Jewellery, events & updates! [lots of images!]

Hi there bloggers!
Another long stint since my last blog post, but I have been busy this time, and I do have things to share. We are now in the final weeks of the house buying, and hope to find out our completion date this week. Our solicitors on both sides are pushing for the end of this month so hopefully we can get in and settled well in time for Christmas.

Here (finally!) is my finished Laura McCabe cuff:

I am so pleased with this, sorry for the shabby photographs! The leather is a joy to wear, it's so soft, and it's so lovely to have been able to make an embroidered piece without having to cover every square millimetre to make it look good. The stone is Willow Creek Jasper, so I was quick to hunt down a stone to make a matching pendant:

Again, apologies for the poor photograph, it looks so much better in the flesh. This is a teardrop Willow Creek Jasper stone, stitched around with my remaining grey/silver delicas and gold size 15 charlottes. Nailheads embellish the left and a 10mm Swarovski flat back crystal sits at the top. The glass nugget at the bottom is one made by Linda from Bead Buddies - you can visit her website here.

It was my mother in law's birthday yesterday, so out came the beadies again, you might remember my blue cluster necklace I made for my mum earlier this year, well she had commented on how lovely that was. She loves all things cupcakes, so I finally found the perfect use for the charity cupcake bead I bought from Laura Sparling quite some time ago as well. This was the final piece:

I was very happy with this one as well, and not only that but it only took about an hour from start to finish, I do love those projects! It's all made with cream/mocha glass pearls and crystal rondelles, topped with a lemon meringue cupcake.

So, in other news, I have recently been re-broadening my horizons, and typically when I have none of the things I need, I really felt the urge to draw. I made a trip out to our local art store, came home equipped with pencils, black pens and a new sketch pad, and this is what happened:

I've been browsing a lot of Zentangles again recently, and it just made me want to draw. Now I can't stop looking at my butterfly. Very chuffed. I also used to frequent DeviantArt, and haven't visited the site for a long time. Today I returned and was looking back on some of my previous work - I really need to get my Illustrator back! I miss playing around with vector art. Don't get me wrong, I was never anything amazing at it, but I used to enjoy the hours spent tweaking and re-colouring images I had created from a photograph. You may or may not be interested, but if you'd like to take a look this is my DeviantArt page. If you do take a look, do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Well, I will leave you all with a lovely image that met my eyes whilst I was on the phone at work on Thursday evening. I just had to take a picture... or three.

Bails, Cuffs & Weddings!

Well it's been a busy couple of weeks, but I've managed to do some beading to share with you all! I've set off on my own little journey with this first piece, having conquered using wonky squares to make a star (which you can see here) - I decided to make a couple more "wonky squares" and make an eye catching bail for this turquoise donut. Goodness knows how long I've had this sizeable nugget sat around, but I finally have a use for it! The plan is for a little odd count peyote chain to sit through the top bail and look pretty and sparkly. As soon as it's done I'll update you!

Work has once again been hectic, and our senior administrator is off on her holidays for the next two weeks so it could be interesting. Thank goodness it's bank holiday next weekend! Tomorrow hopefully won't be too bad or stressful, it's Tracy's daughter's wedding tomorrow, so getting the drinking shoes on for the evening, fingers crossed! I'll be sure to take my camera :o)

Finally, I'll show you a little project that I started and finished within a week (shocking, I know!) Donna at Bead Buddies needed testers to make sure her peyote word charts are all correct, so I opted for her Autumn Flowers cuff, and this is how it turned out:

 

I definitely need to practise the attaching of the peyote strip to the cuff blank, but overall I'm pretty pleased - it's quite cute!

Good news on the fund raising - currently Sandie has pulled together over £340 for the African Crisis Fund!

Well I'm off to prep for the office tomorrow, see you all soon,

#97

Ok guys only 2 more posts before I get my give-away sorted so please spread the word - the plan is to make a start on my challenge piece for the Bead Buddies forum I told you about last time, and fingers crossed offer it up - let's mix it up a bit!

So I finally finished the cuff, can you believe it?? Overall, for a first attempt, I am pretty pleased with it, but have learned a few lessons on the way:

*When measuring up... Make allowances! (I was going to put this onto a metal cuff blank... Unfortunately it wasn't quite long enough... Oops!)
*Cut as close as you dare to the edge of the threads... I could have done with cutting the backing and ultra suede closer to create a closer edge to the beadwork
*Possibly do a row of brick stitch around the piece before doing the edging that pulls the ultra suede onto the backing? If I had realised, I probably would have done this, to get rid of the bit of backing that's still visible
*Don't be afraid to dive in and let the beadwork create itself! I had no clue where I was going next whilst I was making this, and although it is completely random, I love the finished piece

All in all, this has got me pretty excited for my Laura McCabe class in September! I can't wait, it's going to be a fab day and hopefully we'll meet a great bunch of people at the same time. Here are a couple more views, I went for a chain finish with the clasp, which I had to have as the cardboard didn't quite dry bent enough when I attached it to the beading. (Kindly modelled by my mum who then tried to hide it when I left!!)

Aanyway, I need to start brainstorming what on earth I am making for you wonderful people, so I will be back soon to update you.

Supporting Japan

I'm sure you're all well aware of what's going on in Japan, and thankfully there are people who are trying to help out in any way they can. One of those people is Laura Sparling over at Beads by Laura who has made a select few batches of beads to sell in aid of the British Red Cross Tsunami Appeal. 100% of the proceeds are being donated, and we all get the chance to buy gorgeous beads with the added bonus of helping out! I missed the first two, so was determined to get involved on the third round, and here's my latest purchase:

Isn't it the cutest thing? A delicious lemon meringue cupcake :) Watch this space, once I hit 50 followers, this may become part of my giveaway - we'll see what I come up with!

EDIT: Through the 3 sales and other donations, Laura and everyone involved have raised £150!

On another note, I've now completed my necklace and am back onto the cuff project!

As you can see, I'm loving the fun of playing on the iPhone, the above are photos from my Instagram! Love it.

Ooh! More exciting news! Me and my buddy Tracy are doing a day course in Norwich in September with Laura McCabe, making an embroidered cuff - I cannot wait! Watch this space... In September... ;o)