I have my eye on you!

As you might have read the other day, one of my trickier customers... (yes Kate, it's you!) asked me to make her a spooky eye pendant.

Mmmm. it's trickier than you might think. Especially when the iterations you make are just not 'evil' enough! Here we have three of my goes at it. I don't think any of them look particularly evil but I have really enjoyed making the little critters!

This is my second go. This one is definitely more 'orc-like' and grotesque looking but still wasn't right. Mrs Pinickity says still no good!

By now I'd got a bit fed up with trying for EVIL!!! So I just started having a play with eyes which was much less stressful....

Now this one I love!

I'm going to call her a Schmoo! She is the founding member of a little alien race of critters that have come to earth to make us smile!! Her name is Viola and her eye is so cute!

She is of course NOT evil at all!! She is made with an ultra-violet (quite substantial) body 1.5cm thick (not counting the protruding eye) with a lovely delicate amethyst frilly bit on either side. She is 3.4cm by 3.7cm wide.

The eye is really deep and swirly. I love it!

She has a knobbly back (like every good alien being should have) that has the same blue that I used in the eye.

Here is a sort of side-on view that shows the depth of Viola's eye. She really sparkles in the sunshine!

I hope to make a few more of these in the coming weeks. I'm not sure whether they will be popular to sell or not, I can tell you my DH absolutely hates them and says they are just too freaky and weird, but they are certainly good fun to make and look at afterwards. Take care everyone!  xx

Flutterby Beads!

A little bird mentioned to me the other day "have you tried to make a butterfly or a dragonfly yet?". Well of course that got me thinking... No, but I'd love to have a go!.. So I got all my green, aqua and purply pink glass out and had a little go at some butterfly type beads. This is the result of the first attempts yesterday afternoon.

This one is a reasonable size at 4.3cm at it's widest part and 3cm tall. I love the way he turned out! He looks particularly nice when the sunlight catches him!

This little guy is much smaller. (DH says he is more of a moth than a butterfly but I still love him.) He will look cute made into a pendant with some lovely sterling silver findings. He is 3cm wide and 2.3cm high.

This little ultra-violet number is very simple and elegant looking. When I was making it Mandy was over for a coffee and told me not to pimp it up, and add dots or other details, but leave it plain. The lines on it are so pretty, I'm glad I did leave it. I think it will be just fine without loads of fuss. Thanks Mandy.

Obviously..later I went back to fiddling as you can see with this little rectangular pendant piece. The inner core is dark periwinkle covered with a mixture of blues and purple transparent with a bit of silver reactive glass thrown in for good measure. Not to forget it's amethyst 'gills' which I am loving making. This pendant is 2.8 tall by 2.1cm wide.

Then I carried on fiddling and using tweezers and scissors to my heart's content, poking and prodding the glass around till I got the shape I wanted. This one goes back to the 'rock pool' ones I was making the other day. It looks like an exotic shell or something that you would find in some warm tropical waters somewhere... well that's my little dream in my own head anyway. It's 3.7cm by 3.2cm.

This is the same sort of thing in a really gentle purple and sea blue. But it has more substance to it's middle and less 'gill' action It's overall size is 4.0cm by 3.3cm tall.

Here's the full lot that I made during this session. The eye one deserves a little blog all of its own (which will be coming soon!)

Take care guys, see you soon xx

Going Dotty for Charlotte's Birthday!

I greatly appreciated the chance to make some dotty beads as a present for Charlotte's birthday from her father in law. We chose the colours for them together and discussed how many beads should be in the set before hand. It was great fun making something completely as my customer wanted it.

Charlotte got a few photos via text as the beads were 'born' to make sure she was happy with them. Here are the first three beads still on the mandrels!

They shortly made their way into the kiln and then were gently cleaned, polished and photographed ready for going onto the Etsy Shop. The photos came out so well (maybe because of the rainbowy colours), I thought I would make a little mini blog to show them off.

They were great fun to make. Bit tricky to get them all of similar size and dimension, but really satisfying to see the little rainbow family grow under my fingers!

I fitted some little silver cores into the beads afterwards (no pictures of them after this stage am afraid), because I gift wrapped them, and boxed them up, and couldn't wait to get them to Charlotte!

