Half-Term Happenings

Well, it went by in a flash, didn't it?

Lots to show you. Firstly, the gallery wanted some earrings to go with the squiggle pendants I left there last week:

These are hammered just to widen the curves - and to strengthen the metal.

While these are more heavily hammered to give a texture which means that the light bounces in all directions making them very twinkly.

And these are three squiggles soldered together and very lightly hammered for strength. It was a bit of a fiddle working with such small scrolls, but I was pleased with the outcome.

Because these need polishing to bring up the shine - and because it's half-term and therefore no class at college where I use the big polisher - I had to get out my polishing machine. This hasn't been installed (bolted down to the workbench, dust extraction mechanism devised, cowling to prevent polish going everywhere) yet, so I did a bit of a Heath Robinson and put it into a cardboard box to try and contain the bits of polish which fly in all directions. It worked - but the box kept moving with the vibration of the machine. It was all a bit awkward holding the earrings under the polishing mops while holding the whole thing on the workbench with my elbow!

I left the polisher in situ... and obviously Cleo decided to investigate and rub herself up against the mops...
We now have a tortoiseshell and pink cat!!

I've also been working on a commission for my lovely chum, Anne. A long, long necklace (34"):
There are loads of pearls and then sea glass, chalcedony, fluorite, crystals, blue lace agate and amazonite. Part of the necklace is made with chain and little dangles of the semi-precious stones.

And also for Anne, a kilt pin to be worn with a beige cardigan:

This has Tigers Eye, nephrite, poppy jasper, rhyolite, ocean jasper, fancy jasper, moonstone, Botswana agate, smoky quartz and crystals. There is also mix of gold plate and copper.

There were three sets that also got made this week:

Turquoise rondelles with loads of silver.
Gorgeous lampwork by Clare Scott coupled with sea glass, Swarovski Crystals, black onyx and Sterling Silver. I'm pleased to report that Clare really liked it! It's always a bit of a concern that the lampwork artist will be disappointed with what you've done with their beads, so it's great to get positive feedback from them!

Hang on, I hear you cry, that's only two sets... you said there were three. Correct! I didn't get time to photograph the third set before it was sold! It was Amazonite and silver. It was really pretty and I'm hoping to make something using the same beads - in a different pattern - this week, so you'll get to see something like it soon.

Anyway, it sold at our first visit to the HBOS offices in Bristol. Wow, what beautiful offices they are too. We were selling in their vast atrium which is five stories high and has a glass roof, so the light was fantastic. And we sold LOADS! Absolutely brilliant. And really lovely people too. We're booked to go back about once a month for the rest of the year and really looking forward to it.

So that's about it for jewellery.

On the home front, the big news of the week is that Tom turned 17 yesterday. I know I'm biased but I couldn't wish for a better son. He is a kind, thoughtful, clever and gorgeous boy. And I'm terrifically proud of him and all his achievements. Can you tell?

Last weekend we went to a Sweet Sixteen party and the invitation said we should 'Dress to Impress' - so we all donned our poshest togs. Here's the rest of the family as we're about to set off:
And no, there's no picture of me. I'm the photographer in the family and rarely feature in the pictures. Needless to say, I looked absolutely gorgeous!! LOL!!!

So, that's got you call caught up on events at this end.

I hope you've all had a good week, whatever you've been up to. Have a terrific weekend and I'll be back next week with the next exciting installment.

Much love to all.
xx

Indigo Indulgence

As I didn't post any pics of jewellery in my posting of this morning, thought I'd show you a few new things, hot off the press.

All these feature beads by Denise Karan of Indigo Lily. I'm just hooked on Denise's beads at the moment!

First up are some really pretty beads that I've had for a little while. I didn't want the jewellery to turn out too 'girly' so even though I've used more pink, in the form of sea glass, I think picking up the green from Denise's beads has steered it away from the Barbie look. The green is Ruby Fuschite, which also has areas of a gorgeous dark pink which, hopefully, holds the whole thing together.

Then, back to my newest favouritest finding, the add a bead pendant. These beads made me think of wintry Yorkshire moors (although, come to think of it, I've never been on the Yorkshire moors in the winter, so I suppose this is what I think they'd look like!).

