Blue moon ... blue (and purple) beads

I recently received a message via my Etsy shop asking for some renegade beads. This particular customer wanted some cooler spectrum beads in blues and purplee instead of the single colour options I list quite frequently. I had a root around in my leftovers jar and managed to come up with the above selection. They look so pretty together, I might make up some more bi-coloured renegade sets as I'm sure other people would be interested in them as well.

Immediately after I listed them in the shop (along with some other sets), I made a note in my diary of the amount I listed today (this is a habit of mine) and my diary tells me that there's a bloon moon today. This bodes well for this blue and purple lampwork set, fingers crossed the customer likes them!

Please feel free to make suggestions for other colour combinations at any time either via my Etsy shop or right here in the comments section. 

I hope everyone is having a Happy Blue Moon Easter Saturday.

Rare lampwork rainbow spankle set

It's quite rare for me to have a set of rainbow spankle beads available in my Etsy shop as I don't always have all the colours in stock. I just listed them for sale so if you want them, better grab them quick, they usually go pretty quick when I do!

Better news on Missy, our dog. Following diagnosis and her new tablet, her appetite and energy levels are much improved. She still likes to spend alot of time on her bed by the radiator but I think that's also because the weather is so cold. She's always been a fair weather dog so I think when the temperature improves, she will be out on her garden cushion again keeping me company when I'm making beads in my shed!

She's been with me this afternoon whilst I was sowing seeds in the greenhouse for a couple of hours. The sun was warming us up through the glass and bubble wrap insulation. The weather was so bad on Sunday here (sleety rain all morning, cloudy coldness in the afternoon), I did some work so I could play hooky on a day when the weather was nicer and today was the day! All the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are sown as well as some annual bedding plants. My propagator is full, lots of others waiting to be sown as and when they germinate. Missy and I are really looking forward to the Spring gettting going properly. 

Twiddly twirlies

I listed these beads yesterday n my Etsy shop and they sold within an hour! (Thank you Hazel!) I have made a pair of prototypes in a rusty red and amber colourway (see below) and there are a quantity of purple ones are annealing in the kiln as I type.

This is another new bead for sale in my Etsy shop but I am also planning on making jewellery for my stall with these. I showed a trio of the prototypes to prospective customers and other stallholders last Saturday.

Everyone that saw them said they reminded them of the sea so I've gone into production and the set above is the result. Hopefully I should also have some jewellery made out of these in time for this Saturday in Cambridge.

Daisychain bracelets

I'm very pleased with some new clasps which I bought from Jo at Daisychain Designs a few days ago. I've been following Jo's blog for some time. When she announced she would be selling clasps at a new Etsy shop called Daisychain Extra, I headed over there and was so impressed, I immediately purchased two! One in sterling silver; it's so pretty, I thought the bracelet needed to be feminine and on the delicate side. I've used my own pink lampwork beads, swarovski pearls in Light Amethyst and swarovski pearls in Rosaline.

The other clasp I purchased was the same design but this time in patinated copper. This clasp had an altogether different character; this time I combined it with my own recycled beer bottle beads, copper and some more swarovski crystals.

Both bracelets will be for sale on my stall on the Art & Craft market in Cambridge, opposite Trinity College on Saturday, come along and try these pretties on!

Hats off to the new tardis bead

The hagstone bead was inspired by my holiday in Bamburgh, Nortumbria in the Spring and the jewellery made with them has been popular but I've become a tad tired of them so I tried various things to glam them up for Christmas-time and this is the result of their makeover: It's the usual mixture of two colours of grey with sis stringer dotted and then gravity swirled as a base. I changed the shape to a cylinder and then added dots of raku which I heated and cooled a few times, topped with blobs of clear glass, there's quite a variety of colours trapped behind the clear glass. I've called them tardis beads as they remind me of the interior of the tardis (great Dr Who special on Sunday wasn't it?!)

And here is my new hat, it's based on a pattern of hat that was made for fellow beadmaker Laura, by her fella, Chris's mum. (Thanks for sending the link, Laura!) I've used different yarn as I couldn't find any Coats on-line in the UK. I used Sirdar Crofter instead bought from Sew Creative on King Street in Cambridge. I've also changed it so it's got a turn up as I like 'em and it comes down right over my ears - I get very grumpy when they get cold on my stall!

I'm also doing a matching scarf which is almost finished; I might have enough wool to do some mittens as well - we'll see. Now I'm ready for when the colder weather arrives. It's a bit mild for hat wearing at the moment. I remember last year pinning my poppy onto my "big" coat a few days into the start of November; this year, it went on my slightly padded showerproof jacket and didn't shift.

