Flowers, flowers and more flower beads

This is the first set of pink flower lampwork beads I have ever offered for sale in my Etsy shop. There has been much experimentation and recording of what colours I put with what before they were perfect.

I have made green, orange and blue ones in the past

I'm delighted to announce that the range has been expanded, first with the pink ones I kicked off this posting with but purple, aqua and teal are also new.

I'm trying to push the colour range even further and am currently experimenting with red which is tricky to work with but I shall keep trying. Watch this space for news of my success (soon ... or later ... it may very well be later ... I am nothing if not persistent). 

I can imagine these flower beads being absolutely gorgeous as a pair of earrings with matching bracelet teamed with some silver, Czech glass and/or swarovski beads. I'm sure that lovely gardener, Carol Kline - whose earrings often feature flowers - would look fabulous in a pair if some enterprising jeweller sent her some!

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.

Bottles under the recycling hammer!

I'm planning to have a smashing time today!

These Bombay Sapphire bottles have been expertly and efficiently emptied by my sister's petit ami, big thanks to my hero, Jon!

I haven't made any recycled beads for ages. Once the bottles have been broken up into shards small enough to handle in the flame, I will be turning them into beads like these I made a couple of years ago.

I may even make some earrings too!

Wrapping up in November

Wrapping up, nope not Christmas presents, I'm never as organised as that! This is ice on the outside of my garden studio it's making pretty patterns but gosh it's cold! 

When I'm making beads in the garden, I'm quite close to my kiln and I can huddle over the flame of my torch so my top half stays quite cosy. My bottom half suffers though. Here are today's wrapping up precautions:

Thick woollen black tights and hand knitted socks.

Jeans over the top of those

Boucle leg warmers

And finally my heavy duty walking boots. Never let it be said that a lampwork bead maker's life isn't glamorous!

The Whispering Beadmaker

I'm not talking much today, MTM and I went to see Rival Sons again last night in Sheffield with fellow rock fans Steve and Gary. Brilliant night, support act were the Graveltones, wow, they get a great sound with only two musicians. The guitarist is a one-man orchestra!

Due to shouting and hollering my approval after every track of both acts, I am rather hoarse today and so forgive me for not doing much talking about the concert or these new lampwork beads I'm showing you.

They're very similar to my Glitter on the Highway beads which I made some time ago but this time in a blue colourway using bluestone instead of goldstone. I had to come up with another name and as they're blue which suggests water ... I therefore present to you, Lustre on the Babbling Brook beads available in my Etsy shop now.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

Tipsy beads

I'm always trying to photograph my beads in a different way, one that still represents them accurately to a prospective buyer but also looks more interesting than the way I usually do it. Rather chuffed with this one where the angle is a bit askew and the end beads have fallen over! (Must've had a sniff of wine ...!)

Available to purchase in my SoozBeads Etsy shop :-)

Calling all patriots

We have two events this year in Great Britain that I'm particularly happy to celebrate as they're great for bringing in tourists. As I do business in a city that welcomes many visitors from abroad, I think you'll understand why I am busily celebrating them.

The first is the Queen's diamond jubilee, followed shortly by the Olympics coming to London. In an unashamed and unapologetic effort to cash in, here is a sample of the jubilee jewellery (later to become Olympic jewellery) which will be for sale on my stall in Cambridge this Saturday

There is also a necklace, pendant and a double-stranded bracelet but they weren't finished before the light went for photography so you'll just have to pop along to Cambridge to see those. We have a terrific weekend forecast (THAT makes a change) so hope to see you there ... whatever you're up to, I hope all my readers have a great weekend.

More spankle colours and patination experiments

Here are a couple of new spankle bead colours for 2012. Navy and aqua (yes, yes, I KNOW ... more blue!) :-) I can't help it, I LIKE blue!

I've been busily restocking my Etsy shop after it got emptied before Christmas. The aqua spankles went very fast so I'll be making more of those.

