Sooz Jewels lampworking blog

New Blogger blog

Soo — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:22:20 +0000

My blog is moving to http://soozjewels.blogspot.com - I have decided that it will be easier and quicker for me to update a Blogger blog. I can also keep track of other people's blogs much easier as most of them use Blogger too.

My old burblings will still here here and linked to from it's new home.

Anthony Head day

Soo — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:57:55 +0000

Today has been Anthony Head day in our house!

This morning I made some recycled beads out of Perrier bottles whilst listening to his album "Music for Elevators" on my MP3 player. He has got a really good voice, I think he enjoys singing. My favourite song is "This Town in the Rain". He was really good on the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once More With Feeling. Occasionally during the seven series he gets his guitar out, Spike interrrupts him when singing one of my favourite songs, Freebird (I have that song on an album but sung by Lynyrd Skynyrd not AH!) Once More With Feeling is one of my favourite episodes, coming a close second to Band Candy with Family third.

My absolutely favourite Buffy moment involving Anthony Head is during Once More With Feeling when they are all singing a song together, one of Buffy's lines is to sing "Hey I've died twice" and AH does this absolutely lovely smile. I have no idea how to go about it, but I'd really like a still of that moment.

Anyway, enough Buffy ramblings .... after lunch, I made jewellery with yesterday's batch of beads whilst watching a DVD of The Invisibles in which Anthony Head stars. It's a TV series but I must've missed it if it was aired. I've just finished watching the Merlin DVDs last week, in which AH is really really good and so I was casting around for something else and I only found it when doing a routine search on LoveFilm. (I rent DVDs from them and they come by post - most convenient!) When Merlin was on TV, it was a Saturday night and I was usually having dinner after the market so never got to watch it; the series was halfway through before I realised it was repeated on Sunday nights!

I've got some new designs to photograph tomorrow; when I wasn't bead making much last week, I did some new silver designs with my trademark hammered silver, so hopefully there should be some new jewellery to look at tomorrow!

I am still here really

Soo — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:37:57 +0000

Loads of reasons why my blogging has been tardy, sorry they're all excuses (but good ones!)

My dog got attacked last week, two vet visits, £60. I won't bore you with many details but I was very silly in taking on two full grown labradors that had Missy round the throat. I was trying to give off "Leader-vibes" so they wouldn't bite me as well but the "calm assertive" attitude you need according to Caesar Milan doesn't work when you're screaming at them at the top of your voice (I think it surprised them cos they let go!)

Missy has got some nasty looking wounds but she's going to be fine apart from some scarring.

I also had a health scare of my own involving GP and hospital visits which fortunately turned up (next to) nothing and I'm fine now.

My two sisters and their partners plus my mum and dad came for a visit last Sunday to see the snowdrops which are on the land adjacent to our house belonging to the farm. I made lunch for us all so there was eight of us altogether. It's a good job Sandy (one of my sisters) made dessert - a lovely chocolate orange trifle - don't think I would've had time! This is a photograph my husband took (of the snowdrops, not the trifle!) - they have been out ever since the snow melted. Aren't they beautiful?

Emerald Reichenbach glass

Soo — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:14:41 +0000

A customer recently admired this pendant on the Sooz Jewels website and has commissioned me to make a pair of earrings for her with some Karen Hill Tribe silver beads and a dangly silver flower on the bottom that she supplied herself. But ... Trubble!!! (with a capital T!) I have run out of the Reichenbach green glass called Emerald that I need to make some more of the beads.

Reichenbach is a German glass company and my usual suppliers don't carry this particular colour. I just had the one rod which came in a sample pack. I put a plea out on the Frit-Happens forum and the lovely Beadysam, whose frit blends I use all the time, has come to the rescue! She says she has 5-6 rods she can sell to me so I am extremely grateful to her.

Mailing list

Soo — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:02:10 +0000

I have set up a page on my website where you can add yourself to my mailing list. Just fill in your name and e-mail address and I will make sure you receive future newsletters from me letting you know about competitions and special offers etc.

If you've ordered an item from the website or used my contact page to e-mail me in the past, you should already be on it

Sandy - I have added you manually!

Better late than never!

Soo — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:20:30 +0000

All the new items that I photographed last week have been added to the Sooz Jewels website, here is a small selection:

As you can see, I have added a ring - this is a first for Sooz Jewels so I have had to create a new rings page to the website but it only has that on it at the moment ... must remedy that soon. I was very pleased to sell one from my stall the first time out! I made three sizes and fortunately one of them fitted!

