'Morocco'

These spicy-looking beads and also some teal green ones will be for sale on my website at 8.30pm (UK time) this evening.

'Springtime'

It's a-coming; pretty flowers here and there, bright sunshine, and longer daylight hours.  So I made these crocus-inspired 'Springtime' beads to celebrate.

They will be for sale on my website at 8.30pm (UK time) this evening.

Come Melt With Me

I’m going to be doing some one-to-one tuition during March and April. Tuition will take place in my shed which is in Cambridge.

I’m setting aside Wednesdays and Thursdays for this.

If you’re an absolute beginner I am offering a four hour session from 11.30am to 3.30pm. During this time we will cover the basics of beadmaking and we’ll pull stringer, make round beads and then use stringer and frit to decorate them. All materials, tea, coffee and biscuits (essential beadmaking equipment) are included in the tuition fee and obviously you will get to keep all the beads we make. The price for this four hour session is £100.00.

If you’ve done a spot of beadmaking before and you’d like to brush up on skills like stringer application, shaping and encasing then I am offering tuition at a rate of £25.00 per hour. It is entirely up to you how many hours you’d like but I’d suggest no more than five as there’s only so much beadmaking your brain can do before it gets tired. Just send me an email outlining what you’re interested in learning and for how long and we’ll arrange some times on a Wednesday or Thursday.

If you’d like to book some tuition with me please send me an email. I will require a fifty percent deposit (non-refundable) at the time of booking with the remainder payable on the day of your tuition. For deposits I will accept PayPal, bank transfer or cheque.

Wishing you a happy Saturday!

'Purple Haze'

These purple lovelies are for sale right now.  They're in the usual place.

Some stuff what I have done

As I said in my last post, I haven't been doing a lot.  But even so I have recorded these non-events using the medium of iPhone photography. Please allow me to bore you with some of those images now ...

I've been doing quite a lot of staring out of windows.

I've become addicted to chai tea latte.

I am still obsessed with red.

I have developed an alarmingly keen interest in post boxes.

I keep making kitsch-but-yum pineapple upside down cakes.

I've been listening to and letching on Matt Berry. (*purr-grunt*)

I've been trying to make beadmaking a tad more glam.

I've been eating sweet peanuts. (Remember those?)

I had a go at blowing glass on a tiny scale.

And I've seen some truly awful TV.  Here's me watching Cash In The Attic.

So there you have it.  I've been making beads in between all that but you've seen those already.  I think that just about brings you up to date. Now I just need to stay on top of this blogging malarkey ...

A Letter To You

Dear you,

Long time no write.

But for some reason here you are, visiting my blog and looking at my stuff.

I've been as quiet as A Very Quiet Thing, haven't I?

Fear not, my brain is not malfunctioning (well, maybe just a little but then that's nothing new) and nobody has died, which is pretty amazing. No, I have just had nothing to say.

That sounds lame but it's true.

I have had no amusing anecdotes ... unless you count the one where I fainted twice and did a sick when I gave blood for the first time.  (You can read about that here if you like, but be warned, this blog has 'language'.)

I have been nowhere special.  I had the quietest Chrimbletide on record and I didn't see any of my family.

I have planted no plants.

I have had no brilliant bead ideas.

In fact, I've been a bit of a boring shed-dwelling hermit.  But I figured I should stick my head out of my shed door and give you a wave instead of just doing fly-by buy-my-wares posts.

Because that is rude.  And I owe you more than that.

So let this be an apology for my silence and I will really try to talk to you more often.

In a minute I will post a long stream of photographs that will illustrate my recent boredom, so that'll be nice for you.

Thanks for dropping by and for sticking with me all this time.

No really, thank you.

Lotslove

Beads

I've just put a couple of new sets on the Freshly Baked Beads page.

I'm a bit late tonight because the server was mucking about. Technotrauma!