See you soon

On Safari! (Part One)

I have been enlisted to come up with some 'big cat markings' style charm beads, (Tiger and Leopard skin and the like) which got me going with the whole idea of safari animal in general inspired beads. 

This is very much 'work in progress' I have to do quite a bit more work on them, but can you see which ones are meant to be which animal?

Your choices are:

Elephant

Zebra

Snake

Cheetah

Tiger

Leopard

Giraffe

Answers on a postcard???

..and yes I know there are 7 beads and 6 animals; that's all part of the trick of the test. Or, (closer to the truth) is that the first attempt of one of them was so dire, I needed to have a go at it again!

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OK here is a few little pictures to help you...

(not that I think you will need help, as obviously the beads are sooooo realistic!!)

Take care on the savannah safari, keep your hands inside the car at all times! xx

Rainy Day Beads!

Because the weather has been so bad and my hubby has been away all week - guess what I've been doing!! Lots of torch time!! Yay!

 I have been trying out unusual colour combinations that I wouldn't normally choose because Hannah's yellowy/bright beads were top of mind. Here's the first batch that came out of the kiln. 

I attempted Kate's spooky eye, but the one I did wasn't quite 'evil' enough, (she's really hardcore that girl), so I thought I might combine the one I had made with some big hole charm beads to make a Halloween themed set.

It was fun coming up with the names! Here is the whole lot together.

And here are the individual beads...

close up on 'Evil Potion'

Loving the colour in this silver wire droplet bead 

 Here's a closer look at the spooky eye. It's quite fun as the pendant is just plain from the back so it could be quite innocent looking, and then, when you turn it round, the eye is looking at you!

It's been great getting all my purple glass out! I made this pendant (mainly with Jess in mind).  I used as many different purply colours as I could on one bead! The front is pretty different to the back too, so you have two choices how to wear.

side 1

side 2

Lastly, I have a little sweet whirly big hole bead. No silver in it yet. It reminds me of the movement of leaves in the Autumn wind.  I really love the swirlyness (if that's a word).

God, my nails need some tlc...DON'T look at the bad nails...JUST look at the BEAD! (Now you're really noticing the nails aren't you??).

Some of this lot along with a couple of 'Rockpool' pendants (which were in last post) will be making their way to the shop soon!
Catch you later xxx

New Directions!

Am very pleased that the shop on Etsy has been doing great. I got a lovely email from a really happy customer yesterday. It was great to get some lovely feedback!

I had a good couple of sessions at torch the other day. Here is me having some fun... (no, no, I mean working VERY, VERY HARD!!). Creative juices flowing and all that!

I think I've been getting quite a bit of inspiration from sea creatures and rock pools lately.....

...because I have been churning out these little beauties. Well not so little actually as they measure about 4.5 cm in diameter !

I think this style will be called  'Rockpool'. I like doing them as you get lots and lots of freedom to just 'make'. There are no constraints. Let me know what you think. All feedback gratefully received.

This amazing chiffon ribbon (hand-dyed) was purchased from Diane Turton who has a shop on Etsy. It's really lush!

Also been doing some pretty little bubbly silver glass big hole charm beads which are quite sweet. Sorry about picture it's a bit grainy

So overall, the stock is growing ready for another jewellery making and photography session soon. I'll be picking the best ones ready for sale.

Also a few commissions have been keeping me busy. I've chosen a set of proposed colours for Charlotte's Over the Rainbow Beads. (we'll talk about them tomorrow Charlotte.)

Jessie's pendant options have been coming on: So far Jess I have done two possibles for you, but I wanted to try another colourway, and let you choose out of three options. These are the two so far:

smooth blue, purple, green (side 1)

smooth blue, purple, green (side 2)

Bobbly blue, white and turquoise (side 1)

Bobbly blue, white and turquoise (side 2)

I'll add the other option here when I've made it and then put the one you would like up for sale on Etsy and reserve it for you.

Mandy: I haven't even thought about yours yet but I will start the 'safari selection' soon.. promise!

Hannah's yellow and turquoise Pandora set are tricky because of colour combinations. When I have conquered them, will put them on here to view and see if its what you are looking for.

Kate has asked me to do an 'eye' bead pendant which I have to say I find a bit freaky, but will have a go. I don't really want it looking at me (even when I am working on it!!).