And although I've never been swimming in the Caribbean - and I even when I do swim, I don't do underwater... these colours are what I imagine you'd see.


And I love the contrast of the greens in this set.


Right, better get back to it!

More soon...

Out of my comfort zone...

...with grateful thanks to Tan... Tania Grey of Tan, Of Course.

When I'm blending colours with beads, I'm not too adventurous - keeping things matching and toning... but then, when I have some of Tan's beads, she gives me a sharp boot up the bottom and sends me WAY outside my comfort zone. Her colour combinations are always interesting and they inspire me to put colours together in a more interesting and unusual way.

Take this one for example:

Just look at the fantastic colours in Tan's beads! I found turquoise freshwater pearls and candy jade chips to echo the colours and teamed them with Sterling Silver.

The name of the set comes from the wonderful Burl Ives' song which was part of the soundtrack to my childhood. Remember the chorus?

Oh the buzzin' of the bees
In the cigarette trees
Near the soda water fountain
At the lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
On the big rock candy mountain

You can hear Burl sing it here.

These beads are a little more subdued, but still have surprising colours... the soft heather purple, with red and turquoise... translated into a necklace with garnets and glass seed beads.

Purple and green is a favourite colour combination of mine... so these beads always had my name on! Here the beads are Amethyst and Peridot.

Lastly, here's anther shape of bead by Tan. One of her lollipop beads... and what great colours! Here I've made it into a pendant with my new favourite findings.


We had a very fine weekend, lots of eating, drinking and making merry. And, I didn't fare too badly at WW on Tuesday. Think I'd better be good the rest of the week in case it catches up with me!

A quick *wave* to my bro and his missus, who have recently become blog readers!

I cannot let the day pass without saying, "Well done, America!" I'm not a political person, but today I feel we have witnessed history in the making.

Enjoy your fireworks if you are having them... be safe and have a sparkler for me.

Much love to All.

A Plethora of Pendants

I've been making quite a few (as you'll see) of these pendants. I've only recently discovered these findings which are great for showing off Lampwork beads. And they should be shown off... each one is hand-made (not by me!) and involves melting glass in a flame while turning the mandrel on which you're making the bead. Then putting on different glass and swirling and shaping and all sorts of complicated and clever stuff.

I just buy them from the artist and put them together with some other beads. The easy bit!

All the beads in these pendants are by Denise Karan of Indigo Lily Lampwork. I love Denise's beads. She's such a busy lady - she's doing a joint honours degree, works permanent nights on Friday/Saturday and Sunday and still finds time to make these gorgeous beads. She's an inspiration!




This next one is still a pendant, but something a little different. I treated myself just before we went away to a new book by Susan Lenart Kazmer called Making Connections: A Handbook of Cold Joins for Jewelers and Mixed-Media Artists. It's a very long winded title, but basically it means joining things together without having to do any soldering.
I've been SO inspired by this book... I've got pages and pages of sketches of things I want to make. Some will have to wait until January - the quiet time - so I can experiment and learn some new techniques, but others I hope you'll be seeing quite soon.
This pendant 'Mellow Fruitfulness' is the first item that I've made using something I've learned from the book. The large Carnelian teardrop hangs from a trapeze made from Sterling Silver, as you can see in the second picture which shows the back. I've then added a froth of Carnelian chips and freshwater pearls. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and will be using the trapeze again in future projects.

Because the pendant is very busy, I went for simplicity in the earrings. Freshwater pearls on elongated Sterling Silver kidney wires.
This next set is called 'Now Pipe Down!'. I've had these fabulous lampwork beads - the work of the supremely talented Isabelle Anderson - for quite a while and they kept nagging me to get something made with them. This is the result. I wanted the beads to be very much centre stage as they are just so beautiful, so I've threaded them with lots of Sterling Silver tubes, round beads and some lovely Stardust beads. Although I've had the design for this set in mind for a long time, I was surprised when the silver sections took on this almost chemical model effect. But I like it! And now I've made something with some of these beads... hopefully, they will 'Pipe Down'.
And lastly, a bracelet. Made with some stunning sea glass beads and Sterling Silver beads. I love sea glass, it's the matte effect, I think. Etched beads have the same look and I love them too.
Well done, on getting to the end of this looooooong post! There was just so much to show you.

