IF a bit Zesty

What are you talking about I hear you ask.

Well, Zesty is what I have called my latest Bejewelled bracelet and earrings set I have just made. Fabulous oranges, yellows and monochrome beads all by the wonderful Laura Sparling on one of my handmade silver chains.

And IF?

This weekend I am going a fair at Batemans, Burwash, East Sussex with the East Sussex Guild of Craftworkers. We will be in a marquee in the grounds with really high quality crafts and lovely people.

Batemans is a beautiful house that was the home of Rudyard Kipling. It now belongs to the National Trust property and sits in lovely gardens. Kipling wrote his famous poem IF while he was living there.

See I am not totally nutty (just a bit maybe) ;-)

So do pop along if you are in the area and say hello.

A Bit More Bejewelled

These are two more new bracelets that I finished off last week. The one above I called Tutti Frutti. It is one of my handmade chains with a mix of Murano Glass beads,  Swarovski crystals and given a bit more class by some lovely frit beads by Laura Sparling. I just adore these multicolour bracelets. Every bracelet I make is totally individual and I loved the colours in this.

The second one I made below is another handmade chain and has a lot of handmade lampwork beads again by Laura accentuated with a few little hearts and some Swarovki pink pearls.  A beautiful pinky purple mix that I have called Dusky Dream.

Laura makes beads with such precision, I really love them. You can win some of her fab beads by entering her current giveaway on her blog. Just look at this lot below.

Pop over to her blog to enter. 

But why I am telling you - it reduces my chances of winning!!!! ;-) Oh well...

Joy x

Choco Retro Necklace

I expect you thought I had vanished as it is a week since I last posted.
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The computer is more or less sussed. I am just trying to catch up on emails I haven't got around to answering and resend several which appear to have never arrived for some reason from some phone calls I have had. If I owe you an email you will have it soon!
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The piece above is a necklace I have recently finished. The beads are by the wonderful Laura Sparling and the discs are made with Art Clay silver and patinated with Liver of Sulphur. I have called the piece Choco Retro.

Fairy Interesting!

This is not like my usual type of work at all!
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I have a friend who loves fairy things so this is a present for her. I made the fairy in Art Clay Silver and have added a gorgeous hollow bead made by Laura Sparling. The lovely multicolour twisted wool strand was an impulse buy on eBay that I have had some time and never knew what to do with it. I just love the colours of it. I hope she likes it.
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I wanted this to work either as a pendant (the strand is adjustable) or hanging in a window.

I gave the fairy a textured back decorated with another flower so it is interesting either way around.

I really like the result and it is nice to create something different. It has already given me an idea for using up more of that lovely wool.

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Overnight we had about 5 inches of snow here and it is still snowing lightly now with more forecast for this afternoon and tomorrow. It looks beautiful. Luckily I don't need to go anywhere so it is off to do a bit more creating for me :)

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Take care and keep warm.

Glass Melting Fun

Well did I have fun yesterday? You bet! I even look as though I almost know what I am doing!! Laura really is a great tutor. I am now eagerly awaiting the arrival of my annealed beads to see what exactly I managed to create! I will take pictures and post them here no matter how bad they are - promise!!

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If you want to learn how to make your own lampwork glass beads Laura Sparling will be running more one to one workshops starting in January. I highly recommend it.

Double Cupcake Delight

I really wanted to do something different with my cupcake beads that I bought from Laura Sparling so I decided to make my own solid silver little cupcake box using Art Clay Silver and use the bead as the little handle on the lid. Cute eh? Perfect for keeping tiny treasures in. What do you think. Is it a bit too OTT on the cupcake side :)

Silver Curls Bracelet

I have had these fabulous glass beads by Laura Sparling for quite a while now. They have lovely pale grey curling folds inside and are encased in clear with some nice tactile enamel on the surface. I made two heavy silver lentil beads using Art Clay Silver to go with them several months ago during a play day with my friend Bev - bet you wondered when I was ever going to use them eh Bev :)

My plan was to make a necklace out of them but every time I put them together in various ways it just did not work for me. Either I did not like the way they sat or something about it each time. In the back of my mind I kept thinking maybe I should make a bracelet instead but I already make a lot of those and people do seem to buy necklaces more so no, the plan was for a necklace and back on they shelf they kept going to be looked at another day.

Yesterday Laura wrote a really interesting piece on her blog about taking too much notice of the odd criticism and ending up making things you think people want rather than what makes you happy. When I was back up in my workshop later I took the box out again and thought that's it - it is gonna be a bracelet.

So here it is and I rather like it. It sits beautifully on the wrist and has a lovely weight.

If you want to read Laura's thought provoking post it is on her blog.

Simple Chic

Do you ever buy beads and then think um.... now what am I going to do with these?
I bought these gorgeous beads from Laura Sparling a while a go but every time I thought of something to use them in somehow it just did not do justice to them. The patterns are wonderful on them. They are large at 18mm in diameter and just wanted to speak for themselves. I think these neck wires and a couple of simple Art Clay silver beads set each one off really well and they make three lovely simple necklaces.


Below are some other pendants I made at the weekend. The two on the outside have dichroic glass in them and once again the photo does not really catch their sparkle and colour. They have to go for hallmarking yet before I can sell them. I really like the middle one best though. I am calling it Starry Starry Night and the stars have 22k Art Clay Gold paste fused into them. Nice eh?

Pretty 2

I am getting there with all these bracelets and earrings. 2 more finished now and 1 to go. I love these two above. Yet more beautiful Beads by Laura. Back off to my workshop now. Today is glass fusing and Art Clay so I'll try to post some pictures of the pieces when they are done.