We're off!

Just grabbing a few minutes, while I drink my coffee, to say hello and goodbye!

We're off on our American adventure tomorrow. First to Dillon, near Denver, to see friends, Jim and Becky. It's FREEZING there at the moment -14 Centigrade as I type!!! BRRRRRR. Admittedly it is the middle of the night, but still... The forecast it that it might go as high as 4 degrees C while we're there. Still sounds jolly cold to me. But Jim and Becky are super people and we know we're going to have a great time with them.

Then we'll be off to California and some sunshine.

My hope is that I'll be able to update the blog with details of the trip and some photos as we go along, so check back and see how we're doing.

On the jewellery front, it's been very hectic since my last posting. Visits to all our offices, a few parties and we had a stall at the new Nailsea Craft Market.

The craft market is running on the same Saturday (3rd in the month) as the Farmers' Market and if the first one is anything to go by, it will be a great addition. We had a fantastic time - sold LOADS and met some lovely people. The next one is on 18th April - the day we get back from hols, so Sarah is doing that one with her daughter.

A few pictures to show you:

The first one uses glass beads which I'd had for a while, then once I found the fire polished faceted ones, I knew just what to put with them. I've named it Rust and Scribble. This one is sold.

The next two features beads by Tania Grey of Tan, of course. I love Tan's little Fritett beads, as she calls them.
This one, I've named Violet Lawn. Tan's beads are a fab mixture of green and purple which I've echoed with freshwater pearls and peridot.
And this one - the necklace sold, but the earrings are still available - is a lovely mix of pinks, khaki and browns. I have used Unakite to bring out the colours.

Once I get back from holiday, it will be nose to the grindstone for me as it will only be two weeks until North Somerset Arts Week... which is actually 10 days.

So, look out for updates about our holidays and take care of yourselves.

Much love to all.
xx

Proverbs...

Further to my waffling about naming pieces in a previous post, this next set's name was a gift. The lampwork beads are by the ever-talented Julie Fountain of Lush Lampwork and she calls this style 'Rolling Stones'... and as they are a lovely shade of green... this set is called Gathering Moss.

The beads are threaded onto Sterling Silver wire which has been shaped and hammered to give it texture and strength. The pendant is quite big, so it's rather a statement piece. I can't wait to take it out to earn its keep and see the reaction from customers.

This set features one of my favourite stones, multi-rutilated Quartz. The big square piece is just gorgeous as you can see from the picture below.

I love all the little indentations which must be little holes inside the stone and therefore don't get polished with the smooth surface. The round beads are River Stones and compliment the quartz well, I think.

The next one is made with three different shapes of Amethysts and two different shapes of pearls.

The big irregular nuggets on the front are just lovely and lend an organic feel to the necklace. The second lot of Amethysts are irregular ovals and then at the back are some round ones. I love those big pearls, they're pearls with attitude!

This last picture shows a pendant - with a chain made with gold plated and antique copper rings in a Byzantine chain maille weave.
It gives a really fluid chain and compliments the pendant which is glass and gold plated beads on copper wire.

All these are on the website now, along with a huge batch of spectacle chains that I'd promised myself I'd get on there this week. Yes! Something to tick off the ever-growing list!!

Just got back from taking the cat to the vets. It was only her routine innoculations, but she really HATES going to the vets. As I've said before, she's not an affectionate cat. She rarely sits on anyone's lap and really, really doesn't like being picked up. Last year, the vet couldn't get near her and abandoned all hope of checking her teeth, ears, heart etc. This year was a bit better - I held onto her really tightly and she got a clean bill of health. Phew! That's done for another year...

Tom has now finished his first batch of AS exams and feels pretty confident about them. Now Martha has a week of exams. Hopefully these will help her with her decisions about which GCSEs to opt for. Because she has several that she doesn't have any choice about, she, in fact, can only choose two others, so that's quite difficult.

Is it time for a coffee? Thought so. Black, no sugar, please.

Take care and much love to all.
xx

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!

Knotting, Paddling and Smiling...

Have had a truly awful cold this week (I blame that London - full of germs!) and have found looking at the computer screen quite painful... but thankfully have still been able to bead!
Sat in bed and had a go at knotting. I love the drape you get with knotting.



This one I've called the Splish, Splash, Splosh Set, it reminds me of beaches, rockpools and paddling. So, large beads from Lushlampwork and the yellow is Lemon Jade.

And lastly a simple set made with wooden beads, but it really makes me smile when I look at it. Don't you think it would look fab in the winter with a plain black jumper?

I liked the beads so much that I made two memory wire bracelets with them too!



We have a BIG show on Thursday - the Monmouthshire Show - which will be the biggest event we've attended. They're hoping for 20,000 people! YIKES! It's a bit nerve-wracking as the table cost was expensive, but we thought we'd have a go. I'll report back at the end of the week.

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!

Postal Strikes, Christmas and Lake side strolls

Waited and waited yesterday morning for the postie to bring any of four packages I'm expecting... only to find it was a postal strike day... Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! I'm sure the posties have genuine reasons for taking strike action, but it's very frustrating when part of your business depends on the Royal Mail.... which I suppose is the very point they're making!

So much of my raw materials are bought through the internet I have a constant stream of packages arriving by post... which means most mornings here are like Christmas. Opening a packet of beads is SO exciting! My mind buzzes with ideas of what to make with impulse purchases and the things I've bought for specific projects arriving means I can get on and start something that's been in the design stage and I'm itching to make. I'm sure any other beaders out there will know exactly what I mean...

I saw my friend last night and showed her the blue pearl necklace (see below) which she commissioned for her mum. She was really pleased with it.

This afternoon we took advantage of the sunshine and went for a walk around Chew Valley Lake. Then we just HAD to go and have a reviving cuppa and a piece of rhubarb crumble! Bought a recipe book crammed with fantastic cakes (put on half a stone just looking at the pictures) which I'm going to have a go at when I've got my new cooker. The old one (inherited with the house) is just useless and I think the whole family is dying to try cooking with something more reliable. We'll be fighting over oven space. Won't do my weight watching much good though!

Ooops! Here's the aqua rondelles... really!

Friends arrived at that point last night! They were breaking their journey to Devon for their holidays. It was great to see them and we had a lovely time - eating, drinking and putting the world to rights until the early hours.


So this is the bracelet bought by the customer - and she asked me to make a necklace and earrings to go with it... but without the hematite. I like to give my customers some choice, so I've made two necklaces and earrings:





Which one will she choose?

And this one which is a commission from a lovely friend for a present for her mum to wear to a wedding. It's Sterling silver and navy freshwater pearls.