Metal bubble bath

Yesterday afternoon while I was tidying away my jewellery making stuff  I found a bag of tiny anodised aluminium jump rings. At just over 4mm diameter they're smaller than the rings I used for the shaggy loops earrings in my previous post and I wondered if the smaller rings would work for the same weave. A few hours later I'd made this bracelet.

It's unbelievably light and it has a wonderful fluidity and texture to it. Chris said it's "like metal bubble bath foam" and that's a really good description. It's frothy.

I've put it in the chain maille section of my shop.

The three pairs of chocolate 'Acorn' earrings I had have all sold but all is not lost; I've added them to the Available to Order page. I don't know how long they'll be there but probably long enough for anyone to buy some as Christmas presents.

In non-bead/jewellery news, I've just finished reading another book. I read and listen to a ridiculous number of books, of all different types, and I only ever think to mention the occasional one here on my blog. Maybe I should do more book blogging? Anyway, the one I've just finished is called Dark Folklore by Mark Norman and Tracey Norman.

This is a fascinating read about the darker side of folklore, myths and social and cultural beliefs from all around the world. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on urban legends. Mark is a folklore researcher and author who writes and hosts The Folklore Podcast which I highly recommend to anyone who likes a bit of social history, folklore and information about ancient beliefs, customs and festivals. Marvellous stuff.

Rings in rings in rings

After my trip to the cemetery on Saturday I walked into the city centre, popped into a record shop, paid a visit to Fitzbillies for a couple of their famous and ridiculously delicious Chelsea buns, then caught the bus back home. At some point in that very small window of being out and surrounded by other people, I caught some kind of lurg. Four lateral flow tests say it's not Covid but I'm constantly coughing, sneezing and my energy levels are very low. Pre-Covid era I'd not had a cold for years so maybe it's just a bog standard one of those and I've forgotten what they feel like? Whatever, I've been next-to useless this week so not much beadmaking has happened.

However, I cannot ever bear to be doing nothing for long and if my hands aren't making something I get kind of edgy. I spent Monday in bed with a temperature but I wanted to be making something so I fished out my box of jump rings, grabbed two pairs of pliers and sat in bed making a chain maille bracelet.

'Byzantine' weave bracelet

The next day I lounged about downstairs and made two more bracelets and some earrings.

'Byzantine' weave bracelet with patina

'Shaggy Loops' earrings

I've said before with regards to crochet, I'm very much a process maker. I get so much enjoyment out of the process of creating things that I tend to make stuff just for the sake of making it. This is fine but it means I end up with all these finished things – blankets, socks, doilies, jewellery – that I don't need and am never going to use.

So I've resurrected the chain maille jewellery page of my shop and put some of the items I've made for sale on there. Maybe there's someone out there who would like to give a bracelet or earrings a new home?

I've tracked down the winner of the last prize draw and I've figured out a foolproof way for how I'm going to run the monthly draws from now on. More details on that soon.

The squirrels made me do it

I went for a wander round an old cemetery at the weekend. The cemetery is a Victorian one which is closed to new burials - the most recent grave I saw there was dated 1997 - but it's a lovely, peaceful place to be, full of magnificent trees, birds and squirrels. I sat for a while on a bench under a beautiful holly tree, watching the squirrels gathering acorns from underneath the massive oak tree on the other side of the path.

It's been quite a while since I last made acorns. I've always made them as necklaces with the addition of a glass oak leaf but I wanted to make some earrings and the oak leaf would be too much on those so I opted for just a single acorn.

I made a batch of acorns in dark chocolate brown and terracotta, paired up the ones that wanted to be together, and then I was left with a few odd ones so I made those into pendants and threaded them onto chains.

The acorn earrings and necklaces can be found in my shop.

Headpins

I made a little batch of headpins this week. My propane was running low and that affects any stringerwork or surface design and makes it go a bit feathery so I made a couple of fancy headpins until the feathery thing started happening and then I switched to plainer ones until the gas ran out.

Yesterday I turned the headpins into a pendant and some earrings.

The pendant was made with the fancier headpin which has a petal-like design on it:

Then there are these lavender earrings:

I love the way the CiM Wisteria reacted with the Effetre Lavender Blue 247 to create that purple band.

The other three earring pairs are made with headpins and globes of glass that are one third Effetre Light Turquoise 232 and two thirds CiM Fjord Milky. Again, the two glasses reacted with one another, making the turquoise go all mottled and cloudy. I kept one pair really simple and hung them from flower earwires...

...and I paired the other ones with copper findings and hypoallergenic niobium earwires.

The remaining pair aren't really headpins at all - no pins, so just... heads? I attached some sterling loops to these and dangled them from sterling drop shapes. These earrings are really light and swishy.

All of these are in my shop at the time of typing.

I still haven't been able to track down the winner of the prize draw so Tina G, if on the off-chance you're reading this, please contact me so I can get your beads to you. If I've not heard back from you by the end of November I'm going to do the draw again.

Another riveting post

Nothing has changed since I last blogged except for the fact we went to see Dawn French live. Her current show is called Dawn French is a Huge Twat and it's stories from times in her life when she's done daft stuff. It was SO funny and at several points I had to wipe away laughter tears. Wonderful woman.

But yep, Dawn French aside, it's just been beads and bracelets and bracelets and beads here. Oh hang on, I tell a lie; we did get a new kitchen bin because the lid broke off the old one. Very exciting times.

Anyway, here are some shimmy bracelets...

First up, 'Autumn' which is shades of amber, yellow-orange and terracotta with some bronze Czech glass rondelles:

Then 'Fall' which is light turquoise, teal, terracotta and light brown:

Next is 'Lavender' which was inspired by my actual lavender bush:

And the final shimmy is 'Berry' which is various purples with a dash of cranberry:

I've also made this 'Halloween' bracelet which is finished with a Jack-o'-lantern charm.

At the time of typing, 'Autumn', 'Lavender' and two 'Halloween's are available in my shop.

And yes, I'm fully aware that right now the beads in my bracelets are just plain spacers, except for the ones that are spacers with spots on, but I don't care. I'm enjoying the simplicity of them and playing about with colour combinations. Sometimes I like to make beads that are just about the glass rather than anything fancy. I don't know why I'm feeling the need to explain myself but explain myself I have.

I've not forgotten the next giveaway. I need to rethink how I do it because the winner of the last one still hasn't got in touch so I need to figure out a way round that and some kind of back-up plan with regards to potential non-claiming of the prize.