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! 

Plain and simple loveliness

You know the other day when I was wanging on about how lovely spacer beads can be? I took the photo above to kind of prove my point. These ones are Effetre Dark Ivory 276 and Effetre Ivory Lapis Dark 293 and although they're only little 8.5mm spacers beads, they're an excellent example of how glass is a very lovely thing in its own right.

This streaky ivory and lapis blue mix is so pretty. Every single bead is unique and they remind me of planets, oceans and the sky.

A customer who purchased some of the dark ivory spacers asked for half of them to be tumble-etched and again, I took a photo of them to show how nice plain and simple beads can be.

Spacer beads can be purchased in my shop.

In crochet news...

Thanks for all the lovely comments about Stig. He's such a bright and cheery fella, isn't he?

I'm currently working on a second Starlite blanket. I had quite a bit of yarn left over from the previous one so I took that as a sign to make another.

I may well put the blanket in my shop when it's done, if a friend or family member doesn't claim it in the meantime, that is.

Talking of crochet in my shop, I've reduced the price of all of my shawls.

Almost all of my shawls double up as scarves and although they're mostly cotton mixes and therefore not overly-cosy, they're just right for this time of year when there's a bit of a chill in the air but you don't want to be getting too hot. Do you know what I mean? You sort of go "It looks chilly out there - I'll put my coat on" but within five minutes of walking you're clammy in the armpits and undertits areas and regretting your wardrobe choice, wishing you'd just opted for a jumper and lightweight scarf instead. That's the level of warmth my shawls-that-double-as-scarves are good for.

That's all for now. I'm heading shedwards to make more spacers. See you soon!

Stig

Remember those little crochet motifs I posted the other day? Well, here they all are made into a stegosaurus. I've named him Stig and he seems very at home next to one of my ferns.

This was such a fun little project. Stig is made from African flower motifs in merino sock yarn. I crocheted him with a 2mm hook because the motifs need to be quite dense and tight so that no stuffing can work its way through the holes. Stig measures about 40cm from nose to tail tip.

The stegosaurus is made up of triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons and one octagon so he's pleasingly geometric. The project was like creating all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and then having the fun of joining them all together. The only effing and jeffing that occurred was while I was sewing his plates on because I absolutely loathe sewing. Apart from that he was a joy to make.

The pattern is Puff the Magic Stegosaurus by heidibears and it is fabulous - so well-written with very clear instructions. This designer has many different African flower animal and creature patterns and I'm sure I'll make another one at some point. I quite fancy having a go at the dragon or sheep.

A space for spacers

I have so much glass in my shed and I don't think I will ever use it all so I've decided to turn some of it into spacers. Some glass doesn't suit my style of beadmaking, or maybe it's the other way round, but it makes very pretty plain, undecorated beads.

The other reason for making spacers is that some days, and it's more often than not, I just cannot seem to make fancier beads that I am happy with. One factor at play here is obviously my over-critical fussiness about my own work, but the main issue is my eyesight. I just can't seem to find the right spectacles/prescription for the job. I've tried explaining to various optometrists what I do and they tell me to wear my reading glasses for beadmaking but this doesn't quite work. I've tried my varifocals but they wind me up because I have to constantly and consciously move my focus about which feels awkward and unnatural and I end up making mistakes all the time because I can't properly and clearly see what I'm doing. I honestly work better without any glasses (except for my safety didys, obviously) but the optometrist is adamant that I wear specs at all times. My usual and favourite fiddly and precise polka dots, scrolls and linework are now exceedingly tricky to execute and it's very disheartening. Maybe I need a magnifier or have I read somewhere that they can cause problems with your eyes? I don't know. Perhaps I should go back to the opticians again and try and get through to them what I need my glasses to do? Or should I simply accept that my eyesight is not what it once was and evolve accordingly beadwise?

I still very much want to make beads but on days when my eyes are titting about I shall just have to settle for less precise designs (spotty beads, anyone?) and plain beads. Plain beads don't have to be boring; encased spacers are lovely, whitehearts are good and a smattering of mica is always a bit magical. Spacers are useful for adding to designs featuring more decorative beads, but they're beautiful in their own right too. I love bracelets made with plain spacer beads as they're unfussy and really comfy to wear.

I've made a space for spacers in my shop and I'll be filling this new section with spacers as and when I make them. I'm selling plain single colour spacers as strands of twelve with optional tumble-etching and I'll also be selling spacer mixes.

I've got absolutely loads of spacers knocking about in various bowls, jars and yoghurt pots so I shall sort them out and add some assortments over the next few days. Right now there are some dark ivory ones and a mixed strand of reds, pinks and purples, but do keep an eye on the spacer beads page because I'll add to it often.

Very autumnal

The customer who purchased these spotty 'Festive Glow' beads asked me to make them into a bracelet for her. 

These beads have been waiting for a home for a year (I sound like a cat rehoming centre) so it was nice to make them into jewellery and finally send them out into the world. 

I made some matching spacers to go betwixt the spotty beads and the result is a very autumnal one. Job's a good'un!

I need to make some more beads to restock my virtual shelves so I'll be in the shed for a chunk of this weekend.

