A beautiful spring day!

It's sunny and lovely in the garden. I made the flapjack - tasted lovely, but it was very crumbly! Any tips gratefully received! Maybe we just didn't let it cool enough..

Some more beads cored..

I made these a little while ago, they are now finished with their silver cores.

I'm only writing a short post as I have to go and make flapjacks! Wish me luck, I haven't done them before (don't know why..)

Silver spacers

I have bought a bracelet to display my own work, I'm keeping my favourites! I would have made the bracelet too, but I just haven't been able to find loose chain which is heavy enough.

The beads needed some spacers so I have made a few already. This one is made with two flowers I cast in silver and curved into a bead shape..

My lovely Dad!

He has made me a lovely button mandrel, so that I can (hopefully!) make glass buttons! I can't wait to try it..

Also, I have been trying out making silver spacer beads to put between my favourite silver core beads.. I'm quite pleased with this one..

Easter!

I was given a lovely egg, filled with choccies, and beautifully decorated!

It was really looking like spring, and we went to a local animal sanctuary and saw these guys..

And really enjoyed using my new camera to get nice close ups!

Easter weekend

Well, it's lovely to have a few days off.. shame about the weather. I did some tile beads yesterday, all shaped by hand as I don't have a tile press, but that's not a problem as they have come out nice and chunky and it was good practice trying to getting the same size each time!

And another!

I have turned my faux boro set into a leather necklace, it's chunky and smooth..

By the way, my shed still hasn't been finished.. they are bringing another new front next week, this is their idea of sorting it out in a hurry..

New necklace

I decided to turn this set into a thong necklace - they are threaded onto a lovely thick (2mm) Greek leather thong, and I made little spacer coil beads in sterling silver, and as usual I have used sterling silver throughout.. I'm very pleased with it - it's really chunky and tactile..

Colour schemes -

I find them quite hard - they sort of happen by accident! Mind you, most art seems to be like that, the harder you plan, the less things work out!

Malt loaf -

I love it, with slices of butter! I had a really good time yesterday, trying out the faux - boro technique for the first time. Boro is short for borosilicate, or pyrex glass, for which I would need a much hotter torch ( maybe one day!) but this technique gives some beautiful results, and I'm very pleased with what came out of the kiln.. I have tried again today, but I'm not sure it went as well, I will find out when they have been annealed.


Faux - boro over rubino oro glass..

Horrible weather.

It is really yukky out, I hope it isn't as windy as it was last night..

I have been making sets of beads - I suppose it's just something that comes with time, but I'm enjoying it! I love using my pillow press too ( the blue beads)

Cones

Here are a couple of cones for a challenge, it's not as easy as I thought, keeping the bottoms straight, and the tops even!
The front part of my shed arrived yesterday (they had got it round the wrong way previously) and they put it all together, it was looking good.. then the door wouldn't shut. Aaargh! The hole for the latch is in the wrong place and I'm fed up.. I expect that's another day of waiting in to come.

Necklace from a bracelet

A friend called in at the weekend, and had a look at my beads, she asked me to turn a blue bracelet into a necklace for her, so I have! And I'm very pleased with the result..

Also, there is another pendant in the etsy shop, this time with a sparkly cz stone encased within it, and blue goldstone ribbons..

Wet Monday

Sadly, we had to take Luke the rat to the vets, to be put to sleep.. I had given him antibiotics for a week, but he couldn't stand in the end.

This was him when he was a baby (the darker one at the front)..

Sunny Mother's Day

It's beautiful out, but everyone is poorly..

I have been playing a lot with silver rich glass, like Double Helix , layering with raku and copper green and other interesting colours.. I will keep on - I may never get lovely bright colours all over with my hothead torch, but I have noticed I'm starting to get irridescent, rainbow - y touches however ghostly, and that's certainly a start! The subtle effects can be beautiful, but a complete pig to photograph!