There are lots of goodies made with my lotus fruit beads on the Lampwork page. Plus new hammer finish stering silver rectangular beads.

I got a lovely thank you e-mail from my competition winner last night which got my day off on a shiny positive note - I feel like I must have another competition soon, so check back regularly!

Competition result

Soo — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:25:53 +0000

... and the Academy Award goes to ... oh, wait a minute, that's happening somewhere else isn't it?

Here is a photograph showing everyones' names in a hat as promised. The winner was drawn out by the owner of the hat, Geoff (otherwise know as DH in my blog - stands for darling husband).

The name of the winner was Michelle Bluman! Congratulations, Michelle - I will be emailing her separately to ask which colour she would like and where to send her prize of a Georgia necklace and matching earrings to.

Thank you to everyone who entered.

Still time to enter!

Soo — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:55:01 +0000

Just a quick reminder about my competition, see my 12 February blog article; there's still just over an hour to get your entry in!

I'll be posting the result of the draw on the blog this evening and also e-mailing the winner. At the same time I'll be adding the photographs that I took on Friday to the website, but I have changed my mind about the name of the blueberry crush beads. A lady who purchased a pair of dangly earrings made with these beads from my stall yesterday said they reminded her of lotus fruit, as I've never seen lotus fruit, I'm taking her word for it and calling them that instead!

Socks!

Soo — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:28:01 +0000

As promised, here is a photograph of my very first pair of knitted socks. They're not very exciting, I made them out of left over wool that has been in my knitting bag since ooooh, way-back-way-back-when! However, I've jazzed them up a little by making the heel and toes in a different colour! I'm very pleased with them and they fit a treat.

Now I have a choice, I can either spend a couple of hours updating my website with photographs of jewellery that I've made this week or I can get started on knitting a new pair of socks with some very jazzy wool that I bought on-line ... um, sorry but there's no competition. It's really nice to be doing something creative that isn't jewellery related. I love - really love - making jewellery, but at the moment, I'm on a sock kick (geddit??!)

Anyway, here's a taster of some new beads that I made this week. I'm calling them blueberry crush, I'm really pleased with them and I have made loads of jewellery with them this week. I will update my website with all the new things on Sunday. If you want to see them before, you'll have to come to my stall tomorrow at the Cambridge Art & Crafts Market on Trinity Street!

Silver core progress

Soo — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:48:58 +0000

I made a couple of nice beads for trying out with my silver coring machine earlier in the week. I was attempting to line them this afternoon but I managed to break both of them.

I went back to the plain practice beads that I made a couple of weeks ago - and they didn't break (sigh). It's like the machine knows when I've got a bead that I really really don't want to break and those I'm not so bothered about.

More practice is needed before I manage to make any Pandora/Biagao style lampwork beads that are good enough to sell - I will get there though!

On a more positive note, I have recently been inspired by Laura Sparling's socks! She has been knitting some lovely ones and posting about them on her blog. It has inspired me to get all my knitting stuff out of the loft. I used to knit and crochet all the time when I was younger; I've never knitted a sock before so I bought a book and some double ended knitting needles and my first handknitted sock has emerged! I am well on the way with the other one, too - I'll do a photograph tomorrow.

I may even get to finish them so I can wear them when I'm on my stall at the market on Saturday!

Stuck in half the house

Soo — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:32:09 +0000

The last of the snow disappeared yesterday. It seems to have been with us for a long time. Now it's gone it's really wet underfoot when walking the dog.

Generally DH takes Missy out for her morning walk whilst I'm getting showered and dressed. In order to limit the amount of floor that has to be cleaned up after they get back and Missy has walked over it, very sensibly, he has been closing the doors to the hallway before he goes out.

My hands are really dry at the moment and so I've been lathering them up with lots of intensive handcream. This morning, I'm coming down the stairs rubbing it into my forty-something hands, thinking about how this cream is going to transform them into those of a twenty-something, when I am confronted with this doorknob ...

This doorknob is my enemy.

Because my hands were so slippery, I couldn't open the door and get through to the other half of the house which contains all my favourite rooms - the kitchen (where tea and breakfast lurks) and the dining room (where nice view into the garden when eating breakfast is). More than that, both external doors are on the other side of it so I also can't get out into my studio and turn the kiln on (unless I want to go out of a window!)

