read regularly have gone all green fingered in the last couple of days and so I thought I'd join in! Here are some Rudbeckia which I sowed from seed this time last year. They're really easy to germinate. I grew them on in little two inch module pots and then they were planted out in late summer and here they are flowering away with ... yes, look ... that is rain on the petals! It looked so pretty as I stepped out of my front door. I think the droplets really bring out the coppery tones in the flowers beautifully. The best thing is these are perennials and so will flower again and again every year and cost next to nothing. :-)

We had a hot, dry and dusty Saturday on the market, we did pretty well sales wise and Sandy came along with her friends and assorted partners, we had a laugh with them on the stall, I hope they all enjoyed the rest of their day in Cambridge!

Jewellery for the weekend

I have gone into production with some purple/bluey ribbon beads, here is a bracelet made with them. I have 4 different pairs of matching earrings as well but - give me a break - I haven't done too much photography today - it's too blimmin' hot!

I also have an amber colourway in the ribbon beads, I ran out of time today to make jewellery from them; I did take a photo of the beads on their own but the colour doesn't look right and I'm getting cross with trying to make it look right in Photoshop so have given up (blame the heat again!)

Ah, this is a bit better, a photograph of the long awaited necklace to go with the earrings I photographed earlier in the week. Very pleased with this one, all the hammering did me good in getting rid of some of the crossness with how hot it is!

I thought I lived in a temperate country ... do you know that ancient prophesy foretold of (speaks in a hushed voice) drops of water falling from the sky ... my lawn could so do with some of that at the moment!
I digress, here are a couple of pairs of earrings using some of my own cool black and white triangle beads. There is a matching bracelet but (you guessed it), I have limited the number of photographs I took today because IT IS HOT (did I mention that before?!)

Here is the latest photograph of the seed pods after coating with 10 coats of PMC paste but before firing. I'm not sure I like them any more, I wasn't sure how to finish the tops off; the silver loops are too big and I think overall they look a bit like carrots now! Oh well, I'll get them fired and see what they look like polished with a bit of patina on them. :-)

All the jewellery (except the carrots) will be on sale this Saturday on my stall at the All Saints Art & Craft Market in Trinity Street, Cambridge. I am looking forward to a visit from my sister, Sandy, and some of her work friends. They are having a day out in Cambridge and are planning on going punting (I hope they have plenty of sun screen!)

Cambridge Blue

I bought some of the very first beads made by Laura Sparling since she moved to Cambridge. I absolutely love them. I have four beads left and am excited to be making a matching necklace to go with these earrings.

The links are just waiting to be cut and then I can get on with the soldering, so this is just a quick visit cos I'm itching to get on with it!

More daisies

This photograph looks suspiciously like the last daisy photograph but these are much bigger wild flowers - ox-eye daisies. There were thousands upon thousands of them lining the verges of the A14 on the way home from All Saints Art & Craft Market yesterday. I didn't make a suicide stop on the very busy road to take this photograph; fortunately, there are a few sizable clumps on the fringes of some farmland where we walked Missy this morning.

Good news on the red necklace I showed you on Friday, the customer who picked it up was really pleased with it and bought it. I'm still waiting for the the customer who wanted the black necklace but it was only 50/50 she would make it anyway. Quite frankly from around 10.30am I was surprised to see anyone shopping in the outdoors given all the rain we got in Cambridge yesterday. Fortunately it was dry when we were setting up and packing away our stalls so overall, given the dire forecast, we stallholders felt quite fortunate!

I bought some plants for the garden on Friday so I'm off to go plant them and enjoy the windy sunshine. I hope everyone is enjoying the bank holiday weekend!

Back to the jewellery

I have photographed the jewellery that I made with the crocodile and marine walzer beads which I featured in the blog a few days ago. Nice to see some sunshine which enables me to get better photographs but brrrr - it's so cold again!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! :-)

No market today

I telephoned the Market Manager this morning just past 6am this morning to check whether to travel to Cambridge and for the first time this year, he told me no, he wasn't going and he asked me to let my sister know (Arcturus Jewellery) as well. The Art & Craft market is therefore cancelled and so I won't be at my stall today.

Hopefully everything will be more back to normal tomorrow and I will be there then, I am also planning to be there on Monday as well.