I'd usually be working on new jewellery designs at this time of year and I have got ideas in my head but I've got a poorly hand at the moment, seeing the doctor about it this afternoon. It's been very sore in the mornings since just before Christmas. I think I overdid it on bending memory wire (it's very tough material). I thought I'd just pulled a muscle and with the Christmas break (and not doing much), I expected it would get better by itself but it hasn't. Beadmaking doesn't hurt too much for most of the beads I'm making but any hammering or filing is difficult; basically anything that involves rotating the hand is painful. I'm not having a moan about it (it's my own stupid fault for making 16 memory wire bracelets in one day ...) I just wanted to explain why there's no new jewellery designs so I'm not just writing this for sympathy (but any going spare would be gratefully received!) :-)

In the meantime, I'm experimenting with organic means of patinating silver that doesn't involve liver of sulphur or platinol. I don't like working with chemicals if I can avoid it, both of the chemicals mentioned are smelly and messy. To avoid doing the patination myself, I have been buying pre-patinated items and wire from Daisychain Extra, an excellent Etsy shop but one of my new year resolutions for Sooz Jewels is to make my own earwires and I can't expect someone else to patinate them. I am addicted to Jo's clasps, my customers adore them, so I'll definitely still be buying those!

So far I have run trials using uncooked and cooked egg yolks. The former doesn't work at all. The latter worked but the tutorial said it would only take 24 hours. My earwires and headpins needed 4 days imprisoning in a little plastic container with mashed up egg before it became dark enough (I'm after gun metal grey, something that looks vintage). After 4 days at room temperature, this was just as smelly and messy as the chemical means (but at least you don't need a Health & Safety sheet when you buy and cook eggs!) The patinated finish from the cooked egg method is also quuite uneven which is disappointing (I might do a photo when all my experiments are finished).

The instructions say to make sure the silver is very clean in order to get an even finish using the cooked egg method. I degreased the silver using alcohol, tumble polished with mild detergent, and then rinsed very thoroughly, only handled the silver using plastic tweezers. If the silver needs more cleaning than this, then I don't think this is the system for me.

I have read that you can use old kitty-litter (the ammonia produced by the decaying cat's urine is the thing that colours the metal apparently). Anyway, I don't have a cat, both my sisters have two but they live well over half an hour's drive away. So I've used my own wee (is that shocking?!) This is just out of interests sake to see if my urine is effective. Please be assured that even though the silver isn't directly touching the urine (it's just in contact with the fumes), I have absolutely no plans on using urine-patinated silver in jewellery that I sell!

I also have some silver hanging up in the shower to see if that will do it. These latest two experiments have only been running for two days though so I'll report back on results as and when anything happens!

And so my thoughts turn to the weekend, it's very strange for me to have a Saturday where there's no Art & Craft market to go to. Normally I'm running around like a mad thing on Fridays! The market starts back at All Saints on the 28th so I'll have to think of something nice to do instead; I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Wintry clear bubble beads

The weather is set to turn a little colder from this evening onwards and here are some icy white clear bubble beads to go with it! It wasn't my idea to make some clear bubble beads, a customer suggested it but I'm really pleased with the simplicity of them.

I've listed them as a reserved set for that customer in my Etsy shop but I'll definitely be making some more of these soon. Hope I don't induce full-blown winter weather to appear too prematurely though! 

Preparations for the move are on-going, we're going to sign the tenancy agreement for the new house today and pay the first month's rent and deposit. The new house is empty now; the letting agent is giving us the keys for the afternoon so we can measure up and decide exactly what furniture is going into which room to hopefully make things on moving day as smooth as possible!

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.

Grand Marnier spirals

We have finally managed to finish the contents of the Grand Marnier bottle! After trimming the lawn on Sundays, I rewarded myself with a Grand Marnier, lime juice and tonic water cocktail (sometimes DH would join me). I also put it into some casseroles of liver, mushroom and orange, and DH manfully poured a tablespoon over strawberries for desert a few times too, the brandy flavour was too strong for me to take neat but I believe DH came to quite like it - he's a star!

When I broke it up, the glass looked rather close in colour to beer bottles. I was a bit worried the beads would look too similar but fortunately, the beads are much lighter, gingery amber colour that I'm very pleased with. I don't know what I was so worried about.