I was trapped! It was so ludicrous, I was laughing like mad whilst trying to get a grip. In the end, I had to go back upstairs and wipe off all the excess handcream with loo roll before I could get on with the rest of the day. It could only happen to me!

COMPETITION

Soo — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:48:11 +0000

Here are details of a competition that I am running here on my blog in celebration of the launch of my new Georgia range of jewellery. The prize is a Georgia necklace in the size and colour of your choice along with a matching pair of earrings. Here is a photograph of the pink version of the necklace and a close up of the earrings.

All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment here on my blog - that's it - no purchase is necessary!

The necklace and earring sets are available in pink (pictured above), red, orange, black, blue, green, purple and white on the Lampwork > Lampwork Jewellery page of my website

I have also made the Georgia necklace and earrings in recycled aquamarine coloured glass (from a Bombay Sapphire gin bottle) and you can see these items on the Lampwork > Recycled blue page of my website

The jewellery is made with my own handmade lampwork glass beads, a variety of gemstones (depending on the colour selected) along with swarovski crystal pearls and/or swarovski crystal bicones, sterling silver tubes and sterling silver 4mm beads. The items are strung on nylon coated stainless steel; the clasp and earwires are 925 stamped sterling silver. Upon request, I can convert the earrings to be screw type clip ons for anyone without pierced ears. Just send me an e-mail if you win!

Any comment left on my blog between now and noon GMT on Sunday, 22nd February will be eligible; one entry per person. You will need to leave your e-mail address at the same time as your comment but this will only be visible to me so don’t worry about anyone else seeing it. Any abusive entries will be removed and the entrant disqualified from the competition.

The names of all the entrants will be placed into a hat and the winner drawn out on the afternoon of the closing date. The name of the winner will be posted on my blog and the winner will also be notified via e-mail. The judge’s decision (ie me!) will be final.

With very best wishes and good luck if you decide to enter!

Silver core bead

Soo — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:25:32 +0000

The last couple of days seem to have been all about my new Jim Moore bead press. Yesterday the postman brought me a note from Parcelforce saying they were holding an international parcel for me but there was VAT, a small import duty charge and Parcelforce's handling fee of £8 (that's a bit of a rip off when they've already been paid to deliver it). Anyway, the bill to pay in order to receive the press came to £60.66! I completely forgot when I ordered it that I would have to pay VAT. I rang the depot and paid over the telephone as their on-line system wasn't recognising the parcel reference number.

Then my credit card bill arrived this morning with the bead press on it - £292 - the exchange rate is really bad at the moment! So, adding the two together it has cost me the grand total of £352.66. I will have to sell a lot of beads to recover that much!

Having said all that, a delivery man brought a big package just before lunch and it was the bead press itself - suddenly all monetary matters were forgotten and I excitedly had to have a go at lining a big hole bead.

Here is my first successful attempt - fortunately I had some practice big hole beads made up ready and waiting. I deliberately made some that were quick to make just after I placed my order for the bead press.

This one is just a plain black bead with a bit of silvered ivory stringer that was lying about the place melted into it. I didn't want to practice on a bead that I had lavished lots of love and attention on in case I broke it. I made ten to practice on but I only broke one. For a second attempt, I'm quite pleased with it!

I haven't forgotten about the competition I mentioned yesterday, info will follow a bit later today.

Advance competition news

Soo — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:55:08 +0000

We only got another half an inch of slushy snow and it seems to be thawing out now so hopefully that will be the end of the cold weather. This morning was f-f-f-freezing. I made the mistake of not dressing warmly enough in the studio and so I only managed a couple of hours of beadmaking before having to come back into the house.

So today I have been making some hammered sterling silver rings, they don't photograph very well I'm afraid so you'll have to come to the stall to see them! Plus I have added two new pairs of Bombay Sapphire earrings to the Recycled Blue page I thought I had photographed all the Georgia earrings but I just realised when updating the site that I missed off the white ones ... bother!

