Wednesday 31 August 2011

Asymmetry

Asymmetrical earrings. I sold a blue pair of these at the weekend, I never got round to photographing them so when I made this green pair from recycled Perrier Water bottle beads, teeny pieces of faceted peridot, swarovski crystal channels and sterling silver daisies, I thought I'd better record them for posterity.

I did have a couple of people tell me that the two earrings didn't match ... they didn't quite get the point ... oh well! :-)

I'm in a bit of an asymmetrical mood at the moment, possible big changes on the way (not with my beads or business) but will post more in next couple of days if things pan out the way I hope ... ;-)

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Twiddly twirlies

I listed these beads yesterday n my Etsy shop and they sold within an hour! (Thank you Hazel!) I have made a pair of prototypes in a rusty red and amber colourway (see below) and there are a quantity of purple ones are annealing in the kiln as I type.
This is another new bead for sale in my Etsy shop but I am also planning on making jewellery for my stall with these. I showed a trio of the prototypes to prospective customers and other stallholders last Saturday.
Everyone that saw them said they reminded them of the sea so I've gone into production and the set above is the result. Hopefully I should also have some jewellery made out of these in time for this Saturday in Cambridge.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Grand Marnier spirals

We have finally managed to finish the contents of the Grand Marnier bottle! After trimming the lawn on Sundays, I rewarded myself with a Grand Marnier, lime juice and tonic water cocktail (sometimes DH would join me). I also put it into some casseroles of liver, mushroom and orange, and DH manfully poured a tablespoon over strawberries for desert a few times too, the brandy flavour was too strong for me to take neat but I believe DH came to quite like it - he's a star!

When I broke it up, the glass looked rather close in colour to beer bottles. I was a bit worried the beads would look too similar but fortunately, the beads are much lighter, gingery amber colour that I'm very pleased with. I don't know what I was so worried about.

If the colour was too similar, I had it in my mind to melt the glass into spirals to differentiate the different types of glass but I needn't have worried, they are easy to tell apart from the beer bottles (Poachers beads shown below)
I think the Grand Marnier spirals allow the full beauty of the glass to show through rather than the usual donut shape and so I'm going to be making more of these today!

Friday 12 August 2011

Talisker whiskey jewellery

I've made another batch of recycled Talisker whiskey bottle beads. This time I've kept them to myself and turned them into a set of jewellery. Above is a close up of the bracelet which may (or may not!) make it onto the stall tomorrow. I really want to keep it myself!

Below is the complete set including a necklace and matching earrings. I've teamed the beads with some gorgeous Czech faceted glass beads, some Jasper rondelles and copper. The fantastic primitive and rustic stoneware bead was made by Beadfreaky in the US.

They'll all (maybe minus the bracelet!) be for sale on my stall at All Saints Art & Craft market opposite Trinity College in Cambridge tomorrow. The weather forecast is for some early rain but it's clearing up and the rest of the day should be dry, so I'll hopefully see you there!

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Time goes by


I'm not going to make excuses about why I haven't blogged in ages, I do have quite a few but enough about that!

Here's a picture of my sun dial to remind me how time passes by without you really noticing how quickly. I don't have anywhere in this house to put it, we're only renting here (for now), one of the reasons for my absence is arranging repairs and tenancy agreement for our tenants in the house we own near Cambridge (ooops, I said I wasn't going to mention excuses!) We came here for 4 months and have been here over three years ...

Anyway, back to the sun dial, for the time being it has been left in a corner under a hedge and now the ivy has started to wend its way over it ... I don't know what it is about stone and ivy - they always look wildly romantic together don't they?!