Stourbridge no more and tonnes of beads for sale on my website!

I have had to cancel my attendance at the Stourbridge Bead Fair!

I have mixed feelings about this! I was really looking forward to go there but I was getting quite stressed at the same time trying to juggle all my commitments in the summer.

As a result, I now have masses of beads for sale.
I loaded the first batch (23 sets!) on my website yesterday. Quite a few of them have sold already (which makes me very happy!) but I have many more coming up next week including a few orphans lots.

You are welcome to let me know (by commenting or email) which type of beads you would prefer to see on my website as I might not have time to load everything before my holiday in three weeks time.

Beads, beads and beads

I just would like to show some of the beads I have made in the last couple of weeks. Most are destined to the Stourbridge bead fair in August. A few of them have been inspired by my recent class with Andrea Guarino.

The Scottish bead fair (and all the excitement) is over!!!

We started the day early and even had to get the kiddies out of bed (a first! as they are the ones who usually throw us out of bed at the crack of dawn!) and drove down to Fife to drop them off at their uncle Davy, auntie Jill and cousins' house for a day of fun.

We then swiftly made our way to Perth and felt very pleased and smug to have made it just in time (we have always been late on previous occasions...) only to realise that we forgot to take some very nice beads with us (the sea/rock pool themed beads pictured in my previous post)...

We felt a little bit down about forgetting the beads (a lot of work went into the beads and the accompanying display) but we set up our stand, the doors opened, everybody came in and the day soon brightened up.

It was busy day, with a steady stream of people throughout the afternoon. It was a pleasure as usual to speak to so many people who share my interest in beads and jewellery.

The fair is over now and once I have tidyed up my house (which looks like a bombsite at the moment) I will look forward to a little bit of time-off after an extremely busy month of August.

My website will be updated shortly with new beads, plus the nice beads I forgot to take at the bead fair and I will try to add new beads to it on a more regular basis.

Thanks to everybody who stopped to chat and especially to everybody who purchased my handmade lampwork beads.

New ventilation and beads just for me

I have been out of action (beadwise) for a few days as I have upgraded the ventilation system in my studio.

I now have a very powerful fan that bends my flame, give me a cold nose and pulls all the fumes away. I will now feel safe venturing into the world of enamels which I am really looking forward to as I really love the effects that can be achieved.

Anyway, I decided to test my new set up and made tiny little beads for a macrame bracelet with Griffin silk.
I made the blue purple beads a few weeks ago but I don't think that the colour goes well with the colour of the thread that I have ordered, so I made some new ones in a golden, irridescent glass which I think will co-ordinate in a much nicer way.

Then, I decided to attempt a tutorial by a very talented and famous beadmaker called Jennifer Geldard.
I managed to put my own little spin on it and I am very pleased with the result.
I think I am going to expand on this theme.

Here is the window bead:

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