When I get that done (the light has gone now unfortunately), I am thinking of having a competition to launch the new Georgia range which has now replaced last year's Athena II range. If anyone still wants Athena II items, you can still order from the site but they won't be available on the stall any more unless pre-ordered. Contact me if you do. The prize will be a Georgia necklace in the colour of your choice and you will have to post a message in the blog in order to enter! I'll post more details in a day or two but how embarrassing will it be if no-one enters ... hmm, oh well, I'll just keep the prize and wear it myself - I think I'll have the blue one!

Georgia - new colours

Soo — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:43:58 +0000

I added some more colours to the Georgia range yesterday when updating my website in pink and black. The pink is extra-special delicious in my opinion! Most of the colours are on the Lampwork > Lampwork Jewellery page. There are some photographs missing of the matching earrings, these will follow shortly! There is also a brown recycled glass version and blue recycled version.

I've also added a new "Romance" bracelet with matching earrings on the Lampwork Jewellery page. The name was inspired by the pretty, feminine colour combo (and also hoping for Valentine's day sales!) Hearts in tanzanite, tiny butterflies in light amethyst and swarovski pearls in the palest pink.

Our window cleaner came to do the windows this morning, he comes every five weeks and the time has just flown by, it was icy and cold last time he came so we have had over a month of this freezing cold weather. The novelty of the snow is wearing off a bit now! It hasn't defrosted all week and apparently there is another dollop of the stuff on the way tonight. Anyway, poor Vincent's van got stuck in our driveway; I had to find the shovel so he could dig his way out. Fortunately DH was here working from home so he gave him a bit of a push and he was away!

Bombay Sapphire

Soo — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:48:10 +0000

As my decanter is nearly empty, I have purchased another bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin.

I need the bottle to be empty before I can remove the labels and melt the glass. However, when I filled up the decanter with the new bottle, there was some left over ... anyone for a gin and tonic? (it's a bit early for me!)

The empty bottle is soaking in a bowl of water and fairy liquid as I type and I shall be making more beads in the very pretty light blue tomorrow so my recycled Bombay Sapphire glass products will be back in stock soon!

C-c-c-cold yet again!

Soo — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:56:44 +0000

Look how pretty our home looks like in the snow!

And this is what greeted me when I went out to the studio this morning, nearly three inches of snow on the roof and a row of pretty icicles along the roof line.

Whilst I was beadmaking this morning, they dropped off and made tinkling noises!

If you look closely at the close up of the icicles, you can see a bird hovering over the half coconut feeder dangling from the right hand corner. Unfortunately, you can't see it very well because it's disguised by the hedge in the background, oh well - I know it's there!

I always feed the birds because I love looking out at them when I'm working but I think the need is even greater when they can't grub out food from the ground. Before starting work, I topped up the three nut feeders, refilled the four half-coconuts hanging from various points with fat and birdseed, and I scattered more birdseed and dried mealworms over the ground. No birds will go hungry in my garden today! Although it's a distinct possibility that we will - Tesco rang this morning to say they wouldn't be delivering my groceries today. I hope my hairdresser will be able to come tomorrow for my trim - I haven't had it done for weeks and weeks and really need it doing!

Right, I have an appointment with a sheet of silver and a hammer - I hope anyone who has to travel has a safe journey.

Marathon web updating

Soo — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:39:49 +0000

Phew - after all that photography on Friday, I have today finished updating the Sooz Jewels website with all the new products I have been making lately. I have added 29 in total today (and that's in addition to the few that got done last week). So hopefully, you will forgive me if I don't list them all in the blog. Here are a few of the pictorial highlights, but to see them all, go to the Lampwork Jewellery page

Yesterday in Cambridge was fine and dry (but c-c-c-c-cold). As I type though it is snowing like mad! Fortunately, DH is working from home tomorrow, neither of us have to travel and so I don't mind - it looks really pretty!

One of the other stallholders who makes her own jewellery bought a pair of my purple Batik flowers earrings yesterday, I think it's a really big complement when another jewellery maker likes one of your designs enough to buy! Thanks, Sarah-Jane!

No peeking!

Soo — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:37:58 +0000

I have taken a load of photographs today of all the designs I have been working on over the last couple of weeks. I have also been getting ready for my return to the Art & Craft Market in Cambridge by packing boxes etc. which means I'm now very tired so I'm just going to post one picture of the flower earrings that I mentioned a few days ago.

To see all the rest, you'll have to come to my stall tomorrow or wait til Sunday when I will have time to resize and upload them all to the website!