On a family note: it was Brian's birthday on Wednesday. He arranged it so he was working from home which meant we could pop to the pub for lunch. And then we went out for an Italian meal in the evening. Doesn't auger well for WW next Tuesday! Especially as we're up to Leicester this weekend to go out for a meal on Saturday night and Sunday lunch! I think I'll be just drinking water on Monday...

Have a lovely weekend, All and take care.

What a week!

PHEW! It's been a crazy (but wonderfully successful) week here at Coburg Crafts!

Last weekend we held a two day party here which not only gave me a chance to see some of my lovely friends, but also to display every single piece of jewellery and gift items that Sarah and I had available!

Then Wednesday was another really super party at the home of a good friend - so more catching up with friends - and she had great display space so again a great opportunity to show off the range of goods we now have - which is expanding all the time.

And then this weekend we were at Sarah's with all her chums.

I was very delighted on Friday evening when my Murano Mystery (see post below) set was purchased by a lovely man (yes, you read that right!) who, in fact, bought all the Christmas gifts for the ladies in his life from us. Thank you, Kevin!!

So, a great week. In fact, October has been a great month! WhooHoo! And we've got loads of events in November too. I'm going to be very busy trying to keep the stock levels up.

With so much going on, it's been impossible to photograph everything, so you've missed a few lovely things, but here's a couple from the remaining stock that I'd like to show you...

Firstly a few 'stand alone' earrings - no necklace to go with these, just the earrings.

Here's Dainty Dangles - these are the tiniest of tiny pearls - I almost went blind making these!

These pearls are pretty small too... Gossamer Window
Parisian Nights - gorgeous purple pearls on Sterling silver chandeliers
These next two use a new pendant finding that I've just discovered. You can unscrew the top and put on the beads - which means that these wonderful hand-made lampwork beads can take centre stage - where they belong!
First up is Toffee Tornado featuring a gorgeous tube bead by Denise from Indigo Lily.
Next is Midnight Moment with beads by Suzy Hannabus.
This next set is (another) one I'm tempted to keep as I love it. Black onyx teamed with sterling silver beads that are faceted... but not just faceted, but SO faceted that they look - and act - like mirror balls. Just so twinkly!
This dainty set is called Blue Lightening because the labradorite flashes blue. It's a fabulous stone and here it's teamed with sterling silver tubes and rounds.
Progress on the workshop! It's now painted. All white to maximise the light in the room. It's lovely and bright in there. We did make a start on the floor today, but those puddles on concrete could still be felt through the underlay and hardboard, so we're going to have to chip them off. Hopefully it won't take too long and then the floor can go down. Will show you!

I made lampwork beads!!!

Not been very productive this week with one thing and another.

Firstly, a quick update on George. He is having some new treatment and which seems to be having good results. We're hoping to see him tomorrow morning, so I'll report back then.

Yesterday I had a wonderful day out with my chums, Kathy and Suzy. We went to visit Julie at Lushlampwork
We had such fun - and actually made a few beads!! Here's a pic:


I think the ones I made are the pink/purple one at the front, the amber one at the back and the turquoise/green one at the back on the right. And one of the plain ones.

I can see why people get hooked on this bead making malarkey! It was great fun. But, I'm going to stick with the jewellery and buy my lampwork beads... but I now have an even greater respect for those who make these amazing little works of art.

So here's a set which features the work of one of the best lampwork artists around.
This for my lovely friend, Anne, whose 50th party we are off to tomorrow. The lampwork is by the wonderfully talented Helen Brodt-Savage and I've teamed her beauties with Sterling Silver, Sand Opal Swaros and lovely deep blue pearls.


The second one is made with Tagua beads. I first saw these at Spring Fair and have been itching to get some ever since. A couple of weeks ago a new shop opened in Clevedon, mainly selling gifts, but with a small bead room at the back - and what had they got? Yep, my tagua beads. They are very light - also called Vegetable Ivory - and are the dried seed pod of a tropical rainforest palm tree . They come in a wonderful array of colours and shapes and don't break the bank. You'll be seeing more of these!
Here I've threaded them onto beading chain and teamed them with Thai Silver.



