Oooh, I've had a hectic couple of days! I went to London on Tuesday and I had a good old wander around the British Museum. I've never been there before but I've always fancied going. So many interesting things to see - the famous Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies and fabulous Japanese stuff. There's also loads of ancient jewellery. The Greek gold jewellery was beautiful and there were some Egyptian carnelian and stone beads that were seven thousand years old!
I told you that I had lots of these in the pipeline .....
While I was on the phone to Chris last night we were talking about my bead giveaway. He wanted to know if I actually do write all the names on slips of paper and then draw them out of a hat or if I was pulling some Blue Peter type scam and just choosing a name from a list of emails in some kind of lacklustre can't-be-bothered fashion.
Well done Helen! I'll email you for your address and I'll get the beads in the post to you.
Luminobeads, as requested. I have more waiting to be cleaned and etched but in the meantime I thought I'd show you these ones.
Thank you all very much for your response to my post regarding old designs that you'd like to see again. Your suggestions are very much appreciated. Please do keep them coming!
I did post this yesterday but because I detest photos of myself so much I un-posted it. Then I had an email from Nicky this morning asking where the post had disappeared to. I explained that I hate photos of me and that I thought I looked like an idiot. She assured me that I didn't so I've re-posted it. Drama!
I was just sorting through a box of beady bits and I discovered these - a strand of simple encased beads. I think they may be made with the wonderful, multi-tonal Double Helix Terra. The odd thing is, I don't remember making these beads let alone cleaning them, stringing them and packing them away!
I love to make these. I find their symmetry soothing and placing all those dots gets quite hypnotic. I could sit and make these kind of beads for hours and hours on end. I had my iPod on while I was creating these - Kaiser Chiefs, if you're interested. Their new album is pretty dang brilliant!
I always enjoy my weekends with Chris but this one was particularly nice. When I arrived at his flat on Friday night Chris had cooked me dinner which was lovely. His parents were down for the weekend so it was really great to see them too.
These beads are like mini mauve galaxies. Swirls of purple and ink blue with tiny fine silver 'stars' encapsulated in crystal clear. Cosmic!
When I made the prototype of these I thought it looked a bit spacey. Otherworldly. Galactic. So I sent a photo of the bead to my fella (sci-fi oracle that he is) along with a plea for name ideas. Chris emailed me back with a long list of name suggestions and one of them was UFO - 'Unidentified Funky Object'. I liked it! So that's what these beads will be known as.
Periwinkle blue, yellow, orangey-red and lilac beads in an array of intricate designs. I took this photo to show how pretty these 'Carnival' beads look from the side.
I know, I know, it's only October but a whole bunch of you über-organised jewellery folk have been asking for Christmassy beads, so here you go! It felt a teeny bit wrong to be making yuletide-type beads in October but when I strung these lovelies together I must admit that I did have a bit of an 'Aw, Christmas!' moment. Bright red and green enamel beads with white polka dots and some textured 'snowball' beads. Ho, ho ho!
Here are those aforementioned beads. These comfy-to-wear squeezed beads contain fine silver and are decorated with 'fireworks' in various colours. At the centre of each one I've set a twinkly cubic zirconia. These focals are only decorated one one side so that they'll sit nicely when worn.
Dad took me to Oxford today. I've been there before but I was really young and don't remember much about it. Mum and Dad were both born in Oxford and grew up here so wandering around the city with Dad was like wandering around with some kind of personal tour guide! I took these pictures with my mobile phone camera. Next time I'll take my proper camera with me and I'll get some better shots. The picture above shows the Radcliffe Camera. This used to house books but is now used as a reading room for the nearby Bodleian Library. The photo below is of Hertford Bridge which is more commonly known as the 'Bridge Of Sighs' because of its similarity to the 'Ponte Dei Sospiri' in Venice. Apparently Cambridge has a Bridge Of Sighs too. I'm going to try and find it when I visit Chris next weekend.
I can't believe how big Oxford is compared to Cambridge. Some of the buildings are similar although the ones in Oxford seem taller. There are many fabulous shops - all the usual chain store suspects but they're mixed in with lots of independent shops and boutiques. There's also a wonderful covered market.
It's amazing how some of the shops look really small from the outside but seem to have some kind of Tardis technology that makes them ginormous on the inside. A good example of this is Blackwell's bookshop, pictured above. This is just a tiny part of it, but look - so many books upon so many shelves for as far as the eye can see!
A bit of an eclectic bead mix today. Precise polka dots, pink patterns and tiger-esque treasures. 
I have absolutely no idea where this bead design came from. I just sat down at the torch, picked out some colours, pulled a bit of stringer and went with the flow and these 'Boogaloobeads' were the result. They're decorated with groovy squiggles and dots with raised-but-flattened bumps. Fun and funky!
Here are those plain and simple beads that I made yesterday. I photographed them in the kitchen as the sun was streaming in through the window. I know they're only undecorated lentils but aren't they lush?! They just show off the sheer beauty of coloured transparent glass so well.
Well hello!