Strawberrypalooza

Talk about falling behind with blogging. I've disgraced myself. I've not posted since last year. Awful behaviour.

Truth is, I've not made many beads so far this year. We had a new kitchen fitted a couple of months back. It was supposed to start at the end of February but at the last minute it got shifted back a week. The new installation was originally going to take two weeks but it eventually ended up taking over seven. We moved in almost sixteen years ago and have been threatening to do the kitchen since then but both Chris and I hate any kind of upheaval so we kept putting it off but it became so tatty and broken that we simply couldn't ignore it any longer. We were dreading it but everyone kept telling us it'd just be a couple of weeks of disruption and then it would all be done and shiny and new.

It was an absolute nightmare.

So many things went wrong and it became this never ending saga of bodges, fixes, delays, faults, mistakes, complaints, phone calls and emails. Out of those seven weeks we had a working sink for only one; the other six I was washing up in a bowl in the back garden. We got through prepper stockpile levels of bottled water. The kitchen is finally done, though. Almost. We've still not moved everything back in and there are some niggly little things that need putting right. I've also got to paint the woodwork. That wasn't in the plan and we did pay for the decorating to be done but the paintwork that was done was shocking so we told them to stop and we'd put it right and do the rest ourselves. We are pleased with the new kitchen and I'm sure that a couple of months down the line when it's all properly finished we'll love it but right now we're still a bit pissed off about it all, and every slightly wonky tile, crappy bit of grouting, badly-filled hole in the wall and not-quite-adjusted-right cupboard door makes us grimace. We can put some of these things right but we paid a lot of money to have them done right in the first place, you know? Still, we do not miss the 1990s red, orange and yellow hell kitchen of old, and I absolutely love the new sink and tap. Nigel very much likes his new dining area too, and he has his own motion sensor light above his bowls so he never has to eat in the dark again.

I went to visit my sister Emily in Northern Ireland at the end of March and it was nice to get away from all the kitchen drama for a few days. I do very much like it there. We did lots of walking and ate lovely things. If you ever find yourself in Kircubbin, do pop into Coan for one of their delicious cherry scones. My goodness, the Northern Irish buns and baked goods are out of this world.

So yeah, March and most of April was a write-off on the bead front. I got a few beads made here and there but nothing really worth blogging about.

However, after getting very excited at seeing the first British strawberries in Tesco (I'm a strawberry patriot and only buy British ones because they taste the best - you can shove your watery, flavourless out-of-season Spanish ones) I decided to make some glass ones. I'd not made strawberry beads for eons but I wanted to make these new ones as not beads. Instead I opted for working off the end of a mandrel so I could capture that classic strawberry shape that you can't quite achieve when the hole runs all the way through.

Strawberries on mandrels

Freshly cleaned strawberries

After cleaning the strawberries I made some stainless steel loops for them. That sounds like a simple task but flipping heck, my hands hurt afterwards. Stainless steel wire is hard to manipulate and I ended up with cuts from sharp wire ends and blisters from my pliers. I suffered for these strawberry buggers! When I had the loops made I epoxyed one into each strawberry. Again, a faff, but what do I do that isn't? I'm a professional grade faffer, me.

Curse those wire loops

The strawberries are now in my shop. They're available to order as individual strawberries, ready for you to attach a jump ring or whatever jewellery finding you fancy.

Little lampwork strawberry

They can also be purchased as earrings and pendants.

Strawberry earrings

The earrings have leverback earwires

Strawberry pendant

And if you'd like a ready-to-give gift, you can buy a strawberry pendant on a chain.

Strawberry necklace

Comes on an 18" sterling silver chain

I'll keep taking strawberry orders until I get bored of making them so if you fancy one, grab a strawberry while you can.

A couple of weeks ago I tidied up my website and I've simplified my shop and there are a few normal beads for sale in there. 

I have a load of Lonelies to clean and photograph. I'll try and get on that tomorrow so keep an eye on the shop for those in the next few days. I'll be splitting them into smaller strands as opposed to one or two big ones.

Right now the sun is shining here in Cambridge and I hope it's sunny wherever you are too. Fellow UK people, I wish you a happy May Day Bank Holiday. Will it rain, though? That's the question.

The Menthol One

I finally got round to making that shimmy bracelet I mentioned. The bracelet has spacers made in CiM Sea Foam, Effetre Copper Green 219 and Effetre Light Turquoise 232. There are also a few faceted Czech glass beads in a pretty aquamarine colour.

All the findings are silver plated and nickel compliant. I'd love to be able to make these in sterling silver but have you seen the price of it lately? Also, I'd have to get them hallmarked because of the amount of silver they'd contain and can I be arsed with all that? No. So yes, consider these shimmy bracelets costume jewellery, not for everyday wear, and not to be worn while washing up, showering, wild swimming or doing thirty lengths in the local pool.

The bracelet makes a soft glassy rattle as it moves which is always nice.

If you fancy giving this 'Menthol' shimmy bracelet a home, it's available in my shop.

It's properly autumning out there now, isn't it? My favourite local cherry tree has got its full Autumn '25 look going on.