In crochet news...

I've been making a load of tiny motifs out of sock yarn.

I'm currently working on joining them all together, but what are they going to be? Hopefully I'll be able to show you in the next (or maybe one after) gripping episode of this blog. Stay tuned etc.

Have a nice weekend!

Languishing no more

I start to feel sorry for beads in my 'For Sale' box that have been sat there for ages waiting for a new home. It's like they're not getting to fulfil their potential and after months of them languishing in a dark box I take out the beads and turn them into jewellery.

'Rainy Day' bracelet

'Rainy Day' earrings

I've had some polka dotty 'Rainy Day' beads and some spotty 'Iceberg' ones sat doing nothing for far too long so last week I made them into bracelets and earrings.

'Iceberg' bracelet

'Iceberg' earrings

These pieces are currently available in my shop.

Blanket of stars

When I started this blanket I had no particular recipient in mind - I simply wanted to crochet it. When I saw Em in Southampton last month I showed her a photo of the pattern and she loved it so it became her blanket and now it's living with her in Northern Ireland.

I had to stand on the sofa to take this photo

It's a hexagonal blanket made of hexagons (127 of them) and that means that there were a bazillion ends to sew in. I always sew in my ends as I complete each motif but the joining of them all made a load more ends and it took me a whole day and a half to weave them all away.

The finished product was well worth all the ends-sewing-in-ness, though. The pattern is a truly beautiful one - it's the Starlite Blanket by Alice Tarry of The Burrow UK. I made it with Yarnsmiths Create DK and Wool Warehouse do a yarn pack with all the colours required for the blanket.

Donaghadee done

My trip to Donaghadee was lovely. The picture above is of the beach at Donaghadee. It is so pretty and I would love to have this on my doorstep. 

The plane was a bit delayed flying out on Friday evening due to Storm Amy and the landing was quite hairy. The pilot attempted to land but decided it was too dangerous to do so safely so we did a twenty minute loop and then he had a second go.

Taken before the second landing attempt

It was extremely rollercoastery and the cabin crew had a stack of sick bags at the ready. One woman across the aisle from me was crying and literally clutching her rosary beads. Just as I was starting to feel pretty groggy myself we landed and oh, the relief to be back on the ground!

Goliath, one of the Harland & Wolff cranes

Em and I visited Titanic Belfast on the Saturday which was great. The museum is really good and its final couple of sections made Em and I quite teary. The story of Titanic is such an enduring one and I think it's nigh-on impossible to not be moved by it.

Outside you can go and stand on the slipway where Titanic was built. There's something special about standing on that spot and imagining the men building her all those years ago.

The plaque in the above photo reads 'This plaque was unveiled on 31st March 2009 by John M Andrews, great nephew of Thomas Andrews, chief naval architect, Harland & Wolff, to commemorate the centenary of the keel laying of RMS Titanic, built on this slipway between 1909 & 1911'.

On the Sunday we went to Streamvale Open Farm to say hello to all the animals. If there's a goat or sheep available for a fussing and a feeding, I'm there.

A lot of the weekend was spent with Em's dogs. Sadly, Em's dear little dog Pu-Ki died in July. Trigger has been missing him terribly and Em and Adam felt it was time to find him a companion.

Trigger

They saw that a Pomeranian puppy needed a new home (he'd been rescued from a puppy farm) and now Macho is settling in with them.

Macho and his ball

I'd never been around a puppy before and blimey, what a lot of work! Macho is very sweet, though, and really intelligent.

He reminds me of Noel Edmonds

Trigger's still not sure about Macho but they're making progress and I'm sure they'll be the best of friends soon.

I flew back home on the Monday, no dodgy landing and half an hour ahead of schedule. I've never been much of a holidaymaker or traveller and I've barely been anywhere compared to a lot of people, so a 90 minute plane trip is a big deal to me but now I've done the Northern Ireland trip solo I know it'll be fine in the future.

Postage changes for UK customers

"Flipping Royal Mail. What can you do?" said Pat

Royal Mail have changed the compensation level for its Tracked 24 and 48 services. Before Monday 6th October, packages sent via these services were insured for up to £150.00 and now they have halved that to £75.00. The next compensation level is £750.00 via Special Delivery but this is a heck of a price jump postage-wise. 

My new UK (not including Northern Ireland) P&P rates are:

• Order value up to £20.00 = £2.00 P&P via RM Second Class
• Order value £20.01 to £75.00 = £3.50 P&P via RM Tracked 48
• Order value over £75.00 = £9.00 P&P via RM Special Delivery

All I can suggest is if your order is multiple items with a combined value of over £75.00, maybe place two separate orders? Example: a £20.00 necklace and a £60.00 bracelet totalling £80.00 would be £9.00 P&P as one order but as two orders it would be one at £2.00 and one at £3.50 totalling £5.50 meaning a saving of £3.50.

I know this is annoying - blame Royal Mail and their pricing and trying to compete with Evri and the like - and I do apologise for any extra faffing or inconvenience but I refuse to send anything uninsured because I don't want you or I to be out of pocket if anything gets lost, damaged or stolen in transit.