In praise of Laura

I had a brilliant day at the Art & Craft market yesterday, it wasn't nearly so cold as last week. I brought my hat, scarf and mittens but didn't even need to put them on. I wasn't getting caught out by no woolly tights under my jeans this week but I have to confess, I found myself a bit on the warm side in my long johns! The BBC were also forecasting rain for Saturday for most of the week but fortunately, on the day, the rain was only in the early hours of the morning, it stopped for me to sell jewellery and then started again just as we were packing up (which I don't mind!)

So, in addition to great weather, my favourite buskers, the Beatles (not the real ones!) were playing and they give a great atmosphere. The danger is though, that you sing along to all the songs and don't engage with potential customers visiting the stall! They were a trio this year, I'm sure they were just a duo when they last visited us, the one doing the drums looked just like Ringo Starr!

And then, bestest thing of all, favourite beadmaker, Laura Sparling, turned up with her boyfriend, Chris. I've only met her twice now - both times quite briefly - but from reading her blog and website, it feels like I know her quite well! Unfortunately, we didn't get much time to chat because customers kept wanting buying things (tsk! ... only joking, I'm very grateful for the business, thank you, you lovely people!)

I did get time to show her the first four roly poly beads I made using her latest tutorial, they're really fun to make. Whether reading the blog, website, downloading tutorials or meeting her in person, I always seem to learn something. On Saturday, Laura could see from my beads that the roly poly bit was lopsided (one was straight so I'm improving!). I thought it was just me having a tendency to melt glass more on the right which was causing it to be lopsided but Laura says when she was teaching recently at someone else's studios, she had chance to try out lots of torches and they're all hotter on one side; I just need to compensate by holding it more to the left. I'm not posting photographs of the beads here as they're nowhere near sale-worthy yet but I am going to practice a bit more in the new year.

Before she left, Laura gave me a present, she is such a thoughtful person, not only did she remember that I avoid palm oil when she bought me some festive Christmas Santas, but they were also milk chocolate (which anyone reading my blog will know is my favourite!) I was half expecting her to stop by my stall if she got time, but it was a big surprise to get a lovely pressie too!

If, like me, you love beads, then I recommend you purchase a copy of the Beads by Laura 2010 calendar. I've got mine a few days ago and its really of a very high standard with beautiful, quality pictures of the very best of Laura's colourful beads. It's going to hang in my studio where I can admire and be inspired by her stunning work!

Tardis bead needs a new name

Gosh, we were lucky in Cambridge yesterday. The forecast predicted dire weather from lunchtime onwards but it's too close to Christmas for me to stay away and I had customers planning to stop by to pick up things ordered via e-mail, so I really needed to be at my stall. My rule of thumb is that if I can get a good half day's trade in then I'm happy to be there.

As it got closer to lunchtime, the weather actually started to brighten up from the grey claggy cloud we'd had in the morning and by mid-afternoon, we even had some glimmers of sunshine! It didn't last all day though, we packed up in the dark at around 4.30 in some yukky drizzle but we counted ourselves extremely fortunate to have had a good day's trading.

I had loads of new items to show off having been away last week. The jewellery I made with the cava beads attracted lots of interest, I sold a bracelet to a lady who zoned right in on it; it was the first thing she picked up - she was amazed when I told her what the beads were made off as it's her favourite drink. The guy with her insisted she buy it (what a sweetheart!) :-) A couple of pairs of earrings also sold (Sorry no photos, I didn't get time to do any this week).

The new tardis beads were another good talking point! DH didn't feel that the name was very conducive to jewellery sales and so we were trying to think of a new one; we enlisted the help of anyone who picked the tardis bead jewellery up (two pairs of earrings and a bracelet - no photos again).

One young lady came up with "dalek beads", which I totally get and isn't it a coincidence that she used a Dr Who theme even without us telling her their provisional name?

Another person said "blister beads" which we didn't think would help at all! :-) By this time, both a pair of earrings and the bracelet had been sold. The last pair of tardis bead earrings sold to a lovely lady whose husband came up with the unfortunate name of "pustule beads" ... ahem, I think I'll be sticking with "tardis beads" when I make some more of these next week ... unless any of my blog readers can come up with anything better!

Latest tin

I bought this tin when I was in Cambridge on Saturday from a shop called Breeze on Trinity Street. As soon as I saw it I had to have it to keep stuff in, I really like the peacock feather design. The trouble is, it's got a blimmin' scented candle in it so I have to use all that up before I can stash things in it (as you can see, I've already made a start!)

Methinks there may have to be some dotty beads in these colours pretty soon!