So, tomorrow we're off to see George in the morning, then to Tintern for Anne's party - which should be great fun as she's dusting off the disco that she and her husband, Pete, used to run back in the 70s! I shall be dancing all night to the hits of yesteryear!

I hope you have a great weekend.

Much love to you all.

Stepping outside my comfort zone

Recently on UK Beaders forum, we were raising some money by taking some of Lynn Davy's stash of fuglies off her hands. Fugly is the term lampworkers use for beads which are... well, let's just say they are 'very' ugly - in their eyes - some of them look pretty good to me!
The one Lynn sent me was WAY outside my comfort zone - with a mix of several bright colours. I was stumped... until I hit on the idea of sending off to my mate, Julie, of Lushlampwork, asking her if she'd etch it for me. This subdued the colours slightly and brought it a bit nearer to my comfort zone.
The bead is so colourful and has swirls and dots that it needed to be strung with something to compliment the colours, but simple as that the eye is not distracted from the focal bead. I chose a selection of seed and 4mm beads which reflected the colour in the bead and strung three strands with some Tibetan silver to break it up:

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and I'm sure it did me good to be stretched like this!

Wish I could have been stretched at WW this morning... put on an awful three pounds... Whoops! Ah well, I had a marvellous time putting it on - and now I have to be very very good to try and get it off again. C'est la vie!

We were given our new project at Silversmithing last night and we have to make an item (not necessarily jewellery) using mixed metals. I'm still mulling, not decided what my item might be - or what metals I might mix! Watch this space...

I've got something very exciting happening next weekend (not jewellery related) which I'll tell you about later in the week... but it involves lots of cleaning and tidying (which I hate) so there may not be too much jewellery to show in the next few days.

Caribbean Dreaming

Been busy the last few days making this:

The fabulous focal is by Julie Fountain (http://www.lushlampwork.co.uk/). I'm sure Julie won't mind me saying that she's not been making lampwork beads for very long... but she's certainly got the knack and is producing beads like she's been at it for a lifetime.

This particular one just said, "Beach, holiday, sand, sea and sun." So I've teamed it with loads of freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals in Caribbean sea colours, along with a few Thai Hill Tribe silver beads: starfish and a shell. The clasp is also in the shape of a starfish and because it's so gorgeous, I've made the necklace side fastening. The back of the necklace is blue leather.

This will form part of my Marine Project which has been the main project for my jewellery course this year. Once that has been assessed, the necklace will appear on the website (if it's not been sold beforehand!).

Three New Sets Listed!

Yes, three new sets listed today!

They were actually made before Christmas but I didn't have time to photograph them before today. Of course, today turns out to be the dullest day in the history of the world... not exactly what you need for taking photographs.

However, it provided a good test of the Photoshop Elements software that Father Christmas brought for me. For a first go, I don't think they turned out too badly

This first set features beads by the very talented Helen Brodt-Savage. I love her beads... but so do lots of other people and hence, the price can go too high on ebay for me. Also, if you then use a lot of the beads, then the jewellery becomes expensive too. In this set, I've used just three and so the price can be kept at a reasonable level.
The glass chips are a really good match for the beads and I like their jaggediness (is that a word?) amongst the smoothness of the other beads. There are also little ivory freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals.

I got a new set of Helen's beads in the post this morning... and they are stunning... so watch this space!

This set is a real show stopper! The freshwater pearls are a fabulous shade of purple and they are top drilled - dancing pearls, which means that they don't hang in an orderly fashion. At the front of the necklace, I have separated the pearls with rectangles of top drilled opalite. The rectangles are faceted and so catch the light. At the back of the necklace I've used Sterling Silver tubes instead. This is one to get you noticed!

This final set was rather an experiment. The silver-lined beads are quite large and nothing I strung with them looked right - they needed chunkiness. Then I hit on the idea of using Tibetan Silver... something I used a lot when I was starting on jewellery making, but not much lately. The knobbly tubes are actually daisy spacers strung in clumps of five. These, teamed with some Tibetan diamond shaped beads and some silver plated beads gave exactly the look I was searching for. I think I'll be using this effect again.

OK, so I've broken the duck for this year. I hope to be back with some more additions very soon!