The Gathering ~ DAY 6

The Sunday Gathering is basically a Weekly Round-up of what's happened during the last week.

I just want to tell you about the last 2 Saturdays as Billie my daughter has been having Archery lessons. We gave her a Beginners course for her 16th Birthday which was back in June but has only just been able to take the lessons in September.

 

 

Now she has finished the course she can go and shoot anytime she wants to but I still have to be with her as she is under 18.  I don't mind too much I have quite enjoyed watching her and am now considering a Taster session myself.

So my Wordless Wednesday post was a shot of her outside shooting arrows ~ here are a few more ~ one with her target and score

 

Setting up the bow

 

Ready to fire!

 

Taking Aim ~ Outside

 

Fire!

 

Bullseye ~

well not all of them are Billie's just the purple ones! 

 

 

 

I have been at my torch this week and I made some chunky big hole beads which I call Chatelle's.  Here they are now ~

 

Wrapped in Ruby

 

Wrapped Triton

 

Flying Trails

And today I visited a Bead Fair in Uxbridge, its the Bead Society annual fair and I popped along to mainly visit my glass supplier Tuffnell Glass.  I needed a few things but of course came out with a big bundle of - Yes ..... you guessed it ~~ GLASS! 

My favourite glass is CIM (Creation is Messy) and I had a lovely time picking out some of the new glasses just arrived in the Tuffnell warehouse, as you can see!

Sssshhhh ~ don't tell the 'old bloke' indoors!! 

I also bought a rack for my kiln coz I am so fed up with my fire blanket getting stuck in my beads and ruining them!  Oh and some new bead release that comes in powder form and you just mix it with water which Martin (Tuffnell) reliably informs me is very easy to use and the beads come right off the mandrel with no effort at all!!  I will let you know how I get on once I use it! 80)) Plus it doesn't have any silica in it so this makes it non toxic as well!!  Excellent!



Until tomorrow!

E x

Saturday Snippets ~ DAY 5

Its rather late as I forgot to take some pictures of my bead session this week so I have decided to do something else!

New issue of Bead has been published and this issue has my Steampunk Fashionista Necklace tutorial in. 

 

 

I enjoy making long necklaces and I am so 'into' steampunk right now, I love this very popular current trend. My Pinterest boards are full of all sorts of lovely creations.

 

Purple version

 

Green version

The purple version used for the tutorial has a locket watch for the main focal whereas the green version had a large watch/bee charm. 

It has inspired me to have a go at making some beads or cabochons within the steampunk genre!!  I reckon I will have a play this week and have a little go at seeing what I can come up with.

 E x

Friday Forum News ~~ Day 4

I am a member of the Craft Pimp Forum we are a mixture of crafty folk making different kinds of handmade craft items.  A number of us have Etsy stores and other handmade stores selling our wares on-line. On Fridays I will have a meander around the forum to find out what they are up too and then bring some of the news to you!


I haven't been able to work out how to take a screen print of treasuries on Etsy, so I can only give you a link to the treasury Russet & Brown from the Craft Pimp Forum members.

A little selection of the treasury items.

Electric Banana is another fab treasury ~~ yellow is often an undervalued colour but it always reminds me of summer, bright sunny weather and the seaside!

Now that's a thought  ~~ I will tell you what, next time!!

I love Pinterest and for last couple of months since I have set up my boards I have been pinning like mad!!!  It is completely addictive and time consuming but mainly it is a great resource for storing so many found treasures!


I had worked out how to set up my photos on my blog to be pin-able but I removed the sidebar link by mistake so now I have to work it out all over again. One of those things on my very long list of things to do!  That's all I seem to have done this week is write lists of

THINGS TO DO!!!


Blimey will I ever be rid of them!!!! 

No I think NOT!!


Till tomorrow! 

E x

Thriller Thursday -- DAY 3

Right then here is the proper post, I did the earlier version from my mobile and it wasn't good at all. 

So Thriller Thursdays offering is from Taste of Awesome website

 

 

 

 

 

So this one is a little creepy!!!!!


Sleep well!!

E x

Wordless Wednesday ~~ DAY 2

BlogtoberFest 2013

Well this is my first time of joining in with BlogtoberFest it will be a challenge but I have wanted to get better at blogging again and this ~ I HOPE ~ will motivate me to get the job done, so to speak!!


I have to write a post everyday for the whole of October and that will be a definite challenge in itself but also what to write, so I will be off now to draw up a list of activities I will be covering over the coming month.  The host of the BlogtoberFest ~ Shells in the Bush Blog by Michelle Reynolds who says:



 Blogtoberfest is an annual blogging festival and a wonderful opportunity to:

* challenge yourself to blog every day for 31 days in October 2013
* discover kindred blogging spirits
* carve out a tiny slice of time each day to write and to read
* share any creative projects you have on the go
* host a giveaway, if you feel inclined to spread the love



There is a link for you over in my side bar to take you to the blog list on her site, 

so will be back later to set out a list for you for the month ahead!

See you all soon

E x

Addendum:

As this is in theory DAY 1, I thought I would add my proposed schedule onto the end of this posting!


With a little help from my daughter Billie here is what I have decided for each day:

Monday ~~       Movie Madness   (Anything movie related with some fun thrown in!)

Tuesday ~~      Top Tips   (Could be jewellery or beadmaking related or anything that takes
                                           my fancy)

Wednesday ~~ Wordless  (just pictures here)

Thursday ~~     Thriller  (Anything spooky, scary or freaky, well Halloween is on its way)

Friday ~~          Forum Talk  (from the Craft Pimp forum, treasuries, artists work, maybe 
                                              even an interview, etc.)

