Wintry walks

First things first, just in case you've come here, seen non-bead pictures and decided to head elsewhere, I'm having a little January sale. Right now there is 25% off everything in my shop - beads, jewellery, stitch markers and all my crochet gubbins - and the sale is running until midnight on Tuesday 14th.

I love this frosty weather. It's just right for me. It's icy cold without being slippery underfoot, it's dry and bright, and everything looks utterly beautiful, especially in the soft golden glow of the early morning sun. I've been taking photos on my morning walks and I thought I'd post a few here.

I do love a dramatic teasel.

Have a lovely Sunday!

New year, new bead holes

I know I'm a bit late with the new year greetings but happy 2025 to you!

January is such a nothingy time. I always get a 'new year, same old same old' feeling with it rather than a 'new beginnings and fresh page' one. I do like the weather of it, though. It's frosty and crisp here today and when I popped to the shop for onions earlier I felt like I could walk for miles in the icy-cold fresh air, but alas, laundry, hoovering and bead stuff needs to be done.

Yesterday was my first day back in the shed. I've been very taken with the beads with smaller holes I made at the end of last year so I decided to see if I could make my usual sort of beads on the 1mm mandrels too. You might think it's just the same but the diameter of the mandrel greatly influences the shape that the bead naturally wants to be. A 4mm or 5mm mandrel will give you a more donut-shaped bead and a 2.5mm or 1.6mm one will result in a fatter donut shape. The 1mm mandrel gives you a much rounder bead. It's not spherical but it's too wide to be classed as a donut. This gives you slightly more surface area to decorate so things like polka dot patterns and scrollwork need to be adjusted slightly. Yesterday I just stuck with spotty beads while I worked out what size the core needed to be and how much encasing glass I needed to add to get a consistent size and shape while maintaining the all-important not-at-all-sharp bead hole surrounds. I've got it sussed so tomorrow I'll faff with other designs.

The 1mm mandrels are not easy to work with. They have a tendency to boing about and I melted through a couple so I had to adjust where I was working in the flame. Smaller mandrels result in smaller beads so these are about 10.5mm diameter as opposed to my usual 12mm to 13mm, but that's fine by me because I favour little beads.

Cleaning the beads is a bit more tricky too. It's near-on impossible to take them off the mandrels without bending them so I've been nipping the bent ends off when I've removed the beads. A bend in a mandrel is a wonk-maker, and in a 1mm mandrel it's also a weak point that can be easily melted through. Using the Dremel to clean out the bead release requires more precision so I have to really concentrate so that I don't slip with the reamer bit and scratch the bead surface with it.

So what are the bonuses of a smaller bead hole? The main one is that the beads 'sit' better when threaded on wire, thread or headpins. Seed beads snug up nicely to them too.

All of this doesn't mean I'm abandoning my usual 1.6mm mandrels. I just want to see what I can achieve with the smaller bore bead holes.

And speaking of bore, I think I've wanged on quite enough about mandrels and bead holes now. Honestly, if you're still reading, well done. I can't think that this is interesting in the slightest.

If you like the spotty beads in this post, they're available in my shop. I've got two strands of nine beads for sale and I can tumble-etch them for you at no extra cost. They'd look great etched because of their icy colours. Oh yeah, I forgot the colours. In this case they are CiM Foam encased with Effetre Pale Aquamarine 038 with spots in Effetre White 204.

Now it's time for me to sort that laundry and hoovering. I hope the rest of your Wednesday is good. See you later!

Twixmas

It’s that part of the festivities where things aren’t quite normal yet and you sort of don’t want them to be but also you kind of do. I can’t decide whether to make beads or stay on the sofa and knit by the light of the Christmas tree. (I reckon it’ll end up being the latter.)

Anyway, you can grab yourself 15% off anything on my website by entering the code TWIXMAS at checkout. The discount code is valid until midnight (UK time) on New Year’s Eve.

Bead creations and Christmas cats

I made some more Stormy Seas jewellery. There are a couple of bracelets...

...and I also made a few pairs of earrings. 

The beads are only about 9mm diameter so the earrings are lightweight and easy to wear.

The Stormy Seas bracelets and earrings can be purchased in my shop. I can no longer guarantee delivery in time for Christmas but I will continue to post orders as I receive them and on days that Royal Mail are doing their thing, so feel free to buy beady things and they'll be with you when they're with you.

In other news, I made a couple of catnip mice, one for Nigel and one for Enca, my sister Sally's cat.

They're made with wool felt and their tails are Icelandic lopi wool. I grow and dry catnip for Nigel every year but I normally just put some in an old odd sock of mine and tie the end up and he's more than happy with his nipsock. This year I decided that I should actually make a mouse to stuff with catnip. I don't know why because this involves sewing, which I loathe. I found a catnip mouse pattern on the PDSA website and I spent far too long sewing these two. I've hidden Nigel's away and I wrapped and posted Enca's with the other presents I was sending to my sister. The parcel of presents arrived with her yesterday and during the night Enca decided she was opening her Christmas present early and by 'opening' I mean ripping apart the wrapping, biting the ears, tail and arse off the mouse and leaving toy stuffing, catnip and ripped bits of felt all over the dining room floor. What a catnip-crazed maniac!

Utter carnage

Meanwhile, Nigel is taking his usual interest in the Christmas tree. 

He absolutely loves it and always tries to climb it. This year Chris has made a reinforced base for the tree stand to avoid it toppling over if Nigel gets too enthusiastic with it.

Adjusting that blue tit bauble

Nigel's off to the vet this evening. He's got to have a blood test to check his thyroid levels. He was at the upper end of the normal range when he had a blood test back in the summer so this is a follow-up to see what's what. He's twelve now and the older he gets the more I worry about him. I spend more time stressing and fretting about the cat than I do anything else in my life! I'm sure other pet owners can relate.

I'm going to go and tidy the spare room now. Half of it is home to my jewellery making and bead packing desk, all my packaging supplies and my yarn stash. It's all getting a bit out of hand and very messy in there and I cannot move without knocking something over or something falling on top of me.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Stormy Seas

These beads are made with Effetre Avorio Lapis Dark 293 which as the name suggests is ivory and dark lapis blue together in one rod. When you melt the glass the two colours mix together and the resulting swirls remind me of weather satellite images and stormy seas.

I turned this lot into a long necklace. The beads are strung with plain sterling silver rounds and the necklaces fastens with a lobster clasp.

The beads range from 7.5mm to 10.5mm diameter and the necklace measures about 70cm (27 1/2 inches) long when unfastened.

The Stormy Seas necklace is available in my shop.

In the shop you'll also find a small strand of the Black & White + Turquoise & Red beads that I made a few months back.

I held on to these intending to make them into a bracelet but I've never got round to it so I'm selling them as they are. 

And if you're one of the four people who read my blog, thank you. To show my appreciation for your interest in my work and ramblings I'd like to give you a discount code. Enter the code DEC10 at checkout to get 10% off your order. This will work for any item in my shop. The code is valid until midnight (UK time) on Sunday 15th December.