These earrings remind me of Pushing Daisies, I have been watching the first series on DVD this week whilst making them. When the programme came out last year, I read a review and thought it sounded good but somehow managed to miss it on TV. When I heard the second series was airing soon (starts tonight on ITV3!) I thought I'd better get up to speed!

Bead Press

Soo — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:08:38 +0000

I wish I had done this a few months ago when the pound was stronger. Today I have ordered a bead press from Jim Moore Glass Tools in the United States. I baulked a bit at the shipping cost of $105 but it looks like it'll be worth it.

The machine will enable me to add silver cores to big hole beads like these so that they can be used on bracelet systems like Pandora, Biagi and Love Links. Basically, you buy a chunky sterling silver chain with a robust clasp and the beads, with their big holes, fit over the chain; this enables you to vary the beads according to your mood, outfit and/or budget.

You can core these manually using annealed sterling silver tube and dapping blocks that I already have for riveting. I have wasted quite a lot of time in trying to get an efficient system going. At the moment, it takes me 45 minutes to do one and it didn't look that great. Hopefully this machine will automate the system and speed things up a bit.

Auntie May

Soo — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:45:22 +0000

One of my aunties died a few days ago, I didn't mention it at the time as I was coming to terms with it though obviously the loss has been on my mind whilst I've been working away at my beads and jewellery.

We went to a service of thanksgiving for her life yesterday. It was a long drive there and back down to Chichester in Sussex. This is where I was born and the only times I go back now seems to be to go to funerals.

Auntie May was a lovely lovely lady and I wished I had made more of an effort to see more of her when she was alive. Uncle Fred (Freddie as she called him) is absolutely heartbroken and stricken without her, I hurt for him.

I went to Church of England schools and so am used to hearing about God, I used to love singing hymns and carols, in fact I still do. I like to sing even though I know I'm no good at it. My family wasn't religious at all, we never went to church unless there was a wedding when I was young. Now I'm grown up, I am an atheist, I actively disbelieve in an all powerful, all seeing supernatural being such as God. But I found myself slipping into the warm comforting glove of the service and when I was saying the Lord's Prayer, I felt like I was one of those little spittle bugs which leave white foam on plants - every word became like a little bubble of protection. I found it comforting even though I don't believe - am I a hypocrit, maybe I am.

I particularly liked the words of remembrance (this is a small extract):
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday. Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday. You can remember her and only that she is gone. Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back Or you can do what she would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

This morning on Radio 4, there was a piece about trying to encourage more young people to go to church in Britain's most godless City (can't remember where it was now). They were appealing to people who were spiritual but not religious and for the first time, I saw that you can actually have one without the other. You don't have to be religious to be spiritual. I do like the idea of church, people looking out for each other, getting together and having a sing song and the ritual of services for life events give structure and closure, but I don't like being told I have to believe in God and Jesus and I hate the church's stance on many things like gay marriage.

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit so all I want to say is rest in peace Auntie May, I will miss you.

The trouble with cold weather

Soo — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:55:47 +0000

The trouble with cold weather is that I spend altogether too much time in it!

When I am in my garden studio making beads, it's pointless having a heater on because you need very good ventilation when working with a flaming torch that is partly powered by Propane gas. All the make up air which replaces the fumes my fan takes out is therefore at the temperature outside and you're quickly cold again! Plus of course I am also outside when I am manning my market stall all day on Saturdays (I am back next week don't forget!) and also, dog walking has to occur outside. So if I add all that time together, I spend a lot of time wrapped up in the cold!

So, when it comes to taking photographs, I would prefer to be in the warm. They definitely come out better when I use natural light outside but some I took last week looked OK using DH's light box that he uses to look at transparencies. I took a load of photographs of my new designs yesterday inside but unfortunately, these are the only ones suitable for printing (see, I knew those pink bubble beads would turn out great!)

They have been added to the Sooz Jewels website today but many more will follow when I can nerve myself up for spending some more time outdoors with my camera.

As I am especially looking forward to showing off some very pretty floral earrings and pendants, I shall try to get this done very soon!

Tiger in lime green bubble bath

Soo — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:25:41 +0000

Look out for jewellery made out of my tiger beads. I actually made a batch of these in December and turned them into jewellery but with the Christmas rush, they just didn't get photographed. I sold everything that I made with them and my sister (Sandy, the one who doesn't make jewellery herself) dropped some heavy hints when she saw a pair of earrings so she got an extra pressie from Santa.