Nuggets

This week, I've been experimenting with different colours of the dimpled nugget beads. Many colour combos have been rejected - these are the best ones and I've made a batch of each. I'm turning them into jewellery today but by the time I'll be finished, it might not be great photography conditions so I thought I'd post this picture in the meantime.I think the green ones are my favourite, they have stains of a darker green whispering darkly through the core of the bead with smudges of teal murmuring quietly around in there too.

Red stripes jewellery

Here are some photographs of the red stripes jewellery I promised. You will undoubtedly have noticed that I haven't used the red carnelian beads yet. They're quite big beads actually and whilst I think they will work for a future pair of earrings for ladies who like big earrings, I decided they were definitely wrong for a bracelet. The black round beads I have used instead are onyx with a lovely smooth shine to them.

I think the carnelian beads will be great for a bold, large beaded necklace - there's a particular bead cap that I want for what I have in mind. I'm going to have to order some in so it might be a week or two before you get to see it. I will make the earrings to match at the same time, in the meantime, there are three matching pairs of earrings to go with the bracelet. You can see them all, and in a larger photograph, on the Lampwork > Lampwork jewellery page of the Sooz Jewels website.

I did some experiments with different colours of these beads yesterday - the black and white one works well, as does a purple one but this is my favourite - the glass colour is a mixture of transparent aquamarine and dark teal over white. I shall definitely be making some of these next week.

There are a few other new things on the website too so don't forget to have a click about for them - or better still, come to my stall on the Art & Craft Market on Trinity Street in Cambridge and see them "in person" tomorrow - have a great weekend everyone!

Etched Bombay Sapphire recycled glass

I've just added three new recycled items to the Lampwork > Recycled Blue page of my website. I tried etching some of the beads made from recycled Bombay Sapphire bottles and I was really pleased with how pretty they turned out. The matt finish is really soft and lets the core of the bead shows through like a little bulb is lighting it up from inside.

There is also a pair of earrings made with pearls on the page I link to above and a bracelet to match.

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!

New large hole beads

At last, I have got a selection of large hole beads on my Pandora-style webpage. A sneak preview of three of them here: On the page itself you get two views of each bead, one from the side and one from the top. There will be more soon.

I am hoping this morning will have fewer interruptions than yesterday. I was gonna make soooo many beads yesterday morning. I was out there turning on the kiln at 8.30am eager with anticipation - lovely weather but not too hot (just how I like it). Missy could be in the paddock outside the studio with me. The first interruption was a courier delivering a small parcel I had forgotten I was expecting, not long after that, the postman arrived with a parcel that I was expecting (so I can't really count that one). At every interruption there is a huge commotion from my dog, Missy, who was in the paddock growling and barking at every visitor until I come out of the studio and then she lets me be in charge (sometimes!)

I'd got back into beadmaking and then my Landlady, Penny, turned up. She's lovely and always terribly short of time so that didn't take long. She was warning me that a man would be with me later to do the annual service of the fire extinguishers and she was checking I was in. So I go back to beadmaking for a bit and then the man turns up.

I left the two extinguishers at the back door and asked him if he wanted a cup of tea, by the time the kettle had boiled and I took it out he had finished! I had my own tea in my hand ready to go back to work myself; I’ve been happy to go back into the shed and leave his tea with him if he was still working but as he’d finished, I didn’t feel like I could abandon him to stand around whilst he drunk it on his own so I had to drink my tea with him. Fortunately, he was a bit scared of dogs so I took him up a bit closer to Missy and this time I didn’t stop her barking so he left as quickly as possible!

Normally, you know, I don't see a soul all day if DH is working in Lincoln or Cambridge. So when I got back to work I was confident that I could go straight through til lunchtime with no further interruptions but no ... someone delivering leaflets walked past on their way to the letterbox and got Missy going again (sigh!) I gave up as a bad job - I am not good at being interrupted when I'm beadmaking!

Camera and computer still not talking to one another

Despite the fact that my computer is refusing to talk to my digital camera, DH's computer has been far more amenable. Perhaps my laptop was just having a case of Monday blues but it might be time to think about a new one as it's over five years old. But anyway, here are the beads that I promised yesterday. I am going to make some more of these and hopefully get them made up into jewellery this week.

I forget to tell you, I sold my first Pandora style, large-hole bead on Saturday! I only started putting them out for sale on the stall two weeks ago. I still haven't photographed any yet and I want to make a new page on the website for them.

These are jobs that are on the list of jobs to do this week but as its Wimbledon fortnight, I might not get round to everything. I will be wanting to watch all of Andy Murray's games live but for the main, I will content myself with the hour of highlights in the evening. Today he is third on centre court so it's finally time to get my ironing up to date. I can iron inbetween points and not feel so guilty that I'm watching TV in the middle of the day! Wimbledon fortnight is the only time my ironing pile is ever up to date!