Saturday ~~      Snippets    (this will be from my workbench, bead table or maybe some 
                                            family stuff too)       

Sunday ~~        The Gathering   (no not Highlander, it will be what's been happening during
                                                    that week)



Right now need to get started, see you again tomorrow!  80))

E x

Wirework Workshop 2nd November

I have set up a workshop locally in my home town of Dunstable.

Wirework for the Beginner.

It will be held upstairs above a fabric shop in town where they have a big workroom its called My Sewing Basket.

Its booked for Saturday 2nd November 10am - 4pm and I will be teaching how to make earwires, hooks/clasps and spirals. It will include basic wrapping, coiling and hammering techniques too and everyone will go home with either a pair of earrings or a bracelet/bangle.

So if you are interested in coming along please get in touch either send me an email or contact me through my Facebook page where you will find this on my events page with all the contact details for the shop and booking.

 

Parking is easy and as we are right in the middle of town so its great for getting out for some lunch, with Asda very close by along with a Subway, Greggs, Costa and other cafes, etc. just a short 5mins walk away to the Quadrant shopping precinct.

Would love to see you there!

E x

Commission

There's me thinking I had posted this already but no there it was sitting in my draft folder!!

Now I realised I was having so much trouble that day with attaching the photos that I gave up ~~ silly me!!!  So here it is:



I had a commission for a friend for  some silver jewellery that would complement her dress for her 60th Birthday Party during August. 

Her dress was gorgeous ~~ it was a pale cream with gorgeous pansy type flowers over it, as if it was a watercolour painting. The pansies were denser around the bottom of the dress which they then got gradually less and less as they moved up the dress, it also had a dark purple sash around the middle and for the straps!

She asked me to complement this stunning dress, she would like to have the colours in the pansies in the jewellery and so we chatted for a while and I then drew up a rough sketch, she seemed to like it and away I went ~ time to make it!!

We had a heatwave,  it was so hot, I didn't feel like doing any beadmaking or jewellery making either for that matter, so time ticked on ~~ the party was looming ~~ I had to crack on with it!!!!! 

NO JOY!!!



I took Billie to Brighton with her friends for her Birthday treat, it suddenly cooled on that day!

We still had ice cream though!!

Here they are in the Pavilion Park, Jordan was missing, he was getting coffee instead so missed being in the shot!  Oh and Billie is the mad one on the left!!!

So the weather had finally cooled enough to go do some beadmaking!!  I decided on making some beads with 3 dot flowers but I needed something a little different to go into the centre of the wire pansy for the necklace.

This is what I came up with:

 

A Viola

Turned out to be more of a Viola rather than a pansy but I am pretty pleased with myself as flowers are not my strong point at all. 


The whole set looks like this, all made using sterling silver, the components were all made by me with the exception of the chain!

 

Vibrant Viola Necklace Set

Some close ups for you too.

 
 Sorry it took me so long!!

Happy Beading!

E x

Beadathon 2013 for Beads Of Courage BCCA

What is it I hear you ask!!!!  A BEADATHON that is!! Well I will tell you!

Next weekend Friday 26th July to Saturday 27th July I will be involved in this years' Beadathon which is a 24 hour marathon of lampwork beadmakers making beads for the Beads of Courage programme for children suffering with cancer  -  BCCA.

All the beads we make will be donated to the BoC programme and if you click here you can also make a donation on the Beadathon Just Giving page.  The lovely Jolene Wolfe of Kitzbitz Art Glass is hosting the Beadathon in her studio and also hosts the justgiving page. 

If you pop over to her Kitzbitz Art Glass blog she has her Robot Beep Beep beads up for adoption.

 

Kitzbitz Art Glass Beep Beep Robot

You can even name him too.

I hope you can help this wonderful charity by making a donation.

In my next post I will have some pics of my creations for the event


See you again soon

E x

Sweet 16

I can't believe that my baby turned sweet 16 on 24th June!

Then the following week she went off on her Art Trip to Paris with school and she was most excited about visiting Chateau Pierrefonds which is the place that they filmed Merlin (TV series) as the castle  ~~Camelot.  She also went to Monet's garden at Giverny along with other galleries and Notre Dame.  This trip will be the intro to her A level Art in the sixth form in September, the theme is Architecture.

 

Monet's Garden

 

Notre Dame

 

She did enjoy it and I so want to go to Paris myself to check out all the Art galleries and the main art visits that just have to be done!!  One Day!!


So all thats left now to do is Billie's Birthday Trip with her friends to Brighton!  We love Brighton again its such an art inspiring place to be with the added bonus of being by the sea as well!!  We will be going on the 25th July which is the day after school finishes for the summer holidays!  A whole 6 weeks off,  Yay!!

So looking forward to that, lets hope this fabulous weather will hold out till then! 
Its countdown as school too, only 2 weeks to go!!!!!



Its been one mad, busy, hectic and exhausting year to date and finally we are coming to the end of all this mad, busy, hectic time.  Massive deep sigggggghhhh!!!!

                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^******************^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



I have the Beadathon coming up soon too. 
I will be joining fellow lampworkers to raise funds for the

Beads Of Courage charity   'Be Child Cancer Aware' campaign.  

I will give a bit shout out in my next post, so please check it out for details of how you can help us with the fund raising via the Just Giving page and what we will be doing!



See you very soon with all the details.

Toodleoo

E x