I have made some more of these today so I should have lots of them to make into jewellery.

These lime bubble beads have come out well and these will also become jewellery but these are brand new for 2009. You get the bubbles by rolling a small bead in baking soda and then encasing with another layer of glass - the heat and glass forces the baking soda to bubble up creating this great effect.

I have experimented with a very pale pink colour today and in the crystal shape instead of round. I am waiting for them to come out of the kiln to see how they turn out - if they're as lovely as I think, I will make a big batch tomorrow

New products and beads

Soo — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:21:19 +0000

I have added five new products to the website today all under the lampwork section.

I'm really quite excited about the colour combination of amber, turquoise and coral. The coral isn't real coral - I don't use animal products at all in my designs and the oceans of the world are under enough threat already without people making beads out of the real stuff so these are my own handmade coral coloured lampwork beads - they're really very simple to make beads just being donut shaped but such a pretty colour!

I am also thrilled with the Deep Oceans products, I also have some beads set aside for a necklace but I want to include some swarovski crystals but I don't have any in the colour that I want. Indicolite is going to go perfectly so I have ordered some up and they should be here very soon so watch this space!

I have made some more exciting stripey coral coloured beads as you can see to the right, they are rather jazzy aren't they?

They're really more orange than coral, I have encased them using pale amber coloured glass I picked up the tip on how to achieve this colour from Sarah Hornik's excellent E-book about colour). I have a perfect top for them to go with so I am going to have to make some into jewellery for me (as per usual!)

In fact, I've been going a bit stripey altogether this week - here are some more bead creations that are destined to have more made of them.

The organic etched ones below have already been turned into a very nice pendant and pair of earrings which I will photograph another day.

Musical beadmaking

Soo — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:20:59 +0000

I have been getting well into my MP3 player. I have on it all the new albums that I have either purchased myself recently or were given to me for Christmas, as well as a few golden oldies so there are about 25 different CDs on there altogether. I have the player set to auto-shuffle between album and artist and so I get a surprise with every track change.

You know how some tracks are definitely "ones for the fans" and I know I could miss them off when I copy them over but I can't be bothered with trying to remember which are my favourite so I just put them all on. Today, the player and I were totally in the groove and it played all the best tracks. I was singing along to Three Steps and Freebird by Lynyrd Skynryd and Love Song by Sarah Barreilles to name but three tracks plus all my favourites on the Soundtrack to "Once More With Feeling" from the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (OK, I know, I know ....!!!!)

Trouble is, I have no idea what I sound like and I have a feeling that I probably sing quite loudly cos I can't hear myself, DH says that whenever he asks me anything when I have the MP3 player on, I shout the answer back!

Fortunately, we only have one house which would be near enough for anyone to hear me, and then only if they happen to be in their garden (which I think unlikely this time of year). So, Sandra and Steve .... if you have happened to hear me today, sorry! (and just tell me to shut up if it happens again).

Curtains

Soo — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:35:48 +0000

I was very pleased with the batch of beads that came out of the kiln yesterday. I made loads of the ones on the bottom left of my blog entry on the 10th. I haven't had chance to make them up into jewellery yet though.

Today we went back to our house in Cambridge; Countryside Properties have finally given us back the keys and told us that they've done all the work they're going to. So we have been getting the house ready to rent out. We'd like to sell it but don't think we'll get a buyer so we took the keys to a letting agency and signed an agreement with them. We will continue to rent where we are until the time comes that we can sell.

So yesterday we were putting up all the curtains that we took down before we moved out. They all had to be ironed as they had got very creased up in their boxes. I was ironing them and DH was hanging them - what with the visit to the Letting Agent as well, it took most of the day to do.

The builder still hasn't done all the work to the roof that they promised or the party wall. Our surveyor has to do a final inspection which is scheduled in the next few days, that will definitely say that the roof isn't up to standard and we will then sue the builder and/or insurer (Zurich) for the money and we will do it ourselves at a time that's convenient to us and our tenant (summer will be better for roofing works). They have had our house nine and a half months to put it right - we are fed up working to their (extended) timetables. Can you believe their Construction Director, Ray Claxton, told us that the work would only take a month? (And then revised that to four months) and it ended up taking over twice that long AND they still haven't done it all!!!

Right, enough of the moaning, on with making beads this morning and jewellery this afternoon! Much happier thoughts.

