A trip down muscle memory lane

Up until Thursday I'd not made an oak leaf headpin for five years. I approached the task slightly nervously because I was pretty convinced I'd forgotten how to make one but within two attempts my brain and hands had remembered exactly what to do. It was almost like I was watching someone else dab on the glass here, swipe it there, shaping and coaxing everything into an oak leaf kind of shape. Then I was off and away, muscle memory well and truly jogged.

I make my headpins in different ways, depending on what wire I want to use for them. The acorns I make on the end of a mandrel. This is because I'm working with a glob of glass that requires shaping by gravity and for that I need something sturdy to work on rather than a thin bit of wire which results in the acorn bit boinging about far more than is desirable. After the acorns are cool and cleaned I epoxy in non-tarnish antique bronze finish copper wire. I make my oak leaves straight on the wire because the shaping and clean-up of them is easier that way. Because the wire I use for the acorns has a non-tarnish finish I can't put it in the flame so I use bare copper wire for the oak leaves. (This already feels like way more information than anyone wants to know about this process but I've started so I'll finish.) This results in acorns with brownish coloured wires and oak leaves with bright, shiny copper ones. To make the shiny copper wires less shiny I give them a bit of a patina with some liver of sulphur. This darkens the copper and makes it less blingy. It's a very simple process but my word does it stink! It's like being stuck in a lift with a group of people from the Hard-Boiled Egg Sandwich Appreciation Society conference who’ve been eating egg sarnies for the whole weekend. Honestly, I cannot describe how egg-farty the stench of liver of sulphur is. It does the job, though, and fear not, the offensive scent gets washed off in the clean-up.

This morning I turned the finished acorns and oak leaves into necklaces.

I've only made five and they're in my shop at the time of typing, but if they sell out I'll make them available to order for a while.

I made some actual beads this week too.

These are CiM Little Boy Blue encased with a thin layer of Effetre Super Clear 006, decorated with spots in Effetre White 204. I never tire of the 'floaty' spots thing. There's one set of these left in my shop.

And I've also made another chain maille bracelet. This one is the 'Sweet Pea' weave which creates these little clusters linked to one another.

The bracelet is pure copper and it's available in the chain maille section of my shop.

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.

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.

Shop Update

I've added a couple of items to my shop. Firstly, this vibrant orange, green and brown 'Autumn' bracelet.

I saw a weather forecast on telly the other week and the backdrop was a beautiful photograph of autumnal leaves and berries in these colours.

The findings are copper and copper plated metal with an antique finish.

This 'Autumn' bracelet is priced at £50.00 and it is available here.

Now we're moving closer to Christmas, I'm trying to build a little stock of jewellery so should you need a gift, hopefully I will have something that suits, in stock and ready to post.

Right now there are some 'Toadstool', 'Brown Owl' and 'Acorn & Oak Leaf' necklaces all boxed up, ready to go. These can all be found here.

And finally, a strand of stylish black and grey polka dotty beads.

This set of 'Noir' beads costs £18.00 and is available here.

That's all my Friday computer-based work done. Now to make beads.

Happy Friday!

Necklaces, Ladybird & Gift Tags

What a truly beautiful day! I want to pack up a lunch and go for a walk around the country park but alas, I have to work. Maybe the weather will hold and I can do the whole country park thing on Sunday. Maybe. Perhaps.

Yesterday I added three 'Brown Owl' necklaces to the shop. Two have flown off to new homes already but there's one left.

There are a few ready-to-go  'Acorn & Oak Leaf' necklaces left so if you've started your Christmas shopping (I salute your organisational skills) or if you need a gift for someone or hey, if you just fancy treating yourself, I can have one of those in the post to you today.

A little Ladyird bead has been sat on the kitchen window sill for ages now so I've photographed her and she can be found in the Lonelies section.

She's a tad larger than my usual ladybirds and I think she'd make a nice pendant.

I'm often asked to include a note with orders that are sent as gifts. I've opted for these luggage tags which are plain, simple and just NICE.

If you're ordering beads or jewellery as a gift and you'd like me to write a tag (in my bestest handwriting) then just ask me to do so in the 'Notes' section at checkout. Just so you know, when you place a gift order I send it to the recipient without any prices printed anywhere.

Don't forget you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter. I like to interact with you lot and those platforms make it mega easy to do so.

Enjoy your Friday!

In Stock

I'm getting organised for Christmas on the bead front.

In doing so, I'm trying to build up some stock. This is so there will be beads and jewellery available and ready to post without you having to order things and wait for me to make them.

I've had a little shop shift-about-sort-out and I've created an 'In Stock' category where all the ready-to-go items can be found.

In this section right now are two strands of 'Cool' beads (£23.00 per strand) and ten Acorn & Oak Leaf necklaces, including five of the 'Burnt Sugar' ones at the top of this post.

I'll be adding to this section on a regular basis so do keep an eye on it.

And now I must away to the post box ...

A bracelet and some beads

I've spent all weekend in the shed. I know. I'm a crazywild party machine and I need to calm the flip-heck down.

I made the 'Auburn & Amber' bracelet up there which consists of glass of just two colours - a red-brown and a medium amber. I kept the beads simple and the mini baubles are headpins*. The piece is finished with an acorn and oak leaf charm dangle at the clasp. All findings are copper and 'antique' copper plated. The bracelet looks absolutely gorgeous when the sun shines through it ...

There's only one of these bracelets available and it's for sale in my shop.

I also got my Halloween on and made two sets of beads in classic spookytime colour combinations; black and orange and purple and green.

Each strand of beads contains nine encased rounds, ten droplets and eight spacers. Again, there's only one set of each up for grabs so if you like them, grab them. 

I must do a boring what-is-going-on-in-my-life-that-is-not-about-beads post. I know that a couple of you like those. I will get on that as soon as I can. It won't be tonight as Monday nights are Slimming World nights. I still go even though I'm at my target weight. Those weekly weigh-ins keep me and my arse/pudding belly/thighs in check.

Have a marvellous Monday!

*Headpins. Remember how I was going to send folk lampwork headpins to test? Well, I asked for ten people and I got forty. I said yes to half of those. I then sent the first lot of headpins out to half of those and only had feedback from one person. So I've not sent any more headpins out because I can't afford to spend time, glass and postage giving stuff away and getting nothing back. So if you were in the batch of people who didn't receive a headpin bundle from me, that is the reason why. My apologies but I hope you understand.

'Acorn & Oak Leaf' Necklaces

I'm fully aware that I'm neglecting this blog.

Since I made a page for my beads on Facebook I've found it so much quicker and easier to use that for updates. However, I know that not everybody uses Facebook so I must make more of an effort to update here more often.

So what have I been up to?

Making acorns and oak leaves, mostly. These aren't strictly beads; they're headpins. The oak leaves are hand-shaped and the acorns are finished off with a little brass bead cap.

These necklaces are available in a variety of autumnal shades and if you fancy you can mix and match acorns and leaves.

Each Acorn & Oak Leaf necklace costs £18.00 and they're available to order right here.

Going back to Facebook ... if you do have a Facebook account then you might be interested to know that I am giving one of these necklaces away over there. This one, in fact:

Please visit my Facebook page for all the giveaway details.

Have a fab Friday!