If the colour was too similar, I had it in my mind to melt the glass into spirals to differentiate the different types of glass but I needn't have worried, they are easy to tell apart from the beer bottles (Poachers beads shown below)

I think the Grand Marnier spirals allow the full beauty of the glass to show through rather than the usual donut shape and so I'm going to be making more of these today!

Lampwork beads for sale

For the first time since I started making lampwork beads, I am currently making more beads than I can actually use in my own jewellery business and so I'm making a small selection available to purchase in a separate Etsy shop called Sooz Beads.

I'm not selling seconds, I am only selling beads that I would be happy to make jewellery with myself. When things get moving again in Spring, there probably won't be many left over, so snap them up whilst they're available!

Recycled lampwork beads now available to buy

I've made a small selection of my recycled glass beads available for sale in my Etsy Shop.

As well as the etched Bombay Sapphire beads shown in the photograph, I have also added listings for beer bottle beads (Poachers, specially drunk by DH), sherry bottles and Perrier Water beads. Still to come are some beads made from Cava bottles and unetched Bombay Sapphire.

I have made some bridal jewellery with the Rosé bottle beads which I'm excited about but I'm holding off photographing them just for the time being as I'm waiting for a prop to come in the post to make the pics more "weddingy". All will be revealed here first! I've used up all the beads I made but I will be making more so I'll add a set of those in the course of the next few days too.

So why start selling beads now? I've been asked at various times since I started Sooz Jewels via e-mail and on my Saturday stall if I would consider selling them to other jewellery designers and my answer til now has always been an apologetic no but I have changed my mind. I've always thought that I would get bored with making more than I actually need myself and I do find that other lampwork beads are more interesting to make.

Having said that, I have been making recycled beads quite a lot lately and found it relaxing. If I do get a little bored, I watch the birds through my studio window, I have a strategically placed bird table and feeders especially for this. They absolutely love the sunflower seeds that I've been putting out for them (ready shelled so there's less mess). They fly in, pick one up and then fly off to eat it. A few seconds later, they're back for another ... I would get terrible indigestion if I ran around inbetween mouthfuls. It made me wonder what birds use instead of Rennies ...

New photography set up

Here are the first photographs of beads made this week using the new photography area which has been set up in my studio by DH and myself (thank you darling!)

Even with just one small light unit (daylight flourescent tube), it's giving pretty good results. I may add a second light but just a minor tweak in Photoshop to get the white background really white and the colours are really quite true to life. I'm calling the beads photographed "Melted Tigers" and "Drizzled Toffee", I expect you can guess which one is which.

Here's what it looks like. It's all very low tech and inexpensive.

I've covered David Tennant up with white sticky back plastic (ignores shrieks of indignation from DT fans). There are a couple of creases and bubbles in it; I think the Tardis is trying to find a way out but I'm assured it's Blue Peter strength so that oughtta hold David and the entire space time continuum behind it.

The flourescent light fitting has been screwed to a piece of white contiboard which is held in place with a batten of softwood fixed to the wall of the studio. The light fitting and bulb is being diffused with a piece of A3 photocopying paper secured with masking tape so I don't get a long rectangular reflection on shiny beads.

The base is another piece of contiboard resting on top of two drawer units which is temporarily ontop of a large Really Useful big box - this is to bring the item being photographed closer to the light but also has the advantage of meaning I don't have to bend down to take pictures. We will put another batten in soon to tidy it up and replace the box. The beads have been placed on top of some really white photocopying paper but I can put any background in there that I like.

I'm going to screw in eyelets as well to the left and right so I can string things across to photograph 3-D earrings and those that really don't photograph well on a flat surface. 

From now onwards, there can be no more excuses like "I can't take photographs because ...."

• it's raining
• it's too cold
• it's too bright
• it's too dark
• the bench is covered with bird poo and I can't be bothered to clean it off

Strange coincidence but one of the blogs I follow The Drifter and the Gypsy is giving away a polaroid camera on this posting. To enter all you have to do is leave a comment and it's open to international visitors. I get a second chance for blogging about it and so I'm feeling lucky!

Large hole bead bracelets

Over the past several weeks, I've been building up my stock of large hole Pandora style silver core lined beads (what a mouthful!) I'm displaying them on my stall on starter bangles, which are also available to purchase at less than half the price of a Pandora starter bracelet. The bangles are available in three sizes, a child's size, medium which will fit a lady with a UK dress size of (say) 8 to 12 and large for (say) size 14 over.