The neighbour's front garden tree is in full leaf drop mode and every now and again the wind gathers the leaves in a heap in front of our porch. I say porch because that's technically what it is but you can only fit one person in it at a time so it's a very tiny porch. Porchette? Sounds very Hyacinth Bucket, that. But yes, the leaves gather and when they do I take advantage of it and go and pick them up before the wind changes and blows them all over the show. This morning I was out there at 6:45 in my pyjamas, Harry Potter dressing gown (looks like Hogwarts house robes complete with large sleeves and pointy hood) and my garden Crocs (just terrible) picking up leaves with a flattened Amazon box and a Pizza Hut box (I couldn't be bothered to venture into the garage to find the actual leaf scraper things we own) and obviously, even though I'd chosen an early hour to do this task, three neighbours walked by and said good morning. None of them flinched at my get-up, though. Ah well.

Talking of Harry Potter, I've just spent my Audible credit on their new full cast recording of The Philosopher's Stone and so far it's really good. I'm looking forward to hearing Hugh Laurie's Dumbledore.

I'm away to give Nigel his thyroid medicine now. His most recent blood test came back yesterday and there's been no change and it's "perfectly controlled" so that's excellent news. His hyperthyroidism will get worse as he gets older but right now it's stable so I'm happy with that.

That little snaggletooth!

I was less happy about Nigel getting into yet another fight the other week because he's now getting over an abscess from a cat bite which happened in the altercation. This isn't our first abscess rodeo and they're never pleasant to deal with. The picture above shows him pre-abscess burst but the front of his neck is now totally shaved; the vet buzzed his fur away around the abscess site so we can clean it easily, and she also had to shave the other side to take his blood for his thyroid test. His mortal enemy, who I call Ann Widdecombe on account of the black markings on his white head that make him look like he's sporting a Widdecombe bob, was strutting around our back garden this morning so shortly before my leaf gathering in my wizard robes I was out there shooing him away while hissing "Piss off, Ann Widdecombe!" in an attempt to stop Nigel growling, hitting the back door with his paw and doing that 'no-no-no'-miaowing that cats do when they're angry, so yeah, I'm pretty sure the neighbours definitely think of me as 'The Mental One' or something similar.

Have a good day!

Giveaway winner

I’ve just drawn the winner of the lilac and turquoise bead pair and that person is Charlotte Wilson.

Thanks to everyone who entered – I’ll do another draw soon.

New beads and a giveaway

I had an urge to make rounder-than-usual beads yesterday. These not-quite-round rounds have cores of CiM Lilac and they're encased with CiM Yours Truly which is a lilac sort of colour. The spots and spacers are Effetre Light Turquoise 232.

I've got three lots of pairs for sale in my shop and I can tumble-etch them for you if you like.

I've also made some more spacers, this time in Effetre Ivory Lapis Medium 292.

Shiny

Tumble-etched

These are quite beachy, I think, and they look really great tumble-etched.

Spacers are available to buy on my website.

Giveaway

When I was 'warming up' ready for round beads yesterday I made a bead pair in the same colours as the ones at the top of this post, but with only a smattering of little spots. I tumble-etched these for a photo to show what the glass looks like etched and instead of listing them for sale I thought they'd make a good little giveaway.

The winner will receive the beads pictured above - one pair of lilac rounds and a pair of coordinating spacers. The lilac beads are about 12mm diameter and the turquoise spacers are about 8.5mm diameter and they've all been tumble-etched to a silky soft finish.

The giveaway is now closed and the winner has been announced and notified. Thank you to everyone who entered the draw.

Sea Foam and Banana Cream

The long discontinued Creation is Messy Sea Foam is an opal glass in a fresh, minty green. The level of translucency (or opacity, depending on how you like to look at these things) depends on how long the beads spend in the kiln and whereabouts they are positioned in the kiln. This means you can end up with a batch of beads all made from the same glass but that are all a bit different from each other which is really nice. They're quite ethereal.

I've put aside some of these Sea Foam ones so I can make a shimmy bracelet with them. I was fully intending to do that this morning with my extra bonus clocks-gone-back hour but when I got all my findings out I was peeved to discover I've run out of some of the jump rings I need for the job so I've ordered those and they should be here on Tuesday.

I made a few spacers with another discontinued glass - Vetrofond Banana Cream. Not only is the glass long gone, but the company is too. A fellow lampworker, Palala Beads, kindly sent me some yellow glass a couple of years ago and two of the rods were Banana Cream so that's how I came to have some. The glass is a bright but at the same time slightly muted yellow. Remember foam banana sweets? That colour.

The Sea Foam and Banana Cream spacers are available in my shop.

I'm off to plant my spring bulbs now. I've gone for daffodils, some green tulips, purple crocuses and mixed muscari. Oh, and I got three of those big alliums just for novelty's sake. One of the nearby neighbours had a 'free spring bulbs, please take' table out on his lawn the other day so I snagged a bag of those too. I don't know what they will be so that's a mystery bulb bonus, isn't it? Cheers, kind neighbour man.

It's sunny here in Cambridge but also nicely chilly. Lovely. I hope the sun is shining wherever you are? Enjoy your Sunday!