Severnside Beaders and Stitchers Exhibition 8th & 9th October 2011

Next weekend I will be demonstrating beadweaving techniques and selling my lampwork beads, buttons and jewellery in Minsterworth Village Hall, Gloucestershire. 

Severnside Beaders and Severnside Stitchers are having their yearly exhibition and the hall will be full of gorgeous and inspiring pieces of beaded and fabric art, demonstrations and delicious refreshments!

The exhibition is open from 11am - 4pm on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th October.

Minsterworth Village Hall, Main Road, Minsterworth, Gloucestershire, GL2 8JH  (on the A48 Gloucester - Chepstow road).

Each year the exhibition from these two local groups gets better and better, I'm looking forward to it!

Etsy listings

Phew!  I was up late last night listing a couple of new beads in my Etsy shop.  I have tons of beads photographed and ready to list, but am sadly lacking the time to get everything done!

This is one of my latest favourites, Eternity.

Now I need to get listing some more!

Thank you, Colwall Ladies!

I had a great morning in the company of Colwall Ladies group, where I demonstrated lampworking and gave a little talk about all things beady!  It was my first time giving a talk about my passion for beads and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. 
I hope the ladies weren't bored rigid by my glassy lecture - I didn't see anyone glaze over or fall asleep, so I think it went well!

I'm back in the studio tomorrow to make beads in preparation for the Severnside Beaders exhibition in Minsterworth Village Hall on the weekend of October 8th and 9th.

SATeam Mother’s Day Giveaway Event

SATeam Mother’s Day Giveaway Event

Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and the Starving Artists Team (SATeam) members are at it again. We want to give away some fabulous handmade artisan jewelry. There are many different ways to enter (all free!) and several prizes to be won.

Three lucky people will win gift certificates that can be redeemed in any of the participating SATeam member’s shops.  The gift certificates can be used towards the purchase of the item(s) of the winner's choice. 

First prize: $100 gift certificate
Second prize: $50 gift certificate
Third prize: $25 gift certificate


Check out the participating shops to see the wonderful jewelry creations offered by the talented artisans of the SATeam and start dreaming about which pieces could be yours if you are one of the lucky winners!

You'll need to head over here to do so -
http://starvingartiststeam.blogspot.com/2011/04/sateam-mothers-day-giveaway-event.html

 You have nothing to lose by entering and who knows.. you may just WIN!!

Oh My Goddess

My good friend Jane Pearl has quite a collection of my beads and she actually makes wonderful pieces with them! (Rather than stashing them away and occasionally getting them out to drool on, like my Mum!).

It's always a thrill for me to see what she has made and this necklace really blew my socks off!

When asked to use a Swarovski rivoli (Jane refused to use all seven given, she's not a fan of bling) in a bead club challenge, she pulled out these early beads of mine that she hadn't found inspiration for, and made up this beauty. I think it's an amazingly inventive use of a Goddess bead.

I had this for a few days to photograph, but the weather was gloomy and my light tent is miniscule, (I just had beads on the brain when I bought it). So I can only apologise to Jane (and to you) for the poor quality of the photograph, as it really doesn't do justice to her wonderful work.

Freshwater pearls, lampwork beads, Swarovski rivoli, seed beads, amethyst and amber.

We have beads!

Wow, it worked. I think.

We have beads. These were made with a wonderful BeadySam frit blend called Crocodile Rock. I don't often make sets, but I enjoyed making these and ended up with a few. There are 9 in this set and they may make it into my Etsy shop this week :)

It's a start..

February the somethingth....Well, it's a tiny bit daunting, putting my thoughts and ramblings ( maybe sometimes rantings) out into the big wide yonder.  I have meant to blog for ages, but never got around to it.  I am an excellent procrastinator ( I use having a small boy as an excuse for this kind of procrastination ).

I get into my studio once a week, twice if I'm really lucky.  Torch-time is a precious commodity, (my lovely husband probably feels the same way about carving time).  This week, I started well, with a Sunday of torch-time (with mixed results).
Monday morning had me racing out to see what was in my kiln, (almost racing, I had to have coffee first!)  after wrestling the beads off their mandrels and giving them a little clean, I took a few photos.

I'm having trouble working out how to post photos, so hopefully , I'll be back with pics.. maybe.. sometime :)