Crystals

When I turned on my kiln (and the studio heater!) about 20 minutes ago, there were all these crazy ice crystal patterns on the inside of the glass. I'm about to go out and start doing some work, even though they're really pretty, I hope they've thawed by now!

The snowy weather played havoc with my sales figures on the stall last year in December so I want this little dollop GONE by next Saturday (are you listening weather-forecaster-peeps?!)

Revisiting bubbles

These blue bubble beads are to go with the very cold weather we're having at the moment. We haven't got any snow here at the moment (how about where you are?) But it's so cold that the frost doesn't seem to have melted in bits of the garden where the sun hasn't reached like the North side of hedges etc.

The beads are made with a base of CIM Sapphire (a colour which I adore) and they've been encased in Halong bay. The bubbles have taken on the light blue frostiness which makes them feel very sharp and even colder than clear glass would.

Brrr ... I needed warming up so I have made a Topaz version (a cognac amber colour) with straw yellow bubbles this morning so hopefully I'll warm up a bit when they're ready to come out of the kiln. I'll be making jewellery with them all tomorrow!

It's arrived

It's now that time of year when my Christmas commissions and stock making takes over and other things fall by the wayside. Blogging goes a little quieter, the ironing piles up, telephone messages remain unanswered (OK so nothing new there ..!) and DH does more of the afternoon dog walking. Luckily, his business usually slows down at Christmas so that works out quite well.

Here are some new things that got added to the website recently (bigger pictures if you click on them)

Midge over at the Soggibottom blog is having a giveaway, click on this lovely image below to be taken to the page where you can win this cute little bear

Winter time

Wintertime comes just a little too fast

Summer just flies by on its patient wings

Sweet Burgundy by Tommy Bolin

A case for morphic resonance?

The world, well, my little world, has gone a little scribble bead jewellery dotty the last couple of weeks.

One of my regular customers already has red scribble bead bracelet and matching earrings. When she stopped by a couple of months ago, she was admiring the newest blue version of the scribble beads but was looking for something in green. I was thinking of doing a green version and so I made some scribble bead experiments over the course of a few weeks. When she stopped by the stall again, I showed her what I'd come up with, she couldn't decide between two that she liked and so decided to have bracelet and earrings in both colours! (I really like having wonderful customers like that!)

This week, I completely sold out of everything I made in blue scribble, an expensive necklace, a bracelet and three pairs of earrings :-) The customer that bought the necklace wanted another in a different colour for her mother and commissioned me to do a lilac version so now I'm experimenting with purpley-pinkey hues.

The week before it was all almond blossom jewellery ... I sold out of everything I had on the stall that was almond blossom related. Out of the first six items sold, four were made from almond blossom beads.

I don't really know what I'm talking about when I refer to morphic resonance. This is Sheldrake's theory (I'm paraphrasing here) of collective memory; that events become more likely the oftener they occur, and therefore behaviour becomes guided into patterns laid down by previous similar events experienced by others. 

What I do know is that occasionally items of jewellery on my stall become "unloved" the less often they are picked up and tried on. Sometimes I put the same bracelet out week after week and it is totally ignored by customers. I put it in a different position, reduce the price, change the way I display it all to no effect. But ... one day, for whatever reason, early on in the day, someone will pick it up for the first time in weeks. I can virtually guarantee that several others will also pick it up later on and chances are I will sell it - odd. Sheldrake is a Cambridge academic and therefore I feel obliged to take him seriously; morphic energy fields are as credible an explanation for this as anything I can think of!