Saturday 28 February 2009
Actual Edible Cupcakes
Friday 27 February 2009
Sock-Making : Pink Fluff
The pretty green and flowery bag you can see in the photo was a gift from Veryan. (I've been given a lot of gifts lately - I'm such a lucky girl!) Veryan sent me this cute little bag to keep my sock knitting in which is very handy as I keep losing needles and stuff all over the show. In fact, I've left my scissors and tape measure at Chris's flat so hopefully a bag will help me keep everything in one place. It's also mighty brilliant for putting your ball of wool in as you knit. It stops it from rolling across the carpet and getting chased by a tabby cat. The bag is from Nics Knots on Folksy. Nic Lucas makes lots of cute little bags and needle rolls in all sorts of lovely fabrics. Thanks so much Veryan - that was very sweet of you!
Win Some Sparkly Treasure!
Make haste, though! You've only got until this evening to enter .....
For Sale
Thursday 26 February 2009
Fantastic Day!
Jelveh came bearing gifts of pudding! And gifts of glass - she gave me a strip of the most gorgeous dichroic glass you've ever seen as well as some goldstone ribbon and some cute star murrini cane. Watching Jelveh work was wonderful. She has so many skills and she showed me some pretty nifty glassy tricks and techniques. Jelveh also fell in love with Brenda and Edith, my two guinea pigs.
Jelveh also gave me a good talking-to, in the nicest possible way. Most of you know what an utter pain-in-the-behind perfectionist I am, yeah? Well, I think Jelveh may have helped me with that particular problem trait of mine. She tipped out and sorted through the contents of my not-so-good-beads bag. All of my recent students have seen this bag of beads and most of them do the whole "Laura, why don't you sell these?" thing and to be honest, when I look through them sometimes even I can't see the reason why some of them never made it to the website. Like I say, I have a problem. So Jelveh spent ages grouping the beads into colour sets and she made me look at my 'rejects' in a whole new light. The beads aren't seconds (I kill those in the water jug or bin them) and I've promised Jelveh that I will add the sets she put together to my Etsy shop over the course of the next few days. In fact, tonight I was going to list the Lonelies from the last post but instead I put the first of the Jelveh Groupings up on Etsy instead and guess what - they've sold while I've been writing this post!
I'm really glad that Jelveh and I spent the day together. I've learnt a lot from her and she's shown me a whole new way of looking at my work and enlightened me about the way other people see my beads. She is such an amazing lady and I loved listening to her American accent. The way she says 'aqua' and 'awesome' is so cool! Most of all I feel like I've made a really good friend and it is such a shame that Jelveh is moving back to the States next month. I hope I get to see her again before she goes.
Make sure you check out Jelveh's beautiful beads in her Etsy shop and also pop over and have a read of her blog.
Lonelies and blog stuff
Tuesday 24 February 2009
P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-Pancake Day!
I'm not ashamed to say that I am a huge fan of Tony Robinson's classic BBC children's television series Maid Marian And Her Merry Men. So much so that I have all four series on DVD and watch them often. They still make me laugh! Just goes to show that in my mind I am indeed still a twelve year old ... but then you already knew that, right?
Anyway, this is the video of the Maid Marian 'Pancake Day' song that I always sing when I'm making pancakes which is what I'm just about to go and do now .....
Laura Sparling Script
Monday 23 February 2009
Asking For Trouble
Sunday 22 February 2009
Camera Shy
Friday 20 February 2009
Wonderful Work
Thanks for showing me your wonderful work, Maria João. It's always nice for me to see what happens to my beads once they reach their new owners. I'm nosy like that!
Thursday 19 February 2009
How do you make a cute cupcake cuter?
Looking for an oxygen concentrator?
Cupcake Pendant Winners
Thanks to everyone who entered. Reading all those pudding comments was really fun! This was my biggest draw to date - there were absolutely loads of you who joined in. Make sure you stay tuned for news of another giveaway soon.
Wednesday 18 February 2009
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Artist Interview : Janine Byrom
Since 2005. I had such a horrible year that year and I had a lot of time off work to deal with the consequences. During that time I spotted a simple charm bracelet on a website and thought "Hmmm I wonder if I can do that?" so I had a go and found I couldn't but it didn't stop me having other attempts until I could. From then on I was addicted!
I have so many! I don't think you can beat sterling silver really. It's so versatile and people seem to always go back to silver. I also like to age sterling silver to create a vintage effect. Saying that, I am really fond of materials such as brass, ribbon and pearls!
I get inspiration from so many things - it could be a picture in a magazine, a celebrity on TV or my Nana's jewellery box. You just have to look a bit harder sometimes!
Girly, Unique, Fun, Bold, and of course Cherished!
I can honestly say I have never sketched a design, sometimes I will start out not knowing how the piece will go and it just 'comes together'. Other times an idea 'pops' into my head and won't go until I've made it. This can be annoying at 4 o'clock in the morning! When designing charm bracelets and bits with lots of lovelies on, sometimes laying the pieces out first in their chosen design helps to picture how the finished jewellery will look.
Living in a small apartment makes it quite hard to have a nice big work space so I organise my materials in boxes and tend to get them out and work at the table. Sometimes I will work on a project whilst sat on the sofa with a beading tray on my knee. If I'm comfy I work better!
My bead trays are all organised in colour schemes and tend to be tidy. I try to have a good tidy out about once a month as this way I get to see exactly what I have to work with.
What jewellery project are you working on right now?
I'm working on a pair of brass and carnelian earrings. I've made one but I get bored doing the same thing so I'll go back to them. I'll probably make the other one today actually.
It would have had to be the beautiful and classic Audrey Hepburn. How wonderful it would have been to see her in some Alice in Wonderland jewels!
Thanks for your answers, Janine. I reckon one of your Alice charm bracelets would have looked amazing on Audrey!
Fingerless Mittens
Catching Up
Fabulous Fella
Thursday 12 February 2009
Win!
Wednesday 11 February 2009
How lush is this?
Tuesday 10 February 2009
Sock-Making : Purple Sockness
Featured
Sunday 8 February 2009
Etsy
Saturday 7 February 2009
Oven Gloveliness
Random Poetry Moment
On white bread,
With Clover spread,
Oh cheese and Salad Cream.
Friday 6 February 2009
Yes, more Cupcake beads!
Thursday 5 February 2009
Cupcake Frenzy!
Cupcake Update
Please click here for all the details .....
Snow Glee!
Now that my hands have thawed out and my kiln is warmed up I shall switch from fashioning cats from snow to creating cakes from glass. Thank you so much for the fabulous response to last night's Cupcake beads. Something tells me I'll be making a lot of these. Do any of you out there have any colour or decoration suggestions for them? If so, please leave them in my comments section and I'll see what I can do.
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Cupcakes
I think these would make super pendants but at 15mm high they would be great as charms too.
Tuesday 3 February 2009
A 1970s Me
Monday 2 February 2009
'Confetti'
Sock-Making : Sockcess!
I finished knitting them last night and it couldn't have been better timing because today it's snowing outside. I'm so excited! I absolutely flippin' love the snow and I just did a little it's-snowing-and-I'm-wearing-my-new-socks dance in the conservatory. In fact I got a little bit snow-crazy and flung the conservatory door open and sat there with my legs dangling outside to test the warmth of the socks. They're toasty!