January birthstone

Soo — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:04:14 +0000

OK, so I'm a bit late on this one, but I have just added four new garnet products to my website in time for anyone buying January gifts. Garnet is the birthstone for January and the beads I have got are a gorgeous dark dripping blood red. I am currently reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyers, which is about vampires so I guess I have blood on my mind at the moment!

New beads

Soo — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:22:06 +0000

I have had trouble photographing beads, I thought I got this cracked in the summer but now it's deepest winter, there just isn't enough light in the house near the window. The shutter speed is too low for hand held when I'm on arperture priority and in macro mode. This wasn't a problem in the summer but even on bright days, it's not working out for me. It's too cold to take photographs outside which is how I got round dull days in the summer so I've had to improvise with DH's lightbox which he uses to examine transparencies.

They have come out a bit shadowy, but you can see enough I think. Here are my favourites from four mornings at the torch.

I didn't manage any more than four mornings because it has been soooo cold in the studio, I could see my breath! Even though I wrapped up warm and I don't feel the cold on my top half due to proximity to the torch and kiln, the bottom half of me gets very cold. I can generally ignore it when I'm engrossed in beamaking but it takes ages to thaw out my feet when I get back in the warm of the house!

I will definitely be making more of all these beads and turning them into jewellery this coming week.

Happy New Year

Soo — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:44:55 +0000

I do hope you had a Happy Christmas and that your new year is starting off better than mine.

All those plans I had for new jewellery designs using PMC and new lampwork beads ... I had expected my blog to be cramful of photographs of all these new wonders by now. On New Year's Eve, I woke up with one of my two-dayer-headaches ... sigh, JUST as I was getting over that cold. I didn't see the new year in at all, I just grumped off to bed at 10pm.

Unfortunately, DH has caught my cold (rather inevitable I suppose) and so 1 January 2009 was both of us feeling pathetic in front of the TV drinking lemsips (DH) and painkillers (me) and throwing (soft) things at the telly every time a presenter chirpily wished us a Happy New Year!

Neither of us were up for cooking - I couldn't even get into the kitchen because the fluorescent light was too bright for me with a headache. We - or rather Geoff - defrosted a pack of giant Tesco prawns, combined it with a bag of ready-washed leaf salad, cut some cherry tomatoes in half and served it with vinagrette dressing. Tasty and very healthy, but NOT the New Years Day dinner we had planned.

On the positive, all this feeling ill has curtailed my appetite for food and alcohol and I find I am lighter after Christmas than before ... this is a first and something to be very happy about!

Fortunately, I am feeling heaps better today. My sister and her boyfriend came round with our Christmas presents in the afternoon (which we missed last Sunday cos of my cold). They had this cold before Christmas so weren't bothered about catching our germs! One of our presents was a toasting fork and so we had toasted marshmallows in front of the fire which cheered Geoff up no end - I am hoping he will also feel better tomorrow.

All this illness is just a temporary set back to my glorious plans, and photographs WILL follow soon ... I promise!

Cold

Soo — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:23:46 +0000

I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas, we were round my mum and dad's who live about an hour's drive away. Some of my brothers and sisters were there and we had a lovely day, my dad makes absolutely the BEST stuffing ever - delicious!

I got a portable MP3 player amongst my many presents which I have been hinting about for a while - I figured I could listen to music whilst making beads without having to leave a radio in the studio as an additional security risk. So I have finally joined the 21st century with regards to the way we listen and download to music and I'm glad I did -it's really much easier than I imagined it would be!

I had been hoping to get out into the studio before now to try out some of the experiments I have been meaning to try for ages but the mad rush of Christmas-time got in the way. Unfortunately, I have succumbed to a cold - I woke up with it on Boxing Day and I have just wanted to stay in the warm in front of the fire!

A couple of times during December, I got a tickly throat and thought it was on it's way then, I have been in contact with so many people with colds that it was kind of inevitable - sheer force of will and being far to busy to be ill managed to keep it at bay but as soon as I relaxed - BANG - it got me! It's not too bad, I don't have a temperature so it's not flu but I felt rough the last couple of days. On Sunday, I had to miss a family day with the sister we didn't see on Christmas day which I was looking forward to.

I am feeling much better today though and hoping to get out there tomorrow - keep eyes peeled for photographs of anything I like soon!