Back to normal

I'm so glad to report that the Craft Market in Cambridge was back to its usual "tranquility" yesterday, lots of shoppers, bank holiday weekenders and day trippers amid the trees and stalls at All Saints on Trinity Street. It was a pleasure to be there on a lovely summers day. There was a jazz musician just outside and some really nice laid back "lazy" numbers were drifting in over the buzz of the shoppers which suited the atmosphere perfectly. I'm not usually much of a jazz fan as I tend to think most of the fast stuff just sounds like someone tipped some instruments down the stairs but the cool, mellow stuff is .... great! ;-)

After complaints and e-mails from various stallholders (including me), the Markets Manager and the Council, the police sent a couple of officers round on patrol a few times and they stopped by to have a word with me saying that they were going to nip this thing in the bud. They are apparently putting the word out amongst the street people that anti-social behaviour would not be tolerated in the Craft Market. If they defy the message and there are further transgressions, there would be arrests. I found it most reassuring.

It has however given me a bit of a kick up the backside that I am too reliant on my income from the Craft Market so I think I'll be upping my on-line presence. Much as I love the craft market and the way of life it affords me, I can't see me sitting out in all weathers when I'm approaching pensionable age!

I already have an account with Etsy as I do buy from there quite often but I haven't sold anything yet. I shall also look into Artfire, Folksey and other places too. I found Ebay far too expensive to sell from when I tried that 3-4 years ago. The on-line sales sites that specialise in hand made items seem far more reasonable in their listing fees. From what I can see, Artfire seems to be free ... they must make their money through advertising perhaps.

I must stop by that shop that Laura mentioned in her comment last week as well, though I'm not sure they would take my items all the time I am also selling in the craft market but perhaps if I developed a new range exclusively for them. In the meantime, here are a couple of new design earrings that went on display this week for the first time. They are both priced at £20, not on the website yet but soon will be. The black ones feature my black/silver bubble beads, different shapes of onyx and some antiqued chain. The other pair have a super new (to my designs) shape of swarovski crystal nuggets and some bumpy beads made in transparent straw yellow glass. The bumpy bits are made from stringer of silvered glass and these have been reduced to very shiny golden dots. Excuse the peculiar photographs, I needed to hang them from something as they're so long!Enjoy the rest of the bank holiday weekend!

Sunshine at last!

I have rummaged around in all my jewellery boxes and fished out most of the jewellery that hadn't been photographed and so there are lots of new things on my website, particularly on the Lampwork page, where there are countless new bubbles products, the Red Mist Charity page has new earrings and a bracelet and the Recycled Blue page has new Bombay Sapphire bracelets.

Here's a photograph of the red bubbles I promised, and I forgot about another new colour I added to the bubbles range in amber glass so here's a pair of the earrings just to show those off too, but follow the links above to see many many more glass bubbles.

I hope to see you on my stall at the Art & Craft market on Trinity Street in Cambridge tomorrow - the forecast is great, no rain at all and some lovely sunshine, especially in the morning; grab your sunhat and I'll see you there!

Strawberry fair

As I'm typing this, it is pouring with rain here. It started the same yesterday morning - market day in Cambridge. I decided to believe the forecast and optimistically set up my stall anyway and fortunately, it was right and the rain cleared away to leave a pleasant day.

It was strawberry fair in Cambridge. This is usually a mixed blessing for my business - there are far more people around in Cambridge than usual and if the weather is fair and not too hot, many will wander over into the craft market as well and one always hopes they will buy something. But on the other hand, serious shoppers who don't like it when it's too crowded stay away. This is my sixth year and no two have been alike so I was prepared for anything! I just hoped I wouldn't have to spend too much time doing the crossword and soduko puzzles!

I ended up having a really good day, several things have sold before they made it onto the website (again!) But as I can't garden today, I will be spending some of my day off updating the website with pictures so I'll put them straight into the gallery or on the Lampwork section with "sold" on them.

To celebrate my good day and commemorate strawberry fair's role in it, I bought a strawberry cupcake from anew stallholder who appeared last week selling tempting cakes and goodies!

It was especially nice to see Sue and Lucie, two of my regular customers, who stopped by particularly to see any red mist jewellery I had produced in aid of the Orangutan Foundation. I'm afraid I had nothing to show them, I made up a batch of the beads on Thursday but didn't get time on Friday to turn them into jewellery so that's first job on Monday. But it proves people do read the blog and so it made my day!

I also haven't made any jewellery yet with these beads, they are a variation of the Akamai beads, these are orange/yellow and brown instead of the blue/green ones you've already seen.