I've photographed a couple to show you what they look like with a selection of my glass bead, this blue one includes some sterling silver and also features three of my fine silver spacers right in the middle which I wrote about a while ago. The ends of the bracelet unscrew and you can therefore put as many or as few beads on the bangle as you like. The starter bangle includes two friction beads which go either side of your chosen beads to keep them tidily in place.

If you're out and about in Cambridge, the weather forecast is for fair weather on Saturday and I'd love to welcome you to my stall in the All Saints Art & Craft Market. Whatever you're up to, I hope everyone has a good weekend,

More plasma

You all knew it was only a matter of time before I came up with a blue version of the plasma doughnut nuggets, didn't you?! Yes, predictable old me, here they are. They go really well with blue denim, I have got a big batch of these annealing in the kiln as I type so they'll be turned into jewellery before the weekend. :-)

I have gone a bit mad on these plasma beads, I know but I will be doing something different soon, I promise.

This is a PS I got today in an e-mail from my sister, Sandy. She commutes to London every day on the train; she's so funny, she should have a blog herself!

P.S. You know how wet it was this morning - well, it was when I was waiting for the train anyway .... I was trying to fold up my soaking wet brolly whilst fighting for a seat this morning and the bloomin' thing sprung open again and soaked everyone in the carriage! - ooops! (it's an automatic one and you really have to struggle to get it to click) - I was very apologetic and I think the passengers saw the funny side - I kept giggling for ages after though!

The bead that got away

Out of the many experiments I did last week, this week I chose two colours of my new plasma doughnut nugget beads to make jewellery with. Here are earrings and a bracelet in an orange/red combination.



When I made the orange/red plasma doughnut beads, there was one that just wouldn't come off the mandrel. The irritating thing from my point of view is that the bead moved about an inch but then wouldn't come off the end; I've never had this before. Very occasionally, beads will get stuck but generally, they stay stuck to the part of the mandrel they were made and it's usually a failure of the bead release during bead construction. You can see gouge marks made by my pliers as I tried to grip the mandrel whilst pulling with all my might but I have had to admit defeat.

I took this photograph of some emerald plasna doughnut nugget beads yesterday. I have made a bracelet and two pairs of earrings out of them but the light had gone by the time I finished making them so no photographs of those; the beads look lovely combined with citrine and green aventurine.

All the jewellery is available to be viewed and purchased at my stall on All Saints Art & Craft Market in Cambridge tomorrow. :-)

Looking forward to Saturday

Got lots of new jewellery to show off on my stall tomorrow at All Saints Art & Craft Market in Cambridge. Here is the bracelet that I made with the multi-coloured plasma doughnuts that I featured here on Wednesday. The beads were just screaming amethyst at me and I really like the colour combination. There are a couple of pairs of earrings to match.

This cluster pendant won't be for sale but I'll probably be wearing it; this is made with the diamond anniversary champagne beads and is a special edition exclusive to female members of my family only (previous blog entries explain the background to this range). Again I've made a couple of pairs of earrings to match as well.

I've not made any new silver earrings for a while, these have got handmade earwires, I've also made a pair of studs with the same puffy hammered triangle shape. The silver has been slightly domed in order to catch the maximum amount of light. I usually use a small ball pein hammer for my hammer effect but I've bought a new texturing hammer which has a stripe profile and makes larger elongated impressions on the silver. I think I'll be making more jewellery using it as I like the effect so much.

Come along tomorrow, have a day out in Cambridge and see the new jewellery in person! Having missed last week, I can't wait to get back into it; have a lovely weekend everyone!

New blue tardis

I've made some blue tardis beads, rather appropriate as Dr Who's tardis is blue. I've been playing around with Amy Kinsch's storming technique on and off for a while and these are my favourite beads so far to come out of my experiments. The swirly texture underneath the clear raised dots is mesmerising.

They take ages to make, I'm not the fastest beadmaker in the word as it is but the most I can do in an hour is 5! I've got 12 in total and am looking forward to turning these beads into jewellery tomorrow. :-)